Keurig, My K-Cup, and Cafestrol

I bought my wife a Keurig for Christmas which she absolutely loves.  In fact, she loves it so much that she wanted me to start using it and get rid of my trusty but messy Mr. Coffee drip coffeemaker.  No problem, but I like grinding my own beans fresh.  So the solution was getting a reusable My K-Cup filter basket.  I fell in love instantly, as every cup was fresh and delicious, rather than getting old and burned tasting in the pot.

That said, there was a minor problem.  I'd been using it for about two weeks and kept noticing an oily, dark brown residue at the bottom of each cup.  That tripped off a memory of a conversation I'd had with a ScoutMaster while we were enjoying camp coffee at Boy Scout camp with our kids.  He mentioned that he always used a paper filter because they remove some harmful substance from the coffee.  I'd forgotten what it was, so I did a little research.  It turns out that the substance is called cafestrol which can raise serum cholesterol.   While my cholesterol is good, I generally try to take the healthy path when given the option.  The prepackaged K-Kup single use packs (usually 16 cups to a pack) come with a built in paper filter.  I know this because I dissected one.  But I still like fresh grinding my favorite blends like Caribou Coffee's Amy's Blend, as I have a stockpile of it in my deep freezer.  So how do I resolve this problem of continuing to use the My K-Cup and yet filtering out the bad substance?

As an experiment, I took one of my Mr. Coffee paper filters and cut out a circular shaped section maybe 5 centimeters across and stuffed it down in the bottom of the My K-cup filter basket holder.  Not the reusable filter itself, but the grey plastic filter holder (upper far left corner in the picture).  I then ground and brewed a cup of Amy's blend.  As you can see in the bottom center of the picture, the paper filter wad has the brown goop containing the cafestrol.  There was no residue in the bottom of the cup, and the coffee was absolutely delicious.  It is just a slight extra step, but worth it if you are concerned about your cholesterol levels.

Cheers, Ye Olde Bard

On Conformity and Technology...

Conformity.  That used to be a naughty word in my book.  I've always considered myself a bit of an independent.  Neither a leader nor a follower.  I like to make my own path. I don't care much for popular music, preferring instead to listen to renaissance madrigal singing, barbershop quartets, 50's Do-Wop and lots of choral pieces.  I eschew mainstream literature in favor of reading obscure history books.  I love clean humor but dislike the more popular comedy that uses foul language or crassness to try and be funny.  I don't watch TV.  I do enjoy video games, but even there I prefer the obscure RPG over most of the best sellers.  In general, I consider myself a non-conformist.

When it comes to technology, I used to also be very independent, favoring the underdogs and pretenders to the thrones of the latest technology wars.  In high school and college I favored the Amiga over the Apple and early IBM computers of the day.  Then when I was forced to move to a PC world, I selected OS/2 over the dominant Windows 3.1.  I embraced various Unix flavors, eventually including Linux and NetBSD and anything open source.  Yes I configured and recompiled my own kernel.  I also wrote plenty of software as a Unix programmer and administrator, even releasing one project as open source which was well received by a niche audience.  But mostly, I tweaked and customized and reconfigured things my way and defiantly shook my fist against the "establishment" of mainstream technology.   I spent more time configuring and modifying than I did actually using the technology.

Technologists are mostly big kids, and we love our digital toys.  But life does have other demands.  I had a wife and kids now.  I had schedules to meet.  I also had other interests.  Sure I could recompile my kernel, massively customize my desktop UI and menus, keep up with the latest bleeding edge software, and heat my basement with the output generated from my collection of odd computers.  But what was I trying to prove?  Who was I trying to impress with my highly customized setup?  It may have been a work of art in my mind, but the audience was just me.  Even my geek colleagues were focused on their own customizations.  We'd nod and grin politely when someone showed us their tweaks, but we really only looked at or cared about our own setup.  It's like hearing a cell phone go off in a public place.  The only person who really appreciates their own "super cool", custom ring tone is the person who owns that phone.  The rest of us either don't care or are somewhat annoyed by it.

These days, I'm a complete conformist when it comes to technology.  In a shock to my colleagues I've largely abandoned Linux and have become a Microsoft Certified IT Professional.  It is a lot easier than swimming upstream trying to find the odd Linux admin/programmer job.  I no longer have to fight with management over what technology choices to implement.  I run Windows 7 on all our home computers instead of Unbuntu.  I have an iPhone instead of an Android.  I don't have to constantly customize and tweak.  Instead of letting the technology be my life, I let it enable my life with simple, straightforward access to the things I need to do my job and to manage my personal life.

But what about individuality and creativity?  Hey, if I want to get creative, I'll design and write a useful program.  I'll draw a picture.  I'll work on some music.  I'll do something creative and fun with my kids.  Maybe I'll finally get around to working on that great American novel I started in college.  If you want to unlock, root and ROM your Android so you can customize your icons and colors, have fun with that.  If you want to totally tweak your desktop on that obscure Linux distro, more power to you.  As for me, been there, done that.  My plain, unmodified default calendar says I've got a sunset to paint!

Cheers, Ye Olde Bard