A New Look

When was the last time I changed anything having to do with the look and feel of this blog? I think the last cosmetic change was a small one, where someone had fixed the typography in the masthead. But most likely that change went unnoticed by almost everyone.

There comes a time when you just have to bite the bullet and realize that ten years have passed, and nobody knows the name of that big black device that you are holding up to your head in your profile picture.

It’s a phone, dammit. A phone.

People would talk on them, and have long conversations. Mostly because the voice quality was a thousand times better than our new digital devices. And the old fashioned phones didn’t heat up and make you feel like you’re cooking your brain cells more and more each minute you stay on the line.

So, we’ve established that I’m old. As fate would have it, this change was inspired by another old man in my life. For the sake of giving credit where credit is due, let’s call him Matt W. Not too long ago Matt had tried to lead a campaign, potentially backed by my mother, to have me change the old grumpy profile picture.

Why today? And why this picture? Well, I’ll tell you.

For starters, yesterday I showed up at the first round of a local pinball tournament at The Excelsior Pub. I came knowing that the tournament was fully booked, but really I just wanted to see it in action and cheer Matt on to victory.

However, when I got there, I was asked if I wanted to put my name on the waitlist just in case someone didn’t show up.

Yes!

That’s how I came to play in Sunday’s tournament. How I came in as the top scoring finisher in the final seed of the day, is anyone’s guess. Dumb luck? A slightly broken machine that put more seasoned players at a disadvantage? I have no idea. All I know was that I beat a guy who once beat the guy who is now the U.S. pinball champion. And that’s probably never going to happen again. So I thought it was worth commemorating with some other tangible milestone.

Some people might get tattoos. I’ll just update my social media platforms with a picture that’s not ten years old.

The other thing I did yesterday was visit 3Fish Coffee in Albany. Actually, I was there and I went to Stacks Broadway too. But this was my first time in 3Fish and it’s a lovely space that’s serious about coffee.

I realized that coffee is one of the things I love the most. So it makes sense that the profile pic should be me thoughtfully enjoying a cortado from Blue Bottle. This shot was taken in NYC by my sister sometime in the past year. But the first time I tried one of these drinks was at the Blue Bottle in San Francisco almost eight years ago.

It was on a visit back to the area, and Raf took me to what was still a pretty new coffee place at the time. We had to wait for what felt like an hour to get our coffee. But it was totally worth it.

For those who don’t know, a cortado is in between a macchiato and a cappuccino. I like more than a the dollop of textured milk that one gets on a macchiato. And while a cappuccino can be perfectly lovely in the morning with a croissant, most of the time I just don’t want that much milk.

It’s a perfect, fussy little coffee, for a less than perfect fussy little blogger.

If I have done this correctly, I have changed all my profile pics to the new image. But you never know if something has slipped through the cracks. Actually I’m sure Instagram is a holdout. When I figure out what the password is on that long abandoned FLB IG account, I’ll change it too.

In the meantime, I’m totally psyched that there is another great new coffee shop, and I’m thrilled to be in a pinball league. Even if next round I’m going to have my ass handed to me on a plate. The good news is that Excelsior has mozzarella with melba sauce, and that might help ease the pain.