I have been following @bethejustin on twitter for a while now and up until now, I have enjoyed his 140 character commentary. Yesterday, however, he decided to write more than 140 characters and that’s when the train derailed.

First, you should read his blog post Jack Bauer should rot in jail!!. Really, go ahead…I’ll wait…

Now @bethejustin is certainly entitled to his opinions, most of which I agree with, which is why I follow him. But the unfortunate thing is, I am entitled to disagree, and disagree I do.

First point: Jack Bauer is the Shit!
He has been beaten, shot (several times) tortured and scared for life. He has been sold out by his President, superiors, ex-lovers, yet he still gets the job done. He can jump off tall buildings and shoot the bad guys – while in the air – only to land and cuff the perp like he were in a calf-roping contest. He has the uncanny ability to pick out a bad-guy in a huge crowd.

Second point: Jack Bauer is always right!
Since he is always right and you disagree with him, then you must be mistaken – that’s OK Jack Bauer will forgive you. There is nothing wrong with Jack popin’ a cap into a bad guy’s knee to get him to quit lieing so he can save a school full of children – what would you do? Jack did warn him by sayin’, “I’m not going to ask you again…”. I wonder if @bethejustin would want Jack protecting his kids in that situation or some bureaucrat. Tic-tock…tick-tock…

Third point: Jack Bauer predicts the future!
Jack is always telling his superiors what is going to happen, if they don’t let him handle it his way – and when they doubt him, we get 24. If it weren’t for the Constitution, the show would be called “6″. Not the same ring, but it would be the best 6 episodes..ever!!! Then there could be the reality show “18″ where he buys ammunition, grabs a steak, brushes his awesomely white teeth and then we get to watch him sleep via FLIR camera. How awesome would that be??

On a more serious note, 24 had a black president, now we have a black president. If you are going to give 24 credit for desensitizing the American public about torture, then you also must give them credit for reducing our prejudices enough that Obama was electable.

So which is better Jack Bauer – fictional character and protector of this country who gets the job done “Whatever it takes!” and always makes sure the body count of the evil outweighs the innocent? or the constitution that allows murderers to live on the tax payers dime for longer than some of their victims enjoyed – and with more rights than some law abiding citizens – and allows a man to be elected president even though the majority of Americans did not elect him?

Which would you put your trust into? I vote for the man that handles situations the way most people would like to, “morality” aside. @bethejustin I will continue to follow you on twitter because if there is anything I have learned from Jack Bauer, it’s forgiveness.

My wife works at “Five-bucks” and decided to pick up a Bodum “Assam” tea press pot – since she got a 30% discount. She bought the 1.0 liter version.

The idea of the pitcher is that you can brew your tea and “press” it in order to stop the infusion process. In theory, this works well but I am not exactly sure that it “stops the infusion” since the basket is still submerged in the hot water – even though no new water is mixing with the leaves. If you look at the basket, you’ll notice that the bottom of the basket has no holes. This is where the tea presses into. The plunger does not compress all the way, just to the solid section of the filter, so you don’t have to worry about actually squeezing the leaves – WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER DO! The brosilicate glass is very light and incredibly clear so you can really appreciate the color of your brew.

The basket on the 1 liter version is large enough for most smaller leaved teas to have plenty of room to bloom. Some larger leaved Oolongs or Purer’s may suffer a bit of claustrophobia, but they should still be able to brew properly. The whole thing is dishwasher safe, so cleanup is a snap.

The one major negative is that the lid/plunger does not have a tight fit, so you have to hold the lid as you pour – this pot pours beautifully. For the price I would have expected a more firmly fitted lid and was disappointed when the lid and plunger fell out of the pot as I poured my first cup. This comes back to my initial point of the claim that the tea stops brewing after you press it. If the plunger comes out that easily when you pour, how tight can the seal be?

I made a second pot, re-infusing the leaves, and there was no bitterness – so I assume that the infusion process stopped, or at least slowed, after pressing the tea. All in all, I dig the pot. It looks nice, performs well all things considered.

If you see this pot in your local “Five-bucks”, and are in the market for an attractive, functional tea pot, drop the $40 you won’t regret it.

