Crystal Huff (they/them)

@crystalvisits.mas.wrong.tools.ap.brid.gy

115 Followers 21 Following

I post about science fiction, my garden, mutual aid, equity, inclusion, local politics, climate change, pronouns, food, folk music, friends, and ... whatever […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mas.wrong.tools/@crystalvisits, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Black and white cat lying on her right side, paws toward the camera, and with her head resting on my right hand.
A fluffy pink flower -- I think it's called Joe pyeweed. Close up, lots of mini-blooms. There are 2 bees visible on it, and they are of different types of bees.
A silver pot on a black stovetop. Inside is a red mixture of strawberries, liquified sugar, and a couple of red apple slices. The background is the rear of the stove, blurry in this pic.
Photo of me, a person with blonde hair and glasses, with a drawing of pink cat ears and strawberries on my head. In the background and far above me is a pair of iconic statues holding light fixtures at the Helsinki Central Train Station. The building behind them is a pale orange with greenish roof.
Black and white kitten lying on one side, curled up, with paws toward the camera. Her front paws are curled around my right hand and wrist. Her eyes are open, looking away from the camera. Very cute.
A small brown rabbit hides in the space behind some recycling containers turned into plant containers.
Photo of author John Scalzi, right, wearing a white shirt that says "Ohio" and pretending to chew on my blonde hair with his eyes closed. I am on the left side, wearing a teal dress and a blue convention lanyard. I am looking askance at the camera. John is hamming it up. This is not a sexy pic; it's very silly. I'm probably not explaining it very well, in terms of the tone. Sorry about that.
Black and white cat sitting on greenish sheets over a bed, crossing her forearms and looking at the camera. She looks a bit annoyed.
A picture of me, a white person with blonde hair, who has clearly been rained upon. My glasses are dripping water, as is the rest of me. I'm giving the camera a thumbs up. My arm is covered in mud.
Bar chart of Somerville police budgeting vs actual money spent, with blue for budgeted numbers and orange for actual numbers. Chart demonstrates the Somerville police budget vs actual from 2019 to 2026. The following numbers are in millions of dollars. 2019 budget: $16.1M 2019 actual: $17.6M 2020 budget: $16.2M 2020 actual: $15.4M 2021 budget: $15.5M 2021 actual: $19.7M 2022 budget: $16.7M 2022 actual: $17.6M 2023 budget: $16.7M 2023 actual: $16.8M 2024 budget: $17.7M 2024 actual: $15.4M 2025 budget: $18.1M 2025 actual: $16.8M 2026 budget: $21M (We don't yet have 2026 actual, I think)
Close up of a native columbine flower in shade. The outer blossom is a pinkish-orange ish color. The inside has yellow pollen and stamen. The plant has very sparse green leaves.
Columbine flower, which is kinda trumpet-shaped with three long petals that curve out at the bottom. The trumpet faces downward, and there are 3 trumpets per flower. This columbine flower is a pinkish-orangeish-red on the outside and yellow inside. It sprawls outward over a sidewalk and crosswalk in this pic. There are several flossoms in the background, including ones that haven't opened yet and are still greenish. The stalks are quite gangly, and leaves are sparse.
4 baby bunnies with adorable ears standing up out of their little heads, peeking at me from behind some weeds and old straw and a tomato cage. They are burrowing in my reused blue trash bin. SIGH.
This is a picture of part of a page of the book The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu. The relevant passage is: "Daniel pouts. Being petulant because someone has told him that he is incapable of something he doesn't even want to do is very on-brand for him."
John Chu, left, gestures with his hands and the microphone. He's wearing a blue N95 mask and a black tshirt that says, "More people have read the text on this shirt than I have." Max Gladstone, right, is wearing a white N95 mask and a beige suit coat. He looks ready to ask a next question. Between the two of them is a blue poster of the book cover art, and behind them is a red background that reads "Porter Square Books." There are many bookshelves behind them.
Post in Discord by a user whose ID I've removed for their privacy. Their comment reads: "Open to many other books and topics! I'm also excited to check out this one" Followed by an image of the book cover for The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu. Cover has several artsy tiers of dim sum containers with people's hands and chopsticks coming out of a space background to take buns and treats from the round baskets.
A photo of a small bee on some white snowdrop flowers, amidst brown leaves still on the ground from last year. I have circled the bee with thick purple highlighter, drawn "OMG BEE!!" in yellow handwriting, and made lots of sketched purple hearts around the clump of flowers to celebrate the event.
