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Getting Things Started (Again)
Oct. 4th, 2010 05:47 pmStarting a new blog is always a little weird. Especially if you've left a string of abandoned blogs behind you for a variety of reasons. I suppose you could think of them like relationships, and that I broke up with my last blog and now I'm getting to know a new blog. At least that's better than thinking of them as children I've abandoned. I don't feel like as much of an asshole that way.
(One thing you'll find out, assuming you keep reading --and I keep updating-- is that I like to use bizarre metaphors.)
I have a lot of hats I wear. It's kind of hard to know where to start talking about myself as a result, but I suppose I have to start somewhere. I'm an avid bibliophile. I collect books. Most of them, I read. Some of them… not so much. But I have so many books they've effectively taken over my living space. I have serious packrat genes on both sides of my family, and as a result I can think of maybe 30 books total I've ever actually parted with willingly, and most of those were Pern and Anita Blake books that I really couldn't even look at anymore.
A significant portion of my book collection is taken up by roleplaying game books. I love tabletop gaming, and unfortunately I don't get to do it nearly enough, not least because I don't have a local group to do it with, so I have to get my pretendy funtimes on over the internet. Anyone who has attempted this will know how trying it is to get internet pretendy funtimes organized at all, let alone played on a regular basis. The lion's share of my RPG books come courtesy of White Wolf Game Studios, and I am a fan of the World of Darkness (preference: new > old) and Exalted. I also carry a torch in my heart for the late, lamented Aeonverse. However I've started branching out lately, and my most recent interest is Eclipse Phase, a transhumanist horror game.
Ah yes, there's something else I can talk about. I'm a transhumanist. That's kind of important. In Eclipse Phase jargon for some of the causes I support: +Morphological Freedom, +Immortality, +Open Source, -Capitalism. I eagerly await the Nerd Rapture and the opportunity to move to the nearest convenient Lagrange point, where I can spin up a temporary hab while I work on constructing the good ship Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning, the starship I shall ride out into the great beyond in search of What Is Out There. The previous sentence was only slightly tongue-in-cheek. Slightly.
The astute will glean a few things from the list of causes in the above paragraph. It follows, thus, that I am indeed a socialist, or at least, a socialist-by-default, since transhumanism is sadly not a terribly popular political philosophy. I will surely expound on the details later, especially in light of the upcoming election and the sheer ignorance on public display in this nation.
The +Morphological Freedom entry might pose a somewhat more difficult challenge, so I'll address that next: I'm transgendered. Biologically male, identify female, and yet to undergo any hormone therapy. One side effect of this is that I have a somewhat nonstandard view of gender and biology in general. Being bisexual throws additional spin on the issue. This isn't something I talk about a lot, but I'm hoping to change that. Part of the reason for restarting my blog is that I want to document my transition, since I recently made an appointment for a gender therapist, which is pretty much the first step towards medical intervention (in this case, the aforementioned hormone therapy), assuming said therapist is convinced it's right for me. And if I'm convinced of the same - it's part of why I actually made the appointment, figuring out what the hell is going on myself. I would love to be able to alter my body without it being a gigantic medical clusterfuck of hormones and surgeries. Sadly, technology hasn't quite caught up to that standard. Hence my trepidation.
Now to antagonize a whole variety of internet people: I like anime and manga. I can already hear the calls of 'weeaboo!' And you know, maybe they're right, considering that I cosplay. But fuck them, I like cosplaying, and I like themes that anime and manga explore that American media largely won't touch. Of course, there are things I absolutely despite about some anime and manga and the subculture that follows them. But I can rant about that some other time. After I've marathoned Glass Mask or Rose of Versailles again. (Yes, again.)
This is getting long, and I'm getting hungry (that's something else I can get into, cooking), so I'll cut this off here and keep poking around with this journal's settings.
(One thing you'll find out, assuming you keep reading --and I keep updating-- is that I like to use bizarre metaphors.)
I have a lot of hats I wear. It's kind of hard to know where to start talking about myself as a result, but I suppose I have to start somewhere. I'm an avid bibliophile. I collect books. Most of them, I read. Some of them… not so much. But I have so many books they've effectively taken over my living space. I have serious packrat genes on both sides of my family, and as a result I can think of maybe 30 books total I've ever actually parted with willingly, and most of those were Pern and Anita Blake books that I really couldn't even look at anymore.
A significant portion of my book collection is taken up by roleplaying game books. I love tabletop gaming, and unfortunately I don't get to do it nearly enough, not least because I don't have a local group to do it with, so I have to get my pretendy funtimes on over the internet. Anyone who has attempted this will know how trying it is to get internet pretendy funtimes organized at all, let alone played on a regular basis. The lion's share of my RPG books come courtesy of White Wolf Game Studios, and I am a fan of the World of Darkness (preference: new > old) and Exalted. I also carry a torch in my heart for the late, lamented Aeonverse. However I've started branching out lately, and my most recent interest is Eclipse Phase, a transhumanist horror game.
Ah yes, there's something else I can talk about. I'm a transhumanist. That's kind of important. In Eclipse Phase jargon for some of the causes I support: +Morphological Freedom, +Immortality, +Open Source, -Capitalism. I eagerly await the Nerd Rapture and the opportunity to move to the nearest convenient Lagrange point, where I can spin up a temporary hab while I work on constructing the good ship Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning, the starship I shall ride out into the great beyond in search of What Is Out There. The previous sentence was only slightly tongue-in-cheek. Slightly.
The astute will glean a few things from the list of causes in the above paragraph. It follows, thus, that I am indeed a socialist, or at least, a socialist-by-default, since transhumanism is sadly not a terribly popular political philosophy. I will surely expound on the details later, especially in light of the upcoming election and the sheer ignorance on public display in this nation.
The +Morphological Freedom entry might pose a somewhat more difficult challenge, so I'll address that next: I'm transgendered. Biologically male, identify female, and yet to undergo any hormone therapy. One side effect of this is that I have a somewhat nonstandard view of gender and biology in general. Being bisexual throws additional spin on the issue. This isn't something I talk about a lot, but I'm hoping to change that. Part of the reason for restarting my blog is that I want to document my transition, since I recently made an appointment for a gender therapist, which is pretty much the first step towards medical intervention (in this case, the aforementioned hormone therapy), assuming said therapist is convinced it's right for me. And if I'm convinced of the same - it's part of why I actually made the appointment, figuring out what the hell is going on myself. I would love to be able to alter my body without it being a gigantic medical clusterfuck of hormones and surgeries. Sadly, technology hasn't quite caught up to that standard. Hence my trepidation.
Now to antagonize a whole variety of internet people: I like anime and manga. I can already hear the calls of 'weeaboo!' And you know, maybe they're right, considering that I cosplay. But fuck them, I like cosplaying, and I like themes that anime and manga explore that American media largely won't touch. Of course, there are things I absolutely despite about some anime and manga and the subculture that follows them. But I can rant about that some other time. After I've marathoned Glass Mask or Rose of Versailles again. (Yes, again.)
This is getting long, and I'm getting hungry (that's something else I can get into, cooking), so I'll cut this off here and keep poking around with this journal's settings.