Listen. I’m not going to say that I planned or spent my time poorly this past week. But, I certainly didn’t spend as much time as I ought’ve (read: any at all) on prepping this newsletter in advance of the weekend. Usually I write everything out on Saturday and wrap it up on Sunday, but this week I knew my Saturday was going to be disrupted. The problem is, one, a change in routine?? No, we will not be participating in that. Two, it’s hard to prep a weekly newsletter that talks about what I did/saw/thought about over the past week when it’s still, you know, Wednesday.

Apparently I feel more accomplished about my weeks when I load the heavy stuff on the front end (Monday/Tuesday) and then coast through the rest of the week as all the pieces of my planning fall into place. But last week ended up being the opposite of that. And, as I hope you know by now, ‘round these parts we don’t shame ourselves or others for resting when its needed nor even when the opportunity arises, and arises (arose) it did. So this newsletter is a slight shift in format, and a little more loosely structured. Which is fine because that still mirrors my week!

I did finally confirm plans with family to visit in early November, which when paired with ongoing dental appointments, means my schedule won’t be normalizing until late(?) November if I’m lucky. I’m exhausted just thinking about it; this October hasn’t been the spooky month I’m used to enjoying, but that’s okay. I am at least keeping on top of things what need topping (heyo) and am doing a decent job of staying on top of the shifting calendarscape. I’m not the most spontaneous person in the world but if I’m getting enough rest and eating healthy I can pivot pretty darn well.

So yesterday, when I decided to just “jump on over to Ikea real quick” because I was “in the neighborhood”, I persevered when the MAX (Portland’s lightrail system) was down and it was only shuttle busses going out to the Ikea. I picked up the stuff I had on my list (baking chocolates for my mom, a scratchy scratchy doormat for Penelope, new water bowls for both the kids) and a few extras, and then set out for my return trip home… which ended up taking almost two hours. But I wasn’t in a rush, I reminded myself as the shuttle looped the long way around before heading back into the city. My readers are lovely folk and they will understand if the newsletter is a little late this week, I thought as I missed not one but two bus connections to get back home. There’s time!

Annoying? yes. Frustrating? sure. But none of it made for a bad day, or a bad trip, or a bad transit experience. It just was. I made the choice to go out to Ikea even though I knew a shuttle would lead to snags, and I was fine seeing that through. I caught up on some inbox reading, did some people watching. And now here we are.

Mostly on time, a little off-format, but who’s to say that’s bad? I don’t have too much from my week to talk about anyway, since it was mostly just downtime and medical appointments, lotsa same ol’ same ol’. I think sometimes you need those “I wish I could be working on _____ right now but I can’t, boo” vibes to get you amped TO do the work. So that’s where I’m at now, and I consider it time away well spent. And maybe I will plan the next week better, and really maximize the time? Or maybe I’ll plan it adequately and just keep moving forward. Either way, it’s autumn, it’s gloomy af out, and I’m good.

☑️ Last Week - Started the week off making a huge batch of posole, followed by a goth dance night at a strip club? Sure why not! Subsequently blessed by my Monday dentist appointment getting cancelled, so I took the day off to soak in a bath and watch some movies. The dentist appointment that didn’t get cancelled ended up finding that a small problem was actually not small, so that shifted other plans around and added one more appointment added to the calendar (I’m fine it’s fine the work is all very minor). Also had a follow-up at the optometrist and got a good grade on my eyeballs. Spent one day doing chores and home projects. Went to IKEA. Streamed twice and ended my one month of having that sweet sweet “new” tag; bought some stuff for the stream to celebrate/reinvest. Played a couple video game demos, watched more movies.

📋 Next Week - Catch up on fansite content and posting, host at least two livestreams, do more organizing once the new stuff has come in. More laundry, maybe a few small projects around the home? Get coffee with a friend, go for a good long walk with Irma. Buy travel tickets for November. Wrap it all up with another dental appointment.

Omg October movie season has finally kicked in! And also I played video games! My week was full of welcome diversions; it was overdue.

🎬 Movie #1 - Still really toeing the line on “is it horror?” I finally got around to watching Knock at the Cabin (2023). I am in general a fan/enjoying of M. Night Shyamalan’s work, and tend to view his movies with the expectation that it will take days of consideration to really parse the themes. I guess people call this movie sci-fi, but I usually consider anything with a religious undertone as being innately “horror” regardless of setting, and I think Shyamalan always has an interesting presentation of the classic good vs. evil (looking back to his movie Devil (2010) here).

🎬 Movie #2 - I’ve been mostly out of the loop on all the Mia Goth movies of recent years, and I’m glad to be catching up now that a lot of them are streaming. Starting of course with X (2022). I appreciated how the movie depicted porn production and the mindset around it as all being actually very human and progressive, and not filthy sin. The slasher bits were rather fun and brutal; I can see why this was an instant cult hit.

🎬 Movie #3 - Moving right along from X into Pearl (2022), which took all the discomfort and tension found in X and dialed it up to 11. I appreciated the more in-depth look at our villain from X, but I think in the long run one watch was enough for me! Too much rot and misery for me to revisit, but, horror isn’t always meant to be “fun” eh? I hope to get to Maxxxine in the coming week to finish up the trilogy.

