Playoffs, Finals, Tea, Then FINALS

Back again. after another round of midterms. And now just around the corner of the home stretch are the years finals. Tests for a week. The only thing allowing me to look to the future is the Playoffs and the 2-0 start that the Utah Jazz have had in the first round. Charles Barkley has continued to praise the Jazz and I have come to like him more and more everyday because of it. Lets hope that his kind words hold some weight down the stretch because If I don't have THE FINALS to look forward to than finals are going to suck. The Rockets will be back to half strength on Thursday so it will be important for the Jazz to pick up these home games. I also have my fingers crossed for Denver to beat the Lakers. If all goes according to plan then I will get to see a couple Jazz playoff games.

Wii without the Net?

Video games are becoming increasingly important in society today. In fact I recently read an article that people are networking together their computers and video game systems in order to run a complex program that unfolds information stored in human cells. In the future you will need the internet. It is used for almost everything already. Gaming, News, Shopping, Science, Ordering Tea, and everything else I can't think of. As I was thinking of this, I came across an interesting site Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™!. Here you have the chance to win a Nintendo Wii and also to participate in a groundbreaking auction that will give the highest bidder free high speed internet for life, as well as a high speed modem, and free installation.
If you win the Wii you will receive the Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 5 Sports games ( Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Golf and bowling), 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable. And let me tell you, you will never bowl a better game in your life. Not only is it cheaper than going to the lanes, but you also get to wear your own shoes.
Now just think of it, you could log on, and surf the internet with your brand new Wii ,without paying another cent for the rest of your life! Bidding starts at 10! Here is the site again http://urlbrief.com/3a63e7


This post has been written for compensation in exchange for generating buzz about the product.

Sweet Music

Jazz music since its creation has been a wild and crazy sound that is played from the soul. Very rarely are things scripted and you quite often make the music that is written your own, and that means the occasional sour note. The Utah Jazz have started a road trip of the east and their name seems to be reflecting their character. They lost their first game to the Chicago Bulls and seemed to take it in stride. Coach Solan was joking at the press conference that they lost because of the high altitude in Chicago. All part of the music?
One might think after watching the opening quarter of the Jazz Bucks game last night where the Jazz dominated scoring 40 points. Then that sour note struck again and they were tied at half. The faltered for so long the Bucks had a commanding lead in the fourth and if it wasn't for, in my opinion, the sweet sound of Brewers fast breaks and good free throws The Jazz might have lost 2 in a row. Maybe the Jazz show to much in the first, who knows but until they can win on the road consistently their will be no championship in their future. But hey, the won last night keeping a 4 game lead over Denver.

I signed up for PPP!

Hello all,
I signed up for payperpost! And I couldn't be happier. This is a site where I get to post about products that we all have a passion for and then I get paid for it. I found out about pay per post while I was searching for a way to make money for future tea purchases. And a way I have found. I have learned that I can accept up to three posts per day and that will more than afford a wide array of tea and tea products to be written about. This is a dream come true for me because I am also thinking that this could come close to paying my rent as well, meaning I will not have to abandon my quest for a expensive taste in tea that I have recently acquired. This site seems like a pretty tight nit community as well. I received excellent service and help from the staff and they have helped me at every step to become a member. And even more, you can become a member by reviewing one of my posts. Yes, you will get paid for it as well. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who has a blog to make some spare cash and make some links to your site as well. Ihope you all sign up as soon as possible as well. Good Luck, and Good Tea.

The Daily Cup

I have fallen in love with a ginseng Oolong that I wrote about some time ago. I have had way to much of that tea since then and I have all but ran out. I decided not to repost about teas that I have already wrote about, hence the daily cup hiatus. But today I had a great cup of Tie Guan Yin. The leaves were rolled fairly well, it had a good scent, and the tea was a full flavored Oolong. It is said that this is one of the most famous teas in China, but to tell you the truth I have yet to come across a tea or a tea product where the shop or tea house told me it wasn't famous in China. It was good though. I used my very own adaptation of the traditional method of the Gong Fu style. I will tell you all about it in the next edition of the daily cup.

Motivation.

