I am sitting in the computer lab of the Duke University Nicholas School pondering the mysteries of the universe. It is all i can do to hold insanity at bay. The only other option is to watch the slow but steady progression of blue bars on my ERDAS Imagine "Modeler" window as they crawl eastward at tortoise-pace. Soon they will reach the end of their march, and "Percent Done" will read "100". Then we can all rejoice and throw our hands in the air, for the time will have come to subset yet another remote sensing image. I may write bitterly of this repetitive task, but the truth is that when this series is complete, the real work begins. Almost like struggling to get on your tight bodysuit and assemble the scuba gear only to finally dread the final plunge into the black unknown, swimming with giant squids snapping their sharp beaks.
The fact of the matter is, I am learning an entirely new program, complete with foreign interface and alien functions, much too late. Admittedly, my Master's Project is all over the place, and everything needs to come together pretty soon. Unfortunately this "soon" is all too soon, namely, a matter of a week or two. If I continue with unwavering determination and submit myself to all the horrors of late-night computer labbery, I might just pull out an impressive product. But I also must take into account all the other work I need to do for my other classes, two of which are unrelated to my future career goals. But who's to say that giving a presentation on the globalization of Pokemon won't help the environment?
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
the perfection of Ten Ren bubble tea
Like many with refined culinary tastes, I am a self-proclaimed bubble tea connoisseur. I have scoured the streets of numerous cities and sampled the selections of countless establishments purporting to sell the finest bubble tea in all the land, but I have come to the conclusion that only one deserves such venerable praise. Ten Ren, an international tea company with branches in all your favorite states (NY, CA, TX, MA, and even unlikely IL), features a bubble tea so magnificent it deserves an entire blog written about it.
Now, I am well aware that there do exist certain "authentic" bubble tea vendors (most likely focused in Chinatown, NY) that use real mashed fruits and brewed tea instead of colorful powders, but these places are either so shrouded in collective secrecy that no one outside of specific insular communities can find them, or so steeped in legend that their very existence is in fact questionable.
Ten Ren does use powder to create their tea, but can we blame them? Who has the time to slice, boil, and mash pounds upon pounds of taro root every day for the ingredients for but one flavor of tea? And along the same lines, what bizarre customer will find the slightly brownish off-white of this tea preferable to the intense and attractive bright purple of the taro flavor powder? I am a stickler for taste, but nevertheless I would prefer not to die choking on chunks of thick pasty taro root while trying to enjoy my bubble tea.
Ten Ren's Tea Time in Chinatown (79 Mott Street) offers a wide selection of flavors, including a number of interesting Chinese and Japanese teas that depart from the usual fruit flavors. Their specialty, as far as I'm concerned, is their tapioca. No bubble tea is complete without the bubbles, and Ten Ren delights even the most skeptically squeemish tea drinker with small, delicately sweet black pearls that positively delight the tongue. They boast a perfect consistency--melting slowly in the mouth and being chewy and soft through and through. Their size is also par to none--small enough to allow the mastication of more than a few at once, yet large enough to ensure the impossibility of accidental swallowing.
I first became aware of Ten Ren's unmatched superiority after finishing my jasmine bubble tea just two days ago. Normally, and other bubble tea fanatics may also attest, one finishes the tea before the tapioca, and then must irritatingly hunt down the bubbles amidst a regular quarry of ice cubes. Upon sucking up the last of my jasmine tea, I realized that I had finished the bubbles before the tea, and hence experienced a resounding exaltation. It was then that I finally understood the perfection of Ten Ren bubble tea.
A Flushing location exists too (135-18 Roosevelt Ave.) which has less flavors but the same great tea, along with a Brooklyn one I am not familiar with (5817 8th Ave.).
My suggestions are the taro, King's Tea 913, or jasmine. If you prefer very sweet tea, then try the lychee.
Now, I am well aware that there do exist certain "authentic" bubble tea vendors (most likely focused in Chinatown, NY) that use real mashed fruits and brewed tea instead of colorful powders, but these places are either so shrouded in collective secrecy that no one outside of specific insular communities can find them, or so steeped in legend that their very existence is in fact questionable.
Ten Ren does use powder to create their tea, but can we blame them? Who has the time to slice, boil, and mash pounds upon pounds of taro root every day for the ingredients for but one flavor of tea? And along the same lines, what bizarre customer will find the slightly brownish off-white of this tea preferable to the intense and attractive bright purple of the taro flavor powder? I am a stickler for taste, but nevertheless I would prefer not to die choking on chunks of thick pasty taro root while trying to enjoy my bubble tea.
Ten Ren's Tea Time in Chinatown (79 Mott Street) offers a wide selection of flavors, including a number of interesting Chinese and Japanese teas that depart from the usual fruit flavors. Their specialty, as far as I'm concerned, is their tapioca. No bubble tea is complete without the bubbles, and Ten Ren delights even the most skeptically squeemish tea drinker with small, delicately sweet black pearls that positively delight the tongue. They boast a perfect consistency--melting slowly in the mouth and being chewy and soft through and through. Their size is also par to none--small enough to allow the mastication of more than a few at once, yet large enough to ensure the impossibility of accidental swallowing.
I first became aware of Ten Ren's unmatched superiority after finishing my jasmine bubble tea just two days ago. Normally, and other bubble tea fanatics may also attest, one finishes the tea before the tapioca, and then must irritatingly hunt down the bubbles amidst a regular quarry of ice cubes. Upon sucking up the last of my jasmine tea, I realized that I had finished the bubbles before the tea, and hence experienced a resounding exaltation. It was then that I finally understood the perfection of Ten Ren bubble tea.
A Flushing location exists too (135-18 Roosevelt Ave.) which has less flavors but the same great tea, along with a Brooklyn one I am not familiar with (5817 8th Ave.).
My suggestions are the taro, King's Tea 913, or jasmine. If you prefer very sweet tea, then try the lychee.
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