#Artemis II update: Orion has separated from the rocket's upper stage 🚀 Our European Service Module is in the driving seat!

"Humanity's next great voyage begins" #Artemis

Artemis II lifts off

I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face. Artemis II has left the atmosphere.

OFF IT GOES!!!!

It's been a long time since I've been this excited watching anything space-related (well, real space-related).

ENGINE CHECK!

4 MINUTES TIL LAUNCH!

I also have this thing I sometimes use to to brainstorm with and bounce ideas off. It's called "writer friends" and "an editor" and I really recommend getting some of those rather than using a polluting plagiarism machine made by a technofascist ruling class that probably hates you.

I've seen people trying to defend it today by saying "No, no, I just use it to brainstorm, bounce ideas, I do the actual writing" and with all the kindness in the world I need to tell you: if there is a stage of writing you are not good at, you need to get good, not use the plagiarism machine.

I do meeting minutes at work. A coworker, in front of an entire department, said I needed to start using an AI tool for minutes because I had the gall to ask them to please stick to the agenda instead of going wildly off topic. I'm still pissed off about it.

Moon moon moon moon Almost back to the moon ALMOST (not quite yet) artemistracker.com

Happy believe-nothing-you-read-on-the-internet day!

I find myself in the back yard, under the same tree I used to climb as a child. I listen to the steady drip of rain until it coalesces into music: 🎶C B C D C B A C C A C-, B C A G E F G- F E D E G A G- A B A G F E D C C D E F D G-🎶 I open my eyes, confused. Since when was this tree a Ravel fan?

Yes, this is real.

Today is the Trans Day of Visibility. I am very glad my many beloved trans friends and companions are visible, because my eyesight is bad enough without a bunch of invisible people cluttering up my living room.

Life is too short not to read a book that was written well and by an actual human being.

I've been in a Project Hail Mary-shaped hole for the past two weeks. The most words I've written in months have been PHM fic. I might have a problem. A Rocky-shaped problem. Amaze amaze amaze!

I must know what Ryland Grace's optometry plan is - dude wears his glasses like replacements for scratched or cracked lenses are free.

One of my senators was at my (small, not all that important) town's No Kings. I actually got to shake hands with @merkley.senate.gov !! That wasn't the best part of the day, though. We had fantastic weather. And more people turned out than any of the other protests. It was beautiful.

We are deciding right now whether we want to be a country with concentration camps and ethnic cleaning

A blowhard at work said, in front of an entire department, that I'm not up to the task of taking meeting minutes for their very complex meeting so I should just use an AI program instead! Because taking minutes for their department would just be too difficult for me. I'm so fucking angry right now.

Today, I'm introducing my wealth tax — and more than 50 members of Congress are joining me. It’s time for the government to start working for American families, not just the ultra-rich.

I need this show in my life YESTERDAY.

This has been the GOP's "starve-the-beast" scheme for nearly 50 years. Meanwhile, millions suffer and struggle to get ahead as the rich get richer. See the problem here?

Seizing on all the love for Project Hail Mary by reposting this review I wrote back in the days of yore: 2021. Wow, 2021 me had a whole lot more time to write than 2026 me: cromulentbookreview.tumblr.com/post/6429506...

I honestly can't think of a better project for Colbert to head - he is the King of Tolkien nerds and he loves the stories enough to know how to mold them for the screen. Congratulations, Stephen, our Nerd King!

SORA SHUTTING DOWN IS PROBABLY THE BEST NEWS I’VE HEARD IN WHAT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY

I expected more noise - a rustling in the nest, cracking eggshells followed by some sort of high-pitched chorus from the creatures within - but there was nothing. I turned to get my coffee from the side table, and, when I turned back not two seconds later, three tiny wyrms lay huddled in the nest.

I don't care how many times I have to scream this into the void but EVERYTHING THAT ICE HAS BEEN/IS DOING IS A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR HOW THEY WILL ACT WHEN THEY'RE INEVITABLY DEPLOYED TO POLLING PLACES THIS NOVEMBER!!!

Once again I have poked myself in the thumb with my cross stitch needle. If only there was something that could have prevented this!

The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications. No denials. No refunds. Just silence. This is the largest fee fraud in the history of the American immigration system. Here's what's happening. 🧵

the trans drivers license revocation in kansas is horrible, but it's the second-worst thing in the bill there's not been nearly enough focus on the bathroom bounty system: any private resident can sue me for $1000 if they can prove i made them uncomfortable in a bathroom

Same deal with Trump ordering National Guard troops to walk around DC doing nothing: it’s a show of force.

Drop a movie that traumatized you as a kid.

Project Hail Mary was fantastic and wonderful and I cried. Rocky!!!!

Show someone who absolutely rocks a hat (that isn't Indiana Jones).

I may be terrible at finishing anything I've ever tried to write, but! Everything I've ever written, I've written by myself. No ChatGPT bullshit. So what if I've been working on the same MS for 7 years, at least all the writing is mine. Fuck AI. Fuck it very very very much.

I know so many writers who pour all their blood, sweat and tears into a beautiful manuscript, writing every single word themselves, who can't even get an agent. And yet this person just...produces a book with AI and gets a deal with Hachette and everything? www.thedailybeast.com/publisher-pu...

Picked the wrong week to design a new fascist coin. (You can't look at that coin and not think of Airplane!).

Also I just want to point out how fucking dangerous it is for cops to claim that they have a right to protect their image and not have it on camera for the things they do in public as part of the government. No, the fuck, you don't, you fascist pigs.

Kash Patel refused to deny that the FBI is buying up Americans' location data. This is a shocking end run around the 4th amendment and exactly why we need to pass real privacy reforms NOW.

No matter how stupid, incompetent and abhorrent Markwayne Mullin is proven to be in his testimony, republicans will still vote to confirm him because they are spineless sycophants who exist only to appease their orange god.

Last month the NYT said AOC "struggled" to give an answer on Taiwan and quoted her with "uhs" and "ums" to make her look stupid Yesterday talking about Hormuz Trump claimed he's heard from "numerous countries" and said "uh" four times. The NYT deleted the "uhs" and paraphrased him to look smarter:

Aurora borealis? At this time of day, at this time of year, in this part of the country, localized entirely within my backyard? Yes. May I see it? *clouds immediately come in* No.

The House changes every season, making it difficult to invite guests over, as even I get lost. But my favorite room within its walls is the solarium. It stays warm in Winter and the shade from the trees keeps it cool in Summer. It's never in the same spot twice, but it's always there when I need it.

NEW: Georgia cops arrested a woman for murder after a hospital said she had an abortion with misoprostol. But in a disturbingly similar 2015 case, a prosecutor said state law prohibits criminal charges—and @ifwhenhow.bsky.social tells @autonomynews.co the law hasn't changed. Both women are Black.

Watching the Oscars in the background while working and damn that tribute to Rob and Michele Reiner really got to me.