I started watching Community (the nbc/yahoo screen sitcom) again. I remember being a really huge fan of this show in high school. All the irony and meta humor in it drew me in. One thing I failed to note while watching it then was the drop off from season 3 to 4. Dan Harmon found himself kicked off the show and they hired new writers for the fourth season. I remember it being different. The jokes weren't as sharp. The plot seemed a bit incredulous. Regardless I still enjoyed it for what it was. I hope that this time around I'll be able to really notice the difference. I know in later seasons they referred to whatever happened that year as, "the gas leak year." I think that was a clever way to push it aside. Must have felt good.

I've been thinking about the ethics of using people's real names in my writing. It started when I used the name of an actual person in a poem I submitted to my school's literary magazine. I did it because using the real name was part of my writing practice and the only reason the piece went the way it did. I couldn't in good conscious remove that. It would make my piece and me feel inauthentic. I hope it gets published. I really like the piece. But in the case it does, I want to share in on social media. Problem is that person could see it. What then? do I just black out everything but the first letter? Probably. But even for smaller things like this blog, should I just go ahead and use real name?
I toyed with the idea of abbreviating people down to one letter, but that lends itself to convolution fairly easily. I think I'll just use names. I think I have as much of a right to do so. They're my memories. My writing. I will be cautions about what I do say, though I don't expect I'll ever be at risk of saying too much, since this is mostly just a log of what goes through my head. An expansion of my thoughts.

I was looking for a vegan recipe for arroz con leche. The first link that came up was petalatino. or petalatinx. don't remember how "woke" it was. Anyway they recommended soy and almond. maybe coconut, too, though I also don't recall. What annoyed me was how the author explained their choice of milk. Something about it not being "cruelly collected." Part of me wants to use dairy now out of spite.
Diamond tells me soy milk is creamier that almond, which is true but I don't particularly like soy. She has also said coconut is creamy. Might get almond and coconut. Trial and error the two of them.
I called my mother for advice on making it. She gave me the rundown and told me to use milk, evaporated milk, and lechera. I didn't feel like explaining to her I couldn't use them cause of these trivial restrictions. I just need a ride. It's gotten too cold to go on my bicycle.

The Ginkgo trees near my house, which make foul smelling fruits, have lost all their leaves. This happens after the first hard freeze of the season. Last night it got to at least 21 degrees. Probably lower though. So the trees are essentially barren now. Pretty yellow clouds at their base.