Hello There
I’m drafting this on Friday because on Saturday night I’m going to a show, and then having some social time on Sunday, so I’m not entirely sure what my attention span will be like this weekend (Sunday morning edit to add: I’m heckin tired yo). But, hello. Welcome back. Have you been lured here by promises of soup? Or, wait, did you know? Did you know we would be talking soup this week?? Well, we are! Congratulations, it’s soup (and also other things). My attempts to deliver value to your inbox continue.
It has been wonderfully gloomy all week. Not as rainy as I’d like, but very overcast, in the way most people complain about. Not me! My pale ass was made for this weather (no, literally, born and raised in the PNW, and too much direct sun exacerbates one of my chronic illnesses, so). Somehow a lot of people don’t know that the Pacific Northwest/Willamette Valley is a temperate rainforest and thusly it annoys me to no end when people complain about the rain. What did you expect! from! a! rainforest?!! Anyway. I, personally, love the rain and the chilly grey days. I’m writing this at my desk, having draped my heated blanket over my office chair and cranking that shit up. Technically it’s my dog’s heated blanket, but sometimes she lets me use it (no she doesn’t, she’s absolutely looking at me like 🥺 right now, but I am bigger than her and have thumbs).
I finally took some time to add some style to this newsletter. Thoughts? Any display issues popping up in your email reader, or accessibility issues you’re experiencing? Do let me know, because emails that are annoying to read are annoying and don’t get read.
🗓️ Week in Review
☑️ Done and Done - made it back to my yoga class (x3!), edited and delivered that second custom video, trimmed my bangs, made soup and a quick loaf of bread, attended a useful webinar on email list segmentation, went to a stellar dungeon synth show and photographed one of the bands, finished repairing the wall by my desk, replied to your replies (hi!), continued playing around with new camera gear.
❌ Nope - skipped the hair bleach & dye due to an angy should joint, worked on my chainmaille project a TON but it got wonky and I decided not to pressure myself to get it wearable before Saturday night, did NOT sleep well several nights due to Penelope cat’s nightly 2am operatics and a TMJ flair, didn’t actually leave the house at all due to just feeling poorly and underambulatory and not really having any reason to.
📋 Coming up - going to a burlesque/fire/cabaret show thing tonight, scheduled Irma’s vet appt for early June, made travel plans to visit my mom in early July; gonna try to focus on Hustle to Hire stuff this next week, and to get some mf art up on this mf plain white wall by my desk.
📷 Postcards
This falcon swooped into the tree right outside my apartment window! Very cool.
Trimmed my bangs. Yes with a pair of Fiskars. Safety first.
Tools of the chainmaille trade
🌝 Vibe Check
I don’t think I want simply the dopamine hit of quick or immediate change. I want the deeply felt nervous system regulation of alignment. Easier said than done!
…
The more I show up for myself, the more I show up for others. The more resourced I am, the more I can be a resource. That premise does feel deeply aligned with my core self.
Alignment is such a tricky thing. It’s hard, in the Internet era of being trained to collect “friends” and “likes”, to remember that we as individuals are not meant to align with all people, all passions. We as individuals are not meant to align with all the things, just because others enjoy them. So finding those incredibly unique things we do align with? That is magic. I think it’s one of those things that is hard to otherwise define; you know it when you see it. I’ve got my eyes open; I’m looking.
🛠️ Toolbox
The new camera has me thinking thoughts about content production. Namely, lighting, which almost everyone will tell you is one of the FIRST things you should prioritize, regardless of whatever niche/industry/space your “content” (a.k.a. art and/or labor) occupies. Good lighting can compensate for a weak camera. And personally, I looooove playing with colour. A little accent pop of something bright or bold can really elevate the final product… when used with intention. Older Italian cinema had colourful accent lighting in spades. Watch a good crisp copy of Blood and Black Lace (1964) and you’ll see what I mean.
