'Tis the Season

for gratitude and cranberry sauce

A Few Things For Which I Am Grateful Today

by Elizabeth, aged 53 1/2.

This hat, which will be here on Friday, much to the chagrin of a certain Porkchop.

(in a larger size, obviously. This one wouldn’t fit his pate.)

I am fully expecting hilarity to ensue. And possibly to get pictures for this year’s Christmas cards.

This recipe for modifying pop-biscuit cinnamon rolls.

Mine absolutely did NOT look like this. More like flat-ish pucks of speckled bread in a weird cream/caramel concoction, to be honest. But they tasted freakin’ amazing, and have twice the frosting, which, as y’all know, is the best part.

This series of articles on making a one-page RPG.

It’s niche here, I know. I’m showing my nerditude again¹.

That said, this series isn’t just about making a little game, which is what I expected, since I’m on the “game” part of the ABC Project². I thought I’d just read it for some technical brushing-up, but quickly lost all track of space and time while doing all the exercises. From the first section of the thing, it deep dives into the types of players (from several different models) and the 8 types of fun, AND the types of games, in general…which is fascinating, even just as a psychological perspective. I was all I’ll take an hour to skim this and ended up being here at midnight, still only on chapter two, because I had to go read academic articles about how humans experience games and an in-depth article from the guy who invented MUD/MUSHes about how the four player types interact, etc., etc., et. al..

And as you can tell from those epic run-on sentences, I may have been just a little bit excited and had to share, just in case any of you are also nerds and wanted to kill a weekend with rabbit holes.

You’re welcome.

This TV show on HBO/MAX/Whatever-they’re-calling-it-now.

I put it on to have some background noise while doing other things, mostly because it’s actually from Norway and so they speak, y’know, Norwegian, which I’m still picking away at and still only have roughly the proficiency and vocabulary/comprehension of a preschooler, despite being on year SIX of the course. (DuoLingo is awesome, but I’m apparently a very slow language learner these days.)

Anyway: that lasted about ten minutes before I got completely sucked in by the plot: A woman in a bit of a rut loses her job and stumbles into a career on a site that’s clearly modeled on OnlyFans. It’s hilarious in that Scandinavian kind of way, and also oddly touching and engaging, and wasn’t at all what I expected³.

(And then it was six hours later and I finished the season and had no idea where the day went. Because ADHD, that’s why.)

I regret nothing.

This book, which forced me to read it instead of doing productive things.

It was described as The Princess Bride meets The People You Meet on Vacation, and I was instantly sold. I’m not sure it’s all that accurate, but even without Wesley vibes, it’s still really good.

Essentially, three heroes who saved the land a decade or so ago had a little falling out and haven’t seen each other pretty much since. They’re “invited” to the Queen’s wedding where they run into each other. Things escalate from there, and they might just have a second chance to right a few wrongs and clear up a few misunderstandings and probably kill a few cultists.

As one does at reunions, obviously.

It’s categorized as “romantasy”, but has roughly six hundred and forty-seven fewer penises on-page than your average romantasy. This is just fine with me, but if you’re looking for spicier stuff, you’ll probably want to skip it and just go re-read Sarah J Mass. :)

There’s more, but that’s probably enough for now.

Wouldn’t want to overwhelm you with the full breadth of my current enthusiasms.⁴

If I don’t get back here before then, I hope you’ll have an amazing Thanksgiving, full of family who don’t suck and a fair measure of food coma. I’m planning on eating a whole pie and then complaining my pants are too tight. As one should⁵.

(For those not in the US…Happy Thursday instead. You can also have some pie. In solidarity, natch.)

And, all jokes aside, I’m really thankful y’all are here, and that you put up with my sporadic weirdness.

Thank you. If you were closer, I might even share my pie⁶.

1. I’d apologize, but I’m not really that sorry.

2. Or I SHOULD be on the “game” creation-bit. I’m finding that with J home this whole week, I’m getting precisely nothing done. He’s loud and kind of smelly and I sort of love having his whole disruptive self here for longer than two days.

3. Note to those with delicate sensibilities: there are boobs. And some talk of sex, obviously, given the plot. It’s not egregious, or even remotely porn-like, but if you’re bothered by the bewbs or you’ve got kids you don’t want looking at the bewbs, you may want to skip it.

4. We keep our enthusiasms to ourselves, young lady.

5. Also as one should: planning my assault on local businesses, where I will throw dollars at them for stuff. Nothing like spending the day created to celebrate what you already have by anticipating the stuff you will buy. I feel so peak capitalism american right now.

6. (Morgan Freeman Narrator Voice:). No. No, she would not share her pie.