Screenshot of an email which reads: Dear Somerville City Council, Mayor Wilson, and beloved city staffers, So many of our neighbors are impacted by ICE kidnappings and violence. ICE has made it unsafe for remaining immigrants to go to work, school, or go about daily life. This has knock-on financial effects for people in Somerville regardless of immigration status, although obviously it is vital to protect our immigrant neighbors in this chaotic time. Many of my neighbors are unable to make rent this winter, and it's unsafe for them to relocate (even if they had other safe housing options). I suggest that Somerville put a new eviction moratorium in place, as elected officials are preparing to do in Minnesota, until such time as we can guarantee that ICE will not be able to kidnap any more people from Massachusetts streets. Particularly since we are entering a time of budgetary input in Somerville, now seems like a great time to have this discussion and make plans to back our moral commitments with our money. Adding to the budgets of the Office of Housing Stability, Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs, and food security work in the city seems only sensible, as part of this effort. I look forward to seeing y'all next week at the finance and council meetings. Best, Crystal M. Huff
Black and white kitten, eyes closed, curled up on a yellow sheet. My right hand is below her chin. She has fallen asleep on my outstretched hand.
"Contact Zelle" page that offers two options underneath "How can we help?" The two options are to contact support or to find out how to join Zelle partners. (The website is a simple purple-and-white design, which I do like, aesthetically.)
Pie chart of donations to the "Focus on Somerville" campaign -- the people urging a NO vote on ballot question 3. 9.8% (aka $20k) from one Somerville household 9.4% (aka $19k) from 69 other Somerville donors 28.4% (aka $58k) from institutions external to Somerville (CJP, ADL, etc.) 52.3% (aka 106k) from 275 individual donors external to Somerville Data downloadable from Somerville Election Commission https://www.somervillema.gov/campaign-finance-reports
Left to right: Daniel, Ben, me, Jon Link, and Aaron. Pic taken from below. Pretty trees above us. The clear sky is visible through the leaves.
A bounty of shelled beans in pink, white, purple, and black shades. Behind the pile of beans is a yellow squash and two books: Copaganda by Alec Karakatsanis and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
A blurry tannish-yellow bee (not a classic bumblebee) in foreground. Less-blurry white aster flowers around it.
Me, on the left, wearing a white Flo mask and my hair in pigtails. On the right is a person with long hair and a beard, absolutely covered with white marshmallow fluff. There is fluff all over hair and beard and shirt. In the middle is a person with a grey hat, laughing and holding a jar of fluff.
Thirteen people (mostly white people, one black man) in a formal building (Somerville City Hall). Many are holding certificates and smiling.
A black and white kitten, Carol Danvers, with her tummy turned up toward the camera. Front paws are curled in an appealing manner, as though requesting attention. Back legs are splayed out, stretched long. The kitten is lying on her back on top of an unfinished striped quilt with yellow and blue and cream tones.
A very large, striped quilt top with yellow, blue, purple, and white shades. It is huge. I (a white person with blonde hair) am trying to hold up one corner for the photo. It covers the entire floor and then some. Probably 150" on one side. There are stacks of books behind my head, and a skeleton. A sewing machine is in the forefront of the pic, lower left corner.
A bumblebee hanging from some very lush goldenrod flowers. The background is more blurred goldenrod.
2 Pro filters for Flo Mask. The first is unused and totally white. The second is used and completely middle-to-dark grey except for the slight edge around the rim where the filter attached to the mask. It's a shocking color difference, showing the particulates filtered out of my air this week.
Artistic rendering of first floor, with Revival coffee on the right.
Artistic rendering from an angle, in front.
To be updated. Floor plan of the first floor (mostly commercial space).
A large, blue and yellow pan with sliced red beets cooking in it, on top of an electric stovetop.
I will copy-paste the texts from this screenshot into the next few toots because the text limit is too small for this convo.
A b&w tuxedo cat is lying on the wooden floor and on top of my bare foot. Her eyes are mostly closed.
A screenshot of Google maps with "Tags Hardware -- replace your automotive keys" in the center. Tags Hardware has a special branded marker that says "ACE" in all capital letters (because it's part of the Ace Hardware franchise). All other businesses in the area have a generic blue marker with a shopping bag.
Screenshot of 3 femme people in a Zoom room labeled "Conference Room." On the left, Lammis Vargas of RI. Middle is Somerville's mayoral chief of staff, Nikki Spencer. Right side is Director Singh.
A white sign with large black letters in all capitals: "NOT TODAY SATAN." The two As in SATAN have two red eyes in each, as though KKK white hats. You can just see two hands holding the sign at the edge of the frame of this pic.
Post to Facebook by the official City of Somerville social media account. The only text in the post preview appears to be "10 min. ago." The post is a photo of a smiling white woman with grey hair holding some Braille-embossed papers in front of her. She is in an office setting next to a desk. There is a computer in the background behind her, and the computer is next to a IRIE BrailleTrac 120 desktop Braille embosser which is in white, green, and grey plastic.
