Here's a handy screenshot for reference on wording to use when returning your Ring device to Amazon for a refund.

"Stability takes time, and flexible cash gives young people the breathing room to build it."

Oops, someone figured it out 🙃

Amid the beat, beat, beat of horrifying news, a bit of good news. I believe that tiny vehicles could in time transform streets, which will transform cities. We don't need tank sized SUVS everywhere for everyone all the time (and I say that as an owner of a tank sized SUV)

Boosting this because it's a really good show, put together with care and thoroughness. LeGuin crafted worlds + also a meticulous observer of this one- I loved the shifting projected montage of Mt St Helens drawings. Go down to Oregon Contemporary and see it before it closes in early February!

I've had friends reach out and ask about "the protests in MN" and I've responded that "protests" is a terrible way to describe what is going on (although there are those too). We are under attack by a lawless federal agency, and there is massive, decentralized community mobilization in response.

I have socks that are older than ICE.

There's a few really helpful people on the web who post watercolor swatches with detailed reviews/info on pigments, lightfastness and so on. Sadly one of them, Kim Crick, has had serious medical issues for years and her family is closing the business and eventually shutting down/moving the website.

that feeling when you have a hundred pens but one VERY SPECIFIC ONE is MISSING

The Law of Glitter applies to iridescent inks and paints too. Therefore, everything in my sketchbook is sparkly.

December tomatoes: the last two tomatoes from my neighbor's garden, picked green when the nights got cold, and ripened indoors.

There's something so hopeful about making a new sketchbook. What will I record/discover/ imagine? (What will I leave unsaid but will turn out to be really obvious in the drawings?) Fabriano Cocktail 290# makes really good soft covers, btw.

My first look at the work of Jules Feiffer, Edward Gorey, Garth Williams, Arthur Szyk, Ronni Solbert, Helen Sewell, Clement Hurd, John R Neill, and many more came from the books they illustrated, and my memories of their art and the writers' words in those stories are inseparable.

well, one of them. There are many. But today's weather is just as much about sound as it is about visuals, and that always puts me in a Burchfield mood. (Also, close enough to 50 years.) Charles Burchfield, Clearing Sky, 1917

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: American crow Common raven Alpine chough Steller's jay Boat-tailed grackle

Google results started giving me that sinking feeling in 2013 or so, same with crappy recycled/ripped off images for home design and recipes. Algorithmic/SEO slop wrecked the cool internet - the one where you connected with interesting humans who knew things- long before LLM slop came on the scene.

today's news from the ocean (also somewhere, "death-ball sponge" the band or the spicy dessert , is coming into being)

oops someone's seen my house

just me saying (again) that the ocean is the closest thing we have to another planet that people can go to right now, today, and we had better not fuck it up (any further) thank you @alexandragallant.com for letting me know this camera exists!

Also, happy November 17dee to all who celebrate.

I gave in to the Diamine Inkvent Calendar temptation and the first two colors dilute into a magical iridescent purple, so have a happy purple day, everyone.

Visiting Boston and this is what I have to say about East Coast cities

Really wish Portland Fire and Rescue had an account here but this is from this morning. (Cautiously hopeful that the backpack was not at any point attached to a human in the river.) #pdx

When a large-scale restoration effort was halted by feds, history could not be forced back into the archives.

And one of the best gem and mineral museums in the country is in a small town in Maine. mainemineralmuseum.org

Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night" but it's a cautionary tale about shitposts

This whole thread, and why I love these materials

1. Ewww me too 2. yeah probably (we could have done so much better. sorry, kids.) 3. Fuuuuuuck 4. The consolation of snark: I prefer to get my lead poisoning through my art supplies and vintage glassware. It's still horrible but at least I have something pretty to look at

Subtly downgrade a band Pudgy Dog

That latest dodgy health statement is an anagram of "some nutty causal lies" just so ya know.

Something was supposed to happen today? Did it involve a man from Mars who now only eats guitars?

In more encouraging news: www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-g...

The U.S.’s largest estuary is showing signs of revival. Once written off as a dead zone, water clarity in Chesapeake Bay has improved, underwater grasses are expanding, and crab populations are steadier thanks to decades of pollution controls. Nature buff.ly/morNFth #ShareGoodNewsToo

I went back to NYC last year for a visit and still have my city walk! Which I actually picked up as a teenager in DC. (I slow down _a bit_ in Portland, still dodging around everyone here.)

On the drive home just now I was thinking about how Homer's epics were oral histories written as songs that were meant to be memorized and performed for an audience, and I realized that the Iliad and Odyssey were both very long versions of Barrett's Privateers

The faster we go, the more we forget why we are going there.

One of my favorite thrifted books, from 1961- basically home repair 101 and aimed at middle schoolers, maybe young high schoolers. Covered basic repairs, safety, and some cleaning tips. While dated, especially wrt product safety (heater cords full of asbestos 😬😬😬) still has much useful advice

Yes, wonderful things still happen in this world. I couldn't make it to steamroller print this year, but happy to see so many people taking part in this annual event!

This entire conversation. (Pay artists, fuck enclosure.)

The flounciest nope

I accidentally resubscribed to Sword and the Sandwich and I'm so, so glad I did. Excellent writing, excellent sandwiches.

pov: you're me and have to start painting the kitchen tomorrow

Ten writers by whom I've read more than 5 books (not including comics): N.K. Jemisin Barbara Kingsolver J.R.R. Tolkien Robin Hobb Elizabeth Hand Shirley Jackson Ursula K. LeGuin Ariel Gore Kage Baker Kurt Vonnegut

I get it, lamp. It's been that kind of a day.

Radio and broadcast TV still give out emergency info, but how many people nowadays are likely to just have them on in a fast-developing situation like flash flooding?

Always good to see what Nan Goldin is doing.

Tell me your pet’s name with a gif

An essential read for June 3, about a song, a musician, and seeing who we are.

I saw lots of people on bluesky last November who were worried that they would "cancel Pride." That cannot happen. No one can cancel how we feel about ourselves. Pride is what we make it.

Look, there are a lot of valid criticisms to make of the Ivies, but “fuck this administration, we’re making our civics courses free so you can understand WHY fuck this administration” is a baller move. 3 cheers for prosocial spite.