This is actually semi-T* related for two reasons.

1) I need to get in shape because I live a very unhealthy lifestyle, and that flat out needs to change if I'm ever going to move forward.

2) My calves are huge! :-(

Just so everyone knows, I have changed my name from Kayla Smith to Samantha Jenkins. I feel that Samantha fits me better than Kayla (and not to mention that since my Zodiac sign changed to a sign that fits me better than Cancer (Now I'm a Gemini) I figure that I should change my name to match how I feel when I'm dressed up.)

Samantha

I was just on Sapphire's Place reading some stories and suddenly got a domain expired page. Does anyone know if Sapphire is going to renew the domain or if she needs any financial assistance to renew the domain?

Well, after a rotten day yesterday, I had a fantastic day today. I went for a interview with a local tg group, and we were meeting at a restaurant. I got there first, and the server was taking me to a booth, and i tried to tell her I would prefer a table, but she didnt hear me at first. But another server heard me, and told my server "SHE would like a booth" It is amazing, what a single letter can do for one's confidence.

I was wondering what happened to saphire's place?

An article in today's paper said that Swiss Bank UBC was revising its dress code. Currently, bankers are required to wear skin colored underwear, refrain from eating garlic and wear a watch because it signals "trustworthiness and a concern for punctuality". The code tells women how to apply makeup and what color stockings are acceptable.

I wonder if a crossdressing banker could get away with a skin colored bra when they line up the employees for morning underwear inspection?

Hi, It's been a while, but I've written a new story, this time using Open Office. My problem is that I've got permission to use a picture taken from Flickr with the title, and I'd like the title to be in a suitable nice font. Could someone please help me to get this done? It may sound lazy if I ask to send them everything and they produce the end product for me, but if they explain how its done, I can maybe do it myself next time.

With many thanks in anticipation,

Bronwen Welsh

I've been working on several legal documents, namely: a Will, a Health Proxy and a Power Of Attorney. Those I can afford. I've been putting off my name change because of the costs and another matter that concerns only me and one other nameless person. The matter between me and that person seems to be settled, and I am proceeding with the name change because... I've been informed that our local Legal Aid thingie will not only fill out the paperwork for me, but they can also get the fees waived due to my financial status... one step below poor.

I have just discovered DocsToGo for my iPhone, and it is an incredibly useful app.

It enables me to edit MS Word files on my iPhone and then synchronise them with my computer, so I can now write on the train or in a cafe, or even in bed at 3 am (my most creative time). Unlike a laptop, unless people get very close, it is completely private. Sure, typing is not that fast on the iPhone, but it's fast enough for my brain. And you can always tidy it up when you transfer it to your computer. It even handles password protected files - another important feature for me.

I ran across these today. There is a small bit of TG but I enjoyed them all.
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/01/14/sean-hartter-movie-...

Hugs!
Grover

An ode of English Plural
English: A Tough Language to Learn

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

Okay... this is probably be a bit on the intense side so fair warning that this may be the post you want to skip.

It's important that I state, first and foremost, that I am in an exceptionally good mood right now. I feel more creative, and, in a word, "pumped" than I've felt in awhile, so take that into account foremost to set the 'mood' of this blog post.

I know after I finished Book Two of Becoming Robin I sort of went into a conservation phase for awhile. It took me forever to get the final chapter posted due to a combination of RL stuff and the Holiday blues, which put an even further damper on my finishing rewriting Shadowcraft.

Hi all!

I just stumbled on an article in The Daily Mail about an ancient Egyptian mummy that turns out to be a boy dressed as a girl! No fooling! It just goes to show you that we've been around forever!

Read here about the mummy of a boy dressed as a girl!

Lisa
(Mona Lisa)

Dear Friends:

I just noticed on my information page, that I have been a member of Big Closet Top Shelf for exactley 2 Years and 6 minutes.

So I want to thank Erin and her staff and everyone else who helps out for their time, hard work and sacrifice which makes this place possible. If any of my blogs or comments have caused you heartache or grief, I appologize.

I also want to thank all of the authors who stories I have read and even those authors who I have not had the time to enjoy for the hours of enjoyment they give me.

Hey Lil is there an update as to whats canon in The Center. Ive been waiting to read it till there a more solid whats canon and whats not

I am troubled tonight, and I don't seem to be able to sort my feelings out very well right now. I have been coming to this site just 2 weeks over 4 years, and I have come to know and have great affection for a number of the Authors here. I really appreciate the patience and understanding that Erin has shown me when my emotions were unmanageable. It is posible that I was the biggest drama queen ever to come here, and in spite of it all, I don't think anyone has ever sent an unkind email or comment to me. I am so thankful for that.