🎬 Movie #4 - One of my faves from my 2024 watchlist, I got to show a fellow nerd Choose or Die (2022). I think it’s a pleasantly clever popcorn flick that plays up classic tropes of nerdery juxtaposed against the toxicity of such, with a supernatural twist. This movie will make you feel justified for your bag/box/bin of junk cords and computer parts. Lots of interesting lighting and digital effects with a reasonable dose of body horror.

🎬 Movie #5 - I’ve been looking forward to watching Blood Quantum (2019) for a few months, and it was so much more satisfying than I could have predicted! Named for the government-instituted approach for measuring indigenous heritage, the premise is that the population of a small tribal reservation in a remote region are the only people unaffected by a zombie plague. What ensues is rife with exploration and undertones, and every time the action veered into camp they reigned it in and reminded the viewer that there’s a bigger conversation happening. I’m gonna give a strong rec for scrolling Does The Dog Die on this one if you’re squeamish about… well, anything, because this movie really covered all the bases, wow.

🎵 Listening - I went on a Massive Attack spree this week. Anything that was already on my music drive, on shuffle. And since it was that first solidly crisp week of autumn, I also had the windows open a lot, which made for a very good soundscape.

👾 Game #1 - In the center of the Venn diagram for horse girls, sim games, and history nerds, indie game Legend of Khiimori has a demo available during Steam’s Next Fest (now through Oct 29). This is much more my preferred flavour of horse girl gaming (vs. the cult hit Umamusume: Pretty Derby). The game has you riding around doing courier missions in ancient Mongolia, giving your horse a hearty pat while doing general environment exploration and crafting, with a side of light combat/defense. (Legend of Khiimori official site)

👾 Game #2 - Another game discovered via Bluesky but in the context of Latin language nerdery, I played the Steam demo for Chants of Sennaar. It’s low-key an adaptation of the Tower of Babel, set in a polychromatic world. You don’t speak any of the languages so you set about deciphering simple words through glyphs, pictographs, and short conversations. It’s a lot of fun, though the extremely bright graphics are difficult once you pass the hour mark. (Chants of Sennaar official site)

☕ Drinking - In trying to move away from the Celestial Seasonings cult and bagged tea in general, I needed a Sleepytime Tea replacement, something with a bit more body to it than your average chamomile. I ended up buying a tin of Harney and Sons’ Hemp Moringa loose leaf tea. Yes, it tastes (and smells) like hemp. Yes, the turmeric content leaves it a bit… crunchy at the end. But if that doesn’t deter you, it’s a very good tea, almost like a bedtime chai. I don’t drink it every night so I still have the tin I bought last autumn, though I’ll be restocking soon.

👕 Wearing - Maybe a little seasonally premature, but I do intent to spend the next 6 months living in my sweatpants Cozy Fleece Everyday Joggers from Yitty. Would I wear these outside the house? Unlikely… maaaybe to take Irma out for a quick walk or if I need to run up to the grocery for a last minute something. If you grab a pair be warned that I had to size down from the expected size or I’d be SWIMMING in them. Still, so so cozy.

🌲 I don’t think I can adequately summarize this writing so I’ll let the title and abstract do the talking: Fear of supernatural punishment can harmonize human societies with nature: an evolutionary game-theoretic approach. “In particular, the study highlighted supernatural beliefs as an essential driver for achieving sustainability by altering people’s interaction with nature.” See also: movies like Princess Mononoke, Shyamalan’s Trees, or even this week’s Blood Quantum. Which is to say, yes, yes I agree, very good conversation here.

🏋️‍♀️ Red alert for all the gym rats in the crowd: your protein powder could be full of lead!! Big yikes! I was glad to see my go-to, Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey, made the cut (pun intended) as having relatively low levels of lead. (Source: article author Paris Martineau on Bluesky)

🦋 Speaking of Bluesky. It really feels like the site is imploding lately, with members of the C-Suite crashing out on main, some of the most beloved users catching petty permabans, G-men flooding the network with accounts new and resurrected, and third-party tools making it very clear who’s on which side of the user experience. All in all, I don’t think the site as a social experiment is going well, and I get the impression the devs are tired and are ready to cash out, as if to say, “we built the framework, put up your own damn walls and plumbing.” To be sure, the original userbase—people seeking somewhere more sane and less toxic than X fka Twitter—made the network an immediate target for trolling, and it’s unfortunate that didn’t get quashed early on, but instead got protected. But, where else are we gonna shitpost?? Time will tell but I’m glad I’m too busy for social lately.

Gosh, I hope I didn’t make anyone worry that this email is going out later! As always, I really appreciate hearing from y’all, and I hope to catch up on replies soon. Thanks for sticking with me and I hope the you’re enjoying the movie recs! 😅 Because if I play my cards right there’ll be five more next week lol. (Also, send me your October movie recs, please and thank you.) Keep your fingers crossed that my week ahead goes a bit more to plan, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you have a good week, too.

Enjoy the rains and let’s do this again next Sunday. 🍁🖤🍂

xox,