Tiny Tea Dispatch #008

Published:

Dec 29, 2018, 01:00:00

I have accomplished the task of going through driving lessons this summer and have gotten a temporary driver’s licence out of it. Practicing every week, terrified but managing. So I’m as close to a functional adult human being as possible. 8/10, would pass a Turing test. The big blue ‘L’ is stuck to the rear window, take a seat, let’s go for a ride.

The garden is looking dreary, with the sunflowers gone. The ivy first turned yellow, then burgundy before losing all its leaves*. Autumn pushed into winter. If I could, I wouldn’t leave the house again until summer. But there is work and driving to be done.

Watch report

I can report 2 new watch purchases since the last newsletter. Surprisingly, both are the same watch: Seiko SKX009’s. The ACTUAL watch Robert Redford** was wearing in that picture I used for last December’s newsletter. It’s also the sibling of my first mechanical watch (the SKX007, sold off this past summer). But as you can see, I turned them into something a bit different.

Watch number 1, I would call the ultimate version of the 009: it has a better movement than was originally in it and that lovely blue dial that is impossible to find anymore.
Watch number 2, I converted to have a ‘Batman’ look (referring to the nickname given to a type of Rolex watch because of the grey, black and blue), with a smidge of yellow thrown in there (because Batman always has a little bit of yellow somewhere).

Unfortunately, in order to fund this, I have to get rid of a couple of other watches from the collection. There has to be a balance, in life as well as in my bank account. And preferably, a positive one.

Made

In October I participated in the daily ink drawing challenge (#inktober). I kicked it off with TinTin Movie Noir, following it up every day with a darker version of a franco-belgian comic book character. My favorites are probably Tintin, Gaston, Madam Pheip and Hagar.

Living

We’re looking to move house in the coming year. Well, looking to buy a house. It’s proving to be a stressful and difficult search for affordable living. Some of the things we have to keep in mind: can we get to and from work? What happens if one of us needs to change jobs for some reason, are we close enough to the major transportation hubs? Is the place and neighbourhood dog-friendly enough (eg. traffic, places to walk, …)?

I’ve also been looking at videos about tiny living for inspiration on keeping our future living space liveable and organized. I really like multi-purpose furniture and mechanisms to conceil storage. Many of which are inspired by living on boats. You have limited space in there, so ship builders try to make the most of it + it helps stuff stay clean and orderly.

Seen

There’s been so many great things I’ve watched lately, it’s difficult to list and commend on all of them. But here’s a small list:

Maniac

A Netflix series with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone.
Has a futuristic side but in a really banal and prescient way. It looks and feels a lot like today but some of the annoying or scary things are cranked up to 11. I saw some elements from the movie ‘Her’, Terry Gilliam movies, comics of Warren Ellis and more. It deals with isolation, grief and schizophrenia. Some things with which I am very familiar at this point. And they’re all done very well. For one thing, they don’t play up the ‘creative genius’ trope that always crops up when using mental illness in popular media. There is an element on the ‘superpower’ trope but I think they counter it well enough with other things.
I originally wrote a lengthy thing about it, right after watching the series but it’s best to go in cold I think.

Nanette

A standup show on Netflix but only in so far as it has a person on stage that is a comic. It’s often under the disguise of comedy that truth is best be passed on and this packs a lot of truth. But it never feels like it’s too much or too long or too serious or too funny. It’s an important dose of humanity and empathy I think everyone should ingest. If you haven’t seen it, please take these 45 minutes out of your life to do so.
It’s about setting thing straight, about examples in life, about living, about so many things. I don’t know how to best describe it without giving the wrong impression.

One bit in the show deals with Vincent van Gogh and (to bring things back to ‘Maniac’) about the myth of the tortured artist. It deals with the ideat that terrible mental health is NOT conductive to creativity. It is a hinderance. Artists are never born to early and the reason van Gogh was only recognized after his death was because he was bad at networking and had really bad mental health. It’s a bit of an oversimplification but the main gist of it.

Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth

Continuing this letter’s theme I suppose, here is a video about… well, you can read the title. I think Oliver has done a very brave thing in revealing a very personal part of his life and created a very moving image with the cosmonaut. If you have people in your life struggling to keep their head above water mentally, and dealing with suicidal thoughts, please show them this.

Great British Bake off

Reality tv baking but without the drama. Wait! Wait wait… don’t leave! If you are ambivalent about baking and don’t want (a lot of) tv drama, this is the show for you. Funny and filled with the best bits humanity has to offer.

Read

Damien Hirst is scaling back his business activities in order to focus on making art! Oh the irony. If this had come from the Onion, I would not have been surprised. This pretty much reinforces my idea that much of the (contemporary) art scene is just a marketing and business opportunity. I don’t think Hirst has been an an actual artist in a looong time (if ever).

Life

I’ve read a lot of stuff about A.I., machine learning and ethics in technology this year but I think I’ll keep it for another time. Since I am on vacation as of right now, let’s instead go a more cheerful route. You know what sounds good right about now? A career in pizza. That’s right, some lucky bastard has found a way to live off of pizza (tours).
Now I really want to quit my job and either join them, or start my own business combining watches, pizza, comics and tea. What would be your dream job combo?

It’s been another full year, hasn’t it? As I was writing part of this letter, there was news of the government throwing in the towel and talk of re-elections. In the middle of that, we are once again reminded that the right wing movement are dangerously adept at playing the media and the public. We live in uneasy times.
But you know what? Let’s end on high note. Whether you’re having pizza or something more festive, whether you celebrate it or not, try to have a nice end-of-year.
It’s as good a time as any to find something to enjoy wherever you can. Some of us have lost people around this season, others have to share celebrations with people we don’t see eye to eye with or have traumatic experiences with. I wish you all the strength in the world to make it to another year, and preferably, through it.

In the new year, let’s hope we can still try to make something better.

Tiny Tea Dispatch #008

Publishing info

Published:

~~ Watch report ~~

~~ Made ~~

~~ Living ~~

~~ Seen ~~

Maniac

Nanette

Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth

Great British Bake off

~~ Read ~~

~~ Life ~~

~~ Links ~~

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