This weekend was kind of a varied one, actually.  I started things off by waking up uncharacteristically early in order to go to the Morning Flow event at Teance, which I enjoyed!  We had three different tastings at the event -- a White Peony (white), Shan Lin Xi "Hot Fire Fir" (oolong), and Baochong (oolong).  It probably goes without saying that the white peony was my favorite -- yes, I =have= been dabbling here and there in other teas, but...I can say with certainty that so far none of them are a "me" tea, unsurprisingly.  I can certainly see why a lot of people enjoy oolong tea, but it's just...not what I need.

It goes a little further than that for this set of teas, actually, as white peony is something that I have some special sentimental attachement toward, being the first white tea that I ever purchased or even came into contact with.  As such, the grassy yet gentle taste of it really brings me back and reminds me of an earlier time -- which of course is a strong experience for me.  I really took in those moments enjoying that tea, and the whole while after we had sampled the two oolong teas I was waiting patiently for my chance to "return home" to that white peony.

Today was a little different as I woke up uncharacteristically =late= and ended up skipping lunch -- this is with the DST time change, too.  But it was a really nice day, as I spent the entire afternoon enjoying a different white tea (aged, compressed) that I had gotten from Teance prior.  I really took my time with this one; must have steeped it countless times, and of course it stayed consistent and true throughout (there is a reason I'm drawn to these teas), while I worked through not one but two different Christmas letters (including finishing a longer one, yay).  I wrote in my letter a bit, about my relation to the white teas, as well as how the difference between the white peony and the fuding baicha reflected some changes that had happened in my life over that time period.

I didn't end up playing any DDR or doing any dancing this weekend -- will have to get back on that train this coming week -- but like I said, things were relatively varied, in a good way.  I mentioned that I had been working on Rhythm Quest a good bit, and I was eager to take a step back...although I had a couple of bugfixes that needed to happen before that.  I not only enjoyed my weekly ALTTPR seed (took the first place time, let's gooo), but even hopped on for some unranked melee randomly, which wasn't terrible, though somehow I found the stuttering/lag to be more bothersome than I remember it being.  Was it just my imagination or did something particular with my setup get worse?  Hard to say, but it certainly felt like something was amiss -- emu was reporting 60FPS and even when I had a low ping connection with my opponent it still didn't feel great.  Not really worth digging into further though, as I've already shelved that controller; melee and netplay is just something I'm not keen to spend too much time on.

I finished up that round of cleanup and reorg for my room!  There's still more that can be done of course, especially with my keyboard switches and keycaps and such, but that'll do for now.  I even have extra free space in one of my drawers when all is said in done, which is a nice feeling.  It doesn't feel great that I still have a bunch of stuff that I realistically don't really need...but at the same time, at the very least I've gotten more of that stuff organized into nice compartments instead of just sprawled out into random messes of drawers.

I've been typing on the Evo80 for a while, but just now switched back over to the Cycle7, which is newly outfitted with all new parts!  I've put in the WS POM+ switches (appreciating them so far!), and currently going =without= plate foam, which is a changeup from before where I was using it.  More notably, I'm using my new stabilizer set (Typeplus x YIKB stabilizers) and they are working fantastically so far; I didn't try to rebalance the wires or anything, just carefully assembled them as well as put some light lubrication on and there's no ticking or rattling sounds thus far at all.  Might have to grab another batch of these later for my Neo80...

I'm also using a new PCB in my Cycle7, this one supporting wireless connectivity!  Though, in a somewhat noob-ish mistake, I forgot that my Cycle7 model didn't come with batteries, so I still need the USB-C connector to provide power, oops.  I'll see if I can get some batteries separately...[blush]

I mentioned last time that I have an opportunity to teach something at dancebreak and it seems like there might be some opportunity for me to help with or even help host some things at Teance as well.  Of course, the initial part of me approches these with a healthy dose of reservation -- I want to be certain of things before I commit my efforts -- but at the same time, I think I'm actually at a spot in my life where I'm sort of welcoming something like this, especially at Teance where I've been feeling a good energy.

Cooking wise, I've been feeling like I've been putting off a few things too much actually, haha.  I keep on meaning to make a soy reduction sauce but I never find time for it, and then I'm overdue on an attempt at a poke bowl (which is why I'm supposed to make the soy reduction...).  Well, I just move the arctic char fillet from the freezer to the fridge, so it'll have to happen without the sauce I guess.  Which is fine, maybe I can just whip up some sort of mayo-soy aoili or something.  And then I keep on putting off making cornbread as well.  Ah, come to think of it, my knives -- or two of them at least -- need resharpening as well.  Well, we'll see what I can do with this coming week.  It's always just one step at a time, right?  Need to start think about xmas gifts too as I try to commit time toward finishing all of these letters...