I think the reason Chinese tea is so good is because they’ve literally mastered everything there is to about making tea. And they still innovate even now.
As in, 60 years ago, accelerated fermentation of ripe (shóu) pu’ehr didn’t exist. But now it does, and it’s excellent.
Nowhere else but China makes that kind of tea. And that’s also true of yellow tea. Or Dancong oolong. Or various flowering teas that bloom when you brew it.
Only China makes that kind of tea.
I don’t just like black tea. I also love white, yellow, green, oolong, and pu-ehr tea.
Generally, the best tea grows in China.
But if you want quality and consistency at a low price, Japanese tea is good.
Indian tea can be good but you have to work harder to find it. That’s because most Indian tea importers just don’t give a damn. They just keep sending us CTC. Not that CTC is inherently bad, just that I would never drink it without milk or other accoutrements.
Here’s my favourite black tea varietals by order of preference:
1- Dianhong
2- Sun Moon Lake
3- Darjeeling
4- Nepali
5- Assam
6- Qimen/Keemun
7- Yingdehong
8- Nilgiri
9- Congou
10- Jaekseol
I prefer my tea leaves uncut and loose leaf, brewed with boiling water for 3-5 minutes in a red clay teapot.
Felt like treating myself to some Qimen black tea, commonly known as Keemun here in the West.
Typically, I prefer Dianhong black tea. But Qimen is darker and more brisk. And that’s kind of the mood I’m in.
I love most Chinese black tea except Lapsang Souchong. But hey, most Chinese people I talk to don’t like it either.
After playing badminton last night, I’m pretty much wiped out. I could barely get out of bed, and my knees buckled.
Well, at some point, I’m going to get my 8,000 steps in but I’m taking it easy today.
The reboot of Shadow Warrior, made in 2013, is so much better than the original.
I know some people might call that sacrilege, but it’s true. The original Shadow Warrior is indeed a 90s classic, but it’s flawed. In the original Lo Wang was a one dimensional character often made the butt of the joke, many of those jokes relying on Chinese stereotypes.
This version of Shadow Warrior has much more of a story. And though Lo Wang can be a bit of a buffoon at times, I feel he’s a much more interesting character with a lot more going on. At times he’s obstinate and crass, but I also feel he’s doing the best he can in a situation where he’s way over his head.
And in this situation, he’s caught up with the Zilla corporation, a special sword, and a spirit who’s giving him a few extra powers to even his odds.
Like the original, the humour is still there but it’s more clever. The one liners, a staple of the original, are even better here. This version of Shadow Warrior is hilarious.
No question, the graphics are no longer so cutting edge. But I feel they’ve held up with great art. The aesthetic is beautiful. It’s really wonderful to see all that colour while fighting amongst pagodas and cherry blossoms.
The action is fast and frenetic. Yes, there’s lots of guns, and they can get creative at times. But there’s nothing like wielding the sword and cutting enemies down. Or reaching into a demon’s chest, grabbing its heart, and squeezing it to do damage to other enemies.
Many people don’t even know this reboot came out. But let me tell you, this is quality. This is published by Devolver Digital. And if you don’t know who they are, they’re the same folks who brought us Serious Sam, Hard Reset, Hotline Miami, Downwell, Enter the Gungeon – and so many great classics.
I think Devolver has a much better resume than 3D Realms, especially over the past 10 years.
This game has been released on PC, Mac, and Linux. It requires a 2.4Ghz process, 2GB RAM, 512MB VRAM, and 15GB hard drive space. It’s also “verified” for Steam Deck and plays well. If you’re a console gamer, it also came out on Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
Two more sequels released, Shadow Warrior 2 and Shadow Warrior 3 respectively. The second sequel is excellent, and the third had mixed reviews.
This is an example where the reboot is so much better than the original. Sure, the original is historically significant. But the reboot is where Lo Wang truly shines.
Badminton is a hard, incredibly hard, sport to play.
You have to have the agility of a basketball player, the spryness of a gymnast, and the rhythm of a dancer.
Just walked into the biggest rat colony I’ve ever seen. And those assholes were huge.
Welp! Not going to that coffee shop ever again!
Some people have posited that Marathon and Halo exist in the same universe – seeing how the setting for both games is in space. Maybe at one time that was the intention. But now that Microsoft owns the IP for Halo, I don’t think that’s feasible. Still it’s a fun thought experiment.
nostr:npub1jeqcnv0u9nyz8vjknegr2p62f54hfm3v9srudwq4rzarz4tqwk7qlujglm Sadly it's just another extraction shooter instead of a cool Marathon game :( Aesthetics are boss, though.
nostr:npub1r97vahktwczdngz6qhecxxhydrs0yups72tdymkzgqykk65e6zqs3gzxcu There’s no way the reboot has no connection to the original Marathon. Bungie wouldn’t do themselves dirty like that. Marathon is their legacy.
