SAD: I can't take good pictures of my pets sleeping on the couch because we're a No Big Light household.

You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs) Good tech. Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales) Bad tech.

Today, on the 125th anniversary of his birth, I'm reminded that Langston Hughes wrote what for me is the most compelling response to the false dichotomy of patriotism vs the brutality of our national history.

Letting moderates claim they were always against this blurs history. It hides the many ways we got here, which is in part due to the fascists themselves — but in larger part due to the centrists who conceded to fascist rhetoric. We could have prevented all of this. We need to remember how we didn't.

A truth that should be more universally acknowledged: once you accept that *some people* deserve to be killed in broad daylight, you accept that *anyone* deserves that fate.

"Kelly Clarkson was the first person we as a country actually elected democratically, so she should be president."

We keep making Gestapo comparisons with regard to ICE, but the darker truth is that the Nazis were inspired by Jim Crow laws in the U.S.

One reason I need a job is so I can pay for redesigning our house to look like Sophie's Tacky Little Hatter (aka Howl's Moving Castle).

Essentially, I think that LLM-generated dialogue only makes sense if you believe that the product of writing is words. But the product of writing isn't words, any more than the product of justice is prisoners, or the product of love is weddings. The product of writing is meaning.

The MurderBot books are my Sanctuary Moon. Should I watch the TV adaptation, or nah?

WHAT IS TIME [I made this several years ago, depending on which one you choose, I guess.] Feel free to make your own.

The starlings say, "Thanks for listening."

Now that I live in the Netherlands, I occasionally come across these Stolpersteine ("stumbling block") memorials installed on sidewalks outside of the homes of people who were victims of the Holocaust. Every time I see one, I think of what's happening back home.

misogynists are both too afraid of women and not afraid enough of women, in different respects

The Heritage Foundation strikes again, removing a memorial to the men who built this cemetery. The African American 960th Quartermaster Corps used picks and shovels to dig graves in muddy and frozen ground. They couldn't have sat with the men they buried, but they could lay them to rest.

Review of "Love & Lightning: A Collection of Queer and Feminist Manifestos": On the way home from the book launch event, I was so immersed in reading that I missed the announcement that my train was being rerouted and I started heading the wrong direction. @valizbooks.bsky.social

working a double shift at the unemployment factory

🫠

And I'm eating chicken nuggets with the GOOD discontinued bbq sauce.

Marietta Ronchetti was "The World's Most Beautiful Waitress" in 1940.

I went to an exhibit opening and talk on book spine design (!). This is the printed handout that accompanied the show. [Little Miss and Mr. Men books were in the exhibit because the newer editions would form a design on the spines when shelved together. Most of mine are older editions, tho.]

Are any of y'all on the Foto app? I'm looking for friends. My username is msteele 💕

Seven month update: Yes, yes, no, with great difficulty, bubble wrap, no, no, not very.

I made this collage for a tiktok and nobody liked it but me, but I like it so much that I don't care. 😄

I drew this for you.

I am tired of starting over.

I was, unintentionally, in the midst of the far-right rally in London today, and I'm trying to process the experience. I counted 47 police vans. I saw a sign that said something like, "Why do you hate white people? We pay for everything." I felt utterly disgusted.

Republicans want to do this if: she's "too good" at sports, too tall, too broad-shouldered, her hair is too short, her voice is too low, her feet are too big, she's too muscular (the list goes on). Republicans want to go in the girls' locker room. Trans girls just want to go on the field.

"Once you understand that there are people who do not want you to exist, that is a difficult card to remove from the table. There is no liberation, no undoing that knowledge. It is the unyielding door, the one that simply cannot be pushed back against any longer." (Hanif Abdurraqib)

Make a list, in order, of whose rights you will sacrifice in order to win. Then, describe what you've won, exactly.

Should we move away from trans rights,like sports, which affect "very few" people? Once you decide that [one group] can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic, because that means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice, and a third. (Judith Butler)

Honestly, I've heard that the Socialists like it under the Bus.

A few things cooler than AI by Andy J. Pizza

Yes, and! maybe people who don't turn it off have to consent to the specific amount of resources they use with their AI request.

If someone ever describes me as classy, I'm doing something wrong.

I just love a good pair of socks, what can I say?

I feel like I probably have some pretty good bones. Like, at least top 60% of all bones worldwide. Maybe even top 64%

Am I THE U-haul lesbian?!

THE INTERNET NEEDS TO KNOW: I moved a full-sized mattress *and* box springs up a flight of stairs by MY OWN SELF. The success is its own reward. However, if anyone here wanted to congratulate me, I'd accept that, too.

I'm making a huge life change and don't feel like I'm "burning it all down." Instead, I feel like I'm lighting each thing on fire individually, watching it burn, and moving on to the next thing.

I would like the record to state that the parking garage gate hit *me*, not the other way around.

How's the jet lag treating me? Well, I just thought I saw a chat bubble pop up on a piece of paper.

Sorry I took off abruptly! Long story, but I had to take my dogs to an unexpected vet visit. Someone was at the house working and called me to say one of them ate part of a tampon, and now the vet has to induce vomiting in all three of them. Because we don't know which one ate it! Hahagahahahahaffs

Trying to get to safe harbor means parting with a lot of things that seemed important until their value was compared to safety.

"What is a woman?" insultingly simple question. If Shania says "Let's go, girls!" and you get out of your seat, you're a woman

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

Someone once told me that I look like I'd know how to play the accordion. *GENDER AFFIRMED*

So inconvenient having to reset pronouns every 90 days. I used to have Google choose strong pronouns for me so I wouldn't have to remember them, but I don't really trust Google with them anymore, so I'm back to creating my own. Gotta keep a spreadsheet to remember which ones I've used.

I think about this a lot and there are a lot of possible answers. Today, my answer is this: The Supreme Court held in Gaffney v. Cummings (1973) that bipartisan gerrymanders are constitutionally permissible under the Equal Protection Clause.