A beginning in which Fundamentals and Otis discuss the Grand Opening of their metaphysical cafe, SOUND COFFEE, as well as their individual coffee origin stories.
Connect with us on NOSTR:
COFFEE SOUND: npub186pzq2z7xjma6gsjkm4kyeyvfck0lk4t9a6qmtht2pq9axyr73wshad0rk
FUNDAMENTALS: npub12eml5kmtrjmdt0h8shgg32gye5yqsf2jha6a70jrqt82q9d960sspky99g
OTIS BITMEYER: npub1vpx9596duxdsmx4kwksycm2u4qy0gr6mzg289m52q96gdy97s9zsnkjspj
LAKE SATOSHI
https://www.lakesatoshi.com/
[00:00:44]
Otis Bittmeyer:
To sing to a dream that starts off your day with flavor supreme.
[00:00:54] Unknown:
Grew up a pot and linger while.
[00:01:09] Unknown:
Greetings, friends. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Sound Coffee. I'm Otis Bittmeyer and this is my Metaphysical Coffee Shop. What follows is a conversation between fundamentals and I that sets the stage for what's to come. Strap in, get comfy, maybe pour yourself some coffee, Enjoy. Let the party begin.
[00:01:34] Unknown:
I will just say I'm really excited to be doing this. We are doing a podcast, Otis Bittmeyer and Fundamentals, and, we're doing a podcast. Maybe it's about coffee. I think it probably is because that's why we that's why we're connected. But it's not like what gave Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say that'll that'll be that'll be the end, but who knows where it'll go from here. The end. But, like, what may what gave me the idea that I wanna do a podcast with you had nothing to do with coffee. It's that every time I talk with you, it ends up I find it I always think, shit, man. We should be recording this.
[00:02:18] Unknown:
Well, that's great. Now we are.
[00:02:20] Unknown:
Yeah. Now we are. And now we are. Right? So for everyone's benefit, right, I think when we talked, we had this idea of a podcast, which I'll describe as, like, where you guys are right now is Otis Bittmeyer's coffee shop in cyberspace. Uh-huh. You probably heard some you probably heard some music that led into this that gave you some aesthetic about what it might look like, And maybe now sort of like a drone is, you know, peering up top and now listening in on you and I just having coffee, 2 buds, about to have a conversation, you know, about to spend some quality time together as friends.
[00:03:15] Unknown:
There you go. Right?
[00:03:17] Unknown:
I like it. Yeah. What do you think about that?
[00:03:21] Unknown:
That's good. I mean, what more could a man want on a snowy Wednesday afternoon?
[00:03:29] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look. I my dad is 80 years old. He's in great shape. And I can tell you right now, like, the highlight of his life almost every day is going to Starbucks with his friend, his, like, close friend that it's like you know? You know, most of the day, he's with kinda geezers talking about n p c shit that geezers talk about. Right? But when he's with his buds in the coffee shop, they get to you know, they almost go back in time and that you know, they they enjoy each other's company in a way that you don't when you're, whatever, having lunch with the wives and all that stuff. This is, like, good quality time. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:04:20] Unknown:
I grew up Starbucks. Yeah. Right. Right. Hopefully, we can do better than Starbucks. You know, I grew up with the little country restaurant a couple miles down the road that was the place that all the farmers would meet at, like, 6 in the morning, you know, for their cup of coffee before they go out and do their work for the day. And, I think that's a really, like I think that's important to have those spaces, especially for men. I don't know. I think men I'll speak from my experience as a man that connecting with other men has been a challenge, and I can't blame it all on the culture. But I do think that our culture doesn't really provide I mean, that experience, you know, that that seeing those men get together, those old men get together as a child every morning left an impression on me as something that I want more of, more time with other men who inspire me, who can mirror back to me what I want to be like as a man.
So
[00:05:38] Unknown:
I don't know. It's really interesting. I think it's interesting that I was I was gonna I think it's interesting that I think a lot of people look up to, they have a similar experience, but they look up to, say, their dads or men who did this at bars at night as opposed to at coffee shops in the morning. Right. And so I just think that's interest it's just interesting because I would say the same thing. Like, I just told you about my dad. Right? This is, like, the greatest part of his day. It's not going out and getting hammered. It's getting to spend quality time with his friends.
[00:06:13] Unknown:
Right? Mhmm. Yeah. Which, I mean, you know, going to the bar with friends is fun or hanging out by the campfire, drinking with buddies is fun too, but I love the, you know, caffeine is a stimulant. It kind of gets gets your brain going, your body going. I love the thought of starting the day hanging out with people that inspire you to go out and get the shit done. You know, I think we're we're entering a time where productivity producing is coming back into Vogue. Maybe not Vogue in the mainstream media sense, but, like, in our circles, making things, providing value to the world is something that I'm I'm really spending a lot of time focusing on, and that's what I'm seeing in, like, the mesh to Dell and my the people that I hang out with.
It's kind of maybe a a detox from that Fiat mentality where we're just trying to make money and whatever we can do to make an extra dollar, we're moving from that into how can we actually add value. What what is value? And I think conversations like this, spending time with other people that are seeking to produce value is really important, and I think coffee can be a part of that conversation.
[00:07:42] Unknown:
Yeah. That's great. So this is gonna be this is you and I hanging out in your coffee shop, and anyone who is listening, right, is sort of just getting to getting to ease maybe sitting at the table next to us. You know?
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Mhmm. Yeah. Something that I've been thinking about is how do we provide opportunity or space for other people to join us, you know, if they're sitting at that table. Like, if when it was in my physical coffee shops, that was some of my favorite times is when I'm there hanging out with a friend, and then another friend comes in and joins us at the table. So that's something I'm interested in exploring potentially is how do we involve other people who are who hear what we're doing
[00:08:36] Unknown:
and are interested. Yeah. I think the Internet the Internet's gonna make that more possible than it will for your actual coffee, endeavors. Right? Sure. Like, it's gonna be much easier to have people hop on conversation, like, with us here. Right? Mhmm. You just send them a link, and they come on, and we just do this. Right? Right. Right.
[00:09:00] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:09:02] Unknown:
It's much harder. We you know, it's funny. Once, you know, we talk about the coffee itself is very challenging in you know, there's no good virtual experience, really. Right? Mhmm. You gotta be there. You gotta make it. You have to drink it. You gotta experience it, and you have to be in the company of people you generally like and be in a good setting. It's all very local. Right? Yeah. That feel that's challenge we talk about a good amount.
[00:09:35] Unknown:
Yeah. That's something that I think about since I'm doing most of my coffee interactions, virtually these days, like in the with you. But I do think that physical enjoying it together, even if across distances like, we can still I think there's way ways to play with physical. Yeah. I mean, you're drinking coffee right now. I had mine earlier. I'm drinking your coffee right now.
[00:10:05] Unknown:
Beautiful. I should say, by the way so I had this idea for some reason 15 minutes before we started. You know, you just I I just got your box of the new batch. Mhmm. Right? I ordered several bags, and it just came yesterday. And literally, today is the day I had run out, but I had one I had 50 grams left from one of the bags. Mhmm. And, right, so it's a month. Maybe it's 5 something like 4 to 5 weeks old. It's right at the edge of, like, certainly what you and I have discussed, not looking to go any further. Right? Mhmm. And, so I made a Chemex of which I actually rarely do. I know you guys see the video, think I'm making Chemexes all the time. I don't. I I I mainly use a drip machine, 85 grams with, I think, it's 10 a 10 ounces. It's in the techno form it just goes up to the 10. I don't know if that's 10 that's 10 cups measured but, 85 grams, I fill water up to the 10, and then I don't and I just drink it. So, like, that is that is how I generally drink coffee. So when I had 50 grams left, that was, like, not enough for me to do my normal drip, but I knew I was gonna save it for a Chemex at some point.
And, that was today. And so 4 to 5 weeks in you know, 4 to 5 weeks from when it was roasted, I'd say, like, so if I go back to the video, the bloom was not oh, my the bloom was not so impressive. However, coffee still has a good life and, you know, still very nice to drink.
[00:11:50] Otis Bittmeyer:
Mhmm.
[00:11:51] Unknown:
I wouldn't wanna go much further than this, and I'm glad I have a new batch in my closet now.
[00:11:57] Unknown:
Sure. But yeah. Yeah. I think I I had to come through the last batch this morning, and it's it's fine. And I agree. I wouldn't wanna go much further with an open bag, especially. But
[00:12:11] Unknown:
Yeah. This was an open bag, and it's been yeah. Like, it's been sitting around for a couple of weeks waiting for my brain to say, oh, it's Chemex time. And, yeah, that happened, you know, that happened 30 minutes ago.
[00:12:25] Unknown:
Right. Nice.
[00:12:27] Unknown:
So and it's nice. It's nice to be in your presence drinking any coffee and enjoying it, but let alone the coffee I get from you.
[00:12:35] Unknown:
Wow. That is a special special experience.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
So you wanna talk a little bit about coffee? I think we decided we were gonna take a little we've talked a little bit about coffee every episode and then maybe see where it goes because you and I tend to have you know, we tend to then jam on pretty good level of conversation.
[00:13:02] Unknown:
Yeah. Let's use let's use coffee as the starting point and see where it goes. What do you wanna talk about?
