Ashin

Hello brother. Still in AO. About to move into Penumbra with our main troops, and we have a nice city plot with a QL300 large HQ, so we're doing pretty well on the Alien front also. Thanks for stopping by to keep in touch; you are always welcome.

Hello to both of you. =)

Just predicting.. we pretty much have an opening for almost any prof at this point.

I predict sera will come back on her enfo or her shade.

Sera pls get your internet connection and come back! At this point you can pretty much play any profession you want lol. =P

I loved him, once... *storms off with an embittered expression on his face*

hi... -,- Your access has been granted.

Because if I shared my password with you, you would just log Chilled in all the time for his little 9% buff.

Argh .. You too Ash? why? what does a longer pull do other then make it stronger? and does the pull time depened on the bean used? Explain you Opinons, so that I might learn ...[/quote:280vysrj] O_O In this case not so much opinion, as chemistry. =) Brewing coffee is about extraction. Many substances in the roasted coffee bean are soluable in water. Some taste pleasant. Others do not. Others have no flavor. If you want to confirm, you can eat a coffee bean. You will notice it is not entirely pleasant. Proper extraction, then, is the art of getting as much of the good stuff that we can from the coffee bean, and leaving as much of the bad stuff behind as possible. It is a delicate balancing act. Now, with regards to espresso, there are several variables involved. One is the temperature of the water. If the water is too hot, the most delicate of the aromatics within the bean are destroyed. If the water is too cold, there just isn't enough action going on, and we don't get much of the good stuff out. Some debate here.. but the general idea is that boiling water is too hot, and anything below 190 degrees is too cold. Next is the pump pressure applied to force the water through the coffee bed within the brewing chamber. This has a more subtle effect and takes too many paragraphs to describe properly so we will skip this one. Next is the corseness of the grind setting used. This is what relates directly to your question. When an espresso shot completes itself in only 10-15 seconds, what's typically happening is that the grind uses is not fine enough. The result is that the water is able to shoot right through the coffee bed, which is not what you want. You want the coffee to be fine enough so that the water really has to struggle and "work" to get through it. That's what causes much of the magic to happen with espresso. A 10 second shot is terribly underdevloped. Crema will be pale, thin, almost nonexistent. "Green" or sour notes are present. Body is weak and thin. You are basically drinking muddy water, not espresso. None of the nuance or richness of flavors can develop in such a short period of time, with such a coarse grind. ((Advanced segment of lesson: There IS a style of pulling "short" shots, known as ristretto (restricted) in Italy. The concept here is to make the grind VERY fine, and use less liquid (think: 1/2 or 3/4 of a shot instead of a full one). Note, however, that even in ristretto style, the ideal of 20-25 seconds is still obeyed. The shot itself is smaller, because there is less liquid, but the time to complete is still the same.)) Unfortunately the average American has not had good espresso. They therefore assume that espresso is, by its nature, bitter and unpleasant, or that it must be roasted so dark as to taste burnt or charcoal-like. This of course is not true. In practical terms, what happens at most cafes and restaurants, where staff does not understand espresso brewing, is that, over time, the grind setting will become more and more coarse. This happens as the blades begin to wear down, but more often, it is a deliberate act on the part of the staff, who do not understand why they should wait 25 seconds for an espresso when they could make it come out in 10. Its not just that it isn't as "strong", but rather that none of the good things from espresso have happened yet.. really it isn't espresso yet.. doesn't deserve the title. In less subjective terms: the unique qualities of espresso come from an emulsification of the essential oils within the coffee bean. With a 10 second shot, those things haven't happened yet. I suppose technically you could call a raw egg, a cup of milk, and two cups of flour "cake".. but most of us agree that it isn't a cake until it has been baked in an oven. The same is true here.

Well you mention 8 sec and 11 sec pulls.. are you talking about coffee or espresso here? By the way, very few people could tell the difference between those two pulls; both are way too short. =)

You still following Vanguard closely? I haven't had the time lately.. but I stopped by today and the tone of the forums seemed pretty different to me. Sounded more hostile with more of the typical beta crowd stuff.. I really appreciate the community that AO has and it is spoiling me in a way.

Congrats on the wheels! AO is a bit slow at the moment, because our main healer is moving, and a few other memberes are on breaks. So we are working on little side projects, alts and pvp characters. We also recently purchased a new city, and we have a QL300 large HQ, which is the best headquarters in the game. Thanks for stopping by, and keep in touch!

I don't think these forums let you decide how to arrange things like that. Not positive though.

Welcome! (officially) You know we have rules against any sort of WoW promotion on our forums, right? That troll from WC3 comes dangerously close, but I'll allow it for now. =P Looking forward to getting to know you better.

Well, we are about to start the "midgame", from 150 to 205. We've gotten our own city, and we've become pretty good at alien raids (dynamic raids where the aliens come at you and try to take out your controller). We even hosted a public raid for anyone on the server to join us (since cities are a rare commodity), and that went well. Some of us are working on level 75 twinks that are going to get into the PvP aspect of the game, while we continue to experience mostly PvE on our mains. Once we have a few more twinks ready we'll probably try our luck at destroying some enemy towers and holding a few of our own. So overall things are great.. still loving the game personally.. although we're in a bit of a slowspot at the moment.

I will only approve of this thread is Skydance gets some sort of gold star for his successful guess.

??? Are you talking about D'narr in EQ2?! Or dinner? =/

Momentarily confused, Chilled quickly hid his feelings and turned to face his clan. He could see they were as uncertain as he was. "Be calm," he said. "This one is a friend." To himself, he thought over the recent reports of changes within Omnitek, changes which made it to resemble a military dictatorship more and more each day. A new leader, former war veteran. Increased Unicorn activity throughout Clan territory. And each day, more Clan mining facilities fell prey to attacks from the less "restrained" Omni divisions. "Ross was a pig, but at least he was a diplomat," he thought. His success as a businessman was based on his instincts. He trusted them completely. And his instincts told him that war loomed. Not a simple skirmish over a mining facility, but true war, the kind that Rubi-Ka had not seen since the Tir Accord was signed four years ago. "Things will get worse before they improve," he mumbled to himself, "and it is good that we have friends." Suddenly a flash IRRK transmission drew his attention, and soon his mind was once more on other matters.

Very sad news. We are simply a group of friends that plays computer games together, and I doubt any of our members have our name tatoo'd on them anyplace, so unfortunately I do not think I can help you in your search. Good luck to you though.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and made it a great raid! =) Hope we can do it again soon.

We may wind up doing two raids due to popular interest. =) Anyone who can bring their own CRU will be my hero.

OMG a coffee fan! <3 But why do you like excelso over supremo? o,O

ROFL! That's something only those of us who know him can appreciate.

Yes, GMT - 4. BTW did you know your name is a type of coffee bean? =P

No issue with regard to expectations; we are not twinks. However the only issue may be if your level is too low to get axp with the main group. I think with 5-10 lvls you are safe. Otherwise we'll try to accomdate you the best we can.