Website

Though the site design is only a year old, it feels a bit dated. Navigation can sometimes be difficult since the nested menus often disappear prior to selection. That said, you can always click on the top level navigation and the nested links will be shown as a list on the left hand side. Though the site is not really disorganized, it feels disorganized which says something about the design.
Clicking through the site will give you an education on tea, like no other tea site I have found. These guys know tea! From their blog, to their forum, to their informative podcasts, to their tea tours, these guys mean to educate.

Clicking on the Tea Shop link brings you to one of the finest online tea shops I have found. Yea, there are others that look slicker, but not many have the teas, not only broken down by type (green, yellow, white, etc.), but broken down by location, as in providence. These guys want you to know where your tea comes from! They not only provide a description, but they show the year it was made, when it was harvested, the tea master, picking standard, brewing vessel, brewing instructions, and number of infusions you should expect. They have even gone through the trouble to figure out the best way to photograph the tea so the detail and color are an excellent representation of what you get; if they could only work out olfactory representation, that would be epic.

The ordering process is strait forward. The only complaint about the ordering process is that you need to sign up for an account, you can’t just purchase as a guest. Even this process was mostly painless and did not cause any issues with shopping cart. They accept all major credit cards as well as PayPal – Bonus!

Communication

Dec 23, 2008: Moments after registering for the site and then placing my order I received a registration confirmation and in a separate email my invoice confirming my order was being processed.
Dec 24, 2008: The next day I received an email confirming 2nd day air shipment, including a tracking number. Now I understand it is Christmas and this is not really a fair time to test the delivery speed of ANY company, but I actually received it a day earlier than UPS stated. Win!

Packaging

The box came well packed. Each tea was packaged in a resealable foil bag. The two samplers I purchased were also packaged in resealable foil packs and then placed together in a larger paper package. Each foil pack has, what appears to be, an ink-jet label on the front with the name and weight of the tea, and a generic label on the back containing brewing instructions for each type of tea. Simple strait forward no frills.

Product

I purchased the following teas:
Rock Oolong Tea Sampler

1. Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Light Roast Rock Oolong 10g
2. Shui Jin Gui (Golden Water Turtle) Rock Oolong 10g
3. Imperial MeiZhan Light Roast Rock Oolong 10g
4. Premium Rou Gui Rock Oolong 10g
5. Lao Cong (Old Bush) Shui Xian Rock Oolong 10g
6. Eight Immortals (Organic) 10g

Famous Chinese Tea Sampler

1. Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Medium Roast Rock Oolong 10g
2. Jun Shan Yin Zhen (Silver Needle) Yellow Tea 10g
3. Shi Feng Long Jing (Shi Feng Dragon Well) Green Tea 10g
4. Imperial Huangshan Mao Feng Green Tea (Organic) 10g
5. Imperial Bi Luo Chun Green Tea 10g
6. Spring Dawn Keemun Black Tea (Organic) 10g

2008 Jasmine Pearls Scented Tea
2008 Meng Ding Huang Ya (Yellow Buds) Yellow Tea
2008 Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Rock Oolong

The tea arrived in great shape. The 2008 Da Hong Pao, which is the first one I have gotten into, arrived with very few fannings – not bad for cross country shipment. I will be reviewing each tea as I get to them and posting links to the reviews in this post, so stay tuned.

Summary

Seven Cups is an excellent tea purveyor. Their site is very informative, but could use some interface redesign. Their selection of tea is outstanding – something for every budget. I have seen their podcasts and know that the retail store carries a lot of tea-wares and wish their online store was equally diverse. On a side note, I would be great if they would continue churning out podcasts – the ones they have done so far, though “low-budget” have been informative.
Checkout is mostly painless, but I feel you should be able to buy tea without “signing up” for an account. That said, I am glad I have an account because it is very likely that I will be doing business with them in the near future.

UPDATE 1/29/09: On Jan 22nd 2009, Seven Cups launched a site redesign. It is mostly cosmetic, but it makes it a bit easier to navigate the site. Drop-down menus now work as expected. I did run into some issues with the shopping cart dropping items when I tried to order. I tried to replicate the issue and have, so far, not been able to duplicate the it so perhaps it was a fluke.

Rating should be updated to 4.75. I am giving them a 4 for the web site because though it has been updated, I still feel that the site is a bit cluttered; looks nicer, but still a bit cluttered.

