Published on 15 December 2025 under the Post category.
Sometimes, I feel pressure to write about more serious topics on my website. Surely I have something I can say! While I do love writing the occasional technical blog post here, thoughts on the future of the web, or ideas on another topic, I sometimes feel a bit stuck when I feel like I have to write something ✨ of consequence ✨. Indeed, I am delighted by the potential for blogs as an open forum to share ideas. But, so too am I delighted by their potential for… delight!
Last week I read Because Internet, a book on internet linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch I highly recommend. The book makes a compelling case for how internet technologies have enabled informal wr…
Published on 15 December 2025 under the Post category.
Sometimes, I feel pressure to write about more serious topics on my website. Surely I have something I can say! While I do love writing the occasional technical blog post here, thoughts on the future of the web, or ideas on another topic, I sometimes feel a bit stuck when I feel like I have to write something ✨ of consequence ✨. Indeed, I am delighted by the potential for blogs as an open forum to share ideas. But, so too am I delighted by their potential for… delight!
Last week I read Because Internet, a book on internet linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch I highly recommend. The book makes a compelling case for how internet technologies have enabled informal writing to blossom in a way that has not been possible in history. There has always been informal writing – letters, postcards, etc. – but with the internet we can now write informally faster than ever. It reminded me of how much fun I have writing in an informal tone, and how blogging enables me to write in the way I want. I should embrace the medium that we call blogging!
I have been here before, pressuring myself to write in a certain way, or about specific topics. I used to think a “blog post” had to be of a certain length, so I would eschew topics on which I may only have a few words to say. I am relatively verbose; it’s easy for me to say the same thing multiple times in my writing. But at least I’m writing! One day I hope to work up the courage to be able to be a better editor of my own work – beyond the inline editing I do while I write – but this, I think, will take a bit more time.
The original title for this blog post was going to be “Making coffee” but, after writing three paragraphs, I realised that I should probably edit the title to be more representative of what the bulk of this post will be about. I suppose I should get onto the coffee part…
For the last few weeks I have been brewing coffee with the Kalita 155 Tsubame stainless steel brewer. The 155 is the smaller of the two brewer, capable of making one cup of coffee; the 185 can make two cups. I love this coffee brewer. It looks wonderful. You can make great cups of coffee with it. The brewer has a unique handle on the side that makes it easy to pick up the brewer after making a cup of coffee and tip the used coffee grounds and filter paper into the bin.
I seldom take photos while I am making coffee, so, prior to writing this post, I went to the kitchen and put the brewer on my preferred coffee cup – a diner-style mug from a coffee roaster based here in Scotland, Steampunk Coffee – so that I could take a picture. Here is said picture (Note to the editor: do you really need to say something like "said picture" in a blog post where you talk about informal writing? Editor’s response: yes :)):
I thought about cleaning the coffee grounds off the brewer before taking the picture, but I’d rather show the brewer as it is now after my making my daily two cups of coffee. (Sometimes I’ll drink three cups in a day if I am out and about and need an extra dash of energy or want to feel the warmth of coffee.)