Day: December 5, 2003

annoying!
Web link of note: Lost Head Factory
(At http://lostheadfactory.com/)

Web link of note: Get UnderGround
(At http://www.getunderground.com/)

I was looking for this variety of tea at the Chinese grocery store near here- it has dried flowers in it. It’s called EIGHT Treasure Tea.

Not four. Not five. Eight. For some reason I can never remember the number.

At one point I was in SF Chinatown and asked at a tea shop for Four Treasure Tea. The (second generation Chinese-American) girl behind the counter, in obviously natively spoken American English, asked wryly “you mean EIGHT treasure tea?” like “you big dumbass.” It’s good to have people around to kick your ass a little on things like this.

Maybe Four Treasure Tea is half the price or something. Or maybe it’s a factory reject. Or maybe the extra three of four Treasures come as part of a special promotion or something.

The eight “treasures” are specifically:

1. Chrysanthemums
2. Green Tea
3. Jujube
4. Chinese Wolfberries
5. Dragoneye fruit
6. Rock Sugar
7. Raisin
8. Tremella

Although there are different variants:

1. American ginseng
2. dried longans
3. ‘kei chi’ (boxthorn fruit)
4. chrysanthemum
5. red dates
6. rock sugar
7. lotus seed
8. dragon well tea leaves

Holy Crap

This bag I bought has individual bags full of single serving 8 Treasures Tea! They have all the ingredients including the monster rocks of sugar.

Here’s the brewing instructions, which I thought were entertaining. There are no typos in this:

• In a cup. Open the teabag, pour the contents into a cup.
• Add rock sugar to taste if desired. Then add boiling water.
• Leave to infuse for minutes before serving
• We can have seueral drinks.
• At last, Longan jujube etc, can be used to have.

I think the last two are meant to convey:

• You can use the same leaves to infuse several cups of tea
• When you are done, you can eat the rehydrated fruits as a treat

Web link of note: Missing Dave
(At http://home.hawaii.rr.com/missingdave/)

0345441516

I had an entry here at one point, but Movable Type screwed up and deleted it!

0140178929

Jim Paul spills tomato juice on his white pants on a plane flight and goes into a 200 page digression on the evolution of how the common man viewed reality, causality, and the fabric of the universe.

This is actually a lot more interesting than it sounds, and a good primer to lead up / ease a reader into Solipsism.

0156005379

Jim Paul writes about his (fictional ?) break up and the lives of great romantics- including Stendhal (author of The Red and the Black which you may have had to read in high school).

0679409718

Jim Paul mixes the history of the catapult and medieval warfare with his experiences with his friend Harry building their own catapult as part of an art project.

0156005565

Originally known as Aum Shinrikyo, they are those wacky guys who brought us the 1995 incident in Tokyo where they released the deadly nerve gas “sarin” inside the subway system.

Especially ironic is how they denounce the attacks on the World Trade Center-

“Aleph opposes any violence including the terrorist attacks of September 11.

.

Web link of note: Aleph Doomsday Cult
(At http://english.aleph.to/)