Yesterday I (1) summarized the Markdown code, (2) I wrote a diary entry (essentially worked out that a problem was not), and (3) wrote up the basics towards a strategy for looking after myself.
- Media/Website/Product: Adagio Teas.
- Media/Poem via E2.
- Media/Picture of Snowden via DA.
- Media/Website/Products: CSYCB.
Adagio Teas
Meta: In the following paragraph (and repeatedly below) I’m testing out whether I can use the Markdown code for an inline link.
Hmm, what to write. “What are my purposes here, to be followed forthwith?” Well, (1) I want to treat these “discoveries” as resources, and hence worthwhile to be accumulated and filed for future reference. With this in mind, (2) I’m hoping that this process of writing it up will itself generate an experience that will (a) help me appreciate and perhaps/thus (b) remember that which is being written up. In terms of what I want to do next, I expect that I will review the target with particular strategies in mind. This means (3) reviewing (i.e. in this case) the (target which is the) website in a way that I could recommend it to an Other. I’ll note that when reviewing for an Other one is much more flexible in one’s values and general in one’s categorization. Thus I might state that (a) the target offers value-x, as opposed to saying that it has y and z (without stating the assumption that y and z are good because they can have a positive quantity of value-x). Similarly, (b) instead of stating that the target has (e.g. items) y and z, I would say that it has types of-x (i.e. that is some sort of set whose members would include y and z). “Ok, so now I’m ready to actually go ahead and do it?”
I came across Adagio Teas, which aside from being a means of purchasing teas online, are interesting for a few reasons:
- They have a great range of teas, from teas to infusions, as well as supporting paraphernalia, from pots to containers.
- They have informative material, including interviews relating to the sourcing of the tea, as well as essays about everything from health benefits to the goal of the perfect cup.
- They not only make their own blends and allow you to make your own, but they make lists based on the community, including what they call “fandom” and “most popular”. (A most popular blend atm is called TARDIS Blend, and aside from the online description and reviews, the box it arrives in is relevantly illustrated).
In terms of what’s instantly appealing about the website, this can be communicated via a description of a live experience. From the homepage, I choose to go to a favourite tea category (now: Chai). I look at the first few Chai’s in the list (nb. ranking) (nb. everything is gloriously accompanied by photography and the whole website is well designed) and am already charmed by titles like spiced apple chai and rooibos vanilla chai. Everything has its cost/cup (e.g. 12c for Chai’s), and atm I’m liking the chai sampler. This is a loose leaf of 4 varieties; the aforementioned rooibos, plus chocolate, masala, and thai chai; $7 and expect 8-10 cups of each.
How cool is that! Shipping to Australia is the only bitch. Minimum is $45 for 1kg! Ouch.
An E2 poem (cf. missing a love who is beyond the reach of touch)
The poem is called Apoapsis and is by etouffee: Apoapsis.
It’s not magnificent or anything. No incredible perfect lines. But it is apt in content per its theme. It communicates some specific ideas relating to a lover being physically away for an ambiguously measurable temporary period, due to ambiguous reasons, and with all the aching and so forth.
The title, btw, refers to Apsis, which is ” is the point of greatest or least distance of a body from one of the foci of its elliptical orbit” (thank you Wikipedia).
An illustrative momentary dedication to Snowden
This is a poster that combines Obama’s iconography with Snowden’s image, and you can work out everything you need to know by that contrast! Snowden @ DeviantArt
Edward Snowden is a hero.
Cool Shit You Can Buy
Here’s the link to this materialistic meme-filled and eponymously cool gallery: CSYCB
Not everything is memorable. There’s the kitch pop-art – today’s lead, for instance, is a batman symbol rug… There’s some quite creative stuff too. For instance, a service provider that takes a photo of yourself and a famous painting (from pop-art advertising to Italian renaissance) and places your likeness within the latter. That’s fun. It also points out another detail, which is that this website can serve as a portal for discovering others (i.e. it contains links as well as images).
In terms of a functional website, it has some limitations for browsing; it tags all content into a discrete number of categories (e.g. gadgets, funny, creative, etc) (nb. it has an additional tags system) which is alright, and it also has a list it calls “Top 10 cool things to buy this week”, but that’s about it. Needs not only more and versatile tools for browsing, but ideally also some Web 2.0 approaches (i.e. that go way beyond a comments system). Alas, it thus remains to be a diverting mode of browsing, but one that remains large and messy.
