Tag: personal

Sun Tea Season

Almost looks as good as it tastes

Spring (or is it summer) came late to Northern California this year. But, despite a 4 week delay it seems to finally be here now with temperatures rising to the high eighties and low nineties. Spring and Summer have a lot of things going for them; one of my favorites though, is sun tea. What is sun tea? Well it’s tea, usually herbal, you brew in the sun. I suppose most people just call it iced tea but I like the phrase ‘sun tea.’  ‘Sun tea’ conjures up images of a blue sky, mild breeze, blinding white walls, and sparkling pools. Oh, and the delicious taste of ice-cold tea!

Sun tea is really easy to make. You don’t need any fancy teas or tea bags (though you can use these things! Lipton is the blandest of teas and there are so many great flavors out there!) Here’s how I make it!

This is an Orange blossom, clove, and cranberry tea. I bought it in bulk from my local grocery co-op

You’re going to need some tea, a tea bag (if it isn’t prepackaged tea), and a large water jug. My jug is an old Santa Cruz Juice gallon jug.

I find it easier to place the tea bag in the jug before you put in the tea
I fill the bag up as much as possible

Once you have the tea bag full, make sure you close it tight. The bag is going to be submerged in water for several hours and you don’t want it spilling out into the water.  The tea won’t be ruined if it is but you’ll have to pour everything through a strainer, you can save yourself the hassle by making sure it’s closed tight.

Push the tea bag into the water. Make sure it is fully submerged

Once the tea bag is in the water, make sure the strings are still hanging out of the jar’s mouth and that the bag has plenty of slack, seal the jar and set it out in the sun.

Place in a spot where it will be fully exposed to the sun for at least 3 or 4 hours

After the tea has been in the sun for a sufficient period of time (the longer it’s exposed the stronger the tea’s taste) bring it inside, remove the tea bag, and chill in the refrigerator.  I rarely, if ever, add sugar, honey, or other sweeteners to my tea but you can of course.  If you feel fancy enough you can mix sun tea with a simple syrup for some Sweet Tea.  As you can see from the first picture I enjoy mine over ice with some lemon juice and a slice or two.  Sun tea is best enjoyed anywhere summer is happening.

Anything in particular you associate strongly with the summer season? Share it in the comments below!

Decluttering and Amazon

Only a small sample of the problem

I’ve talked before about the clutter in my house… Mostly the accumulation of books. Recently, I based an entire month of giveaways around that fact.  Despite, giving books away to friends and donating them to libraries and non-profits my house is still full of the things. Sometimes no one wants to take a book off your hands… or a videogame, or piece of electronics.

Until now, these things have just been sitting in closets or on shelves, making me feel guilty every time I look at them. Then someone on-line reminded me of the Amazon Trade-in Store which buys books, electronics, video games, and DVDs! I rounded up all the books and such that had been lying around forever and started scanning them in. Amazon ended up taking almost all of them (they were interested in four books.) and I ended up with $70 of credit with Amazon (which is pretty much like real money anyway, is there anything you can’t buy on Amazon?)

They Take Everything

Even nicer, Amazon pays for the shipping and anything they don’t buy from you gets mailed back to you free of charge as well! This first round was quite successful, so much so that I find myself looking for other things to sell to them

FOUND: A Letter I Wrote to Denny Atkins and His Reply

My Letter to Mr. Atkin and his Reply
My Letter to Mr. Atkins and His Reply Cont'd.

I was going through my old journals (yes I keep one and yes it goes back 13 years or so!) and found this printed out old email exchange. It appears to be a letter I wrote in 1999, to Denny Atkins, who at the time had just left Computer Gaming World. I don’t recall ever writing this email or getting the response. I do want to thank him publicly now though for taking the time out of his busy schedule to write to me! I did take his advice, by the way, I started reading video game magazines and websites earnestly as well as emailing various authors/editors. I even landed a gig as a reviewer for Gamepen.com and then after that at UGO (2000-02). Sadly, I didn’t cultivate relationships with the people I worked with and I couldn’t tell you what most of them are doing today or if they even remember the young, eager high school graduate they were working with back then.  When the dotcom bubble burst, writing assignments dried up and I found myself with a girlfriend, friends, a part-time job and a full-time students’ workload. For me, video game journalism  fell by the wayside. I never picked it up again…

PS – well maybe a little, I’m still listed as a senior writer for GameStooge.com, a small news site, where an old friend from the Gamepen days is the Editor-in-Chief.

Chiptunes that Bury Deep into Your Cranium and Stay There

Never figured it out, still awesome after all these years

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who spent countless hours on weeknights and weekends in front of their televisions as a kid playing Nintendo that to this day I find myself humming bits and pieces of game soundtracks.  Despite the limited ability of the old NES music designers managed to squeeze out of it, with the help of additional soundchips in cartridges, some astonishingly catchy music. Furthermore, despite all the technological advances these old catchy tunes remain the bedrock on which new music for old franchises are built upon. That tune that plays whenever Link gets a new item in the Legend of Zelda? There from the very beginning! Mario’s theme? Yup. Vampire Killer? Check! The music might be tweaked, reworked, remixed, and molded but behind it all you still find these iconic, simple ditties.

Ditties that have been firmly lodged in my head for over 20 years at this point! Here are the ones I find myself humming in elevators most often! Not all of these are from the NES but the majority are. (Click the images to listen to the songs.)  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the tunes showcased here are from games that I go back to play over and over again. How else do you think they became automatic responses for me?

Wicked from Castlevania 1 Stage 3
Bubbleman's Theme from Megaman 2
Wily's Stage 1 from Megaman 2
Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger
Bloody Tears from Castlevania 2: Simon's Curse
Overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. 2
Opening Theme to Shadowgate
Stage 3 theme from Metal Storm
Kraid's Lair from Metroid
Act 4, Part 2 theme from Ninja Gaiden

There are some more quite a few more (like Terra’s theme from Final Fantasy VI, or the second stage music from Shinobi 3)… This is enough to get you started though! Youtube is a great resource as are quality fan sites (think The Castlevania Dungeon) If you want even more chiptunes and don’t care if they’re from video games check out 8-bit Peoples.

So, folks what are your favorites pieces of 8-bit and 16-bit music? Please let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for great tunes as well as great games that come with them!

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