[00:13:11] Unknown:
What's on your mind? This is the this is the first episode, and let's pretend not everybody really knows who we are. So you want like, you are you are Otis Bittmeyer. K? You are the Yeah. That is the name that is the name on the bag of the coffee that I drink every day. Right? Yeah. You wanna tell tell people who you are and, you know, just where where did you come from to become a coffee roaster that provide that that is, you know, at this level you are in the world. Right? Which is you you have your name on a bag of coffee that people like myself drink every day.
[00:13:47] Unknown:
Yeah. How far back do you wanna go?
[00:13:52] Unknown:
It's funny. When I was on when I was on Max's you remember that when Max's, confab, He said something like that, and I said, yeah. Okay. Well, in 1974, 2 autistic people got together and had a baby. And Yeah. So go as far back as you want, but, you know,
[00:14:15] Unknown:
we're we're we're gunning for an hour. Okay.
[00:14:20] Unknown:
Let's see. You know, coffee has been one of those things that has it just feels like it's a gift that keeps on giving to me. It has been intertwined with so many meaningful and kind of impactful experiences in my life back to my late teens, I think, was when I started drinking it, kinda with the whole cream and sugar, like, really, I I was introduced to coffee in Morocco. That's when I really started drinking it regularly. I lived there for a while, and, I don't know if you've are familiar with Moroccan cafe culture, but
[00:15:06] Unknown:
was it Turkish? Was was it Turkish style coffee
[00:15:10] Unknown:
down there? It was espresso. It heavily influenced, I think, by the French who, colonized Morocco for a while. So it was there was a kind of espresso, but shitty espresso was a big So what year roughly what year roughly are we talking? We're talking 2,005 ish.
[00:15:32] Unknown:
So yeah. Okay. The world knows how to make espresso, but yeah.
[00:15:37] Unknown:
Well, you know, the world the world was just learning I mean, not not that's a huge generalization. I would say coming back to the states then when I started drinking coffee here and, like, paying attention to different roasts and varieties and origins and all of that, it was still hard to find a decent espresso. It's much different now. But back then, I think the 3rd wave was starting to get its legs under it. And, yeah, it was a lot more difficult to find the coffees that I wanted to be drinking back then. But starting off, you know, it was cream and sugar as much cream and sugar as you needed to make the coffee palatable, and then, you know, it's not that hard to enjoy sugar mixed with almost anything. So that was my my gateway. And then I just tend to follow things that I really like down a rabbit hole to the point where then I'm making it for myself because I'm I just like to know how things work. So Mhmm. A number of years later, I got into home roasting, started off on a popcorn popper, and then I built my own air roaster out of essentially junk from my buddy's farm.
He just had a pile of junk, like, parts scrap metal that I dug through and found what I needed to construct a roaster, a 5 pound roaster. And, anyway, from there, I got a job in a roastery and ended up as the head roaster for a while. I think my official job title was the director of coffee, which sounds fancy.
[00:17:32] Unknown:
Look at you.
[00:17:34] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:35] Unknown:
That's the I mean, that is a personal responsibility, though, that that you know what I mean? Like, you probably felt a responsibility that drove your intensity level to make it great.
[00:17:48] Unknown:
Oh, man. That was a really sweet time. Absolutely. I it was, I viewed it as a beautiful opportunity, which it was, because I was essentially given free rein over the coffee program at this coffee roastery in the city that we lived in at that time. And I could you know, I I it was essentially me getting paid to taste coffee and then tweak it. Every week, I was tweaking roasts. I was taking samples that week. Batch. Yeah. I mean, that's probably when I fucked up my adrenals. But Yeah.
[00:18:26] Unknown:
I was learning a lot of occupational hazard, though. It's an occupational hazard, I would assume.
[00:18:33] Unknown:
Yeah. And I was young, and I thought, you know, in your twenties, you think you're gonna live forever, so I wasn't trying to you know, now I when I'm tasting, I would spit. I wouldn't swallow. But back then, I was like, I'll just swallow it all. And, probably wasn't wasn't the best, but
[00:18:54] Unknown:
whatever. I was getting paid to to roast coffee. Great job, though. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. So I didn't know this about you. So, like, this is starting to make sense now to me. Like, because for me, like, I still it's still a bit of an unknown puzzle piece of how you became the how you got to the quality that you are. So now it's actually starting to make sense. I didn't even you know, I didn't realize you had jobs that required you. You know what I mean? And that funded you that gave you the opportunity to experiment and all that. You showed up with you just your bag just showed up in my house one day, and I made it and was was astounded. You know? That's pretty much how it happened.
[00:19:33] Unknown:
That's great. Yeah. No. I mean, it's it's been, you know, I'm it was my vocation for my professional life. You know, other than school and travel, coffee is what I've done up until a couple years ago. And, I mean, I'm still doing it, obviously, but with a different energy and a different focus. And when when we closed our cafes, I had no idea if coffee would be something that I would do professionally. Like, I still I kept a small roaster and was roasting for us as a family. But I was like, pretty clearly, at that point, I'm not gonna do this unless there are more opportunities that align with the direction that we're going with our life. I'm not gonna do it the way that we were doing it.
So it's been really fun to see this little experiment growing and gaining traction, and I've learned a lot in the last little over a year that I've been doing it. And now I'm this is exciting to see what other opportunities there might be.
[00:20:46] Unknown:
So for people who don't know, like, maybe just where, like, where are you right now? What does that, like, what does that actually mean? What is this thing you've been doing for the last year that you're gearing up for now?
[00:21:01] Unknown:
So a little over a year ago, we moved to a different state, and it's where my wife's family is from, but I don't didn't really know anyone here. So I'm like, I'm gonna need to find some friends, essentially. And I had just kinda I I was really into I think I was gonna say I was really into Bitcoin. That sounds silly, but I had fallen down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. We we cut we closed our campaign.
[00:21:40] Unknown:
What's that? For the listener, we just crossed 21 minutes. We I forgot I forgot we had Bitcoin in common, and that's actually why we know each other. And that's why I forgot about it. There's no mention on the podcast whatsoever. That's pretty great. Yeah. Sorry if people are hoping to make it through the whole podcast without a mention of Bitcoin. We weren't trying. Yeah. No. That's great. So, like, now it's like, oh, yeah. Okay. Now it makes sense. You moved to a new area.
[00:22:05] Unknown:
You And I was like, where do I find friends that are interested in the shit that I'm interested in? Permaculture, Bitcoin in in as far as it how it enables us to live differently. You know? Like, that's that's what I'm really interested in with Bitcoin. Number go up is only gets me so far. Before, I'm like, but how does it enable us to live more sovereign, free lives today? Anyway, so I was looking for for people to connect with about these things, and I ran across the rich, Bitcoin meetup culture in in my area in Michigan and discovered that there were multiple meetups within a couple hours driving of me. And so I'm like, I gotta go to these these meetups, see if I can meet some other folks that are into similar things.
Very first meetup I went to, Carl was there and Shout out. Also, at the same time, I kind of had this intuition that, like, even though I didn't know anyone else really who was, like, I really didn't know anyone else who was a Bitcoiner at that point, and I certainly didn't know people who were trading with Bitcoin. But I had this intuition that we we need to be using it. Otherwise, it's, you know, we we just don't really know what its true worth is unless we're actually using it. So I brought some coffee along so that I had roasted.
[00:23:38] Unknown:
And Carl and Carl is, like, the king of using it. Like, you met you happen to meet, like, the Apex. Yeah. Yeah. It was actually had to use it and had to go to meetups and proliferate propagate
[00:23:49] Unknown:
your stuff. It was great. Right. If there's any sort of divine, like, coordination, that I I would be willing to say that that was one one instance of when that would have occurred. Because I showed up and I'm like, hey. You know, this is I'm here to meet other Bitcoiners. Also, I've got this coffee. And Carl is, like, thrilled because he had just run out of the coffee that he was drinking, and he's been he was looking for coffee to buy from a Bitcoiner. And he'd purchased some in the past from someone else, and it was not what he was looking for. So but, anyway, he took a chance on my coffee.
Couple days later, he messages me, and he's like, this is delicious. I want more. And so he was essentially my first, customer whatever and then became a huge has become a huge ambassador. And, anyway,
[00:24:54] Unknown:
couple months later I could see Carl have I was just gonna say, I could see Carl having, like, multiple uses of coffee, like, that we don't even know. Like, he feeds the hulls to his sheep or something. Like, I can just see Carl having, you know it's kinda way like how he uses miners in different ways. You see him using having utility for coffee. That's really cool, man. That is so
[00:25:20] Unknown:
cool. Yeah. So without making it too much longer, my story, I I just essentially, that was my seeing that there was some interest in the Bitcoin community. I'm like, okay. This is a skill I already have. I'm looking to add value. I'm looking to add my proof of work into the Bitcoin system, and this is low hanging fruit. If I've got a skill and there are already people that really want, like, who value it enough to to exchange their bitcoin for my coffee, this is let's let's see how what we can do with this. So for the past year, I've been going to the meetups in my area and sharing my coffee with people that are interested there. I've got regular folks who buy, and I took it to Lake Satoshi, served some brewed coffee and sold beans, and that was just a wonderful experiment in kind of getting more exposure to Bitcoiners as well as physical like, just dipping our toe in back into the water of, like, physical hospitality, which is something that my wife and I are still interested in. Like, feel like we have more to explore there.
