👋🏼 Hello, World!

“When bad things happen, I know you want to believe they are a joke, but sometimes life is scary and dark. That is why we must find the light.” - BMO

This simple wisdom from BMO, short for “Be MOre” (phonetically “Beemo”), has stayed with me, especially during the last months of 2024. I was so depressed that for a little while, I found little to no purpose or meaning in the things I was doing. My ADHD brain wanted so badly to prove itself useful, but that’s no simple task when you haven’t processed all the emotions that put you there in the first place.

That’s when I chose to practice mindfulness, to give myself the same grace I’d offer others. One exercise that helped was simply going for walks and paying attention to which foot or leg I was using with each step. It sounds simple, but walking is complex stuff—an intricate process we rarely stop to think about! Slowly, I was able to articulate what I was feeling and understand it as part of grief. Grief hasn’t been linear for me. It’s been heart-wrenching, but I know I’ll be okay.

So yes, sometimes life is scary and dark, and we wish all this was just a bad joke played on us human beings. Still, I think there’s truth in what BMO tells Jake: we need to pull ourselves from the chaos. My mind still gets overwhelmed, but it’s nice to get out and look for things that bring some light into my days, like working on this bulletin and sharing it with you, my fellow human beans. ✨

🎬 Behind the Scenes

If you read my last issue (#32 back in 2024), you might remember I’d applied to take part in the Women Game Jam. Well, I got in! Well, not only that, but I was also accepted into the Sanda Game Jam and even hosted my own: the Rose-A-Ditto Birthday Jam. Building games with GB Studio has been awesome, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone curious about making games with no programming experience.

Hosting my own game jam was part of a tradition I hold dear—finding a unique way to celebrate my birthday each year. Birthday celebrations have become a passion project for me—a chance to share what I love with friends and family while building wonderful memories. This year, I chose a game jam with the theme of transformation. In hindsight, I don’t think I realized how relevant that theme would be.

Just a few days before the Rose-A-Ditto Birthday Jam, I got to share another passion of mine with friends and family: advancing my skills in voice work. I’ve been exploring Knight Thompson Speechwork (KTS), a method of speech and accent training that’s inclusive, playful, and incredibly impactful. Thanks to my amazing circle, I was able to cover the remaining costs for my first KTS workshop, Experiencing Speech. It was six incredible days of learning, and I can’t wait to incorporate what I’ve gained into my anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy. I’m also eager (and honestly a tad nervous) to share some of these techniques in the next section!

💎 Linguistic Gems

Welcome back to Linguistic Gems, a brand-new section where I’ll share tips, tricks, and geek out of pronunciation with you all! In my last issue, I asked us to think about how we say the name of our favorite red-capped plumber, Mario. Did you give the exercise a try? If not, there’s no better time than now! Let’s revisit this together:

1 Let’s say “Mario” silently in our minds, then aloud.

2 Now, let’s try saying “Mario” in a language different from the first one we used.

3 Finally, let’s reflect—what felt different? Was it the way our tongue moved? The rhythm of the syllables? Did it feel more familiar in one language than in another?

This exercise we just tried isn’t just for fun (though I hope it’s a lot of that too!). It’s a way for us to notice how the sounds of a name can change depending on our linguistic and personal experiences.

Now, let’s take this exploration a step further. Are you ready? Imagine we’re working with an MRI scanner that shows us not just what the parts of the human voice look like, but how these parts move. Now, I want to invite us to put each “Mario” pronunciation in those two languages through that MRI scanner. To do this, I want you to think of each movement you make as a single MRI image. This probably means that one “Mario” in one language may be composed of more than 4 images while the other is 5 images or more. Together, we’d start to see the unique patterns behind how we pronounce this name.

📚 Book Nook

I think this is the most accessible Aliette de Bodard book that I have personally read. And I mean that in terms of it’s very easy to read, it was very compelling. It was very fast to read. It wasn’t super long. And I felt like I got what it was about from the off. And I think the fact that it’s a romance—I would say first and foremost, it’s a romance—I think that really helped shape the narrative. - Dead Good Book Reviews

This was my first time reading Aliette de Bodard, and I’m not going to lie—I struggled at first. A third of the way in, I was ready to give up. But then I thought about the sapphic AI space pirates and their unfolding stories—ones I wanted to grasp but couldn’t wrap my head around. The unfamiliar words and expressions slowed me down, and I found myself hyper-aware of the Vietnamese names, determined not to mispronounce them—even if no one else could hear, my mind could. So, I did something I’d never done before: I took out my bookmark and flipped back to page one. And wow, did that change everything! 🤯

🎮 Game Corner

Like a lot of things based on Scandinavian folklore, Röki looks cute but isn't really. This is entirely to its credit - and to the enduring credit of Scandinavian folklore, I imagine. Röki's about woodland ponds, but it's also about pond scum. It's about sweet little animals, but it's also about the skulls of sweet little animals. And it's about magic, but what it's really about is the stuff that magic can't undo. I was gently moved for a few hours and then I was clobbered, gorgeously, over the head. This game hurts. I love it. - Eurogamer

Looking for a point-and-click adventure about a girl out looking for her little sibling, who has been taken by mysterious forces? Look no further than Röki.

🔍 Curated Discoveries

“Love between sisters is a precious thing.” If you don’t know that going in, you’ll feel it after spending time with Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds. This French animated feature has a simple story, yet is captivating enough in its action and unique animation, as well as heartfelt messages about family and the power of artistic expression, for viewers of all ages to appreciate. And if this is your first time hearing of it, that’s not much of a surprise – here’s to hoping this splendid tale can find its way to be more than a hidden gem. - Golden Geek

I know this bulletin is our little corner of the internet for all things English—but that’s something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately. You may already know this (or maybe not!), but English has been heavily influenced by other languages. We call them ‘borrowed’ words, but let’s be real—they were never exactly returned, and they’re certainly not going away anytime soon. By now, they’re woven into its very DNA. 🧬

Of course, there’s a whole history behind this, but we’d need more than a few paragraphs to do it justice. As I mentioned in the Behind the Scenes section, I’ve been eager to share things I’ve learned in my KTS workshop, and this is one of them: Language is an invitation to explore, so here’s hoping you’ll stay curious!

Inspired by three years of daily journaling and sketching in spiral bound notebooks, ‘Spiral Bound’ chronicles the gentle, arduous process of healing from extreme burnout and unresolved trauma. - Rebecca Sugar

I discovered Rebecca Sugar on a spring day back in 2019. My partner, a big Steven Universe fan, encouraged me to give the series a try. From the very first episode, I was drawn to the animation style, and even though I’m not usually into musical-style shows or movies, the songs quickly grew on me. Steven Universe felt like a gentle hug when the world outside seemed determined to steal my joy. Joy through gentleness—just like Spiral Bound is a lost art we should strive to bring back. So here’s a gentle song from me to you. 💛

To close this issue of the Bean-Sized Bulletin, I’m excited to share my Ko-fi page with you all! There’s so much I’d love to bring into the world (as you already know!), and this is me asking for your support—a new and scary step. If you’d like to support the bulletin, buying me a cafecito ☕ is a fun and easy way to do just that.

Until next time, human beans—stay curious! 🌟