babe wake up, permission to be weird and whimsical just dropped
menu 004 (fka THE SILLYVERSE)
Structured like a tasty meal for weird/creative/silly geese, Goose Food is your weekly-ish whimsy-fueling checkpoint to add some sparkle back to your inbox and some creativity back to your juices.
Hi, I’m Noelle! I’m a writer, dog lover, and booktuber with an IRL background in events, wine, and luxury hospitality. There’s a goofy little word goblin chef under my hat cooking up the newsletter carte du jour— bon appetit!
🧀 appetizer
cleanse your palate with an amuse-bouche for your brain
help me with some D&D worldbuilding
Earlier this year, I decided I was tired of endlessly wishing I had a D&D group to play with and committed myself to learning how to be a Dungeon Master. I got the books. I rallied a group of friends that want to play (IT’S HAPPENING), and promptly set out to “homebrew” a completely new setting and story for my very first campaign, from scratch.
So far I’m absolutely loving building out a Studio Ghibli x Knive’s Out x Arcane x Pirates of the Caribbean x Legends & Lattes sandbox vibe for the campaign. But I keep creating new people/places/things, and I’m terrible at committing to names for those imaginary people/places/things. I fear this is an incurable affliction most writers face.
So here’s your appetizer:
What would you name an exotic and beautiful magical fruit that only grows on a tiny island oasis smack in the middle of pirate-infested waters, farmed and tended-to by an immortal clan of elven druids, said to grant one wish to anyone that eats it— but doing so is strictly forbidden by the sacred druidic customs?
Bonus: How does it taste? What does it look like?
🌭 main course
chef’s special— chew thoroughly!
why does it feel so cringe to be sincere?
Recently, my boyfriend (Wes) and I watched this excellent video podcast with the charismatic CEOs of Nebula.tv and Dropout.tv (Dave Wiskus and Sam Reich, respectively), both growing streaming platforms powered by creators and comedians. We are big Dropout fans in this house— it has taken over most of our evening streaming time. I could cancel every other platform and be perfectly content with just Dropout.
At about 57 minutes in to this podcast, Sam mentions the common denominator between the three most successful shows on Dropout is that they’re all mostly unscripted (though still have a high degree of production and writing behind them), in an era when scripted content can feel almost “inauthentic,” while social media has conditioned us as consumers to crave “authenticity.” He then asks Dave, “What are other interesting ways to straddle the line between scripted and unscripted [content]?”
Dave explains that he feels there’s a major difference between authenticity and sincerity from a “content”/production/art lens:
“You’re 100% correct using the ‘a-word,’ using ‘authenticity.’ I’m very frustrated by that word because I think it’s been weaponized and packaged and sold back to us. I’m no longer interested in authenticity. … I think that what makes a really good parasocial creator relationship work is not authenticity, it’s sincerity. Meaning what you say. Not just saying something that sounds like you mean it, which is how I read the word ‘authenticity,’ but actually meaning it.”
I have not stopped thinking about this quote.
Authenticity is “being yourself,” but still filtering those bits of realness through a specific, curated filter.
It’s the “no-makeup makeup” of your online footprint.
Authenticity = your personal brand.
Sincerity is not filtered, it’s simply honest, earnest, and true.
It’s sweatpants and a messy bun.
It’s comfortable in an “I’m not trying to impress anyone” way, which also makes it vulnerable, when inevitable feedback does come.
Sincerity = your art.
So why does it feel so CRINGE to be sincere, and why is it so hard to let go of my metaphorical mascara and brow gel and just let myself make something from the heart?
There’s an absolutely ancient vlogbrothers video from over a decade ago (I actually found it?! Look at baby 2012 Hank Green omfg), with Hank doling out some charming (and sincere!) advice to aspiring YouTubers. I remember watching this video in 2013 when I was about to start my first booktube channel. I still think about it all the time.
“Another important rule: Do not be afraid to try! I know that failing at something stings a lot less if you didn’t really try hard, but it’s also much more likely.”
I mean?? Can we get a victory lap on that last bar, please, chef:
Failing at something stings a lot less if you didn’t really try hard—
but it’s also much more likely.
Yes, Hank. Ouchie, but yes.
To me, “trying hard” = being sincere. Because being sincere on the internet is scary, and it stings like a bitch when it’s not received in the way I might hope. Maybe that’s why it feels cringe to “try hard” in this context.
Frankly, I’d like to stop cringing altogether. I’m still perfecting the recipe for the antidote, but I’ll let you know when I crack it.
Two quotes/sayings that Wes and I often remind each other of:
“It’s cool to care.”
From a relationship perspective, this is a reminder we share with each other to gently ask for a little more “buy-in,” whether it’s rallying for a deep clean of the house or encouraging ourselves to show up to a social event.
In any creative pursuit, the more I care about a thing I’m making, the better it will be, and the prouder I am once it’s finished. Wes tells me “it’s cool to care” about my various creative efforts and it helps to slowly re-train that part of me that’s used to cringing. It’s not cringe, it’s fucking COOL. It’s cool to try. It’s cool to care. It’s cool to make stuff.
“The effort is the prize.”
This one literally hangs in our house, in the kitchen. It’s a phrase Wes picked up from his years in pro marching band, aka DCI. It reminds me that how you do one thing is how you do everything, and that’s the real treasure (not the end result, not the destination, not the finished piece).
