Turkish Coffee

From memory? Turkish Coffee is best done in a small brazier atop a stove.

Traditionally, it’s a copper conical shape with a brass handle. Not terribly exotic, just functional. Roasted coffee beans are ground super-fine, like dust or talcum powder, then combined with various aromatic herbs, typically cardamon, ginger, and cinnamon, then water is added, maybe two parts water per one part coffee.

The coffee is brought to a boil, let cool, then boiled a second time. As it cools, it’s served in a demitasse, a true Turkish coffee is supposed to served in an ornate one-ounce cup.

Zaatar in San Antonio missed the brazier, replaced with a more utilitarian stove-top pot, but the coffee, water, spices, and insulated handle were correct. As it cools, the fine grinds settle. Still found their way into my coffee (see Sagittarius), but it’s to be expected. Hint of cardamom. Not quite the correct cup, it close enough, and better yet, the right flavor.

It was flavor, plus the kitchen-battered pot itself that sold the coffee. Hot off the stove, fine grounds still roiling in the mixture, just good stuff, and not too sweet.

Turkish Coffee

Turkish Coffee

Pushing the Rock Uphill

Complain about the rock?

You’ll get a bigger rock.

Pushing the Rock Uphill

Sisyphus

Pushing the Rock Uphill

Special at the Texas Grocery

Didn’t see it, but this about sums up what we all need to know about that, Men’s Hair Color and Astroglide on sale?

I got to look for that at my local store.

Special at Texas Grocery

#HEB

March 25, at Nature’s Treasures

Note Address

Sparkle Faerie Kramer

February 25, 2025: Tuesday Natures Treasures

4103 N IH-35 Service Road
Austin, TX 78722

11 AM – 4 PM
512.472.5015

March 25, at Nature’s Treasures

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com

Just fitting, after British surrealist humor.

Satire and hot alien life-form sex scenes?

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com

• Kindle

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Security (see fineprint)

Ear Buds

See the Leo (2022) and see also, Pisces (2013).

Ear Buds

I looked back, pretty sure I bought this particular pair of Apple Air Pods when Mercury was retrograde. As replacement, not new tech, but identical replacement? Sure, OK. I knew what I was getting, as that set replaced an older pair, part of the original release. The newer ones were version two, maybe? Same shape, same style, same type of case, just seemed a little better?

They worked, and looking, after more than two years? I was wondering why one started to die, first time in the morning right at an hour and ten minutes. Not the first time this has happened, but it’s just the one earpiece. Just the right one. Died — after a full charge — right at 1:10 mark.

I was talking to a Gemini, a series of Gemini people, one morning couple of weeks back. Different generations, similar challenges. The first ear bud died. I dropped it back in the charging case. Eventually rang off and answered the next Gemini. Ear bud died three times, and with only a partial charge, didn’t last an hour. Three Gemini, same problems, and the batteries were worn out after the first one.

Two more calls like that, and twice more, the right ear bud going from half-full to dead battery without notice.

“Beep-beep,” dead.

This is tech I bought when Mercury was in arrears. It was a re-placement, not new, and my expectations were fully met. Worked, has worked, has worked well for over two years. Think I got my money’s worth. Over two years, and only then they starting to show problems with the batteries.

Over the birthday break, talking with family, the left earbud died, twice, three times maybe, showing half-battery then suddenly dead at the 50-minute mark. More recently, at the 30-minute mark.

I’ve toyed with various telephony handset/headset arrangements this whole career. So far, the wireless earbuds seem to be best, and for my dollar-to-value ratio, the Apple AirPods have worked better, and those are the original generation, maybe these that are dying are gen two, but it’s the same design. My primary goal is efficiency.

Hear, talk, battery life is secondary, and at one point, I was looking for the “noise cancelling” features, as part of this set-up. I tried a set of over-ear (ear muff) Bluetooth with forward facing microphone, and they worked, but almost too well. For me, ear buds are the way to go.

With the impending demise of the current tech, I was stuck, casting about, looking, and wondering.

A summary of what I know that works for me? In-ear, wireless with microphone, and easy device linking. Apple’s AirPods work, I know that. Other contenders that are highly ranked, and possible? Beats, Beats Pro, Bose, and unknown.

I still entertain a number of clients. Not exactly dwindling in size, either. I am not opposed, for the right fee, to stand in front of my monitor, gaze at astrology charts, and make observations about planet energies and their dances as they interact, playing out dramas here on earth.

astrofish.net/shop

While technically not required? The ear buds make this task ever so much more convenient. There’s a freedom of movement, a sense that the voices are in my own head, and it does tend to cut out the noise from the neighborhood’s lawn mowers and leaf blowers. How they time those with my readings? It’s a conspiracy¹ I’ll never understand.

