20 Queer as Folk icons, season 3
+ 1 random background

Take them if you want, crediting not imperative. Please tell me what you're taking, though (so I can get a feel for what other people think is pretty).

Teasers:



( the rest )

Tags: icons
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Hide and Seek" Imogen Heap

Queer as Folk screencaps! (720x480, around 40k each)

Season 3
Episode 6--34 caps: Brian and Justin in Woody's after Justin comes back from Ethan's debut
Episode 7--192 caps: Justin confronts Ethan, Michael confronts Ben about steroids, Brian and Justin in Babylon backroom

Let me see if you make anything with them, please. Let me know if you have any trouble accessing the directory, but I don't think you'll have any problems.

Tags: screencaps
Current Mood: dance-y
Current Music: "Hall of Mirrors" Kraftwerk

Before we started our discussion on Plato's Symposium today, Colin had us brainstorm as a class what love is. We're almost done, simply because there's only a little space left on the three boards, when Dani says, "Everyone has a different definition of love. Maybe none of what's up here applies to me. Maybe love is looking for someone who defines it the same way you do."

HIV vaccine study. Has anyone else already heard about this? They had an ad on Manhunt. The possibility of having an HIV vaccine is unbelievable. Not that I know much about the historical context of the things we currently have vaccines for, but to think about HIV/AIDS being added to that list...

This is definitely the time for me to be reading up on the historical context of AIDS.

Colin, my prof for Gay Studies/Queer Cultures, has offered us the option of writing a 10-12 page research paper instead of taking the final. He has arranged with the Kinsey Institute archivists to get us access to the Kinsey archives. My interests/curiosities along these lines lately have been HIV/AIDS, leather, and to a lesser extent, sex work. I'm not sure which I want to pick for a 10 page paper. I'm not sure which is the best utilization of my access to the Kinsey archives. Feel free to weigh in on this.

Current Music: Coldplay

_{I'm in a surprisingly good mood for having not slept all night. And no, I wasn't playing. I turned out the lights and tried to go to sleep around 2:30, but at 5:45, I gave up. I read more of The Bottoming Book, and at 8, I left for Indy to pick up some more stuff from my grandparents' house. Now I'm filling out job applications, contemplating a nap.}

Was talking to my mom on the phone last night. She was telling me about the problems they're having with Lex's school stuff. My youngest sister has cerebral palsy. She doesn't speak, but understands everything you say and responds to yes and no questions and with a computer. She's been mostly in general ed classes all through elementary school since my mom is always on their asses about making sure Lex gets an education. She just started middle school, though, so my mom doesn't quite have the new principal and teachers broken in. They're used to being able to keep special ed kids occupied with bullshit stuff and not having anyone complain, but my mom wants Lex to have a chance to graduate. These people don't seem to understand how serious she is; they think my mom's crazy for asking this and they're unable to figure out how to help Lex learn.

Whatever. Nothing new, really. What struck me most-- Lex's aide from elementary school was supposed to come with her, but it ended up not happening. They assigned an aide to her that was not prepared to help her. Mom went in around lunch time to take some stuff Lex needed. She went to the cafeteria to check on Lex, but she wasn't there. She found out she was across the hall because she'd "had a meltdown" in the cafeteria (first day of middle school, an aide you don't trust, unfamiliar surroundings, who wouldn't?). Mom found Lex sitting in her wheel chair crying, while her lunch sat on the teacher's desk. Her aide was at lunch. It makes me tear up to think about Lex sitting alone in a class room, unable to express herself, unable to get herself out of the situation, hungry and not able to get the food for herself, stressed out about people who don't understand her on her first day at middle school. Who the fuck leaves a middle schooler alone without lunch? Especially one who has to eat nearly non-stop just to maintain a nearly skin-and-bones frame? It's fucking sick that these people do this shit.

My mom knows lawyers who can take care of this. She hasn't called them yet, though. She's emailed the superintendent, principal, etc demanding a meeting. They're supposed to be making improvements already. I don't understand why she's fucking around though. I don't understand why they get so many chances. I would've had a hard time catching up if I missed out on my first week of classes in middle school, and I have much more mainstream communication abilities than she does.

Motherfuckers.

Tags: lex
Current Music: "Since U Been Gone" Kelly Clarkson

Behind a cut in case you don't want to see it. It doesn't look too bad, though. Scabbing is pretty much all gone. Swelling isn't too bad, and it's not really bruised. *shrug* It's up to you.

( my chest, 25 days after surgery )

Tags: surgery, transition

( vacation over )

Drains and sutures are out, Monday and Tuesday respectively. I saw my chest for the first time last night. My incisions go further around my sides than I'd hoped, but not a big deal. My nipple grafts look fantastic. Perfectly circular. My nipples make me happy. :)

I've been more uncomfortable--closer to being in pain--since the drains came out. My whole chest feels bruised. That makes sense to me, though. The fluid that used to be draining is now accumulating. Bruises are blood spilled into the muscle (underneath the skin), right? (I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but it seems like a logical conclusion to me.) I'm fucking hating the binder. It's uncomfortable like any other binder, puts pressure on my "bruised" chest, and sticks to the adhesive around my incisions which is painful when I change my posture. I'm pretty sure I only have to wear it till next Tuesday, though, then no more binders forever.

( transition as a creative act )

Tags: gender identity, surgery, transition
Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Everything but the Girl

This wireless-internet-in-the-room thing would be a sweet deal (ignoring the fact that they’re charging $10 a day for internet access at all) if I could maintain the connection. Right now, I’m having trouble keeping it long enough to load a website. (And is 2.0 mbps really “high speed”?)

It’s day 3, and I stink. No showering at all till the sutures come out. We have baby wipes here for Lex, but I’m putting that off as long as possible because I hate the sticky feeling left by water-less sanitizers. With my mom’s help, my hair has been washed, though.

Yesterday I was feeling good, not to mention bored, so after sorting out Lyn’s return-flight frustration (the plane she was supposed to be on was being repaired in Honolulu), the four of us drove up to Napa Valley, then around the UC Berkley campus on the way back.( ... )

Today I woke up around 8 or 8:30. Between my dad’s snoring in the next bed over and the fact that I have to lay on my back, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I had an appointment with Brownstein at 11( ... )

Before we left Cali Pizza Kitchen, my dad and I both went to the bathroom. At the same time. That was a strange first.

( ... )

Tags: surgery, transition
Current Mood: shrug
Current Music: Everything but the Girl

( how it went )

Tags: surgery, transition
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Everything but the Girl

The limo will be at the house at 9:30 tomorrow morning to take us to the airport. Our flight doesn't leave till 2:15. It'll only take us an hour to get to Midway.

I'm excited about not having breasts anymore. With the combination of surgery and changing my major (to gender studies), I can imagine my future--this fall, graduation... not really beyond that yet, I guess. But I'm not excited about recovery. I'm skeptical about how this vacationing/spending time with my parents things will go. I'm not sure what to expect from them on the day of surgery. Sounds like my mom is planning on her and my dad taking me to the surgery center while my sisters sleep at the hotel, going back to the hotel to hang out and have lunch, then picking me up from the surgery center when I'm done. Or maybe she meant that Lyn should feed Lex lunch. I don't know. I don't think my parents are planning on having any particularly emotional moments. I imagine they'll be short-lived, if they occur at all.

I think my mom used "he" in reference to me once today. That was a first. And made me pretty happy.

I went shopping with Lyn. Got a new pair of shoes (except they don't have the colors I have). Was trying on hats. I wanted one like this, but my sister laughed at me. Will any style of hat look good on me?

Tags: school, transition