Ellen M.

@graphxgrrl.bsky.social

920

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Graphic designer. Wanderer. More opinions than often useful. The QuimbyCats are Beatrice & Ramona. Pictures on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graphxgrrl/

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My phone battery needed to be replaced, so I took it in for repair. Diagnostics showed issues with a Face ID sensors they offered to fix that too. In the process they neither fixed the battery, nor Face ID, and now none of my side buttons work. No replacement phone until Tuesday-ish. I’m tired.

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Ellen M.

we should publish a 925 page rebuttal to project 2025 that includes policies like legalizing molly, mandating eating ass, and a three day work week. we’ll put 100 justices on the supreme court and liquidate private equity firms. really hit the gas on moving the overton window. ban pickleball too.

Beatrice has finally defeated her summer nemesis—my Vornado Zippi desk fan. So I did what any sensible person would do and made a video montage of her attacking it set to Johnny Cash singing “In My Life”. I also bought a new identical fan.

Did someone replace last week’s SCOTUS with Foldgers Crystals?

BREAKING: SCOTUS halts tonight's scheduled execution of Ruben Gutierrez in Texas, highlighting another question of whether the Fifth Circuit is ignoring Supreme Court precedent.

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Ellen M.

timeline cleanse hat tip @penryu.bsky.social

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Ellen M.

Fmr SPD chief tried to sue Publicola for their reporting — but not, interestingly, other outlets who made similar reports. Publicola prevailed but has legal fees so if you have discretionary $ to spare, please contribute. publicola.com/2024/07/15/f...

Former Police Chief Adrian Diaz Threatened PubliCola Over Post Describing His Coming-Out Interview - PubliColapublicola.com We need your help offsetting the cost of defending ourselves against the former police chief’s lawsuit threat. By Erica C.…

Trying to stop by VPC when I know Kenji posted about them yesterday on Instagram was perhaps not my brightest idea this morning. Thankfully unlike most of these people—I’m not here as a breakfast sandwich tourist.

I will say, having muted a lot of election related keywords in the last few months has made trying to catch up with the world much less annoying this morning.

As a graphic designer people also assume I’m an artist. While I’m basically competent at a some drawing and painting skills—that’s because I practiced every day in art school. And I’m not good at any of them because I don’t practice now—so can only rely on the vestiges of those learned skills.

I wish there was a way to demystify drawing for non-artists - there's nothing more to it that putting in the hours, learning technique, and most of all, just drawing a lot - I've always believed that anyone can learn how to draw if they're willing to make the time investment

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Ellen M.

The way forward is mutual aid. Feel lost, lonely, scared? There is a free fridge project or pantry near you. Make some sandwiches. I am absolutely not kidding about this. “Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake” is not terrible advice if you give it away.

You don’t have to mourn the passing of a public figure with a complicated life. But you can also not make it weird.

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Ellen M.

when two accounts share the same avi

I know GRRM is by all accounts a nice older gentleman who really wishes people would stop hounding him about dragons, love his Wild Cards universe a bit more, and certainly beloved by many in genre fiction—in a year where Worldcon simply cannot fuck anything up after 2023…

Why do we keep doing this to our trains?! It’s infuriating. Rail infrastructure in this country is five seconds away from falling apart and we continue to underinvest. Not that we’re not drowning in deferred maintenance for all of our infrastructure (not just transportation related).

DEEP DIVE: Reupping my NYMag story how fifty years of disinvestment and mismanagement have left the crucial power supply for every train running between New York and DC on the brink of collapse -- www.curbed.com/article/amtr...

Amtrak’s NE Corridor Power Supply Is Ancient and Failingwww.curbed.com Those hot-weather slowdowns and stoppages are largely the fault of one outdated piece of infrastructure.

We are very bad at learning from every social media site we’ve left burning down behind us. I’m sure the next one will be equally tiring in new yet identical ways.

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Ellen M.

Like I have been saying, the Democratic Party has a method for replacing a failing candidate: the contested convention The Constitution has a method for replacing a failing president: the 25th Amendment There is no such fucking thing as a Pundit Primary, unless we allow it to happen

Jim Himes, D-CT: “For 150 years we nominated presidential candidates at conventions…people are saying ‘what about democracy? Delegates, elected delegates, got together and chose the candidate. We can do that” The honesty is refreshing - the goal is to end the primary system

My parents, a similar age to Biden, regularly call me by my niece’s name. I’m their daughter! They see me more often! This is just how brains work sometimes. God knows I can’t remember names to save my life, and it’s worse post covid.

Would love to see an honest guess from young parents on how many times they’ve called their kids by the wrong name in the last 5 years. I’d be shocked if it’s less than 10.

My impression of a lot of British TV was this was pretty typical for them and a lot of international television and our US 26 episode seasons on a super regular schedule were a bit outrageous. But the shift with streaming definitely has had an impact on keeping up with shows I’ve liked.

Yup. I will sadly tap the sign for 7694th time: www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20...

Is TV Sabotaging Itself?www.vanityfair.com There’s more to watch than ever, but series have fewer episodes—and fewer seasons—to prove themselves. Friends and Lost might not happen today.

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Ellen M.

This is going to continue happening as everything gets hotter. Seattle had problems similar to this during the 2021 heat dome. Climate change is an *infrastructure problem* along with all the other types of problems.

How hot is NYC? A bridge got stuck open. The vertical clearance of the bridge is only about 25 feet.The Harlem River connects with the East River at its southern end and the Hudson at its northern end. Video is from the executive producer of the NBC affiliate in NYC. tweet: x.com/JesseJHamilt...

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Ellen M.

Don't give up on your dreams. Somewhere out there is a dilapidated manor house on the moors that needs a cranky caretaker, or a crumbling cliffside castle that needs someone to walk the parapets above the sea, pining for the ghosts of lost love.

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Ellen M.

Look how fun shutting down fascists is. I want this for us, too

Not going to lie, watching the short election cycles in the UK and France turn out positive results makes me wish our cycles didn’t begin five minutes after someone is in office. I just want the majority of pundits out of work and people I vote for to focus on governing—which is apparently weird.

Oh thank god.

Seafair Pirate Boat Torpedoed by Coast Guard, So That Problem Is Finally Solved: theneedling.com/2024/06/10/s...

Sometimes I chomp Ramona back to see how she likes it. She does not.

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Ellen M.

ACAB. The penguins are innocent.

Important penguin news

How I can tell that my current social media experience isn’t quite optimal: I only just discovered that Taika Waititi has a new Time Bandits series coming out on Apple TV+? When was someone going to mention this?

When two kitties are sound asleep side by side, but both twitching their paws and noses in dreaming—you have to think they must be sharing the same dream.

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Ellen M.

“They want to eliminate national parks” is a very simple way to get just about anyone on the Stop Project 2025 train. Are there much more glaring and life-threatening goals of P25? Yes but even your most bigoted cousin does not want to see the parks system sold for parts.

This!! Start with “they want to end no fault divorce, sell national parks, and ban porn” end with tax structure.

I’ve been rearranging furniture this afternoon—going by visual evidence the creatures most exhausted by this commotion are the cats.

With a long weekend I’ve been getting in a lot of napping—and it’s really too bad the extra sleep really does me no good cumulatively once we get to Monday.