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Alex Holt

@alexjholt.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.1K following 2.2K posts

Birding and nature, Leftist, Feminist, RPGS and Comics, Genderqueer (they/he), Artist and Performer on Science & Sorcery ART COMMISSIONS OPEN

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Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · Jan 19

Would you like to work with me? I'm currently available for projects!

See my work regularly on @scienceandsorcery.bsky.social or visit linktr.ee/alexjholt

Art commissions available from £20GBP

Please reach out by messaging me here or emailing alex(at)alexjholt.com

A business card depicting Alex's character Urania - a plump white tiefling girl with long dark brown hair and a fringe, with her familiar Poecile in the form of a non-specific tit species. Urania has large moose like antlers and she stands infront of a bright blue sky with lots of white clouds.

The text is on a yellow panel and states: Alex Holt
Actual Play Performance, Graphic Design, Illustration, TTRPG Design, Writing.
Appended by, in brackets, "Yes, I really do all those things!"

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 12h

Much as I've played some excellent Roguelikes this year I realllly wanna play some more linear rpgs that don't require failure as part of the game's design cos there seems to be a dearth?

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 4d

I honestly think Peacemaker (the show) is an excellent example of how to run a story with bad guy but not villain protagonists.

Like, the core cast are mostly morally awful in different ways but it comes out of a place of wanting to do the right thing but being extremely fucked up human beings.

Reposted by Alex Holt

Ash Higgins @ashhiggins.bsky.social · 5d

This. Is. Why. I. Paint.

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via Al video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people."

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 5d

This doesn't mean that every system has to be operable by the worst toddler you know, but it does mean it should be designed to account for the most vexing potential user you can imagine.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 5d

A design that is more efficient on paper is only as effective as the most frustrating person using it.

People are not logical machines. The more opportunities there are for a person to misunderstand or try to cheat in a system the more prone to breaking it is.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 5d

Why is it called "Kettering-proofing"?

Work in a public facing role in Kettering as long as I have and you'll know.

I am considered by many to be an excessively patient person, but I've had far too many tedious, pointless interactions that left me dead inside.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 5d

It's kinda like making a genie wish where you have to make sure the genie isn't going to screw you over but you can't dl so by inserting a million clauses because they don't really pay attention to anything after the first sentence anyway

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 5d

So this morning I wanna talk about a principle of design I have named "Kettering-proofing".

The basic thesis is that *any* design choice has to be able to withstand both the most bad faith interpretation AND the most obtuse interpretation.

This can apply to both rule systems and physical design.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 12d

Listening to the anniversary episode of Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-men yday, and aside from some excellent and fascinating insights at some point I really need to get round to the She-hulk podcast that's been bouncing around in the back of my brain for a few years 😅

Reposted by Alex Holt

Cvkvlv Beadwork @cvkvlv.com · 18d

#MutualAid #IndigenousMutualAid

I really need more sales to cover rent this month!! Check out my website: cvkvlv.com

Interested in something in a different color or size? DM me for custom work 💬

If you can't order, please boost! Visibility also helps a lot.

Goal progress in comments ↓↓

TYSM!!

A pair of beaded fringe rainbow pride bat earrings in progress on a bead mat next to piles of seed beads and a pink lighter

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 16d

Ooh thankyou!

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 16d

My weasel sighting rate is probably on average like one every five years maybe?

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 16d

A very rare sighting of a wide spread species a least weasel at Summer Leys, Northamptonshire just now.

They are the smallest of all carnivorans but proportionate to their size, among the most powerful of the whole family!

A least weasel facing towards the camera on dry grass.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 21d

I just misread "trauma dumping" as "trauma dumpling" and I want to bring forward a motion that when we are traumatised we get to have special dumplings to help us feel better.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 21d

It wasn't on our master list, but we did omit ones that seemed to be second hand via geographic eponyms, as otherwise things would get kinda wild when we'd need to flag anything with, for instance, "American" in the name.

Though theres also some which have both such as Humboldt

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 21d

One of my my most old person tendencies is I have never been able to distinguish specific subgenres and microgenres of music and it feels like someone handed out an explanatory pamphlet at some point but I missed it?

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 23d

There should be a Terminator movie where the antagonist is like the earliest possible human looking terminator that literally everyone can blatantly tell is a killer robot cos it looks like something out of a terrible waxwork museum.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 25d

Went fossiling near Peterborough this afternoon and got a couple of highlights - a small tetrapod, a prettoly weathered segment of a decent size ammonite and a shark tooth!

Anyone got any ID thoughts kn the tooth or bone let me know! 🙂

A small bean sized vertebrae of an unknown terrapod resting on Alex'a ourstretched palm.

A fragmentary piece of ammonite held in Alex's fingers. It has been eroded to the point where various interlocking segments are visible.

A partial fossklised sharks tootb in tje palm of Alex's hand.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 28d

Doodle theme pitch: describe an existing superhero as well as you can in one skeet and I'll redesign them based only on just your desxeiption.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 28d

A bit more poetry, haven't come up with a good name yet but its about Gender Feels TM

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 29d

RANDOM CHALLENGE:

You are getting thrown into an interdimensional adventure with 4 fictional characters to form a plucky Found Family Team! Who would be you found family of choice?

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · 29d

So, I haven't done more bird book of the dead posts for a little bit, but want some good news?

When I first started recently, Jerdon's Courser was considered likely extinct and showing up on lists I'd been using, but it has been refound!

harryfication.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/d...

Dream come true – Jerdon’s Courser discovered outside Lankamalla after 125 years – on the first day of our trip!

Chapter 1: The Expedition Origins 5 months after my below banter in the Narcondam Hornbill group, Adesh Shivkar and I set out to find the Jerdon’s Courser, a Top 10 Lost Bird in the world, on…

harryfication.wordpress.com

Reposted by Alex Holt

Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · Sep 6

As we recover from the Eaton Fire, my Etsy shop is still my only source of income. These poppy shirts are all screen printed by hand in the closet of our temporary apartment!

www.etsy.com/listing/4312...

Me wearing a poppy T-shirt

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · Sep 6

Random Fantasy Premise:

When deities are discussed as greater or lesser powers or equivalent, it's actually basically like a sports league where there are set numbers in esch category but can be promoted or demoted.

Alex Holt @alexjholt.bsky.social · Sep 4

Absolutely, like, there's a very specific trio of Superman, She-hulk and Daredevil (tho there's probably more I'm forgetting) who feel like their day jobs are as an extension of their sense of justice in ways that deeply informs and enriches their characters.