It was a very nice day today and the ducks got to enjoy some snow melt puddles in the driveway. They were very happy.

Do you get it now? Without due process, everyone is at risk. How are you going to prove your citizenship otherwise?

Everyone on tumblr has Conditions. maladies. I log onto tumblr and my mutuals are unwellposting. Conditions I didn't even know existed and sound like dark curses but I will see a post from friend like "died about 60% today, fine now. Made egg on toast #yummytoast". There are so many people in this world with life experiences

The April launch is LIVE in our USA/international and Canadian stores! We have three skirt designs and two shirt designs this round: First, this adorable Cat Nap design by Rii Abrego. What can I say? It's just so stinkin' cute I'm about ready to basketball dunk myself into a chilly river just to keep me from acting up. This skirt is like a big ol' scoop of kitten shaped sherbet and I'm ready to eat it.

Next, our lovely new Ladybug design! This skirt is the first ever skirt collab between me (Maya) and my wife Devin! Devin drew the adorable little ladybugs and I picked the color palette and arranged them into a pattern with their cute little meandering paths. This skirt has a bubblegum-y, flamingo-y pink background that is just perfect for spring.

Last for the new skirts is Rii Abrego's Strawberry midi skirt, now in adorable, summery yellow! Last year, this color variant of the strawberry skirt debuted as a miniskirt and y'all went absolutely rabid for it. It sold out super quickly and many people asked for it to come in midi length as well. Well, I didn't listen. At least, not at first. I thought the yellow would be too much on a midi length and no one would put their money where their mouth was, but y'all asked month after month, showing me the depths of love you have for this design, and so finally I have listened! And I couldn't be more pleased, as this truly feels like THE skirt of the summer. People, rejoice! Yellow strawberry skirt be upon ye!

Next, lets talk our super breezy and comfy 100% viscose button-up shirts!

Ever since I first posted sketches for my Microorganisms pattern, I got requests to make it into a button-up shirt. But for various reasons, the timing just never worked out--until now! Now, you too can look like a germed up arcade carpet without worrying about getting sick. This design is so incredibly fun and funky and I'm absolutely thrilled to finally be able to share it with y'all. I can't wait to wear this baby to an arcade or a bowling alley. Everyone is gonna be SO jealous of how cool I look.

Last up for new things, my super stinkin' cute Astronaut shirt! Look at this thing! These guys are just floating through space, maybe having fun, maybe suffering from creeping existential dread while they slowly but steadily deplete their limited oxygen supply, who knows! Either way, I love this stupid shirt.

USA/international:

Canada:

pssst we have already sold thru over half of our inventory for our cat nap and yellow strawberry skirts! get em before they’re gone!

pomegranates and cherry tomatoes are also in the store so dont forget them! 🧡

good > finally building the habit of checking my trouser pockets for tissues and stuff before putting them in the washing machine

bad > being unable to do so without saying "what's it got in its nasty little pocketses" in a gollum voice

A friend and I were discussing what we're like when we're sick and we decided people usually fall into one of these five 'sick modes': *Everyone is probably multiple of these at different times depending on how sick they are and with what but we think most people have a mode they default to and become more often than the others*

Delicate Consumptive Victorian: you feel tragic and mournful but also beautiful in a sad way, you are in bed, sipping hot tea, others should quietly whisper about how you are too good for this world, too beautiful, too tragic... And bring you more tea

Sick Dog: you are curled up in a ball, you don't want anything, you don't need anything, but it would be nice if others could still ask you if you need anything

Sickly Child Emperor: you are dying and it's everyone else's problem, you need pillows, no! you need soup, no! You need absolute silence or you will not be the first one to die today

Plague Pit: you are curled up probably on the floor, no one touch you, no one look at you, this is between you and God and you already know He has no mercy left for you

Warrior General: you are not sick. You are in perfect health and you don't know why anyone would think otherwise. Illness is an enemy that can be intimidated and you must remain strong for your men! (You are going to pass out at the most inconvenient moment possible)

If somebody you don't know pings you online and casually starts talking about revolution, be very very careful.

Unpaywalled here.

Im gonna be so real can yall actually talk about ways we can support trans women in the UK instead of giving all the attention to fucking JKR. I already know that Harry Poter sucks, I wanna know how to actually HELP people. Something something you have to love the oppressed more than you hate the oppressor

trans actual uk - trans led and run advocacy, education and empowerment organisation

fiveforfive - collective fund for trans women and girls and transfem causes

gendered intelligence - trans led advocacy org

mermaids - supports trans youth

akt - lgbtq youth homelessness charity

loving me - domestic abuse service for trans people in england

not a phase - for trans adults

this is the opening paragraph of a news article. stop scrolling here, if you would.

I want you to guess what this is about. take a second. breathe.

make a guess. make three guesses. make five guesses.

...

are you ready?

this is an article about...

potatoes.

more specifically

the united states potato cartel

apparently, mccain foods, cavendish farms, lamb weston, and j.r. simplot have been conspiring with each other to keep the prices of frozen potato-based products like frozen fries, frozen hash browns, and frozen tater tots high in the US for years.

these four companies collectively control 98% of the frozen potato product supply in the united states, so they can easily pressure the entire market. they are working together to squeeze as much money out of the frozen potato market as possible, sometimes even instructing employees to avoid making paper trails about their activities.

so now two proposed class action lawsuits have been filed against prolific potato providers for prioritizing profit and persistently producing problematic potato product price practices.

you can read the whole article here, and nightmares of capitalism aside, I do have a favorite part of this story.

there is a national potato council.

and it turns out the national potato council has a national potato expo.

here is a highlight video from potato expo 2019. it looks like it was a fun time!

Vent art

bottom text

I'm really not apologetic with this hard stance, either. I'm very firm on this, too. My art has already been used, twice now by people who did not ask my permission, so they could "enhance it" with Gen AI. I really see nothing good coming from generative AI except poor excuses for laziness and glorified search engines that don't work.

This is an important time to make the distinction between generative and analytical AI. Analytical AI is what AI is supposed to be for. It’s all the boring stuff like analyzing data for patterns. For example, you probably heard about that AI that was designed to tell apart bear claws from croissants for a bakery that is now being used to detect cancer cells with greater accuracy than human doctors. That’s an analytical AI, while everything mentioned in the post above is generative AI. (Which sucks!)

rats are woke

Even without words, we communicate through our eyes.

And some highlights from the notes: