Author Archives: Felix

Did the California DMV get hacked?

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I don’t understand why the California DMV OTP challenge page to confirm my “identity” is in Chinese. Did they do some sort of upgrade and failed to keep the OTP challenge in English? Or… Did they get hacked? When a US or state goverment system goes to some foreign language page… it doesn’t really boost the confidence in that web page.

The DMV page also made it difficult. I could not contact a service representitave nor a technical representative to ask about the validity of this OTP challenge in real time. The chat bots are UTTERLY useless. I ended up having to ping them on Facebook and Twitter… but of course… tech service isn’t available their either.

Queen City Coffee Roasters

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After four months, I restarted the coffee subscriptions services for Angels Cup and Trade Coffee. I managed to stagger them roughly 2 weeks apart so I can finish one and have the other pretty much ready to be drunk.

The first coffee to come is from Angels Cup. They sent a bag from Queen City Coffee Roasters which apparently is from India! I am pleaseantly surprised with these beans because it’s not from the usual African, Central/South America or Southeast Asia sources.

The beans have a such a subdued aroma of nuts and dried fruit. Making my latte, I was surprised at the first sip with this bold chocolate taste followed that is mellowed by peach and berries. With each subsequent sip, the chocolate flavor disappears leaving with nothing but this pleasant nutty flavor after finishing the cup.

Here’s what I think of the beans…4/7

Coffee AspectsYes / No
Intense AromaNo
Balanced AromaYes
Other AromaNo
Intense 1st sipYes
Balanced FlavorYes
Chocolate FlavorYes
2nd cup?No

Fika Fika Coffee

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Fika Fika Coffee (Yelp) is a local coffee shop. I can’t seem to find a website for this coffee shop. I’m not sure where they roast their beans. They only have two shop locations (Pasadena, Arcadia) but these shops don’t appear to have much space for a roasting machine. Else perhaps the square footage is larger than it appears.

Since I’m finally finished with the Hawaiian beans and my coffee subscription shipments from Angels Cup and Drink Trade don’t start back up immediately, I needed some beans to hold me over until the coffee subscriptions packages start to come in. I opted to try these medium roasted Columbian beans. I’ve had beans from this region in Columbia before.

Here’s what I think of the beans.

Coffee AspectsYes / No
Intense AromaNo
Balanced AromaYes
Other AromaYes
Intense 1st sipNo
Balanced FlavorYes
Chocolate FlavorYes
2nd cup?Yes

A Simple Qualitative Coffee Ranking System

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To be honest, I’ve been unsatisfied at just describing what I’m tasting. As a result, I’ve decided to expand “my coffee reviews.” I recognize I’m not an coffee connesiur nor I do I have formal coffee training as a barista or other coffee related mastery or associations. I also recognize that different people will describe different flavors when tasting the same beans.

What makes me the most qualified unqualified person? I have had over 2 years of different roasters sending me light/medium/dark roast beans and I’ve come to appreciate the complexity of the roasted beans’ aromas and flavors. In some ways, I want to establish some qualitative ranking system to discover what makes a good coffee bean roaster… perhaps a way for future recomendations.

There will be seven simple/submjective aspects that I measure “yes/no”.
1) Is there an intense aroma?
2) Is there a balance between floral, fruity, and nutty aromas?
3) Is there any other aroma that’s not floral, fruity or nutty?
4) On first sip, is there an intesne taste?
5) Is there a balance of floral, fruity and nutty/earthy tastes?
6) Is there a chocolate-like flavor with each sip or after taste?
7) Do I want to drink another cup immediately after finishing this cup

Mountain Thunder Coffee

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With a name like Mountain Thunder Coffee, I exect big bold flavors from these Private Reserve Kona beans. Unfortunately, the friend accidentally picked up a lighter roast. Per the website, the American roast is a light roast. If readers recall, most of the previous Kona beans have been medium and dark roasts.

Making my latte, I definitely do not get the ashy flavors typical of dark roast Kona’s. The bold flavors from Kona coffee are absent. Instead, I’m left with delicate hints of floral and fruit flavors.

Big Island Coffee Roasters

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As I mentioned in a previous coffee post, I will be getting a few bags of Kona coffee from Hawaii. This bag of Kona Peaberry comes from Big Island Coffee Roasters. Again this smells amazing but it lacks the ashy, earthen aroma that previous Kona beans usually smell like.

Making my latte, I taste honey and chocolate predominantly. However, the latter half of each sip is where I get bits of the ashen after taste that I recognize more as originating from Kona. There’s also a slight hint of fruitiness with each sip.

Equator Coffees

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With all the Kona/Hawaii coffee over the past few months, I temporarily postponed both of my coffee subscriptions. In the near future, I’ll be getting more Kona/Hawaii coffee soon so I may have to postpone the subscriptions one or two more months. However, I run into a dilemma where I’ve ran out of the beans from my trip to Hawaii but I know I will be getting more Kona/Hawaii beans later this month. What do I do!?

Well I obviously go to roaster to buy a bag to tide me over right? Equator Coffees recently opened up a brick and mortar shop near by. I’ve actually heard of them because the coffee subscription have sent me a few of their bags in the past. They were always top notch delicious. So buying a bag is obviously the right thing to do to tide me over until the next wave of Hawaiian/Kona beans drops.

These beans are a light roast from southern Rwanda. They’re a single origin coming from an all woman’s cooperative (per the website). Making my latte, I taste this super delicious and creamy chocolate flavor with hints of florals at the back of the tongue. The more I drink this, I get a more earthy flavor that replaces the florals. This is really delicious that somedays I’ll make a second latte shortly after finishing.