It seems as if the jazz don't feel the need to win on the road. With Denver struggling right now Jazz have an opportunity to open up a lead and seal off a playoff spot. They don't seem interested though. Last night against the Bulls they were lackluster and shooting very very poorly. They are bad on the road for some reason and this should be all the more reason to grind it out and win some games down the stretch. Houston is a likely 1st round playoff candidate for the Jazz and they haven't lost a game in, well, however long ago 20 games was. Home court would be huge for the Jazz and if they could put together a 10 or 15 (not asking for to much I hope) game win streak they could win the conference and seal off home court through out the conference championship.
AK47 was back last night though, so that was good to see. I am toying with the idea that if the foul is flagrant enough and bad enough to warrant a suspension, then the person should be suspended until the person injured returns (up to a month).

Space is where we should be.

Two missions, one lifting off yesterday and the space shuttle in a few days. The space station is getting crowded lately, but that is ok because the station is getting a new compartment and a new arm, as well as a ton of supplies. Some people question if we should be in space at all. And that it is a waste of money. I say that those people are so hopeless that they want everyone to feel the same way. They are trapped on this planet by their own downfalls so they don't think that anyone should even think about the possibilities that there is something amazing just a few miles up. Space is the driving force behind some of the greatest minds in the world. It is the fuel. Take away that, you take away a brilliant child's hope of traveling into space and replace it with a brilliant child who might land a high paying job working for a company like Enron. Space turns people into explorers and it keeps this planet from growing stagnant.

Too Close For Comfort.

The Jazz are nursing a three game lead over Denver right now, and with their inability to win games on the road they have to make up for it at home. They managed to beat Dallas to keep a 16 game win steak going at home and last night they won number 17. But that will not be enough. Their win over Dallas left them a man short, with the Dirk attack on Kirilenko, and the leagues one game suspension makes Dallas easy prey for the red hot Rockets. Denver won again last night against the Suns, so who knows what is going to happen, all I know is my head hurts.

The Daily Cup

WOW, It has been a while. I have been struggling for some time now to get just a few seconds of time away from the books. Mid term week has come and I cannot begin to tell you how much I need tea now more than ever. With my nerves frazzled and my brain tired, a soothing cup of tea is the perfect break. Today I had a Jasmine green tea. The leaves weren't rolled particularly well and the flavor was a little salty. I was disappointed. Two hours in a stadium with 1199 other students frantically scribbling put me on edge, and the last thing I needed was a mediocre tea. So after my disappointment I made a cup of my 8 year old Puerh. It was a great flavor. A while back I came across some 15 year old puerh, I think this experience will take me back to pick a a great batch of tea for emergencies. Who knows maybe I will even get a 30 year old puerh.

The Semi Daily Cup?

I have decided that no one in their right mind should care what type of crummy bagged tea I drink. So from now on I will only post daily cups if I have a full leaf tea of good quality. Frankly Safeway is not up to snuff with it's imported fine tea selections and this I am sure all of you know. Last few days I have actually been skiing, so only bagged tea for me. Don't worry though, I have lots of good things in waiting to drink in the near future. Hope you will join me in my quest to drink at least one cup of great tea a day.

4th place

With a horrible loss against a winnable team last night, the Jazz made up for it tonight beating Atlanta. A bit to close for comfort, but a win is a win. And with a surprising couple of losses for Denver last night and tonight, the Jazz have been able to gain a slightly tighter grip on the division with a 2.5 game lead over the Denver's Nuggets. As long as the Jazz hold the division they will not fall below 4th place but if we want some home court advantage in the playoffs (and the Jazz most definitely do with a 23 and 3 record at Energy Solutions Arena) we will need to hope for Lakers and Phoenix losses and New Orleans losses as well.
On a personal note, I hope D Williams is only wearing that arm band in order to put some padding on his sore elbow. I have been making fun of A.I. for wearing his for some time now, and I would be disappointed if I had to stop.
Go Jazz.

