Organising a Conference, Slurping Coffee, Another Rabbit Hole
November 8, 2026
It feels like I wrote one of these aaages ago. October just kept going on and on and on. Packed month. We like that. Time has this funny ability to feel both fast and slow. Some months just evaporate before you realise it. Others feel long, dense, and full. October was like that, which is why CC is a bit late this time. But publish, we must!
Birthday Surprises
October is the girlfriend’s birthday month. This year was a milestone year, so of course we had to pull out all the stops. I revived the birthday-month-newsletter I run for her every year and used it as our gift communication channel. I got her a gift for each week of October and organised a surprise birthday party as the main event.
The party was an online academic conference with her as the guest of honour. The conference had a website, keynote presentation, talks, and ended with some much needed reflections. I gave a talk on Reassessing Canine Olfactory Superiority where I busted the myth that dogs are good at smelling. There was a rebuttal of my talk as well by another researcher. Another popular talk at the conference was titled: Can a Perfume Bottle Get Sick of Its Own Scent? Can it? Think about it.
We managed to keep the surprise intact till the last moment. She joined a Google Meet call and then slowly her friends showed up in their researcher personas. The conference went on for over two hours. EVERYONE involved in this ruse passed the vibe check. Such a blast!
Coffee Slurps
I participated in James Hoffman’s Fermentation Project in October. Over the years, James has organised a bunch of global coffee cuppings (or tastings). The Fermentation Project was his last one. For this project, he took raw coffee from a single farm and made four different versions of it. Each version’s beans differed in only one way: how they were fermented. Every other processing step was kept the same. I managed to snag a tasting kit for the project and it arrived just in time for me to perform the cupping at home. I set aside a Saturday afternoon and watched the coffee tasting live stream from James’s channel while slurping some delicious coffee.
I’m a novice when it comes to cupping and tasting coffees. The Fermentation Project was probably the hardest challenge I could have set for myself. The project’s coffees were all basically the same. They only had the smallest of differences. I tried my best to do the tasting and notice variances. I wasn’t very successful. However, I did leave the experience wanting to try again. For the next cupping, I am going to pick a few different coffees to maximise my chances of noticing differences between them.
Am I … into … watches now?
I’ve never really been into watches. I wanted to keep my wrists free. Because of my disability, I use my arms, wrists, and hands to move my body. Wearing something on my wrist can be inconvenient … or so I thought.
I got a Fitbit Air a couple of months ago and started wearing it on my left wrist. I thought the band’s lightweight, soft design would prevent it from being a hindrance to my movement. I was right! I was able to wear it without any issues. A side-effect of this experiment was that I started to like to look of something on my wrist. It gave me this sense of … completeness? Put-togetherness? Fascinating stuff. This experience led to an unlock moment: waaaait, can I wear watches now?!
Since the unlock moment, I’ve been reading and learning about watches. Right now I’m in the discovering-my-taste phase. So far: super expensive stuff isn’t interesting me. I’m chasing more old / vintage-y things. Watches with a story. I might pick up something soon.
That’s a wrap on my October. It was a good month. A full month. Hope it was good for you too. I’m writing this issue a day before Diwali — so, happy Diwali to you! (if you celebrate). Halloween has come and gone as well. If you celebrate it, I hope you had loads of spooky fun on the 31st. We are slowly but surely heading into winter. Christmas is near. Can’t wait for the best time of the year!
Stay warm,
R
