I watched this against my better judgement - usually, I stay well away from cliche TV - and on the whole was pleasantly surprised. There were still cliches, Drew takes two and half hours each day to apply her makeup, and sadly looks like she should either be on the catwalk or stage - it's OTT big time. Presumably a case of overcompensation, sadly because both she and Donna - who is all tattoos and piercings could make quite attractive females in a more conventional way. All the new women had rather male voices which also shattered the illusion they were trying to create.
Killing Billie off in Bike is the hardest thing I've had to do and it's left me feeling like I've had a real bereavement, I've been flat and depressed since - so why did I do it?
At times I've allowed the fantasy stuff take us away from the realities of life. Cathy's had to deal with all sorts of low-lifes and some quite absurd incidents too. At times the story has been humorous, verging on comedic; at others it's been more like a thriller and just to let you get your breath back I slip in a couple of domestic bliss storylines.
I saw this article in today's Guardian, which has possible implications for scientists understanding and ultimately treating Alzheimers.
It has absolutely nothing to do with transgenderism but does have an amazing picture of a fluorescent micrograph of a mouse's hippocampus (part of the brain).
I'll wait for PS to do the official statistics, but just doing a quick count using the cat's toes, and counting back the last six or seven episodes, Bike has reached well over 2 Million words.
My mother always told me I would use half a dozen words where one would do, perhaps she had a point.
In keeping with the title of the story, I demonstrated the ease with which I manage to fall off bikes yesterday, thankfully no serious damage was done to the bike. Oh me, just a few scratches - bike riders is tough (unfortunately not as tough as the average road!).
If things continue as they normally do, then I should post episode 1500 on around Sunday. I'm pleased to see that I still get 6-700 reads per episode, not as many as some stories or some authors, but I suspect I get as many Kudos as most, and rightly or wrongly assume my cadre of readers enjoy my output.
I assume those readers want me to continue turning out tales of Cathy and her family for a bit longer, and also that Erin is prepared to have me clogging up her servers with my ponderous, prosaic and precipitous prolixity for a persistent period.
Film following the journey and the prejudice encountered along the way of gay couple Sam and Evan as they undergo the process of changing their bodies from female to male.
BBC3 tonight at 9.00pm.
According to the Guardian, they look to move to Manchester in the hope of finding more acceptance than they get in Rochdale. I wish them luck.
This time I managed to get to the meeting point, in fact I was first. We had a good survey, found six or seven nest boxes occupied four of which had babies in. Between now and the onset of winter they need to weigh at least 15g to have a chance of surviving hibernation. I got to handle another three dormice and either I'm getting slower or they're getting wrigglier.
Amazingly, one of the group was called Cathy though she wasn't leading the survey.
My little legs and back are now aching from walking up and down a hillside through quite rough woodland.
I think it's fair to say that despite less than perfect weather, those who attended enjoyed themselves. The weather became damp, windy and finally sunny before reverting to wet again over the weekend though we neither allowed it to dampen our spirits or blow our enthusiasm away.
Something which has been buzzing round my head for a little while is what happens to us if we suffer Alzheimer's, dementia or some major head injury - would we still retain our new gender or revert back? I don't know the answer and hope never to find out personally, but hence the recent theme in Bike.
For those of you who can watch UK television repeats, this one on the Channel4 website may be interesting, as one of the ferret rescuers is a pre-op TS called Kelly. All three of the subjects seem as traumatised as the ferrets they rescue.
It doesn't take long - that's the best bit - a breast X-ray, which is just as well because it isn't the most comfortable experience I've ever had. I think this is my third or fourth time for one of these close encounters with a plastic clamp and X-ray machine, where the woman radiographer asks you to relax while the corner of the unit is poking in your armpit and a large perspex plate is squishing your boob.
A link to the BBC site, although it talks about experiments done at Berkley, one wonders if they'd do the same as the gay penguins did in raising a chick from a donated egg.
This was mentioned as a same-sex marriage but clearly it isn't as the bride is a post op transsexual who is legally female; but apparently it's a first for Cuba.
for oodles of useless descriptions of fieldwork - I'm dormousing tomorrow - simply for research purposes of course, then cycling on Sunday - more research, naturally.
I shall probably be exhausted after the weekend (if not before) but it's been a very busy week work wise, so doing something different should be good - and those little furry critters are so cute - no not cyclists, dormice - duh!
Some advice that was sent to me recently which explains itself succinctly.
~~~~~
From a Teacher
In the world of hi-tech gadgetry and communication, I've noticed that more and more people who send text messages, and emails have long forgotten the art of capitalization. For those of you who fall into this category, please take note of the following statement...
"Capitalization, is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse." Is everybody clear on that?
I wanted to say in verse,
That things were getting worse;
Comments it would seem
Are few and far between
And readers are kudos averse.
The only way writers can plot
If stories are hitting the spot
Is if readers just jolly well say:
It's not as if they must pay
To read here don't cost a jot.
On behalf of the writers, this plea
If stories you come here to see;
Please give us a vote
Or a comment of note,
And you'll make us all very happy.
Some photos from the comc con as shown on the guardian website. Some of the con goers make great efforts with their costumes, Mark Hamill was brilliant - instead of reprising Luke Skywalker, he seems to be appearing as Jabba the Hutt.
I watched the film about Jamie because I wanted to know more about where he was coming from, I didn't understand drag queens as a phenomenon, and I still don't. However, I had new respect for the lad's courage.
He had two ambitions: to become a drag queen, and to go to his school prom in a dress. He found a club in Newcastle which had a drag revue running and the person running it helped him create a routine.
Tomorrow, 14th July - Bastille Day in France, is the twenty fifth anniversary of my transitioning - when I turned up for work the first time wearing a skirt. These days we have a uniform of tunic and trousers - all that fuss for nothing.
I'm getting together with my daughter and my ex on Sunday to have lunch together by way of celebration. It seems a long time ago now and of little significance in the greater run of things, but I thought I'd mention it. Twenty five years of living the dream - if you say so.
After some very distasteful practices being exposed, including the alleged hacking into the voice mail of a murdered schoolgirl, Murdoch is closing the News of the World, with Sunday being its last edition. Mind you, in the days of fish and chips being wrapped in newsprint, the NotW was considered unsuitable for such applications, being too dirty.
As someone who was outted by the above named scandal rag many years ago, the premise offered by their journalist was that it was human interest, I was a departmental head in the local NHS at the time, I'm not shedding a single tear.
I don't watch much telly, but a visitor pointed out that the CSI episode on tuesday called, Ch Ch Changes was about the murder of a transsexual.
So it was, and I suspect there were several trannies or very convincing actors in it as well as our murder victim. I won't spoil the plot in case it turns up again, but I will say that Grissom and his team handled the subject with some delicacy, correcting those who used the wrong pronouns and so on. Quite well done if a bit gruesome (or should that be Grissom?).
I'd never heard of this before or the work it's derived from, but might be of interest to some here who are more cultured than I (arguably a pot of yoghurt is). There is some strong language in character's names but hey, it's avant-garde (French for doesn't suit all tastes).
I really don't understand how some men think that raping a lesbian is going to 'cure' them. Surely, any effect it has is going to put them off being near men for life?
It still seems to be happening and on almost epidemic scale in South Africa, and the response of the police appears to have been less than helpful in many cases.
Okay, it's stating the obvious but the evidence hasn't been clear before. As this affects several people who use this site, thought I'd post this link. The interesting thing is that going on a crash diet for a week (600 calories or less per day) apparently cures it.
Hadley Freeman this time suggesting why she thinks New York needs to pass the same sex wedding bill. The argument seems quite cogent to me, see what you think.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
