secretfire's recent activity
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Comment on EU drops 2035 combustion engine ban as global electric vehicle shift faces reset in ~transport
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
secretfire Link ParentIn my experiences the best low-appetite foods are 1. Salty foods (your monkey brain is wired to just love salt all the time) and 2. Broths. I guess also 3. Sugary foods but yknow carbs and health...In my experiences the best low-appetite foods are 1. Salty foods (your monkey brain is wired to just love salt all the time) and 2. Broths. I guess also 3. Sugary foods but yknow carbs and health and all that. I'm not on any meds though, and you know what works for you.
My go-to low-effort food is just rice with random stuff in it. I nearly always have rice handy, either cold rice in the fridge that I can heat up, or warm rice sitting in my rice cooker on the warming setting (it's the best thing I own honestly). In regards to "random stuff", normally that's a shake of furikake (storebought normally but I sometimes make my own), a spoonful of soy sauce, maybe something a bit spicy like lao gan ma or sambal (la-yu and/or togarashi for the Japanese vibe). If I want it to be slightly more substantial of a meal I can fry an egg or two and mash it into the rice, or some jar kimchi.
Of course, me having a rice cooker makes rice an incredibly easy anytime food, since it takes 3 minutes to wash the rice and then I can do something else for an hour does the hard part for me. I am a rice cooker evangelist (you can get one for $25 and so far I have never met a single person who has got one and regretted it), but I accept that it can be a pain without one.
Other things I do sometimes:
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Greek yoghurt with peanut butter, granola, berries (this is mostly a breakfast thing for me, but "breakfast food" is a social construct designed to keep you complacent, wake up sheeple!!!!!)
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Miscellaneous soups - Miso soup takes 5 minutes with store-bought stock, and can be easily made into a meal by adding pantry ingredients. Dried udon/ramen/soba noodles, dried seaweed (wakame/hijiki), tofu (silken tofu lasts for months in a pantry). You can also buy various soup broth concentrates in stores and they generally last a while: Cook some noodles, stick them in broth, maybe a handful of frozen veg, that's food!
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Porridge (oats) - It's an easy thing to make and can be quite nutritious, if not particularly exciting.
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Banana - banana. eat it by itself, or with something else
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentIt's incredibly easy to buy a hard drive for cold storage and just copy all your stuff onto it in one go. It's one thing to set up regular backups with redundancy and network accessibility, but if...Put your data in a NAS? Good luck, self hosting is a full time job
It's incredibly easy to buy a hard drive for cold storage and just copy all your stuff onto it in one go. It's one thing to set up regular backups with redundancy and network accessibility, but if you just need to make sure your photos from 2019 aren't going to be lost forever due to corporate fuckery, simply copying them onto a drive and putting it in a drawer somewhere is enough for most people. In the linked article they're specifically talking about 6TB of family photos, which is a frankly trivial thing to back up if you have 6TB of HDD storage available (and if they can afford AUD$30,000 work of Apple devices, they can afford to drop a few hundred on drive space).
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Comment on A new Jolla phone has reached the required pre-order crowd-funding amount in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentIt's a nice design, though in my opinion too reminiscent of the old Nokia Lumia phones, which bring back bad memories for me. Wow have we come far from then. Still, slap a case on it and what does...It's a nice design, though in my opinion too reminiscent of the old Nokia Lumia phones, which bring back bad memories for me. Wow have we come far from then. Still, slap a case on it and what does it matter?
I do wish we could have more colour in our tech again, rather than the same old black/white/blue-black/muted gold/muted blue/super-limited-edition muted green, that every phone company goes for nowadays to make sure that everybody is equally ambivalent to it. Like, most people don't particularly dislike a pure black phone, but nobody dislikes it in the same way they might dislike, say, bright orange, so it's good enough. Same thing with cars, for that matter. We stopped having coloured cars at some point. We need a techno-hippie revivalist movement, I say!
