argh

I can't get my last post's text to format properly. Crap.

Dammit...

This is supposed to be the top entry on the blog, and it won't post as first. WTF is happening??

Figured it out

"Is my husband....[dun dun DUN]...GAY?!"

 OH NOES! Stephenson Billings, in a post on ChristWire, wrote about how insecure women can figure out if the man they married is gay. Although some women, regardless of their religious affiliation, may find this question ringing in their ears, for those who would actually frequent such a bass-ackwords, stereotype-driven nest of hate and nonsense, the possibility of finding out all too late that their husbands, who claim to share the same idiotic, fallacious religious ideals, is exorbitantly high.

http://christwire.org/2010/08/is-my-husband-gay/

That's what I started out writing on this post. Now, after looking at the source more closely (for the first time), I can sigh a breath of relief, realizing that this is probably the funniest website ever. Yes, I initially was completely taken-in by the seemingly hateful (read: just plain funny) "Is my husband gay?" article. I was further enraged by the headline "Mexican Illegals Cause American Salmonella Outbreak." But what ultimately convinced me that this is one of the most scintillating of all sites of satire was the triplethreat combination of "Warning! Black Music Infiltrates the Minds of Future Homemaking White Women," "Mexican Swine Flu Is Still A Zombie Threat, More Proof" and this:

Why Do Rabbits Rape Cats?

This is AWESOME.

Can I has a rape?

It's RAPING TIME! (thx to LittleKuribo for the awesome phrase)

Ok, moving beyond my amusement over animals fictitiously destroying each other in a physical/psychological/anal manner.........

In any case, you should know that this website is hilarious.

OH, and this one, too:

Hyperbole and a Half

Go look at it. NOW.

=)

Translation!

Random update (first in a number of months), but I just translated a Japanese bara comic. Bara is hawt. It depicts burlier men than are normally found in shounen-ai or yaoi publications in Japan. Anyway, I'm doing a collaboration with Croup (soupgoblin.blogspot.com). He's doing the editing part and I'm handling the TL part of the scanlation. Turned in the raw to him just last night. Very excited; it feels like my Japanese isn't nearly as rusty as it should be after so long of not taking classes. In any case, here's a picture of the front cover. Mmmmmm =P

 Will update when it's completely edited and uploaded. It's by one of my favorite bara authors, NAKATA Shunpei. yay =)

Anyways, ta ta for now!

Interesting Article

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_2_59/ai_54099135/

Some quotes that piqued my interest:

"Homosexual teachers know that, by and large, academic systems and structures reward the closet and punish the person kicking at its door. Many heterosexual teachers may feel, 'Why make such an issue of my sexuality? It's nobody's business.' Yet their wedding rings and casual remarks about a "husband" or "wife," in the classroom and out, suggest that sexuality in America is everybody's business, that institutionalized heterosexuality constantly makes an issue of sexuality."

It's always in the finer details that reveal the larger concepts that are embedded in particular colourings of the workings of the world.

"The closet, though, is also a role model."

True.

"Whenever a teacher feels shut up, censored, and believes that the result of not being shut up or censored is either violence or unemployment, he or she has essentially one option: silence."

Nothing new. Old concept applied in a more progressed form of societal pressures. In many workplaces, being gay/straight/closeted/out has less relevance to the work done on a project than it does in a place where one is in charge of the formation of other individuals. While the workplace in general would benefit from having more relaxed workers once they were out (though that might end up becoming a zero sum gain in that other employees undoubtedly would feel more anxious in that they are aware of out coworkers), it is often less critical in many fields where the personal details of someone's life do not affect the quality of the developed product. This is simply an extrapolation of peer pressure to a higher-ordered, less personal environment where personal lives still play an equally influential role.

"The closeted English teacher may be keeping the writers she or he is teaching --often with such passion and admiration--locked in the closet. When a writer's sexuality influences his or her works, can we leave such inquiry out of our presentations--at least at the college level--and still feel we are honestly grappling with the work? Or does a presentation that incorporates silence give students the impression that there are some questions...with which the role model is uncomfortable? By keeping gay-identified work out of the classroom, do we even give students a chance to ask questions? Aren't we enforcing a ban of silence on them as well?"

