Picked up at 4:30 am to get to the airport by 5:30am for a 7am flight. So what am I going to do? Try and get some writing done. These words might not be coherent.

On the final days of my trip to Atlanta with my kids, and I don't think I've had worse sleep than I have had on this trip. I'm waking up with bruises and utterly exhausted every morning.

INBOX: Rep. Thomas Massie, who has enraged Trump for his insistence on blocking tariffs and releasing the Epstein files according to the law, just issued what is widely known among Chinese dissidents as "a declaration of no suicidal intent" (不自殺聲明), a sign of extreme distress.

How does one express, "I'm fine but if you express any acknowledgement that I have a corporeal form I will lose my mind and melt down" without it becoming weird? Asking for a friend.

And never forget. These are asylum seekers. This is what the USA is doing to the most vulnerable people on the planet who we promised to protect.

For the past two weeks and into next week, I will have had various appointments three days a week, robbing me of my writing time during the day. The next two weeks after that, I'll be in Atlanta visiting family. That is five weeks without writing time. I'm going to lose my mind.

Out for writing, and got into a short convo with a man about the evils of AI. How it's going to drive everyone out of work to make billionaires more money, how it fails at thinking, how it'll make us all worse off because it's being driven by the needs of capitalism instead of real people's needs.

A reminder that Bezos has zero financial need to layoff these journalists, and is only doing so because he wants to destroy the 4th Estate. Invest in independent voices. My human rights newsletter has grown to 160,000+ subscribers. No paywall. Paid sub optional. Join: www.qasimrashid.com/subscribe

I'm reading Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, and I love the way he uses details to develop good characters. Thirty pages in, and it's constant description of these characters in the world, but the details of their lives make you know exactly who they are.

I managed to finish writing a chapter in the stolen moments of today: fifteen minutes during piano lesson, thirty minutes during dance class, five minutes between checkin an the doctor is ready to see you. I'm rewarding myself with reading this incredible book tonight. Have you read it?

I'm super frustrated that at every point this week, my writing time has been stolen. I've set aside blocks of actual time, and something has come up consistently. Writing as a mom is difficult. I really have to slot in fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there. I just miss my actual writing time.

I had to be an adult and go to the doctor for a full check up. Great news is losing 10lb over the past month. Bad news is it didn't help my blood pressure. So I've got some meds to hopefully help get me back to healthier numbers. Next up: all the 40yo cancer screenings. Because we're at that age.

Most PNW thing today? Almost getting dive bombed by a bald eagle while walking my dog between rain falls.

I guess it's time to remember how to Tweet and repackage my thoughts for new mediums. Retraining my dopamine regulation away from doomscrolling. Wish me luck.

Ugh, because of my real life organizing efforts, I'm having to make the decision to delete my TikTok account and redirect all of my marketing efforts back to Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and here. The mental shift is not easy.

I had extra collard greens from my produce box this week, so I made my first pesto with collards, peas, garlic, parmesan, and olive oil. And y'all? This is a game changer. So many nutrients, so easy, so tasty. I didn't know I could do this!

At the state fair with my kids, and my daughter summed up the entire carnival ride experience perfectly. Screamed at the top of her lungs on a fast spinning ride: "I do not feel safe, even if I know I am. This is so much fun! "

Also, an effective general strike has free transit all over town, a way of providing free food etc. It’s not just staying home it’s alternate social infrastructure so people can survive striking

Philip Larkin said "What will survive of us is love," but research based on previous collapsing civilizations suggests it's more likely to be inorganic items that can be buried, burned, or struck without significant degradation. Likely what will survive of us is ceramic toilets.

Embrace the cringe. Dive into the weird. It's where you'll find your vulnerability and your truth. Whether that's in writing, social media, or just your life, start being authentic weird self. We're all just feral goblins underneath a thin veneer of social awareness.

I'm serious. This too is fascism.

A Universal Basic Income that help the poor and generate economic growth from the ground up? We’ve no way of knowing that’ll work! Better we invest in artificial intelligence that is currently consuming all our power to create a John Cena lookalike that tells pornographic stories to children.