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Comment on A new Jolla phone has reached the required pre-order crowd-funding amount in ~tech
secretfire (edited )Link ParentI find the whole state of the world in general to be unimaginably depressing, and am generally incredibly depressed as a result, so knowing how that feels I can't say I'm thrilled to have...I find the whole state of the world in general to be unimaginably depressing, and am generally incredibly depressed as a result, so knowing how that feels I can't say I'm thrilled to have successfully pulled someone down to my level, haha. I think this opinion, certainly among the socially conscious technologically-minded denizens of Tildes, is a fairly ubiquitous one. It's no coincidence that my largest contribution to this site, along with being one of the highest voted posts in Tildes history, was me ranting about basically this exact issue.
It's very possible that my predictions will simply be wrong. Maybe governments around the world will actually draw a line somewhere. Maybe free market economics will decide that competition in the market is actually good, or that open-source projects are a net benefit to the world. Maybe the people have far more power than I'm assuming, and as voting demographics shift we'll be able to make real change for the better. Maybe certain techno-oligarchs controlling vast swathes of the world's wealth and news will... Well, I'll not finish that thought. But maybe it'll just work out, and human compassion will net a rare win.
Spoilering this portion because it got real depressing on an existential level and this is a post about a cool phone project achieving a crowdfunding goal, it wasn't supposed to go down like this
But... I don't know. Things are just bleak right now in the world, and tech is such a massive part of that world now, and it'll only ever get more important from here on out. Even if we don't interact with it directly it still underpins essentially everything we do in any aspect of life. It's inescapable, and it's scary how much of that inescapable tech is controlled fully by a few dozen oligarchs who are publically calling for the collapse of democracy and the implementation of huge authoritarian measures. When I think about the future, how all of this will mix with the future crises we'll soon deal with from the climate apocalypse, food insecurity, ecological collapse, and lord knows what else... I just can't see things getting better.
All that being said, as someone who spends a huge portion of their life on the internet in various ways, I know that my conception of its importance in the world is most definitely skewed. There's a large contingent of people in the developed world who get by just fine while barely engaging with technology, to say nothing of the people in developing countries (who make up the majority of the world population) for whom it plays practically zero role in their everyday lives. Maybe they have the right idea. I think we've all thought at some point or another that we'd be happier if we have no smartphones, no computers, no technology fancier than a toaster. If my elderly dad can make do on a decade-old shitbrick that can just about make a phone call and load a Whatsapp message, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to, you know? Of all the fancy gadgets I own the three things that make me happiest are my rice cooker, my portable gas stove, and my little clay teapot for green tea.
I hope you're able to maintain that cautious optimism, as much as I hope to regain it one day. Absolutely I want to support alternatives to, well, all big tech, even while I write this on my $2500 brick of trillion-dollar-company-powered metal and silicon (Linux at least). Honestly I've half convinced myself to pay for this damn smartphone I just said isn't worth it just to rage against the machine a little.
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Comment on A new Jolla phone has reached the required pre-order crowd-funding amount in ~tech
secretfire LinkI hope it goes well for them, but I'm always pessimistic with these projects. The big problem all small-company FOSS-oriented smartphones face is that they can't source high-performance chips and...- Exemplary
I hope it goes well for them, but I'm always pessimistic with these projects.
The big problem all small-company FOSS-oriented smartphones face is that they can't source high-performance chips and components from leading component companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, etc. So they're stuck on second-rate CPUs that are generations behind mainstream phones in performance, while costing far more than they're worth (because phone manufacturing is an expensive process where economy of scale matters). There are zero practical reasons to buy one of these phones over something like a Google Pixel 6 (which is half the price for better performance) except for reasons of principle, i.e. not wanting to support big tech.
