bacterial update: It's been a while since I did an update. A few things have happened. My kefir grains were going crazy so I had to radically cull them. I have a bunch lying dormant in the fridge. I can't keep them there for much longer. May have to use them to make kefir charmers or something. I discovered that part of the issue with the overactive fermentation is that I was using the continuous fermentation method (i.e. not cleaning the container between ferments). I guess there was enough bacteria left in there to significantly speed up the fermentation. The lesson is that if you want to be able to increase your milk to grain ratio, use continuous fermentation. I needed to do the opposite so I am now cleaning the container between ferments. I'm up to 24 hour ferments again.
The next kombucha batch is going really well. There was a bit of a hiccup last week when it overflowed because of gas accumulation between the tea and scoby. I guess it had nowhere to go because the scoby was right against the narrowing of the container opening. The more gas accumulated, the better the seal, until it overflowed. As I was cleaning up the mess, I took the opportunity to test the tea. It was still really sweet but the pH was getting lower. The taste wasn't very good but I didn't get too worried about it. I tested and tasted again today and I have to say it is delicious. Slightly more acidic, and with a sweetness of something like a Gewurztraminer. In fact it tastes a lot like it too, oddly enough. I'll let it go a bit longer to reduce the sweetness further. Maybe test it again on Thursday or Friday. I think it might be true what they say about Pu-Erh tea making the champagne of kombucha.
I watched the movie Surrogates tonight. Another movie about avatars but this time a distopic view. Everyone has a surrogate robot that they connect to. The rhetoric is that you can be young, beautiful and invincible until you die. I'm not sure how they deal with the issues of muscle mass and bed sores, but I suppose that's another movie. There were a few funny moments where some surrogates are seen 'jacking' -- overloading their circuits with electricity for a high. Or a fight between a couple where one surrogate just disconnects when things get uncomfortable. I actually enjoyed the movie. I seem to have an appreciation for watching machines die. I got the same thrill by watching Terminator. War looks kind of ridiculous when it's machines fighting machines. Like boys in a sandbox with toy soldiers. There's some lesson in there somewhere.
Increasingly I find the idea of an avatar appealing. It would reduce the need for travel which I hate. Well I hate air travel. I might still want to do road trips. But as with any technology I doubt our specie's ability to moderate. Especially when it comes to avatars, a little self-hatred could go a long way towards being addicted to not being in the flesh. There would need to be wicked hangovers to moderate the addiction prone. May be best to keep our avatars virtual for now.
A song for this post.
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I read a book a long time ago called "The Cold Cash War". Big corporations use warfare to settle disputes, but they don't want people dying, so everybody in the war wears what are essentially laser tag suits that freeze the person when they get shot. They then get retrieved after the battle and can go fight again. Of course somebody eventually decides to use real guns and everything goes to hell. It was so long ago that I can't say for sure, but I THINK it was interesting.
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