Sunday Serial: Chemex, Tiller HQ, and God Mode

Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:

God Mode in Windows 11: This is a cool trick to expose settings in Windows.
Tiller HQ: Do you like using software to access your bank account but just can’t shake your preference for working in Excel? This (kinda expensive) Excel plugin does everything you want.
Chemex Pourover Brewer: I wrote about this this weekend, but I wanted to recommend it for Serial Sunday, as I’m enjoying the process of making (and drinking) the product. I will note that this method seems to take longer than my normal pourover using a Melita No. 4 filter and dripper. I probably need to coarsen my grind a notch on the burr grinder.

10k Rowing Update: A New PR

Pleased with this afternoon’s 10k. I felt strong during the whole piece, although I could feel myself getting pooped near the end. At the outset, I was pretty confident that I was going to hit my 10k in 40 minutes goal, but I gave up some seconds during the piece. I stayed focused through most of the row.

I pasted my previous PR and today’s side by side in Affinity Photo so you can see them side by side. Watts were up by 2, I shaved about six seconds off last week’s time, and got my average pace under 2:01/500k. The good news too is that I kept my stroke rate the same, so I was pulling with a hair more power than last week.

And hey: my 2023-24 season is almost at an end (the ErgData app is calculating my season as starting on May 1st of last year, which is around when we got the second Concept2 Model D). I’ve logged just over 2 million meters since then.

Go Mets!

I’ve been trying to watch baseball for years. Today is day one.

Chemex, My New Office Coffee Setup

I’ve been hot to try a Chemex since at least 2016; I remember talking about it with one of my colleagues at Camden County ESC back then. We were thinking about splitting the cost of one. I’ve been brewing using an Aeropress at the office for over a year, and have been very happy with it. But I’ve always pined for the bespoke design of a Chemex, and I really love pour over. Made a couple of cups for us this morning and all’s well.

Goodbyes are Such Sweet Sorrow

Yesterday was my last day at Vineland Public Schools; on Monday, I move (back) to Monroe Township Public Schools, where I started my career, such as it is, in public education. I am sad to leave the district of my hometown, but excited about my new position. The work is the work, but the people at VPS are like family.

30 min Rowing PR

Did not expect this in a weekday morning pre-work piece:

Beat my last PR by about 30 meters. Must be all the tacos from yesterday.

High-Calorie Interstitial Lunch, or Tacos with a Colleague

I lured a very talented teacher to Vineland in order to replace a vacancy a couple of years ago. When she was attending new teacher orientation, she texted me for a lunch recommendation. I asked her if she liked tacos, and she replied, “Tacos are life.”

I pointed her to La Tejana, which was a hole in the wall on Landis Avenue, but has since moved to a nicer location just across the street.

The tacos are better than ever. I’m definitely gonna miss some people when I leave.

Sous Vide Salmon

I make this salmon all the time. I initially put it in the sous vide tank at 118 or 119, but after reading Kenji’s article on the matter, I reduced the temp to 115. It doesn’t make much of a difference, but it’s still plenty good. We often purchase the salmon when it’s on sale and I cut it up into portions and freeze the fish is a vacuum saver bag until the day we’re eating it. I just drop the bagged frozen fillets into the tank for an hour and sear on the Blackstone after an hour. I make a quick teriyaki sauce to dress things up.

Interstitial

On Monday, I start a new job. I’ve been working in Vineland for more than half of the last decade; this is my eighth school year in the district. I worked there through the COVID pandemic, trying to figure out how to help teachers deal with virtual instruction.

This week is full of things to do, but it feels different. And not in a bad way. But not in a good way, either.

Every big job switch for me was preceded by my exiting weeks feeling hopeful, excited, and yes, some trepidation. The weeks passed by quickly, as they always do, feeling immediate and momentous in the moments surrounding my resignation, and then a patient wait for the 60-day countdown before my last day.

And there’s always that “what the fuck have I done?” when I get to the new job, and find myself in unfamiliar territory, the world seeming indifferent to my problems.

There’s always the worry that I’ll hit the ceiling of the Peter Principal, too. That is, that you got yourself promoted to the “level of respective incompetence.” There’s the advice a high school principal once gave me, too: “The higher you climb, the more of your ass they can see.” I love that one.

