Hello, November

I'm going to make you be good to me

November showed up in Los Angeles today, but she forgot to bring her homegirl fall with her. 

This is not a complaint; it’s just an observation. 

We are still having summer weather right now. When I think back on it, I feel like I have been wearing shorts for most of the year. We don’t necessarily get seasons in L.A. the same way the rest of the country does, but we do experience some temperature changes and a bit of rain. 

Right now, it feels like it’s been hot for months, and again, it’s not a complaint; it’s an observation. 

It’s Red Cup Season

Anyway, it’s the beginning of a new month, and it’s one that leads us directly into Christmas music, and I’m not ready for it. 

I saw an advertisement that said the Starbucks holiday drinks and treats come out tomorrow, and I feel like it’s too soon. It’s still fall. People are still enjoying pumpkin spice. 

I am not one of the people enjoying pumpkin spice this season because I have gotten over it. I don’t judge anyone who enjoys it; I just realized I was not as into it as I thought I was, and I have moved on.

Plus I have been experimenting with different Starbucks hacks that give me a delicious flavorful caffeine-filled drink without all the extra sugar and dairy. I started following a guy called themacrobarista on both Instagram and TikTok (I’m currently obsessed with TikTok. More on that later), and he has all these hacks that can bring the carb count on a drink way down. I started experimenting with some of his suggestions, and I mixed and matched until I found what is currently my favorite drink. 

Four shots of blonde espresso over light ice in a grande cup with one pump of brown sugar, one pump of toffee nut,  one Splenda, and a splash of oatmilk, Baby, It’s my new favorite thing. Remember, I’m Nancy Botwin out here. 

TikTok, Threads, X, and all the others

The social media landscape is changing. 

I’ve been spending a lot more time on TikTok than anywhere else, and because their algorithm is so smart (or spooky, depending on how you look at it), most of my TikTok “For You” page is dog videos, booktok (I fucking LOVE booktok), cooking videos, and shopping hauls. 

I’ve been spending a bit more time on Threads, and I actually like it there. It’s a prettier Twitter, and the people are nicer. It feels like people participate more thoughtfully. I've heard there are trolls, but I haven’t encountered them as of yet. I’m not worried about it though because my block hand is super strong at this point. 

Twitter (now called X, but I’mma always call it Twitter) is a hellscape. I’m still there, and I likely will be there until the walls come tumbling down or he tries to make us all pay for it, but its value has diminished greatly. Apartheid Clyde is an idiot, and he burned down our town square just to stroke his own ego. What a mess. 

Another place I have been spending a lot of time is LinkedIn, surprisingly. I’ve managed to curate my feed in such a way that the content I am getting is mostly from Black people, and LISTEN! Black work Facebook got something to say! There’s a lot of motivation, a lot of encouragement, a lot of support, and a constant display of Black people uplifting each other. I really like it, and I have been thinking of ways to participate more in a way that makes sense for me. 

Facebook is Facebook. I’m there too. Maybe not as much as I once was, but I engage, and I remain entertained by the things other people post. 

I would like to get into using the Notes feature here on Substack more. I see the ways a lot of other people use it, and it’s definitely a way to add a more “community” vibe to the Substack experience. The same can be said for the conversations feature.

Speaking of Substack 

I am having the hardest time getting my custom domain pointed to this newsletter. It seems like it’s an issue on my webhost’s end, and after at least ten different tech support calls, none of them have been able to make it work. I want to boo, hiss, and throw tomatoes at them right now. I’m going to keep trying, but this is super annoying to say the least. A lot of it has to do with outsourcing customer service and tech support roles overseas and providing the people hired with minimal training. I can tell when I’m talking to the “tech support” person that they aren’t quite sure of what to do, and that is extremely frustrating as a customer. How can I trust this company if I cannot even trust that their employees know what they are talking about?

Whatever. That’s the end of my rant. It appears I’m not the only person having this issue though because I just did a search on reddit, and a lot of people who use my webhost are having the same issue trying to do custom domain with Substack.

I’ll figure it out later. 

Hello, November. I’m going to make you be good to me.