Tiny Tea Dispatch #012

Published:

Feb 09, 2020, 01:00:00

Why should I cry for not being an apple, when I was born an orange, I’d be crying for an illusion, I may as well cry for not being a horse.
– Donna Williams

Watch report

The last watch of 2019 arrived a bit late so I couldn’t include it in the last letter. But here is the IW-1 from Island Watch Taiwan! It is basically an homage to a case design that was produced in the 60’s and used by various brands but with various different dials. Look at some of these vintage pieces. The dial and hand set on this versions are quite obviously in the style of the Rolex Submariner.

More info in this Time Bum article. The weird thing is, you can only purchase it by messaging them on their Facebook page or via email. Search for ‘Island Watch Taiwan’, I’m not gonna link to FB.

Writing

We’ve had a full month of ‘Space transmissions’ already and writing it is still going okay. I’m trying to write 3 times a week to keep up with the publication schedule.

Besides sending weekly updates via the newsletter, there’s also an RSS-feed, Instagram Stories and regular Instagram posts. But the best way to experience it, I think, it’s just surfing to the site and read it over there. I put a lot of work in that site, damnit! I even faked old RCT monitor flickering.

Food

Booo got me a bag of chipotle peppers, so I tried them in a new hot sauce. Fermented chipotle + red jalapeño so it’s only a little bit smokey. Also learned that chipotle are, in fact, smoked jalapeño. Yeah, I have no idea how I missed that before.

Right now I’m also trying to make some sauerkraut. There’s 2 batches: the first opened after 2 weeks, the other is still going. I’m curious about the comparison. I also used another kind of cabbage so I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Batch 1 is very crunchy and mostly good in small amounts in a salad.

What else? Oh, I’m stocked up on vanilla-flavoured black tea, which is nice for relaxing at night.

Seen

Picard

Only 2 episodes in but it’s already looking a lot more interesting than Star Trek: Discovery.
I rewatched Star Trek: TNG a few months ago and I’m glad to see Picard is still a stubborn bastard. Seeing Patrick Stewart playing it up as an old man, the crack and raspiness in his voice… I found it an emotional moment. But he uses it beautifully to his advantage. In the second episode, he loses some of that oldness in his voice and mannerisms and actually seems to become younger because of it. Proving he is still a damn fine actor.

The Witcher

It was okay. Cavill was good in it but I didn’t find it interesting enough to need another season. Some good things with Jennifer and the writing around her character here and there. But the rest of the cast didn’t really stand out, nor did the locations. I definitely got some ‘Xena’ and ‘Adventures of Hercules’ vibes, which on it’s own would not be a bad thing. But here it showed a mismatch between the bigger budget, the writing and the visuals. As in all things, you’re mileage may vary.

Latest Star Wars

Was okay, enjoyable enough. Main criticism: didn’t follow up on anything from movie 2, which is a shame. Secondly, absolutely no stakes at all. All in all, not much of a trilogy, I feel.

The Batcave

Continuing something I started in the last newsletter, I’m bringing in a new topic: showcasing the Batman stuff I’ve amassed over the years.

First off is this Lego 1989 Batmobile we’ve been building over here. There’s so much detail on this thing, it’s insane. Thousands of pieces.
I stayed up until 1AM* on the release date to be able to order that thing and I can tell you with confidence that I have no regrets.
We also got a free Lego Christmas tree and a smaller Batmobile with this. And look at that Batman? They got the mask exactly right.

* I actually bought a second box as back-up or to pass on to someone else that didn’t get one before stock ran out. A safe investment, I believe.

Reflection

It’s the second year I’ve done look-back using the Year Compass project. I print this booklet, take my journal and calendar from the past year and just note the stuff that happened. I generally skip the stuff that has to do with resolutions.

Not sure it helps you actually accomplish things but it does make the past year look more interesting and positive than I would’ve remembered on my own. January is already a depressing month, in a big way because it’s when both my mom and my sister passed away and it’s just a cold, dark mess.

Out

I wrote a thing in Dutch here that I might translate & expand on it on my blog at some point. Until then, here’s a the gist of it:

There is currently a trial going on that involves a lot of emotional and very uncomfortable subjects like euthanasia and worst of all, it’s putting mental illness and also the subject of autism in a very bad light. The very reductive version is: a person with long running mental illness wished to be euthanised and the 3 doctors involved are on trial because the family disagreed with this course of action. I believe it’s one of the first times in Belgium that someone got euthanasia related to long term psychological suffering rather than because of a painful terminal illness. I’m not going to go deeper into it than this so I invite you to look it up yourself if you want to know the details and feel bad about everything.

Regardless on where anyone stands on the euthanasia debate, what is highlighted in the media, is opinions and most strikingly: a lot of bullshit. Bullshit about mental illness & autism, especially by people who should know better. There is still a lot of misinformation and stigma around these subjects and since the media doesn’t seem to give a shit, this means there are a lot of people without knowledge of these subjects spewing (outdated) nonsense. We’ve even got doctors conflating terms & issues and talking out of their asses. All of this is causing a lot of anxiety for people associated with autism or mental health.

For the record: autism is not a psychological disorder, it’s a development disorder. Even the term ‘disorder’ is much disliked because it has a wide spectrum of expressions and aspects of it are sometimes framed as evolutionary traits. For example, someone with a high IQ and Asperger’s (not a diagnostic term anymore) is on the Autism spectrum. Just the same as a child you would typically imagine as autistic (non verbal maybe? closed in on themselves? developmentally ‘behind’ their peers?). It’s quite an interesting subject that can be difficult and confusing to navigate. I’ve added some links to interesting videos in the section at the bottom.
Mental/psychological disorders on the other hand, are present across the whole population regardless of development. There are people with autism and depression or a slew of other things but that does not imply causation or that the 2 need to go hand in hand. And no, vaccines do not cause autism. The 1 paper & author claiming this have long been discredited.

I would like to leave you all on this note:
it’s important to show respect and support for the people who are a part of this world that is supposed to be ‘one size fits all’, because life is not easy and it is not simple. We’re not getting anywhere by pretending otherwise.
And secondly, since we share this space with others, we have a duty to inform ourselves better. That way we can tell when someone is talking out of their ass and provide some corrections & much needed empathy.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Tiny Tea Dispatch #012

Publishing info

Published:

~~ Watch report ~~

~~ Writing ~~

~~ Food~~

~~ Seen ~~

~~ The Batcave ~~

~~ Reflection ~~

~~ Out ~~

~~ Links ~~

Meta info

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