well, we had a major snowstorm today. Made things intersting at work, as I had to wrangle carts and nearly froze. Meanwhile, I was having a bit of a dilemma with getting cards for mother's day. Its so hard to find one for an ex-wife, but i found one I liked for her. Then I had a real issue for getting one for my mom. Frankly, i wanted to show her i am her daughter, not her son, but I didnt want to spoil things in front of everyone else. I compermised, and got her gender-neutral card, and also got a card from a daughter that i will give her privately as from dorothy.

It is late at night, late enough to be early. I sit alone in my easy chair, stormed by stillness, deafened by quiet and flooded with emptiness. The inexorable march of time is measured by a clock ticking off seconds and the beat of my run-down heart.

It occured to me,

There are many people on BC that I call friend. Many I chat with, some I talk with, and more that I correspond with. Among those some are Brilliant writers and some are well... let's say they try hard.

BUT, I realized that I haven't read stories by many of them, and RARELY looked at their old stories.

SO, I ASKED SOME if they had read any of my stories (Frankly I'm very slow in finishing things) and most of them hadnn't

Well, I am in "wait" mode, waiting for wednesday, when I will hopefully hear back from my counsilor's and maybe, just maybe, be able to fast track my transition. I need a back-up plan in case this doesnt work, so I dont get devestated and just give up hope. Still noodling that idea. meanwhile, I am slowly but surely starting to work on my next piece, but it might take a while. Ah, well.

What if some time in the future they can tell if a fetus is TG (or gay or whatever). The parents have the option to "fix" him so his brain develops in such a way that it matches the body he's born in -- essentially someone with a male body would have a brain happy to be in such a body, and vice versa.

Angharad and I share a couple of characteristics. We're both Guardianistas and we both ride bikes but I've long suspected that her 'real' identity is ... Lucy Mangam, Guardian columnist. The writing styles are so similar. Take Lucy's contribution this morning as an example and tell me you don't find similarities with the (allegedly) fictional Cameron family in 'Bike' :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/03/marriage-...

May 2010 Scientific American contains an article on atrazine-caused sex changes in frogs.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sex-changin...

I have noticed that the stories being written in The Home That Love Built universe are receiving considerably fewer hits and comments than I feel they deserve. Are they not exciting enough? Are they TOO full of emotion? Do they perhaps, strike too close to home for most of you? Am I expecting too much?

I have been a regular follower of a blog call The Sleep Talking Man. He is, by day, a mild-mannered gentleman. He is soft spoken and doesn't swear or use foul language....until.....

When he sleeps at night, he'll start talking. Oh y'all are in for a great surprise! The night of April 28, he said something that I think everyone will enjoy.

http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

Check out the entry dated april 29.

Hope ya'll have fun with it.

I want to thank everyone who read my life story. It was hard to write but I am glad that I did. Maybe the adventure will contiue down the road.

Hilltopper

Having used SKYPE for years, I am seeing a pattern that makes me wonder. I do not know if it is their fault or if my little "EeePC" is simply not up to the task. It's a funny little machine, runs XP, and is pretty slow. The screen really is too small for my eyes, so for a long time I used an auxilary screen. I use it mostly for running the programs that I do not want on my good machine. Itunes lives there, and SKYPE does too.

I started this blog as a response to commentator's Blog, in response to a bit in Bobbie C's blog. Just as commentator felt her response belonged in its own blog, so did I. I was struck by commentator's comment that GCS isn't a 'cure-all'. This matches some of my thoughts as well. But, before I will talk about them, I think I need to provide some background so you can see where I'm coming from.

Like many authors who publish, I get considerable pleasure from knowing that others have enjoyed my work, and the Vote counter was the way in which I could see the number of readers who did so. I have never paid much attention to Hits, equating that to people picking up a book in a bookshop, thumbing through it, and mostly putting it down without purchase. As such, there was always a vast difference between Hits and Votes. Whilst the comments are wonderful, they are always going to represent only a minority of readers.

Well, I have some good news. First, I weighed myself today, and I am down to 280 lbs from a high of 310. So thats a start. Also, I got a chance to talk to my counsilor, and she is looking into getting me help to go back to school. If I can, I will be able to get into the fast track in terms of transtioning. Keep a good thought for me, ok?