The fineprint.

One interim set of ear buds I used? Less than $20, wireless, the two earpieces were connected by a wire with a microphone and button bank about a third of the way down on one side. It’s a fairly common design. Worked great, but were short-lived, lasting less than six month. Battery life was good enough for a trip to Austin, at an hour plus, and I don’t recall, maybe back again? Battery/wire something wore out.

The first set of Apple AirPods were over a $100, and as a toy, I got a rubber or plastic strap that held them together, worried that I would lose one. Never happened, and that plastic band proved untenable, and eventually, really useless.

The on-neck, or whatever that is, the wrap-around design? That would bug me in a matter of minutes.

When I face a decision I’m unsure about, and when Mercury is Retrograde, it’s a perfect time to grapple with ideas, pose questions, and look for answers. I don’t have to have an answer at the time.

Part of the recollection about earbuds was the first one, an earpiece that stuck out like mushroom, but it was one of the earliest, and I liked it. Didn’t cost a lot, and functioned, again, for a short period, but the cost-to-efficacy ratio demonstrated that it was a workable idea. It wasn’t until I thought about that early device, a single earpiece for talk and listening to the Shakespeare podcasts? I realized what the answer probably will be.

From that dying battery in a single AirPod? I could easily pop a single ear bud out and continue with just the other, and the Apple integration? Seamless. Doesn’t miss a beat.

Which, in part, is why there was one ear bud with a battery in hospice while the other one works fine, and the case battery is still good. There was a time, the trip to and from Austin, I would have single earbud in, to better talk with fishing buddies, clients, and family, all the while navigating some of the worst traffic in the world.

Traffic’s not that bad, but the drivers are.

The current car does the “hands-free” thing, so it’s not as much of an issue. Still, goes to show something.

Ear Buds

• Apple AirPods gen x.
• Apple AirPods gen y.
• Apple AirPods gen z?

I checked them all, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Apple.

Glad I picked up my replacements the last time Mercury was retrograde.

Ear buds & Mercury Retrograde

1. “Look! Kramer’s on the phone! Fire up the leaf blower!” ↩

Casting Out Demons

Seems more like small, errant knaves, perhaps little gremlins, or even the typical “fox in the henhouse.”

The problem? My horoscopes for 3-18-2025. The details? Start by reading what I wrote for Sagittarius, just minor issues.

Top of the morning e-mail, two items of note, one?

Hello Kramer,
The subject line of your latest horoscopes reads for 03-18-2025. The links in the body of your newsletter are to 03-11-2025. Ditto for your website. I was going to read the current one there. I guess Mercury Retrograde is really taking you for a spin.

The second is a back-up e-mail address that gets the same newsletter, and I didn’t notice, but the headline did read “3-18” while the body copy was “3-11,” and yes, Mercury is definitely most retrograde.

Before I start to try and unwind whatever went wrong with the weekly newsletter delivery? I have to review the triggers and workflow.

I use an astrology (star) chart set for the night’s sky for the beginning of the week with one for the end of the week superimposing one upon the other. Then, there’s the ephemeris for certain data points, and finally, I’ll adjust, as need be, to fine-tune certain ingress and egress astronomical data.

For the last few years, I’ll write straight into a word-processor/publishing app, works across all the systems I use.

Now it gets tricky: I tend to set an odd moment for the publication time. This is from two or three sources, one is simple numerology voodoo (Feng Shui), one of from a purely technical observation, and in part, the backend software requires an extra step, which is like a final proof-read check-mark.

So from word processing software straight to website publication, and from there? After much backend tweaking, I got an e-mail distribution source that picks up the website’s RSS feed, and sends it to the weekly list, from the site’s horoscope feed.

Casting Out Demons

The website’s actual, physical server, as I understand it, is West Coast, the e-mail and the e-mail listserv is East Coast. Just had a time change, too, did we save the daylight?

The horoscopes are scheduled for 3 AM and the e-mail scraper was set for 4 AM. Bet there’s the problem.

Up until now, this has been one of the joys of this kind of set-up: only one person in charge, and only one person to blame. I tend to try and keep this as simple as possible, too. I’ll see what turns up.

“We are aware of the issue and are continuing to monitor the situation.”

(See fineprint for disclaimers.)

Portable Mercury Retrograde