Why am I vibrating? Could it be that entire pot of coffee I just downed? Surely not. (Repeat tomorrow)

the intensity of my anger at those who would criminalize the homeless — a population literally created by the greed and callousness of the ruling class — is very hard to contain. it was you who dismantled the safety net. if you don’t like the results, put it back

Its literally this. I have seen so many AI bros just not want to have to be bothered thinking

I dreamed that Dolly Parton was hosting our local trivia, and she called me "one smart cookie," and I realized I had peeked. No high will ever match being praised by Dolly Parton.

i mean, that sure looks like their plan

I can't let the first of the month get by without marketing a tiny bit. I wrote some books! If you like fairies, urban fantasy with some spice (3🌶, some onscreen, not explicit), lots of rebellion against authoritarian regimes, and cocktail magic, check out Summer's Blood. a.co/d/byOtoO9

Really loving my garmin watch decoding to freak out lately. It: Your heart rate was over 115bpm ALL night so you got zero actual rest. Me: Really? I slept quite well. Is it over 100 now? It: YES! YOU'RE AT ... 120, 110, 104, 92, 72, restng rate of 64. Just kidding. Me: are you okay?

How many books have I read this year? Nice.

Just to state the obvious: I do not believe that a political movement trying to re-legalize child labor, deny schoolkids free lunches, lower the age of sexual consent, slash funding for child care & elementary education, and slash Medicaid genuinely gives a shit about the welfare of children.

This "lazy Medicaid scammer" myth is an insane level of gaslighting It's not like Medicaid recipients receive any money The benefits are used to pay doctors-for medical visits And who thinks an otherwise healthy gamer living in his mom's basement is even going to see a doctor Just more GOP lies

"You're not allowed to help the poor because they're disproportionately black and that's not FAIR" is a really vile argument to put on paper.

These are some of the most odious people alive.

Driving home from taking some photos and saw the clouds going pink. Hurried inside when I got there and popped the drone up to get a shot of the Seattle skyline. #Photography #DronePhotography #DJI #DJIMini3Pro

There's something seriously disturbing about kids singing lyrics about their "HMO checks." I love kids attacking excellent rock songs, but there's a disconnect.

Failing down the stairs in your 40s is a really bad idea. Don't do it.

Show me your budget and l’ll show you your values, concentration camp edition

After months of insisting open windows and the environment are affecting my partner's sleep, he asked if we could sleep with the windows open tonight. The doors, the windows, all flung wide!

Children are in their nightly fight/ rough housing time. Husband to struggling younger child: if you can tap out, you can punch him. Older child: oh dad why?! Younger child: hahaha thanks dad! (Older child quickly regained control, then gave younger opportunity to yield. )

Ex-farm worker here. We need to talk about this whole "But a living wage for farm workers would spike the cost of food!" thing. Not true AT ALL. Y'all don't understand how fast experienced farm workers are. The average tomato picker pulls 650lbs per hour. At $20/hr, that's $0.03/lb for labor.

There are so, so many things I want to do. Get better at oil painting. My PhD. Paint my miniatures. Read. Knit or do cross stitch with a podcast. Take a professional make up course. Gardening. Improve my dressmaking skills. How do billionnaires end up being such tedious motherfucking nazis?

If you'd told me when I moved to Seattle, less than ten minutes from downtown, that I'd be waking up at sunrise to feed and let out chickens, I'd have laughed at you. But here we are.

Seattle life is a lot. This weekend's adventures: fresh blueberry pickings, impromptu sidewalk sprinkler parties, private dance lessons, wrestling chickens, crabbing and fishing on the Sound, roller skating, street festival and farmers market, and a curated scotch tasting. I'm exhausted.

I love cherry season in Washington. But it makes me miss tomato season in Georgia. I'd sweat buckets for a good bloodred, heirloom tomato from a roadside stand right now.

It’s not Tiananman Square. These vehicles don’t stop. A deflated American spirit is left behind.