The essence of who we are..

How do we ascertain who we are? Not just as men or women, but the attributes that make us contributing and worthwhile members of society at large.

We, as transmen and transwomen are actually being given an opportunity that few others in life ever have. We have the ability and the opportunity to re-make ourselves. To truly become the people we wish to be. To embrace attributes which we find admirable, and discard things that we find less than pleasant about ourselves.

I just read a romance novel that explains in story form many of the do's and dont's of a good author and the writing experience:
With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke copyright; 2009 Avon Books.

It is also an excellent story.

shalimar

I went through a round of antibiotics, but I think I still have the infection in me. Lately I have been very nauseous and been going to the bathroom often. I am extremely tired and achy and have little energy to do anything. I have a doctor's appointment on Wed. and hopefully we can figure it out. I don't have much faith since this is the doctor that missed the fact that I had an infection in the first place.

I was reminded of this story while reading,

certain things were mentioned and the old grey matter began to put pieces together.

I have had a lot of ups and downs the past few days. Unfortunately I've been suffering from major dehydration and had dance classes on Thursday and Friday. I also had to attend a dinner and dance last night so I've been resting and trying to keep myself hydrated when not doing those two things. It hasn't left any time to finish the chapter of Twice Removed, since I've been sleeping a lot.

It seems like forever since I last heard anything from Extravagance, our resident cat-kind v-boy.

Anybody know if he/she is okay?

I'd never heard of Tom Grace until he became Laura, but apparently she's some sort of pop singer with a band I've still never heard of and according to this article, some sort of trans icon. For those interested she's making some films about trans people for AOL.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/17/true-tra...

The link below is a thought provoking article about a murder suicide, the murder victim being a transgender woman, the suicide her partner. The events took place in Brisbane, Australia, and the article is as much about the Australian media's treatment of what is essentially a tragedy for everyone concerned.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/07/neither...

There's not a "News" category, so I just picked a couple that are somewhat relevant.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/magazine/when-women-become-men...

Apparently, there's an increasing number of TG's coming out at womens colleges. The article above is specifically about one 'trans-man' at Wellesley, but with asides about other colleges.

It's that time of month again. We've already paid several hundred in bills this month and we will be paying about more hosting fees and software fees later in the month, plus the amount we pay Piper for being available for all the work she does.

As always, these gifts are greatly appreciated and go for more than just keeping BC online since we host several other community sites and are getting involved with several more.

So...after the, I think, good advice I received on my other blog posting, I have decided to remove particular names in the Karma stories. I don't think I will stop writing Karma stories, as long as people enjoy them, but they will likely be purely fictional... (not to say I might not be inspired by actual events...) :)

Hugs!
Shauna

Hi all!

I am having fun with Karma... I hope you are, too! :)

I have some ideas for future installments...but, if you know of someone that needs a visit from Karma...feel free to send me a message with some details and I will see if I can get in touch with her... ;)

HUGS!
Shauna

If you follow the blogs you will know I put my best buddy to rest the end of August . We had 10 great years with Hershey . We have 2 adult dogs and now I am PROUD to announce it's a BOY . We went to Petsmart for adopt a pet Saturday and brought home a 3 month old pedigree 57 variety Heinz , a mix Terrier and maybe Sheppard his color is Brindle ( the coat looks like a Tabby Cat striped ) his name is Barney . Long time since we had a baby , good thing I have a carpet shampooer LOL.

I've taken about two weeks off from writing and it appears the ability has left me. I usually knock out 2000 words a day with minimal effort and have stories flying through my head at a breakneck speed. No longer. I am struggling just to get the next session of writing done, my thoughts aren't flowing, and it is really upsetting me.

I get more angry every day about this animal. He uses crocodile tears, the loss of his feet as a small child, black ties, wrenching in court and any trick he can to seek sympathy.
He had a gun, not just a weapon of self defense but a weapon of mass destruction, he had a motif since she clearly had argued with him, knowledge of the bedroom/bathroom layout, a bad temper, an arrogance, a jealousy, previous record of anger displays, shooting guns, scaring girlfriends and no witnesses.