Hello everyone, today's been a decent day compared to my horrible drama-wh... likeness of yesterday. It's my day off and after sleeping in then a cup of tea I had to do my weekly ritual of heavy housework. I wanted to cook something today but being out of yet another failed relationship there are times I just don't feel like eating alone.
As I get older the more I dislike the lonely thing.
But it was raining and a little chill out so after coming back from the laundromat I put some soup into the slow cooker. I made my strange version of minestrone.

Recipe as follows:
1 onion diced.

Hi Folks

Just a short missive with my latest news.

Rather than bore everyone with the detail I've made a seperate page detailing my Spreewald trip - suffice to say i got home only two days late!

I wonder if these guys are "Skin Horse" fans?

Apparently there are people standing in four constituencies for the forthcoming UK General Election for the Cure (Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality) Party.

That sounds awfully Unity-ish...

A Transgender Rights Bill is currently being debated in Massachusetts. The Republican Govenatorial candidate has said that as govenor he would veto the bill despite the fact that his running mate is a co-sponsor of the bill.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010...

The Working Girl Blog #17: I can't reach that high, or Why did they have to put the furshlugginer box of bond paper at the top To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

Nothing much to write about today's boring workday,

I assume that numbers of you have seen this on CNN by now. I do plan to try to see the film.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/04/27/nat.tran...

Much Peace

Gwen

"You can prove anything you want with statistics!"

How true... especially when it comes to the Aztec ambrosia - chocolate.

In today's BBC news comes the revelation that chocolate lovers 'are more depressive', according to experts. Similarly...
29 Jul 2009: Calls to downsize chocolate bars
24 Dec 2007: Dark chocolate 'not so healthy'

Just to let you know, there's a new review of The Men Who Stare At Goats starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges. Find it here

If you haven't already seen it, for CG fans, there's also Planet 51, which you can find here

Today my feline protector Zoe began her final journey. We noticed she was losing weight, but suddenly she stopped eating altogether last week. Taking her to the Vet, we found she had both some kind of liver and kidney problems. Hoping it was just an infection, we left her there over the weekend so she could get the fluids she needed as well as the care. We hoped that would enough for her to recover. That wasn't meant to be. As with so many other things we hadn't the money to take things further. The Vet recommended exploratory surgery, but that was far out of our financial means.

Let's just be clear about this. There is no thought or implication of doing the "S" thing, OK?

I know that others have faced what I did a couple weeks ago. And usually after a period of bemoaning my circumstances, I have managed to bounce back fairly rapidly. But, this time just feels like a mortal wound in my soul.

I have been a little uncomfortable with the debate on "ownership" of stories. The theory is fine. An author owns their story and the rights to deal with that story as they see fit.

Dead easy, right?

But then you get to the somewhat more messy realities. A week or so ago I was trying to post a story and I was having Hell's own difficulties with formatting; can't blame anybody. It was me that was stuffing it up. Eventually I posted it. I took one look and (shock! horror!) deleted it. My pride wouldn't allow me to leave it there.

It was Saturday night, the evening after the airshow(so I thought).

I was a tad pissed, but not too much. I had been unable to even see the airshow from my house, unlike the normal deal where the stunts were mainly focused on one of the airbases’ runways which happened to be not more than a mile or so from my house.

Anyway, when our sort-of kid called and said he was taking the boat out to the harbor to watch the next day’s airshow, I was excited. I had to argue it out with hubby, but I was determined to go, and I was determined not to go as a boy.

Wow... 105 words leads to 26 and possibly + posts by others and a response thread by Nancy. Holy Schnikes!

Wow... I mean wow...

Anyway... thank all of you for your responses and for keeping things from getting too far out of hand. Some really interesting discussion.

To answer a few issues raised in the course of the conversation:

What a great weekend, Went to the Pacific Coast Dream Machine event in Half Moon Bay, California. What fun. It was sunny and the temperature was just right, about seventy,and I got a sunburn. The machines were awsome. There were around three hundred cars of all descriptions, airplanes from the second world war which did a flying demonstration, WOW. There were steam engines and a real steam roller which they actually drove down a paved road between runways.There were muscle cars, hot rods, restored classics, and the best thing was that they were cars owners felt very good about.

I think someone has made a boob with this news article !
+++++++++++++++++
A one-woman mission to
prove breasts don't cause
earthquakes has swollen
into a shirt-straining
global movement. Prepare
yourself for Monday, the
inaugural "Boobquake."

www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/23/boobquake-cleavage-cause-...

