The Weekly Plunder: Week 5 - Joyless Coffee

“We have been invaded and polluted by joyless coffee.” - Tom Hodgkinson

What is a K-cup coffee maker? It’s just a tool to deliver the industrious masses their bitter and tasteless coffee courtesy of a plastic cup. The plastic smothers the coffee in chemicals, which the user then gulps in haste. Meanwhile, the coffeemaker accrues bacteria that would otherwise have been avoided with better methods such as pour-over and French press.

Filth and low quality in favor of a moment’s time. The essence of the modern work era.

What is a Starbucks, but a means to hasten industry. It can’t be good coffee because nothing about it is slow. And of course, the bitter and tasteless coffee is well-hidden under heaps of creams and artificial flavors.

It’s sad to me that most people can’t take the time to just enjoy a solid cup of coffee. Maybe we should’ve been a tea culture. Sit down! Listen to some music. Read. And slowly, over the course of many hours, sip a good pourover or French press.

What I’m reading: “All I Care About is You”, a short story by Joe Hill. It’s interesting in that it’s really a parable of what it means to be human, and the value of having desire. Set in the future, a robot devotes itself to a teenage girl, but only out of its programmed necessity. The girl argues that desire renders one insane, telling the robot that it’s lucky to feel nothing (all of her friends are having plastic surgeries and constantly upgrading their tech). The robot argues that without desire, we are nothing but a circuitry board. Is being alive worth it? Of course, but, “the price of being alive is that someday you aren’t.”

What I’m listening to: “Circle” by Slipknot. I think this one has quite a few interpretations. Lately I take it as the feeling of knowing we are doomed to repeat ourselves and the fates of our fathers. “All of my endings are waiting to begin.”

What I’m watching: Midnight Mass. This has a lot of critical acclaim. We’ll see…

What I’m doing: I decided to see a foot doctor (also known as a podiatrist). When you’ve struggled to walk for a month, it seems like a natural course of action. The doctor’s assistant claimed my injury was the worst she’d ever seen. I am still setting records obvi. Really though, you never want to hear that. I was then taken for X-Rays and scans. Somehow, miraculously, nothing is broken or ruptured. But it’s a very severe sprain. It’s looking like it’ll be four months to recovery. That’s a bummer.

I am riding a bicycle anyways. I probably shouldn’t. I don’t really give a damn because it’s fun. Fun requires risk. And without risk in life, there is no reward.

Take a risk today. Here’s to hoping you reap a reward.