Condensed Thoughts

Weeheee there's been a LOT that happened this week. RIP Amerikkka. Anyway. Here's stuff I've been obsessed this week. This freaking Tiktok (can't figure out how to embed a tiktok guess I'm the boomer after all) Holiday by Lil Nas X (I usually listen to the clean version bc I gotta let my mormon freak flag fly) What the Hole Is Going On? The very real, totally bizarre bucatini shortage of 2020. - Grub Street I'd never even heard of bucatini before this article but I guess if the shortage can be over I'll have to try it sometime. Also this article is borderline unhinged and I am here for that energy I'm working on a post about all the books I read last year but it's kind of slow going. I imagine I'll eventually give up and just post what I've written so far idk.

I keep forgetting to blog so I have all these saved up, enjoy

Haven't done one of these in a bit but I've got enough stuff that I want to share that I will do one now. I'm very behind on my NaNoWriMo this year but I've been more behind. I also got called to be the Primary President, which is kind of stressful, but we're trying to get through it as best we can. Which U.S. Presidents Were Wife Guys? An Investigation - The Cut, this is for real one of my favourite articles and I think about it often. Gave it a reread due to Joe Biden's election. Without doing much research, it's hard for me to imagine Dr. Jill Biden allowing him to be a wife guy, but who knows. Costly Signalling, Cheap Grace and Loving Our Enemies after an Election - By Common Consent, this was relevant for me in a lot of ways, both in terms of news happenings but also it gave me some insights wrt some theological stuff I've been wrestling with for the past few years How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart? - The New York Times Magazine...

 oh no I should have just posted this last week because I forgot it was conference this weekend. I'm just going to share what I have here, acknowledging that a lot has happened since I was working on this last week (like tr*mp getting the rona) that is not getting acknowledged here I'm sorry not sorry Reading It Took Divorce to Make My Marriage Equal - Glamour, I feel so lucky that Dane and I share our domestic labor (if anything I feel like he does more than me), but articles like this remind me that that isn't the default, hopefully articles like this can help it become that way Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood - Jo Freeman, this article from 1975 is still so relevant today if you spend any time in progressive spaces The Real Origins of the Religious Right - Politico, "They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation."   Call Climate Change What It Is, Violence - The Guardian 10 things you need to know to stop a...

I feel like I'm not very good at being eloquent or using my words too great but I feel like I have to say something about the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I'm truly heartbroken. This year has already has so much bad horrible stuff and yet somehow this was something I did not see coming at all. I felt totally blindsided by the news of Justice Ginsburg's passing. While it may be a little thing in the scope of all the other tragedy of 2020 (what's one person's death when compared to 200,000? Or compared to the ongoing murders of black people? Or the atrocities committed at the border? or climate change? or? or? or?), it really feels like the straw that breaks the camel's back. I mean, on the one hand, it is just one person. And yet, Ruth Bader Ginsburg did more for me as a woman. I have so many more rights and freedoms because of her. Her work made a difference in my life and for that I will forever be grateful.  On the other hand this opens the door for so much...

It's hotter than ever!! Here's some actual footage of LA this weekend (credit to Henrique for this clip) We've put up some blankets on our windows and it's been more effective at keeping the heat out so far than we could have ever dreamed (but being in the dark all day is kind of depressing). We also went hiking saturday before all the national forest were closed from the fires and we went to the boy scout mountain (which is coincidentally a small part of the PCT!). That sign on the horizon (apparently unreachable from any trail) indicates we were in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness in the Angeles National Forest. Why that sign is way out there no one may ever know LOOK AT THIS TINY LIZARD WOWOWOWOW  Anyway here's what I've been up to these last couple weeks, just reading I guess Reading The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage - GQ Wikihistory - Tor The Violence Could Get Much Worse - The Atlantic* To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes ...

California MMXX         hope everyone is staying safe and staying cool. It's been miserably hot all week here in LA. Dane and I went hiking at Mt. Baldy to get away from the heat which was successful, but it was a VERY STRENUOUS 11 miles and today my legs are jelly. Here's what else I've been up to, aside from melting: Electioneering Big week for election stuff! I watched most of the DNC for the first time in my life. It gave me BIG General Conference vibes (which is probably in large part because of the virtual format). While it was a little hit and miss, it was overall well done. Highlights for me included personal stories of actual human beings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and of course Michelle Obama's incredible speech (Barak's was quite good too). Lowlights includes all the awkward zoom claps and having to hear Pete Buttigieg talk with his mouth. ‘The President Was Not Encouraging’: What Obama Really Thought About Biden - Politico, "Behind the friendship was a ...

  Hi! It's very hot over here in LA (and the rest of Cali from what I'm hearing?). Hope wherever you are you are staying cool and have had a good week. Here's what I've been up to.

I had my first vacation since last December and let's just say it was much needed. I'm going to keep this short and sweet and photo heavy so I'm not intimidated by the thought of writing it and then put it off indefinitely. I saw so many great signs and sights on our drive but I only managed to capture this beauty: I mean, that's all you *really* need to know, isn't it?   We went to Sequoia National Park and camped in the national forest nearby. The main touristy thing to do at this park is to look at this big tree At one point this tree was named after Karl Marx. It is a fairly impressive tree but was it worth being around so many people with varying levels of mask discipline? Ehhhhh. At the very least it actually wasn't too hard to get away from what crowds there were.    Here is an interesting fact we learned from our beef stroganoff It appears the US Department of Agriculture was created by the Aztec Empire Here is another interesting fact, this one actually...

Is Joseph going to make fun of me for calling these condensations? Should I call them "what I've been up to this week" or something and just have it be a condensation in the tags?? Either way here's what I've been up to Reading Dane's short story for July! 19 Reasons Why True Latter Day Saints Would Never Wear a Mask - Zelophehad's Daughters The Whiners Who Earn $200,000 a Year and Complain They're Broke - New Republic (behind a soft paywall, you get 3 free articles a month) Another Dull Quarantine Weekend At Home, Target, Chipotle, Home Depot, and Our Niece’s Graduation Party - McSweeney's I went to Disneyworld - The Atlantic (soft paywall) Here is the most absurd headline I saw this week: this is on par with Hobby Lobby antiquities smuggling Listening Radiohead on youtube - Their entire discography is on there and I just love that of course since youtube is how I listen to music most days. I just discovered Ill Wind which was a bonus track o...