Hobo Solo

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Raina Lipsitz

Interesting to note that while a history of animal cruelty is widely accepted to be a link with becoming a serial killer, the link between cruelty towards women and killing women is still up for debate. If a guy abuses a cat and then shoots women we say “we should have seen it coming that guy was nuts”, but if abuses women and then shoots women we say “we had no way of seeing it coming that guy was a perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human”.  

Chidi Anagonye: people who suffer from mental health but don’t get the help they need

Tahani al Jamil: abused children who grow up desperately trying to fill a hole by any means necessary 

Jason Mendoza: product of a toxic and impoverished environment but was never given the means to change his life around

Eleanor Shellstrop: a bad person don’t get me wrong but is sentenced to prison for the same amount of time as rapists and serial killers, where is the justice in that? 

The Bad Place Demons: Capitalism, they manipulated the system to ensure that they gain revenue regardless of what happens to humans

Some Stock Photo Sign Reminders To The RPC From Your Friendly Neighborhood Psychotic Because As Much As I Love Halloween I Am Actively Scared Of This Shit!!

I call this set… “Noir Princesses”.

guys, McCain didn’t save Obamacare and didn’t *want* to save Obamacare; he repeatedly voiced support for & voted in favor of repeal & replace

he hated the “skinny repeal,” because it sucked, because it turns out that after 8 years of screaming bloody murder the GOP actually didn’t have any idea what to do for healthcare. their #1 objection to the ACA was that it essentially functioned as a transfer of wealth, and they couldn’t take the idea that rich people might have to pay taxes that would keep poor people from being bankrupted by healthcare & dying horribly. McCain had no particular objection to this point of view.

he was fine with gutting ACA in other ways, and he was fine with the GOP tax scam

I’ve never seen this level of admiration for the hordes of Democratic legislators who knew the Tea Party would flay them alive for passing ACA, knew they would get destroyed, and fucking did it anyway. That’s what voting your conscience means.

All the protections afforded by ACA…we owe it to activists who fought for literal decades to get that shit done, we owe it to legislators who managed to get ACA passed despite absolutely bonkers obstructionism, we owe it to every single person who attended townhalls last year & called senators & demanded accountability. we don’t owe it to the fucking Republicans, what the fuck, they STILL want to destroy it

I wonder why doing the actual work & taking actual risks & facing actual losses isn’t admirable?  But if you grandstand & force people into a corner where they’re literally calling your office and BEGGING you not to let them & their families die due to lack of access to healthcare…that’s “brave,” somehow? why?

in conclusion: I get that we are all traumatized by the overwhelming ghoulishness & depravity of the current GOP, I get that from our current perspective 2008 almost looks nice, I get that people are desperate to pretend that maybe the party currently controlling all 3 branches of federal government is not actually rabid, etc. but honestly just stop it with the revisionist history (and ACA is the least of it)

like, I get it, I cried in 2016 when McCain defended the Khan family when Trump attacked them. When the country seems so awful, so entirely given over to racism & Islamophobia & disgusting hatred, even that gesture of basic decency seemed like a breath of fresh air. But…that reaction is fucked up on so many levels, and saying the minimally decent thing once in a while shouldn’t be lauded like this

McCain returned to Congress specifically to strip poor people of the same healthcare that they were paying for him to receive.

There’s a real lesson in what’s going down.  I remember how I felt in 2008 so well.  While I’m not going to make any toasts to the guy now, it’s definitely true that my feelings (not thoughts, just emotions) towards him, like OP’s, are more positive than they were in 2008 (remember, that’s a VERY low bar).  The thing about life is that you can be shitty to people, let them down, even hurt them for years.  But if you show them an act of kindness (or at least they perceive it as such), it can change their whole perspective on your whole life.  If you happened to step in at a time when it’s very emotional for/important to them, they will outright stand with you.  

And at least here in the US (can’t speak for other cultures), people looooooove a redemption story.  Especially if someone they see as “wrong” makes a change that’s “right.”  

Now, I’m not saying this is a wonderful thing.  Honestly, I get kinda tired with how fickle mainstream society is, and how quickly it forgets the past.  But it’s a fact that this is a thing that happens with humans, like it or not. 

I really just wish more people who behave badly and hurt others would see examples like McCain and realize that they can do this, too.  Sure, it’ll be infuriating on some level for me to see people on TV praising people who I know were jerks, but since I have to live in a world with dangerous, hurtful people, I’d love it if they did nice things for people, even if the reasons are cynical.  Because I always try to follow the example of my role model, Frederick Douglass, who said, “I would unite with anyone to do right and with no one to do wrong.” I don’t believe there’s such a thing as “good people” or “bad people.”  I used to, once.  Now I think there are people, all of whom do good behaviors and bad behaviors.   Whether behaviors are good or bad depends on perspective, but that’s a whole kettle of fish.  In general, people mostly agree on basic things like, “poisoning children is bad!” and “equal human rights are good!” (maybe that last one is more controversial than I thought).  

The ratio of good/bad behaviors someone does, and the extremity of good/badness doesn’t determine whether you’re perfect or a monster, but it does determine whether you let that person be a part of your life (personally or via election).  

