Tea Mythology and Lore

Tea has been around for a really long time. Like, thousands of years. In that time, a lot of stories have arisen in different parts of the world to explain the origin of one of the oldest drinks known to humankind. 

The first legend is about the Chinese emperor Shen Nung, who lived about 5000 years ago. It is said that a single leaf blew into a pot of water that was being boiled for the emperor. Shen Nung found that the water had improved taste and seemed to have a stimulating effect.

An artistic rendering of the event

A Buddha statue in a Japanese tea garden

India has it's own version of the origin of tea. According to the story, tea was created by the Buddha. During a pilgrimage to China, the Buddha took a vow to meditate without sleeping for nine years. After a time, he did fall asleep, and was enraged at himself when he woke up. He tore his eyelids off and threw them to the ground. The eyelids grew into a plant with leaves shaped like the torn off eyelids. The Buddha began to chew the leaves of the plant and found himself renewed. He took this, the first tea plant, with him on his pilgrimage through China. Again, this is a story, as there is no actual evidence to support that the Buddha ever even went to China.

Kuan Yin, the beautiful, multiple armed goddess

Another story about tea in China has to do with a popular tea, Ti Kuan Yin. According to the legend, Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, presented tea as a gift to a devout farmer who diligently maintained her old, run down temple. Inside the temple was an iron statue of Kuan Yin that followers could pray to. One day, the statue appeared to come to life before the farmer's eyes. He fell to his knees and the goddess spoke to him. "The key for your future is just outside this temple. Nourish it with tenderness; it will support you and yours for generations to come." When the farmer left the temple, he discovered a small, withered plant. After caring for the plant for some time, the bush grew strong with thick green leaves. Out of curiosity, the farmer dried the leaves of the plant in a stone wok. The leaves turned a similar colour to the iron statue of the goddess. The farmer infused these leaves into water and discovered that the drink was the most delicious thing he had ever drank, and dubbed it Ti

Kuan Yin, the tea of Kuan Yin.

Tea has fascinating history, mythological or factual. It's interesting to see how different regions of the world have similar stories, adapting them over the years to fit their cultural differences. One thing that's certain is that tea is has a worldwide presence, and I hope that it stays that way for many thousands of years to come.

Toodles!

I Wrote This For You // The Time It Takes to Fall

Far to often, people (including myself) forget to enjoy the things in their life as they are. We focus too much on getting to the next thing, another pastime, a deeper connection. By doing this, we miss what's right in front of us, we miss the beauty of what we already have. I've been trying to make adjustments to my life for the better over this last year, and one of the big things I've been focusing on is enjoying my life in the now. Having something might hurt later if/when it leaves, but that doesn't make the experience any less meaningful. I'll take the pain of loss over the numbness of not having anything. Loving and hurting makes life much more worthwhile than to sit in fear, to not strive for anything because you're afraid of failure. Or rejection. Or loss. Or pain. Nothing is guaranteed, positive or negative. So why not strive for happiness, and accept what happens because of it? You either remain happy, or you dust yourself off, see what you've learned, and have a new story to tell.

I'm taking pictures of the book of poetry I'm taking quotes from instead of simply typing them out. Part of poetry is the form in which it is presented, so my typing wasn't giving it the justice it deserved. There is a copy of the book that doesn't include the photos, but my copy includes them. So now Saturday quotes shall be a little larger, with direct pictures from I Wrote This For You.

*Reminder that I take no credit for this work. It does not belong to me, I did not make it, I make no claim to it other than the feelings it evokes in me.

Toodles!

Pokemon Omicron // Nuzlocke Challenge

As a true child of the 90's, I grew up in the great video game generation. Mario on a console, Kirby's battle through Dreamland. I also had the pleasure of playing through the original series of Pokemon games. Back in my day, there were only 150 Pokemon (151 and 152 got added later, and one at a time). Over the years I've played the large majority of subsequent generations of Pokemon games, the newest generations being an exception because of money and time.

Recently, a fan made emulator was shown to me, Pokemon Omicron and Zeta. It includes the first five generations of Pokemon, 649 in total, and has a completely new storyline. From what I've played so far, the story is way more upfront about being darker than in the other games (The ghost girl in X/Y not withstanding). I like the writing that the creator has put into the game, even making your rival that much more infuriating of a person. The game is still in beta, and isn't quite finished yet, but there is already over 80 hours of gameplay fully established.

They even warn you at the start that your rival is this annoying...

