Heather J.

"Noise" stands with his guitar "Note" at the Evans Vista encampment in Port Townsend, Washington.

"Noise" showed me his guitar, "Note" that he plays at the local QFC. It's not a photo we used for the story, but it's one of my favorites from yesterday because if there's anything we need more of right now it's seeing each other's shared humanity. Regardless of their circumstances.

Dissatisfaction Abounds as Evans Vista Encampment Chapter Closes — The Jefferson County Beacon News by Scott France The City of Port Townsend’s controversial November 3 closure of the Evans Vista encampment is drawing to a close with more of a whimper than a bang.

Worked on this story as the photojournalist yesterday. It took me a bit to orient myself to the story and find photos that told the story while also being compassionate to a vulnerable community. I'm proud of the work we do at the Beacon.

LOLLLL, In what dream do I get to "retire"? If I play along, however, I'll be that gal in mid-20th century "analog only" lifestyle. Typewriters, snail mail, and tea parties with the girlfriends.

Authoritarian and Democratic Technics, revisited “The viability of technology, like democracy, depends in the end on the practice of justice and on the enforcement of limits to power.” – Ursula Franklin I. Is technology a proble…

It wasn't until I read an essay on "Librarian Shipwreck" that I had words to describe my issue with digital tech: that it is fundamentally authoritarian by design. As a technologist, this was a huge blindspot for me.

None of it ever felt like "me", it felt more like searching for "me" in these male-dominated spaces. Mine is the same story as so many others - we're told from childhood that anything that's not cis/het is wrong and a lot of us believe it and try so hard, for so long to fit into a box others made

My life story is basically an attempt at "conversion therapy" to avoid gender feels. USMC, Mtn Rescue, Christianity, Endurance Sports, Professional Hacker, etc. My CV reads like then manliest person you could know. Warrior, athlete, intellectual, tactician, artist. Can't say I didn't try 🤷🏻‍♀️

I will say, coming out has given me SO much more internal peace and resilience. I’m constantly astounded by how much stress I’m now able to tolerate and even brush off after a year into transition.

Don’t have TikTok 🤷🏻‍♀️ I can feel the stress daily, and it’s frustrating how hard it is to get cis folks to comprehend what it feels like. I’m about to lose my cool when white cis folks be like, “yeah, things are hard for a lot of ppl”. At the end of the day, T4T is about more than romantic encounters

Oof, I had some pretty intense transphobia to work through which led to a lot of bargaining “anything but trans”.

Took me a bit to unpack that and dispense with it. The process did teach me about why and where it came from, which has helped me understand where we’re at today.

This journalist is laughing her ass off - thank you for that inverted triangle ref 😂

I kinda figured it would probably be some weird power move, “were the department of war now” mission alignment thing

💯 The way I’ve described it is I’ve exchanged internal conflict and external validation for internal validation and external conflict. I’ve been shocked at how much BS I’ve been able to handle, stuff that would have absolutely throttled me is now so much easier to handle.

“Bury your friends in the morning, protest in the afternoon, and dance all night.” - a saying during the AIDS crisis in the queer community and one I keep coming back to as a reminder that we have work to do, but must also seek joy

I’m unaware of the world where that’s weird? That’s basically tradition for a “whiskey plank” celebration around these parts. Whole shops of shipwrights will share a bottle in celebration. I’d say you’re in very good company 😉

Instructions unclear. How do I get laptop to MacOS 26? Is that a kind of paper?

An Olympia SM3 with paper fed through the platen and a few lines of text outside

Feels appropriate to draft my story about The Wall That Heals (Vietnam War) on a 1950's era typewriter.

“the ultimate religion of our seemingly rational age” – Revisiting Mumford’s “megamachine” “If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion.” – Lewis Mumford   It …

While folks talk about this platform or the next as a better democratic space, it’s worth considering whether digital tech is even democratic at all. A fav writer of mine: librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2024/06/14/t...

Thank you 🙏

Right!? I’ve never seen an ally so clearly get it, in fact, low key wondered if they were a deep stealth trans man

💯 thank you for posting this. Learned helplessness is another concept I think of. Legacy media pushing all the bad news w/ zero chance to change the situation. We learn apathy. Our whiteness, for sure, but also our age(s) and the fact that many(most) lose family for being trans

When I changed my name I thought about how it would look in cursive and how much I hated writing those letters of my previous name in cursive. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Congresswoman Emily Randall shows a black and white photo of Joel Kawahara standing in front of his boat the Karolee in Port Townsend, WA. “Joel Kawahara embodied the very best of our maritime community. He will be deeply missed, but his legacy will live on” reads the Facebook post. “Joel was lost at sea while doing what he loved most” reads the closed caption.

And now my photo of Joel Kawahara is part of congressional record. It was an honor to meet him and create this photo that has become so iconic for our community. @emilyrandallwa.bsky.social

This looks a lot like Gartners “hype cycle” to me and we’re rounding into the “trough of disillusionment”. There ARE use cases for GenAI, but a lot of what’s talked about and how it’s talked about is BS. I’m not an AI apologist, just a recovering tech worker of 25y who’s seen some stuff

The Wall That Heals is proceeding down Sims complete with a Helo escort from the Sheriff (King Co.?) and it’s giving me flashbacks to past lives in the USMC and Mtn Rescue. I don’t love it.

💯 There are a dozen things I’d rather write about than my own queer experience or trans folks. But here I am, trying to normalize our existence because somebody like me a year ago needs to hear it.

Your essays were really important in helping me along in my own journey. I enjoy your clear-headed writing and the intelligence you bring to each piece. Thank you for all you have done for our community.

Oh that’s a complicated one for me too. As time goes on and I’m more and more comfortable and confident in my body, the easier it has been to reclaim my past. Admittedly, the “trans progress” posts always gave me hope, I hope to pay it forward some way.

In my 40’s, still pretty awesome

💯 Doing my part to change the narrative around transition and highlight the joy. It’s wild how much better I feel about myself and the future - despite all the BS.