My life of late has been interesting.
Although I’ve noted my new job a couple of times here, it is not a space that I want to talk about my work in a lot directly. Indirectly, sure, but this is my space, and although I know it’s a fruitless effort and not very likely given the way people always associate a person with an organization, I can dream and pretend to my heart’s content and still express myself here the way I always have.
Assuming, of course, my job actually lets me do so.
Of late, that’s been a pretty big assumption.
Continue reading »
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Unique visitors to post: 47- I'm at Dyssonant Demesne (2308 E Monterosa St, 24th st, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/cpiKFc #
- I'm at Home Depot (3609 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/7cyhvd #
- Only 15 Donations to Go to reach our Goal — $5.00 each, and we've raised 85 of them in 4 days. http://www.thisishow.org/?p=143 #trans #
- Only 15 Donations to Go to reach our Goal — $5.00 each, and we've raised 85 of them in 4 days. http://bit.ly/cvGPm2 #LGBT #
- Only 9 left to go to get 100 Donations — help #Trans homeless ONLY 9 LEFT To GO!! http://bit.ly/cvGPm2 We can do this today! #LGBT #
- Homeless. 110 degrees out. #Trans Help them out – only 9 donations to reach goal: http://bit.ly/cvGPm2 #LGBT #
- Ya'll know I'll keep asking for those 9 donations until done — if I get them today, that's 3 weeks of peace? http://bit.ly/cvGPm2 #trans #
- Thank you, Kimberley Barnes for your 2 Donations! Only 7 more to go — It's only $5.00, and makes a difference! http://bit.ly/cvGPm2 #trans #
- Only 3 Donations (That's $15, folks) left to go to reach our Goal. Help #Trans Homeless! http://bit.ly/cLrAU8 Tell everyone, #LGBT peeps! #
- Please excuse me while I dance in sublime joy for a few minutes. TIH has made its fundraising goal for August! #
- I'm at Dyssonace Manor (5526 e pinchot, 56th st, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/dcvcTY #
- I'm at U S post office. http://4sq.com/9BzviL #
- Telecommuting (@ Dyssonant Demesne) http://4sq.com/cpiKFc #
- Damn, someone needs to throw some water on Dirt. Cause she deserves it, and the resultis quite fitting. #
- Have begun reading a new book by bear bergman and kate bornstein on #trans lives. #
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Unique visitors to post: 3Sorry for the absence, folks — work is a bear, ya know?
Ok, so it’s actually fairly easy work, right now, and we just finished two very successful efforts, but there’s a huge pile of paperwork I need to gothrough, not to mention the effort involved in setting up my office and getting the meeting room set up and fixed up and all that assorted stuff.
In any case, it’s keeping me fingers to the keyboard more for “important stuff” than for me to express the thoughts I have.
I guess that means I’ll have to make sure they are good one, huh?
Well, let’s start off with one. One that’s been bugging me for a while: the complex intricacies of trans exposure and the risks (or lack thereof) of each of them.
And, in my general way, it’s come down to six groupings. Out, Open, Blended, Closed, In, and Stealth.
And the best part is that none of it has a damn thing to do with closets…
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Unique visitors to post: 64It’s just after 6 am this morning. I’ve been up a couple hours now, had a chat, drank some soda, smoked a few cigarettes, generally got my body moving again.
I’ve got my tea, my Haribo Gold-Bears, which are terrible for me but hard to resist as I’ve developed the most interesting love of candy, lol, and I’m sitting at the makeshift desk we’ve pulled together for me to use in my little office space that eventually will become my library slash office space in my new home.
In short, I’m damn near ready for a day that will be filled from now until I pass out once more sometime tonight (I’m shooting for 10pm) with writing, making phone calls, and generally catching up on all the stuff I’ve missed over the last four days.
Now, the “tag line” for this blog, is “breaking all the rules”. I get a tiny modicum of crap about that once in a while. One of the rules I break, is that there are some rules you don’t break. This is a big one to me, because it is linked not merely to the personal and the emotional, but to the very nature of how I do things and how I base my concepts and ideas, and there is a rule that one does not break without my getting exceptionally pissed off about it.
Even when I do it, and I work really hard not to do it, because this is a rule that enables those who want to stop trans folk from changing identification, from taking hormones, from having surgery, from getting decent jobs, from using the right restroom, from getting married or, worse, letting them get married and then taking that marriage away from them.
That rule is central. And that rule is…
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Unique visitors to post: 72It’s been an interesting last several days.