I'm not sure what I can say about this. The nature v. nurture argument pops up in many areas of discussion of human behavior and identity. Following is an example of personal anecdotes (and photos) of gay men and women and their earliest evidence of being... different.

Presented without further comment:

http://borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com/

Particularly those of you who have stories at Crystal's.

This only vaguely has anything to do with anything more than I'm frustrated and decided to vent here rather than there.

There of course being the name for the inside of the old freezer I keep the bodies in...

any hoo

So years ago I played Magic the Gathering with my little brother.

My next story was going to be a Mattie story but frankly every chance that I've tried to write it I just can't seem to come up with a thing for it. So I'm going to put the story on hold for a while and move onto something else. I've got a couple more ideas, I'm not sure which one is going to come first though.

Just a quick little warning. I am going to discuss some tough subjects so take care reading

Looks like a TG day in the news today.

”‹Brian Katcher's 2009 novel, Almost Perfect, has been grabbing attention and awards -- it just snagged the 2011 Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award.

This story sounds so much like so many we can find right here. It's nice to see a story about a TG teen get an award.

Hugs,

Connie

Hi everyone yet another storm comes LOL LOL will it ?

I've posted chapter 17 of Amanda's Eyes on Fictioneer. As before, no tg content but a good dose of teen angst and romance. Some here have shown interest.

http://fictioneer.org/content/amandas-eyes-chapter-17-boo

Amanda finds some friends, Ken does an over the top halloween display and we see Kelly starting to understand what she's done.

Enjoy!
Woody

I was greeted this morning with the blue screen of death. All unbacked up work, including two and a half chapters of Sweat and Tears, down the pan. Sorry.

In a storyline that could have come right out of TopShelf, Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place now features a transgendered character, in a roundabout way.

For those not familiar with the series, it's about a family of wizards living in the modern world and how they cope with everyday situations.

One of the staple characters, Max, was inadvertently magically transformed into a young girl, "Maxine", on the last episode. The promo "and she might be sticking around awhile" is what amused me enough to finally post about it.

Recently an author asked if her writing sucked. Since writing is such a personal journey let's make that "Do I suck?"

Every author on Big Closet should look at Sue Brown's latest story . . . the second book of Football Girl.

It is as good as there is on BC. Yet, her latest chapter which was posted over two weeks ago has "only" attracted 1,475 hits, 88 kudos and 14 comments.

Many, many stories attract two to three thousand hits within the first two weeks of posting.

So just a quick update on the college front, since I promised a few of you I'd keep you posted when I knew something.

Essentially, I'm going to wait until the summer to start classes. I know this sounds like a cop-out, or that I'm backing out again, but really, it's not, and I actually owe you guys for it not being so for once :-)

Due to Illness the next chapter of 300 Rains is postponed. This last week I have been quite sick and often too tired to read, let alone write. So I have done no editing and very little reading and I am still plan on crashing early. I think it is safe to say that I have slept 30-32 hours of the last 48 and it was comparable the 48 prior to that. Next week I should have a chapter ready for you all. Sorry and take care.

Heather

Just wondering: Is my story Portia and the Double Whammy really that bad? Sixty reads, and not one kudo, not even a negative comment. Maybe the kudos aren't working. I guess real life situations are not that popular. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Portia

I'm probably well behind here and have missed something important, like the announcement that Kudos being interrupted for a while, which would explain where mine's gone. I've checked all the blogs back to before the New Year and haven't found anything. Have I not gone back far enough?

I just looked one day and there it wasn't.

Now compared to someone like Ang, whose Kudos looked like a phone number, mine just looked like loose change, but now I don't even have a zero.

Is it trying to tell me that I need to write something new?

I just wanted to make it clear the town of Fairbanks in my story isn't located in Alaska it's a town I made up in Alberta. It is not in Alaska. I made sure to mention that the town was in Alberta. And Just to Clarify things, Bridgeview is made up as well.

Sorry for any confusion everyone.
Bailey.

Had a difficult day and feel shattered, so I won't be posting tonight. Hopefully, back to normal tomorrow.

Angharad.

As promised, since it won a prize in the contest, I added an epilogue to Santa Monica.

Scroll down to the Kilroy-looking separator, where it says:

~o~O~o~
Epilogue:

I just posted a long blog about the uncanny parrallels between Steph's (Cyclist) story called Sweat and tears and the many abuses I suffered in care from aged six to fourteen.
The blog disappeared into the ether when I pressed submit so it's lost forever.