Since I am updating this post, I would like to add that they, more specifically the owner Austin, take great pride in their product and Internet presence. Their customer service and follow-up are exceptional. I have had several email exchanges with one of the owners (Austin) who seems down to earth and interested in developing relationships with his customers – great for repeat business.

Since this post I have purchased 3 more Puer’s and another 50g of 2008 Da Hong Pao (Literal Translation: “Andrew’s brand of Heroin”). I have a series of reviews I am preparing, but I am also working on a new site to host my tea reviews, will post a link when it is up.

It’s, once again, the season of broken promises. People all over the word will make their New Years resolutions, and usually break them by mid January, if not by the next morning. For this reason, I have always refrained from making a list, until this year. I figure, what I have (not) been doing has lead me to who and where I am today – fat, isolated, very work focused. I have several aspects of my life that I have wanted to change/fix/improve but have never written them down, and always figured it would get around to it eventually. I will turn 40 September 2009 – Wow, that was hard – and most people have an idea of where they would like to be by the time they turn the big Four-Oh. I feel a have a little catching up to do so now is the time. I figured I would make several easily obtainable goals and a couple that would require a bit more discipline.

Here is my list:

1. Master a programming discipline (css, Javascript, PHP, Air, other) by June and a second one by December.
2. Write SOMETHING at least once a week (blog, tutorial, etc)- excluding social.
3. By June, begin a physical, extracurricular, activity (Martial arts, paint ball, climbing, etc.) and do it at least twice a week.
4. Pay off car and all consumer debt by June.
5. Loose 20 pounds excess fat by March and the rest by June.
6. Find my emotional / psychological / spiritual “center” again.
7. Beginning July, give $100 a month to a complete stranger in need.

I will post updates to this post for those interested in following my progress. Credit to Kevin Rose for the idea of posting it.

Is it possible to have too much Christmas spirit? I mean, is it really necessary to have an army of lighted Christmas deities protecting your home during the holidays? These folks think so.

We were driving around checkin’ out Christmas lights when we ran across this display. I hit the brakes, backed up and captured the moment with my flip. Creative or an abomination? You decide.

It was Saturday morning and our Realtor told us we had a showing in the morning. We have 2 dogs so we decided to take the dogs to a pet friendly mall in the west end of town. While we were driving there I decided to pull up craigslist.org on my iPhone. I searched through the listings, for fair priced systems, that included phone numbers. I called several numbers and finally got a really nice woman who said, “[her] Wii was still available.” (yes, I know how that reads). I asked her to email me her address so I could pull it up on Google maps, which she did. It turns out she was about 5 minutes out of our way. We got off the highway, and followed the map’s directions to her house. Win!

Now we have the Wii, we decided to do the same for the Wii Fit. I called two ads and found a guy that was out Christmas shopping with his wife, they had the Wii Fit in their trunk – unopened. the guy told us where he was at, I did a Google search for Toys-R-Us on the iPhone and got directions. He was only about 10 minutes away from where we were at. We met the guy in the parking lot and Bam! new Wii Fit! I paid the guy and we were on our way.

Then the phone rang. It was the guy with the Wii Fit. He called me to tell me I accidentally overpaid him by $50! Awesome, faith in humanity is restored!

So in a matter of 30 minutes, I located, mapped, and picked up both the Wii and Wii Fit using my iPhone. I was really impressed.

This little device has completely changed the way I interact and manage certain aspects of my life. I would put it on the same level as the microwave and TiVo (PVR). the same freedom I experienced the first time I was not home to watch a show, but it was there. Right on my TV. the liberation I felt, not being tied to a networks schedule, is the same feeling I have with my iPhone.

I’ve had my iPhone since launch day. This is the first time that everything literally came together – just like the commercial. It is an awesome feeling to see how far we have come and makes me excited to see the “next thing”.

Merry Christmas Interweb!