I hope something can come along and shake up the smartphone market, but I'm not hopeful. Hardware manufacturing is becoming an ever more expensive industry, and it's only getting more and more of an oligopoly by the year. The only reason things like desktop Linux and SailfishOS are able to run on modern consumer hardware is because the 4 or 5 companies that make basically all the computer hardware in the world haven't yet decided to kill them by means of onboard DRM or something. TPM chips on motherboards already make it so Linux PCs can't run certain applications, and streaming services will only supply reduced-quality video to PCs that don't run Windows or MacOS. I think eventually we'll see a company like Intel deciding to make their consumer-grade CPUs (i.e. not their server hardware, where Linux is basically unkillable) only run properly when they're using approved hardware and OS (Windows), otherwise throttling for "security reasons". It'd probably get hit with a dozen antitrust lawsuits, but would they even care at this point? They'd pay out a $10m
cost of businessfine and get away with it.Smartphones are already way down that pipeline; even with the most polished, privacy-oriented, free mobile OS in the world, half of everything wouldn't work because banks, social media sites, national digital IDs (gee wonder what's spurring the worldwide push for those right now), would all choose not to support it. Even today you have to work to make this sort of phone work in your daily life, it is a constant inconvenience. Sooner or later I think the increasingly-authoritarian governments of the Western world will decide to push just enough "protect the children" laws that it becomes impossible to use them. The fact is that big tech companies hold all the cards, and basically every government in the world is salivating at the thought of giving them even more if it means they get to do a bit more mass surveillance.
Anyways, this quickly turned from me saying "making good phones is hard" to "big tech and authoritarianism are destroying everything and there's no hope", which ultimately is not very relevant to the post I'm responding to, so sorry about that.
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Comment on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary in ~books
secretfire LinkI really liked this article, and I'm definitely going to think about dictionaries differently in the future (not a sentence I expected to write this morning). In my non-expert opinion, I think the...I really liked this article, and I'm definitely going to think about dictionaries differently in the future (not a sentence I expected to write this morning).
In my non-expert opinion, I think the difference between dictionaries like the article author is discussing, and modern, "sterile" dictionaries, is a difference of philosophy. For a dictionary like the 1913 Webster's to be useful, you sorta have to be a fluent (if not native) English speaker. You have to essentially know the definitions of all of those words already, because the definitions for each complex word require you to know a number of other complex words. Modern dictionaries aim to be as simple as possible to ensure that anyone with passable knowledge of the English language can figure out basically any word. And some detail is definitely lost there, since language is never as clear cut as single-sentence definitions, the nuances of any individual word in any language are fractal.
I have two dictionaries in my home: The OED, and some random pocket dictionary made for grade school students that I've just sorta ended up with (think it was in a box of books I bought at a flea market). The grade school dictionary definitions are, well, not very helpful for a grown adult. But I wouldn't expect it to be as detailed as the OED because, well, it's for kids. I think the article of this author is wishing for something like an "author's dictionary", a dictionary made specifically for helping people with prose, rather than everyday understanding of a word. And I think that something like that would be really cool, as someone who likes to read and write a lot, but it's undoubtedly a niche thing. Most people using the dictionary these days are just checking to make sure they're not completely wrong in their understanding of a word, and a simple definition is fine for that.
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Comment on A rare “Polar Express” winter pattern is forecast over the United States and Canada, following a Polar Vortex split in ~enviro
secretfire LinkOh cool, the regularly scheduled super rare once-in-a-generation weather event, haven't seen one of those in a few weeks.Oh cool, the regularly scheduled super rare once-in-a-generation weather event, haven't seen one of those in a few weeks.
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Comment on Ireland among countries boycotting Eurovision after Israel allowed to compete in ~music
secretfire Link ParentMy reading of the above comment was that they think people boycotting (debatably) non-political events for political reasons is childish, and that it's better for people to participate and use the...My reading of the above comment was that they think people boycotting (debatably) non-political events for political reasons is childish, and that it's better for people to participate and use the platform to make a statement. In which case I absolutely think the 1936 Olympics is worth mentioning.
