January 2025 – Don's House of Fine Patisseries

As indicated at the beginning of the previous post about making coffee, the post was mounted, definitely tongue-in-cheek, as a result of a podcast created by Google NotebookLM about a previous blog post I’d mounted about making yoghurt muffins.

As part of the initial vision I had when I started to mount the post about making coffee, it was a foregone conclusion that a new podcast be generated as a result. As such, my brother and I tried to make podcasts about the post using Google’s NotebookLM Podcast Generator.

I had a few objectives about how the podcast should be structured:

There should be a bent that both the post as well as the podcast were inspired by the previous podcast on yoghurt muffins;
There was a hope that the new podcast would be somewhat (read I had an expectation of it being “sufficiently”) self-aware, including that the previous podcast was created “by the same hosts”, and therefore, that “the hosts” would at an obvious juncture make a comment to the effect of “In a previous podcast, we jovially suggested that the blog post author create another blog post about making morning coffee, and whaddya know, they did!”;
When supplying Google NotebookLM with source material, I entered an expressed expectation that there be a certain incredulity on the parts of the “hosts” that, albeit tongue-in-cheek, that I followed up on the jovial suggestion that I make such a blog post in the original podcast (at about 3:49), as well as the previous two points.

Unfortunately, the results were less than satisfactory.

The first podcast that was created, using the original yoghurt muffins post as one of several pieces of source material, seemed to focus more on the post on the yoghurt muffins than the post on making coffee;
Said first podcast generally seemed to rehash the podcast on the yoghurt muffins, often word for word or at least re-phrasings;
Throughout several of the podcasts that were created, there seemed to be lot more of what I will call psychobabble that came through multiple times, analyzing myself, and went on tangents on how to look at things differently in life — comments which, in general terms, were not fully inaccurate, but which were general human nature and not really what we were looking for. Ultimately there were increasing departures from the content, even ignoring the meta and self-referential parts.
The podcasts became increasingly long, one being at least 15 minutes long.

Ultimately, NotebookLM seemed unable — perhaps by design or a known lack thereof, and certainly at what would constitute a cursory glance — to handle levity, self-awareness, and meta conversations / commentary.

Anyway, here is the podcast I settled on after a few tries and was frustrated with the general results; it at least does discuss somewhat the meta nature of the post, as well as just barely enough of the coffee part when taken at face value.

Sigh. (Meaning, I guess that if I want a podcast creator that does what I want, I should find out if such exists. Or, I dunno, make a real life podcast myself.)

In October, 2024, I published a post on making yoghurt muffins, and on a whim, my brother fed the post into the Google NotebookLM Podcast Generator, creating a podcast (in fact, two) in the process.

In the first podcast, one of the “hosts” remarks, starting at 3:49, “Like, imagine making a super detailed blog post, like, making your morning coffee.”

Well, here is the post that the “hosts” jokingly “suggested” that I create.

Note that I don’t actually drink coffee because I don’t care for it; I like iced tea (this web page was written somewhere between 1995 and 1997; while the page’s premise still stands some 28 to 30 years later, some of the specific information is rather out of date, principally the beer section: Nowadays, I adore Belgian dubbels, quadruppels, and German bocks — but I digress.) However, I regularly prepare coffee for my mom.

Note that there are a small number of photos which were either taken in a slightly different order, or which were recreated during the session, and one which was taken during a different session, but presented as follows for the sake of the narrative.

Update 20250106: I wrote a post about the trials and tribulations of attempting to make a podcast using Google NotebookLM about this post and its tongue-in-cheek premise.

Making the coffee:

I normally set up a coffee machine for my mom every day, usually the evening before.

Firstly, the coffee machine was taken out:

Paper coffee filters were taken out:

A single paper coffee filter was taken from the grouping of paper coffee filters:

Paper coffee filter separated from group

The coffee machine’s lid was opened:

The paper coffee filter was placed in the plastic basket in the coffee machine:

Paper coffee filter placed in coffee machine basket

Note that my mom finds “medium roast”, fine grind drip coffee machine coffee grounds meets her liking:

… which of course has suggested preparation instructions:

Manufacturer’s suggested preparation instructions

We keep coffee in a resealable plastic container in the fridge:

Coffee kept in sealable container in fridge

The coffee container was taken out:

The coffee container was opened:

Three heaping tablespoons of the coffee grounds were measured out:

The coffee grounds were transferred to the paper coffee filter in the basket in the coffee machine:

Coffee transferred to paper coffee filter in basket

Just for fun, a paper coffee filter was placed on a kitchen scale, and the kitchen scale was set to zero:

… then the paper coffee filter was switched out, and the paper coffee filter with the measured out coffee grounds were placed on the kitchen scale, revealing that I’d measured out about 24 grams of coffee grounds:

The paper coffee filter and coffee grounds were returned to the coffee machine (photo from a subsequent setup):

Paper coffee filter and coffee grounds returned to coffee machine

The coffee carafe was taken out of the machine, and brought to the sink:

A bit of water was drawn into the carafe, and swirled around to rinse out the inside of the carafe:

The rinse water was poured out:

Two cups of water — about up to one of the marks on the side of the carafe — were drawn into the carafe:

Back to the coffee machine …

The water in the carafe was poured into the water reservoir at the back on the coffee machine:

Water poured into coffee machine reservoir

The coffee machine’s lid was closed:

The empty coffee carafe was placed into the machine on the hotplate under the basket:

Since I normally prepare the coffee machine for my mom, I normally place a handwritten sign on top of the coffee machine indicating that all she has to do is turn on the machine:

Sign for my mom placed on top of the coffee machine

I also normally place a coffee mug beside the coffee machine for her …

… and I normally also place a spoon in the coffee mug for her:

The following morning, a weekend day for me, I prepared the coffee for Mom, and served it to her.

I went up to the coffee machine, which of course was off (and, I noticed in the better morning light, that the machine itself could use a wipe down!) …

… and I turned it on:

The machine started operating, and liquid started flowing through the machine, and into the carafe, fogging up the inside of the carafe in the process:

Coffee starting to drip through the coffee grounds into the carafe

Coffee dripping through the coffee grounds into the carafe

After a few minutes, the machine finished, and the coffee was made:

I reached over to the compost bucket across the counter …

… to remove its lid:

The coffee machine’s lid was opened:

… and the paper coffee filter and wet coffee grounds were removed from the basket:

Paper coffee filter and wet grounds lifted out of coffee machine basket

The paper coffee filter and wet coffee grounds were transferred to the compost bucket:

Paper coffee filter and wet grounds placed in compost bucket

… and the compost bucket’s lid was placed back onto the compost bucket:

The coffee maker’s lid was also closed:

Mom likes to keep milk for her coffee and tea in a plastic container in the fridge:

Milk for coffee and tea in container in fridge

The milk container was taken out:

Milk was poured into the coffee mug:

For fun, I decided to measure out how much milk I’d poured out, which was a roughly typical amount:

… leading to it being roughly two liquid ounces:

The milk was returned to the coffee cup:

The coffee cup with just the milk was placed in the microwave oven:

Coffee cup with milk placed in microwave oven

… and the milk was warmed for 20 seconds (1100 watts):

The warmed milk was brought back to the coffee maker:

Coffee cup brought back to coffee machine

Mom likes sugar in her coffee, so a sugar bowl was taken out:

The sugar bowl was opened:

For fun, I thought I’d find out how much sugar I put in Mom’s coffee, so I took out a kitchen scale, placed the spoon on the scale, and set the scale to zero: