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Ukulele practice is the best thing ever.  I need to create another half hour window in my day for optional extra practice.

Or you can go up a level of coffee snobbery from me and do what james does.



One of my jobs, i spent 6 weeks training how to coffee.  All the ways water interacts, temperature, ground, weight vs volume measurement, time ground interacts with water....so many things.  

The conclusions I drew

1. There is a place of diminishing returns.  Unless your joy comes from the ritual of making coffee.  For the rest of us, drinking is where the effort should go.
2. The paradox of making coffee without coffee is important to take into consideration when planning a coffee routine
3. I have permission to change the coffee recipe.   Make coffee.  Observe.  Adjust.  Repeat.  Eventually we discover how much control our actions have on the flavour.  It's a waste of time making coffe the "right way" if we don't like the flavour.

Tablespoon is 15ml ish level.     You can buy a Tablespoon measure at most grocery stores, although a big table spoon that comes in most cutlery sets is usually the right size.  If I round the tablespoon or level it depends on which coffee I'm using.  A tablespoon is a starting place.  From there you can adjust to taste.

I never measured the mugs.  But each of us have a different size.  Mugs usually are larger than a tea cup and smaller than a pint glass.  I have my mug for coffee.  Other family members have their coffee mugs.  The size that feels comfortable in othe hand and can be drunk before the coffee cools too much.

I suppose that's another thing.  Avoiding soap when washing the mug will improve flavour.  Except, some of the oils can go rancid, so I usually give it a deep clean every 4 months.

I gave the measurements I use.  Each person will like different flavours, so measurements need to be adjusted for the individual.  But "some" is too vague a starting place.

My preference is for extremely strong, maximum caffeine extraction, round, smooth flavours, avoiding acids (triangular flavour).  So I tend to go for Italian roasts.  But most people in north america seem to like more acidity (pointy flavour) in their coffee, so they would need different measurements.

Very picky about coffee here.

1. Choose coffee ground for french press or espresso for max flavour.  Filter ground doesn't give as much flavour so you need more and the coffee tastes flat.
2. For ideal flavour, season the press.  Make coffee in it and leave it in there for 24 hours. I do this a few times.
3. Never use soap to wash.  Hot water and mechanical force (dish cloth without soap). Think of it like cast iron, if soap happens, reseason.
4. I find ceramic ones are best as they keep the temperature.
5. Don't let old coffee or grounds sit in the press more than 48 hours. But overnight is fine.

6. Real boiling water.  Hotter if that was possible.  Water temperature dramatically influences what flavours extract from the beans.  Boiling is considered minimum temperature in the coffee world (except for cold extract, etc)
7. Some suggest pre heating the press and I like the flavour this gives.  So I wash the press in hot water while the kettle boils (actually boils, not just north american tea temperature).  
8. The ratio of water to coffee changes the flavour.  I like one tablespoon per mug of coffee.  But play with this for your preference.
9. Add boiling water to coffee in press, stir rappidly.
10. Put lid on top of press but don't press down.  Timer for 10 min (experiment. between 5 and 12min)
11. Press down
12 enjoy

The info graphic is very helpful.

Waiting for second coffee to brew so I can begin today's dedicated ukulele study.  Getting in the mood.

This song brought me to tears, it is so beautiful.



How long until I can understand enough of this music language and make my hands work, so I can start to learn this?  This is what I want a ukulele to be, not twinkle star or strumming to you are my sunshine.

All these starter songs I either don't know or don't like much.  Playing through 100 times, i like them even less.

Also, free massive big classical music book for high and low g ukulele with tabs and stuff.
https://sites.google.com/site/tabs4ukes/classical
I understand about 5% of the music writing.  

I know I'm just a baby to music but I want to get to a place where I can understand at least 50% of the music writing in that pdf, and I want to be there in a month.  I want it so much it hurts, but it feels like years away.  

Coffee is ready, time to practice more mary had a little lamb. (Bemused emoji)

https://www.ukulele-arts.com/learn/solo-crashcourse/?lang=en

A suggested path to classical ukulele playing.   I don't know enough to evaluate it.

They are getting better now.  Holding the tuning for over one min.  

Happy, my arthritic thumb isn't getting in the way.  I expected a lot worse.  

It seems to be loosening up my arthritic knuckles.  The doctor said more movement would help with that, and I guess they are right.

The 1990s taught me to compose long replies in notepad or other simple text editor. Not a word processor like word or works that use special characters that don't always transfer well.

It has the extra advantage that I dont have to reply the same day.  Nothing in a forum is as urgent as real life and long posts often benifit from the gift of time.