People discuss "Godwin's Law" like it's a bad thing to compare anything to the Nazis just because, and I get its purpose in that 90% of the time if you're comparing something to the Nazis you're probably picking a far too extreme example, and in the process are trivialising the actual atrocities the Nazis committed. But in this case where it's a matter of a country committing (at the very least) a mass ethnic cleanse of a region, if not a full-scale genocide... I do think it is an apt comparison, certainly as it pertains to reactions from other countries who are strongly against the actions of the offending country. The specificities of the exact human rights violations in the two situations here aren't identical of course, but at the end of the day it's all just people treating humans like things.
I think anyone who considers events like Eurovision and the Olympics to be non-political to be incredibly naive at best, but it's a shockingly common thing; a lot of people don't give a shit about what horrible human rights violations a country is doing as long as they can watch a bunch of millionaires kick a ball around every now and then. But I think that's a different discussion.
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Comment on Ireland among countries boycotting Eurovision after Israel allowed to compete in ~music
secretfire (edited )Link ParentWhat's your opinion on countries and athletes boycotting the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin? Was that a useless, childish political stunt too? Should they all have just sucked it up and went and...What's your opinion on countries and athletes boycotting the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin? Was that a useless, childish political stunt too? Should they all have just sucked it up and went and performed in Nazi Germany because, y'know, it's not like their boycott killed Hitler or anything so it was basically pointless, right?
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Comment on Next ‘Rush Hour’ sequel from Brett Ratner is being distributed by Paramount in ~movies
secretfire Link ParentIt's not really a "Jackie Chan movie" per say, but The Foreigner is actually a really solid film, and Jackie plays his part really well. It's more a traditional modern action film rather than a...It's not really a "Jackie Chan movie" per say, but The Foreigner is actually a really solid film, and Jackie plays his part really well. It's more a traditional modern action film rather than a martial arts-focused one but it's worth a watch I think. Even still, that film's eight years old now, and he was already fairly slow at that point. He's 71 now, I can't see him doing another Rush Hour.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
secretfire Link ParentGyoza are excellent! I made about 70 of them a few days ago; I mostly make them using feeling these days, loosely taking ideas from Kenji's recipe and this JOC recipe. They freeze really well...Gyoza are excellent! I made about 70 of them a few days ago; I mostly make them using feeling these days, loosely taking ideas from Kenji's recipe and this JOC recipe. They freeze really well (lasting maybe 2 months in the freezer) so they're excellent for lunches and to give out to friends. I normally have them with a dipping sauce and some pickled red ginger, maybe miso soup if I can be bothered.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
secretfire Link ParentI've not watched the new season but I have read that section of the manga, and honestly it gets really boring really fast IMO. It's a single arc that starts around chapter 96 and it goes on for...I've not watched the new season but I have read that section of the manga, and honestly it gets really boring really fast IMO. It's a single arc that starts around chapter 96 and it goes on for nearly 80 chapters by itself. It takes up nearly half of the entire manga. Even One Piece arcs don't go on for that long. There's a lot of extremely good stuff in it, but I think it suffers immensely from the fact that it takes zero breaks; at some point it all just started to blend together and I just wanted Saitama to stop stalling and punch the bad guy already so the manga could move on. I'm fortunate to have only started reading the manga once it was all over and done since I could not imagine being drip-fed that over the course of 4 years.
I have no idea how an anime could possibly adapt it all in a single season (or if that's even their plan), it's 2 season's worth of non-stop action and very little comedy compared to the rest of the show. That's a difficult thing to adapt at the best of times, and with how much of OPM's popularity is centered on its comedic elements, I'm not sure what the best approach to take would have been.
Of course this is all made rather moot by the fact that they've proceeded to doom the adaptation from the very start by giving them a budget of like $30 and cutting so many corners that there's basically nothing left. They could have just gotten the VAs together to do a reading of the manga and it would have ended up 10 times better.
Spoiler-y aside for manga readers and/or people who don't care
I'm counting the end of the Garou fight as the end of the arc, but technically they leave the Monster Association like 20 chapters before then or something. I'm still counting it all as the one thing since the MA part leads seamlessly into the Cosmic Garou part with zero breaks in between, and I think it all happens literally in one in-universe day (time travel shenanigans notwithstanding).
