dear lazyweb

i'm busy today and therefore not able to rev up my google-fu right now, but if any of you have experience or knowledge of a twitter-to-jabber gateway, i'd be interested to hear all about it.

what i want to do is ship my tweets to my jabber client (ichat, though i can change that if needed) so they're sent to the *poing* who is at the other end of that connection, and who does not want to sign up to twitter or have yet another client open to yet another communication channel. (which is a very sensible attitude to have.)

ti kuan yin oolong

is some of the best tea i've ever had.

it comes from the mist-shrouded wuyi mountain region in china. just look at those images. *sigh*. so beautiful. and occasionaly amusing, like the one of the mountain that looks like a teapot (i suspect a photomanip).

ti kuan yin takes its name from the goddess kuan yin who is often depicted at buddhist temples. she's usually considered the goddess of mercy; i call her the transgender goddess because some of her origins point to a male boddhisattva. the legend of the tea says that an iron (ti in chinese) statue of the goddess stood in a rundown temple in a poor village in fujian province. the goddess appeared to a farmer in a dream and told him of a treasure in a cave behind the temple, which he must nurture and share with others. when he woke up he looked and found a small tea seedling, which he planted and nourished. the leaves from this plant produced a very fragrant and flavourful tea. the farmer dedicated the tea to the goddess kuan yin, shared cuttings with his neighbors, and henceforth the whole community prospered.

oolong is partly fermented, so it's really neither a black tea nor a green tea. ti kuan yin is delicately aromatic, with a rich golden colour, and a slightly sweet, fruity fragrance. i am now on infusion #4, and it's still decent tea (though i think i'll usually stop at 3 -- they all have subtly different flavours). it is a really versatile tea; with milk or without, with sweetener or without; goes well with any sort of meal, even strongly flavoured ones, but tastes just as good as the last cup of the evening to come down from the day.

not cheap, but well worth it.

art deco tile

lovely detail on a building downtown.

things done today

( click if you are REALLY bored )