One of the cool features of this game is that you have the option of implementing Challenge modes into your gameplay. One such difficulty that I'm undertaking is called the Nuzlocke Challenge. It boils down to a few simply, but incredibly frustrating, modifications. One, if any of your Pokemon faint, they are considered dead and cannot be brought back by any means. Two, if you ever lose all of your Pokemon in a battle and black out, you are considered dead and the challenge mode ends. As if that wasn't difficult enough, there are personal challenges you can implement for yourself. I'm attempting to follow the additional difficulty of only being allowed to catch the first Pokemon you encounter in each area. This finitely limits the amount of Pokemon you can catch, especially since if you accidentally kill the first Pokemon you meet in the area, meaning you can't catch another one in the area.

From time to time, I shall be posting updates about how my challenge is going.

Somehow a Magby is one of the starters

Almost killed this poor bugger...

Hooray! A Flying type, good for that first gym battle against Fighting types!

So this was how my team began taking shape. Caught the first one in each area, slowly gaining levels after many trips back to the Pokemon Centre.

Stupid Starley and it's stupid crits....

And then this happened. Crits are the bane of the Nuzlocke experience. Carefully calculating how many more hits a Pokemon can take based on previous rounds, and then having a crit suddenly throw off the numbers. It's insanely annoying.

My box of shame...

Final Trainer card. It took me one day to fail.

And so one day after starting my Nuzlocke Challenge, my entire team gets knocked out and I die. I haven't even been able to form any attachments to my Pokemon because they died so quickly. Attempt 2, inbound...

Toodles!

The Grey

Some movies are just better to see them in theatres. There's something about the darkness, the huge screen, the massive subwoofers. It just makes the experience so much different than seeing a movie at home or on Netflix. The Grey is one of those movies. I saw it in theatres when it first came out and really enjoyed it. As someone who doesn't normally enjoy thriller or horror movies, the fact that I liked The Grey was an impressive feat in my mind. I guess it goes to show that Liam Neeson can make anything better.

The Grey follows the story of a man hired to protect pipeline workers in the north. He is a sharpshooter who takes down wolves that try to attack the workers. It is quickly established that the man is a seriously tortured soul, with the story almost ending in the first few minutes.

After surviving a terrible accident, a small group of workers are left to find their way back to civilization and safety. Unfortunately for them, injuries, hunger, freezing weather, are only the first of their problems. A predatory threat stalks them, and the battle between species begins.

Things done well:

  -Uses Liam Neeson quieter voice to draw you in, then scare you back with loud attacks

 -*SPOILER* Once a few of the less likeable characters get killed off, the handful that remain actually get some character development. There are some real moments shared amongst the group, where they get to act like actual people instead of terrified survivors. They share pieces of their past with each other, and you grow much more attached to the smaller group. When one of the characters succumbs to the cold instead of an attack, you can feel the emotion the remaining men experience.

Things not so great

  -Almost all of the characters are total assholes until the second half of the movie

  -There is incredibly bad language (it's a bunch of men working a crap job in the cold, what did you expect?)

  -It can get a little graphic at times, with some gruesome deaths, some emotionally difficult deaths, and if you can't handle seeing animals (even CG ones) hurt then you should be warned now.

The movie was amazing in theatres when it first came out. The massive sound system and darkness of the theatre really added to the atmosphere of the movie. Seeing it again on Netflix wasn't quite the same experience. It might have been the different setting I saw it under, or the fact that I wasn't surprised by the jump-scare attacks by the wolves

All in all, the second half of the movie was immensely more interesting and engaging than the first half. I will warn the faint of heart though. The way that some of these characters die is heartbreaking. I don't want to give anything away, but more than a few die without being attacked by wolves and those ones are honestly the most emotional deaths.

Visual: 3 out of 5

The wolves are a little fake looking, and the rest of the movie is about guys in the frozen middle of nowhere. Some of the scenic shots are beautifully done, but a lot of the movie takes place during a snowstorm. Not a lot to see there.

Story: 3 out of 5

It's hard to get far enough into the movie where you connect with the characters without getting a little bored. The jump scares are front loaded into the movie, so you get a weird combination of a thriller at the beginning and sort of a heartbreaking adventure at the end.

Overall: 3 out of 5

While the first viewing was certainly the best, with the environment of the theatre adding to the pure surprise of the wolf attacks, the second viewing at home was still not a bad time. The second half of the movie makes up for the lack of depth at the beginning, in my opinion.

Toodles!

