kaizoku

WE HAVE SNOWPOCALYPSE!

Flying home tomorrow! The great San Francisco adventure comes to an end.

Whoa, Tết falls on Valentine's Day this year. That's kinda neat. I'm feeling very New Year-oriented lately. How many times can you celebrate the New Year in one year?! Since I keep trying to start over and clear my slate, it feels appropriate.

My main New Year's resolution is to keep a journal (on paper.) But I'd also like to do some weight-training and try to gain muscle mass, continue exploring religious/spiritual avenues, help manach more with keeping the house clean, build something for the cats to climb, get chest surgery in May or June, keep in touch with friends, and fulfill some fannish and RL promises (ideally I'd like to get these done before Tết.)

Also, sleep more. Sleep = less acne, which would be of the good.

This is pretty dang cool! My top choice is the NJoy, that thing is gorgeous. *shivers*

FetLife, with the help of our incredibly generous advertisers, are giving away 217 presents this holiday season worth, in total, $24,287... and we want you to win one of them!

What kind of gifts are we talking about? We have fucking machines, corsets, whips, rope, canes, jewellery, collars, art, TENS units, straight jackets, play piercing kits, floggers, you name what kinky item you have been lusting over for the longest time and there is a good chance we are giving it, and many other things away, to 217 lucky kinksters as a thank you for your support this year.

Are there any catches? Not at all, just tell Santa what you want for the holidays and if you have been naughty or nice and he will see what he can do.

http://fetlife.com/sit_on_santas_lap

Oh Jesus, where does the time go? I meant to post about Transgender Day of Rememberance and about the murder of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado (he was decapitated, dismembered and burned.)

I also wanted to pass this on:

Sylvia Rivera Law Project opposes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

The recent expansion of the federal hates crimes legislation has received extensive praise and celebration by mainstream lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations because it purports to "protect" LGBT people from attacks on the basis of their expressed and/or perceived identities for the first time ever on a federal level. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project does not see this as a victory. As an organization that centers racial and economic justice in our work and that understands mass imprisonment as a primary vector of violence in the lives of our constituents, we believe that hate crimes legislation is a counterproductive response to the violence faced by LGBT people.

I don't support hate crimes legislation, not the way it will be implemented in our current legal system. We need justice. We need to not keep quiet. There are forces and people trying to keep us invisible and keep our deaths invisible - that is one thing that the language of "hate crimes" has helped with; it has put the emphasis on the motivation of the person who committed violence, instead of on the identity or actions of the victim. But it also hides certain things. Lopez Mercado's alleged murderer claims that he acted out of the trauma he endured in prison, which may be another version of the twinkie defense, but it is indicative of the intersectionality of racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, nationality, etc. There's a Facebook group calling for the murder to be classified as a hate crime, which would ensure that the defendant is jailed for a longer period of time. We need to stop acting like prisons are the answer. They will not make us safe.

Totally random question: Who still uses one of the old Livejournal site schemes? I still use XColibur. How many years has it been since they changed it? I will probably never change.

Not-so-random question: People who write (fanfic), how do you write? Do you just get the urge and DO IT? Or do you schedule yourself writing time? Or do you sometimes just start writing and not stop except to eat, sleep and piss? Or do you get all excited about writing and then procrastinate and feed the internet instead?

Subject line refers to girl!cat. She is adorable and currently curled up in my lap. PREVENTING ME FROM TYPING FIC. But that is okay.

If I was a vengeance demon, this is where I would hang out:

iwish

Polybigbang is still looking for mixers/artists for two stories - one is Bleach and the other is Torchwood. The claiming post is here on DW and here on LJ.

Fellow media fan and trans man boi4eliza has his first album coming out! You might remember James from those incredibly catchy bandom songs that he wrote and sung himself: OTP, Pint-sized Romeo, and Boy in the Trucker Cap. The album is a mix of acoustic and rock, and what I've heard so far sounds awesome!

James is also planning to put all the profits from the CD towards his chest surgery. In case you don't know, in most places insurance companies won't cover surgery that trans people need to transition. Despite this, it's often impossible to legally change your gender without having had surgery.* Insurance companies defend this practice by saying it's only "cosmetic surgery." But for many trans men this is an essential medical procedure in order to live their lives fully, without (or with less of) the despair and distress of body dysphoria, the pain of daily binding, and the fear of not passing. For a singer - someone who makes a living from their voice - it's even more freeing.

So far, James has had a hard time getting his announcement into both trans and bandom communities. If you can help with this or just pass on the word via your journal, that would be amazing.

MORE INFO ON THE ALBUM AND HOW TO ORDER HERE.

If you're in the States, jarrow is doing a mass shipping order: GO HERE IF YOU WANT FREE SHIPPING AND YOU'RE IN THE U.S.

Finally, to give this a little boost, if you comment here and say you want a copy of the CD, I will put your name in a hat and WHOEVER I PICK OUT OF IT WILL GET A FREE COPY, care of me. Awesome, y/y? The deadline to put your name in is Monday September 28 at midnight EST. (And this one goes for anyone, whether you live in the States or not. Please also leave your email if it's not easily findable.)

*I don't know exactly what James' situation is wrt insurance and legal stuff (and it's not my place to ask) but nearly all trans people face huge obstacles to getting surgery. I think this is unjust and believe that trans people should try to support each other's attempts to pay for surgery whenever possible.

We went to synagogue for the first time ever (excluding b'nai mitzvah) today. A friend of mine is leading the High Holiday services. The singing was great!

In other news, I has internet at home now! Lately I've been reading Zorro by Isabel Allende and considering which fandoms to nominate for Yuletide this year (not that nominations are open yet. I just want to not miss it this year!) So far, I'm got the Bartimaeus trilogy, Wicked Gentlemen, The Grounding of Group 6 (if I can get a copy of the book by then), Milk (2008), One Flea Spare (READ IT! OMG) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992 movie.) Also, Tipping the Velvet, but I think that's a shoe-in.

FriendsorEnemies just sent me a welcome message... what? 6 months after I tried to sign up? Fail.

A happy and sweet new year to you all!

Dancing at Lughnasadh, BRB.