Neal Wilson ✅ @neal@social.typica.us

Found out who is teaching the workshop after mine now that I know it's not the usual instructor. The original materials weren't shared so it's a completely different take on the class.

Overhearing people nearby looking forward to my workshop. I don't think they've realized that I'm at the next table over yet.

Also checked out the scientific posters. Someone I know has one up and I'm debating if I should point out the unfortunate typo (missing decimal point) in the results summary.

When I saw the title of the lecture, my immediate reaction was, "oh no, this could be such a train wreck." But then I saw who was delivering that and changed my opinion to, "okay, I'd like to hear what he has to say on that topic."

Because I'm staying at a hotel right across the street from the convention center, I can apparently connect from the little patio area where there are tables I can use to work on stuff between things I'm interested in. There's a roasting lecture from a consultant based not too far from me that I plan to check out soon.

I've been getting my daily proof of life photos of the cat.

Having a coffee made with basically an oversized teabag. It takes a lot of agitation for that to work, which I think diminishes the value of the concept, but it's not bad.

It looks like the situation with the mis-delivered coffees is getting sorted out. It'll probably still be delivered before I'm back home, but my staff will likely not do the product development work on those so I'll have that waiting for me first thing when I get back. I'll probably also have some coffee samples from other suppliers to process.

While I'm out of town there's a coffee delivery that I was hoping to get before leaving town. Someone got confused as they tried to deliver coffee our coffee to a different roasting company, which refused to take delivery. Freight company then tried to deliver the coffee that other roasting company was expecting to us and we've also refused to take delivery of someone else's coffee. My sister can handle this and since I'm not there she'll have to.

Now that I've had some coffee, I've found the hotel room coffee maker. All the coffee is decaf.

I've been informed that the cat has moved to the top of the bed.

This is where I'd put my stem bolts, if I had any.

When I left the cat at my mother's house she hid under the bed and started making sad noises. But I can't take her with me, she wouldn't enjoy the car ride to New Orleans even if I could, and she would not do well if I just left her in the house by herself while I'm out of town. Her cuddle requirements are too high to not have a person around.

As expected, covid test came back negative. Don't have to make last minute arrangements for someone else to teach my class.

I was not surprised to learn this.

I have acquired a supply of driving snacks for the upcoming 12-15 hour drive.

While out running errands earlier today I saw someone completely decked out in Sailor Moon attire of the sort you'd expect to find for sale at a con booth. Complete with Sailor Moon face mask.

For these very dark roasts, most students tend to prefer the roast that looks like an S curve (get the coffee hot enough to get your dark roast flavor characteristics fast enough that you're not overly diminishing flavors developed earlier) and I suspect that will continue to be true this time around.

The fourth flight takes the darkest coffee from the first flight and adds variations where all the batches have the same total roasting time and match up to the start of first crack, but one goes faster through first crack and slower through second crack while the other goes slower through first crack and faster through second crack. Here again there are some clear differences in flavor.