When Your Art Program’s Closing Message Hits You Straight In The Heart And Makes You Stop And Contemplate

The people who are in power right now want us to be quiet and cowed. So we need to be noisy and defiant to show that we are not going anywhere. And we need to show each other that we are going to survive this — even if it gets dark.

"Flaunt and Flail": Queer Art in the Age of Techno-Fascism (my latest newsletter!)

“How we relate to the pain of others is a question that always lurks beneath our politics, but it’s one that is particularly relevant now. In its first months, the Trump administration has begun to implement a radical rightwing regime featuring mass deportations without due process, draconian cuts to domestic and foreign aid programs, and venally self-interested foreign policy – a set of policies that amount to a prescription for mass suffering and death. Whether Trump succeeds or fails in his quest to remake US society is very much a question of how much of the pain of others Americans are willing to abide in the pursuit of making America great again. The rightwing movement against empathy seeks to dismantle and discredit one of the essential tools for any society – our capacity to recognize and respond to suffering. We should see the campaign against empathy by Trump supporters for what it is: a flashing red light warning of fascist intent.”

— Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy

Opening sketch commissions!

We had to take my oldest dog to the vet and what we thought would be a normal checkup ended up as many queued up treatment visits and eventual surgery to deal with as soon as possible, and while I'm not broke atm, I would prefer to not be as the vet bills begin to roll in =v=;;

I'll open 10 commission slots for now. DM me if interested!

🟣 BUST: $20

🟣 WAIST-UP: $30

🟣 FULL BODY: $40

*Monochrome coloring: free! (Added by default) *Colored sketch: +10$ *extra character: +30% of overall price (max 4 character.)

Slots available: 2/10❗❗

reblog to help spread the word 💖

Some thoughts from Chinese Xiaohongshu users (text is translated and originally in Chinese)

There’s this guy that sits in front of me who you would think is a conservative redneck bc his entire aesthetic is southern lumberjack w boots and denim and hats but he’s actually one of the most inclusive and anti trump guy I’ve ever met and today he wore this hat that sums up his entire personality and I’m screaming.

Don’t judge a book by its cover; make cornbread, not war.

i went in to get a bra fitting today and I had a big conversation with the woman who runs the boutique i go to about her advice for trans women re:underwire bras and fittings, so I'm gonna pass that along!

she said that underwire bras aren't typically made with trans women's' ribcages in mind, but that if you have smaller boobs a soft bralette or sports bra is totally fine. it's also possible that bras made for drag will fit, but she wasn't sure how helpful that would be and neither was I, since we're not talking about a boob plate here. i was asking on behalf of some of my friends who have naturally big boobs after horomones though, and she told me that if your breast tissue feels unsupported or you're getting new back pain that you think is coming from there, your best bet is to get fitted at a small boutique, and that there are higher band sizes that you can try.

I told her some of the girls I know are scared to do this and she reccomended to have someone call the place for you and ask outright, being upfront that you're nervous about it, and then base your decision on how they react. but also that most independent bra stores are probably friendly because they're being run by hippies. At a chain like victoria's secret or something they're not going to carry higher band sizes at all, plus you're never gonna be able to tell who you'll get at a chain, so she recommends calling a smaller place where you can really get a read on the people there from talking on the phone.

I hope somebody finds that helpful!

Happy Birthday to my mother Lynne!

At 80, my mom published a murder mystery novel based on her years as a clinical psychologist.: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Right-Lynne-Bravo-Rosewater/dp/B0D82BXDZR (When a psychologist is killed, her daughter has to figure out which of her former cases led to her murder.)

It is with the deepest frustrations that I must report Microsoft has pushed out Copilot onto Microsoft Word no matter what your previous settings were. If you have Office because you paid for it/are on a family plan/have a work/school account, you can disable it by going to Options -> click on Copilot -> uncheck 'Enable Copilot'.

(Note, you may not see this option if you haven't updated lately, but Copilot will still pop up. Updating should give you this option. I will kill Microsoft with my bare hands.)

In addition, Google has forced a roll-out of it's Gemini AI on all American accounts of users over 18 (these settings are turned off by default for EU, Japan, Switzerland, and UK, but it doesn't hurt to check).

To remove this garbage, you must go to Manage Workspace smart feature settings for all your Gmail/Drive/Chat and turn them off. Go to Settings -> See all settings -> find under "Genera" the "Google Workspace smart features" -> turn smart feature setting off for both Google Workspace and all other Google products and hit save. (If you turned off the smart settings in your Gmail, it never hurts to open Drive and double-check that they're set to off there too.)

Quick Edit: I found the easiest way to get to the Smart Feature settings following the instructions above was to do it through Drive. Try that route first.

Now is the time to consider switching to Libre Office if you haven't already.

Bro absolutely COOKED with this.