Vlog 20161105 - TEA (Patreon)

Sorry today's took a bit longer than usual to post, it's because I decided to get all FANCY and do some EDITING just because. 

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Okay hello patrons it is Saturday here in Vancouver British Columbia, it's raining and gross outside and it's also night because were at the time of year where it's just dark all the time! Tryin' hard to sound optimistic about the weather in Vancouver but it's not the time of year for that.

I have just been taking a chill day getting some stuff finished and ready for the Kickstarter to launch on Monday. I'm really excited about that. It's been a long, long stressful road to get to this point but right now I just have a few things left to do that aren't critical and I'm happy that I have some time to get them done and we'll launch with everything done. Which is good! So I hope you're pumped up and you have the information that you need. You've seen the comic that going up on Monday. I'm just going to do some additional promo stuff and getting graphics and images ready... Getting a Kickstarter ready is a lot more work than maybe people realize... I don't think I had any illusions about it-- I knew it would be a ton of work going in-- but it definitely has been a slog. There are so many numbers so much information they need to get and collect and assess. There are so many decisions that you need to make... trade-offs and strategy... And as you know no strategy survives an encounter with the market... So I'm making a lot of decisions and assumptions that I'm going to need to test when it goes live.

At this point I'm spending my time being really anxious and uncertain because there is nothing more that I can do. I've done the best that I can. I've made the best book that I can. I've made the most thorough campaign that I can make... I've done everything within my power to prepare. I believe that. I can't think of anything else I might have been able to do. So all I have to do is launch it and hope for the best. And I really hope this goes well.

So today I actually took a bit of a break and I went to the Vancouver tea Festival with my friends Alina and Dan. It's the second time that I've gone to it. This year it was in the Sun Yat-Sen Garden which is lovely. I mean it was raining but it's always nice to visit the garden. They give you this little tea cup with your entry and you get to go and sample all the different teas... And so I sampled a lot of different black teas... Guaranteeing that I will not sleep for years! I am really overcaffeinated now. And I thought I'd show you guys the tea that I've bought. My goal was to get some baged black tea. I have a lot of looseleaf black tea and last year I bought a lot of looseleaf and bagged herbal teas... which is what I drink at night because I can't have caffeine at night... but I've noticed that I want just a nicer bagged black tea for when I want caffeine and I don't want coffee. So I was like my goal this time was to get some easy access black tea that is better than my baseline garbage Twinnings that I drink occasionally.

I got this just tea which is an African black tea.. it's pretty nice... it comes in a nice triange box and it has little nice triangle bags on the inside so that'll be nice. They said that this was actually a blend of African tea and some other teas... Kenya black tea, China black tea... whatever it's tasty it tastes good.

This one... it is the second time I brought this tea...last year I bought a sampler pack and I ended up using it up by the end of December I realized... so when I was thinking about it I'm like "actually I probably really liked that tea." This is different, this is interesting, it's called Wise Monkey tea and it's tea that's made out of the leaves of coffee plants. So they take the leaves off of coffee plants and turn that into a tea. And the premise of it is that they have all these farmers who are only able to harvest coffee in a very specific limited time of the year and by harvesting the leaves and turning them into tea, they're extending the productive cycle of their crops... of the same crop. And this is mango flavour this was my favourite. It's called Mango Party! It's very good, I like it.

This was a weird new product that I'd never seen before it's a Vancouver company that makes it and it's actually an instant tea. So it's dehydrated and particularized in the same way that you would find in instant coffee but it's Pu-erh... which is unusual and I tried a few of them and they taste okay. And since the goal today was to find some black teas that are easy to drink, I thought I'd give it a shot.

And this last one is not on my target but I've purchased two teas from this person Trudy- Ann and she makes these wonderfully blended chai teas and it this is probably the most spicy and fragrant Chai teas I've ever found and I love it to bits. So this on I got is called a tumergy ginger tonic and it's intended to be something that you use when you're sick and it's very very very gingery. so I am excited to try that the next time I'm sick. "Boy i'm excited to get sick!!" And that was... the tea festival.

So tomorrow more Kickstarter stuff, Monday the Kickstarter launches and that's pretty much it for me. I've got some additional video that I took on my cell phone of the Tea Festival so you'll be able to see what that was like... And anyway thank you so much for your support on Patreon... thank you for sticking with me through thick and thin I gotta say like I've just... when you're when you're asking people to help you...it sucks for me, I don't like it because I feel like I already ask so much and people are already so generous with me that every time I have to ask for something else it's is a little bit stressful... So as always thank you for backing my Patreon and if you decide to back the Kickstarter... thank you so much for that. It makes a huge difference for me to be able to just as one person, one artist going out to do my thing. I have the ability now to create books that are as beautiful and as well produced as New York Times best selling authors. We have the same access to printing presses as long as we have the financial leverage and it's incredible to me that I can go out and access people who can make that happen and I'm stoked to make some new books. Okay but I have to just go and deal with my anxiety now so I will see you guys on the Internet and... yeah! Next week's gonna be a big week. Alright! Bye