Category Archives: Just for Fun

Stand By Me

Posted on 21 February 2009 | 2 comments

Sometimes things look more hopeful than other times. Sometimes you get good news and it gives you hope.

I want to start a piece of writing with: The first time he said he was a Trans-Man, I thought he said Trans-Am and the words took me back to the early 90s when every guy I knew had a run-down Trans-Am, Camaro, or Nova they were “fixing up.”

They were constantly talking about faulty trannies, souped up hot rod engines, sleepers, and paint jobs. There is something to being a Trans-Man and a Trans-Am having a faulty tranny. There is a bit of word slippage in the idea that somehow reminds of the dire need of men to guard and bolster their own masculinity. Is this accomplished by fixing their trannies? Is this accomplished by having a big engine that one does not suspect like in a sleeper? I need to tease this out more, but I know a stolen dildo and a leather harness figure in somewhere.

Right now, I am watching a movie that I should have seen years ago. When it came out, my mother wouldn’t let me watch Stand By Me because it was too violent and they swore too much. I think the story outweighs the unnecessary crudeness. In fact, the crudeness is a good part of the story of growing up. Isn’t it?

I wonder, am I better now for having seen it? I think so, but I will have to reflect more once I am finished wiping my warm, wet cheeks.

Today will be filled with writing. I have to write a letter of recommendation for a friend, my CV (resume), my educational philosophy, and a formal observation of one of my professors. I also have to read Jubilee, American Anatomies, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City, and two articles for one of my classes. It never ends.

I want to write some short-short memoir pieces to cobble together into one for publications. I need to revise the pieces I already have written and I need to send them out for publishing.

One day I will get everything done.

2 Comments

Posted in Just for Fun, Queer, School, Writing

A Gift Idea

Posted on 25 January 2009 | 2 comments

Here is a great gift idea—not for me—for someone you love. Not only can you feel good about the product, but you can feel good about the creator of it. Beautiful on many accounts, as far as I am concerned.

2 Comments

Posted in Christmas, Gleaning, Just for Fun, Politics, Relationships, Religion, Writing

Diving. Scheduling. And Ginsberg.

Posted on 22 January 2009 | 1 comment

Tonight I am going to watch high school diving. My brother coaches. I love diving and I hate it. The beauty of it intrigues me. The danger of it undoes me. And, I despise those few second between the leap and the landing: reverses are the worst.

Even Greg Louganis, the world’s best diver at the time, cracked his head doing a reverse. Of course, he went on to win both the spring board and the platform competition that year. The dive that actually won the platform competition for him was a reverse dive. Irony.

I think I have an aversion to reverse dives because I saw someone land on the board trying to complete one. She didn’t get hurt, but I was afraid in that split-second that she would break her neck. Possibly I was afraid she would fall from the board into the pool and drown, surrounded by life guards too stunned to move.

Last semester, I didn’t have room to breathe. This semester, I can’t seem to get on a schedule. I read next week’s assignment this week, and didn’t remember to do this week’s assignment. Having too much time is sometimes worse than not having enough.

Finally, I will leave you with this, some of my favorite Ginsberg from Howl:

who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyed shrew that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman’s loom,

who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and some eluding the last gyzym of consciousness,

who sweetened the snatches of a million girls trembling in the sunset, and were red eyed in the morning but prepared to sweeten the snatch of the the sunrise, flashing buttocks under barns and naked in the lake, …

1 Comment

Posted in Just for Fun, Queer, Relationships, Swimming

Is this really necessary?

Posted on 17 January 2009 | 2 comments

This may not be.

This definitely is.

2 Comments

Posted in Feminism, Just for Fun, PBJ, Pedagogy, Politics, Rhetoric, Teaching

Ice: My Kryptonite

Posted on 10 January 2009 | 2 comments

I got up this morning ready to go. I had put my shoes, sweatpants, watch, headband, and new Smartwool running socks (I recommend these heartily by the way) next to the bed. My plan was to get up, get dressed, walk the dogs, take my first “long run” of three miles. I call it a long run because that is what the plan calls it. Three miles in my mind is not a long run.

I got up, got dressed, and came down stairs only to find a layer of ice covering the entire world. If you know me, you know I cannot walk on ice so there is no way I could run on it. For those of you who say that running on ice is easier than walking, I am in agreement. I have tried that, and while it is easier, it is still not beneficial nor elegant. I slide just as easily moving faster.

I am hoping that it will warm up enough for some of the ice to melt, so that I can go out this afternoon. I thought about going to Ball Gym to use the track, and I thought about using an eliptical or treadmill at Irving, but there is something incredibly unsatisfactory about the jogging experience when it is done indoors. I feel like a hamster.

Until then, here I sit: typing instead of jogging. I have spent the last half-hour surfing the Net, checking up on old friends, and Stumbling through a couple of websites.

Last night, I spent almost half and hour looking for some new running shoes. I want a website that is a collective of fat runners doing shoe reviews. I usually prefer Asics because they seem to have better support and a stronger, longer-lasting upper. Last spring, when I first started jogging again, I went to Indianapolis to a specialty running store to have my gait analyzed and to find “the perfect shoe” for my foot.

I hate the shoes I bought. Over a hundred dollars for a pair of Brooks GTS 8s. They do support well for the slight pronation I have, but the sole and the padding that prohibit the turning of my ankles makes the ball of my foot slide to the outside of the toe box.

They only have about six months or about 360 miles of walking/jogging and they are already shredded. They are in worse shape than the pair of Asics TN 724s I bought them to replace. And, I reiterate that they are NOT comfortable.

For the first month or so, they were heavenly. The workers at the Indy Running Company were right about that part, but they are not made for a heavy runner. My friend Sarah wears them. They are her favorite shoes. She probably weighs a hundred pounds wet—half my weight! She can have them. I will take my Asics.

All this brings me around to my point: can someone start a Clydesdale or Athena website that is helpful to those of us who are a little larger but still like the feel of a good jog? There are plenty of blogs, personal webpages, and the like, but you would think some company like Asics or New Balance or Saucony would create a webpage for their fat clientel. Every fat runner I know wears one of the three above types of shoes. I’m just saying they could make a fortune!