And I've been really intentional about keeping my overhead low to nonexistent. Like, I have I've been intentional about having no fixed costs so that, essentially, like, what I'm selling, I get to other than my other than my, like, cost for the coffee and bags and stuff like that, I get to hold on to that Bitcoin that I accrue from selling this. So it's a way of stacking sats. And, anyway
[00:27:22] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, it's like a it's like having a miner in a certain way. You know? People buy coffee every month. Right? Right. And, you know, it's, pretty great. You know? I think you, you've achieved something. You know, my personal trainer doesn't even know he barely knows what Bitcoin is, but he's allowed me to pay him in Bitcoin every once in a while. And, like, he's earned more sets from what he's done than I have. And, it's envious. You know? In a certain way, it's actually envious that you found you found a way to earn sats through your work.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
I feel thankful because, yeah, I don't think it's easy. I think you have to really like, people have to people aren't gonna send you sats if you're selling something shitty.
[00:28:12] Unknown:
Well, they're gonna apply a much higher standard to your product. Right? They're gonna be like, I spent sats on this, like and and then, you know, even if they don't, next month's gonna roll around, and they're gonna ask themselves, you know, am I gonna give you 17,000 sats for a bag of this coffee? That's, like, hard you know, for everyone, it's hard earned. Right? Mhmm. So it's a good litmus test for you on the qual on the quality because, like, you know, one thing you reminded me of is, like, when I tasted your coffee, I I just thought it was gonna be crap. Why? Because, I had bought a bunch of bags of coffee with Satoshi's name on it in one version or another that I'm not gonna say it was terrible. It just was not you know, it was, like, typically typically average or an average in coffee is just not good. You know? Right. Average coffee is just like what you experienced in 2005. Right? It's just and so Yeah. You know, nothing special.
And, like, certainly not gonna pay sats for these for this. You know? I could go to, like, Whole Foods and get, like, a 4 month old bag of, That would be equivalent.
[00:29:26] Unknown:
Right? Right.
[00:29:28] Unknown:
Yeah. You know, so, like, it's pretty strong testament that people keep buying the coffee. Right? And because you're taking you're taking sound money.
[00:29:40] Unknown:
Right? Right. So I guess when I'm thinking about, like, what is what what what makes me willing to trade my sats for something? Obviously, the quality of the product is is a big part of it. But to me, I I'm also realizing, I think, that the relationship is another large piece of this pie. And I I I guess I'm curious about your thoughts about that as well. But I I feel like the new economy that we're that that I'm trying to play around with is is much more relational. And so, like, the way that I've gone about, structuring things. I don't have a website yet. I'm not saying I never will.
But at least in this 1st year, I've been very intentional about pursuing growth where there are people who value my coffee, and we have some sort of personal connection beyond that. So, yeah, I don't I'm not sure where I was going with that, but that that feels like an important piece too. It is we're not just
[00:31:00] Unknown:
It's huge, actually. I mean, what you just mentioned is the gold right there. And that's that's where I feel like, oh my god. That's me. I love coffee, and you and I have personal connection, and this is like you know, this just not an accent that we would end up really finding a way to try to share this more broadly. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:31:20] Unknown:
So my my hope would be that we could digitally do maybe what our our forefathers were doing with community and business back in the day. I mean, web of trust stuff, it's all you know, there's there's so many words that people are using. Buzz like, I don't wanna say buzzwords because that makes it sound negative, but there are ways lots of ways that people are talking about this. But what I'm what I'm aiming to do with Otis Bittmeyer coffee and any other Otis Bittmeyer branded products is essentially sell myself, first of all. Like, and and that, like, not that I'm that my relationships are for sale, but I'm, like, looking to connect with people where we can trade value on a much deeper level than just money.
And and
[00:32:20] Unknown:
as you mentioned, I think our relationship is a great example. The the common thread, though, is that you I mean, you're you're selling more than yourself. Okay. Right? Because you I guess part of yourself is that you really have created something that people like. That's you know? Yeah. You create, Like, there are people out there who that's all they have to offer is themself. Right? And it's like, to me, that's very fiat. Right? It's like, oh, all you have is yourself and your marketing. Right? Whereas Okay. We we tend to seek out people that have substantial selves.
Right? But, like, actually, the thing that they make I guess when I I tasted your coffee, I I made an assumption that the person who did the person who roasted this must have some substance, must be of some quality. You know? I didn't know you. And, the funny story is the one where, after Lake Satoshi, I'm talking to John, and he goes, we gotta have a conversation about Otis. And I was like, whatever it is, whatever you're about to say to me, I'm just gonna tell you that I'm a stand by the fact that the coffee implies that he's got yeah. I thought John was gonna tell him something terrible about you or something like that. And I was like, I'm still before you say this, the coffee is so good that I stand by I still am gonna stand by the guy. And he's like, no. No. No. No. You got it all wrong. This is, like, he's a great guy. This is what I need to tell you about. Like, we need to really support him. But, like Oh. This is what I wanna tell you. Like, the quality of the coffee for me is worth defend like, it was even if he was gonna tell me he watched you do something terrible, I'm like, yeah. But there is a personal quality that is required to make something excellent.
It doesn't mean you're a blanketly great person. It just means that, you know, that is a great starting point then to find out if there's a self worth selling behind it. Right?
[00:34:18] Unknown:
Right. Well, that's that's hilarious. That story. I love that story. I mean, that's that's the beauty and the magic of Lake Satoshi. I mean, again, I I feel like those of us Lake Satoshi looms large in the conversations in the mesh to Dell, I think, because it's so powerful for those of us that have been there. And I think I look forward to more of us getting to experience that, hopefully, this next summer. But it's a magical place where, you just never know what might happen out of that sort of collaborative environment. At least that's what I felt last year.
[00:35:06] Unknown:
I have a deep void from not going, and, you know, you guys think everybody knows why I didn't go, but I still like it's I still live it's not a consequence is the wrong word but the missed opportunity to develop those connections is something I do regret and I look forward to righting that wrong this year. Well This episode is sponsored by Lake Satoshi.
[00:35:36] Unknown:
Look here, friends. We don't actually have sponsors for this show, but we do talk about things that we like and Lake Satoshi is one of those things. If you are looking for a place to connect other folks who like liberty, who like a good time. Hold on. Hold on. We're gonna have some vocals coming in on.
[00:36:04] Unknown:
Lakestoshi is the place to be. For plebs who are wild and plebs who are free, you can make it what you want if you're ready because Lake Stoshi is the place to be.
[00:36:21] Unknown:
Look, we're trying to do something new here, trying to create new ways of being together, of structuring ourselves, and you have to be together in one place to do that. Lake Satoshi is one of these places that we get together and we try out new ways of being humans that honor life, beauty, and self sovereignty. So if those are things that appeal to you, check it out. Links in the show notes. Here come the vocals.
[00:37:07] Unknown:
Lakes tote she is the place to
[00:37:23] Unknown:
I guess I got one more slot to fill here real quick. Check out, fill here real quick. Check out Lake Satoshi. We're gonna have a good time. See you
[00:37:41] Unknown:
can hear stuffy. I greet an ember. I can eat a sweet. You can make it what you want if you're ready. Because Lake Satoshi is the place to
[00:38:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So what's what's your coffee story?
[00:38:22] Unknown:
Okay. So you basically jogged my memory of, so I'm a I guess, I'm probably a little bit older than you. Everybody knows I'm 50. It's the reason I miss Lake Satoshi. It was you guys know, like, I I was I clicked the button to book the RV, and then my wife had notified me that, no. They had plans to surprise me for my 50th birthday. And that buggered up that buggered up the, the plan for Lake Satoshi, unfortunately. But as so as a 50 year old, I go back to I get you know, coffee was really crap and garbage for such a large part of my life. Right? You know, you think of the formative coffee drinking years for most people. You're talking, like, when you go to college.
You know, it was all really bad. You know? Late eighties, early nineties, nobody there was nothing. You know? I don't even know if you would call it first wave. Right? It was just like, you had, like, the coffee beanery and that had, like, flavored coffee was, like, the best alternative to, like, Maxwell House. Like, this is, like, what I grew up with. Right? I grew up with this idea that coffee was tasted like garbage. Like, I grew up with the idea that beer tasted like piss, you know, because the craft brewing didn't come around until, like, the mid nineties.
Right? Craft brewing of coffee, I would say, really, with Starbucks in the United States didn't come around till about 94, 95.
[00:39:52] Unknown:
And Yep.
[00:39:53] Unknown:
I will say the lights turned on at that point because if you ever went to, like, an Italian restaurant and got a shot of espresso, I don't care how good this restaurant is. It was a shot of espresso was gonna taste like motor oil. Okay? Mhmm. And That was my ride in espresso. Yeah. Right? Now the moment that changed my life, that moment that absolutely changed my life, this is gonna sound insane. I don't think I've told the story in a podcast at all before. I might have, but here we go. I, I traveled. I did backpacking in Europe in 1996 after I got after I graduated college.
I had gotten a couple of scholarships and so I had some like, I had a little bit of money and I bought, like, a URL pass and a flight to Europe. And Yeah. Within a week of being in, Paris, I pretty much ran out of money. And so, like, the whole plan was to go to, like, Spain and, you know, whatever places like that. And I'm like, nope. We're gonna have to go we're gonna have to go to, like, Prague, Hungary. Like, at the time in 1996, those places were dirt cheap. Like, in Prague, like, I got into a youth hostel, slept on a floor in the hallway for, like, you know, $6 a night. So Yeah.
