xoros

So end of last week our internet broke. Completely. No web, phone or television. Mainly we didn’t notice on Saturday but wow, with all three down you really see how much time these things can be. A way to stave off boredom and stop you having to work to find something to do.

Actually Saturday was lovely, we went into town, shopped, ate out and generally enjoyed our own company. Sunday dragged a little but was still nice. Monday sucked, but on the plus side the apartment is so very clean now!

We did cheat, we watched some DVDs.

For a weekend it was rather nice. No distractions and having to find things to do together. But we really did notice how much we rely on the internet and phone to stay in touch. Without them you easily get quite isolated from the world.

So I think I’m about done with my blog theme. It was fun to do actually! I like the banner image most, it’s a tram from the city where I live all blurry and such unsubtly edited to have my blog title on it. Go me! Anyway, blog theme play done with

Rather than build the whole thing from scratch I found a nifty open source Wordpress theme framework called Thematic that let me just hang my styling off it’s hooks without having to duplicate content. In fact I can build as many themes on it as I care too, each one only containing the bits it needs such as a CSS styling or perhaps a custom page here and there, all working off the main framework. Cunning! I tried to keep the overall look clean and simple. Much as a gorgeous and visually complex website is nice to look at, they can be a bit off putting if the actual reason you are there is to read text. For that you can’t beat a bit of white background minimalism as I always say, well I don’t, but I might if I was extremely geeky and made websites all the time. Hmmm something to avoid there then!

Now I got going I’ve decided I want to personalise my blog a bit more than tweaking someone else’s theme. So if the appearance of this blog starts to vary wildly between visits… now you know why!

I think the thing I find most intriguing about the internet is that you get a really full range of humanity’s quirks. You can be uplifted, moved and educated. Equally you can be infuriated, depressed or moved to despair.

Often all on one page.

One of the things about being in a minority is you are, well, a minority. Sometimes it can be difficult to find people who share your experiences and position. This is certainly so for trans people.

Enter the internet. Someone pointed me to the Questioning Transphobia blog, and I spent several hours following links, being exposed to ideas I hadn’t come across before, being further radicalised in my trans feminism…

The post trail led me to one on the blog Taking Up Too Much Space that I want to link particularly: Put the Goddamn Space in: “transwoman” “transfeminism” “transmasculine” etc (language politics #1). Wow. this one just made me stop, think, reasses and feel empowered.

I’m off to do more reading now and to stoke up the fires of my pride and outrage.