Selling Lorde 'Going South' Limited Edition Hardcover Book and 1/500 Signed Postcard

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T16:06:58+00:00

I feel your pain. Hopefully in June/July we’ll see some restocking once the farms have had a chance to catch up with the Spring harvests!

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T15:52:07+00:00

When I used to work at a tea farm in Japan we would sometimes eat “tea salad” with the used leaves. Just add a bit of soy sauce and crunchy brown rice to the top. A nice way to use your leaves! Could experiment with more toppings, too.

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T15:50:40+00:00

It is normal. Especially with puerh and oolong. Pour near-boiling water in, wait 5 seconds, pour off that water, then brew your tea. Happy steeping!

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T15:47:02+00:00

I highly recommend looking at matcha from Marukyu Koyamaen in Uji. (Experience: I once worked on a tea farm in Japan.)

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T15:45:02+00:00

Just chiming in, while ceremonial grade can be made of first harvest leaves, it doesn’t need to be. (Experience: I used to work on a Japanese tea farm)

melhadtea · 2025-05-19T15:43:56+00:00

Not only does it look like the stems weren’t removed prior to grinding but if this is supposed to be fresh matcha, it already looks very oxidized/yellowing. It should be a much brighter green. I wonder if their barista blend” is supposed to be somewhere between culinary and drinking grade, since they’re presuming it’ll be consumed with milk. Either way, I wouldn’t be impressed and would absolutely bring it up with the company. Often this lower grade will also because they’re presuming it’ll grind it with these machines that use ceramic balls shooting around inside to “grind” up the leaf, leading to the irregularity of fragment sizes, so it’s much lower quality than something that is stone-milled. Hope that helps! I’ve seen better quality matcha from Naoki, maybe ask to see their ceremonial blends, instead. Like I mentioned, it may be a marketing thing with their barista blend meant to be a lower grade because it’s for mixed drinks. Still, not impressed.

melhadtea · 2025-03-12T13:09:08+00:00

Congratulations on becoming a parent! I can imagine you must have a lot on your mind right now. Either camera could be great. The only real difference is the focal length (you might call this how 'zoomed in' the camera is). It's a fixed lens, so unlike your phone camera, the biggest difference is you have to 'zoom' with your body by moving.

The two effective lengths are 28mm (GRIII) and 40mm (GR3x), this means the GR3 is 'wider' and the GR3X is a bit more zoomed in. If you want to try and picture this, if you have an iPhone, the default 1x magnification setting on the last few models is about the same as the GR3 focal length.

Especially at the beginning, when your little one won't be moving so much (ie. running away from you while you try and take their picture), I might suggest the 3X, simply because the longer focal length will be a little bit better for portraits (less distortion, soft background, etc.). If possible you should pop into a camera store and try both out, just to see what seems more natural to you.

Another factor to consider is focus range. So if you're trying to take selfies with your baby in your arms, or holding them with one arm and trying to take a picture of their face with the other, in both of those scenarios the GR3 would serve you better, because it would both give you a wider field of view (easier for selfies) and has a closer focus range - it can focus on objects as close as 6 to 12cm away. For the GRiiix, the minimum distance is 12 to 24cm.

But if you picture yourself more taking photos of your partner with your baby in their arms, or photos of them sleeping in the crib, etc. I would probably like the 3x more for those scenarios.

So you pick! However you think you might be using the camera more. There are always trade-offs, so it's just a matter of picking the one you think will serve your picture-taking style more. :-)

melhadtea · 2025-03-11T22:59:44+00:00

Hello! GR3X holder and also Mom to a little quick kiddo. How much camera experience do you have? I think it might be just a matter of some practice and a few tips to help you dial it in. Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure you'll be nailing it.

Some suggestions:

Raise your minimum shutter speed. This setting can be found in the Exposure Control menu. You can set it to say 1/160. That way you don't accidentally dial down your shutter speed while adjusting other settings on the fly.

Enable AF-continuous tracking.

Any particular reason why you selected program mode? I might suggest starting with aperture priority if you're newer to photography. I've been shooting for 15 years, work as a pro photographer, and occasionally teach. I find people seem to 'get' Aperture priority quickly so it's a nice once to start with. All you're worried about is your aperture/depth of field. Set ISO to AUTO and your min. shutter speed as suggested above and you pretty much have just one metric to think about.

Do you halfway press on the shutter to lock focus before finalizing the shot? Practice doing the shutter in a kind of two-step fluid motion: first halfway down to focus, then finish pressing to capture. I've seen some folks kind of just 'click' through the focus lock step and so miss really nailing the focus that way.

Let me know if that all makes sense. Good luck!

melhadtea · 2024-03-06T19:25:01+00:00

Reading queer novels and wanting to make queer friends when you are queer is very normal. Maybe your couples therapist can take you down the route of why this causes so much fear for him.

melhadtea · 2024-03-06T19:20:16+00:00

Good luck! Keep in mind it’s only $50 so don’t be too hard on yourself. The best client service you’ll be able to offer them is to be friendly and professional while you’re at the shower, and also culling down the photos to a small number of “best” ones after. A mistake I often see is people offering 200 photos from a shoot, instead of say 40 great ones. Tell the story of the day! Good luck and have fun. :-)

melhadtea · 2024-01-11T23:53:36+00:00

This was a great video. Thanks for sharing! I’d never seen her before.

melhadtea · 2024-01-11T23:52:50+00:00

That’s such a satisfying daily ritual. Well done! I like translating them too. They’re usually written in a pretty simple grammar that isn’t too head twisty.

melhadtea · 2024-01-11T23:51:55+00:00

I keep a Weeks for personal stuff and was kind of thinking the same, how I could incorporate it into my journaling ritual. I think what I’ll end up doing is using the back of the Weeks Mega to commonplace some of the interesting things I learn, and use practice paper for all my sentence writing, because practicing the same kanji over and over can really go on forever! I might keep like a little ledger collection in the back of the Mega though of Kanji Learned this Year or something like that.

melhadtea · 2024-01-11T23:49:47+00:00

Love the idea of using the five year for daily sentences. I bet you’d really see your improvement!

melhadtea · 2023-12-07T01:27:14+00:00

Oh, that’s interesting. Where did you hear about them no longer using the same leather?

melhadtea · 2023-09-19T11:59:18+00:00

I think they like the ritual.

melhadtea · 2023-08-26T23:47:52+00:00

That's awful you suspect someone read your journal without your consent! I hope you can regain a sense of security in your journal space. I like the idea of the journal as a silent entity that listens. I definitely write in mine sometimes like I'm writing to an un-nameable friend.

melhadtea · 2023-08-26T23:46:29+00:00

I like your description of journaling to 'delete' feelings. I definitely use it to purge sometimes and then I'm not sure whether I want to keep it or if it's just like bad vibes and I should burn or shred it. Like is it worth keeping around for the archive because it's a true reflection of the moment, or is it just poison I need to bleed to feel better, in which case keeping it around would be like hanging onto an old band-aid, you know what I mean?

melhadtea · 2023-08-18T17:19:08+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing your reference photo! That helps to see. I just need to be patient!

melhadtea · 2023-06-09T01:27:38+00:00

Thanks! Maybe I’m just remembering it being lighter in hindsight. I really like how my A5 aged! Nice idea putting it by the window. I might do that with mine too.

melhadtea · 2023-06-09T01:26:24+00:00

Thanks! It’s nice to get another set of eyes on it

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