The Song Fight Bulletin Board

We have a new espresso machine at work. No good will come of this.

It's pretty fancy. It uses those little disposable coffee pods. You just pop one in and push a button and it automatically makes whatever drink corresponds with the button you pushed (it also has an automatic milk frother so it'll make cappuccino and macchiato as well). It has like a dozen different kinds of pod, too, and a very thick catalog talking about each pod's characteristics as if they were fine wines or something.

qotd: Favorite caffeinated beverage?

(Right now mine is just a simple double-shot of espresso.)

[quote="fluffy"]You just pop one in and push a button and it automatically makes whatever drink corresponds with the button you pushed [quote]
I'm betting it has more to do with which pod you use than the button pushed, which often refers to the size of your mug. We've gone through 4 or 5 vendors with these pod machines. This is like Italian scaffolding. Someone's making a mint on these things. And the quality is questionable, even if it's free.

QotD: At home it's Guerrilla brand coffee. At work I go downstairs for Illy. Iced with whole milk is my favorite.

Rol Call: Practicing with (Who Are The) Brain Police tonight, but I really wish I was home playing Mario Kart Wii. Oh, and working on the Nur Ein.

QotD: A cup of coffee. Cream, no sugar. I'm the guy in line behind the guy/gal who orders the exotic thing that takes forever. Nice hobby you have there. Do it at home.

roymond wrote:

fluffy wrote:You just pop one in and push a button and it automatically makes whatever drink corresponds with the button you pushed

I'm betting it has more to do with which pod you use than the button pushed, which often refers to the size of your mug. We've gone through 4 or 5 vendors with these pod machines. This is like Italian scaffolding. Someone's making a mint on these things. And the quality is questionable, even if it's free.

The pods are just different roasts. The button selects whether to do a shot, a largo, a cappuccino, or a macchiato/latte. It doesn't look like there's any way for the pod to signal any process-related information to the machine.

And of course the quality isn't wonderful, but it's way better than Starbucks, as well as the drip coffee we normally have here.

QOTD - Coffee, black and fresh. Around my hometown, people ask for "a regular" and get cream and sugar.

Monday is now jam night, we should be taping the community tv show soon. Hoo-boy!

QotD: coffee, preferably some sort of hazelnut wussy something, with cream and the ever problematic aspartame (pink stuff). I have actually been trying to cut back on the coffee lately, but consumption is creeping back upwards. Second favorite is vanilla coke or mountain dew... mountain dew with some triple sec mixed in... mmm...

DRC: as noted elsewhere, round 0 song for nur ein is coming together nicely, feeling pretty good about it. Needs a little bit of lead guitar and I think that's about all. I wound up re-doing the rhythm guitar stuff 'cause when I started singing it the first time, I could tell it needed to be in a higher key. And I even bothered to check IMDB to make sure I had the right actor's name for the movie being referenced (which I didn't, but fortunately, it's nothing that has to rhyme with anything).

Foster dog Danny has calmed down a lot the last couple days; where, up 'til now, whenever I had music in the headphones he would sit outside the studio and bark, when I started working on Kick Start, he eventually just got up and went downstairs. And as far as I can tell, didn't destroy anything while he was down there.

Charles (KA)

king_arthur wrote:And as far as I can tell, didn't destroy anything while he was down there.

ha! he's hiding it from you!

QotD: Scotch... no rocks... er... i guess that's not the proper answer to your question.

king_arthur wrote:QotD: coffee, preferably some sort of hazelnut wussy something, with cream and the ever problematic aspartame (pink stuff).

Er, the pink stuff (Sweet'N Low et al) is generally saccharin, not aspartame. Aspartame (Equal/Nutrasweet et al) is usually in a blue packet. And sucralose (Splenda) is usually in a yellow packet.

Of the three I think saccharin is the least vile, although it never did recover its reputation after that causes-cancer-in-rats thing in the 70s. My personal preference is to just not be dependent on sweet stuff, since apparently any sort of sweetener also messes with your metabolism if there's no calories to back the sweetness, so you still end up fat and diabetic anyway.

DRC: Complicated and busy day. I will be making phone calls to customers all the way up to 5:45pm today.

QOTD: Coffee. Black. (This means no cream or sugar) Espresso is good too. If I've just had a great meal, THEN maybe I'll sweeten up my coffee with sugar and cream... though its not often.

JT, I too am always the guy behind the low fat vanilla soy chai Lattee with whipped cream and sprinkles. (I realize that drink description doesn't make any sense at all, its for effect people) Luckily there is a barista who knows what I want whenever I come in and she pours it before I'm even to the counter. (She even puts a few ice cubes in it to bring down the scalding temperature to something I can tolerate)

When I was in Italy on our honeymoon I got to love the real espressi there, this is a drink that's got what the Italians call crema on top. At home I had this "espressso" maker from Krups that claims to make espresso but it really doesn't; it's just strong coffee made with steam. Then we went to France last year and I became even more enamored of what they call the "long" coffee, which is like espresso but more of it and somewhat less strong, but still espresso. Caffe' lungo in Italy. So just recently I decided to spring for a home espresso machine so I got this one by Saeco (an Italian company) and it can make espressi or lungi using this dial to set the size/strength.... fantastic. It is so good, now I am drinking way too much coffee.
-bill

Steam-based espresso makers can still put crema on top. This one does. It gets a perfect coffee/crema balance, even.

It's of course different than real Italian espresso (which is made in a pot much like a percolator) but American pizza is also different than Italian pizza but that doesn't make it less good. (Most Americans would hate proper Italian pizza, even.)

qotd: Coffee. With cream and sugar. And a little shot of vanilla extract. Yes, I'm a big coffee pussy.