I have just finished listening to the first act of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, a production by the Metropolitan Opera. The evil Baron Scarpia sings to the background of the very sacred Te Deum about how he wants to ravage the beautiful, flamboyant Floria Tosca. Bryn Terfel (Jones) did a fabulous job as the evil chief of police. He'll get his in the next act. His performance literally brought tears to my eyes. It is such an emotional experience.

I just posted the real third chapter to Boys Will Be Boys (with "The Real Story" added to the title to help clarify things). I added "The April Fools Edition" to the name of the previous version so it should be clear enough which one is the real one and which one the joke. Hopefully no one's too upset with me for my little April Fools joke! It's the first time I've done any kind of April Fools joke, anywhere, so I'll blame inexperience if I went too far with it or offended anyone. ;)

Well, Sorority Boy is finished. I may or may not do an Epilogue, so you all can know what happens to one of our favorite college girls. I honestly don't know right now.

This story began for me back in 97 when I was at Goodfellow Air Base in San Angelo Texas as a way to cope with being in a place where I didn't have the opportunity to dress when I wanted to or needed to. I transcribed those hand written notes into the first part of this story and this ties up a lot of the loose ends.

It's a good news - bad news situation. As of a few minutes ago, I have officially caught up. Now, like so many others, I am sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next episode. I guess the good news is that I can get back to my own writing that seems to have been put on hold. My muse was as entranced as I was.

Thank you, Angharad, for propagating these little bundles of sweet entertainment.

Portia

Today's the annual celebration of the most famous dragon-slayer in history, if you believe the myths!

The Working Girl Blog #13: Woke up on the wrong side, or I'm mean today To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

You know that hackneyed old phrase, "waking up on the wrong side of the bed?" I don't know the etymology of the phrase, but I know what it means. And I think I did indeed wake up on the wrong side this morning.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs in English are interesting things, because they aren’t really anything at all.

That’s not the way they started out, of course, as we can see by the word “paragraph” itself, from the Greek “paragraphos,” which means “beside the writing.”

I am a little concerned. I can tell I might be headed for a down. I hope not, I need my energy to figure out my next step, and to make some more stories. Ah, well.

Shock! Horror! Merde alors!

The French are outraged after a photograph of a man wiping his bum on the French Tricolour was published in a French newspaper.

Makes me think of that Rugger song––

Gabi.

see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8636331.stm

I'm alive.

To say I'm doing well would be an overstatement, but life continues. I have managed to rouse myself to start editing for John in Wauwatosa, and that's going reasonably well.

(Think about it. How serious and depressed can you stay when John gets his manic muse going?)

Amazon? Ma'at? I hope they'll get fully untracked, but no promises on when that might occur.

My thanks to those who've offered encouragement.

Nicole (a.k.a. Itinerant, Nikki, ...)

PS: Thanks to Angharad for continuing my favorite soap opera. ;-)

It's been an interesting week, but mostly quiet. I do have a few things I felt like getting out of my system though.

Every now and then I re-read some of the comments to my stories as well as the stories to see if I might be able to add anything. What I notice is a pattern to all comments, whether they are for my stories or someone else's, and that is this. Several people pick out a part of the story and only comment on that, others comment on the whole story, and still others like to nit pick about this or that, and it has nothing to do with the story.

The Working Girl Blog #10: Learning to dress in "business casual," or Girl clothes are fun, but I miss pockets - The new meaning of VPL To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

Be warned - nothing major happened today, so today's blog will just be a lot of folderol about nothing. Hope you aren't too disappointed.

You're probably all familiar with the classic slapstick comedy sketch whereby someone saws off the tree branch they're perched on. Scarily enough, it's happened in real life. And the hotel concerned has been fined  £1,000 and ordered to pay  £1,000 costs...

Well, I let my family bully me into getting my hair cut. Even my mom, who I thought was on my side, helped, and in fact provided the money. And they used my daughter to push me too. I gave in, and feel rotten about it. I make myself the promice that this is the last time i am letting them run my life.

(Me) I thought it was about time to give you lot a progress update on the Bike episode summaries. Remember the last time I posted, I'd done episodes one to 103, plus 900 to wherever we'd got to by then. A lot can happen in a few weeks, and the number of episodes covered has grown to over 600. There's also a cast list and a title page.

Like many authors who publish on this site, I gain a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that many others have enjoyed my work. Comments are wonderful, but there are typically around seven times more people who would normally vote without leaving a comment. With the indefinite suspension of the Voting System, it means that I would be blind to all those readers.