Chit Chat and Reccomendation Post: May 2023 (Patreon)

Hiyo, Patrons! It's time for our monthly chit-chat and recommendation post, a cozy little space to update each other on what we've been doing lately and all the things we’ve enjoyed during the month!

May was good for me, mostly! Monster Girl Mayhem went off without a hitch and was much less stressful than Februdere, which is all I can ask for really.

Barring unforeseen disaster, June promises to be better: after around four months without it, my ADHD med has finally come back in stock at one local pharmacy. I'll be getting my prescription filled soon! Not a moment too soon, either; a lot of the mundane tasks in my life have been gradually spiraling out of control during these months without my Make Brain Work Good pills. 

It'll take a week or two to readjust to my old dosage since it was very high before I was forced off it cold turkey, so I might have to take a few days off youtube/patreon during that period when my brain feels like it's on fire. But then I should be back to my old self again! 🙌 

It'll definitely be nice to tackle my lengthening to-do list without forgetting what I'm doing every five minutes. I have been falling behind on so many things while trying to give myself grace because my brain is only working at 20% of its capacity. 100% will feel fantastic.

Anyway, now it's time for the fun stuff! Here are a few things I enjoyed during May!

Audio Nerd Things: this month, I ventured into the Generic Radio Workshop
Vintage Radio Script Library, an archive of scripts from the golden age of radio! I was already into that stuff before I started my channel, but this job makes for a perfect excuse to dive into it more. Combing through the library, I actually found a script I'd love to produce one day! But of course copyright law and the oddities surrounding vintage radio rights makes that a sticky proposition.

Still, a girl can dream!

Also from the Audio Nerd Things category: The USC Sound Effects Library recently came to the internet archive, which includes authentic vintage sound from television productions dating back to the 1950's. That was fun to poke around in.

Articles: Lots of different offerings this month, and they're (predictably) all over the map since I can't hold just one idea in my brain at a time.

The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool: I don't knit, but I know a lot of people who do, and they're all basically wizards to me. Their knitting patterns read like secret code that can only be deciphered under a full moon after a blood sacrifice. 

So it's unsurprising to learn that during a crucial period in wartime history, knitting was used to pass secret messages! Not only could patterns themselves be encoded, but knitted scarves could carry enemy movement patterns in the stitches, all kinds of cool stuff.

This is exactly the kind of historical oddity that I live for.

Trigger: The Life of Willie Nelson’s Guitar: For someone who doesn't live in Texas, I read an awful lot of articles from Texas Monthly. Their reporting is just really beautiful, thoughtful stuff and I always find myself absorbed in it whenever I stumble on an article from their staff. This "biography" of the guitar Willie Nelson has been using for half a century was poignant, bittersweet and interesting.

The Pirate Queen Who Avenged Her Husband’s Death on the High Seas: The Lioness of Brittany! We love a girlboss hellbent on revenge. goodforher.jpg

Who Killed American Kitsch? One of my favorite eras of Americana is undoubtedly post WWII. While not without its problems (what era isn't, though, right?) there's just something I find endearing about the unironic, enthusiastic embrace of tackiness in decor. Lawn flamingos can't bring me to patriotic tears, but it's a very near thing! So whenever I find a piece on some forgotten form of midcentury kitsch, I go over all starry eyed. This article was no exception!

Games: Just two this month, as I didn't have much time to play anything (or read anything, hence why we're skipping the book section!) but both cute little time wasters I liked. 

Little Inferno: has been in my library for awhile and it's hard to describe. Use an interactive fireplace to burn things! Buy more things to burn! Contemplate what you're doing with your life! Is it a pointless time suck? Is it a meditation on the nature of games? Did it make me feel some kind of way? Yes.

Life Goes On: Done to Death is a puzzle platformer in which every life lost becomes a stepping stone to your goal! Literally. Use your own corpses after every resurrection to get where you're going! Morbid? Yes. Do I like it? Also yes.

I wish I had more stuff to offer this month, but alas! I don't! What have you all been up to, though? Watch/read/play anything good?