Website

The site design has a very approachable design. Everything is well laid out and makes it really easy to quickly find what you’re looking for. Product pages include product photos, description, brewing instructions, tasting notes, and health benefits; though the health benefits are canned and basically the same for each type of tea. Users would be better served by replacing the “health benefits” section with detailed growing information, e.g., year, region, grower, when it was picked, etc..
Some of the teas include videos by Zack Luye from Bottles Brews and Blends. Personally, I feel Zack is/was not a mature enough tea reviewer to have on the site. I get the cross promotion and all, but his review for Jasmine Pearls, “very colorful, very smelly, like a flower” – really? That’s like saying Kobe steak tastes like beef. Clearly shows he knows nothing about tea tasting. If you are selling tea, it would be beneficial to have someone who actually knows tea and can be informative. I feel that Zack does a major disservice to the site and negatively effects their brand. A great idea, poorly executed.

Communication

November 29, 2008: I placed my order for 1lb of Ti Kuan Yin and a sample of Jasmine Pearls.

December 3, 2008: I checked my order and it still read “Awaiting Fulfillment” so I emailed sales@oceanoftea.com – No response. I was following Ocean of Tea on twitter and noticed a lot of tweets, yet no response from email. So I asked:

@OceanOfTea when does your sales department respond to emails and fulfill orders???

OK, so this was my bad. I intended it to be a direct message not publicly call them out – not this soon after an order anyway.

Terry sent me a direct message with his email address and asked me to email him details of my order so he could look into it. I sent the following:

I am contacting you regarding my order (#9). It still says awaiting
fulfillment. When should I expect to receive my order? What’s the
delay?

I heard about you guys through Digg and figured I would give you a
try, so far a little disappointed in communication.

and Terry’s response:

Sorry, the email is probably floating around somewhere in my spam filter.
The order is still awaiting fulfillment (though it’ll be going out today),
because we got slammed for Ti Kuan Yin. Our shipment came in today, is
currently being unboxed and packed up. You’re first on the list and I’ll
personally pack up your order. You should have gotten an email on Monday
about the backorder situation, but we JUST switched to a new website and
are still working out the kinks. What tea would you like a sample of? Also,
would you like me to expedite the package?

Let me know how I can make it right, I’m truly sorry for the bad
communication.

Best,

Terry Godier

I was disappointed with the lack of response from the person covering the sales@oceanoftea.com email, but Terry quickly emailed me and offered to make things right. Giving them the benefit of the doubt that they did send out a “back-ordered” email, that for some reason I did not receive, I told him to not worry about expediting shipment and thanked him for his quick response to the matter. A couple days later, I received my order.

Packaging

Ocean of Tea is all about “being green” – personally, I’m not a big fan of this movement, but whatever helps you sleep at night is OK with me. They use bio-degradable packaging – the tea is packed in what feels like green vellum with idiot proof brewing instructions on the front (amount, water temp, and brewing time).

Product

Since I have been really into Oolongs lately, the first tea I tried was the Ti Kuan Yin. It is one of the mildest Oolongs I have tasted so far. A great anytime drinker with VERY tightly rolled leaves that never completely unfurl. So far, I have gotten 6 good infusions out of the same leaves with, surprisingly, very little degradation in character or flavor. Proper brewing yields a slightly sweet, slightly floral cup. And at $65 a pound – keeping in mind that you can easily get 6 infusions out of this tea – makes it a daily drinker in my opinion!

The second tea I purchased was their Jasmine Pearls. This is just an awesome, clean, slightly sweet, almost buttery tea. It lingers nicely on the pallet. Do not over-brew or the slight sweetness will be replaced with an astringent finish! This one is also capable of multiple brews. I found 4 brews to be about all it could take; any more and the character is lost. My only regret was purchasing a sample pack, I wish I’d have just bought a pound of this stuff. At $90 a pound, it certainly isn’t cheep – fortunately, they sell it in smaller quantities ($14 for 2oz.) as well.

Summary

Ocean of Tea still has a few kinks to work out, but I get the impression that they realize it and are actively working to improve their processes and customer communications.
They have some really good ideas on leveraging social media to build their brand, but some of these ideas fall short – make me WANT to do business with you.
As with all things good for you – or the planet – it’ll cost ya a little extra to do business with Ocean of Tea. Is it worth it? I think so. The quality of their product itself, exceed my expectations. I wish they offered a fuck-the-planet-just-give-me-my-tea option but until then, I’ll chalk the difference up to an earth rehabilitation tax.

The plan is simple enough. 10 days to drive to Miami and back from Richmond (~ 900 miles). I plan to stop and see friends and sites along the way. No itinerary. No reservations. Just a fun little adventure – what could go wrong?