I was up this morning at 3:15am. It’s 8:25 as I type this and I’m not long for the world today: the bed looms behind me whispering sweet nothings and escape from sore feet, a bruised knee, and fatigue.
There have been great blog posts I want to talk about, a subject raised several times over the last week regarding my foursquare usage, and of course the amazing experience of the last ocuple of days, most of which will be covered elsewhere but which I’ll talk about here a bit as well.
My life is changing once again — both politically and professionally — and I’m sorta happy about it. I’ve finally got a good idea for a new seminar I can take and travel to events with, as well.
It means that I don’t have as much energy and time to do this, but I still will. THis next week promises to have lots to talk about, and ya’ll know how I just gotta talk about stuff.
To the several people who I’ve had brief messaging encounters (or, in one case, a lack of encounters with as we’ve played messenger tag the last few days) and, of course, to Les, I apologize. The times I’m finally able to get to a computer and have some energy the last couple of days the best I’ve been able to do is make yet another plea for donations, lol.
There is a stack that’s now an inch think opf paperwork I need to go through and pour over, documents to scan, plans to finalize, programs to write. It’s a lot of work, and I’m enjoying all of it and thrilled to have the opportunity to deal in it.
There is nothing so rewarding as getting something so very important done, and having some one look at you and say “wow. In three days, you’ve just done more than was done in the six months prior.”
Said with a grin of relief and a bit of happiness.
To my friends, thank you. You truly are family, and I’ve missed you.
Off to bed — Tomorrow I’ll get back to stirring a few pots and seeing things. FOr now, I’ve got sleeping to do…
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Unique visitors to post: 21So the last several days have been about getting things ready for this weekend.
I’d personally like to say that the weekend was going to be the sort that involved something quiet and romantic and all that, but such wasn’t the case.
This weekend, starting for me about an hour ago when I finally rolled out of bed after being bugged by my Ipod’s alarm, is going to be filled with heat, dust, trash, and a lot of good friends.
Today and tomorrow are Volunteer days at TIH — the org I just begged for money for recently, and that I’m the Executive Director for. In a very real sense, today is the day that I will be putting my own sense of organization on it — and without the historic limitations that were heaped on me the last two times I did it.
Yes, I am really anal about such things. I admit it. Still, it’s going to be better than it has been the last several weeks — working in an office that is not yours, where the memory of the senses still says don’t touch anything, and where you cannot find anything you want without digging around for hours and hours is a nightmare.
An office mess is never a mess to the person who makes it.
So I’m up early today. I’ve been dropping into sleep around 8 or 9 each night the last few days, brain and body beaten, and while I haven’t slept well, it’s been at least sleep and I’m doing okay that way. But now it’s all about chopping tomatoes and onions and cilantro and smashing garlic and green chiles and hot chiles and making wht is, in the end, going to be the trimmings for make them yourself tostada’s and wraps, centered around my usual shredded pork slow cooked with secret spices to bring out the flavors ot the whole things, blah blah blah.
It’s free, too. Tomorrow I’m not so generous — tomorrow is fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and the chicken is someone else doing the cooking. Anyone who comes by This Is H.O.W. today to help out will get to indulge in some of it.
It’s going to be a lot of work — the room that is presently the office will be turned into a meeting room — a gathering place locally, to be used for classes and meetings and groups and to serve as a sort of gathering place. The first of what growth down the road will truly help to make into something awesome.
The office will be tucked into a smaller room, but still readily accessible.
I’m a bit sad that an important decorating piece isn’t here, but that’s ok. I know the person sending it to me is going to be contacting Sprint today in anticipation of my trip to Vegas in September.
I hope to gain good contacts for people willing to volunteer today — TIH is not an organization that keeps all it’s eggs in one basket. It is a place for the entire community to turn to, to rely on, to help and be helped by.
I’m looking forward to today, obviously. Today marks the first day that I’ll be able to go in and say “yeah, this is my org.”.
I’m glad about that.
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Unique visitors to post: 26I’m going to be blunt: this is a flat out beg for money, folks.
But not for me.
100 Donations in 31 Days of $5.00 each. 90 Donations to go — please help This Is H.O.W. reach its current fundraising goal! http://www.thisishow.org/?p=143
And, since I’m the sort that likes to make it easy for you, here’s the button itself:
This Is H.O.W. is not the only such place in need, and I’ll be the first to tell you that they still have a lot of work to do on their website — it’s being redone once more to reflect the growth the organization is taking a gamble on, even in these rather difficult times.
