Jen Willis 💫🎃

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get to/from OHSU waterfront for my mammogram this week without having to go directly past the ICE building on Macadam.

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Today is Tuesday, Feb 3
Good morning ❤️

eat
take your meds
hydrate
tell your people you love them
let them love you back

We are here. This is real. Let's build a home for each other and fight like hell.

All you fascists bound to lose ✊

star-camping surprise | Jennifer Willis Get more from Jennifer Willis on Patreon

A new installment of Starbright, elaborating on my star-camping solution to accommodate chronic health issues.

www.patreon.com/posts/star-c...

Donate to Help Our School Community with Food and Rent Assistance, organized by Sean S Our community is being threatened and people are afraid. This is a hype… Sean S needs your support for Help Our School Community with Food and Rent Assistance

Rent was due today, wiping out all funds raised to date for 122 South Minneapolis families who are unable to work or safely leave home.

Over $120K has been distributed so far, but more funds are needed to cover this week's grocery deliveries. Every dollar helps!

www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-c...

Public health crisis unfolding in Minneapolis as residents avoid healthcare Providers are arranging home visits and telehealth as neighbors pick up prescriptions, groceries and diapers

People targeted by federal agents - for their skin color, accents, or immigration status - are afraid to seek healthcare; healthcare staff are fearful for their safety at work. Here's how Minnesota providers are responding to an unfolding crisis - my latest:

I might have to make this my avatar.

It’s your city, from the sidewalk to the skyline. The David Dinkins Municipal Building’s rooftop is open & free to everyone, starting this June.

A lioness perched on a rock, facing the camera and sticking out her tongue.

At the Oregon Zoo this morning.

apod.444405016.bin

#apod 2026-02-02
Orion: The Running Man Nebula
Image Credit:
Robert G. Lyons
(Robservatory)

Web page: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260202.html

Excellent discussion on PFAS, aka forever chemicals by @mariahblake.bsky.social @laurelschaider.bsky.social and @wbrangham.bsky.social

The moon with a wide ring around it.

Lunar halo tonight. I've never seen this before with my own eyes.

To be clear:
Gassing a big crowd of marching protestors
is not ok.
Repeatedly gassing small groups of protestors is not ok.
Repeatedly gassing a neighborhood across from an apartment building is not okay.
Use of chemical weapons, mace, and less lethals is not ok.
Ripping families apart is not ok.

Today's Star Trek Saturday episode is "Nothing Human" (ST: Voyager S5E8)

Take a deep breath. ✨

In between screaming about politics I also write books and they are good and this one's coming out soon so you should preorder it because preorders are cool 😎

A rear windshield sticker, showing the outline of a woman reading a book -- a parody of the "trucker babe."

Spotted this morning in the Trader Joe's parking lot.

It's like every day he's giving us a brand new authoritarian bingo card with all the squares already marked off.

I can't imagine having to read through even a small fraction of these documents. The tiny glimpses we've gotten here are sickening.

Sign written on Portland, Oregon garage says “A better country is possible”

Portland neighbor

JNCE_2017350_10C00042_V01 NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Jupiter's South Pole - Juno Perijove 10 - December 16 2017 - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/21LgmHj

Perfect. ♥️

I wholeheartedly support calls to boycott in protest but ask that they focus on large, especially billionaire-owned businesses and not on small and local businesses that are essential to sustainable and equitable communities. Those are integral to a future we should be building.

stellar stamina A couple of years ago, I read Dr. Aomawa Shields’s memoir, Life on Other Planets, about her unusual career path into astronomy. There’s a lot about her journey that has stuck with me since, but som…

Dr. Shields took her own route to achieve her goals. While I’m unlikely to start, much less complete, a graduate degree in astronomy, I can still pursue my fascination with the stars. It will simply take longer, and I’ll take more naps along the way.

jennifer-willis.com/starbright/s...

But then I remember what my grade school gym teacher said about me. I remember the corny motto I used to motivate myself in my twenties — “where there’s a Willis, there’s a way” — and I go to work forging my own path.

I tire easily. It takes me longer to complete projects or even to read books and articles. Sometimes I lose sight of my constraints and slide into danger of chastising myself for being sluggish or lazy.

I can’t stay up all night like many of my fellow amateur astronomers do, especially if I want to be remotely functional after the sun rises the next morning (even with a good nap or two).

But that doesn’t mean I gave up. It took a few decades, but I came back to astronomy, and I’ve brought a deeper understanding of myself to my independent studies. Stamina is still a concern.

One consequence was choosing the safety of a less-passionate-but-still-interesting academic major, which steered me away from a potential career in science. Not a week of my present life goes by without regret over all that.

Something similar happened in college when both internal & external forces — like sexual harassment from professors and teaching assistants, a violently toxic romantic relationship, and so much doubt and rigid thinking — collided w/ undiagnosed chronic issues in my nearly disastrous freshman year.