After a month of daily posting for Blogtober, we are back to our regular weekly-ish schedule until the end of the year!

Every month, I pick a “theme” to incorporate into my blog alongside my typical lifestyle posts that reflect my current interests or something I want to explore, but haven’t made the time to yet. If you are new to my blog or just want a refresher on my past themes, you can click here!

Alright, walk with me for a moment here. Lately, I have been very interested in Leonardo da Vinci. No, not his paintings, but his notebooks. Something about reading someone’s thoughts is so fun to me. Even though I don’t understand Italian, with the help of translations I have made my way skimming the pages and going “oooh” at his doodles. Even just the doodles are full pieces of art! I now have way too many screenshots on my phone of his sketches.

Taking it back further, my interest in Da Vinci was born from watching Odysseas on YouTube. I really like listening to his videos on Polymaths and self-led studying. I want to be a Polymath, it’s like being a jack of all trades, however, you are actually the master in all of them. It is an impossible goal for myself, but wouldn’t it be awesome?

Well, I could do a whole month’s theme on Da Vinci or trying to be smart, but I can’t really discuss Da Vinci without widening the scope to the Renaissance period and the conditions that allowed him to be successful and wouldn’t have been possible in other time periods. The Renaissance comes after the Medieval Period, and I just did two months on Medieval fantasy. I’m just not interested in the Renaissance at the moment, sorry, and I’m not interested in following timelines.

Polymaths, Renaissance men, oh those pretentious know-it-alls- oh you know who else was pretentious? A classic 2010 hipster man. I make the argument that the early 2010s hipster was our modern day Renaissance man. Do. You. See. My. Vision??? What did hipsters do? Drink overpriced coffee and read pretentious literature while having an impressive mustache, beanie, and flannel. If that is not the typical uniform for November, I don’t know what is.

How am I not burnt out after daily posting for Blogtober? I have a fiery passion for this month’s theme that I am very excited to write about! This aesthetic is everything romanticizing the end of Autumn is made of.

Enough of me geeking out, and if you are still lost on how my brain went from A to B, I am sorry lol. Just come along for the ride, you don’t have to know the destination; I am the driver and even I don’t know, mwahaha.

Here’s my curriculum for the month:

Moodboard

Most of these images are from Pinterest and include inspiration from dimly lit cafes, music, coffee-stained notes, Da Vinci’s sketches, and the last of autumn.

Watching

Odysseas (YouTube)

I enjoy watching all of his videos, each one is better put-together than the last. This is one of my favorites, but feel free to check out any video on his channel, as his whole channel fits into my interests for this month.

Over The Garden Wall (Hulu)

I actually watched this a few days ago, and the episodes are so short that I finished it all in one sitting. I can see why everyone watches it during Halloween, but I was a bit late getting to it. I’ll share my review soon!

The Remarried Empress (Hulu)

This was a new addition to my watch list for this month, but I saw the ad for this series and had to add it to my watch list! I read the WebToon while it was still releasing episodes, reading it to completion over a couple of years as each episode was available😅. There’s lots of criticism that I’ve seen regarding choosing The Remarried Empress to make an adaptation of and the quality of the story, but I don’t care. I’m excited to watch it!

Sunrise on the Reaping (In Theatres November 20th)

This is my most anticipated movie of the year as someone who isn’t big on films. I have been looking forward to this since reading the book in 2025. I only hope that it is as good as the book is.

Reading

It’s crazy that I haven’t read any books in a couple of months now, to having a TBR. The book I haven’t finished yet won’t even be on this list, oops! I will get to it! I just go where the wind takes me, and sometimes the wind will pick up, taking a leaf I wasn’t holding tightly enough with it.

This section is titles “Reading” because I will include some articles as well. I tend to read a lot more articles than books, so I should include them!

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

I have been reading this through the audiobook version on Libby and it is well paced and engaging so far! I have been learning a lot about Leonardo’s life and family background as well as some modern connections. This is my “pretentious hipster” book, lol.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Of course, I will reread the novel before watching the movie!

Articles

How To Taste Coffee

Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks

The Classical Roots of the Hunger Games

What Is The History of Hipster Culture?

Coffee Shops

I can’t have a coffee house month without going to locally owned shops! One of the big stereotypes of hipsters was their love of coffee and their rejection of anything mainstream. As a part of this theme and continuing my goals of writing in more third spaces, I have a list of coffee shops I’d like to visit this month. I want to visit at least 3, but I’m not sure which ones yet!

Closing Out

November, December, and January are the months with the most birthdays in my circle along with the major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it’s about to get busy! The days feels shorter, and there’s so much more things jam packed in, and tons of food to eat. I think I need to take a page out of a bear’s book and hibernate for a while 🤣.

What are you looking forward to this month? What were you doing in the early 2010’s, were you a hipster? I was busy wearing Sketchers Twinkle Toes and singing “We are Young” by fun.