Sunday TeaRoom 3/22/09 Computer geek?

[Chip]

I am just a tea geek who happens to moderate an online tea forum, well 2 on line tea forums, and I think 2 of the best English language tea forums. One is possibly the best all around, and one is the best Japanese tea forum. Of course I may be a bit biased.

However, I rate myself a 2, but some may say I am a bit higher than that.

Started the day with Zencha Takumi, a sencha from Yame made with Gokoh leaf (a gyokuro breed). But it is grown in full sun all the way up to harvest, so this sencha is a bit of a curiousity to me. This is a mysterious sencha, blowing minds one day and leaving one to wonder what went wrong another. Today was a good Takumi day, SweeTea confirmed this. Pyrit and TEAh were at the TeaTable for non tea reasons.


I hope everyone is having a great TeaDay.

[cha cha cha]

I like tinkering with hardware, but I don't know anything about programming so I guess I'm a 3.

In my cup: boricha (Korean barley tea)

[Intuit]

Built my own multi-processor workstation long ago, did coding for programming my lab equipment (as well as repairing it out of necessity). Longtime user of computers - was active on DARPA-net and used cards for programming in the Dark Ages. Have collaborated in equipment design in more recent years (with an outstanding physicist/mechanist). Can do modest computer repairs and have a reasonable understanding of How Things Work, but don't do much programming anymore. Mostly, it's intelligent application of extant hardware and software, in professional capacity as technical problem solver.

Taiwan oolong in the cup for starters.

[CutieAgouti]

Haven't started my day with tea yet, was traveling between cities for the last few hours

I voted 4. I own two huge computers, multiple drives, and I do 3D animation for a living. Can fix most of my computer problems but for nasty ones I have to consult a friend who's a super geek. Unfortunately I'm not geeky enough to build my own machine, but hopefully that'll change

Think I'll start my day with an oolong...

[Geekgirl]

In my cup: boricha (Korean barley tea)

Gorgeous photo. There's something about tea in glass...


I can't remember what I voted, but I'm pretty geeky...

[silvermage2000]

I would say abit because I like do stuff all of the time on the computer but not like a computer tech or whatever. I am soon going to have a cup of adagio chocolate chip tea.

[cha cha cha]

Thanks geekgirl! That means a lot coming from you (I've seen your flickr page )

[Chip]

Thanks geekgirl! That means a lot coming from you (I've seen your flickr page )

That is a really great photo! Thanks for sharing your talent and humbleness with us.

Where did you find Boricha? I generally roast/panfire my own barley for tea as do others here, mostly from necessity at first, but it is actually rewarding as well.

Does this boricha contain tea leaf, or just the barley, and is it heavily roasted?

I am actually out of roasted barley and need to fire up a pan. I sense that Japanese and Korean versions are roasted on special roasting machines similar to coffee roasters. I read somewhere about using a hotair popcorn popper, might try that.

[danibob]

Oh this is totally my topic today. I'd say I'm between a 4 and a 5. I'm actually going back to school for another bachelors in computer programming. When I was 12 I taught myself web design and have been doing that on and off since. But there's still so much I need to learn. I'd love to be able to do freelance web design on the side while being a programmer. I'm a big geek. And getting bigger.

Having some of my comfort black tea. Then on to a green.

[cha cha cha]

That is a really great photo! Thanks for sharing your talent and humbleness with us.

Where did you find Boricha? I generally roast/panfire my own barley for tea as do others here, mostly from necessity at first, but it is actually rewarding as well.

Does this boricha contain tea leaf, or just the barley, and is it heavily roasted?

I am actually out of roasted barley and need to fire up a pan. I sense that Japanese and Korean versions are roasted on special roasting machines similar to coffee roasters. I read somewhere about using a hotair popcorn popper, might try that.

I buy pre-roasted barley from local Asian markets. The bags usually look something like this:


As you can see, there's no tea leaf, just barley. I assume these companies use industrial-size machines to do their roasting. I've never roasted my own barley, so I can't say what the best at-home technique would be. Let me know how the popcorn popper works out. [/img]

[Chip]

Thanks cha cha cha!

Just enjoyed 5 steeps of "mystery sencha" sent by a friend in Japan. All I know is that it appears to be asamushi/lightsteamed. I got out my fave Hagi set for a nice Sunday afternoon session. I believe SweeTea certainly appreciated the extra efforts.

I was totally ravished by Zencha's Ultimate Sencha yesterday. I had two sessions with it and I still can't accurately describe it. It's fine and delicate but very rich and mere words seem inadequate for describing it. You see? It took advantage of me twice! This is one pricey tea as Zencha recommends using 5g of leaf with 4 oz of water. I'll try to get myself under control and look at it more objectively this afternoon.

I do not think gringos can handle the parameters of the Japanese vendors. More then 1:1, grams leaf to ounces water, it is generally tooo intense for me. Gyokuro is a different story.

This morning I'm going to track down a population of harlequin ducks that are wintering near Minot Beach in Scituate. There are usually very small numbers of them, three or four, but this winter there are fifty. Their population in Rockport is up, too, so this could bode well for the extremely endangered harlequins.

Cool! We have several wildlife refuges around here. One is Middlecreek, great for spotting waterfowl, but a spotting scope is paramount for the best spotting. One of my fave spottings was several hundred rather amorous Hooded Mergansers. I had never seen HM's before (although from photos had always considered them a fave waterfowl). I can remember my elation, could barely contain myself.

I never saw Harliquins. I hope it went well.

[Geekgirl]

Thanks geekgirl! That means a lot coming from you (I've seen your flickr page )

Now I'm flattered!

Spent the morning playing with toys and photos, but I did drink some decent tea, the very last of my Iron Goddess King, which is a tiny bit rough because of all the broken bits in the last scoop. But good still. Also I played with my glass teapot and a sunbeam.

This morning I'm going to track down a population of harlequin ducks that are wintering near Minot Beach in Scituate. There are usually very small numbers of them, three or four, but this winter there are fifty.

I hope we'll see some pics!

[cha cha cha]

beautiful. pictures are the best part of teaday!

[Intuit]

"There are usually very small numbers of them, three or four, but this winter there are fifty. Their population in Rockport is up, too, so this could bode well for the extremely endangered harlequins".

Species Range, Histrionicus histrionicus (cool name for a beautiful Anatidae)
http://content.ornith.cornell.edu/UEWeb ... ap_new.gif

Unfortunately, it's more likely that the birds got pushed south by the exceptional winter weather.

Most of our migrant Canadian geese and duck populations got pushed far to the south of us, too (PNW) last year and this year - same reason, unusually harsh winter weather (exceptional precip and temperatures).

Interestingly, recent cold winters in NA appear to correspond to synched cold phase NAO, PDO and ENSO - and to an unusually quiet sunspot period during a surprisingly lengthy solar cycle interphase.

Large-scale Audubon survey conducted recently in Canada suggests that many Eastern species are in serious decline, arising from land-use change.

However, this species has experienced a mild recovery in breeding pair numbers in the last few decades, so maybe you are right (fingers crossed).

[hooksie]

Aspiring Computer Engineer. You bet I am a computer geek.

Fiiive.


Dian Hong, continuing my foray into gongfu style...