Alice Thomsen

My arts and crafts projects for the @nj50501.bsky.social No Kings event

Donate to Prevent Iris's Eviction and Aid Recovery, organized by Heather Johnson Hello, my name is Iris, At the end of 2023, I was laid off… Heather Johnson needs your support for Donate to Prevent Iris's Eviction and Aid Recovery

An artist friend of mine has been struggling to get back on her feet after leaving an abusive relationship (among other upheavals) and needs help.

Today’s project is sticky note outlines and wow does “Whoaaaaaa, we’re 20% of the way there!” not hit the same as halfway.

Is there a special dog (or cat [or person]) in your life who needs to know what a special good boy (or girl [or person]) they are? If the answer is no, you should go adopt a pet (or person). If the answer is yes, you should check out this shop. #noprime #wasthattrending #didimissit #fuckbezos

You can get your books for #BannedBooksWeek from an independent bookseller—without leaving your house!

Since 2021, nearly 23,000 books have been banned—proof that fear still wields a red pen. They’re trying to erase stories of race, identity, and love because they can’t erase the people who live them.

Read defiantly.
Share loudly.
Rebel with a book.
#BannedBooksWeek

My newest writerly self-sabotage is printing pages single-spaced to save paper and thinking it’ll still be easy to make line edits. #regrats

The world: *is on fire*
Me: … okay, but what if I dye my hair about it?

As a child on car trips, I worked through stacks of Mad Libs books. It occurs to me only now that really, if not for that early indoctrination, I probably wouldn't be an angry leftist. This is why we have to control children's literature. How about some Trad Libs? #thisissarcasm #plsnotradlibs

Ingersoll’s calls for violence are in line with the official Republican position. John Gillette, a Republican state representative for Arizona, called for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) to be hanged on his X account. Two Kansas Republicans alluded to — “joked” — about shooting a former Democratic colleague on the floor of the Kansas House. Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins threatened to jail the mayor of Denver, while Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna threatened to refer him for criminal charges. Arizona Republican Paul Gosar shared an anime video depicting him killing Ocasio-Cortez and attacking then-President Joe Biden. Denaturalization is another favorite Republican threat. Republican Andy Ogles of Tennessee said that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani should be stripped of his citizenship and deported; Ogles later demanded the same for Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois. Texas Republican Brandon Gill, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, and South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace have called for Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a naturalized US citizen, to be deported.

I feel like we've gotten numb to these threats but it really is something to stack them all next to each other www.theverge.com/policy/79051...

(For the record, in case anyone is using my account alone to keep track of current events, the country is still a disaster, and my adventures in printing do not detract from that. Also you should follow some more accounts.)

*form, to fill out the self-portrait with a typo I notice as soon as I submit

Spent approx. three and a half hours babysitting our poor bottom-of-the-line consumer-grade printer as it chugged out five manuscripts’ worth of pages. That, a cat carrier, and some background Unibroue forms a pretty decent self-portrait, I feel.

In her recommendation, Bagdasarian stated, "Any person over the age of six months without contraindication who has not received a dose of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved or-authorized 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine may be considered to have an underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 and is thus eligible to receive an age-appropriate dose."

I like this. Since under RFK Jr, Covid shots are now for people with underlying conditions that put them at risk, Michigan’s chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian states that not having the most recent Covid shot constitutes such an underlying condition.

www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside...

Lawmakers arrested demanding entry to immigrant detention at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan City Comptroller Brad Lander was among those arrested.

Breaking via Gothamist:

"Nearly a dozen New York elected officials" — including NYC comptroller Brad Lander — "were arrested by Department of Homeland Security officers on Thursday afternoon in a protest at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Lower Manhattan."

gothamist.com/news/lawmake...

I wanna signal boost this - I am looking to recruit a prospective PhD student to join my Stress and Health Equity lab at the University of Delaware in HDFS. My research concerns biopsychosocial mechanisms of health across the life course with an emphasis on stress and coping.

The most common lie I tell: “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing.”

I almost always know what the fuck you think you’re doing; I’m just disappointed in you for doing it.

Tables turning so fast these days I’m starting to think we’re sitting at a lazy susan …

Meanwhile I’m just writing escapist fantasies about being able to afford half of rent on a one-bedroom apartment while in grad school working only part time. #verisimiliwho?

I keep saying this. The Right fundamentally are *not* hypocrites. They believe in double standards. For them, double standards are correct, inevitable, and desirable, because the idea that certain groups are better than others and should therefore have more rights is the basis of right-wing ideology

The problem with words like "petty" and "childish" is that they minimize the very real, existential threat. That said … petty and childish. Dangerous and scary and embarrassing.

RFK Quack

RFK Jr. needs to resign. Now.

For real, though, @scrivenerapp.bsky.social has officially been my novel-writing bestie for 15 years, and if you’re not using it, then what the [56] is wrong with you?

Just finished a first draft. 116,162 words, and only 41 of them are “fuck” (55 if we’re including derivations) Thanks to #scrivener for giving me the data that matters

The Body Worlds exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philly concludes with an interactive wall for visitors to complete the prompt, “Before I die, I want to …”

SEE HIM GO FIRST.

A teenager wears a black backpack with a long-haired chihuahua inside it.

Happy back to school season to those who observe!

As a Millennial who is both trans-positive and a vampire novelist, I feel personally victimized by coming of age in the exact target audiences of both Harry Potter (which I loved) and Twilight (which I hated). This is obviously what people mean when they talk about generational trauma, right?

Everybody is talking about the Switch 2, and listen, I love Mario Party as much as the next Millennial, but what about an updated Luigi Party?

I've been reflecting on what it means to have come of age in the era of The Daily Show. Say what you will about Freud (and there's plenty)—psychoanalysis calls humor a mature defense mechanism, and I often feel like it's my one hope for survival. Sometimes all we can do is get by.