Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 7

2022 in Music: Spotify Unwrapped

It’s the time of year when we rehash the year with lists, so here’s my year in music. It’s courtesy of Spotify Unwrapped again, which is still a goofy, app-only, mess of a user interface. But oh well, the basics are there.

I listened to 47,914 minutes of music (more than 91% of users), accounting for 5,964 songs, 2,691 different artists, and 83 different genres. (Here are last year’s stats for the sake of comparison.) I play music while I work, often tuning the music out if I’m really focused...

2022 Tennessee Vacation

Milo and I recently took a six-day trip to Tennessee so he could compete in a national taekwondo tournament. Airfares were pretty pricey, so we ended up driving, spending some extra time in the mountains, and I brought my mountain bike for some extra biking time.

Tournament

In terms of the tournament, Milo did pretty great, bringing home a first, second, and third place. He did first in weapons, second in forms (and had to win a tiebreaker), and third in team board breaking (somet...

2022 Election

Tuesday is another chance to exercise our democracy. After the threats we’ve seen in recent years, I hope you’re taking full advantage of this opportunity. Go vote.

If you’re in West St. Paul (or even Dakota County), I’ve put together what I hope is a very helpful voter’s guide.

Our local races have been kind of quiet and uncontested, which worries me. One of the best ways to get turnout for important Congressional or state-wide races is with exciting local candidates.

Unfortunat...

Turning on the Heat 2022

Sitting at my desk shivering this morning seemed dumb, so I guess it’s time. We woke up to snow this morning, it’s 32 degrees outside right now, and the high is only 43. There are a couple days with highs in the 60s on the horizon, but there are also days with lows in the 20s.

2022: October 14 (inside temp: 59)2021: October 22 (inside temp: 63)2020: October 16 (inside temp: 61)2019: October 5 (inside temp: 52)2018: October 1 (inside temp: 61)2017: October 12 (inside temp: 64)2016: October 14...

2022 Mountain Bike Solo Trip

I took a solo vacation the second week of September for mountain biking, Colorado, a concert, and to visit my grandparents. I’d been wanting to get back to Colorado for a while and my new mountain biking obsession opened up a whole new world of stuff to do. My grandparents also moved into a senior living facility at the beginning of summer, so I wanted to see them. The rest of the family were busy and not super excited about this kind of trip, so I opted to do it myself.

I also hoped to see ...

Explore West St. Paul Days

We had a pretty fun few days with the first ever Explore West St. Paul Days event. I wrote over on West St. Paul Reader about my gratitude at seeing this community come together:

“Best of all, people kept exclaiming when they recognized West St. Paul Reader. I know we have a lot of supporters, but I didn’t expect that. People kept shouting out ‘thank you’ for our coverage and telling us how much they appreciate neighborhood news. It never gets old hearing that kind of support, and getting it ...

Protecting Gay Marriage: How to Support the Respect for Marriage Act

In a total shocker, last week the U.S. House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage, on a bipartisan vote. Roughly a quarter of the Republicans joined all Democrats to pass the bill. Next up is the Senate where the bill needs to get 10 Republicans to pass. So we have work to do.

What do we do?

Anyone who values freedom, supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and civil rights should be interested in persuading senators to support the bill. This kind of advocacy has...

Star Wars Has Guts (Sometimes): Obi-Wan Kenobi Series

I loved the new Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Trying to fill in gaps between two established trilogies is a tall order and they do it really well. But it raises some interesting questions about when Star Wars is willing to take risks and how much they listen to fans.

Spoiler alert: I’m going to spill it all, so you’ve been warned.

First, I think the series is great. It’s wonderful to see Ewan McGregor back as Kenobi. They really play into the guilt and torment the character has gone t...

2022 Seattle Vacation

I’ve never been to the Pacific Northwest, so that was a major vacation destination for us. Especially when I learned how many National Parks are there. We hoped to go in 2020, but we kept putting off our planning as we heard worrying reports of a pesky virus. But we finally came back in 2022. And what a vacation—I’ll call it the summer vacation of snow and starfish.

We flew into Portland and spent a night there, then drove up to Seattle and stayed in friend’s Airbnb. We took an ...

Support Local News

It’s my birthday. If you’d like to help me celebrate, consider supporting one of my projects and becoming a member of West St. Paul Reader through Patreon.

What Is West St. Paul Reader?

Back in 2019 I started reporting on local news here in West St. Paul. I attend city council meetings, I find out what’s being built on the corner, I low-key bug people, I interview candidates, I research history, I take a lot of pictures, I try to celebrate the amazing things and people in this town. I can ...