Well. After over a decade over there at the usenet forum I've decided to start out the new year by expanding my horizons and trying something new. Like civility. This seems like a nice neighborhood. I've been lurking for a little while and am so happy to see some familiar names on these forums. I knew them in the old world. By way of introduction I do both professional and home barista gigs. The home rig is a LM GS which I've owned for about 20 years with alternating Mazzer Mini and Gaggia model 1 grinders. The work rigs are LM 4AV and a just-completed overhauled LM 2AV with a brand-new Fuji PID which I fault many of the posters here for having started the PID thang. Thank you, Andy and Greg and Barry and the others. Huge improvement. And a very tired La San Marco 2group lever jawbreaker in need of restoration. I hesitate to include a link to a just published story of the roastery as it will seem awfully self-promotional but it is really happenstance that it came out as I come over to this forum. Anyway, it is in the way of further introduction. Most of it is accurate and I had nothing to do with the "coffeegeek" moniker. I give propers to the originator of that avatar, Mr.P. I'll shut up. Here is the link and my apologies if it is inappropriate for a first post. http://www.desertexposure.com/200801/200801_coffee.php
Bernie

Welcome bernie! I love your writing, I look forward to reading it here. Also, nice article in Desert Exposure; it captured your passion for coffee and perhaps a little of your kind regard for people.

Thank you, Andy. I very much appreciate your work and vast contributions. As I was rebuilding the LM down in the warehouse my manager, Beck, got to sampling the espresso. She's very impressed and loves the stories of how many of us watched the development of the controls on todays machines from a handful of you guys tinkering around.
Bernie

Welcome to Home-Barista. I became disillusioned with the uunet years ago and only occasionally venture back to the dark side.

bernie wrote:Here is the link and my apologies if it is inappropriate for a first post.

Not at all, the article was a great introduction! I chuckled when I read "Digman has been completely immersed in the business for only about 10 years." Only 10 years?!?

AndyS wrote:Welcome bernie! I love your writing, I look forward to reading it here. Also, nice article in Desert Exposure; it captured your passion for coffee and perhaps a little of your kind regard for people.

A huge Ditto!

Hope to be reading what I have been missing lately, i.e., your prose. And the Knockbox forum is the perfect place for it!

Welcome to HB!

ken

Welcome, Bernie. It looks like I'll soon be the last cross-over poster. I feel such a strong debt to alt.coffee for getting me started in this hobby and industry that it is very hard for me to give it up. Yes, I know, without the people, it's just an address on some mysterious server. But, still ....

Marshall wrote:Welcome, Bernie. It looks like I'll soon be the last cross-over poster. I feel such a strong debt to alt.coffee for getting me started in this hobby and industry that it is very hard for me to give it up. Yes, I know, without the people, it's just an address on some mysterious server. But, still ....

Isn't it odd, Marshall, that we can have an emotional attachment to an address on some mysterious server? I watched you and others maintain such a dignity over the years in the face of such, um.., barbarity on ac after enjoying such a "golder era" for a while. I always loved reading you riposte and felt like you were trying so, so hard to show how calm reason and logic could sustain civility in the face of some really degrading performances. My hat is off to you and others who have hung in there so long. I suppose all is not lost over there and there is some reasons to have heart that eventually some civility and sanity will prevail. For now I will be taking a little respite over here as I'm a bit winded.
peace on 'ya
Bernie

Bernie! Welcome!
I missed your post when it first appeared here because I had been without phone or electricity for 84 hours after the California wind storm. The level of civility here is thanks to Dan, the digital proprietor. I met him at the Long Beach show and we had a great visit, and he invited me to join in here. I was tired of fighting Miss Information at our old stomping grounds and have made HB my new digital coffee home, and am quite happy to have made the move.

Cheers, and once again, welcome!

Randy G. wrote:Bernie! Welcome!
I missed your post when it first appeared here because I had been without phone or electricity for 84 hours after the California wind storm. The level of civility here is thanks to Dan, the digital proprietor. I met him at the Long Beach show and we had a great visit, and he invited me to join in here. I was tired of fighting Miss Information at our old stomping grounds and have made HB my new digital coffee home, and am quite happy to have made the move.

Cheers, and once again, welcome!

Thanks, Randy. Nice to be somewhere civil. It's sort of like walking into a pub after a war and seeing all the old familiar faces. Danged nice.
Bernie