The story is I'm in Prague. K? And somebody who I'd met, like, somebody who I'd met along the way just wanted to take a trip to there there there was a well known concentration camp called Theresienstadt. It's actually the one it's it's very well known because it's the one that they showed the Red Cross to show say, like, oh, okay. You know, all cool here. It's also well known because apparently that's where, like, the most prominent people were taken to, I don't know, compel their work. You know anyway, it's not really that relevant other than the fact that it's a town it was a 2 hour bus ride in this town and it is so far away from any kind of civilization.
Okay? And we missed the last bus back into Prague. That was that's so this is, like, really where the story begins. We missed the last bus back into Prague and we're stuck there. This is 1996. We don't have cell phones. We don't have anything. Okay? And it's starting to get dark. And somebody tells us there's a train station, like, that's like a, you know, probably half hour walk away. So we're like, shit, we better get going because it's gonna get dark, dangerous. And again, the middle of the Czech Republic, I couldn't even tell you where the heck it was. Right? We end up, hitchhiked. We this guy comes and decides to pick us up. Drive and it took us, like, it took us 5 minutes to find the word. All he had is a book called, like, a let's go Europe book. And I'm, like, going through the glossary, found the word train in Czech with the language this guy spoke, and he finally got it. Took us to the train station. Okay?
So we're on the train station. At the train station, I'm on the platform and there was like a vending machine that, you know the vending machines that sell coffee in like the hospitals where Yeah. The cup comes down and they make the coffee. Right? Yeah. So I'm like, this is going this is I just needed a cup of coffee. Okay. It's late. There was a like, we found out the train back was gonna take 3 and a half hours. God knows why. Right? The bus ride was 2 hours there, but for some reason, it's gonna be a 3 and a half hour train ride back. So I go to this right on the platform vending machine, stick a couple of Czech Crowns coins into it, get the cup of coffee, and, oh my god, I couldn't it was so good.
Like, and I was I I thought to myself, how in the hell do do they do this? How I've never had it. Like, I've never had a quality shot of espresso in my life. Right. And here, it's like I had to go to this town where I was stuck outside of civilization, and somehow they had a vending machine that made a better shot of espresso that than I'd ever had before in my life. Right. To be honest, this is, like, again, 1996. Like, you really you really didn't have it in the United States. When I came back to the United States, I was determined to now just find good espresso. You know, I started working, like, 90 hours a week.
Like, you know, you just start to you just start to now care about it. I I didn't know. So Yeah. That, like, turn well, that turned the lights on forever. Yeah. Like, that con that that experience was possible from tasting something, and it wasn't like they put sugar in it or, you know, some kind of, oh, pumpkin spice latte. I never knew you could do that. No. This was just straight up espresso on a train station platform in the middle of middle of nowhere.
[00:45:05] Unknown:
Those are some fun surprises when you run across shit like that.
[00:45:11] Unknown:
Yeah. So that yeah. I guess I'd say that's, that's my best coffee origin story there. Right? Yeah. And then I I'm gonna say, like, I really didn't, so that then second wave coffee, really, I would you agree it's, like, basically, you have Starbucks and then you had independent coffee shops that had the line of syrups.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[00:45:35] Unknown:
You know? That frankly, those independent coffee shops were not as good as the, the the train station. Starbucks was pretty good, and they were using manual machines for a long time. I wanna say it was o o one or o two when I noticed Starbucks started going at automatic machines.
[00:45:58] Unknown:
Yeah. I think that's about the right range.
[00:46:02] Unknown:
So then I'll just I'll just fast forward. I didn't care much. Like, I was happy with that level of coffee. Okay. Right? And I was basically enjoying, you know, Starbucks lattes and and and the like. Not real and, you know, I like coffee shop culture. I like going meeting friends, playing board games, seeing bands, and that type of thing. But, like, what I saw what I saw was coffee shops in the US just going out of business left and right and it wasn't because of Starbucks. It's because they they didn't wanna you know, they insisted on charging, you know, $6 for a shot of coffee or something like that. It was like they you know, very few of them the ones that survived did something else. Like, they had decent food or they had bans Yeah. Or something like that. But, like, just straight up making coffee just they they you know, those those went bye bye.
And then it wasn't until, for me, 2015, that was the moment I got a new job, and it was the one that I'd well, one that I left last year. But, I was I was in, like, I was in Center City, Philly, and my boss and mentor and I decide we're just getting into coffee again. He bought, one of these, I forgot what they're called, but it's the handheld espresso makers. And so he had gotten a bunch of grinders to try to optimize this optimize this espresso pulling machine. But we we basically built a coffee station in the office and Nice. Just went like, you know, in 2015, I don't it's probably around the beginning of, I think, this 3rd wave. Maybe it's a little late. I'm I'm not sure. But, like, from for us is when we got really deep in and, just really started buying coffee from everywhere, trying all the different varieties, honing the various you know, you start to see all you know, you start to see the various pour over methodologies.
And, you know, if we were in Center City, we were two blocks from La Colom, the Center City location, which would be you know, first of all, it's I mean, it's still there and it's pretty beautiful, but back in 2015, 2016, you could get, like, bags of legit Panama, gesha coffee that they're dorking around with, whereas now it's all cans. You know? Like, you're not Okay. They, you know, they they they've lost their focus on that. But, I mean, it was a pretty cool time. And so that that time period started my reignition. And so I had a we had a Chemex. We were dialing we started dialing in the grinder that I have in my kitchen, the one that I showed in the video Uh-huh. Was in that office every day trying to figure out basically trying to figure out how to make the best Chemex.
And we were, you know, people we were having there's a little bit of a culture in my office where we would have people would have serious talks with me. We would do it over coffee. Right? There's, like, a discipline to it. Like, you know, when you're in business with somebody, sometimes there's a discipline when you go out to dinner where you don't bring up business until you order your food. You know, there's a certain discipline for us. We're like, let's not talk anything serious yet. Let's just shoot the shit until the coffee's ready.
[00:49:31] Unknown:
Right? Yeah. I love it. And,
[00:49:34] Unknown:
yeah, it is cool. It was a very cool culture that I got. And then, you know, like, it's something new awoke in me socially around coffee. Right? Mhmm. Okay. Because there was this other aspect that, you know, what happened to me on that train platform was happening, like, once a week with beams and what like, a Chemex is capable not just a Chemex. Right? I mean, like, you know, French press, you can which is the other end of the spectrum, but it's, you know, more volatile. But you have the potential for more flavors that will blow your hair back. Right? Mhmm.
Yeah. So then I'd say the next phase was meeting you. You know? That was, I'd say, the real next phase. Right? Which is then really leaving Fiat and finding out that there's a future still with coffee, that that this thing can still have a life after, you know, even in the new the new phase after leaving Plato's cave. Right? Like, whatever happens with this Bitcoin experiment, right, we got coffee. And you know what? There's a lot of people that like to say you can't buy a cup of coffee with Bitcoin, but you and I would definitely
[00:50:45] Unknown:
argue with them. Right? Come to Lake Satoshi. I'll sell you a cup of coffee for Bitcoin. Probably just does it for you, but you can buy the beans.
[00:50:55] Unknown:
So then I've, yeah, I've my meetups, I've distributed some of your you know, definitely some coffee to a few people. Some, you know, some like it, some don't, or just you know, what I find is that it's not uncommon to just not know. That's why I made the video. So, like, the reason I made the video was because I just find that so many people don't know. Like, they don't know how to know. Right? If I hadn't done what I if I hadn't started in 2015, right, I would just basically throw your grinds in a Mr. Coffee or something that a Breville, something that somebody told me was a good coffee maker.
Mhmm. And, you know, I would base whether or not it was good on, like, my on how I felt about it. Right? I didn't know how to objectively assess, you know, the quality of coffee. Right? And so that's you know? Mhmm. I find that it's that's just not that's not an easy thing to do and you it takes work and, but I want people to know that this thing is good and worth it. You know? Even if they can't figure it out. Even if you can't it's not a slight to say you can't figure it out for yourself. It's just the reality that you didn't spend 100 of hours dialing in coffee coffee tasting Yeah. Dialing in a pallet. You know?
[00:52:19] Unknown:
Mhmm. Yeah. And and I would I guess there are a couple of things that come to mind when talking about stuff like this. One is if you don't, for for people who don't have interest in going down this rabbit hole, great. Figure out what it is for you that lights you up. However, if you are interested, come join us because coffee can be coffee is just a tool like anything else, and we get to decide how we use the tools that we have at our disposal. We've just decided that, like, you and I have decided that we want to explore how to use this tool for more.
This is my paraphrase anyway. Feel free to, add your own flavor to this. But I'm I'm not trying to convince anyone that my coffee is better or that coffee in general is something that you should consume. But if you're drawn to it and you want to explore what it means to discover wonder and beauty by going deep into something, I think coffee has a lot of gifts to offer. Like, you know, I'm how many years in to being a student of coffee? Maybe 20 or more, and I feel like there's still plenty to discover. So, yeah, I I think that there all I have is an invitation. Come join us if you're interested.
If not, do whatever it is that lights you up.
[00:54:18] Unknown:
Me shaking around like a floppy old fool. Make sweet love as fast as I can. Fully one guard and fully a man, we are to generate a healthy way to evolve. Show me something special before I get to the ball. Here we are flying to space, grabbing onto nothing breeder just in our games. Even if you think you know what to do, it's a whole lot of nothing that you ever get through. So hold. Get yourself 1. It's a hot time to be on the run. Make a a healthy way to evolve. Show me something special before I get to the ball. Here we are flying through space, grabbing all the nothing, readjusting our Twelve men are looking.
