yonmei

10:17 am: Ten things to say a month before my birthday
1. I'm celebrating my birthday by getting my hair cut. I'm tired of having long hair. It's been interesting for 3 years but that's it.

2. My dad's doing well! I got there at 2pm and stayed till nearly four and we were both talking a lot and it was great. The staff nurse robot I spoke to last night said robotically that she could not possibly give me even a ballpark estimate of when he would be discharged to the Astley Ainslie, because harrumph, what did I expect, they had no idea when a bed would become available there, but it does sound like that's all they're waiting on. Also, he reports, he's got his appetite back (and apparently hospital food has improved a lot, also you get a card the day before to choose your meals from).

3. And this is an example of why I plan to never visit the US* again. Peter Watts:

Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on. I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three fucking hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario’s first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night.
In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face.
But that is not this universe.

*Now that would be an interesting googlebomb tactic, wouldn't it?

4. I found out about what happened to Peter Watts via Avedon at Sideshow, who found out via BoingBoing; I found out about what happened to Shah Rukh Khan via every news source in India and quite a few others round the world on Google News and Bollywood fan sites; I found out about what happened to Emily Feder via Sideshow, and she's the nearest I can think of to an ordinary person who nonetheless managed to bring her experience about being harassed by the authorities at border-crossing to widespread public attention. Most of the people who are harassed in this way by the US Department of Homeland Security do not have the same kind of resources as Peter Watts or even Emily Feder to make their story widely known - and certainly not the kind of governmental protection that Shahrukh Khan has, as Khan himself has pointed out. (Example from my own online acquaintance.)

5. The ACLU has a $20M shortfall in its funding - it lost a major donor thanks to the financial crisis. Glenn Greenwald has a well-documented post about the importance of the ACLU: while I would not normally urge non-Americans to donate to any US charity, the ACLU has defended the rights of the many non-US citizens who have been kidnapped by the US, held for years, and tortured: indeed, is still doing so under the new Obama regime as it did under the old Bush regime. You can donate to the ACLU here.

6. This list of ten things has got a lot more complicated and less lighthearted than I'd originally planned. So, er: ( illegal immigation kitteh style! )

7. There are still 3 Christmas flashfiction offers open!

8. Royal Infirmary photographs: need to get flickr-pro, soon, I guess.

9. First, second, and third generation eggs:

10. Two more first-generation eggs:

Tags: dragon eggs need clicky, evil american politics, family stuff, guantanamo bay, hair hair hair, lists, online situations

02:55 pm: Weird things I have never thought would be true
1. Mulder/Scully still works for me better than Mulder/Krycek. (Not better than Mulder/Skinner, are you mad?)
2. I like listening to music.
3. I have long hair. I mean, it's long enough to catch together in the back as a ponytail. Not a very long ponytail. Still.
4. I sometimes drink black coffee.
5. jekesta has corrupted me. I want to read A-Team slashfic. Only I don't want any one pairing, I want teamfic. They don't actually all have to have sex with each other, at least not all at once, but I want fanfic in which they do silly missions and such and no one actually gets shot, just like usual, but with Hannibal giving comforting handjobs to BA and calling him "sergeant" and BA going down on Murdock when Murdock is freaking out, and Face going down on everyone at the slightest indication that they're interested. And none of them ever actually talk about it, though sometimes Face wants to, but BA just glowers and Hannibal slaps in him on the shoulder and tells him not to worry and Murdock goes off on long rambling discursive comments about how people think of themselves and he's always wanted to have a puppy. Or, you know, anything like that. But definitely no pairings. And I can't see them having an orgy. I suppose I could see them like I see SG1, a team who have exogamous relationships but who are closer to each other than anyone outside the team, but I think that's too sane and normal and well-organised for the A-Team.

Tags: hair hair hair, random stuff, slash slash slashity slash

06:23 pm: Remembering Kaija Seifert
Today I went to a seminar for employers and service providers to discuss how best to oppose transphobia and anti-trans discrimination.

It was a good day, and I hope a productive one.

It ended with two people, Jo Clifford, whose name used to be John Clifford, a Scottish playwright, who got up and talked passionately about the wonderful changes since she was a 15-year-old who knew she was a boy who wanted to be a girl and didn't have a name for what that was: and Nick Laird, who works for Fair for All NHS, talking about his experience as a trans man - Nick is younger than Jo, and came out/grew up/transitioned in a more supportive environment, but still had those moments.

I was thinking, as you do, about gender identity: Nick told a story about a small boy - an utterly innocent small boy - asking him, back when he was living as an uncomfortable teenage girl who knew she wanted to transition - "Are you a boy or a girl?" and Nick not knowing what to answer, and finally answering with what his birth certificate said then, and how he was living then: "I'm a girl." And the wee boy asking, in all innocence "Are you sure?"

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Tags: being queer, feminism, hair hair hair, i am an angry feminist, kaija seifert