Love her eyeliner.

He refused to leave home without it and the army was like “oh well, what are you gonna do?”

Currently enjoying Hope for Cynics by Jamil Zaki

Cynicism is a perfectly understandable response to a world full of injustice and inequality. But in many cases, it is misplaced. Dozens of studies find that people fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others really are. Cynical thinking worsens social problems, because our beliefs don’t just interpret the world—they change it. When we expect the worst in people, we often bring it out of them. Cynicism is a disease, with a history, symptoms—and a cure. Through science and storytelling, Jamil Zaki imparts the secret for beating back cynicism: hopeful skepticism. This approach doesn’t mean putting our faith in every politician or influencer. It means thinking critically about people and our problems, while simultaneously acknowledging and encouraging our strengths. Far from being naïve, hopeful skepticism is a more precise way of understanding others, and paying closer attention re-balances how you think about human nature. As more of us do this, we can take steps towards building the world we truly want.

I’m about to finish Toward Eternity by Anton Hur:

In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.

Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?

When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.

Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity.

This is a generational story, that follows a concept rather than a person. It kind of reminds me of Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark.

This is why I couldn’t bring myself to read Hot Zone. If you haven’t read David Quammen’s Spillover, I recommend that one.

Mise en place. If you’re not familiar, it’s a practice in cooking to have everything you will need set up and ready before you begin. You can do it with other kinds of tasks, too. I find it way easier to prep for tasks than to just do them. And prepping makes it mentally easier to just transition into doing.

It went from 27 dead at the beginning of the article to 43?

If I set an alarm, I will spend the entire time awake, waiting for the alarm.

That’s exactly what happened to me.

Per the article, they’re still not certain if it’s the added nitrites in the meat that are the problem, but if you’re looking to avoid them, I know Aldi sells nitrite-free hot dogs and bacon.

Just finished Educated, a memoir from Tara Westover.

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.

It’s a genuinely incredible story, and absolutely enraging when you watch this mentally ill father repeatedly force his wife and children into situations that cause them grevious bodily harm, while denying them actual medical aid.

Also just finished Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel. If you want Rosemary’s Baby, but they worship Motherhood instead of the devil, I recommend this one.

And also finished What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky. It’s got the feel of a folklore or a fairy tale even though it’s set in modern Germany. Full of likable and quirky characters.

You have no news, just like everyone else.

Suikoden

Every time I see it spelled that way, I die a little.

Dr Seuss was here.

Happy to help :)

Making my bed. I know it’s physically healthier to leave it unmade and let it air, but my bedroom is my sanctuary. When I walk in and see the bed looking dressed and pretty, it makes me feel good. Unmade triggers depression.

“We were enslaved as American Indians, we were colonized as American Indians, and we will gain our freedom as American Indians, and then we will call ourselves any damn thing we choose.” Russell Means

Thanks for sharing your insights. I don’t know much about baba ganoush, but I am planning on making it in two weeks for an Egyptian themed menu using this recipe.

Absolutely not. I would do nothing that gave me immortality.