I'll try again.

In 1975 just after I got married, my wife, (to whom I'm still married)persuaded me to write a faction about my early life.

I scratched away for several months with pencil and several thick notebooks and then the story sat around in my attic for nearly 30 years.

My dad who will be 84 on March 25 underwent surgery Monday to have his right knee replaced. If all goes well he gets the other done this summer.

Between the bridgework -- courtesy of a rollover accident before I was conceived -- two artifical eye lenses and a cow valve in his heart there isn't alot left of the *original equipment*.

-- snicker --

Visited him last night with sis, The Evil BlondeTM, and he's doing well.

Not a real religious type but your prayers are welcome.

John in Wauwatosa

Well, my muse has made her call, and my "wild card" story drew the short straw, and i have begun the writing for it. To (hopefully) whet the appetite of my five fans (I am kidding, there might be ten of you), i will give you a quick little link to some info on the series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

My story takes place in 1989, just after George H.W. Bush is elected president in the U.S.

In the 1969 the United States Congress enacted legisdlation making it legal for 18 year olds to buy, possess, and drink alcohol. This legislation would be in effect until the Reagan Administration's The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed. for more information about what the Alcohol laws were before 1969, please go to a university law library and look at those statutes or if you live in a state capitol, go to the capitol law library. Even Wikipedia says that in the Reagan administration the law was passed declaring 21 to be the minimum drinking age.

Did anyone watch the Today Show this morning? They ran a segment on a 5 year old boy who likes to wear sparkly pink dresses and do other "girl" things. He started this when he was about 2. His mother said that she was uncomfortable with this at first and tried to distract him with saying "Why don't you play with this truck?" or other "boy" toys. After a while his older brother asked "Why can't you just let him be happy?" (Out of the mouths of babes!!) The mother then realised that this was HER problem and not his, and now supports him.

Now that Best Served Cold is winding down toward the end, I've started developing two new stories. The first will be a follow up Center story, that actually takes place at the same time as Best Served Cold, starring Mattie. The story will fill in some of the blanks of this story.

The second story is How To Be a Hero, a sequel to my Green Arrow story. The story will be told in a similar fashion like the first one, with a combination of present day events and flashbacks.

My question is which one do I do first?

Well, welcome to a new year, and a new decade. I havent done a lot of writing since finishing part 3 of "the lucky one". but i am less panicked about that than i would have been before. i have my "wild card" story to work on, a couple of ret-con ideas, sequels to a couple of my earlier stories, and my first and probably only attempt at a SRU story, and that's not counting having to try to write my way out of the box i put myself in for the conclusion of "The lucky one".

There was a commercial New Year's Eve party/event in Brooklyn last night, a big one. Two guys who are event organizers have been having these for several years. Three thousand people in a vacant 45,000 square foot industrial loft, themed as an airline terminal, with lots of people in costume. Airline stewardess seemed to be a popular one.

To all my dear friends here. Happy New Year.

Here's a lovely song that I absolutely fell in love with and I hope you enjoy as well.

The song is "Nella Fantasia" ("In My Fantasy") and is sung by Katherine Jenkins.

Much Love and all my best wishes to everyone here for the New Year.

Connie

Translation Below:

Italian:

Nella fantasia io vedo un mondo giusto,
Lᬠtutti vivono in pace e in onestá .
Io sogno d'anime che sono sempre libere,
Come le nuvole che volano,

This year has been amazing! I have finally made several moves to revealing the real me to my friends and some of my family. Some of them were very surprised, but they've generally accepted me for the girl that I am inside.
I've been able to tell some of my stories, and it feels so good that they've been fairly well accepted. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the friends I've made, and how much enjoyment I've had in enjoying your wonderful stories! Erin and Company, you do so much for all of us! I'm with Zoe Taylor, this is almost therapy for me! Thank you all, so much!

So as the first complete calendar year of my presence here draws to an end (I signed up sometime in 2009), I thought I'd kick off the greetings. And what better way to do that than via this message which is currently going viral in Facebook statuses...

Well, i was looking at my account the other day, and noticed I had passed the 1 year anniversary of being a member here. However, at the end of January, it will be one year since i published "The saga of E-Girl". A lot has changed for me since then, much of it for the good. I have (hopefully) improved as a writer, I have made some wonderful friends, Wand I have made serious progress in dealing with my rape, as well as my gender status. Who knows what the next year will bring? Not me, that's for sure. I would never have predicted what has happened this one. Happy new year, everybody.