A colourful still from Blood and Black Lace
WHICH IS ALL TO SAY, I bought a couple new lights. NEEWER is a budget-conscious brand I have had good experiences with over the years, and I saw they were having a sale. I’ve had these little cube-ish lights bookmarked for a minute and I’m SO glad I got them. A bit tedious to “scroll” to the colour you want but they are CHEAP, usually around $18 but I grabbed two for $30. I don’t know how long they’ll be on sale, but worth bookmarking for later either way.
Why I’m excited about these: they’re wireless, rechargeable, have the standard warm/cool white lighting with nearly infinite custom colour brightness and saturation levels, cold shoe and tripod compatible, magnetic(?!) or just easy to set on a flat surface, and, stacked, they’re the size of my iPhone 15 Pro. I plan to use one attached to my camera for shoots, with the second providing fill or accent lighting; I picked up an RGB light wand at an estate market last month that will round out this setup nicely.
The portability of these lights cannot be denied!
It’s worth remembering that the best tool is the one you have. Camera, lighting, power drill, pen, whatever. I love grabbing cheap stuff to learn with and see how it fits into my workflow, and if it becomes integral, it’s worth upgrading when the cheap one breaks.
Now, go and light the fuck out of (or into) your next content shoot. NEEWER Magnetic RGB Portable Camera Lights. That’s not an affiliate link, I just want you to have better lighting.
🎧 Currently Playing
🦋 Bluesky - Every Lain Frame in Order. Does what it says on the tin. Absolutely the kind of weird Internet I enjoy; I was worried it would inundate my feed but a week in and it remains a welcome, random reminder of the present day, present time.
🎵 Music - This, of course, triggered the necessary listen-through of Bôa’s 1998 single, Duvet, used as the opening theme to Lain and collected on their album Twilight. This led me to this banger of a remix by ScummV, which I think I’ve pulled up every day this week. (Remember when albums were released as physical media and had 2-3 niche genre remixes to close things out?) The whole album absolutely holds up if you enjoy London shoegaze vibes; goes well with a second cup of coffee. (Side note: For some reason Duvet saw a resurgence on TikTok in recent years, prompting the band to release a new album in 2024?!)
👾 Gaming - Going to be doing some play testing of a WIP game from an indie dev acquaintance; very hush hush but I am looking forward to checking it out!
🎬 Watching - I finally made time for The Nightingale (2018), which I’ve had bookmarked for a min. Same director as The Babadook, but this time she’s tackling female rage and colonial oppression (and the power of friendship?). In a word: oof. Do check DoesTheDogDie.com for content warnings. Maybe don’t watch this before bed.
🥣 Soup Witchery
OKAY NOW ABOUT THAT SOUP. Gloomy weather means it’s still soup season. My TMJ acting a menace also means it’s soup season. Turning a roast chicken carcass and some vegetable trimmings into a delicious stock last week? Yup, that sounds like soup season.
Dinner in progress
Soup!
Crusty bread!
The thing that makes this soup great is that none of the details matter. Do whatever you want! Time-wise, ratio wise, it doesn’t matter. Just get the things and put them in a pot, really. Make sure there’s liquids in the pot, don’t boil the shit out of it, etc. Tbh you could probably make this in a slow cooker but I haven’t tried that yet. Also, it’s hella healthy! Cauliflower is full of antioxidants and nutrients that help detox our bodies. And yams and sweet potatoes contain more potassium, vitamin A, and B2 than your average potato. When eaten with a healthy fat like coconut milk, the fat-soluble nutrients bind to those fats to be more easily processed and used by our immune system (spoonies unite).
Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup
Prep time: 30 minutes? Cook time: 3… hours-ish. Makes 3-4 quarts, usually.
Ingredients:
a quart(?) of soup stock (can be chicken, vegetable, whatever)
1 reasonably sized head of cauliflower
onion (I like to use a sweet onion but it’s w/e)
1 large sweet potato/yam/whatever the orange thing is 🍠 or similar
some potatoes
1 can coconut milk
salt and balsamic vinegar, to taste
really big pot with a lid
Directions:
Put your soup stock in a large stock pot and turn the temp up to High. Chop up the veggies (even the cauliflower stem!) all big and chunky and throw em in! Also some salt. They won’t all “fit” in the liquid, that’s fine. Is it boiling now? Good, turn it down to Low and put the lid on it. Walk away.
