As you may or may not know, I am a tea drinker. I really dislike coffee, and I don't care if you think me weird for it. Be it black, green, oolong, white, or something in the middle, I like most teas. Obviously this should be my drink of choice at work then, and it is, but there is, as always, a snag.
Everyone knows that tea bags are how you drink tea. In this country. In more civilized countries, people make their teas from loose leaf tea, which is, to any tongue, far superior to tea bags, known as "tampon tea" by the Brits. I, having tasted both, can say with great certainty that loose leaf is better... Provided it is brewed correctly.
How hard can it be to brew tea? Pour hot water over leaves, steep, drink! Right.
Nerd powers engage!
Tea, depending on style, likes to be brewed at a specific temperature. Each tea may have some wiggle room on temp, but black tea likes water just off a boil and green tea likes water closer to 175 degrees. Easy enough, right? Well, the only access to hot water I have is the crappy coffee machine at work, and while I haven't been so nerdy as to bring an instant read in to find the exact temp of the water, I know it's much shy of boiling. For green tea, that's fine. For black, not so much.
Why not bring in an electric kettle? Because that's a fire hazard and I couldn't leave it in the break room anyway since someone would definitely steal it.
So here's what I'm stuck with: draw water from coffee hot water tap, place chopstick in water to prevent superheating water, place mug in microwave, heat for 2 minutes or until boiling, put loose leaf tea into French press, pour water over tea, steep 3-4 minutes, sugar to taste, enjoy tea. I do this three times a day, sometimes more. And let's not forget that oolong tea, a favorite of mine, likes water a couple minutes off a boil, so that becomes more complicated.
The more tea astute of you might also note that using the water from the coffee machine might not be the optimum choice since some of the oxygen has been boiled out of the water. To you I say what Teddy Rosevelt may have once said, "You do the best you can with what you got where you are."
Getting a decent cup of tea might be annoying, but dammit, a good cuppa is the best way to start the day.
Today's post brought to you by the Corporation for Stuff You Probably Don't Care About.
July 28, 2010
The Ballad of Drinking Tea at Work
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July 26, 2010
An error old...
I'm not obsessed with hypermilling lately, what with gas being semi reasonably priced and all, but I am obsessed with making sure I at least know what's going on with hypermilling, and beause of this I am forced to make a correction about my previous hypermilling post.
In my post I said that coasting in neutral can save you gas in some situatuons. It turns out that I was wrong. Logically it makes sense that if your car is idling rather than in gear that your car has lower RPMs and is therefore saving gas. However, after some research, I have determined that to be wrong.
The truth is that when in gear and going down a hill in a fuel injected, stick shift car your engine senses the throttle position and RPMs and put your engine into an extremely low fuel injecting state, one that is, oddly enough, using less gas than just being in idle. Rolling down a hill in gear without using the throttle is therefore more fuel efficient than coasting in neutral.
Frankly this sounds very counter intuitive to me, but I checked a dozen or so sources, and while a lot of people believe that coasting in neutral is better, the only people with actual proof are the gear heads who say otherwise.
So I was wrong! I don't know how much difference in terms of MPG this is, but I can say for certain that it is greater than zero, so it could be worth while.
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July 20, 2010
OMFG GO SEE INCEPTION
Dealing with my depressing life nonsense over the past few weeks has included me going to the movies. A lot. Obviously explaining my Shamwow post. I also went to see Predators, meh, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, pretty good, and then Inception.
HolEEEEEEEEE shit!
Not since Memento have I seen a movie this... Awesome. And I don't mean, dude, sweet, awesome. I mean the original meaning of awesome: that which inspires awe. To watch this movie, to watch all the twists, the turns, the layers in layers in layers in... Just trust me. You aren't going to see a movie like this anywhere ever. Christopher Nolan is clearly an incredible director and I will follow him anywhere after this one.
HolEEEEEEEEE shit!
Not since Memento have I seen a movie this... Awesome. And I don't mean, dude, sweet, awesome. I mean the original meaning of awesome: that which inspires awe. To watch this movie, to watch all the twists, the turns, the layers in layers in layers in... Just trust me. You aren't going to see a movie like this anywhere ever. Christopher Nolan is clearly an incredible director and I will follow him anywhere after this one.