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
secretfire LinkWent to a concert the other day, solo pianist playing a ton of Maurice Ravel's piano works. Ravel's probably my favourite composer so I was already super familiar with all of the works, but it was...Went to a concert the other day, solo pianist playing a ton of Maurice Ravel's piano works. Ravel's probably my favourite composer so I was already super familiar with all of the works, but it was really nice to hear them all live back-to-back. Their performance of Une barque sur l'ocean was particularly good; it's not a Ravel piece I've cared for that much, but I've gained a new appreciation for it now. They even did the solo piano version of La valse, which is always a treat to hear; I've heard it in a half dozen performances and I'd happily hear it again in a heartbeat.
Going to link some random Ravel music I like for anyone who's interested:
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Lever de jour, the first section from the 3rd suite of Daphnis et Chloé, is probably the best piece of music ever written IMO. I can never get tired of listening to it. Was fortunate to attend a full performance of the ballet a few months ago during the BBC Proms, and words cannot describe.
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Listen to this one if you're sad. Music has never cured my sadness outright, but it helps me cope sometimes, and this piece is particularly nice for that.
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Introduction et allegro is just a really solid piece of chamber music. It's Ravel at his most Ravel, I think, even if the composer would disagree (he famously wrote the piece in no time at all, didn't think anything of it, and didn't even bother including it in his own catalogue of works).
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Similarly, his first Piano Concerto is just a joy to listen to. This part of the second movement is particularly beautiful.
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Your grandma probably really enjoyed Boléro for some reason so I'm linking it here out of obligation. Never got the hype myself, but in my experiences old people just can't get enough of it, idk. Have always wondered how the experience would be augmented if one listened to it while on a heroic dose of magic mushrooms; if there are any brave psychonauts out there with no plans tonight, feel free to give it a go and report back. For science.
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Comment on Shrinking number of free news outlets in ~talk
secretfire (edited )Link ParentAll news is biased news, of course, but in today's media landscape it's more often than not a tossup between "reports the news" and "spouts propaganda on behalf of their benefactors" with an...All news is biased news, of course, but in today's media landscape it's more often than not a tossup between "reports the news" and "spouts propaganda on behalf of their benefactors" with an unfortunately small amount of grey area in between. And if you want your propaganda to reach as wide an audience as possible, of course you'll publish it for free. That doesn't mean that all free news sources are untrustworthy, or that all paid sources are trustworthy, but it's a factor to consider, I think. There's no such thing as a free lunch. I don't consume the news too much these days on account of the enormous mental strain I experience from being constantly reminded of how I'm living through the collapse of civilisation and the climate apocalypse, but I've found that, if nothing else, paid, reputable sources at least try harder to report "proper" news. But of course it's best to get news from multiple sources to account for inevitable biases in all of them.
Additionally, I generally like giving my dollar to things I support on principle, when I can afford it at least. I use Wikipedia a ton and support its mission, so when I can I'll buy them a cup of coffee or two. I try to buy at local businesses as much as I can, I don't buy from Amazon, I pay for Google product alternatives, stuff like that. I extend that same thinking to paying for news; if it's something I utilise regularly, then I think there's no reason why I couldn't throw $2-3 their way every month if I can. I'm not well-off by any means, but by the privilege of living in a rich Western country, I am fortunate enough to be able to align my spending with my principles somewhat.
