A week of Good Stuffs and Bad Stuffs

[ganimede]

It's been one of those weeks where I've not really been up to much worth posting. There's been little bits of things that I could have posted about but they weren't really worth a whole post. So I'm combining them all into this one in a sort of summary of the last week.

Good Thing: I got an e-mail from my friend Vickie, a couple of days ago.

Comments

[apple_piye]

Re: the reading challenge, can my list include books I am currently reading? I have been contemplating doing one of the reading challenges as I do enjoy reading and would like to read more.

[ganimede]

I don't see why not. It's a very flexible challenge!

[ftmichael]

Yay for e-mails and letter-type letters from friends! That sucks about Vickie moving away though. :( The speaking gig sounds great even if you're not getting paid, although I really hope they'll cover your travel expenses. It always puts the speaker in an awkward place when they won't reimburse you or anything, because you don't want to pass up an opportunity to educate and help, but you're not made of money and you can't be travelling all over and doing this work for free. Do you know how much time you'll have for the training

[ganimede]

John's not involved in organising the residential, I presume he suggested having me do the training and that's why he contacted me. When I e-mailed him back today, I said that I'd do Trans 101 and that the four line exercise takes about 45 minutes and so a hour and a half is probably a good amount of time to allow lots of Q&A.

For some reason, I get taken as female a lot on the phone. Lots of people seem to think I'm my mother when I answer it. It's very annoying.

I posted my list of ten books in the community the other day so you should be able to find that easy enough. It's tagged ganimede if not. I think I also posted about the books I'd got from the library a few days ago, although some of them are in the book list for the challenge.

I have no idea what kelly green looks like, I've never heard of that before.

[ftmichael]

An hour and a half sounds like an excellent amount of time. I hope you hear back about it soon and it works out for you to have that long!

For a long time people thought I was my mother too, even after my voice settled. Maybe they still would if I answered the phone. :P For what it's worth, I don't think you sound anything like your mother.

*finds your book list* Oh yay, that was easier, thank you. And a few of them do seem to exist at my liberry. Maybe I'll stop by on the way to work today.

Pictures of the nalgene (click for bigger):

With the kitchen light on:

[psychokitten76]

Awwww, rebecca_star is awesome!

Just put a whole heaps of ants near the Irn Bru spill, I'm sure they'll find it all and make short work of it for you.

[ganimede]

You're weird. I don't want ants in my bedroom! We used to have a serious ant problem in the kitchen for several years, I really don't want to encourage them to move back in.

[lizzie]

I read "Trans Awareness" as "Trans Awesomeness," and I have to say that I like Awesomeness better than Awareness. :-)

What's the four line exercise?

[ganimede]

But Trans has Awesome right in it, it's what the A stands for! Very few people know that it's an acronym of Totally Ridiculously Awesome N Sexy *nods*

Basically the four line exercise is made up of four separate lines labelled sex, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. Each one is a continuum from the male spectrum on one side to the female spectrum on the other. The idea is to show that they are all completely independent and where you may fall on one line has no bearing on where you fall on any of the others. It's part of what Michael does in his speaking gigs and when I started doing speaking gigs and awareness training, I used the same exercise because it explains the concept very well.

It's a very visual exercise which is why I think it works so well and I want to put it on my website but I can't think of the best way to do it. It either would need lots of pictures and accompanying text or maybe with a video of some kind. At least then I'd have something to point to when people ask what it is!

[lady_amorika]

I'm totally going to sign up for the reading challenge! Can I make two lists, one of academic books and one for pleasure reading?

Also, I needed to look up Irn Bru. Fascinating stuff, it seems. I can't imagine the sticky mess.

And finally, while I am very aware you are trans and read stuff about you being a trans activist with NO surprise whatsoever, it took a good 30 seconds for me to figure out why they would call you MISS anything. I guess you are SO Nathaniel in my mind that MISS doesn't even fit into the box of puzzle pieces for me. Hrm.

[ganimede]

I don't see why not, it's a very flexible challenge.

Irn Bru is very yummy. It's the same bright orange as on the label and the taste is indescribable. The slogan used to be 'Made in Scotland from girders' and apparently it does actually have iron in it, albeit a tiny amount. Supposedly it's a great hangover cure. I believe it's available in Canada but it tastes quite different there due to regulations about what can be in drinks and stuff.

Well, if you can't work out why people would call me MISS anything, imagine what a mind-fuck it is for me! ; )