Paint It Black


Fuck yeah! 2 weeks after getting my espresso machine, and today is the first day i truely made professional style micro foam for latte art! There's my drink, see the shiny texture of the micro foam, and of coarse my "spilled paint". It looks more like a real bushy tree rather than a rosetta leaf.
That's awesome though, i'm getting so happy with myself.
The only thing that's killing is i'm finding it IMPOSABLE to find any store around here that has syrups, that are not the flavors:
Vanilla
Caramel
Hazelnut
Amaretto
Raspberry

Jesus fucking christ! Justin bought me Almond Crunch and Toasted Marshmallow, thank god too because i was going crazy using the same flavors.
Not only that but it's almost imposable to find any sort of chocolate sauce that isn't Hershey, Dove, or Smuckers, and the Dove chocolate that i've been using is still bottled by Smuckers.
I really want to use Ghilardelli chocolate, but i'm finding that you have to get that on line too. And until i get my tax refund i'm pretty limited on my spending for espresso shit. I was gonna get on line and look to see if there are any Godiva shops around here, maybe they'll carry chocolate sauce.
Jesus what a fucked up thing to try to find and finding it's imposable to find it!! It's just chocolate sauce!
Well i guess when you want really good chocolate that makes it more challenging.

I'm really happy i made micro foam, that fucking kicks ass!! The whole process i'm finding i actually prefer, because the way you hold the pitcher is definitely a lot more comfortable.

Nice!! :-)

...... HOLY FUCK!! I was just checking my blog to see how the picture looked, and i'm all staring at the picture and i just realized, i think i made a poorly shaped Apple!!!
Ah, i'm freaking out, i think i just made an apple, a shitty apple but hey!!! COOOOLLL!!! :-D

And The Truth Shall Set You Free...


WOW!! For the past two weeks or so when i haven't been making espresso, i've been completely and totally wrapped up in "Crossfire: The Men Who Killed Kennedy".
Kind of obsessed is a better way to put it. It fucking sucks you in man! I mean i always found the JFK assassination to be completely and totally fascinating in all since of the term.
But i'm reading shit and seeing shit, i hadn't heard before! It's almost like reading fiction, but then you have to shake yourself and realize, this is real history... THIS SHIT HAPPENED!!
I became so curious and so just wanted to see these photos and videos Jim Marrs talks about in the book, that are made public for all of us to see by the way,(from what they have released, a lot of it is still locked away not to be made public till 2029) that yesterday and the day before i watched "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" a six part documentary on the JFK assassination on Google Video.
MY GOD!!! it's fucking CRAZY!!!! Jesus, if you've never seen it, i highly recommend watching it some day (get some popcorn, it's a six part series, each part being about an hour and a half long, but its RIVETING!!). A lot of the witnesses who were in Dealey Plaza that day, they interview, which is really cool cuz this was made in 1988, a lot of the witnesses are dead today. They talked to the doctors at Parkland Hospital from the Governor Connally who was in the motorcade with Kennedy and also got shot.
And the craziest witness i think, is Ed Hoffman. A deaf mute who saw the assassin behind the picket fence, he said dressed up as a policeman, calming walked away from the fence with a rifle, he took apart his rifle and put it in a toolbox that a railroad worker had that was with the police officer, then calmly walked towards the railroad tracks!!!
And Ed Hoffman ran to tell someone what he saw after he saw the presidential motorcade drive by with the president's head blown off. And the FBI couldn't understand him and pushed him off because Ed Hoffman is a deaf mute!!! And he didn't come out for a long time because a man claiming to be with the FBI told him if he told anyone,"he might land up getting killed."
Then there was another witness who was right in front of the fence where the police officer would have been, Gordan Arnold. He said he was walking behind the wooden picket fence when a man approached him claiming to be Secret Service, telling him he couldn't stay behind the fence. So Gordan Arnold went around, then moments later he said shots came from behind the fence, and with him being a GI having been around gun fire, hit the ground and heard two more shots and didn't get up until a police officer was kicking him to get up. He did have a video camera with him and was filming when the shots were fired. Another police officer came up waving a gun and crying, then the other police officer asked him for his film, so he gave the camera to him, he took out the film and gave back the camera. After that Gordan Arnold ran to his car, drove out of the parking lot unchallenged, and two days later he reported for duty in Fort Wainwright, Alaska and didn't return to Dallas for several years. So no one ever really knew he was there, until the Mary Mooreman photo was able to be blown up, and photo experts were able to identify a man in a GI uniform standing in front of the fence.

