I started with a typical Lipton teabag, took out the staple, unfolded it, and then marked the folds.

Here’s the unfolded teabag. It’s a rectangle about 5 inches by 2 inches.

For my DIY teabags, I used coffee filter paper, and cut a 2×5 rectangle out of it. It should be possible to make two teabags out of one large-size filter. You should know that coffee filter paper is actually a bit thicker than what is used in actual teabags. But the important part is that we want water to flow freely through the paper such that only liquid tea flows out.

This is probably the best time to add tea. You can add tea to the upper half, the bottom half, or both. You probably need less than you think.

The first folds are to bring the sides into the middle lengthwise. This is roughly an even width fold although the side edges should overlap.

This step exposes one of the few flaws with DIY teabags. Real teabags have a “seam” where these sides are joined. I don’t know a good way to do this or even emulate this without losing a lot of width. If you have any leakage from your teabag, this is likely where it comes from. I find though that if you pack and fold the teabag just right, the internal pressure will keep these sides together and minimize leakage.

Once the sides are folded in, this zig-zag curve in the middle section is next. The middle sections of the fold are about a quarter inch wide. This is the “inside” of the folded teabag, although no tea is actually placed here.

Now that you’ve done the middle fold, bring the far ends together like this. This would also be a suitable time to put tea in the bag, particularly if you weren’t sure how much to put in. Keep in mind the inside seam isn’t sealed, though.

Now fold the top corners over so that the top comes close to a point (but not quite).

Now fold the point over, in the same direction as the corners. I hope you have tea in the bag by now.

Staple the top of the teabag. It doesn’t matter much which way. If you want to have a string attached to your teabag (useful for pulling it out of the cup) then place the end on top of the folded point BEFORE stapling and staple them together. This seems insecure, but this is exactly how most regular teabags add strings and tags (and why they often come off). If you want a tag, too, just staple the other end of the string to it. This is how Lipton does it, anyway.

Here is a completed DIY teabag with tea inside (Peet’s Lapsang Souchong, btw). Note that the bag appears puffy from the tea. Hopefully this presses the insides together and resists tea leakage.

The DIY teabag in a cup of hot water starting to steep.

Nearly done steeping. Notice there are maybe 3-4 tiny tea leaves leaked out — much better than the average tea strainer IMO. The tea is nice and dark.

The teabag after steeping and removed. See how the bag is now teastained. Note also how the wet tea expanded and pressed together in the inside. This is why we can get by without a seam and have very little tea leakage. (But if anyone knows a suitable and easy way to add the seam, I’d like to know.)

No longer any need for unreliable and difficult-to-wash tea strainers when you want to enjoy loose leaf tea — just whip yourself up a DIY teabag from a coffee filter.

©2009 kradeleet. Released under Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution License.

1. George I (the Father)
2. John I (the Advocate)
3. Thomas
4. James I (the Short)
5. James II (the Unchallenged)
6. John II (the Eloquent)
7. Andrew I (the Sharp)
8. Martin
9. William I (the Sick)
10. John III (the Successor)
11. James III (the Accomplished)
12. Zachary
13. Millard
14. Franklin I (the Faint)
15. James IV (the Stingy)
16. Abraham
17. Andrew II (the Impeached)
18. Ulysses
19. Rutherford
20. James V (the Unlucky)
21. Chester
22. Grover
23. Benjamin
24. Grover (restored)
25. William II (the Prosperous)
26. Theodore
27. William III (the Fat)
28. Woodrow
29. Warren
30. Calvin
31. Herbert
32. Franklin II (the Bold)
33. Harry
34. Dwight
35. John IV (the Young)
36. Lyndon
37. Richard
38. Gerald
39. James VI (the Peaceful)
40. Ronald
41. George II (the Elder)
42. William IV (the Fun)
43. George III (the Younger)
44. Barack

List of Presidential Nicknames

I don’t understand how commodity (or currency) traders can possibly figure out the direction of their holdings.

Actually… I don’t think they do.

(See also)

Select three different, arbitrary time codes (in this case the 10 minute, 40 minute, and 70 minute mark), freeze the frames, and use that as the guide to writing about the film. No compromise: the film must be stopped at these time codes. What if, instead of freely choosing what parts of the film to address, one let the film determine this? Constraint as a form of freedom.

I think this is an interesting idea. You step away from the highs and lows that the movie wants you to focus on (or away from), and use empirical and arbitrary tiny moments to judge the movie on. In Digital Poetic’s seminal effort here, though, they allow themselves much leeway to tie these arbitrary images to the overall qualities of the movie; using the randomly selected moments to illustrate the good (and bad) of the movie reviewed.

So here goes my attempt to use this technique to discuss one of my all-time favorite movies: Bruce Willis’ 1991 vanity vehicle, Hudson Hawk.

10 minutes: Outside the Five-Tone Bar
“Wait till you see the Five-Tone. You’re gonna love it.”

This scene is an odd one: it’s very dark, the location is ambiguously Northeast Urban, and we can barely see the main characters (7 o’clock from the bottom left corner of the sign). The bright sign in the corner adds to the “city never sleeps” atmosphere (although we’re in Jersey, not NYC), but its bright and contrasting colors shed a little insight into the use of brilliant color throughout this movie. This cinematic device no doubt becomes much easier a little later where the story moves away from grey, gritty Jersey to colorful Rome, where it remains for the rest of the film.