Peach background Flyer for a book talk and discussion. Book title: "Copaganda: How police and the media manipulate our news" Blue book cover on left, picture of a white person with a beard on right. Connexion: 149 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02145 Sponsors: All She Wrote Books The New Press Defund SPD
A map of the continental United States that demonstrates the TYPE of map projection used in each state (or section of state) when mapping it. The map is in green and red segments, so far as I can tell, although the legend also says there's a yellow portion. Most states, even if there are lines to show different portions of the state, are all in one color. A few, however, are mixed colors. For example, Florida uses Lambert Conformal Conic Projection (in red) for the western part of the state (as that's better for distances that are wider in the east-west directions), but uses Transverse Mercator Projection (in green) for the southern and east-most parts of the state (because that's better for distances that are lengthy in the north-south directions). I'm still learning all this stuff, so I'm not sure how better to describe this in order to be accessible, but I hope that helps.
Black and white kitten sitting on the bottom shelf of a bookcase with her head upside down, back legs sticking out straight off the shelf, front paws curled up under her chin like a dog's. Her tummy is somehow facing up toward the ceiling. Behind her is my painted mural of books (unfinished). The background color of the wall is yellow. The books in the mural are all sorts of colors.
A small white turnip, with greens removed, is in the center of this photo. It's not quite the length of my fork prongs, also pictured. There are greens and salad dressing and sesame seeds also in the pic.
A bean seedling that's brownish-green in color, with two heart-shaped leaves and a stem coming directly out from between them. The stem ends very abruptly in a point at the top, which might seem like the top is broken off, but I know it hasn't been. No cotyledon leaves are visible above the ground level. (The pic clearly shows what are called "true leaves.") The ground below is mulched with straw. There is a bit of the bright green trellis and netting visible in this pic behind the bean plant. I'm holding the leaf with my left hand to show it spread out. One leaf is longer than the distance from the tip of my pointer finger and first knuckle of that finger.
Beans have kinda heart-shaped or spade-shaped leaves. They can vary in color from frog-green to purplish. These are the frog-green variety. There are two of them in this container, in front of a few marigold seedlings nearby.
Squash or cucumber seedlings. These have the cotyledon leaves as well as some true leaves. The true leaves are notable for being much thinner than the cotyledon leaves, and of a dramatically different shape (which I attempted to describe in the main toot). These squashes are probably zucchini plants and hopefully vining ones, because they're next to a trellis. The ground is mulched with straw and bunny poop compost. There is a blue and white unicorn figurine in the pic behind the squash leaves, because we sometimes have children playing with these figures while their parents pick veggies.
Tomato seedlings in a cluster (before I weeded most of them out). Bright green leaves, reddish-pinkish stem. The stem is fuzzy. I'm holding one seedling sideways with my finger to better demonstrate the fuzziness and the small size of the seedlings at this stage. The non-cotyledon leaves are long and thin and slightly fletched like a feather. Tomato leaves can vary a bit, though, depending on the specific variety. The ground under these seedlings is mulched with straw.
Two cleome seedlings. The cotyledon leaves are long spade-shaped with a soft curve. The first true leaves are very distinctive -- a compound of tiny symmetrical prongs plus a large, rounded bulb shape (but flat, not a globe) at the tip of the leaf.
Two snap dragon seedlings rising up out of a straw-mulched container. The bluish-green leaves with pink in the middle make the seedlings pretty easy to identify once you know what you're looking for. The leaves grow in opposing pairs. The leaves are also slightly cupped or convex -- if the leaves were flipped upside down, you might be able to catch dewdrops in them.
Yellowish-green seedlings with long teardrop-shaped leaves that grow in opposite pairs.
Many, many little bright green seedlings. The first leaves are thin and oblong and straight, but the true leaves are wide ovals with a strong middle vein. There are probably 30 or more seedlings in this one section of the planter in this pic.
Nasturtium seedling with two opposing small green leaves that are kinda in the shape of mini lily pads. Symmetrical leaves and mirror images of each other. I'm not sure they always start out with 2 leaves, so it's also possible this is a pic of 2 plants next to each other. There's a lot of straw behind them for mulch.
Marigold seedlings. Two seedlings with distinctive red stems and leaves that feather out with two symmetrical prongs and one long prong at the tip. Behind them is straw for mulch. They're in a bright blue container. My left thumb and forefinger is visible on the left side, holding the plants apart.
Me, a white person with blonde hair and glasses, wearing a yellow boa and a green crown in the shape of plant leaves that says "Green Thumb!"
Picture of me, a white person with blonde hair and glasses, holding a book with the title "Recognize Fascism," edited by Crystal M Huff (aka me). I'm standing in front of a wall of science fiction books in the background.
A raised bed of strawberry plants with a black and red irrigation tube.
A clear glass held up by my left hand in front of a yellow wall. What remains of the black lettering on this glass spells out "assi."