Rather than label someone good or bad, it’s so much easier to say, “He did horrible things X, Y, and Z, and he never really took responsibility for it, so I don’t respect him much.  But I did really enjoy when he did A!”  

I feel like I’m in boring lecture mode when I talk like this, but it’s increasingly obvious that our tendency to want to declare every person (especially every famous person) as GOOD or BAD, and thus approve of or condemn *everything that person has every said or done” wholesale is really hurting society.  

Imagine if people could vote for Trump and say, “but you know, I really do hate that racist dogwhistles he uses” or vote for Democratic candidates but also call them out for taking identity politics too far, or expanding the drug war in counterproductive ways, or supporting the war in Iraq, or... I’m just listing angry letters I wrote to my Senator over the last decade. Imagine if people could empathize with and feel compassion for people without endorsing what they did.  

Again, that may sound obvious, but this is something I experience every day:

“X is a monster because he does drugs instead of getting a job and paying child support!”

“Well, he really should pay, but he has horrible PTSD from his last tour in Afghanistan, it’s been tough for him to stay sober, and last week his buddy committed suicide.”

“Oh, so that makes it okay to abandon your children!”

I’m always baffled by this reaction, even though I should see it coming by now.  I never said anything close to it’s okay.  A guy can be a non-monster veteran who deserve compassion AND really needs to take care of those damn kids all at the same time.  In fact, receiving compassion is usually the first step toward “bad people” turning their lives around.  Yes, that’s right, the condemnatory toward a behavior can actually make that behavior worse!  And labeling people as monsters seems to hurt the one doing the labeling, too.  If nothing else, one creates a world of terror around oneself. 

Personally, my cast of characters is

Laid-back heroine, doesn’t view herself as a heroine, is sassy and not willing to put up with your BS. Is asexual in half the stories I write.

Up-tight hero, very aware of what is “right” and what is actually right. Self-conscious about his heroic tendencies. Is secretly a cinnamon roll. (I have one story where I use this type of character twice lol they don’t like each other)

The mom friend. May or may not have magic. May or may not be an actual mom.

The “I didn’t know what I was missing until I met you” best friend… I’ve yet to write a story where something awful doesn’t happen to this character. (I’m a horrible person) I think this may actually just be a sub-category of “mom friend.”

The sexy, charm-your-pants-off (but always respects your boundaries) best friend.

The “greater good” villain (actually a subverted version of the hero character…which I guess means there’s actually three in that one story lol)

The “I want to watch your heart break before I kill you” villain. Sometimes motivated by revenge, sometimes by greed, and sometimes by a weird sense of self-preservation.

And finally, the ambivalent parental figure. They’re helping the MCs, but…not really sure why, or what their end goal is, or even if that help can actually be relied on. (This character themself isn’t ambivalent, their motivations seem to be to the MC)

Of course, there are all the little throwaway characters that show up for about 2 seconds before disappearing forever. I like to think of them as the understudies to the above.

If y’all use a decent box mix and use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, an extra egg, and milk instead of water, no one can tell the difference. I sure as hell can’t. 

Also, if you add a little almond extract to vanilla cake, or a little coffee to chocolate cake, it sends it through the roof. 

This shouldn’t be that surprising.  Cake mix is just the dry ingredients pre-mixed.  So, yeah, you can tinker with a mix, if for some reason going to buy flour and baking powder is too intimidating/inconvenient, or you don't stock dry goods in your house, but it’s not like a magic trick. 

I absolutely call shenanigans on the notion that adding butter instead of oil to a cake will make it dry out less.  I’m not calling that person a liar, maybe other changes (like the extra fat from the extra egg) made a difference, but real talk: 

Butter makes cakes taste better

Oil makes them more moist and have a better texture.  They also dry out less over time.

I will spare you the chemistry lecture, but if you want a cake that will stay moist for multiple days (i.e. you are selling them by the slice in a restaurant, which I do), you need oil.   I recommend coconut oil for insane extravagant deliciousness.

Usually if I'm just shooting for "good cake" I use half melted butter and half oil. Just mix them into the measuring cup till you have the right total amount. The exact ratio doesn't matter.

Just adding an extra egg willy-nilly could be good, but it could cause problems with texture in some recipes.  In general, adding egg *whites* makes things more dry and have more structure (similar to adding extra flour).  Adding egg *yolks* makes things more tender and moist (similar to adding more oil).  If you cookies aren’t quite perfect, consider substituting 2 yolks for an egg, or 2 whites. 

If you care that much about your cakes being awesome, just make them from scratch.  You’re not saving much time.  If you need help figuring out recipes, the internet is here to make your life 100000 times easier than it was up until 10 years ago. 

Angel food cake is always easier, faster, and better to make from a mix.  I’ve tested this repeatedly, and making one from shell eggs is more expensive, takes way more work, and gives a shittier result.  It’s the one cake I always make from a mix.  

tl;dr if you have a food that’s tasty but you want it to be tastier, add a scoop of sour cream.  This applies to virtually all cakes (before baking, the only time this WON’T work is a fat-free cake like angel food) and also lots of food in general.