Marian Call

If you tell someone to picture a geek or a nerd, chances are you think of some scrawny guy with big glasses, high waist pants, and terribly hunched posture from sitting at a computer or other gaming station. Women being involved in geek culture has been a fairly new thing, publicly, and has gotten a lot of mixed reactions. Some people look down on the girl gamers and geeks, saying that they only got into comics or gaming because it became popular, that they're riding out the mainstream fad of being nerdy. If this is true or not, I'm more than happy to have women involved in nerdy culture and be proud of who they are. One such proud individual is Marian Call, an iconic musician in the nerd world. She's attended many, many, conventions and events throughout North America to perform. 

One of her songs, I'll Still be A Geek, is also known as the Nerd Anthem and with good reason. She calls out the stereotypes that geeky women fight against, proudly stating all the facets of nerd-dom that she enjoys. In addition to incredibly amusing lyrics, Marian Call has a beautiful voice that she uses to captivate her audiences. 

When not singing overtop of typewriters and listing her favourite nerds throughout history, Marian Call also brings a tender side to her music. Dark, Dark Eyes is one of my personal favourite songs on her album Got to Fly. The guitar and clarinet add to the mood of the song perfectly. Just give it a listen.

Geeks of all genders, orientations, and interests should check out this wonderfully talented women. Beautiful, funny, and relatable music is always a welcome addition to the world, especially in the slightly obsessive world of geekiness.

Toodles!

Nappin Kraken

If you like to browse the internet for ways to spend all of your monies, chances are you've happened upon Etsy. A website where crafters and talented product makers can sell their wares without having a larger distributor. I'm sure that a number of posts in the future will feature products sold on Etsy. One shopkeeper on the site is Nappin Kraken. A Nintendo fan, NK makes a small handful of gamer jewellery from a variety of games. 

New Leaf pendent from Animal Crossing

Spirit Stone necklace from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Phantump, from Pokemon X/Y

Also available in shiny Phantump

Nappin Kraken has some really nice jewellery, and would make a very nice gift for the gamer in your life (yourself or otherwise). Give their shop a look, and consider supporting a small business. They're even based in Canada! Woot!

Gamer love is forever love. Just don't overwrite their save file....

Toodles!

An Update // Tea Shop

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their patience during my short break from posting. The time off was definitely a good way for me to get some posts queued up, opportunities to think, and to spend some time with Style. During this break, I also came to a rather abrupt decision. With school starting again, I was accelerated in making my choice between continuing my degree for a few years, or simply finishing my bachelor degree and beginning a passion project of mine that has been stewing in my brain for a few years now. Because of the deadline of registration, I chose to follow my passion. I will be finishing my degree this year and figuring out how to open up my own tea shop.

I've always heard it said that you shouldn't just do whatever job you can for a career. You're supposed to do what you love, what you're supremely passionate about, and figure out a way to make money doing it. It might be difficult to start, it might even be difficult for your entire life. But doing what you love makes it worth it. I love music, and I love teaching music. But there have been times throughout my degree that I have lost that spark, that necessary component of teaching. During these moments of doubt and disinterest, I have never lost my passion for tea. It's always been interesting to me, comforting no matter the situation.

One of the jobs I've had as an adult was working in a tea shop, selling bags of looseleaf tea. It was an amazing experience that I learned a lot doing. Part of being hired for that job was taking a class all about tea. I even discovered that you can get certificates in tea knowledge (That I will most likely be pursuing later). Anyway, the owner of this shop moved to another provence, as the store was more of a hobby for him instead of his career.

With the closing of my beloved local teashop, the only place that sells looseleaf tea in my city is a poor excuse for a store, a mass produced chain store. Don't get me wrong, I see the appeal and purpose. It's not a terrible place for people to start their adventures into looseleaf tea. But for someone who has moved beyond the taste of artificial flavours and sweeteners, I can't really enjoy the tea from there anymore. This strands me, and people with similar palettes, without a place to buy good looseleaf tea. This planted the idea in my mind that I could open a teashop.

One aspect of local shops, of any kind, I've always loved is how welcoming they can feel. Like how you can just walk in one afternoon and spend a couple of hours there, reading or talking or whatever. This is very reminiscent of the teahouses of Asia, and something that my city is very much lacking. This is my vision for my own shop. I want a place where you can walk in, sit down in a nice chair, order a cup or pot of tea, and spend some time enjoying yourself. Too much of life is rushed through, not enjoyed. I want there to be a place that has great quality tea, a relaxing atmosphere, and a place of community. That's the goal for my shop.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, or requests regarding the shop, please leave a comment or message. Know a great kind of tea you would like to see served? Let me know! Have an amazing artist who wants some art publicized? Shoot me a comment and a contact! Really, all ideas are welcome.

Toodles!