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Comment on Shrinking number of free news outlets in ~talk
secretfire LinkI feel that at some point it becomes worth it to simply pay for news if you care about getting high quality, unbiased reporting. Journalism is a relatively new profession all things considered,...I feel that at some point it becomes worth it to simply pay for news if you care about getting high quality, unbiased reporting. Journalism is a relatively new profession all things considered, and free journalism is an incredibly new thing, and I don't think it's sustainable unfortunately, though I wish it were the case. High quality reporting is a costly thing, and when the product is being given out for free then one has to question where the money is coming from, because if it's not coming from the readers then it's likely coming at least in part from sources that have a vested interest in what the news reports. I'm all for frugality, especially in the world we live in today, but a subscription to a decent news site just isn't that expensive for most westerners.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secretfire Link ParentMy home server plan in the long run is to have a machine capable of running Jellyfin and a few other things, and I definitely wouldn't trust a Pi to do that. But as a short term quick-and-dirty...My home server plan in the long run is to have a machine capable of running Jellyfin and a few other things, and I definitely wouldn't trust a Pi to do that. But as a short term quick-and-dirty solution for a backup device I think it'd work for a little while at least, until I can build an actual server. But you know what they say about temporary solutions being the longest-lasting ones.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secretfire LinkI'm working on getting a (relatively) robust backup system going for my important files. My current backup system is, well, shit. I have my main drives, a NAS drive in my PC that I manually...I'm working on getting a (relatively) robust backup system going for my important files. My current backup system is, well, shit. I have my main drives, a NAS drive in my PC that I manually copy/paste things into whenever I feel like it, and a 15GB Google Drive for photos and important documents.
On my computer I'm running Linux and a shameful Windows installation, both of which I want to reinstall (Windows to get a better supported version, Linux because in classic Linux user fashion I am dissatisfied with the way I made my partitions last time). Before going through with it I'd like to have everything even slightly important backed up - A broad survey of my entire PC shows that ignoring things like applications, games, and legally acquired TV/films (I can always legally acquire them again in the future), I only really have ~300GB of stuff. Which is, well, kinda trivial to back up honestly. I've bought some cloud storage that I'm going to configure regular automatic backups onto, and now I'm looking at getting a home server of some kind for further redundancy.
A few weekly threads ago I was discussing building a fancy home server, unfortunately that's fallen back into the "things I pretend I'm going to do but will never do" category of ideas, mostly because of choice paralysis and the fact that RAM just got stupid expensive all of the sudden. Maybe when Black Friday rolls around it'll give me the push I need. Until then, I might just buy a Raspberry Pi, stick a NAS drive on it, and use it as a very basic easy option.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
secretfire Link ParentIt's not something I've looked into in much depth in fairness, but I've always been a bit skeptical of the claims around l-theanine relaxing you that much; I've seen a lot of people claiming it's...It's not something I've looked into in much depth in fairness, but I've always been a bit skeptical of the claims around l-theanine relaxing you that much; I've seen a lot of people claiming it's a miracle substance and others claiming it's entirely placebo (and the skeptics like to bring out graphs so, yknow, who can argue against that?). I am naturally of a high-anxiety disposition though so possible its jitter-reducing powers are simply dwarfed by my brain's desire to feel like it's about to explode at any second. I might grab some theanine supplements in the future and see if maybe I just need a heroic dose for its effects to kick in.
Insanely jealous of you and your good everything city, I'm in the sort of place where the tea menu in a tea shop consists of english breakfast, earl grey, shitty matcha, and mystery fruit/chamomile blend for $8. A lot of the more bourgie tea shops will do tasting sessions where you spend an hour tasting a dozen types of tea, which is a fun way to find what kinds of tea you like. Other than that, you can just buy a bunch and try them!
Gyokuro is one of those ones where you can get fairly cheap stuff and it'll taste okay, but the quality ceiling is high. You can get some for $20 or $200 and it's a huge difference. That's part of why it's normally served in such small quantities, it's made with a huge amount of leaves per ml of water (normally ~6-10g per 50ml), at a really low temperature, ~40-50C. It's almost like the tea equivalent of espresso; I've found that anything more than 3 cups gives me a full on head high. It's definitely one of the more unique tea experiences out there in both sensation and taste, really cool that you found a place that did a full gyokuro session! If you liked it you should definitely give sencha a go.
All the best!