So as of today, I've been diagnosed with viral pharyngitis of unknown origin. The test for strep throat, whatever it is, came back negative. It could perhaps be mononucleosis, but it seems that can't even be tested for for 14 days, as they apparently test for the antibody, and not the virus itself. It is, however, quite likely that I have an infection from "one of those viruses," in the doctor's own words. Not as if he presented me with a list or anything. As I understand, symptoms typically last 7-10 days.

HOW LOVELY. Nasal congestion is mild and I don't have a cough, but I have headaches and frequent fever, and my throat is in such pain that I'm having serious trouble eating, drinking, and speaking. I can't imagine trying to sing. I'm spraying benzocaine all over my tonsils, sucking the hell out of menthol drops, and taking larger-than-recommended doses of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and I hardly feel a difference. The doctor recommended that I do these things that I've been doing, apparently not understanding that they haven't been working. You can't do anything for me, you say? How about prescribing some morphine for my throat? The pain is terrible and never stops, because I have to swallow saliva when it builds up. Blah.

Oh, also, because the clinic I went to is classified as a specialist (with no apparent specialty when questioned about it), my co-pay was $35 instead of $15. $20 and 3 hours in the car would have brought me home, where's there's a clinic with more reasonable pricing just down the street. If only I'd known ahead of time. Internal medicine is a nasty business, and especially when you're out of town, eh? I mean it's nice to be covered anywhere in the state, but I'll do a little more research next time. This was my first time using health insurance to pay for care, so I'm really not to blame for that mess.

Afterward, I went to the health food store and bought the supplements I should have bought when I first felt this ailment coming on. I'm not crazy about pills, even ones classified as foods, not drugs, but with it being so hard to eat the proper amount of food, it's good to get what you need from wherever you can get it. Conventional medicine apparently has no answer to a viral infection. The doctor didn't even tell me to try to eat well and get sleep or anything. At least WebMD did.

In any case, here's how things have been going with caffeine these days. I go to whatever health food store around town and buy a pound of organically grown, fair-trade certified single-origin coffee made by a local importer/roaster. My current coffee was grown in Bolivia. It's a Full City roast. I take this stuff home and grind and brew it fresh every morning. It costs way too much money ($10 a pound most places). Since I decided I was spending too much on coffee, I bought some organic pre-ground coffee at Big Lots. It was $2 for 10 ounces. It's probably not as bad as it sounds for the price, but it won't be available indefinitely at that price, either way. I'll try it when the current stuff runs out.

Actual milk tends to make me all congested, so I put organic soy milk in my coffee. My girlfriend adds turbinado sugar to that formula, because there's apparently not enough sugar added to soy milk already...? Due to my current throat condition, I was abstaining from coffee, but I'm now drinking lukewarm black.

I drank a lot more of it at my parents' house, but I'm picking green tea back up, especially now in my quest to flood my system with antioxidants while largely abstaining from solid foods.

I've had Yerba Maté a few times. It's a little weird. Maybe that's just because it was made by Tazo and they didn't have an unflavored one.

I generally do not drink soda, ever, so I think that's it for caffeine and me.

fluffy wrote:Steam-based espresso makers can still put crema on top. This one does. It gets a perfect coffee/crema balance, even.

of course they can. it's just that the old one i have doesn't.

It's of course different than real Italian espresso (which is made in a pot much like a percolator)

yeah, that's the way our italian teacher makes it. that's also excellent.
-bill

QOTD - I like sun tea with a nice wedge of lemon. I do drink coffee, but only in the morning.

Hey Oats -

Sorry to hear about your bod - the singing parts especially - giving you such grief... hope things get better sooner than expected...

Charles (KA)

Hey Charles, thanks a lot for stopping in to visit me in my sick bed.

I'm definitely concerned about my ability to produce vocal songs, something that will be fairly important soon. I may end up entering Nur Ein with a group with a small pool of singers instead of solo, which should give my voice a chance to rest...too bad that doesn't make it any easier to eat.

Eh, we'll see how it goes. Either way, thank you for the kind wishes!

Lord of Oats wrote:So as of today, I've been diagnosed with viral pharyngitis of unknown origin. The test for strep throat, whatever it is, came back negative.

That blows man. Get well soon.

qotd: I was big into black coffee for a while, but now it makes me quite sick. Coke has substituted for it for the last semester.

Get well soon LoO. I didn't read your post because it had way too many of them thar writin' words, but I read the other sympathetics posts, which means one of our own is in need of a positive word.
I hope it's nothing too serious. I do actually care.

fluffy wrote:... but American pizza is also different than Italian pizza but that doesn't make it less good. (Most Americans would hate proper Italian pizza, even.)

I think you mean that Italian pizza is different from American pizza. Pizza as it is known in its current form IS American. The Italians didn't bring pizza over from Italy exactly, they brought over a flat pie crust with sliced tomatoes and chunks of cheese baked to the size of a small dinner plate. Pizza came later.

Reïst wrote: qotd: I was big into black coffee for a while, but now it makes me quite sick. Coke has substituted for it for the last semester.

see, it's true what they tell you in school, stay away from drugs... because one drug leads to another! caffine to Coke! you need to detox man! detox!

Hoblit wrote:

fluffy wrote:... but American pizza is also different than Italian pizza but that doesn't make it less good. (Most Americans would hate proper Italian pizza, even.)

I think you mean that Italian pizza is different from American pizza. Pizza as it is known in its current form IS American. The Italians didn't bring pizza over from Italy exactly, they brought over a flat pie crust with sliced tomatoes and chunks of cheese baked to the size of a small dinner plate. Pizza came later.

Er, that's what I was referring to as Italian pizza...