15 Things About [Logan]
I find that these posts are both awesomely introspective and handy for people to decide whether they want to get to know me better. While I usually go for the full 100, I think a more detailed 15 will suffice for now.
1. Let's start off with some basic info! My name is Logan Alex*, I'm 21 at the time of this writing (December 2010) and I am a pre-everything transguy living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I'm in my fourth (of five) years at Carleton University working on a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Neuroscience. I live with a neutered orange tabby of just over a year (Remi), a female bearded dragon of about three years (Pog) and my awesome roomie who expected a female roommate but is ending up with a dude... and is luckily cool with that (J).
*I'm undecided as to whether I want to go with "Alexandre", as a tribute to my francophone heritage, or go with the more linguistically neutral "Alexis". I am not fond of Logan Alexis as a name because it's very unique snowflake in its nature and I feel that Alexis is both less French and less masculine than Alexandre. I am leaning heavily towards Alexandre at this point in time.
2. I am incredibly curious about many things. This is my "please don't think I'm a freak because I watch X community" clause, as I may just be interested in hearing about that subject, not actively engaging in it. I also apologize if my wanton stalking is somehow weird to you. This is the internet, it's made for socially anxious creepers. I promise I'm neither a stalker nor a creeper.
3. In the interest of being "out" about my transness and my queerness on this journal, I will not be linking my previous journal here. I have maintained a LiveJournal off and on since 2004, so this is nothing new to me. However, I want to explore who I am now and in order to do that, I am going to be maintaining some distance from my older writings. It was mostly friends-locked anyway.
4. Likewise, I will be making an effort to write only public posts on this journal. I think it's beneficial for other people to indulge in their creepy stalking behaviour, so I may as well expose my thoughts to the whole of the internet. That doesn't make a lick of sense, I know. I guess what I mean by this is that I want to put my thoughts out there and have people call me on them while I'm still in this flexible stage of establishing what kind of dude I am/want to be instead of after my self-image has solidifed into something potentially disastrous or insulting.
5. I will refer to my childhood as "when I was a little girl" both in gest and in seriousness. I see no reason to pretend that I wasn't raised female when I am out about my trans identity on this journal anyway, not to mention there's far too many joke opportunities that would be missed if I were to do so! My sense of humour is an integral part of my coping response to anything and has been very helpful throughout my transition (and my life) so far.
6. I do apologize if this journal becomes very transition-focused. I do have a life beyond my transition and I don't spend every minute of every day hating my body and wallowing in trangst or dysphoria. Unfortunately these positive events don't require as much introspection so they are less likely to be written about. If I am having a good time - I am out having a good time, not sitting at my computer writing "gee guys I am having such a good day!"
7. My goal in life is to become a veterinarian. That said, I am not a PETA-supporting kind of guy. I eat meat, it's pretty awesome, and I think artificial selection is really fascinating so long as it doesn't become harmful to the animal (ie. jaw deformities in lap dogs). This is somehow really hard for people to grasp and I have gotten quite a bit of flack from it. I am not going to get all in your face about animal rights, but I do have my limits. Don't be a moron. Spay/neuter your pet if you're going to let it run amok outside, please. (And if your response to that is "that's the owner of the female's job!", I may want to punch you in the face. Just saying.)
8. I guess you could classify me as a feminist ally. It's the same as being a straight dude who support LGB rights, right? I do not ascribe to a female identity and will not force my decisions on women but I'm pretty sure my feminist upbringing shows through in my writing. I am rather perplexed as to how to interact with the feminist movement with my current status as dude with a functional female reproductive system... and then I get my period and want nothing to do with anything female. Shocking, I know.
9. I still qualify myself as queer despite not having a damn clue where I fall on the Kinsey scale anymore. When I was 15 and became aware of sexuality in general, I identified as bisexual (starting at a 2). For the 5 years after that, I basically slid my way happily across the scale to a 5 due to my history but effectively a 6. Now that I have embraced my gender identity, that should make me a 2 but effectively a 1. However, since I have grown more comfortable with my identity I find myself firmly entrenched near 2 for all points and purposes. I guess you could say I'm a straight guy with a tendency to want to form bromances but little interest in fucking other dudes. This may change once I begin taking Testosterone, though I hope it won't turn me completely gay, that would be confusing as hell.