Let’s see, one of my company servers went down due to a “power spike”. I had a bulge in the side wall of my passenger side, rear, tire and my “check coolant” light decided to light up intermittently – did I mention this is a “driveabout”. So I spent the greater part of the morning at the dealership while they replaced my tire and checked the coolant issue. By the time I got out of the dealership, I decided to find a florist to buy my wife flowers for her birthday – I figured if I bought her flowers I wouldn’t feel so guilty of leaving town on her birthday. Ever notice that there are florists EVERYWHERE, when you are not looking for one. I drove about 35 miles and did not see a single florist – not even a greeting card place. So I decided to be a good husband and stay in town for my wife’s birthday.

I will try this vacation thing again in the morning..No wonder I have never taken a two-week-vacation before…it’s too much like work!

While most people would be happy with this well deserved credit, but Apple screwed up accounts while doing so. Here’s my chat with “Josh” the MobileMe Support Representative :

You are chatting with Josh, a MobileMe Support Representative

Hi, my name is Josh. Welcome to Apple!

Me: Hey Josh, I am logged into my .me account and I am trying to find an option to upgrade my account to family so I can add my wife

Josh: Ok. So you are unable to upgrade?

Me: There is no option to upgrade.

Josh: Have you contacted Apple about this issue before?

Me: I am doing it now, so no…I see “Upgrades” but there is no button or link under the upgrades section.

Josh: Ok. It looks like your account is in the Extension period Apple had issued to all customers. There is an issue currently where these accounts are unable to upgrade.
Your options are either to have me cancel the account, then have you remake and upgrade it, then have me add your remaining extension time, or to wait until Jan 23rd when your extension is over to upgrade.

Me: So how am I supposed to set up my wife so her iPhone will mobile sync contacts.

Me: Really? you have to cancel my account? So would I loose my account name? I have had this account since iTools!

Josh: No, you would not lose your name. You would just re-activate that name just after I cancel the account.

Me: OK, so I would loose my extension? I currently have next year paid for. I was going to use that credit to upgrade my account.

Josh: You would cancel the account in order to get rid of your extension. Then, after everything is set up, I will re-add your remaining extension time.

Me: So what happens to all of my data when you delete my account?

Josh: It will be kept for at about 15 days, but you will be re-activating almost immediately.

Me: So I will not loose ANY of my current data in my xxxxxx@mac.com account. NOTHING? I will not loose any current account credits either?
Please be ABSOLUTELY sure before we do this.
If there is ANY chance of something going wrong, then I am not interested.

Josh: The only way you would lose data is if you do not re-activate for a few days. But you will be re-activating immediately.

Me: I can’t believe that Apple crediting my account has caused me to be unable to add features to my account.

Josh: You may, however, lose your @mac address and have to use your @me.com address.

Me: Forget it!
I have used my .mac address all over the web.
I would be missing subscription emails, etc.

Josh: Then you will need to wait until Jan 23rd to upgrade. You could get your wife a 60 day MobileMe free trial until then.

Me: This is retarded. I can’t believe this. If I get my wife a MobileMe trial, will I be able to merge her account with mine for a family plan? or will she loose all of her data?

Josh: If you have concerns about the MobileMe service, you can express them at the feedback page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/mobileme.html

Josh: And she will retain all trial data

Me: Will we be able to merge accounts after trial?

Josh: Just a moment, let me verify how long we keep trial account data after it expires, to be sure she does not lose any.

Josh: Ok. The best way to get her an account that will not lose any data would be to set up her 60 day trial about 55 days before Jan. 23rd.
We will only keep trial account data about 3 days after it expires.
But once you have a family pack, you can add her account as a Sub-account, and she will keep her data and username.

Me: Josh, I understand you are working within the confines that people above you have put in place, but this is very disappointing and hard to believe that Apple has set this up in such a retarded way. I appreciate your assistance. This is really f-ed up. My wife can not mobile sync her phone unless we screw with my account, pay $99 for her own account or wait a month so she can do a trial. Retarded, that is all I can say.

Josh: I’m sorry I could not do more, but the best way to express that would be the previously linked feedback page.

Me: I am already doing that. Thanks