Twelve men are seeking. Twelve men are justice. Twelve men are substance. We are, flying through space, grabbing on to nothing, readjusting our gaze. Even if you think you know what to do, it's a
[00:57:33] Unknown:
Grace in peace.
To sing to a dream that starts off your day with flavor supreme.
[00:00:54] Unknown:
Grew up a pot and linger while.
[00:01:09] Unknown:
Greetings, friends. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Sound Coffee. I'm Otis Bittmeyer and this is my Metaphysical Coffee Shop. What follows is a conversation between fundamentals and I that sets the stage for what's to come. Strap in, get comfy, maybe pour yourself some coffee, Enjoy. Let the party begin.
[00:01:34] Unknown:
I will just say I'm really excited to be doing this. We are doing a podcast, Otis Bittmeyer and Fundamentals, and, we're doing a podcast. Maybe it's about coffee. I think it probably is because that's why we that's why we're connected. But it's not like what gave Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say that'll that'll be that'll be the end, but who knows where it'll go from here. The end. But, like, what may what gave me the idea that I wanna do a podcast with you had nothing to do with coffee. It's that every time I talk with you, it ends up I find it I always think, shit, man. We should be recording this.
[00:02:18] Unknown:
Well, that's great. Now we are.
[00:02:20] Unknown:
Yeah. Now we are. And now we are. Right? So for everyone's benefit, right, I think when we talked, we had this idea of a podcast, which I'll describe as, like, where you guys are right now is Otis Bittmeyer's coffee shop in cyberspace. Uh-huh. You probably heard some you probably heard some music that led into this that gave you some aesthetic about what it might look like, And maybe now sort of like a drone is, you know, peering up top and now listening in on you and I just having coffee, 2 buds, about to have a conversation, you know, about to spend some quality time together as friends.
[00:03:15] Unknown:
There you go. Right?
[00:03:17] Unknown:
I like it. Yeah. What do you think about that?
[00:03:21] Unknown:
That's good. I mean, what more could a man want on a snowy Wednesday afternoon?
[00:03:29] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look. I my dad is 80 years old. He's in great shape. And I can tell you right now, like, the highlight of his life almost every day is going to Starbucks with his friend, his, like, close friend that it's like you know? You know, most of the day, he's with kinda geezers talking about n p c shit that geezers talk about. Right? But when he's with his buds in the coffee shop, they get to you know, they almost go back in time and that you know, they they enjoy each other's company in a way that you don't when you're, whatever, having lunch with the wives and all that stuff. This is, like, good quality time. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:04:20] Unknown:
I grew up Starbucks. Yeah. Right. Right. Hopefully, we can do better than Starbucks. You know, I grew up with the little country restaurant a couple miles down the road that was the place that all the farmers would meet at, like, 6 in the morning, you know, for their cup of coffee before they go out and do their work for the day. And, I think that's a really, like I think that's important to have those spaces, especially for men. I don't know. I think men I'll speak from my experience as a man that connecting with other men has been a challenge, and I can't blame it all on the culture. But I do think that our culture doesn't really provide I mean, that experience, you know, that that seeing those men get together, those old men get together as a child every morning left an impression on me as something that I want more of, more time with other men who inspire me, who can mirror back to me what I want to be like as a man.
So
[00:05:38] Unknown:
I don't know. It's really interesting. I think it's interesting that I was I was gonna I think it's interesting that I think a lot of people look up to, they have a similar experience, but they look up to, say, their dads or men who did this at bars at night as opposed to at coffee shops in the morning. Right. And so I just think that's interest it's just interesting because I would say the same thing. Like, I just told you about my dad. Right? This is, like, the greatest part of his day. It's not going out and getting hammered. It's getting to spend quality time with his friends.
[00:06:13] Unknown:
Right? Mhmm. Yeah. Which, I mean, you know, going to the bar with friends is fun or hanging out by the campfire, drinking with buddies is fun too, but I love the, you know, caffeine is a stimulant. It kind of gets gets your brain going, your body going. I love the thought of starting the day hanging out with people that inspire you to go out and get the shit done. You know, I think we're we're entering a time where productivity producing is coming back into Vogue. Maybe not Vogue in the mainstream media sense, but, like, in our circles, making things, providing value to the world is something that I'm I'm really spending a lot of time focusing on, and that's what I'm seeing in, like, the mesh to Dell and my the people that I hang out with.
It's kind of maybe a a detox from that Fiat mentality where we're just trying to make money and whatever we can do to make an extra dollar, we're moving from that into how can we actually add value. What what is value? And I think conversations like this, spending time with other people that are seeking to produce value is really important, and I think coffee can be a part of that conversation.
[00:07:42] Unknown:
Yeah. That's great. So this is gonna be this is you and I hanging out in your coffee shop, and anyone who is listening, right, is sort of just getting to getting to ease maybe sitting at the table next to us. You know?
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Mhmm. Yeah. Something that I've been thinking about is how do we provide opportunity or space for other people to join us, you know, if they're sitting at that table. Like, if when it was in my physical coffee shops, that was some of my favorite times is when I'm there hanging out with a friend, and then another friend comes in and joins us at the table. So that's something I'm interested in exploring potentially is how do we involve other people who are who hear what we're doing
[00:08:36] Unknown:
and are interested. Yeah. I think the Internet the Internet's gonna make that more possible than it will for your actual coffee, endeavors. Right? Sure. Like, it's gonna be much easier to have people hop on conversation, like, with us here. Right? Mhmm. You just send them a link, and they come on, and we just do this. Right? Right. Right.
[00:09:00] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:09:02] Unknown:
It's much harder. We you know, it's funny. Once, you know, we talk about the coffee itself is very challenging in you know, there's no good virtual experience, really. Right? Mhmm. You gotta be there. You gotta make it. You have to drink it. You gotta experience it, and you have to be in the company of people you generally like and be in a good setting. It's all very local. Right? Yeah. That feel that's challenge we talk about a good amount.
[00:09:35] Unknown:
Yeah. That's something that I think about since I'm doing most of my coffee interactions, virtually these days, like in the with you. But I do think that physical enjoying it together, even if across distances like, we can still I think there's way ways to play with physical. Yeah. I mean, you're drinking coffee right now. I had mine earlier. I'm drinking your coffee right now.
[00:10:05] Unknown:
Beautiful. I should say, by the way so I had this idea for some reason 15 minutes before we started. You know, you just I I just got your box of the new batch. Mhmm. Right? I ordered several bags, and it just came yesterday. And literally, today is the day I had run out, but I had one I had 50 grams left from one of the bags. Mhmm. And, right, so it's a month. Maybe it's 5 something like 4 to 5 weeks old. It's right at the edge of, like, certainly what you and I have discussed, not looking to go any further. Right? Mhmm. And, so I made a Chemex of which I actually rarely do. I know you guys see the video, think I'm making Chemexes all the time. I don't. I I I mainly use a drip machine, 85 grams with, I think, it's 10 a 10 ounces. It's in the techno form it just goes up to the 10. I don't know if that's 10 that's 10 cups measured but, 85 grams, I fill water up to the 10, and then I don't and I just drink it. So, like, that is that is how I generally drink coffee. So when I had 50 grams left, that was, like, not enough for me to do my normal drip, but I knew I was gonna save it for a Chemex at some point.
And, that was today. And so 4 to 5 weeks in you know, 4 to 5 weeks from when it was roasted, I'd say, like, so if I go back to the video, the bloom was not oh, my the bloom was not so impressive. However, coffee still has a good life and, you know, still very nice to drink.
[00:11:50] Otis Bittmeyer:
Mhmm.
[00:11:51] Unknown:
I wouldn't wanna go much further than this, and I'm glad I have a new batch in my closet now.
[00:11:57] Unknown:
Sure. But yeah. Yeah. I think I I had to come through the last batch this morning, and it's it's fine. And I agree. I wouldn't wanna go much further with an open bag, especially. But
[00:12:11] Unknown:
Yeah. This was an open bag, and it's been yeah. Like, it's been sitting around for a couple of weeks waiting for my brain to say, oh, it's Chemex time. And, yeah, that happened, you know, that happened 30 minutes ago.
[00:12:25] Unknown:
Right. Nice.
[00:12:27] Unknown:
So and it's nice. It's nice to be in your presence drinking any coffee and enjoying it, but let alone the coffee I get from you.
[00:12:35] Unknown:
Wow. That is a special special experience.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
So you wanna talk a little bit about coffee? I think we decided we were gonna take a little we've talked a little bit about coffee every episode and then maybe see where it goes because you and I tend to have you know, we tend to then jam on pretty good level of conversation.
[00:13:02] Unknown:
Yeah. Let's use let's use coffee as the starting point and see where it goes. What do you wanna talk about?
[00:13:11] Unknown:
What's on your mind? This is the this is the first episode, and let's pretend not everybody really knows who we are. So you want like, you are you are Otis Bittmeyer. K? You are the Yeah. That is the name that is the name on the bag of the coffee that I drink every day. Right? Yeah. You wanna tell tell people who you are and, you know, just where where did you come from to become a coffee roaster that provide that that is, you know, at this level you are in the world. Right? Which is you you have your name on a bag of coffee that people like myself drink every day.
[00:13:47] Unknown:
Yeah. How far back do you wanna go?