10. I react really poorly to cancer jokes, suicide jokes, self-harm jokes and family-based jokes. I could go into my history about that here but I assume it can be inferred from the above. Please don't come onto my journal with these kinds of remarks as they are very triggering to me and tend to make me act like a total jerk in response.
11. I'm a nerd and a dork. I wouldn't quite say I'm a geek as I'm not very technologically savvy. I do, however, enjoy learning for learning's sake. If you ever go to the dinosaur museum and you see this short guy trying very very hard not to squeal with glee (and failing), it's quite likely to be me. I like to think it's endearing and some of my friends think so as well. The last girl I dated didn't quite agree when she had to bodily drag me out of the souvenir shop because I wanted to buy dinosaur wall stickers. Did I mention that I'm almost 22?
12. I am beginning to run out of ideas for these points. While some people really enjoy talking about themselves, I like to think I am more of a listener. Most people are very surprised when I go from snarky asshole mode to supportive boyfriend mode but I'm actually much more comfortable as the latter. If I had my way, I'd just snuggle up to someone and interject smartass comments into the group conversation every now and then.
13. Oh yes, I am one cuddly motherfucker. I don't know how much of this is based on my dysphoria or what but I will gladly forego sex in favour of cuddles. I will make cuddling the main event, so to speak. Naturally this doesn't fly for some people, in which case I just do my best to exhaust them so we can cuddle afterwards.
14. I really like the word "dude" until I realize it probably makes me sound like some weird surfer guy or unshaven hippie. I guess by bigotted standards I could qualify as the latter for the moment but that's beside the point. Prior to my transition I really liked the word "dyke" (in a positive context, mind you). Maybe I just like the sound that D makes when closely paired with a vowel and other consonant? I have no idea.
15. I am pathetically territorial when it comes to my sleeping area. Recently my cat has begun sleeping on what I like to think of as "my" side of the bed and it's driving me nuts. I have a folded blanket on "his" side of the bed, which he has happily slept on for the entire year I've had him (I got him at 8 weeks old). For some unknown reason, he's spent the past week cuddling up to my feet. I really have no reason to be so bothered by this but for some reason I really am.
And there you go, that's a bit about me. I was actually planning to do 25 but this proved to be far harder than I thought it would be. Granted, it IS six in the morning.
1. Let's start off with some basic info! My name is Logan Alex*, I'm 21 at the time of this writing (December 2010) and I am a pre-everything transguy living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I'm in my fourth (of five) years at Carleton University working on a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Neuroscience. I live with a neutered orange tabby of just over a year (Remi), a female bearded dragon of about three years (Pog) and my awesome roomie who expected a female roommate but is ending up with a dude... and is luckily cool with that (J).
*I'm undecided as to whether I want to go with "Alexandre", as a tribute to my francophone heritage, or go with the more linguistically neutral "Alexis". I am not fond of Logan Alexis as a name because it's very unique snowflake in its nature and I feel that Alexis is both less French and less masculine than Alexandre. I am leaning heavily towards Alexandre at this point in time.
2. I am incredibly curious about many things. This is my "please don't think I'm a freak because I watch X community" clause, as I may just be interested in hearing about that subject, not actively engaging in it. I also apologize if my wanton stalking is somehow weird to you. This is the internet, it's made for socially anxious creepers. I promise I'm neither a stalker nor a creeper.
3. In the interest of being "out" about my transness and my queerness on this journal, I will not be linking my previous journal here. I have maintained a LiveJournal off and on since 2004, so this is nothing new to me. However, I want to explore who I am now and in order to do that, I am going to be maintaining some distance from my older writings. It was mostly friends-locked anyway.
4. Likewise, I will be making an effort to write only public posts on this journal. I think it's beneficial for other people to indulge in their creepy stalking behaviour, so I may as well expose my thoughts to the whole of the internet. That doesn't make a lick of sense, I know. I guess what I mean by this is that I want to put my thoughts out there and have people call me on them while I'm still in this flexible stage of establishing what kind of dude I am/want to be instead of after my self-image has solidifed into something potentially disastrous or insulting.
5. I will refer to my childhood as "when I was a little girl" both in gest and in seriousness. I see no reason to pretend that I wasn't raised female when I am out about my trans identity on this journal anyway, not to mention there's far too many joke opportunities that would be missed if I were to do so! My sense of humour is an integral part of my coping response to anything and has been very helpful throughout my transition (and my life) so far.