Holosync Part 1

I am going to keep this one short here because I am only two days in. So far I am surprised. The website has loads of claims, and one of the articles claims that this program can awaken latent powers. Well I don't feel my ability for telekinesis increasing yet, but after examining the steps and going over the tapes I would have to say that this program does look helpful. Just by mere time spent in solitude and reflection can have a benefit, and the first thing that struck me about this program was the amount of time it takes each day and the amount of months it takes to develop. This is definitely not a miracle pill, which adds to my comfort. Nothing is free, as my Daddy always taught me.
Once you put the headphones on (stereo headphones) the audio is very serene. Very peaceful. And you have an immediate feeling that can probably be attributed to the placebo effect. Then you settle in. You let your breathing slow and move into rhythm. And your off. The first stages of meditation can be felt within ten minutes, and these are just the first tapes, I can't wait to work my way up to the full hour session. Here's to hoping these trends continue...


photo by Fumanchu

The Daily Cup

Nothing new and crazy today. I just had the usual green tea again. Same as last night, I had the yellow mountain needle point green tea. This time I used more tea leaves to help strengthen up the flavor and it seemed to do the trick.

Where the West Was Won.

The west in the NBA is out of control. Only 5 games separate the teams in 1st and 9th place. The Jazz won their game last night against Golden State, which was huge, but the Nuggets, the Rockets, The spurs, and The Lakers also won. The Jazz managed to beat Golden State, but other than that most of the threats still remain. Portland has fallen, but the defeat of Boston by Denver last night probably will raise some eyebrows. At least Charles Barkley has placed his vote for the Championship, The Utah Jazz. Boozer likes those TNT guys so hopefully he won't let them down.

The Daily Cup

Yellow Mountain Green Tea. Great green tea and one of the ten famous teas of China. The taste is very sharp, and in a world of packaged crumbs that is called bagged tea, this tea never seems to give in to the evils of tannin. I used the Gong Fu style (loosely, I was the only one drinking)and I don't think I added enough today. The color was promising but it was a bit light, regardless of steeping time.

Everybody was Gong Fu Fighting...

Here is my promised intro on Gong Fu. There are many books about the proper steps and techniques that are used in the ceremony but I will give a quick into and then a link to the video on you tube that helps to quickly introduce you to Gong Fu.
The Gong Fu tea ceremony is a ceremony of preparing loose leaf tea that originated in Fujian province during the late Ming Dynasty 450 years ago. It is a practice that is used to enjoy tea in groups. This is great for guests because the portions are small and the steep time is relatively short. Here is the video.


So much better that the Song style.

The Future of Meditation

I see a lot nowadays in the meditation market and I fear meditation might be going in the wrong direction. There are so many eccentrics and copycats out there that it gives meditation a bad name. Either you are considered that weird guy, or you are that guy who is riding the fad that is modern meditation. First you go to yoga class where they play the soundtrack to garden state, then your off to starbucks to have your mocca latte before you go to meditation class. All these things are spoken about like it is something that a college student does, something that only lasts four years.
There is also a huge array of products coming out that are trying to ride this wave, But are they any good. I have received a series of CD's from my father with a product called the Holosync program. The cd's are supposed to change your brain's wavelength to the wavelength of yogi's from India. I will be reviewing these tapes over the next few month's and telling all of you out there if I think their is any merit in the new age revival in the starbucks era.






Pic from flickr

Sunday.

Today is my day off so no posts.
Tea of the Day- Green Tea with Jasmine.

The Daily Cup

Today I had a wild pu-erh tea whole leaf tea. It was aged 5 years when I bought it and I have saved this batch for almost 3 years now. I shared this with my girlfriend this morning for about 2 hours. It was a very pleasant start to the day all around. The earthy flavor was very distinct and strong. I never quite know how to describe a pu-erh, in my own words I would have to say that it reminded me of the redwood forest, although I doubt that will mean much to any of you. We shared the tea using the gong-fu style, minus the traditional bowing. Tea has become a bigger and bigger part of my life lately, and I have to say, I couldn't be happier. Maybe it is the chemical Theobromine in the tea. I can't say for sure.
For those of you who don't know what the gong fu serving method is, I will give a short intro tomorrow.

The Birds!!!

The Birds Have Returned!

March 20th might be the first day of spring, but today I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping.

It was refreshing to hear them instead of my alarm clock for a change. But at least I could find the snooze button on my clock. Its the weekend!!! Wait for the sunrise!!!

Daily Cup

Today I had more time to spend on my daily cup so I decided to steep up a batch of some Ginseng Oolong. This stuff is great the whole leaves are rolled nicely, and by the third steep the flavor was perfect. There was also a strong, lingering sweet flavor after the sip that made it that much better. Good stuff, but I think high in caffeine, after my 6th or 7th steep I felt a slight headache coming on.

