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Hobbies

The Quarantine Sourdough Bread

May 26, 2020

Baking has never really piqued my interest before. The tedious measuring, waiting, and cleaning required for a simple loaf of bread that can be easily purchased freshly baked at Wholefoods seemed like too much trouble. However, with all the time available during shelter-in-place, I decided to try or learn something new before life returns to normal. It was my only chance!

A few years ago, while dining at a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Oakland, I tasted the most unforgettable sourdough bread. The crust had a rich, dark roasted coffee flavor, with notes of caramel and butter, while the inside was soft, warm, and airy. The memory of that bread inspired me to attempt to recreate the experience. Will I be successful in replicating it? It’s possible, and it’s definitely worth a try. I started with a beginner’s recipe that was highly recommended by some of my seasoned baker friends.

Firing at Home

September 27, 2019

I’m pretty stoked about being able to fire my own greenware now. This little Skutt 8×6 Firebox can fire up to Cone 6. I wish I had more space for a larger kiln!

Chawan

August 21, 2019

I’ve recently been obsessed with drinking Green Tea matcha from Mizuba Tea Company and was inspired to make my own Chawans. My favorite chawan was the Sunset Horizon Chawan that was unfortunately sold out. Luckily, I was able to recreate it myself while expanding the concept to using other colors like green and blue. I also like the black and white glaze over speckled buff exposing just a little of the clay to simulate mountain ridges.

Tag Team

June 14, 2019

We took our first stab at making a stand for one of my ceramic pots. This is what we came up with.

New Found Love – Ceramics

June 13, 2019

I discovered a new hobby… ceramics! I took a beginner’s class at Merritt Ceramics back in March and it was love at first throw.  Since then I haven’t stopped practicing. I attended a “throwing off the hump” workshop, a second beginner’s class, am currently in the intermediate class, and in July I’ll be taking a 5-day course on how to throw big at The Crucible in Oakland. I’m also now a proud owner of the Shimpo VL-Lite potter’s wheel.

I’m thrilled to continue my journey of learning about ceramics, as there is so much yet to explore. My primary goal is to gain as much knowledge as possible to enhance my throwing skills. If you observe the photo accompanying this post, you’ll notice different sizes among the ceramics. It was my intention to create uniform pieces with identical height and diameter, but as you can see, there is room for improvement. It’s clear that I need more practice to achieve my desired level of consistency.

Looking Out

March 19, 2019

I’ve always loved the view from my living room. It’s not as pretty as the lake but I still get to watch people walk by. That house across is my neighbor Sam’s house, and that dog bombing my composition… that’s Diego.

Microgreens

February 19, 2018

Look at these beauties!

The Hario V60 Pour Over Tutorial

August 17, 2017

Today was going to be a good day for creativity. I love the ritual of making coffee every morning and thought I’d share my process using my Lumix G7. I think I’m starting to get the hang of editing videos on Adobe Premiere. I’m sure I’m not using all the features but I’m happy with how this video came out. I used a Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 and a Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens to shoot.

Today’s brew is Blue Bottle’s Honduras Santa Elena Catracha Quality Project beans, roasted August 14, 2017 so it’s pretty fresh. Here’s a list of the items I used:

  • Hario ceramic V60 dripper
  • Hario V60 filter
  • Hario canister coffee grinder
  • Hario scale
  • Hario server
  • Wood-Handled Pouring Kettle from Blue Bottle

Humboldt 2017

July 13, 2017

Humboldt 2017 from Timmy Perez on Vimeo.

In the morning as I was packing my Karma grip,  I realized that I had forgotten to charge it the night before. I figure I would have time since we weren’t leaving until another couple hours.  An hour into charging, I noticed that the battery status didn’t really move that much. Out of the 4 dotted lights, only one was blinking, indicating that it hasn’t even reached 25%.  I went online and discovered that it would take 6 hours to fully charge the Karma grip. What???? 6 hours for 1.5 hours of use? Lame. You would need one of these chargers to cut charging time to 2 hours. Ofcourse you’d have to shell out $50 for it.

Luckily the drive to Humboldt was going to be roughly 4 hours, and since I had a head start at home, it would be fully juiced up (via Khai’s car charger) by the time we reach our destination. I couldn’t possibly pass on the opportunity to capture this 4th of July’s camping trip!

The first 3 minutes was mostly shot in Hidden Springs Campground where we camped the first 2 nights. The last night was spent in Albee Creek, one of the best sites I’ve been to so far.