There are always some high-calorie events that accompany departures, too: at my last gig, I was treated to a Mexican lunch and a hibachi dinner. With a nice bottle of scotch, to boot. This week we had administrative professionals day lunch, and I got into some tacos and flan. Tomorrow I’m having tacos(!) for lunch at one of the best spots in Vineland. And there’s a retirement dinner Thursday night. All things to look forward to, and I’m glad I sucked a little more weight off this week to make room.

Things will happen soon. Next week, I’ll be in it. For now, I inhabit the strange interstitial world of a resignee.

A Manhattan

Rittenhouse Rye
Carpano Antiqa
Whisky Bitters
Maraschino cherries
Twist of orange

Administrative Professionals Day Lunch

From Julio’s on Main

My Right-handed Brewing Setup

I don’t know why but it feels natural.

Posting to WordPress from Obsidian

I’ve been wracking my brain (and the internet) looking for apps from which to post to WordPress. On the Mac, there’s the excellent MarsEdit (although I have never really liked writing in it; it’s great for posting, especially images, to WordPress). Another cool option was using the TextMate blogging bundle, although it was always something I’d set up but never use.

But on Windows? There’s Open Live Writer, which works for posting but is a terrible writing envrionment. There’s Word, too, but sometimes the blog feature just stops working. Even iAWriter, which normally has a post to WordPress feature on macOS, iOS, and Android, doesn’t support the feature. I’ve been writing in Typora and pasting into the WordPress editor. It’s fine but…

Then I learned this evening that there’s an Obisidian community plugin that will post from Obsidian to WordPress. Game changed! I have Obisidian set up on my Windows devices so that I can access my old Devonthink database contents, which I’ve reorganized in my Documents folder on OneDrive using the PARA system. I can still write in Typora, too, since I keep all my Uncorrected drafts in one folder.

My Obsidian Setup

My Stack

Back in January of 2023, when I was beginning my rowing and moderation routine (which would result, far exceeding my modest first goal, in my losing 83 pounds as of today), I started researching supplements.

L-Arginine and L-Citrulline: First, to assist with blood pressure, I started taking L-Arginine and L-Citrulline. I take 1200 mg per day. I was taking olmesartan for blood pressure at the same time. Around April of 2023, I started to feel a little woozy from time to time and noticed my blood pressure was pretty low. I started with a new doctor, and he said to stop taking the Olmesartan.
Vitamin D: My levels always test low, so I started taking that. 3000 mg.
Tongkat Ali: I fell under the spell of Andrew Hubermann around the time I decided to get my testosterone level check (about which I wrote about in “Building a Better Me“). My T was good, or as my doctor confirmed, “that’s not low!” I had laid off weight lifting in favor of rowing, and thought I’d try to add Tongkat Ali to my routine to maintain it. 400 mg.
Fadogia Agrestis: Same reason as for Tongkat Ali. 600 mg.
Ashwaganda: I’m a nervous nelly. It’s supposed to help with that and sleep. 500 mg.
Vitamin B12: Rhonda bought it, so I’ve been taking it. Not sure how much.

I often wonder if it’s all a waste, but I feel pretty good! It’s not always practical to isolate variables with with a sample size of one.

A Misanthropic Ting-a-ling!

This highlight from JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye I made on my Kindle popped up in Readwise today:

It immediately recalled Kurt Vonnegut’s “ting-a-ling!” from his alter ego, failed science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. Trout would respond “ting a ling!” to people who asked things like “how are you?” when they don’t really care what the answer is.

JH Writer, writing (ahem) about Kurt Vonnegut’s “Ting a ling!” from Timequake:

Vonnegut discusses the various meanings that various contexts produce in a phrase frequently used by one of his characters, Kilgore Trout, an out-of-print science fiction writer and Vonnegut’s admitted alter ego. The phrase is one Trout “would have said … to anyone who offered him an empty greeting, such as ‘How’s it goin’?’ or ‘Nice day’….” That phrase is: “Ting-a-ling!”

Ting-A-Ling!

I always think of this part of Timequake when I see someone in the hall and we exchange a “howyadoin.” So pretty much every day.