Has anyone seen the article about Apple's next new product after the iPhone6? I was reading one of the online gadget sites and it appears that apple is about to release a toilet with Wifi access that will keep track of users waste in order to help with medical issues and also adapt to make better use of water/waste management. The $4000 unit is said to be able to save a family of 5 over $1000 a year and comes with a 10 year guarantee.

I feel pretty beat up, to be honest. Don't get me wrong, some of the critiques and criticisms are fair and I have learned a few things--hopefully to prevent misunderstandings better in the future (I don't believe you can ever fully prevent them).

What have I learned from 'Joey's Joy -- Chapter 2'?

So, I'm just starting to write a story with a huge Dragon as the protagonist. He, or she will have previously been a 14 year old boy, you know the drill. I am have been reading Anne McCaffery, so my Dragon will not hatch or be fighting strings. It bothers me that one of the story devices I plan to use is that my Dragon will draw his power from another dimension, but I can not remember who originated that concept on this site, so I can ask permission to use it.

There will be no religion in the story, cultural or otherwise. I will use conventional sexual role models.

has been feeding me snippets of stories.

If my memory is correct ( which it is once every blue moon or so )

mother, father and son in hotel room in Europe, France or Germany, bad guys break into room kill mom and dad, leave son for dead, with serious injuries, most severely in genitals.
I think mom and dad might have been in US diplomatic service.
after son recovers enough aunt and uncle take him in and back to US, however he is left with parents house and contents.

here is partial proof that figures don't lie, but liers figure:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aj-walkley/transgender-violenc...

Another birthday come and gone. On the boards where people knew that Oct 11 is my b'day, I got 1 message. One. Family was gone today at drama stuff, so I was alone - again. Neither sibling called.

The whole thing is depressing. Wish it didn't exist. Wonder if the world would notice if I didn't...

It has been pointed out that one or more of my characters might be charged under UK law for an incident at the end of

Advice would be welcome as a PM so as not to spoil the story

Thank you for your time to at least read this

Rhona

Britain's oldest sex change as James becomes Ruth at 81 thanks to NHS surgery

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/britains-olde...

Why?

I know I have it better than most.

I'm not starving. I'm not on the verge of being homeless, at least, not any mor so than any other poverty-level individual in our current economy. I'm not under any particularly large amount of stress at the moment.

So why do I still feel so worthless?

I've been trying, I really have. Trying to dedicate myself to self improvement, or to projects I've committed myself to, but... I just....

I was in Hong Kong yesterday having been reluctant to visit because of all the bad publicity about riots and tear gas on BBC World and CNN.
I didn't see any trouble and the protesting group had dwindled to about 50 people far in the distance from safety barriers.
The protesters weren't causing trouble last weekend but did get showered with pepper and tear gas. The reaction of the crowd was to keep passing water and protective items to the front line.no angry exchanges with tolerance.
I don't know why newscasters have to sensationalize everything.

Got a nasty surprise tonight when I fired up SKYPE. Last week it was fine. Tonight it is showing my REAL NAME! I went steaming down to the Microsoft store, ready to ... I don't know what! Instead of yell and cuss, I started crying. DAMN !

So, the guy patted me on the shoulder and told me I was going to be alright.

He changed my name on SKYPE twice and it changed it back again.

I just turned on SKYPE when I got home to return someone's call, but I now see it is 12:15 AM where she is. I'll try it tomorrow.

I have posted a story for hte contest, at least part one. The life and times of Mackenzie Somerset. I know I promised this almost 3 weeks ago, but life gets in the way.

As soon as I can finish it, Hope's Ranch and the next part to Through the years will be coming soon.

.... I was reading ' Shit Happens, But So Do Miracles! by Tanya Allan ' as there are some similarities.

Okay... So I'm feeling like crap; mentally, physically and spiritually.

I'm sick again, and while it's just strep, my doctor is wanting me to get chest x-rays to make sure that my weirdo pneumonia isn't coming back.