[00:13:52] Unknown:
It's funny. When I was on when I was on Max's you remember that when Max's, confab, He said something like that, and I said, yeah. Okay. Well, in 1974, 2 autistic people got together and had a baby. And Yeah. So go as far back as you want, but, you know,
[00:14:15] Unknown:
we're we're we're gunning for an hour. Okay.
[00:14:20] Unknown:
Let's see. You know, coffee has been one of those things that has it just feels like it's a gift that keeps on giving to me. It has been intertwined with so many meaningful and kind of impactful experiences in my life back to my late teens, I think, was when I started drinking it, kinda with the whole cream and sugar, like, really, I I was introduced to coffee in Morocco. That's when I really started drinking it regularly. I lived there for a while, and, I don't know if you've are familiar with Moroccan cafe culture, but
[00:15:06] Unknown:
was it Turkish? Was was it Turkish style coffee
[00:15:10] Unknown:
down there? It was espresso. It heavily influenced, I think, by the French who, colonized Morocco for a while. So it was there was a kind of espresso, but shitty espresso was a big So what year roughly what year roughly are we talking? We're talking 2,005 ish.
[00:15:32] Unknown:
So yeah. Okay. The world knows how to make espresso, but yeah.
[00:15:37] Unknown:
Well, you know, the world the world was just learning I mean, not not that's a huge generalization. I would say coming back to the states then when I started drinking coffee here and, like, paying attention to different roasts and varieties and origins and all of that, it was still hard to find a decent espresso. It's much different now. But back then, I think the 3rd wave was starting to get its legs under it. And, yeah, it was a lot more difficult to find the coffees that I wanted to be drinking back then. But starting off, you know, it was cream and sugar as much cream and sugar as you needed to make the coffee palatable, and then, you know, it's not that hard to enjoy sugar mixed with almost anything. So that was my my gateway. And then I just tend to follow things that I really like down a rabbit hole to the point where then I'm making it for myself because I'm I just like to know how things work. So Mhmm. A number of years later, I got into home roasting, started off on a popcorn popper, and then I built my own air roaster out of essentially junk from my buddy's farm.
He just had a pile of junk, like, parts scrap metal that I dug through and found what I needed to construct a roaster, a 5 pound roaster. And, anyway, from there, I got a job in a roastery and ended up as the head roaster for a while. I think my official job title was the director of coffee, which sounds fancy.
[00:17:32] Unknown:
Look at you.
[00:17:34] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:35] Unknown:
That's the I mean, that is a personal responsibility, though, that that you know what I mean? Like, you probably felt a responsibility that drove your intensity level to make it great.
[00:17:48] Unknown:
Oh, man. That was a really sweet time. Absolutely. I it was, I viewed it as a beautiful opportunity, which it was, because I was essentially given free rein over the coffee program at this coffee roastery in the city that we lived in at that time. And I could you know, I I it was essentially me getting paid to taste coffee and then tweak it. Every week, I was tweaking roasts. I was taking samples that week. Batch. Yeah. I mean, that's probably when I fucked up my adrenals. But Yeah.
[00:18:26] Unknown:
I was learning a lot of occupational hazard, though. It's an occupational hazard, I would assume.
[00:18:33] Unknown:
Yeah. And I was young, and I thought, you know, in your twenties, you think you're gonna live forever, so I wasn't trying to you know, now I when I'm tasting, I would spit. I wouldn't swallow. But back then, I was like, I'll just swallow it all. And, probably wasn't wasn't the best, but
[00:18:54] Unknown:
whatever. I was getting paid to to roast coffee. Great job, though. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. So I didn't know this about you. So, like, this is starting to make sense now to me. Like, because for me, like, I still it's still a bit of an unknown puzzle piece of how you became the how you got to the quality that you are. So now it's actually starting to make sense. I didn't even you know, I didn't realize you had jobs that required you. You know what I mean? And that funded you that gave you the opportunity to experiment and all that. You showed up with you just your bag just showed up in my house one day, and I made it and was was astounded. You know? That's pretty much how it happened.
[00:19:33] Unknown:
That's great. Yeah. No. I mean, it's it's been, you know, I'm it was my vocation for my professional life. You know, other than school and travel, coffee is what I've done up until a couple years ago. And, I mean, I'm still doing it, obviously, but with a different energy and a different focus. And when when we closed our cafes, I had no idea if coffee would be something that I would do professionally. Like, I still I kept a small roaster and was roasting for us as a family. But I was like, pretty clearly, at that point, I'm not gonna do this unless there are more opportunities that align with the direction that we're going with our life. I'm not gonna do it the way that we were doing it.
So it's been really fun to see this little experiment growing and gaining traction, and I've learned a lot in the last little over a year that I've been doing it. And now I'm this is exciting to see what other opportunities there might be.
[00:20:46] Unknown:
So for people who don't know, like, maybe just where, like, where are you right now? What does that, like, what does that actually mean? What is this thing you've been doing for the last year that you're gearing up for now?
[00:21:01] Unknown:
So a little over a year ago, we moved to a different state, and it's where my wife's family is from, but I don't didn't really know anyone here. So I'm like, I'm gonna need to find some friends, essentially. And I had just kinda I I was really into I think I was gonna say I was really into Bitcoin. That sounds silly, but I had fallen down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. We we cut we closed our campaign.
[00:21:40] Unknown:
What's that? For the listener, we just crossed 21 minutes. We I forgot I forgot we had Bitcoin in common, and that's actually why we know each other. And that's why I forgot about it. There's no mention on the podcast whatsoever. That's pretty great. Yeah. Sorry if people are hoping to make it through the whole podcast without a mention of Bitcoin. We weren't trying. Yeah. No. That's great. So, like, now it's like, oh, yeah. Okay. Now it makes sense. You moved to a new area.
[00:22:05] Unknown:
You And I was like, where do I find friends that are interested in the shit that I'm interested in? Permaculture, Bitcoin in in as far as it how it enables us to live differently. You know? Like, that's that's what I'm really interested in with Bitcoin. Number go up is only gets me so far. Before, I'm like, but how does it enable us to live more sovereign, free lives today? Anyway, so I was looking for for people to connect with about these things, and I ran across the rich, Bitcoin meetup culture in in my area in Michigan and discovered that there were multiple meetups within a couple hours driving of me. And so I'm like, I gotta go to these these meetups, see if I can meet some other folks that are into similar things.
Very first meetup I went to, Carl was there and Shout out. Also, at the same time, I kind of had this intuition that, like, even though I didn't know anyone else really who was, like, I really didn't know anyone else who was a Bitcoiner at that point, and I certainly didn't know people who were trading with Bitcoin. But I had this intuition that we we need to be using it. Otherwise, it's, you know, we we just don't really know what its true worth is unless we're actually using it. So I brought some coffee along so that I had roasted.
[00:23:38] Unknown:
And Carl and Carl is, like, the king of using it. Like, you met you happen to meet, like, the Apex. Yeah. Yeah. It was actually had to use it and had to go to meetups and proliferate propagate
[00:23:49] Unknown:
your stuff. It was great. Right. If there's any sort of divine, like, coordination, that I I would be willing to say that that was one one instance of when that would have occurred. Because I showed up and I'm like, hey. You know, this is I'm here to meet other Bitcoiners. Also, I've got this coffee. And Carl is, like, thrilled because he had just run out of the coffee that he was drinking, and he's been he was looking for coffee to buy from a Bitcoiner. And he'd purchased some in the past from someone else, and it was not what he was looking for. So but, anyway, he took a chance on my coffee.
Couple days later, he messages me, and he's like, this is delicious. I want more. And so he was essentially my first, customer whatever and then became a huge has become a huge ambassador. And, anyway,
[00:24:54] Unknown:
couple months later I could see Carl have I was just gonna say, I could see Carl having, like, multiple uses of coffee, like, that we don't even know. Like, he feeds the hulls to his sheep or something. Like, I can just see Carl having, you know it's kinda way like how he uses miners in different ways. You see him using having utility for coffee. That's really cool, man. That is so
[00:25:20] Unknown:
cool. Yeah. So without making it too much longer, my story, I I just essentially, that was my seeing that there was some interest in the Bitcoin community. I'm like, okay. This is a skill I already have. I'm looking to add value. I'm looking to add my proof of work into the Bitcoin system, and this is low hanging fruit. If I've got a skill and there are already people that really want, like, who value it enough to to exchange their bitcoin for my coffee, this is let's let's see how what we can do with this. So for the past year, I've been going to the meetups in my area and sharing my coffee with people that are interested there. I've got regular folks who buy, and I took it to Lake Satoshi, served some brewed coffee and sold beans, and that was just a wonderful experiment in kind of getting more exposure to Bitcoiners as well as physical like, just dipping our toe in back into the water of, like, physical hospitality, which is something that my wife and I are still interested in. Like, feel like we have more to explore there.
And I've been really intentional about keeping my overhead low to nonexistent. Like, I have I've been intentional about having no fixed costs so that, essentially, like, what I'm selling, I get to other than my other than my, like, cost for the coffee and bags and stuff like that, I get to hold on to that Bitcoin that I accrue from selling this. So it's a way of stacking sats. And, anyway
[00:27:22] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, it's like a it's like having a miner in a certain way. You know? People buy coffee every month. Right? Right. And, you know, it's, pretty great. You know? I think you, you've achieved something. You know, my personal trainer doesn't even know he barely knows what Bitcoin is, but he's allowed me to pay him in Bitcoin every once in a while. And, like, he's earned more sets from what he's done than I have. And, it's envious. You know? In a certain way, it's actually envious that you found you found a way to earn sats through your work.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
I feel thankful because, yeah, I don't think it's easy. I think you have to really like, people have to people aren't gonna send you sats if you're selling something shitty.