6. I do apologize if this journal becomes very transition-focused. I do have a life beyond my transition and I don't spend every minute of every day hating my body and wallowing in trangst or dysphoria. Unfortunately these positive events don't require as much introspection so they are less likely to be written about. If I am having a good time - I am out having a good time, not sitting at my computer writing "gee guys I am having such a good day!"
7. My goal in life is to become a veterinarian. That said, I am not a PETA-supporting kind of guy. I eat meat, it's pretty awesome, and I think artificial selection is really fascinating so long as it doesn't become harmful to the animal (ie. jaw deformities in lap dogs). This is somehow really hard for people to grasp and I have gotten quite a bit of flack from it. I am not going to get all in your face about animal rights, but I do have my limits. Don't be a moron. Spay/neuter your pet if you're going to let it run amok outside, please. (And if your response to that is "that's the owner of the female's job!", I may want to punch you in the face. Just saying.)
8. I guess you could classify me as a feminist ally. It's the same as being a straight dude who support LGB rights, right? I do not ascribe to a female identity and will not force my decisions on women but I'm pretty sure my feminist upbringing shows through in my writing. I am rather perplexed as to how to interact with the feminist movement with my current status as dude with a functional female reproductive system... and then I get my period and want nothing to do with anything female. Shocking, I know.
9. I still qualify myself as queer despite not having a damn clue where I fall on the Kinsey scale anymore. When I was 15 and became aware of sexuality in general, I identified as bisexual (starting at a 2). For the 5 years after that, I basically slid my way happily across the scale to a 5 due to my history but effectively a 6. Now that I have embraced my gender identity, that should make me a 2 but effectively a 1. However, since I have grown more comfortable with my identity I find myself firmly entrenched near 2 for all points and purposes. I guess you could say I'm a straight guy with a tendency to want to form bromances but little interest in fucking other dudes. This may change once I begin taking Testosterone, though I hope it won't turn me completely gay, that would be confusing as hell.
10. I react really poorly to cancer jokes, suicide jokes, self-harm jokes and family-based jokes. I could go into my history about that here but I assume it can be inferred from the above. Please don't come onto my journal with these kinds of remarks as they are very triggering to me and tend to make me act like a total jerk in response.
11. I'm a nerd and a dork. I wouldn't quite say I'm a geek as I'm not very technologically savvy. I do, however, enjoy learning for learning's sake. If you ever go to the dinosaur museum and you see this short guy trying very very hard not to squeal with glee (and failing), it's quite likely to be me. I like to think it's endearing and some of my friends think so as well. The last girl I dated didn't quite agree when she had to bodily drag me out of the souvenir shop because I wanted to buy dinosaur wall stickers. Did I mention that I'm almost 22?
12. I am beginning to run out of ideas for these points. While some people really enjoy talking about themselves, I like to think I am more of a listener. Most people are very surprised when I go from snarky asshole mode to supportive boyfriend mode but I'm actually much more comfortable as the latter. If I had my way, I'd just snuggle up to someone and interject smartass comments into the group conversation every now and then.
13. Oh yes, I am one cuddly motherfucker. I don't know how much of this is based on my dysphoria or what but I will gladly forego sex in favour of cuddles. I will make cuddling the main event, so to speak. Naturally this doesn't fly for some people, in which case I just do my best to exhaust them so we can cuddle afterwards.
14. I really like the word "dude" until I realize it probably makes me sound like some weird surfer guy or unshaven hippie. I guess by bigotted standards I could qualify as the latter for the moment but that's beside the point. Prior to my transition I really liked the word "dyke" (in a positive context, mind you). Maybe I just like the sound that D makes when closely paired with a vowel and other consonant? I have no idea.
15. I am pathetically territorial when it comes to my sleeping area. Recently my cat has begun sleeping on what I like to think of as "my" side of the bed and it's driving me nuts. I have a folded blanket on "his" side of the bed, which he has happily slept on for the entire year I've had him (I got him at 8 weeks old). For some unknown reason, he's spent the past week cuddling up to my feet. I really have no reason to be so bothered by this but for some reason I really am.
And there you go, that's a bit about me. I was actually planning to do 25 but this proved to be far harder than I thought it would be. Granted, it IS six in the morning.