But right now, there are more homeless trans people than anytime in the recent memory. Continue reading »
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Unique visitors to post: 35Aspects of online debate — the study of those you oppose, and those who oppose you (which is not always the same).
Hypothesis.
The development of an idea that takes as one of it’s defining points the notion that the simplest explanation is always the most likely one (occam’s razor). A mathematical model or existential statement, stating that some particular instance of the phenomenon being studied has some characteristic and causal explanations, which have the general form of universal statements, stating that every instance of the phenomenon has a particular characteristic. This means taking the least common denominator approach.
… the success of a hypothesis, … lies not simply in its perceived “truth”, or power to displace, subsume or reduce a predecessor idea, but perhaps more in its ability to stimulate the research that will illuminate … bald suppositions and areas of vagueness.
Any useful hypothesis will let you make predictions (educated guesses), by reasoning including deductive reasoning. It might be a guess about an experiment in a lab or the observation of a phenomenon in nature. The prediction can also be statistical and only talk about chances and likelihoods.
You cannot know the outcome for certain. Only then does the process increase the chance of the hypothesis being true. If you already know, then that’s a consequence and should have already been considered while thinking up the hypothesis.
And yes, there’s more…
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Unique visitors to post: 29“Minimum wage jobs here are all service based, and usually high customer contact, and no one is going hire someone who doesn’t look to them like they think someone should for a girl or a boy. SO are you going to next recommend that someone give up living as themselves and return to living as a guy when that’s going to place their ability to get SRS in jeopardy?”
So, do I understand this right? Someone who claims to have been born a girl but with the wrong genitalia, someone who identifies as a woman, someone who claims to be transitioning shouldn’t have to take a job where they are expected to actually BE a woman!!!
So THAT’S what transgender identity is all about…
This is Hipparkhia quoting me from a response to the recent thread on PHB and then making a statement about it.
My response — as I told Aria I wouldn’t post there anymore since she didn’t want me too (much as I’ve been asked not to post any longer at SA-ET’s place) — is pretty simple:
That she suddenly decided it must be about not wanting to live as a woman is far too typical a response, and, since Aria’s decided that Autumn believes something false, I figure what the hell, I’ll apply Aria’s same thought process to hipparkhia’s comments.
I submit that when she does this, it is not the Peter LaBarbera’s of the world saying it, it is Hipparkhia herself. She believes this in her heart of hearts. She sees us as the same and thus demands the right to speak for us all. She is no different than the transsexual deniers when it comes to rejecting the science behind the cause of our condition.
Hmm. Funny how that works in a nice neat circular logic sort of way.
(of course, if your logic is circular, it isn’t logic, but who am I to bother them with facts, right?)
Ok, all the little snarky humor aside, there’s something serious going on here, and its what this about, really…
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Unique visitors to post: 158- I'm at Dyssonace Manor (5526 e pinchot, 56th st, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/dcvcTY #
- I'm at Dyssonant Demesne (2308 E Monterosa St, 24th st, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/cpiKFc #
- TIH is having a Volunteerism Day at the house, Grab the details here and #FF @TIHHouse for news and more on #Trans folks in Phx AZ. #
- I just became the mayor of Dyssonant Demesne on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/cpiKFc #
- I'm at Walgreens (4111 N 24th St, 24th St & Indian School Rd, Phoenix). http://4sq.com/97Dq8g #
- Had to redo cable order. Sigh. The ex still has an account under my ssn #
- http://www.topix.com/news/gay/2010/08/inalienable-rights-marriage-and-perry-v-schwarzenegger #trans #lgbt #
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Unique visitors to post: 5This is a rewrite of the earlier piece here, done as a challenge to avoid “calling names”.
There is a lot of discussion going on about the recent decision in the Perry Vs. Schwarzenegger case, and the related issues surrounding it.
Let’s take a moment and look at some facts, some of the arguments being used, and the realities of Law in America.
One of the current memes being circulated with a lot of fervor is, in the law, literally without any basis or merit. This is the idea that Judge Walker’s sexual orientation (which Judge Walker has never publicly discussed, ever) has bearing on his decision.
If Judge Walker’s sexual orientation had a bearing on the case, then the sexual orientation of any judge who would rule on the issue will equally have bearing on the matter. Which means one would have to find someone without any sexual orientation (ergo, no gay, not straight, and not bisexual) to decide the case — and there are no publicly asexual judges currently sitting in the Northern Court that walker sits in.