[00:28:12] Unknown:
Well, they're gonna apply a much higher standard to your product. Right? They're gonna be like, I spent sats on this, like and and then, you know, even if they don't, next month's gonna roll around, and they're gonna ask themselves, you know, am I gonna give you 17,000 sats for a bag of this coffee? That's, like, hard you know, for everyone, it's hard earned. Right? Mhmm. So it's a good litmus test for you on the qual on the quality because, like, you know, one thing you reminded me of is, like, when I tasted your coffee, I I just thought it was gonna be crap. Why? Because, I had bought a bunch of bags of coffee with Satoshi's name on it in one version or another that I'm not gonna say it was terrible. It just was not you know, it was, like, typically typically average or an average in coffee is just not good. You know? Right. Average coffee is just like what you experienced in 2005. Right? It's just and so Yeah. You know, nothing special.
And, like, certainly not gonna pay sats for these for this. You know? I could go to, like, Whole Foods and get, like, a 4 month old bag of, That would be equivalent.
[00:29:26] Unknown:
Right? Right.
[00:29:28] Unknown:
Yeah. You know, so, like, it's pretty strong testament that people keep buying the coffee. Right? And because you're taking you're taking sound money.
[00:29:40] Unknown:
Right? Right. So I guess when I'm thinking about, like, what is what what what makes me willing to trade my sats for something? Obviously, the quality of the product is is a big part of it. But to me, I I'm also realizing, I think, that the relationship is another large piece of this pie. And I I I guess I'm curious about your thoughts about that as well. But I I feel like the new economy that we're that that I'm trying to play around with is is much more relational. And so, like, the way that I've gone about, structuring things. I don't have a website yet. I'm not saying I never will.
But at least in this 1st year, I've been very intentional about pursuing growth where there are people who value my coffee, and we have some sort of personal connection beyond that. So, yeah, I don't I'm not sure where I was going with that, but that that feels like an important piece too. It is we're not just
[00:31:00] Unknown:
It's huge, actually. I mean, what you just mentioned is the gold right there. And that's that's where I feel like, oh my god. That's me. I love coffee, and you and I have personal connection, and this is like you know, this just not an accent that we would end up really finding a way to try to share this more broadly. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:31:20] Unknown:
So my my hope would be that we could digitally do maybe what our our forefathers were doing with community and business back in the day. I mean, web of trust stuff, it's all you know, there's there's so many words that people are using. Buzz like, I don't wanna say buzzwords because that makes it sound negative, but there are ways lots of ways that people are talking about this. But what I'm what I'm aiming to do with Otis Bittmeyer coffee and any other Otis Bittmeyer branded products is essentially sell myself, first of all. Like, and and that, like, not that I'm that my relationships are for sale, but I'm, like, looking to connect with people where we can trade value on a much deeper level than just money.
And and
[00:32:20] Unknown:
as you mentioned, I think our relationship is a great example. The the common thread, though, is that you I mean, you're you're selling more than yourself. Okay. Right? Because you I guess part of yourself is that you really have created something that people like. That's you know? Yeah. You create, Like, there are people out there who that's all they have to offer is themself. Right? And it's like, to me, that's very fiat. Right? It's like, oh, all you have is yourself and your marketing. Right? Whereas Okay. We we tend to seek out people that have substantial selves.
Right? But, like, actually, the thing that they make I guess when I I tasted your coffee, I I made an assumption that the person who did the person who roasted this must have some substance, must be of some quality. You know? I didn't know you. And, the funny story is the one where, after Lake Satoshi, I'm talking to John, and he goes, we gotta have a conversation about Otis. And I was like, whatever it is, whatever you're about to say to me, I'm just gonna tell you that I'm a stand by the fact that the coffee implies that he's got yeah. I thought John was gonna tell him something terrible about you or something like that. And I was like, I'm still before you say this, the coffee is so good that I stand by I still am gonna stand by the guy. And he's like, no. No. No. No. You got it all wrong. This is, like, he's a great guy. This is what I need to tell you about. Like, we need to really support him. But, like Oh. This is what I wanna tell you. Like, the quality of the coffee for me is worth defend like, it was even if he was gonna tell me he watched you do something terrible, I'm like, yeah. But there is a personal quality that is required to make something excellent.
It doesn't mean you're a blanketly great person. It just means that, you know, that is a great starting point then to find out if there's a self worth selling behind it. Right?
[00:34:18] Unknown:
Right. Well, that's that's hilarious. That story. I love that story. I mean, that's that's the beauty and the magic of Lake Satoshi. I mean, again, I I feel like those of us Lake Satoshi looms large in the conversations in the mesh to Dell, I think, because it's so powerful for those of us that have been there. And I think I look forward to more of us getting to experience that, hopefully, this next summer. But it's a magical place where, you just never know what might happen out of that sort of collaborative environment. At least that's what I felt last year.
[00:35:06] Unknown:
I have a deep void from not going, and, you know, you guys think everybody knows why I didn't go, but I still like it's I still live it's not a consequence is the wrong word but the missed opportunity to develop those connections is something I do regret and I look forward to righting that wrong this year. Well This episode is sponsored by Lake Satoshi.
[00:35:36] Unknown:
Look here, friends. We don't actually have sponsors for this show, but we do talk about things that we like and Lake Satoshi is one of those things. If you are looking for a place to connect other folks who like liberty, who like a good time. Hold on. Hold on. We're gonna have some vocals coming in on.
[00:36:04] Unknown:
Lakestoshi is the place to be. For plebs who are wild and plebs who are free, you can make it what you want if you're ready because Lake Stoshi is the place to be.
[00:36:21] Unknown:
Look, we're trying to do something new here, trying to create new ways of being together, of structuring ourselves, and you have to be together in one place to do that. Lake Satoshi is one of these places that we get together and we try out new ways of being humans that honor life, beauty, and self sovereignty. So if those are things that appeal to you, check it out. Links in the show notes. Here come the vocals.
[00:37:07] Unknown:
Lakes tote she is the place to
[00:37:23] Unknown:
I guess I got one more slot to fill here real quick. Check out, fill here real quick. Check out Lake Satoshi. We're gonna have a good time. See you
[00:37:41] Unknown:
can hear stuffy. I greet an ember. I can eat a sweet. You can make it what you want if you're ready. Because Lake Satoshi is the place to
[00:38:13] Unknown:
Yeah. So what's what's your coffee story?
[00:38:22] Unknown:
Okay. So you basically jogged my memory of, so I'm a I guess, I'm probably a little bit older than you. Everybody knows I'm 50. It's the reason I miss Lake Satoshi. It was you guys know, like, I I was I clicked the button to book the RV, and then my wife had notified me that, no. They had plans to surprise me for my 50th birthday. And that buggered up that buggered up the, the plan for Lake Satoshi, unfortunately. But as so as a 50 year old, I go back to I get you know, coffee was really crap and garbage for such a large part of my life. Right? You know, you think of the formative coffee drinking years for most people. You're talking, like, when you go to college.
You know, it was all really bad. You know? Late eighties, early nineties, nobody there was nothing. You know? I don't even know if you would call it first wave. Right? It was just like, you had, like, the coffee beanery and that had, like, flavored coffee was, like, the best alternative to, like, Maxwell House. Like, this is, like, what I grew up with. Right? I grew up with this idea that coffee was tasted like garbage. Like, I grew up with the idea that beer tasted like piss, you know, because the craft brewing didn't come around until, like, the mid nineties.
Right? Craft brewing of coffee, I would say, really, with Starbucks in the United States didn't come around till about 94, 95.
[00:39:52] Unknown:
And Yep.
[00:39:53] Unknown:
I will say the lights turned on at that point because if you ever went to, like, an Italian restaurant and got a shot of espresso, I don't care how good this restaurant is. It was a shot of espresso was gonna taste like motor oil. Okay? Mhmm. And That was my ride in espresso. Yeah. Right? Now the moment that changed my life, that moment that absolutely changed my life, this is gonna sound insane. I don't think I've told the story in a podcast at all before. I might have, but here we go. I, I traveled. I did backpacking in Europe in 1996 after I got after I graduated college.
I had gotten a couple of scholarships and so I had some like, I had a little bit of money and I bought, like, a URL pass and a flight to Europe. And Yeah. Within a week of being in, Paris, I pretty much ran out of money. And so, like, the whole plan was to go to, like, Spain and, you know, whatever places like that. And I'm like, nope. We're gonna have to go we're gonna have to go to, like, Prague, Hungary. Like, at the time in 1996, those places were dirt cheap. Like, in Prague, like, I got into a youth hostel, slept on a floor in the hallway for, like, you know, $6 a night. So Yeah.
The story is I'm in Prague. K? And somebody who I'd met, like, somebody who I'd met along the way just wanted to take a trip to there there there was a well known concentration camp called Theresienstadt. It's actually the one it's it's very well known because it's the one that they showed the Red Cross to show say, like, oh, okay. You know, all cool here. It's also well known because apparently that's where, like, the most prominent people were taken to, I don't know, compel their work. You know anyway, it's not really that relevant other than the fact that it's a town it was a 2 hour bus ride in this town and it is so far away from any kind of civilization.