NBC’s War Games!? Seriously!?

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I stumbled upon this YouTube video from NBC (click here) where US experts play a mock game of China invading Taiwan.

After my initial shock of the whole concept of the mock war game wore off, I think there are two major questions that really will determine how the invasion will play out.

1) What is America’s appetite to fight a war for another country? Or what is American’s appetite to fight a war based on principles of democratic freedom?

2) What is the global response if/when nuclear weapons are used?

For #1, let’s admit it that the current war between Ukraine and Russia is a proxy war between Russia and US/NATO allies. More importantly this is a proxy war of two political ideologies: autocracy vs democracy. Despite many countries currently helping Ukraine through money, weapons and other sources of aid, Russia is dead set to reclaim Ukraine. I’m not sure that US/NATO will ever send troops to help Ukraine push Russia out. I also don’t think US/NATO will retaliate even if Russia accidentally/purposely fires upon US/NATO assets resulting in loss of life. Ultimately, US/NATOs unwillingness to commit troops for bloodshed is Russia’s current saving grace. Furthermore, as this war continues to extend, reports about future famine in African nations looms as Ukraine supplied a significant amount of the world’s wheat. Nations who are affected by the lack of food may become important players in forcing peace by supporting Russian claims. How’s that for a global political russian mafia move?

For #2, I’m not sure how the world would respond. Would the global community come together to fight against the country who first used the nuclear weapon? Or would it only condemn the first user resulting in no real consequences? Based on the fact that the global community DID NOT condemn the invasion of Ukraine, I have very little hope that the global community will protest the use of nuclear weapon. I think the “NIMBY” attitude will prevail but I fear that attitude will only lead the world towards more negative feedback such as medical issues from radiation, contaminated food and land, and human migration to get away from the radioactive zones.

Let’s talk about Gun Control

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US political inaction is pretty ridiculous. I think for the most part the Republicans are the ones who are do not want to anger their NRA donors. So much for representing the people right?

This is what I think the US should do immediately.

1) The US government should create a new department whose sole purpose is to create, manage, administer and enforce a brand new gun database.
2) The new gun database will register all new gun purchases going forward. Law-abiding citizens are also required to re-register their guns in this new database. As part of the startup, existing databases from any/all states will be used to cross check previous registrations with the new registration
3) Registration involves satisfying four different requirements. First, the gun owner needs to be trained at qualified gun training centers. Second, the gun owner needs to pass an psycholocial evaluation administered by a psychologist/psychiatrist to determine if the gun owner is deemed fit to handle the responsibilities of a gun owner but also as a “law abiding citizen.” Third, a registration fee must also be paid. The fee amount will depend on the type of gun being registered. The goal of the department is to be as self-sufficient as possible relying only on registration fees to be operational. Fourth, gun owners must maintain their training, psychological evaluation and paid registration fee every 3 years. Failure to do so will result in extra penalties, extra scrutiny and forced confiscation. After all law abiding citizens shouldn’t be missing payments.
4) The US government should also seek to regulate the gun market by setting higher prices for gun ownership. Simply put, the more damage a gun is capable of doing results in the gun being more expensive. Consequently, the more damage a gun is capable of doing, the more training, the more extensive evaluation and higher registration fee.

I will admit… I don’t know if this will work. But the fact that we’ve gone over 20 years without ANY LEGISLATION IS RIDICULOUS!! If we just look at school shootings, the fact that Columbine occurred in 1999 and we have also experienced many more deadly school shootings like Virginia Tech, Sandyhook/Newton, Marjory Stoneman/Parkland, and now Robb Elementary/Uvalde. And these are just school shootings. We’ve also experienced other mass shootings like in Las Vegas, Orlando and even in Buffalo. EGADS….

WE the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA must vote for change. We must vote against the NRA interests.

Public Transit supported by Car Driving and Highway usage?

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Watching this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/zysL_lkdtys) on the Tokyo public transit system, the narrator points that car driving is highly discouraged through fees and tolls. The Japanese are essentially taxing the usage of cars in favor of public transportation. By making it economically inefficient to navigate by car, the Japanese may have provided a potential solution to limiting cars being driven. I truly believe a similar system will have to exist in major GLOBAL cities in order to accomodate any climate change initiatives to reduce car pollution.

Readers who are familiar with my social media feed may have remembered I had once posed a question of why CA can’t expand the current FasTrak system (or at least in the Los Angeles area) into a fee/toll per use of the highway systems. Every driver wanting to use the highway system would be required to have the fastrak transponder in order for payments be properly deducted. The fees obviously would be used to keep the highways maintained but any excess will go into supporting and expanding the woefully sparse public transportation in Los Angeles (either through light rail, subway, bus routes).

The fees should be kept at a level where people have to think about their own car usage, trip planning and alternative means of getting from point A to point B. These fees should be kept high enough either through dynamic market pricing based on usage or at a set price adjusted every 3-5 years based on the cost of maintenance. Given that potentially half a million cars use the LA highway system each day, the amount of money generated will quickly add up.

Would this system actually work? Japan shows it’s possible but their mindset from the start during the post World War 2 rebuilding was to purposely avoid car in favor of rail system. In US, it’s such a car dominated culture that switching to an alternative transportation approach would be almost impossible. Although newer generations might be more open to the alternative transportations compared to the older generations, I personally think that LA needs to commit to buidling/rebuilding their railway systems even co-opting existing freeways to build a rail system on top of it before implementing the toll usage. The current public transportation system has to be improved at least 10fold in terms of efficiency, speed, cleanliness, and punctuality.