People who use this argument are, therefore, essentially saying something that suggests that gay people are less than straight people — less trustworthy. This is established by the fact that if you mention the above to the people saying this, they say no, that’s not the case, a straight person wouldn’t benefit or be biased, when the basis of the argument most widely spoken against allowing gay people to marry is that they are “protecting traditional marriage” which would be, logically, a benefit to a straight person.
One cannot have it both ways, and so that shows a logical, reasonable failure of understanding, and demonstrates an irrational ideation that gay people are something to be avoided, or intensely disliked, or fearful of (in this case, the fear involved is that they will cause damage to the idea of traditional marriage).
When one is irrationally driven to aversion (avoiding, disgust), intense dislike (literally, hate), or fearful reaction to something, that’s called a phobia. IN this case, Homophobia, which makes the statement regarding Judge Walker homophobic.
Now, the statement being homophobic doesn’t mean the person is — they could, for example, merely be parroting the stuff said by the absolutely homophobic leadership of various organizations.
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Unique visitors to post: 56And Dyss, porking a gay guy in in exchange for place to crash is neither a relationship or heterosexual…it’s just whoring. –Cathryn Platine
…she doesn’t need an AG like you screwing with her head. –Cathryn Platine
Much better tranny men in dresses have done their worst to me and I’m still here. — Catkisser, Transheretic, RadicalBitch, etc etc the same person as the previous two no matter what name she uses.
I was asked to stop using her name in posts I write. Apparently she’s scared of the fuckwit that’s trying to wreck what she gives a damn about.
The quotes above come from the recent exchanges she and I have had — one via a blog and the other two via an email that once again asks me to not use her name.
Consider this a Note To World: Do not write me and ask me to not do something that I’m absolutely free to do without doing it nicely. That means no threats to me (eg J.Eric Payne), and no calling me a man, and no lying about me to my face or in a place where I can see it.
Continue reading »
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Unique visitors to post: 112I’m waiting for folks to realize that Judge Walker’s (and many other people’s) thoughts about the ability to appeal the case by the bad guys is actually a bad thing.
We want it appealed. The case is a *very* strong 14th amendment challenge that satisfies all the requirements — and despite people’s love of deciding that a judge is biased, the 9 folks in Washington have been judges for a long time and really do understand the ideas of law damn near to a degree that no typical person on the street will ever get, and certainly to a better degree than all the headlines will lead one to think.
You see, we want it appealed because its not about gay marriage.
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Unique visitors to post: 57This is H.O.W. is inviting the community to join us on Saturday, August 21st, and Sunday, August 22nd from 8:00am to 5:00pm each day for a bit of roll up the sleeves and dive in cleaning, organizing, and decorating of the HOW House, located at 1838 E Cypress St, Phoenix, AZ, 85006.
Refreshments and food will be provided, and we’ll be focusing on fun and volunteerism as we refresh the house at the same time we refresh the organization, and make it possible for TIH to provide the expanded services it’s going to start providing in September.
So show a little community spirit and dive in and dig in and let’s start Making Lives Better.
You can RSVP on our new Events page!
http://www.thisishow.org/?page_id=98&event_id=4
We’ll see you there!
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Unique visitors to post: 7So Saturday afternoon and evening I wrote several posts. Four, I think. And I added a fifth that I’d already written and stumbled across doing some routine housecleaning behind the scenes here at the .com.
After that, I set aside the blog and started working on trying to meet the deadline I’d set up for myself regarding a website that I was, at the time I started once more, already a day behind on.
In part because I wrote those blog posts and did that stuff because I was knda sorta hoping to get intothe right mindset to do the kind of coding that I wanted to do.
I can’t just sit down and do website work. I need to be a in a certain frame of mind. When I’m in that headspace, I’m not too bad. But after years of running my own website and company to pay my bills, well, I’m not all that keen on it. I like blogging because I don’t have todo the website stuff.
And so, after two days of hard work and a modicum of sleep that I feel like I shouldn’t have done, I am surrendering to the inevitable and going with a prepackaged solution that I won’t be happy with, and will want to eventually find someone to redo, but can, for now, make do with and make work.
I’m sorry, what? Run on sentence? Eh, you’ll live.
Now, of course, I have the joy of creating content. *ugh*. Took me years to have the content I have here, and I don’t have that luxury for this site.
Rather exasperating, one might say.
Ah, screw it — I will say it. The whole process is exasperating. Which reminds me of a few other things that are that way…
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Uttered