The prize = your process, your experience, your time and energy, your growth, your lessons, your hard-won skills, your mistakes, your attention, your focus
Creativity demands effort and experimentation, creativity often thrives on “no rules,” creativity is just allowing yourself to PLAY until you end up with something kinda neat and you’re like, “Cool, I made some art!”
And personally, I do my best “playing” in sweatpants and a messy bun.
🥗 sides
perfect pairings for the vibes we’re cooking with today
my music taste is evolving before my eyes
Wes has the most amazing talent of perfectly curating a specific niche vibe with a Spotify playlist. Banger home-baked roundups such as “Vaguely Western?” and “Premium Free Range Organic Funk” see regular airtime in our house.
I do not share this talent. I am not good at curating one specific vibe, in a playlist or otherwise (hello, ADHD). But, I do like to forage for and squirrel away new tasty jams as I come across them in Spotify, and my current system works like a dream:
Tessa Violet gave me the idea in 2020 to simply make one (1) playlist a year, acting as a catch-all bucket for Any Song That Gives Me That “Ooh I Love This Song” Feeling during that year. There are no other rules. It can be a new release or an oldie, it can be a carryover from the previous year’s list or a brand new discovery, it can be a random lo-fi ditty or the pop song of the summer. I hear it, I like it, I want it, I throw it in the cauldron playlist.
On a daily/weekly/monthly basis, I’m not thinking deeply about my music taste. I’m just chucking in whatever speaks to me, and listening to the ever-growing Frankenstein-ed creation on shuffle as the year goes on. I also listen back to years past, and now that I’m on year 6 (!!) of this system, I can tell you it is so deliciously nostalgic, and sometimes bittersweet, to be blasted back to the versions of me that were listening to and curating these past time capsule playlists.
If you also get overwhelmed with making playlists (and/or if you are also a music-lover with ADHD), I highly recommend the annual chaos catch-all!
Here’s this year’s work-in-progress:
smoked cream cheese
This one actually is not a weird creativity/structure metaphor. I’m really talking about Smoked Cream Cheese: A Recipe You Should Try. It’s the EASIEST and best snack/side/appetizer ever, especially heading into patio/BBQ season. Trust me.
It’s just a whole ass block of cream cheese, score the top with a knife, and generously spraaankle that bitch with whatever cocktail of spices and herbs your heart is craving. Most recently I went with garlic salt and dried rosemary, but there are zero wrong choices. It’s impossible to mess up. Throw that baby on some foil and let ‘er smoke on a pellet grill for 1-2 hours at low/medium heat. Eat with crackers or a baguette or veggies. Weep with joy.
I make it on our smoker, but I also found this blog link with oven and air fryer versions!
Just make it. I’m serious. (And you’re welcome.)
it’s hummingbird season!
If you’re new to my orbit, hello, so nice to meet you— It’s important to me that you know from the jump that I really, really like birds. They’re just goofy little guys with wings!
On California’s central coast, for a few weeks of the year each spring, we get to see tiny orange Rufous hummingbirds as they migrate back north to Canada, after wintering in Mexico, for their summer breeding season. Keep an eye out for them if you’re on the west coast; they are the chihuahuas of the bird world. So much attitude and spunk and speed in a teeeeeny tiny package. I love them so much.
Also— if you have a hummingbird feeder, remember to clean that thang at LEAST twice a week to keep the hummers safe and healthy! Also also, don’t ever let me catch you buying that red “nectar” from the store. Just mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and you’re good to go, my sweet backyard-birding friend.
🍰 dessert
a dopamine snack for your mental sweet tooth
tell my fortune, ASMR mommy 🔮
One thing about me: I love a witchy vibe, and I love a cozy vibe. But BOTH at once? Absolute paradise. I’m eating it up. I’m asking for seconds. Clean plate club. And send me that recipe.
Let me tell you, there are so many (SO MANY) creators at this delicious intersection if you know where to look/have a tour guide (hi, hello).
YouTube is my go-to joint for these tasty treats.
Here’s my current favorite channels with this sweet combo:
Ediya, ediyasmr
Siobhan, It’s Tarot and Beyond
Kloee, Kloee Taylor
Happy rabbit-holing!
🥡 take it to-go
feeling full? like it, share it, & reheat the leftovers whenever you need ‘em
End-of-newsletter secret:
If you follow me on Instagram, you know our sweet fluffy girl, Sunday, our 7-year-old Aussie-mix rescue dog, recently had a hind leg amputated following a sudden bone cancer diagnosis (sorry to harsh the mellow right at the end, hang in there). She is doing SO GREAT 6 weeks out of surgery, and Wes and I have decided to finally make her a big sister and adopt another dog! We visited a local rescue and fell in love with the perfect silly cuddly wannabe-lap-dog husky-shepherd-mix, and we get to bring him home next week. Soon to be 7 fluffy paws in this house!
Love ya, hungry geese!
Stay funky,
Noelle
YouTube // Instagram // Storygraph // Ko-Fi
My magical fruit looks like a giant golden dragon fruit that you have to crack open like a coconut and tastes like your happiest memory stardew valley style. And I cannot for the life of me think of a name so you get this: Goldendease pronounced Golden - ease (nuts)