Here are the leaves before opening.

Here are the leaves after.

The Broken Board

Chess seems to be a dying game of strategy. Yeah you can find the niches that play constantly and at a level you can probably never reach, but it's essence. The idea of sitting across from a stranger in a park and matching wits only happens in select cities. Even as millions of people pour into coffee houses and tea houses on a daily basis they seem to want to jump in and out as fast as possible. The seats could be packed, not a space to sit among large sofas and chairs that have so much padding the arm rests come up to your chin, and on the rare occasion that they have a chess set it is always unused due to lack of pieces, or a black and red folding chess board that has 1/4th of the squares torn away. So I should re phrase my statement chess is not a dying game of strategy. It will always be there in some form or another. But even though chess is the most played game on yahoo, with thousands of players on at any given time, it will still be dying in a sense. That feeling of antiquity and austerity you imagine when you where younger, and that feeling of passion for the act of moving pieces for the goal of defeating a foe, not just stealing pieces and clicking a mouse. And on that note, I found a great chess site, Schemingmind.com.

The Daily Cup

I think that at least one cup of tea is essential. There are endless benefits, helps to ward off cancer, lowers blood clots, antioxidants, and bla bla bla. Those things all have their place but there is also something spiritual to drinking tea. It sooths the mind and prepares it to experience life. So for that reason alone one cup is essential. You can take your time and brew a fine full leaf tea, or you can do the hurry up method of popping a tea bag into a mug, either way one cup is essential.
Today I didn't have the time for a full leaf tea, that takes a certain amount of respect that I wasn't able to give.

Twinings brand green tea. On sale at Albertsons. It does the trick in a pinch.

I take what I can get though, and on my way out this morning I was able to prepare my mind and body for the day.



Anywhere a person cultivates tea, long life will follow. -Eisai, 1211

Where Amazing Happens.

I am a huge Utah Jazz fan. Basketball, for those of you who don't know. And so like it or not I will be giving weekly updates as to the standings in the west. I am not an sport analyst by any means. I am a fan, so don't expect me to have anything intelligent to say. I will more or less be cheering when the Jazz win, and pouting when they lose.
Ok here we go. Lots happening last night. Denver lost, thank god, they are uncomfortably close in the division but with the Jazz win Utah now has a 2 game buffer for first place. Next up for the Jazz will be Golden State, but the Warriors are hot right now beating the Suns last night. Denver plays the Celtics next, which will also be a tough game for them so I have my fingers crossed, Jazz win, Nuggets loss next week after the break. Maybe we can get a three game lead going.

My only problem with science is not that we believe in it, but that we only believe in it because it is scientifically proven.

My favorite show on television right now is Stargate. Battlestar Galactica has been on hiatus for some time now and Firefly was canceled. I love science fiction, so many advancements have been made in reality, and many of these advances were modeled after what we hoped for and dreamed for after watching a good sci fi flick. But this medium does not stop with technology and architecture, science fiction also seeks out the advancement of the human itself. With Star Trek we examined what it meant to be human, and more so than that, we examined the nature of a soul. Stargate and many other science fiction shows carry on this thought to this day. We try to find out what a soul is. We try to find out what god is. And we try to fit what we are into what we learn about the universe. Is there a God? If not, Is there a reason we think there is a God? More and more studies come out everyday that link thought processes with physiological responses. Meditation can change brain waves, faith can make you live longer, hope can cure illness. The list can go on and on.
There is science, that we have scientifically proven (yes there is a joke in there), and with science we have discovered a vast universe, a whole spectrum of invisible realities, we have theorized about the possibility of many infinite dimensions, and we know that everything is just different combinations of energy. So who is to say that, like sci fi suggests, we cannot evolve to a point of pure energy. And if we can, then what is the difference between science and religion. Understanding science does not change the fact that we are evolving toward something, some state of being, and the more we learn about the universe, the more I think that science will one day prove to be the math, so to speak, that will give us all that we hope for in religion.

Isaac Asimov once said: "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."

Time to sit back, relax, enjoy a cup of tea and bookmark this site.

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