It's over
She ended our brief relationship today. I may not like it, but better that she end it now than drag it out and end up making things worse. I had to say goodbye today. It was not easy nor remotely nice to do, but it was the right thing to do. It hurts, but it will fade. I am again single, but at least I know that if I can score someone as amazing as her, then I can do it again.
All I need to get started is pack of cigarettes and a fifth of burbon followed closely by getting the fuck out of DE. All of these shall occur very soon.
All I need to get started is pack of cigarettes and a fifth of burbon followed closely by getting the fuck out of DE. All of these shall occur very soon.
July 15, 2010
Fate keeps to her status quo
I made little mention of is here, for I am lazy and shiftless, but sometime not so long ago I met a lady, a woman, whom I was most impressed by, even intimidated by. She was described by a friend as "perfect on paper", and while I shy from calling anything or anyone perfect, things were going well. I was pleased with her and she with I.
Clearly it was here that Fate decided to step in and fuck things up.
For reasons that I will not go into here because they are not my reasons to make public, things took an unexpected turn for the worse. This is no one's fault. I did nothing wrong, she did nothing wrong, this is just a shitty situation that there was no preparing for and hurts all the more for it being just plain unfair.
I have not spoken to her in nearly two weeks. For the first week, I was just plain, old-fashioned depressed. A case of the blues made no better by my insistence on listening to the actual blues all week. No appetite, little joy found in anything save a good book and a little Zero Punctuation.
It's now the second week. I intend to send out a sitrep request soon, but I will give it a bit more time. Rushing this can only make things worse. Still, I am much better this week. It feels good to back in my own self again. If things go badly from here, I will be ok. Not happy, but ok. I can't ask for much more.
I hope that things will go well, but they don't have to. If this goes well and then goes badly again or takes a different turn for the worse, it likely will be more than a week to recover.
Regardless, in the face of this uncertainty, I say wholeheartedly: Bring your shit, Fate. Bring your biggest disappointments, your harshest turns, and your most crushing defeats. I will endure them and I will live on, no matter what you throw at me. If things turn for the worse, I will sing songs and tell tales of the time I did have with her, for every second I had with her was worth the pain I feel now.
Of those seconds, may there be more.
Clearly it was here that Fate decided to step in and fuck things up.
For reasons that I will not go into here because they are not my reasons to make public, things took an unexpected turn for the worse. This is no one's fault. I did nothing wrong, she did nothing wrong, this is just a shitty situation that there was no preparing for and hurts all the more for it being just plain unfair.
I have not spoken to her in nearly two weeks. For the first week, I was just plain, old-fashioned depressed. A case of the blues made no better by my insistence on listening to the actual blues all week. No appetite, little joy found in anything save a good book and a little Zero Punctuation.
It's now the second week. I intend to send out a sitrep request soon, but I will give it a bit more time. Rushing this can only make things worse. Still, I am much better this week. It feels good to back in my own self again. If things go badly from here, I will be ok. Not happy, but ok. I can't ask for much more.
I hope that things will go well, but they don't have to. If this goes well and then goes badly again or takes a different turn for the worse, it likely will be more than a week to recover.
Regardless, in the face of this uncertainty, I say wholeheartedly: Bring your shit, Fate. Bring your biggest disappointments, your harshest turns, and your most crushing defeats. I will endure them and I will live on, no matter what you throw at me. If things turn for the worse, I will sing songs and tell tales of the time I did have with her, for every second I had with her was worth the pain I feel now.
Of those seconds, may there be more.
July 14, 2010
Fuck you M. Knight Shamwow
I'm not gonna lie. I love Avatar. The series on Nick, not the over-hyped piece of soft-core, blue-person porn that James Cameron put out. It was a brilliant show: clever, funny, fun, excellently crafted, with characters that grew, evolved, and learned. It was both ridiculously funny and incredibly epic, and without hyperbole it is one of the best shows ever made.
Though Nick did its usual thing and screwed around with schedules, nearly took the show off the air without finishing it, and generally did a bad job, it still ended up being spectacular. Beloved by all the show ended its run on Nick as one of its most popular shows.
Realizing that they could try to squeeze blood from the Avatar stone, and figuring that they could rely on a big name director, they turned to M. Night Shyamalan, who shall forever be referred to as M. Night Shamwow, as their guy. In typical Shamwow style, he promised the world.
He delivered a steaming pile of shit.
Ok, you have a show with millions of fans. They know the series from beginning to end, they love the characters, they want to see this series converted into a move befitting the show. You have the entire series as a guide. Clearly you can't do everything the show did, but keeping to the spirit of the show should not be difficult.