This scene occurs at the crux of a culture shock for Hawk (Willis), who has been in prison for upwards of ten years. The Five-Tone Bar, an establishment he co-owns with BFF Tommy (Danny Aiello), has transformed from a working-class watering hole to an upscale yuppie bistro (”Raindeer Goat Cheese Pizza!” exclaims Hawk upon reading the menu). This sets up Hawk’s character as stuck in a bit of a time warp, in this case between the Billy Joel 80s and the Nirvana 90s.

40 minutes: At Mayflower headquarters, for the first time.
“Damned Fotomat assholes.”

Another dark shot, taken while the characters are in the middle of watching a slideshow. This shot (adjusted here for visibility) comes immediately after some unexpected BDSM photos of the Mayflowers (and their butler) appear in a montage of photos showing Hawk and Tommy robbing the auction house a few days before. Right after this scene, Hawk is sent to St. Peter’s Basilica, to case the joint for another heist.

This shot does a good job of showcasing the general personalities of the three characters shown. Darwin Mayflower (Richard E. Grant) tries to appear cool and powerful, but fails. His wife and business partner, Minerva (Sandra Bernhard), is looking at him curiously, but ultimately aloof and unconcerned. Hawk, for his part, is rolling his eyes at their cartoonishness, as he does throughout the movie.

Also, like the previous shot, some of the movie’s brilliant coloring can be inferred: Minerva’s red dress stands out next to Hawk and Darwin’s greyish austerity. In lighter shots, a more colorful, corporate neo-classical set can be seen.

70 minutes: Meeting Anna after the con
“It was beautiful.”

With a touch of classic comedic style, Tommy and Hawk are both rambling at the same time at Vatican secret agent Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell), after pulling one over on the Mayflowers and the CIA by pretending to get into a fight. The glaring splash of red on Tommy’s shirt — again, standing out among the grey of both his suit and European stone, and, as in the 10 minute shot, contrasted with green in Hawk’s shirt — is a ketchup stain meant to look like a gunshot wound.

This scene shortly becomes one of the movie’s shameless money shots of Rome. After Hawk calms down from his rant, he looks out over the fence at some crumbling Roman-era remains, and asks, “Why do they leave all these rocks out in the yard?”, a sort of homage to dryly comedic “road films” of the 50s and 60s.

In summation

What do all of these shots illustrate? For one, the movie’s use of brighter-than-life color, adding a cartoonishness to every scene. For another, the movie’s repeated attempts to merge a classic slapstick comedy sensibility with a little bit of big-bang action. Upon release, this movie suffered at the box office from the inability of audiences to accept the combination of the two, wanting it to be either a comedy or an action film, and the bright cartoonish color perhaps left them hoping for more obvious and easily-digested humor, instead of surreal absurdity sprinkled with subtle in-jokes and long-forgotten classic comedy.

Not so much.

The latest Obamaniacal vast left wing conspiracy? Decimating our military by forcing bigots to consider to choose not to enlist.

From the latest EO emailer:

The language and purpose of the [Military Readiness Enhancement Act] is geared EXCLUSIVELY toward promoting open homosexuality in the Armed Forces!

The MREA’s purpose is, as it admits, to replace the current 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of tacit acceptance of secreted gayness with — as an increasing number of government agencies have — an explicit sexual orientation non-discrimination policy. But in Bigotland, simply permitting people to be openly gay is explicit promotion of homosexuality. Homosexuality is so damned insidious that the mere admission of being gay turns other men gay, and the logical conclusion of all that gayness is that the human race will die out, because there are no sperm banks and no test tube babies.

By repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — which already allows gays in the military, just as long as they don’t admit it — the MREA:

WOULD FORCE GOOD MEN AND WOMEN OUT OF THE SERVICE!

How would it do this, you ask? Well, by way of allowing gays to admit their gayness, homophobes, which apparently comprise 24% of our military, would be BRUTALLY FORCED to CONSIDER to VOLUNTARILY NOT RE-ENLIST.

A recent poll by The Military Times [posed] the question; “If the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is overturned and gays are allowed to serve openly, how would you respond?” According to the poll, a full 24 percent of respondents said they would not re-enlist or consider not re-enlisting!

What makes it all the more sinister and damnable is that:

Obama’s NOT calling it a “reduction in force,” nor is he giving ANY indication that the REAL AGENDA is the wholesale destruction of our military.

The fiend!

It’s doing it again.

In fact it played two Last Poets tracks this morning. What kind of a day is going to be, oh Zune?

RADAR, SONAR, LASER BEAMS
JETS, TANKS, SUBMARINES,
MEGATHONS, H-BOMBS, NAPALM, GAS….
All this shit will kill you fast
All products of the Mean Machine

Don’t get me wrong. Revolutionary music is always win. In fact, it may be the only music truly worth anything, because beyond just entertainment it is an attempt to make a strong message. This is no doubt why in high school I was listening to Franti and Paris while others were listening to Color Me Badd and Boyz II Men. (Well, I listened to those too, a little.)

But it has this way of jarring your morning.