I hope I'm not being tiresome in reposting interesting tidbits I find elsewhere on the 'net every once in awhile.

This story is about an FTM man, legally married to a woman, who opted to carry their child when she couldn't.

For me, the most interesting part is the behavior of the medical staff where they live, putting their own petty attitudes above the health and welfare of their patient.

Andrea James is a young transwoman whose career I have followed for a few years. My first impression of her was that she was another man struggling to make a new life, and at first it seemed somehow flawed. My heart went out to her; and my wishes for her to succeed.

A few weeks ago, I saw a clip with her in it. Her voice was flawless, and she was pretty; no trace of "Frank" there.

I find that I am very lucky in that the Church that I attend truly accepts everybody for who and what they are. I hope that all of us here at Big Closet Top Shelf can find a Church Home where they are accepted.

Sad news, another great gone. Feels like a little bit of the future has gone with him.

The town where I live was expanded from a small market town during the nineteen sixties, spreading out into the surrounding countryside. As the newly developed areas were built on greenfield sites finding street names has been something of a problem - one area has streets named for composers, another for islands and another for Roman emperors!

My installments will be late this week, and probably next week as well. I knew that having guests over for Easter would be throwing my schedule off, but I hadn't taken a serious look around the house to see how much cleaning I needed to do before I'd be comfortable with company.

So if you don't see me around here in the next week or so, nothing serious has happened.

A friend of mine told me this little snippet:

Pick up a mirror, lie on your back and look at the reflection of your face; this is what you looked like ten years ago.

Sit up and look at your face in the mirror; this is obviously what you look like now.

Put the mirror on your bed/ floor and look down at your reflection; this is what you will look like in ten years time.

I keep stating that I can't believe this is still running, and now after 236 episodes, I feel a need to check that you as readers want me to continue churning out this stuff.

Angharad.

PS thanks for the support you've shown throughout this story.

Yeah well I'm like that. I get these random thoughts and they wander all over the shop and end up a million miles from the starting point so you sit and go… huh, how'd I get here.

I recently went through a bout of depression that knocked me about just a bit. Well, I did look in every now and then but I didn't comment and I didn't add anything anywhere. Just couldn't see…

I bought a fence for my doggelle and put it up today. Now I'm in pain, hope to be feeling better after taking pain meds but need to flake out for a few hours at least.

The doggette had a good time in the yard though, she caught a three inch long grasshopper. :) It was almost worth kranging my back to watch her. She didn't know whether to attack or run and hide. :)

... by some strange quirk of fate, I was born.

In my cruising about the internet, I have noticed a few things that may or may not signal a trend.

I'm disappointed in the resignation of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

A spammer who left a list of links in a comment this morning has been banned from the server.

- Erin

I am sharing these following details so that those who have not completed this journey will either be too frightened to continue or go into SRS with a more realistic view. Had I realized how significantly different my experience would be from what others had described, perhaps I would have thought things out more thouroghly, though I doubt that it would have changed my ultimate destination.

I thought I'd write an introduction for my currently serialised piece.

First of all, it's very different to anything else I've written, which tend to be surreal, very personal stories based on my own life experiences. I'll start posting those after I get done with this one. As you can probably guess, this one has very little to do with my life experiences! Unless you count being glued to the telly-box everytime a Bond film came on during my childhood...

It's finally happened. I normally use the computer 8-10 hours a day; done it for a couple years and had no propblem. Suddenly, my right arm and shoulder are hurting like there is a daemon loose in my body, and my left is not far behind. I hope this resolves soon.

It is just awful, since those of you who write deserve generous comments, but they won't be coming from me for a while.

Sorry

"If either of us had a gun in his hand..."

Take a look. :)

- Erin

Old friends remember what you like....

At http://fictioneer.org, please check it out and leave a comment.

Thanks,
Joyce

My non-TG serial about a retired assassin continues at Fictioneer!

- Joyce

Having some trouble getting things done, you may have noticed.

It's not just stuff on the site. I need time to recover which I will, I'm pretty resilient about stuff like this but just bear with me while I work through it.

Hugs to all,
Erin

I saw a really interesting site with writing tips from authors in mp3 format.

Writing Excuses

Aardvark

Last week I participated in a funeral in the Taoist tradition in Hong Kong. While funerals are not most peoples' preferred activity the older you get the more of them you witness.

The Chinese experience is so different I thought I'd share it. Firstly, Taoism is the traditional religion of China with multiple gods and "saints". The terms don't translate exactly, so I'll approximate.

