Three Interesting Things

1.  In my ongoing interest in reading about TV I have not watched, this discussion of the portrayals of Korean American church in "Beef" was really interesting.  

2. I realize science discoveries can be a little like construction in that progress often means actual stuff you can use is still a bit away, but this news about vaccines for heart disease and cancer was just amazing. 

3. And NPR leaves Twitter.  I know I keep saying I will be there less, and then not doing a great job of it.  The decimation of it as a reliable place to get news and information is helping. Or hurting. 

They Aren't a Test Group

I know there's a ton of bad news coming from a lot of various states these days, but I want to gently push back on a narrative that I see developing. It is the idea that the powers that be in various states are testing draconian legislation that targets trans kids, and then they roll it out to others. 

I recognize that this is so that overworked and overwhelmed people who are like well, I don't live in Tennessee* and I'm not trans, won't push it to the pile of terrible things that don't happen to affect me. I get it. I am working on my own local electeds and trying to push them to do things, and don't always have the bandwidth to figure out what support folks in other places need right now. 

But, just like there is no way to legislate abortion without essentially legislating every pregnancy, you cannot legislate trans bodies and not affect cis bodies. You can not. 

We've already seen this with things like the Olympics, where cisgender athletes who fall outside the designated hormone values are subjected to physicals that include inspections of their genitals, and then a public announcement that they are deemed abnormal and unable to compete without altering their bodies. 

You cannot say that people can't have plastic surgery to change their bodies, and not impact people who are recovering from cancer treatments where parts of their bodies were removed. 

You cannot legislate who gets to take hormones or be on hormone blockers without also affecting people who are cancer patients, experiencing early onset puberty, and menopause. 

Basically any time we legislate bodies, who, and how they get to be, and where they get to be, it involves all of us. 

*Not picking on Tennessee, just one example right now. 

Three Interesting Things

1. With the warning that this link is to a TV news site, two weeks ago a car drove into the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, and a sous chef jumped in and punched through the glass to help rescue the driver. 

2. This seems somewhat obvious, but so much of our news currently focuses on bad mental health for LGBTQ+ teens, that the news that teens with good parental support have better mental health seems worth noting.  

3. More proof for those of us who like to knit in video meetings, it helps us concentrate.  

Now Available in Kobo Plus

Hey, Kobo Plus has rolled out to the US and the UK, and all* my books are available if you want to try them for a subscription fee rather than purchase price. 

And of course, if you like purchasing, from Kobo or most other retailers, my books are there too! (Many links here: https://tarakennedycom.wordpress.com/books/)

Happy reading!

*I did not have all countries enabled for Aloha to You, but have updated that now. 

Thank You Past Me

Author Alethea Kontis talked about building a habit of thanking your past self. Two weekends ago I bought a dessert cookbook. (Mayumu - I love it.)

Last weekend I had the ingredients to make the Horchata Bibingka and the Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookies, and even though that was a lot of sweets, even for me, I went for it. 

Because it was a lot of desserts, I made all the bibingka, but froze half immediately. (I've frozen butter mochi successfully before, the ingredients are very similar, if you've frozen cake, same process.)

I thought about halving either or both recipes, but the bibingka uses a can on coconut milk, and the cookies used 1 egg, plus one yolk, so both were tough to halve.

I made the cookie dough. I used a scoop to place the dough in appropriate amounts onto the baking tray. As tray 1 was baking, I prepped tray 2, and then carried on scooping onto some wrap, which I then sealed up and tossed in the freezer. After eating some of this throughout the week, I reached the end of premade cookies. 

And so I tossed a few frozen dough balls onto a baking stone and fired up the oven. First, it meant I got to smell cookies baking again. So good job, past Tara. 

Also, I had used a metal tray before, but this time used a baking stone, and the stone might work better for me. 

Also, I got to eat warm cookies. This really is great.

Now, I live with a cat who has no interest in people food. (I don't like her food either, or, I imagine I wouldn't, so we are even.)

If you live with other people who consume baked goods, you may have to make more to get to a place where some can be saved for later.

And there isn't always time or ingredients for that.

But if you can, or if this solves the this thing makes 18 servings and I am just not that hungry today problem, maybe do this. And then you too can thank your past self.