Georgi’s Blog

Tea 2

As a continuation of the first post on teas ( in bulgarian only ), today I will talk about two methods of tea preparation: gongfu 功夫 and gaiwan 盖碗.

Recently I got an Yixing 宜兴 tea set, which is used for gongfu 功夫 preparation. It is recommended that this method is used for black 紅茶 and oolong 乌龙 teas. Also, the tea that I drink: silver needle ( 白毫银针 bái háo yín zhēn ) with jasmine is ideal for this type of tea preparation. These are the steps:
If the tea set is brand new, it must be prepared for using. This is done by putting some of the tea that will be used with this yixing set and poring hot water. Then it should be left like this for 24 hours with the tea. After that it should be washed with water and nothing else ( no soaps, detergents etc ) and left to dry on it’s own. The reason for not using cleaners is that the clay used in the yixing pots and sets is porous and absorbs aromas and taste ( as well as soap ). This is also the reason for people to say that after many years of usage, tea can be prepared in these yixing pots only by pouring water in them.

For the actual tea preparation, the leafs of the tea must be dipped into hot water for few seconds to remove the dust and to start the opening of the leafs and the aroma.
The set is also heated with hot water which will help in terms of keeping the temperature of the water constant while stepping the tea. The pot is then closed and for 2 minutes hot water should be poured over it again to keep the temperature constant inside. After 2-3 minutes (depending on the tea) the tea is transfered to a small pitcher from which it can be served for drinking. Right after you transfer the tea, you can pour some more water into the pot to prepare some more tea ( the entire tea set is pretty small, the pot is about 5-6 oz ). The tea is then served in the small cups and is ready for drinking right away ( it is not hot anymore)
After you are done with the drinking, the set is rinsed with water and left to dry by itself.

The second method uses a cup called gaiwan 盖碗. It looks like a somewhat bigger cup with a top, that can be closed very well. The procedure is the following:
The leafs are again rinsed in hot water to start the opening and to clean them from dust. Then they are put into the gaiwan and got water is added. The cup is closed and left for the time that is needed to prepare the tea. After that, without removing the top, the tea can be served directly or moved to a pitcher. The idea is to keep the top closed so that when you transfer the tea, the leafs stay in the gaiwan. This method is much faster and easier and is best for lighter and aromatic teas, because it preserves everything inside the cup while the tea is being prepared.

2 weeks later

A little bit more than 2 weeks from the beginning of the semester I have an idea what are the courses going to be and what I’ll be doing during the semester. In my Economics course there is this old professor that “is teaching this course for 35 years” and since the beginning of the semester we’ve been watching videos of “Economic USA”. Pretty boring. In assembly language, we write programs like

1. ; Georgi Todorov - 2006
2. ; " Write a program that reads a digit entered at the KB, doubles it, then compares the result to 9.
3. ; Your program will then print either twice the number or 9, whichever is larger."
4. ;
5. ; Copyright under the terms of the GPL
6. ;
7. data segment
8. crlf db 0dh, 0ah, '$'
9. question db 'Enter a number? ', '$'
10. data ends
11. WORKING_STORAGE SEGMENT
12. dw 10h dup(?)
13. WORKING_STORAGE ENDS
14. CODE SEGMENT
15. assume SS:WORKING_STORAGE, CS:CODE
16. start:
17. mov ax, data
18. mov ds, ax
19. mov dx, offset question
20. mov ah, 9
21. int 21h
22. mov ah, 1
23. int 21h
24. sub al, 30h
25. mov bl, al
26. add bl,al
27. mov dx, offset crlf
28. mov ah,9
29. int 21h
30. cmp bl,9
31. jg number
32. mov dl,9
33. add dl,30h
34. mov ah,2
35. int 21h
36. jmp quit
37. number:
38. mov dl,1
39. add dl,30h
40. mov ah,2
41. int 21h
42. sub bl,10
43. mov dl,bl
44. add dl,30h
45. mov ah,2
46. int 21h
47. jmp quit
48. quit:
49. mov dx, offset crlf
50. mov ah,9
51. int 21h
52. mov ax, 4c00h
53. int 21h
54. CODE ENDS
55. end start

or:

1. ; Georgi Todorov - 2006
2. ; " Write a program to read in a single letter. If the letter is either y or Y
3. ; your program will print YES, otherwise NO"
4. ;
5. ; Copyright under the terms of the GPL
6. ;
7. data segment
8. crlf db 0dh, 0ah, '$'
9. question db 'Enter a letter? ', '$'
10. NOPE db 'NO','$'
11. YEAH db 'YES','$'
12. data ends
13. WORKING_STORAGE SEGMENT
14. dw 10h dup(?)
15. WORKING_STORAGE ENDS
16. CODE SEGMENT
17. assume SS:WORKING_STORAGE, CS:CODE
18. start:
19. mov ax, data
20. mov ds, ax
21. mov dx, offset question
22. mov ah, 9
23. int 21h
24. mov ah, 1
25. int 21h
26. cmp al,'Y'
27. jz yes
28. cmp al,'y'
29. jz yes
30. mov dx, offset crlf
31. mov ah, 9
32. int 21h
33. mov dx, offset NOPE
34. mov ah, 9
35. int 21h
36. jmp quit
37. yes:
38. mov dx, offset crlf
39. mov ah, 9
40. int 21h
41. mov dx, offset YEAH
42. mov ah, 9
43. int 21h
44. jmp quit
45. quit:
46. mov dx, offset crlf
47. mov ah, 9
48. int 21h
49. mov ax, 4c00h
50. int 21h
51. CODE ENDS
52. end start

In Environment the only topic is how bad humans are and how because of us the planet is in such a bad shape and there are so many illnesses around.
My last course, independent study - “Spectrum Analysis of Network Traffic” ( Sounds pretty cool ) I haven’t done much about. I’ve only read some big portion of the book Fourier Series by Georgi Tolstov. I didn’t do much more, because I had to finish my other Independent study - Networking. Fortunately the paper is almost finished. It just needs some polishing and it is done.

School started

Yesterday was the first day of school! Nice I had a few things to take care on my schedule, but by the end of the day I managed to work finish them all. The classes this semester will be “Economic Thought & Modern World”, “Science of natural systems”, “Computer Organization” and аn independent study on Spectral Analysis of Network Traffic. The first two are core classes. The third is a substitution class for Assembly language. The last one is my idea but I’ll write about it later.
—
6th of September was a holiday in Bulgaria right? Happy holiday to all united and combined and to all Bulgarians!

Motors

Now here is something I found last night before I went to bed. I was crying after I played it few times…

Steve Irwin died

I do not know a person that does not know Steve Irwin. The guy who chases the most dangerous snakes, lizards, spiders and all sorts of animals. Today, while filming his latest documentary, one of these animals managed to end Steve Irwin’s life. More @ http://www.news.com.au/

R.I.P.