I have one friend left in the real world. He's dealing with his mom's stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And, he doesn't know about Erica Jane. So the friends I have, the ones I can really talk to are the friends I've made here.

Right now, depression, anxiety and the pain are just kicking my ass. And I think I'm losing it.

Hello to the land down under!

We need more down unders in our chat room. The primary chat room is in English and Murican but you could form another room to talk to people with other languages.

Please come in. It gets lonely in the night time in North America / Western Europe and the Phillipines.

Join us in your night time and you'll find someone to talk to eventually.

Just remember you have to hang out long term to find other people who join/part in a minute or less... You won't find anyone with that shotgun approach...

Dayna.

Well after the hiccups of the last couple of weeks I'm back to the normal posting day!

So new chapter here and on my website.

ttfn
Mads

Eagle eyed readers might note that I have withdrawn the story.

I think that I might have painted myself into a corner on that story and anyway some clever people who were kind enough to comment, stole my thunder and gave away the twist. Also, through another one of you clever so and so's, I realised that what I was trying to get my characters to do, wasn't legal and wouldn't stand up to close inspection.

Here was I thinking that I was a clever writer, but my readers are much more intelligent than me!

So, I heard somewhere, perhaps from a Doctor, that SRS and female hormones lessen the risk of or prevent Prostrate Cancer. I've been on hormones since around 95', and had SRS in 2007.

Gwen

Well I did it, just like I promised: one chapter of I Wish everyday until it was complete... or at least book one of it. Now a lot of you are not really happy with Sarah's sacrifice at the end and are uncertain where it will go from here. You've all stuck with me through the first book though and I ask that you continue to stick with me for at least the first chapter of book two, just to see where I'm going with this as it has been planned this way from the start.

Here's an update on my stories:

Unaccounted Gains Book 2 is continuing with a posting schedule of every 2 days (ish). It is brand new, never published elsewhere.
Tamara's Debut has 25 chapters and was first published in 2009/2010 on BCTS. It has been revised and re-edited prior to republication.
Eve Book 2 contains some material from earlier publication but is mostly new, I haven't decided when it will be published yet as I don't want to be posting more than two series at the same time.

Apologies for no Bike last night. I did try to blog to explain things but on clicking on save, I got the dreaded, ‘This page can’t be displayed.’ I didn’t have the energy to retype it. There will be an episode today, I’ll finish the one I started last night before I zonked.

Hey all
I just heard on the news the other day that the world's first successful womb transplant was proven by the Swedish woman who gave birth to a healthy baby. The procedure is said to be able to give women with no uterus a chance ofor being a part of the miracle of child birth. Modern medicine WOw

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-first-baby-born-to-woman-w...

In a medical first, a woman in Sweden has given birth after receiving a womb transplant, the doctor who performed the pioneering procedure said Friday.

The 36-year-old mother received a uterus from a close family friend last year. Her baby boy was born prematurely but healthy last month, and mother and child are now at home and well. The identities of the woman and her male partner were not disclosed.

Since the recent upgrade, the module "Ignore User" has been throwing errors in the logs for the site. It appears that the module was not properly updated for the newest version of the coding language used in the rest of the software; it's out of step. Accordingly, we have turned it off temporarily.

We hope that the maintainer of the IU module will release a new version soon, but if he doesn't, we will step up and hack the code to fix the problem. IU is part of what helps keep the peace around here and gets a lot of use. We will restore it to use as quickly as practicable.

New Pro Transgender Law:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/keeping-your-eye-on...

It's been a while since I've been able to find it, but at one time there was an alphabetical list of stories on this site, a vast multipage listing that listed everything, by chapter (yes, skipping past Bike took forever). What happened to it? Too resource hogging? It was handy if one remembered the title, but couldn't remember the author. It was also nice for just browsing.

I'm not hallucinating, right? Does anyone else remember this as being here?

Test

Reading today's local paper I discovered that the local Community College is putting on a production of Leading Ladies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_Ladies). A farce.