I have... a cunning plan. It's so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel. It's so cunning it could... er... enough stealing lines from Rowan Atkinson. I have... an idea!

I was just wondering how things were progressing at GabyZone? I have severe withdrawal symptoms.

Does anyone know how things are going?

Gabi

Okay girls, it's time for me to go.

I've posted two long stories in a relatively brief period of time, and it's been fun, especially the feedback, even when I didn't like it. =)

yes, it's me back to wittering on about St David's Day again, and why it's important to me (brace yourself, there's a bit of lifestory thrown in too) :)

Mothering Sunday is NOT the same thing as Mothers' Day. It falls every year on the fourth Sunday of Lent and is a Church of England festival. Originally it was the day when the nobility allowed their servants to go and visit their mothers, taking a small posy as a gift.

He changed his name but he could not change his nature...

The second installment of my suspense novel or whatever it is, is up at http://fictioneer.org.

Please take a look and tell me what you think.

Hugs,
Joyce

Happy St David's Day everyone! I'm up early to get a headstart on the leeks....

There is a wonderful poem written by a 12 year old girl in today's Dear Abby column. It's called "Don't Judge" by Lealia Xiong from Guilford, Conn. The poem can be read in it's entirety online here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucda/20080229/lf_ucda/girlspoemurges...

Just posted a short mood piece at http://Fictioneer.org. Have a look. :)

Thanks,
Joyce

If anyone is the least bit interested in knowing what I've posted over at Fictioneer!

I volunteer a couple days a week at my church. The people there have been just wonderful.

When did I know? That is a tough question. During my pre-school to the third grade I was believed to be mentally retarded. To say I was aware I was different is to make a huge understatement. Those years in school wasn't pleasant at all and whatever other problems was lost surviving in the middle of desegregation during the late sixties here in the South.

Hi everyone... Time for the latest update.

Mom came through with flying colors, my friend is FINALLY out of prison, sent there for a crime he didn't commit, and I got my first royalty check from Lulu from sales of my book, Headlights Girl!!!!!

All in all, life is pretty good right now, for the first time in a long time, even though I'm, still fighting a cold, and KimEm is in hospital.

Feb 28th is the second anniversary of Bob Arnold's Stardust site. There are stories that are posted there first or only, so take a look. :)

We are all made of Stardust!

Hugs,
Erin

Well, it's all out there. I wan't kidding when I said it was like sending a kid off to college. I've lived with this story for quite a while and continued to learn more about the characters, who, quite frankly, I really like.

When I was sitting on top of a mythical Tibetan mountain listening to my mythical mentor - One Flung Lo, I recalled something he mythically said to me.

'Lotus Blossom, never look for accolades for if you seek, you shall never find.'

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/02/25/porter.too.pr...

I think it is pretty obvious why these two created such a stir. If I could look like that they could kick me off every flight.

Maybe they should offer complementary Burqas?

giggle

Gwen

Better look at this quick before it is gone. Yeah, totally.

I've just posted a new Julie O story called Game, Set, Match on Stardust. It will be available on FM and other sites shortly as well.

Bob Arnold

Hi all... Time for another Update....

Here are the facts as I know them at time of this posting:

• The Cardiac Catheriation (to be done late morning or early afternoon on Febuary 25, 2008) is not to see if the valve replacement is needed. It is to see if they need to do a bypass while they are in there doing the valve replacement.

I am wondering from the comments if I should try to continue the Transbike story. I must admit that it was fun to pen the story and will continue if enough people ask me too. Now if anybody wants to ride the bike, let me know. Simply either in a comment let me know.

We 'Cymro' - the people, have little to celebrate. We're a small nation overrun in mediaeval times by our larger and more powerful neighbour, but never quite subdued.

She who must obeyed and I are going to the pictures tonight. We are seeing a film called The Bucket List.

I know you all have been wondering where Sephrena has been, well we were spending a week together here in Seattle and in a hotel too ^^ Well the magical week is over and now we
had to go our separate ways. SO don't worry, I'm not holding her "hostage" any longer, she should be back later tonight, see you all later ^^

Love,

Princess Chelsea

I've been working on a story for the last few days (unplanned, the idea came to me on the bus home from work), but I'm a bit concerned about the setting. Originally it was to be set partly during the Great War, but I was afraid of it being too dark, so I switched it to the Second Boer War, and a lighter ending. Here's the problem...