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
secretfire LinkFirstly, I'd recommend reading this Serious Eats article, it's a great article that has what you're looking for and then some. The best bit of advice from the article though is to forgo tea bags,...Firstly, I'd recommend reading this Serious Eats article, it's a great article that has what you're looking for and then some. The best bit of advice from the article though is to forgo tea bags, because they kinda suck for any "proper" cups of tea. Rule of thumb is that the lighter in colour the cup of tea is, the more the quality of the leaves matters, which is why the brits can get away with pretending that their shitty English black tea tastes good when they steep it for 10 minutes in boiling water to remove any hint of delicacy in flavour - It was never going to taste good regardless of how abused those poor tea leaves get.
I'm personally a Japanese green tea kinda person. I'll give a quick primer but there are tons of resources out there - Tezumi is a good site for getting into tea brewing (they also sell tea in the US, have never bought from them myself but I've heard generally good things).
The two main types of Japanese green tea that you're likely to find in the West are Sencha and Matcha. Matcha is its own thing and it's become really trendy as a flavouring these days - Personally I'm ambivalent on it, I enjoy it when it's made "properly", i.e. as a hot cup of tea in the traditional manner, but it's not a daily thing for me. It comes in a powdered form and you can probably find it in somewhere in your area.
Sencha, on the other hand, is the more standard form of tea, its name literally meaning "daily tea". It takes the form of green tea leaves, you steep them in water at ~70C for maybe a minute, and you can get multiple cups out of the same pot of leaves. It's my personal go-to. Unfortunately it's not the easiest thing to find locally; or rather, it's hard to find stuff that's local and good, most Asian stores will probably sell Chinese-grown sencha which is universally rubbish. You can order from a ton of places online, I've had good experiences with O-cha.
Will give an honourable mention to Genmaicha also, a type of sencha that contains toasted rice grains. The toasted rice flavour is really quite strong, so it was traditionally made out of lower-quality tea leaves, sort of like adding a mixer to a shitty whiskey. Which isn't to say that genmaicha tastes bad though, I really enjoy it and it's probably the easiest type to find in the West, so pick some up if you can. You brew it essentially the same as a normal sencha, maybe a little bit hotter, 75C or so for a first infusion.
Japanese green tea isn't for everyone, some people describe it as having an almost "fishy" taste, which I've personally never noticed, but there is definitely a sort of "vegetable-like" taste in certain types, particularly deep-steamed teas, namely fukamushi - There are different types of sencha based on how they're steamed, or if they've been placed in shade while growing (notably Gyokuro, arguably the fanciest green tea out there), but I'll save that for the 201 class. I quite like the taste, it has a strong umami flavour.
My one and only gripe with Japanese green tea is that it's particularly high in caffiene compared to other teas. Not nearly as high per ml as a cup of coffee, of course, but high enough that my dumb caffiene-hypersensitive body starts getting jittery and anxious after 3 or 4 cups, and the dream of an afternoon tea break is unreachable for me unless I feel like going to sleep at 4am. Probably not an issue if you're accustomed to coffee of course, but worth keeping in mind.
As for teaware, you can go fancy, or you can just, well, not. Personally I own a kyusu, a small Japanese teapot that I use exclusively for my green teas, but before that I used a simple mesh ball infuser and it worked alright (you want the tea leaves to have a large area to spread out in as they brew, helps with flavour). A generic porcelain teapot will work fine too, provided you have some kind of filter to keep the tea leaves from spilling out. If you feel like investing in an all-purpose bit of teaware, I'd go with a gaiwan, it's the most basic form of brewing vessel and you can probably find them relatively cheaply online.
Any top tips for getting into tea? I was just mocked for weighing tea... I guess that isn't as important in this scene.
Not at all! I always weigh loose leaf tea for the first few pots of a new packet. Different teas tend to have slightly different densities, normally when I open a new packet of tea leaves for the first time I weigh until I have a sense of how much is in a teaspoon's worth of leaves, after which I just go by feel. It's not a huge deal, you can mess around with tea/water ratios for any amount of leaves, but I like the same cup every time, more or less, so I sometimes weigh it.
We're not going to make it to net zero and we never were going to, combustion engine ban or otherwise. Anyone who thinks there's still a chance of civilisation pulling itself out of this death spiral is deluding themselves.