With the Jim Marrs book and the documentary "The Men Who Killed Kennedy", the JFK assassination has taken a hold of me! WOW! It's just so crazy the six degrees of separation between everyone involved in the assassination, everyone is connected somehow even going as far as the witnesses who were at Dealey Plaza!
The Babushka Lady, many years later to be identified as Beverly Oliver, who was standing right by the presidential motorcade right at the third and fatal "head" shot to Kennedy. Turns out she was friends with Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald.
And really going into the life of Lee Harvey Oswald is amazing all in it's own. The way the Warren Commission painted him, was a crazy pro-communist lone nut. When in reality he was a marine who was under orders, following orders and just wanted to be a good marine.
Jim Garrison, the New Orleans DA who had the one and only trial on the JFK assassination, said that what the government did to Lee Harvey Oswald is one of the greatest injustices to ever happen in the United States of America.
Really the only reason i'm writing in here right now is because i need to take a break reading "Crossfire". Geez, this shit will make you go crazy if you keep looking into it and thinking it over.
The picture above, The Mooreman photo, taken by Mary Mooreman who was the closest to the shooting, is one of the most famous photos in the JFK assassination. Photo experts have blown up the picture and in the background by the picket fence you can see a police officer with a puff of smoke in front of his face, this man was named Badgeman, who researchers believe was the assassin on the grassy knoll who fired the fatal head shot, and forever changed history.
CRAZY!!!

It's all good...


Well, day 3 of my self barista training and i feel awesome!! Practice, practice, practice is the key i'm learning. Last night after dinner i made (or i should say attempted to make) Justin a mocha and i made me a Snickers Latte. The mocha sucked ass, i really need to use my measuring cups more. I just read this morning that i really haven't been using enough syrup, i've just been using a tablespoon cuz that's what it says on the bottle.
Anyway, when i made my Snickers Latte, i actually frothed awesome foam! The last 2 days i've really been struggling with the foaming of the milk process, but last night i got perfect foam! I was so happy i was fucking cheering in the kitchen! :-P

As for the shots i'm pulling that's another problem i'm gonna have to wait to deal with. My machine comes with these pressurized filter baskets for my portafilter, which is suppose to help get a lot of crema without the worry of how you tamp or the fine ground of the coffee.
But for a barista, that's throwing away the entire art of making espresso!!
The four M's for making perfect espresso are:

La Macchina (The Machine)

La Micselsa (The Coffee Blend)

Il Machindosatore (The Grinding)

La Mano (The Hand)

So really these pressurized filter baskets are an enemy to an aspiring barista like myself.
But yesterday i did get my double non pressurized filter basket, but i can't use it yet :-(
I don't have my tamper. I ordered it this morning, along with a knockbox which i need SO BAD!
So who knows when that'll come, but when it does i can really start to practice making better shots.
I think half the problem of my situation right now with my shitty shots is, i'm using Lavazza preground coffee that came free with my machine, and i'm also using Silver Canyon coffee that has been sitting in our cabinet for like 2 months, and not to mention i'm being forced to tamp with the shitty built in tamper on my machine that is useless.
And i refuse to buy really good coffee like from Intelligentsia or Counter Culture until i get my tamper. In the meantime i'll use Mile High Coffee's espresso blends and maybe even Novo's espresso blends.

Anyhow, for once in a long long time i'm just feeling total peace with everything in my life.
For once everything feels good. With me, paranoid fucker that i am, it feels nice to just sit back and take a deep breath and realize that my life right now, at this point, everything is Perfect.
It's a wonderful feeling.
Work doesn't bother me all that much anymore, it's actually been quite enjoyable lately. I've trained myself to just kind of ignore and accept Eileen's paranoid ramblings about our co-workers she doesn't like.
When i run out of stuff to do at work (which happens a lot) i've been forcing myself to stay busy instead of just picking up my "Crossfire The Plot That Killed Kennedy" book.
Although a good majority of that book i've read while at work :-P

Holy Fuck!!!

I just pulled a shot!!! I just pulled a shot!!!!
Wow, i'm freaking out, i got my espresso machine today! (i really got in on Tuesday, but let's not go into that wretched story for now)
I'm so excited i just made a vanilla latte and a Caramellow!!! It's so fun, i love, i love it, i love it!!!
It's a very messy process, but i am a beginner and it took me on the second try when i made the Caramellow that i started to get the know the process. I could already tell on my first try that i desperately need a tamper and a knockbox, that'll cut down the messiness a little.
Ahhh!! I can't believe i finally have my machine, now i will never sleep again!! Hee, hee :-)

Starbucks plans to ban trans fats

I dunno about this whole banning trans fat thing. I know it's being done with all good intentions being that we are the most fattest country in the world but i somehow can't get past the feeling that it's intrusive on our civil liberties. It's kinda like smoking, we know it's bad but it's our god damn right if we choose to smoke anyway.
And with Starbucks banning trans fats in their food is kind of ironic being that food isn't their #1 selling item, it's their lattes and frappuccinos that are the biggest selling items and they are the most fattening coffee drinks in the industry.

Big Brother is watching you.