Step one: If a character named Aang is pronounced like "bang", then you do not decide to have Aang pronounced like "bong". Neither do you decide to have almost every single name in the movie pronounced differently from it was in the series. You are going from a TV show to a movie! This isn't a book! There is no question of how to pronounce the name! It's already been done! Changing this is fucking retarded!
Step two: If a character like Aang is a goofy, funny, fun little kid who loves nothing more than to play, then don't make him into a dour, boring, little bastard that no one could like. In fact, keep the personalities of all the characters as close to what they were as possible, because that's what the characters are supposed to be like!
Step three: If a character with a dark past has a huge burn scar on his face that no one could possibly miss, don't replace it with what may as well be a shaving cut.
Step four: If a character is a jolly old, short, fat guy, do not replace him with a goddamn tall, muscular, and serious guy!
Step five: If a show is, by and large, funny, then your movie should be funny! If it's dull, slow, and utterly without humor, then you've done something very wrong.
If you're worried about spoilers, don't, because all of that shit happens in the first five minutes of the fucking movie. There's a whole hour and a half left to fuck up.
I could go on, and Jesus I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Shamwow, by my guess, probably never saw more than bits of the series when his kids watched it and raved about it. He then read the text synopsis of like six episodes and changed whatever he felt like so he could make the series conform to his opinion of how the show should have been.
If Shamwow was to throw a rock and his target was the entire planet Earth he couldn't have missed the target worse if he had thrown the rock directly into the fucking Sun! Shamwow now joins Uwe Boll on the list of people who should be banned from making movies.
One last thing. Repeat after me: "3-D is a gimmick." It was a gimmick in the '50s and today it is a more technologically advanced gimmick. Until we get true 3-D movies, and I mean holographic movies, I'm going to save the money and see the 2-D versions.
Though Nick did its usual thing and screwed around with schedules, nearly took the show off the air without finishing it, and generally did a bad job, it still ended up being spectacular. Beloved by all the show ended its run on Nick as one of its most popular shows.
Realizing that they could try to squeeze blood from the Avatar stone, and figuring that they could rely on a big name director, they turned to M. Night Shyamalan, who shall forever be referred to as M. Night Shamwow, as their guy. In typical Shamwow style, he promised the world.
He delivered a steaming pile of shit.
Ok, you have a show with millions of fans. They know the series from beginning to end, they love the characters, they want to see this series converted into a move befitting the show. You have the entire series as a guide. Clearly you can't do everything the show did, but keeping to the spirit of the show should not be difficult.
Step one: If a character named Aang is pronounced like "bang", then you do not decide to have Aang pronounced like "bong". Neither do you decide to have almost every single name in the movie pronounced differently from it was in the series. You are going from a TV show to a movie! This isn't a book! There is no question of how to pronounce the name! It's already been done! Changing this is fucking retarded!
Step two: If a character like Aang is a goofy, funny, fun little kid who loves nothing more than to play, then don't make him into a dour, boring, little bastard that no one could like. In fact, keep the personalities of all the characters as close to what they were as possible, because that's what the characters are supposed to be like!
Step three: If a character with a dark past has a huge burn scar on his face that no one could possibly miss, don't replace it with what may as well be a shaving cut.
Step four: If a character is a jolly old, short, fat guy, do not replace him with a goddamn tall, muscular, and serious guy!
Step five: If a show is, by and large, funny, then your movie should be funny! If it's dull, slow, and utterly without humor, then you've done something very wrong.
If you're worried about spoilers, don't, because all of that shit happens in the first five minutes of the fucking movie. There's a whole hour and a half left to fuck up.
I could go on, and Jesus I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Shamwow, by my guess, probably never saw more than bits of the series when his kids watched it and raved about it. He then read the text synopsis of like six episodes and changed whatever he felt like so he could make the series conform to his opinion of how the show should have been.
If Shamwow was to throw a rock and his target was the entire planet Earth he couldn't have missed the target worse if he had thrown the rock directly into the fucking Sun! Shamwow now joins Uwe Boll on the list of people who should be banned from making movies.
One last thing. Repeat after me: "3-D is a gimmick." It was a gimmick in the '50s and today it is a more technologically advanced gimmick. Until we get true 3-D movies, and I mean holographic movies, I'm going to save the money and see the 2-D versions.
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