sundries

[rm]

I have chosen to view this Swiss adventure on being on a mission to Mars. I have little exercise, variety of food, entertainment, or communications with the outside world. And I see the same people all the time, and it's very weird. Mars!

I really, REALLY, need to decompress, but I think I have to do work on various projects tonight. It's hard to find distraction here when I need it. I mean, there just isn't any, and without normal life as a mediator, finding a good place between asceticism and being a workaholic isn't really working here.

One of the things that doesn't help is everyone else visiting is sort of feeling it too, so no one leaves anyone alone. So I feel both isolated and like I have no space. And I don't feel relieved when people offer to walk with me at night. I just feel like I'm not getting what I need.

If you are in the US and registered to vote, it's still early enough in your day to do so. Do so!

With 60 donors, Dogboy & Justine is at $3,045 in pledges, which means we've passed the 50% mark!

For the moment an injunction has been filed against the paper publishing lists of supposedly LGBT people in Uganda, alongside texts like "hang them."

Did you know that if you are a Wisconsin resident, go to a state with marriage equality and marry your same-sex partner and return to Wisconsin, they can fine you and throw you in jail? Yeah, neither did I, until keori posted about it.

90% of northern Manhattan subway riders see rats on a daily or weekly basis in the system. Is it wrong that the rats charm me?

Remember all the terrible things I've said about my university experience? Well, have things changed or what? First publicly trans NCAA Div 1 athlete is on one of their basketball teams. If anyone can shed light on if he's playing for the men's or women's team or how the NCAA handles this, that would be useful, because the article is a bucket of not clear.

Every day there's like five new women on the list to play Daisy in Luhrmann's Gatsby (if that's happening, although it seems to be). How much do I think it really needs to be a name we don't know? Most of the names being bandied about don't disappear into their roles, no matter how good some of them are (women, of course, aren't really given permission to perform in this way in Hollywood, so this isn't a critique of these women either in terms of acting or in terms of the business of persona; it's just a thing). I hope we're going to be surprised.

So Merlin.... WHAT IS THIS, I DON'T EVEN.... it has these moments, where it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, because there's just a perfect sync up between music and the look on someone's face and the camera angle... and then it just falls apart. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Yeah, I got nothing useful.

Comments

[affreca.livejournal.com]

According to the article about Kye Allums that I read, he plans to continue playing on the women's basketball team. Apparently, the NCAA goes by the gender on one's state issued ID to determine team. Testosterone is one complication Kye, as it is a banned substance, so he is delaying hormone therapy. I wish him luck.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I saw similar info over here (http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/11/02/kye-allums-is-a-transgender-man-playing-womens-college-basketball/). I don't know quite what I think about it. (hmm, I don't like gender bifurcation, so how to live in a world that has it is kinda always hard)

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

Testosterone is one complication Kye, as it is a banned substance, so he is delaying hormone therapy.

As I understand it, drug testing can distinguish exogenous testosterone from body-produced testosterone (I don't know what it's called), which makes it complicated for trans men to play on men's teams at a high level. (You're not allowed exogenous testosterone, even if you have a comparable level to the average man.) This was one reason Balian Buschbaum gave for retiring when he came out.

That said, I'm a bit confused as non-trans women have played for Division I NCAA football teams, so using ID to determine gender seems a bit weird, but perhaps the issue is that there is no NCAA women's football. (I've heard of other trans college athletes, but in sports that aren't NCAA-sanctioned.)

[asphaltangel.livejournal.com]

From what I know as a former NCAA athlete...

When women play on men's teams, or men play on women's teams, the NCAA classifies those teams as "mixed." Mixed teams are eligible to compete in NCAA men's championships, but mixed teams are NOT eligible to compete in NCAA women's championships. I don't know why that's the rule, but I'm assuming that it's the reason why the NCAA goes by the gender listed on someone's state ID.

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

Aha, so there is a system. Though it does proceed from the assumption that women are necessarily disadvantaged in competition against men, which sort of rubs me the wrong way. It's the case in some sports (no woman has run a sub-4 minute mile, for instance, suggesting women are disadvantaged in mile-running, at least for the time being*), but it can't be the case in all of them. That men are, on average, bigger than women, for instance, seems like it wouldn't as big an issue in things like martial arts and wrestling where there are weight classes. (I think there's co-ed high school wrestling and I understand co-ed training, but not necessarily competition, is the norm in things like martial arts and fencing.)

I assume the NCAA doesn't actually know what it takes to change your ID. Regardless of whether it's a suitable proxy for gender, the rules vary with state and citizenship, so it's hardly a uniform standard for all competitors.

*I really know nothing about running, that's just a piece of trivia I had. There could be some reason why there's no parity in mile times and that parity will be achieved at some point in the future or men may always run faster miles.

[asphaltangel.livejournal.com]

I think it's the desire to have uniform rules 'cause it's easier for the organization that way. The gender disadvantage does exist (currently) in some sports, so the rule exists.

(Funny enough, track is my sport. I'd love to see a woman break the four minute mile).

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Well, with running, there is a speed advantage in the male pelvic bone structure design.