On Common Grounds
Pod Vase-ing
This Nespresso capsule holder model is almost extremely well done. It holds 30 original-type pods in a compact hexagonal shape, and significantly reduces filament use and print time by being designed to use vase mode. It’s slightly too tall to fit on my printer, which I fixed by scaling the height down, and the slots are slightly too tight to easily hold Gevalia’s compostable clone pods, which have a thicker rim.
But the real problem is that the matching slots in the separate base are slightly too tight to fit the top into. This can be worked around with careful slicing parameters, if you know about it in advance, but if you went ahead and just printed it, like I did, you’ll need to break out the hot glue.
So close.
Speaking of pods…
Target has a house brand of Nespresso clone-pods called “Archer Farms” that includes three flavors designed for a lungo pour. They’re crap.
Not the coffee, the pods. Licensed pods use a solid aluminum body with a foil cap. These use a slightly-off-spec aluminum body with foil at top and bottom, and the result is that my Essenza Mini strains to push the water through and gives up about halfway. There was nothing wrong with the coffee that made it out, but paying half the price to get half the coffee doesn’t seem like a good deal, especially if it ends up stressing the machine.
On the bright side, Target is the only retailer I’ve been in for months that had my Gevalia Mocha Latte k-cups in stock. If I didn’t already have a three-month supply, I’d have picked up a three-month supply.
A Moo by any other name…
I stopped buying Land-O-Lakes butter when they killed off the Indian and kept the Land, but I’ve still been buying Mini Moos, their single-serving half-and-half packets. Because I dislike artificial creamers, and because two Moos is only 20 calories, but mostly because it’s the only brand my local groceries stock in that form factor.
But as my Nespresso Adventures rapidly depleted my stock, I decided to go looking for a different brand, and found Carnation Half & Half tubs, in the giant industrial-family-sized package. 360 of them is a lot for one guy, but coffee isn’t the only use I put them to, and hopefully they don’t arrive with an imminent expiration date. These days, packaged meals that include “milk” or “cheese” use low-fat, low-flavor stuff to attract the masses who’ve been indoctrinated by the State Church Of Wrong Dieting, and they benefit from a little 10-calorie touchup.
Well, 11.5 from now on; Carnation decided to set their serving size at 3 tubs instead of 1, so they fall under different FDA rounding rules (see page 129), and thus each tub officially has 0.3333 grams of sugar instead of being “sugar-free”.
I just have to figure out what to call them now. Carns? Calfs? Halfs?
Unrelated, “Alexa, please stop sucking.”
J: Alexa, what time does Safeway close?
A: Safeway pharmacy on Constitution Blvd is currently closed, but will…
J: Alexa, stop. What time does the Safeway grocery store close?
A: Safeway pharmacy on Constitution Blvd is currently closed, but will…
J: Alexa, stop. What time does the nearest Safeway close?
A: Safeway pharmacy on Constitution Blvd is currently closed, but will…
J: Alexa, stop. What time does the Safeway on North Main Street close?
A: Safeway on North Main Street in Salinas is open today from 6am to 10pm.
“No, seriously, stop.”
J: Alexa, play “Sex (I’m A)”.
A: Here’s “Sex Type Thing”, by Stone Temple Pilots, on Amazon Music.
J: Alexa, stop. Play “Sex (I’m A)” by Berlin.
A: I couldn’t find sex-ima by Berlin, but here is other music by Berlin. (begins playing “The Metro”)
J: Alexa, play “Sex” by Berlin.
A: Here’s “Sex (I’m A)” by Berlin, on Amazon Music.
[Update: this one turns out to be particularly tricky: the results depend entirely on how you pronounce “A” when you ask for the song. If you pronounce it the way they do in the song (“I’m a man/I’m a goddess/…”), Alexa won’t find it, but if you carefully enunciate it as the letter “A”, it will.]
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