I know most people have never played Marathon. It really was something only Mac users were aware about at the time. But if you’ve never even seen it, here’s what the original experience was like!
STOP THE PRESSES! BUNGIE IS REBOOTING MARATHON!
I never thought this day would come!
What is it? Why am I so excited?
Let me put it this way: Marathon is to the classic Mac what Doom was to DOS!
It was Bungie’s first FPS! It was the spiritual precursor to Halo!
It’s only ever been officially released for Mac, Pippin, iOS, and Xbox 360! That’s right, the original never got a PC release!
But the reboot is happening, and Bungie is releasing it for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S!
When I was a teenager, I spent hours and hours on Marathon and I can’t wait to see what Bungie has in store for the reboot!
CAN YOU TELL I’M EXCITED FOR THIS?!
I had a funny thought just now: what if there was a Geometry Wars demake? That is, a version of Geometry Wars that runs on old hardware. It’s been done with a few modern games. For example, not many people know this, but Halo got a demake on the Atari 2600. It’s appropriately called “Halo 2600”.
It just seems natural for Geometry Wars to have a demake.
That said, while nothing like Geometry Wars ever went mainstream again, there’s a few games I own that are similar to it. For example: Vector Assault, Waves, Polygoneer. They’re all very good, and I should eventually talk about each of them.
So many fond memories of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.
I used to work in Microsoft’s Xbox division during the launch of the Xbox 360. During our breaks, we could play Xbox games. There weren’t many to choose from, but one of them that I kept coming back to again and again was Geometry Wars.
Now my first exposure to video games was the Atari 2600. And I also spent lots of time in arcades as a kid. Thus, I spent lots of time on games like Asteroids, Defender and Galaga.
Even as all the other kids on the block had Nintendo Entertainment Systems, I was stuck with an Atari 2600 for a long, long time. So while everyone else seemed to have the latest and greatest, I had to imagine better graphics on my aging 2600.
Geometry Wars is what I imagined video games too be like in the future. By standards of the 2000s, it had simple graphics. But damn, did it make the most of those simple graphics! My favourite part was how the grid would “weave” when things got intense on screen. You couldn’t do that with a 2600.
But what made me love the game was that it was the first twin stick shooter with a true 80s arcade feel. I know Geometry Wars wasn’t the first to do it, but I think it was the first to do it well. Geometry Wars was most definitely an “evolution” of 80s arcade games, but it kept the spirit intact.
You don’t see many games like this any more – at least ones that are popular. But I remember in the ‘00s, this game was everywhere. People loved it. For a brief moment, that 80s arcade goodness made a comeback.
For awhile there, Geometry Wars was a legit franchise. We got lots of sequels, the last one being released in 2016. But I’m not sure if the modern landscape of gaming is friendly to this kind of early 80s arcade goodness. Nowadays, a game like this would probably be dismissed as “too simple”.
But damn it, sometimes simple is good! I don’t always want to know about characters inner motivations or the dystopic nature of a futuristic society. Sometimes I’d rather just try for the high score.
Not enough people talk about the connection between hip hop and punk rock.
Debbie Harry was the first person to take a rap song too #1 on the Billboard Chart. And by the way, who did she name check in that song? Fab Five Freddy.
Malcolm McClaren put out Duck Rock, for the early 80s, one of the most innovative hip hop albums – later sampled by artists like Public Enemy, Eminem, and others.
Beastie Boys were a punk band before they went hip hop.
But of course, this is just mentioning punk acts that contributed to hip hop. What about the other way around?
Public Enemy is an undeniable influence on punk. When I was young and went to shows, there was always someone repping one of their T’s.
There was Ice-T’s band Body Count which, while technically metal, was also undeniably punk – especially with their song “Cop Killer”.
And even within the past 10 years, the likes of Death Grips, Suicide Boys, and JPEGMAFIA are undeniably punk at their core.
Then you got to give your hate to Rage Against the Machine, a group that somehow lived between punk and hip hop and got kudos from fans of both genres – for good reason.
Probably the most important act linking hip hop and punk together? Bad Brains. They were the originators of the unique hardcore sound, and the sonic ancestor of the likes of JPEGMAFIA.
It’s no accident that, right now, so much hip hop has become punk rock.
On my way to the Pacific Autism Centre. They’re doing a robotics activity that my 10-year-old daughter is very keen on participating in. Will be good to have her interact with other children on the spectrum.
I don’t understand Putin not Russian politics nor anything that keeps that country functional.
I never understood why the war started, nor why Russia digs in, nor why there hasn’t been continued riots in St. Petersburg.
I still don’t understand what is happening now, nor what the ramifications are for later.