I would encourage that such questions be raised at the high school level. By the 11th/12th grade, most students are mature enough to deal with such themes as long as they are guided by a teacher who would treat the material with respect and maturity. (Notice how my language is distancing myself from LGBTQ literature, etc -- i.e. "such themes", "the material." Wow...I have some issues to work on.)

"Sometimes I wonder, though, whether we often receive safe essays because our teaching is safe; as teachers, we're not willing to be vulnerable, to speak openly. If the role model can speak only from the surface of her or his life, why should the student be expected to reach a deeper place?"

I don't believe I have anything to add to this remark.

"In Sue McConnell-Celi's 1993 book, Twenty-first Century Challenge: Lesbians and Gays in Education, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott remembers her days as a closeted teacher: 'Being in the closet took a great toll emotionally, especially when I recognized that certain of my students were lesbian or gay, yet was not able to be frank with them about my orientation.'"

This is only too true. I often fear alienating students with whom I have a plethora of life experience to share that is pertinent to their lives and yet from whom they can rarely receive it. No matter how much I try to "bring out the gay" of my thoughts cached in my gender-avoiding statements and pontifications about the morality of being oneself with respect and love, in trying to make everything so universally accepted, I fear that a lot of the personal flavour can be lost.

Go read the rest of the article. I'm getting bummed-out and pessimistic. Back to "The Office" on Hulu. Maybe some "Modern Family" reruns, too. =P

If I were trans...

I'd like to be this kind of trans.

Zerophilia explores the (kinda) trans world through magic. Ok, well, through genetics, but this kind of genetics just doesn't exist (not yet). Imagine every time you had an orgasm, your body switched male to female, except without the surgery. No top surgery, no removal of the penis/balls and replacement with a vagina, no recreation and attachment of a penis and no breast implants. Most of all, no hormone therapy. It was all naturally there in the correct proportions. Such is the world of the Zerophiliac.

Luke gets laid for the first time and is sent down a path of self-discovery, on which he must come to terms with his gender(s), his own inhibitions over accepting any kind of femininity for himself and his machismo that continues exalting the male gender above all others.

When I read the description, I wasn't immediately pulled in. "In this sexually ambiguous romantic comedy, Luke,  a naive college student, struggles with issues of masculinity while he comes to terms with a rare genetic discorder that causes the afflicted to switch gender at will"--namely through masturbation. Still, on a lazy Saturday morning, I gave it a shot. In fact, I really loved it. Aside from decent production quality (which is always a turn on/turn off for me though it shouldn't be), the film evokes some good questions. How would you deal being forced into a different gender? If you could switch back, would you? What's wrong with being the opposite gender, and why does one cling to one's gender role? Does love have a gender (cliché)? There were also some pretty hot guys (Kyle Schmid here, here and here--I know, I'm not normally into guys with long hair, but trust me on this one) in the film. =P I highly recommend Zeorphilia to anyone interested in gender identity.

If I were trans, I'd like to be this kind of trans. Yes, because I'm so attached to my male body that I would not really want to give it up, but there are certainly times when I've felt not quite male. Also, I think it'd be kinda fun/interesting to be a woman for a day...or more. I probably need to start prancing around at home in women's clothing. Or maybe not...See? Machismo (do I even have a claim to that?) getting in the way of gender exploration. In any case, in the privacy of my own mind, in theory and not in practice, the ideas in this film touched on a lot of thoughts that I've had about gender identity. Can I be a cisman with some minor trans tendencies? Or perhaps this is just called being more in touch with one's feminine side...I dunno, but I don't want to sully the name of those who actually are transgender.

Ryan Seacrest...

Ok, watching American Idol tonight, and everyone goes on about this, but I feel compelled. Ryan Seacrest is so gay. Just sayin'. I mean, the way he's ALWAYS got his hands on the guys, feeling up their muscles and all. I mean, it's totally what I would want to be doing. Here's to hoping.

Eventually I'll get to that really juicy post about gay rights movement that I want to talk about. Just, ugh, no time where I'm actually feeling like I can be intelligent. Most of the time these days I just want to let my mind go to mush. Oi.

P.s.

Jenny's such a twisted psychopath. I really love her character because of the feelings she evokes in me...that is until she REALLY goes off the deep end. Still, <3.