Chit Chat and Reccommendation Post: September 2022 (Patreon)

Hello, Patrons! Welcome to September's chit-chat and recommendation post, a cozy  hideaway to update each other on what we’ve been doing and all the things we’ve enjoyed during the month!

Autumn is here! Sort of. And I don't know what it's been like near you, but mine has been by turns crisp, wet and a little bleh. Still, I'll take any excuse I can get to snuggle under blankets and drink hot tea, and the start of fall is a fantastic excuse to do that. (No cracks about pumpkin spice, please; vanilla and cinnamon sugar are where it's at in my house. ^^)

There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish in September that simply didn't get done. I'm busy, as ever (I feel like I'm always saying that, but I promise it's always true!) so that's part of why, but I've also been combating a bit of creative burnout. That's a conversation undoubtedly better suited to a planning and update post though, so let's skip over that for now and get to some fun stuff I liked during the month instead! ^^;

Let's start with something a bit different this month: food! It's finally cold enough to enjoy hot beverages and bake at home without melting into a puddle of goo, so I've been doing as much of that as I can fit into my schedule. Which is...admittedly not a lot, but it's something!

Current tea of choice: Lapsang souchong! It's dark and smoky like a fine scotch, and buttery smooth af with a dollop of milk. Even if you think you don't like tea, give it a try. Especially if you can get your hands on some Taylors of Harrogate. 11/10.

Current recipe of choice: Cinnamon Roll Poke Cake! Sometimes a body doesn't want to pay $12 for Cinnabon and is too lazy to make a pan. Sometimes that body is me.

Moving on, the most Interesting article I read in September wasn't an article at all but rather a wikipedia page: The Seven Basic Plots. 

You may be aware of Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces (a famous influence on Star Wars), Save the Cat's notoriously overused story beats, or maybe even the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (the storyline cataloguing system used in folklore and fairy tales) but this all but forgotten theory of story structure from 2004 is something even I'd never heard of! It's reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's Shapes of Story (a great piece and an even greater lecture) but still quite different. Super exciting find! For me, at least. ^^;

Other articles I loved: An Oral History of Big Mouth Billy Bass. I think my grandpa still has one of these silly singing fish in his house somewhere, probably in his basement workshop where it O V E R S E E S   A L L. I adored this retrospective on one of the weird little gift trends of the late nineties/early naughts.

In Defence of Garlic in a Jar: How Food Snobs Almost Ruined My Love of Cooking: a good, but bittersweet, article about the marvelous yet fragile discovery of a new passion, how unnecessary gatekeeping can easily crush it, and finding the will to soldier on anyway.

Remembering When America Banned Sliced Bread: It's weird to think there was a time when giving up sliced bread was intended to help the war effort, but it's even weirder to realize that sliced bread was a modern convenience at the time, newer to American households in 1942 than smartphones are to us in 2022. 

Games: I have a couple of low key selections for you this month and one brutal exercise in torment.

First up: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, a solid, vintage isometric D&D game in the Forgotten Realms setting. I come back to it every so often and just vibe. No idea why! (I even prefer it over Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment, which I've never actually been able to finish. I know that borders on blasphemous. But there's just something about making a whole party from scratch that makes my brain go brr.)

Frost Punk, which probably needs no introduction: a punishing game of survival in a frozen world. I am anxiously awaiting the sequel. (◕‿◕)♡

And finally: Viridi, a free to play virtual pot of succulents. There's just something wonderfully meditative about checking in on my little cluster of plants every day! I actually just bought my first real life plant (a spider plant, name pending) but when I inevitably kill it with my black thumb, at least I'll have something to fall back on.

Other things: I was a big brave girl in September behind the scenes, doing self-care stuff which is easily my least favorite part of that whole "owning a meat suit" thing. Vitamins! Drinking enough water! Mindfulness! And that aforementioned plant to brighten up my little home office space. I encourage you all to take care of yourselves too. It's hard, and the rewards take awhile to manifest, but I promise it's worth it. 💖

That's it for me this month! I hope you're all doing well. How was your September? What exciting new things did you do/see/read/play?