It’s been awhile since I wrote my last TIL (Today I Learned) post. A few things happened that have prevented me from posting:
- I couldn’t think up a good post one day.
- I worried these type of posts were not appropriate for my mostly how-to blog.
- I wasn’t sure these TIL posts provide much value to other people.
I’ve thought about these issues a bit in my spare brain cycles and have concluded: I’m WAY over thinking it. 🙂 I enjoy writing these posts so they shall continue. I have also decided to forgive myself for missing a day or 30. I’ll post when I feel like it! 😉
To make up for my short post hiatus, here a few things I’ve learned since my last post.
The 2-Step
Sharlee and I have started taking dance lessons at Go Dance Austin. We’ve taken 1 private lesson so far and I finally learned how to 2-step correctly. I tried to find a video on 2-stepping to post here, but I couldn’t find a good one quickly. In any case we had a great time.
The Definition of Dearth
Somehow I’ve amassed a group of highly literate friends. Go me! I learn and forget new words from them nearly daily. The other day one of my friends sent me a text message with the word dearth in it. I looked it up. A dearth is a scarcity or lack of something.
Gaslighting
The term gaslighting is one of the most interesting things I learned last week. If you try to trick someone into questioning their own memories, that is gaslighting. For example, you might invite a friend to your house to watch a movie and ask them to bring peanuts. A week later when they show up at your door with a bag of peanuts you say, “Are you trying to kill me? I’m allergic to peanuts! I told you bring anything BUT peanuts.” The victim will then question their own memory. I’m familiar with this behavior from movies, but I never knew there was a term for it. I learned this term killing time reading Reddit comments.
How to Properly Tamp Espresso
At Conjunctured we rent commercial grade coffee equipement from Casa Brasil. They come out occasionally to service the equipement, restock our beans, and answer any questions we have on how to use the equipment.
While watching the barista show our coworkers how to pull a shot, I discovered I’m not applying nearly enough pressure when I tamp my espresso coffee grounds. The recommended pressure is 40lbs! That’s a pretty solid push. Here’s a video I found that sums up what I learned about tamping the portafilter.