Some time passes, an hour is plenty or two if you forgot about it. Main thing is, all those veggies are really soft now, so soft you can mash em up. You can use one of those potato masher things to break everything up if you want some rustic vibes, but I like to use an immersion blender to make it real smoov.
Next up, add the coconut milk. We only add this after the heat is turned down because if you heat coconut milk too much the fats in it get weird and chunky in a way that would offend those food critics in the movie The Menu (2022). We need those fats to bind with the nutrients from the veggies for even better absorption by our gut. Taste it (careful! hot soup!) and probably add more salt, pepper too. We’re gonna put the lid back on and give it another 30 minutes, still on Low. Then, if you think it tastes good, it’s done! Turn that burner off and stir in a splash of balsamic vinegar for some umami (don’t do it sooner! you don’t want to cook the vinegar).
Notes:
After the base is done before that final 30min, you can basically add in whatever. Chopped ham is a classic! Mushrooms could be good? Uncooked lentils (make sure to give them that full 30 minutes on low to cook through), or pre-cooked beans (same). Or maybe add a red bell pepper at the start, before things get blended? Or, ooh! Some squash! Maybe that quarter head of cabbage languishing in your fridge? Don’t forget to consider other herbs and spices! You could use fish sauce instead of vinegar. It’s your soup now, go with God.
This soup freezes well, BUT you have to reheat it slowly. Thaw it in your fridge for a day+ beforehand, then heat it on a stovetop real low and slow. If you heat it too hot/too quickly, the fats in the coconut milk get that weird and chunky look I was mentioning. Also you can just make the basic ass base soup recipe to freeze and then add in fun bonus ingredients when you reheat it, so you’ll have a different soup every time!
If this is too much soup for you (weakling! didn’t you read the thing about freezing it??) you can cut the amount of stock and veggies in half, but probably still use the whole can of coconut milk because what tf else are you going to do with it?
Goes well with a crusty bread.
🗒️ Hot Takes & Sticky Notes
Speaking of food. Bill Oakley, former Simpsons writer turned quirky regional food reviewer, has started a newsletter. He’s a very funny guy and if you enjoy reading frequent newsletters about the previously unknown nuances and eccentricities of innocuous foods, there ya go. Subscribe to Bill Oakly’s Eatarama.
This post came up on my feed while I was talking about some business feels with my coach; perfect timing. WITH THESE POWERS COMBINED (I am still working on 3):
THREE KEY INGREDIENTS 1 my autism keeps me hyper focused 2 my fear of death and desire to use my time well keeps me productive and grateful 3 my belligerent confidence that i am the best in the world at everything keeps any imposter syndrome at bay. WITH THESE POWERS COMBINED you get chuck tingle
— Chuck Tingle (@chucktingle.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T19:12:41.772Z
Similarly (et tu, Reader?):
👋 Okay bye
I don’t know if you know this, but doing all this on a weekly basis is time-consuming! But overall I’m getting the hang of it, workflow-wise, and yes, I am enjoying it. 😊 Props to those who make a living off newsletters? That could never be me… unless…? Tbh I am considering monetization options; my Beehiiv account gives me access to both advertising opportunities (you click, I get paid) but I’m also thinking about offering a super accessible subscription. Would you pay $1/month to remove ads? $5? Or maybe you get extended bonus content, deep-diving into a specific thing? Hmmm. HMMMM.
Okay I’m tired af and I’ve got a couple hours before I meet up with a friend for an Ulta run to restock makeup supplies. Omg should I do a haul video?! 😂 No. No I don’t think I will. But if I pick up anything truly notable I’ll let you know.
This week I’m going to ask you to remember that you can’t control everything, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. Find something that helps you feel that power, that connection with the world, even if it’s as simple as putting out peanuts for the crows, planting a regional wildflower mix, or filling marble-filled shallow water dishes for the bees. Catch ya later.
xox,