Okay? And we missed the last bus back into Prague. That was that's so this is, like, really where the story begins. We missed the last bus back into Prague and we're stuck there. This is 1996. We don't have cell phones. We don't have anything. Okay? And it's starting to get dark. And somebody tells us there's a train station, like, that's like a, you know, probably half hour walk away. So we're like, shit, we better get going because it's gonna get dark, dangerous. And again, the middle of the Czech Republic, I couldn't even tell you where the heck it was. Right? We end up, hitchhiked. We this guy comes and decides to pick us up. Drive and it took us, like, it took us 5 minutes to find the word. All he had is a book called, like, a let's go Europe book. And I'm, like, going through the glossary, found the word train in Czech with the language this guy spoke, and he finally got it. Took us to the train station. Okay?
So we're on the train station. At the train station, I'm on the platform and there was like a vending machine that, you know the vending machines that sell coffee in like the hospitals where Yeah. The cup comes down and they make the coffee. Right? Yeah. So I'm like, this is going this is I just needed a cup of coffee. Okay. It's late. There was a like, we found out the train back was gonna take 3 and a half hours. God knows why. Right? The bus ride was 2 hours there, but for some reason, it's gonna be a 3 and a half hour train ride back. So I go to this right on the platform vending machine, stick a couple of Czech Crowns coins into it, get the cup of coffee, and, oh my god, I couldn't it was so good.
Like, and I was I I thought to myself, how in the hell do do they do this? How I've never had it. Like, I've never had a quality shot of espresso in my life. Right. And here, it's like I had to go to this town where I was stuck outside of civilization, and somehow they had a vending machine that made a better shot of espresso that than I'd ever had before in my life. Right. To be honest, this is, like, again, 1996. Like, you really you really didn't have it in the United States. When I came back to the United States, I was determined to now just find good espresso. You know, I started working, like, 90 hours a week.
Like, you know, you just start to you just start to now care about it. I I didn't know. So Yeah. That, like, turn well, that turned the lights on forever. Yeah. Like, that con that that experience was possible from tasting something, and it wasn't like they put sugar in it or, you know, some kind of, oh, pumpkin spice latte. I never knew you could do that. No. This was just straight up espresso on a train station platform in the middle of middle of nowhere.
[00:45:05] Unknown:
Those are some fun surprises when you run across shit like that.
[00:45:11] Unknown:
Yeah. So that yeah. I guess I'd say that's, that's my best coffee origin story there. Right? Yeah. And then I I'm gonna say, like, I really didn't, so that then second wave coffee, really, I would you agree it's, like, basically, you have Starbucks and then you had independent coffee shops that had the line of syrups.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[00:45:35] Unknown:
You know? That frankly, those independent coffee shops were not as good as the, the the train station. Starbucks was pretty good, and they were using manual machines for a long time. I wanna say it was o o one or o two when I noticed Starbucks started going at automatic machines.
[00:45:58] Unknown:
Yeah. I think that's about the right range.
[00:46:02] Unknown:
So then I'll just I'll just fast forward. I didn't care much. Like, I was happy with that level of coffee. Okay. Right? And I was basically enjoying, you know, Starbucks lattes and and and the like. Not real and, you know, I like coffee shop culture. I like going meeting friends, playing board games, seeing bands, and that type of thing. But, like, what I saw what I saw was coffee shops in the US just going out of business left and right and it wasn't because of Starbucks. It's because they they didn't wanna you know, they insisted on charging, you know, $6 for a shot of coffee or something like that. It was like they you know, very few of them the ones that survived did something else. Like, they had decent food or they had bans Yeah. Or something like that. But, like, just straight up making coffee just they they you know, those those went bye bye.
And then it wasn't until, for me, 2015, that was the moment I got a new job, and it was the one that I'd well, one that I left last year. But, I was I was in, like, I was in Center City, Philly, and my boss and mentor and I decide we're just getting into coffee again. He bought, one of these, I forgot what they're called, but it's the handheld espresso makers. And so he had gotten a bunch of grinders to try to optimize this optimize this espresso pulling machine. But we we basically built a coffee station in the office and Nice. Just went like, you know, in 2015, I don't it's probably around the beginning of, I think, this 3rd wave. Maybe it's a little late. I'm I'm not sure. But, like, from for us is when we got really deep in and, just really started buying coffee from everywhere, trying all the different varieties, honing the various you know, you start to see all you know, you start to see the various pour over methodologies.
And, you know, if we were in Center City, we were two blocks from La Colom, the Center City location, which would be you know, first of all, it's I mean, it's still there and it's pretty beautiful, but back in 2015, 2016, you could get, like, bags of legit Panama, gesha coffee that they're dorking around with, whereas now it's all cans. You know? Like, you're not Okay. They, you know, they they they've lost their focus on that. But, I mean, it was a pretty cool time. And so that that time period started my reignition. And so I had a we had a Chemex. We were dialing we started dialing in the grinder that I have in my kitchen, the one that I showed in the video Uh-huh. Was in that office every day trying to figure out basically trying to figure out how to make the best Chemex.
And we were, you know, people we were having there's a little bit of a culture in my office where we would have people would have serious talks with me. We would do it over coffee. Right? There's, like, a discipline to it. Like, you know, when you're in business with somebody, sometimes there's a discipline when you go out to dinner where you don't bring up business until you order your food. You know, there's a certain discipline for us. We're like, let's not talk anything serious yet. Let's just shoot the shit until the coffee's ready.
[00:49:31] Unknown:
Right? Yeah. I love it. And,
[00:49:34] Unknown:
yeah, it is cool. It was a very cool culture that I got. And then, you know, like, it's something new awoke in me socially around coffee. Right? Mhmm. Okay. Because there was this other aspect that, you know, what happened to me on that train platform was happening, like, once a week with beams and what like, a Chemex is capable not just a Chemex. Right? I mean, like, you know, French press, you can which is the other end of the spectrum, but it's, you know, more volatile. But you have the potential for more flavors that will blow your hair back. Right? Mhmm.
Yeah. So then I'd say the next phase was meeting you. You know? That was, I'd say, the real next phase. Right? Which is then really leaving Fiat and finding out that there's a future still with coffee, that that this thing can still have a life after, you know, even in the new the new phase after leaving Plato's cave. Right? Like, whatever happens with this Bitcoin experiment, right, we got coffee. And you know what? There's a lot of people that like to say you can't buy a cup of coffee with Bitcoin, but you and I would definitely
[00:50:45] Unknown:
argue with them. Right? Come to Lake Satoshi. I'll sell you a cup of coffee for Bitcoin. Probably just does it for you, but you can buy the beans.
[00:50:55] Unknown:
So then I've, yeah, I've my meetups, I've distributed some of your you know, definitely some coffee to a few people. Some, you know, some like it, some don't, or just you know, what I find is that it's not uncommon to just not know. That's why I made the video. So, like, the reason I made the video was because I just find that so many people don't know. Like, they don't know how to know. Right? If I hadn't done what I if I hadn't started in 2015, right, I would just basically throw your grinds in a Mr. Coffee or something that a Breville, something that somebody told me was a good coffee maker.
Mhmm. And, you know, I would base whether or not it was good on, like, my on how I felt about it. Right? I didn't know how to objectively assess, you know, the quality of coffee. Right? And so that's you know? Mhmm. I find that it's that's just not that's not an easy thing to do and you it takes work and, but I want people to know that this thing is good and worth it. You know? Even if they can't figure it out. Even if you can't it's not a slight to say you can't figure it out for yourself. It's just the reality that you didn't spend 100 of hours dialing in coffee coffee tasting Yeah. Dialing in a pallet. You know?
[00:52:19] Unknown:
Mhmm. Yeah. And and I would I guess there are a couple of things that come to mind when talking about stuff like this. One is if you don't, for for people who don't have interest in going down this rabbit hole, great. Figure out what it is for you that lights you up. However, if you are interested, come join us because coffee can be coffee is just a tool like anything else, and we get to decide how we use the tools that we have at our disposal. We've just decided that, like, you and I have decided that we want to explore how to use this tool for more.
This is my paraphrase anyway. Feel free to, add your own flavor to this. But I'm I'm not trying to convince anyone that my coffee is better or that coffee in general is something that you should consume. But if you're drawn to it and you want to explore what it means to discover wonder and beauty by going deep into something, I think coffee has a lot of gifts to offer. Like, you know, I'm how many years in to being a student of coffee? Maybe 20 or more, and I feel like there's still plenty to discover. So, yeah, I I think that there all I have is an invitation. Come join us if you're interested.
If not, do whatever it is that lights you up.
[00:54:18] Unknown:
Me shaking around like a floppy old fool. Make sweet love as fast as I can. Fully one guard and fully a man, we are to generate a healthy way to evolve. Show me something special before I get to the ball. Here we are flying to space, grabbing onto nothing breeder just in our games. Even if you think you know what to do, it's a whole lot of nothing that you ever get through. So hold. Get yourself 1. It's a hot time to be on the run. Make a a healthy way to evolve. Show me something special before I get to the ball. Here we are flying through space, grabbing all the nothing, readjusting our Twelve men are looking.
Twelve men are seeking. Twelve men are justice. Twelve men are substance. We are, flying through space, grabbing on to nothing, readjusting our gaze. Even if you think you know what to do, it's a
[00:57:33] Unknown:
Grace in peace.
ORIGINS: OTIS BITMEYER
ORIGINS: FUNDAMENTALS
