I’m new to the fediverse so, while I know this is not necessarily the recommended way to go about things, I identified a handful of instances (one per platform I was interested in) and made a few accounts with the intent of spending time immersed in each of those platforms before deciding which to make my main fediverse account.

Beehaw is my Lemmy exploration account, and I also have an account on one kbin instance, one Mastodon instance, and one Pixelfed instance. In terms of usage so far, I scroll and read the most on Mastodon, but don’t feel compelled to post anything there myself, so I’ll probably use that account for just lurking. I spend a lot less time on Beehaw than on Mastodon, but I feel a lot more comfortable speaking up here, so it’s a strong candidate for my home base account. However, I could say the same about kbin once it has more time to develop and communities start to settle.

One thing I like more about Beehaw than kbin right now is that there are more conversations happening, and on more topics than just the Reddit migration. It feels more like its own thing, as opposed to a landing pad for people fleeing the corporate platforms. For example, right now, my kbin feed is just overwhelmed with Reddit-related content. I can only scroll past so much of that looking for other content before I head over here to Beehaw for a while. That will probably sort itself out with time, and I’m looking forward to experiencing that transition and seeing what kbin looks like on the other side of it.

In general I’m really starting to feel at home in the fediverse, and I’m quite enjoying my exploration of the various formats it has to offer!

I’m really excited for the board game version of Divinity: Original Sin! I’ve been a huge fan of Divinity and Larian Studios for many years now so I have quite high expectations.

I’ve been avoiding most of the available details so I can experience it for myself when it arrives, but the process of adapting an idea across different formats is just fascinating to me in general, and it will be really fun to see how they’ve gone about reformulating for the tabletop gaming space.

There's a lot of great recs in here! A few that I don't see posted yet:

• Gone Home is a highly atmospheric exploration game where you play as Katie, a girl investigating her family's house after she arrives home and finds it empty. FYI in case you're with me in the "easily frightened" camp: this one can be just a little tense/scary in that "alone in the house at night" kind of way, but it's decidedly not a horror game.
• A Short Hike is a(n unsurprisingly) short and sweet little game where you play as Claire, a bird who goes on a little hike/adventure through, essentially, an island nature preserve. One of my go-to "relax and feel good feelings" replays.
• Bayonetta was already mentioned, but I'd specifically like to call out Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. It's a quite different game from other Bayonetta installments, with creepy-cute fairy tale vibes and somewhat unique controls.

I hope that the brine helped you with your sore throat!

For other non-cucumber pickles, a great way to dip your toes in might be pickled onion (I like red onion best for this, but that’s my personal preference), or pickled carrots. Both of these make excellent toppings for sandwiches of all kinds, tacos, poke, basically anything that could use a little acid or some extra crunch

I’m also quite partial to pickled cauliflower and pickled beets for general snacking

Seems like fermentation takes a little more care than I expected, but not in a bad way! I hadn’t realized there were fermentation kits out there and I’m so glad to have gotten that information before I got excited one day and decided to just wing it. It’s also good to know I should probably be thinking of this more like baking than like cooking, since I’m gathering from your description that more precise measurements are called for to get the right result.

Thank you - I really appreciate you taking the time to write out this great advice!

I have, and I'm with you - pickled garlic is so good. I also love that it's super easy to toss in a few (or more than a few) cloves of garlic alongside whatever else is going in the pickle jar, or to put them in some leftover brine after the original batch of pickles is finished.

Since you mentioned liking raw garlic for your sinuses when you have a cold, have you ever tried saving the brine from your pickled garlic for similar purposes? If not, I'd highly recommend it. I've found that sipping or gargling pickle brine works wonders when I need some relief from a sore throat, and if the vinegar is strong enough I've found it helps my sinuses as well.

Ooh, experiments in fermentation are high on my list but I haven’t tried yet. Do you have any good tips for translating one’s pickling skills to fermentation? Or any fermentation tips in general - I’d love to know more about your process if you feel like sharing!

Raw garlic, just once in a while, as a little treat. Sometimes I’ll mash it up in some bread but most often… plain, raw garlic.

I have also not met a single thing I won’t try to pickle at least once, and for some reason people around me think that it is Terrifying hahaha. Personally, I find pickling to be a fantastic way to rescue produce that’s otherwise about to go off. Instead of making food waste, I’m making delicious snacks and toppings. Pickle everything!

Prunes are sorely under-appreciated in my opinion! I don’t eat them often, but my family has a tradition of making prune pierogi sautéed in an onion butter sauce for special occasions and it is an absolute sweet-savory delight. I look forward to them all year.