Blasts from the past series

Although the original idea for having two blogs (this one and Jacky’s Place) was to have all the transition stuff here and everything else over there, after a while, like many trans people, I realised that I can’t neatly divide myself that way. I am a whole person. So a few months back, I started transferring posts from my older blog, Jacky’s Place. The idea was to have a gradual flow and also to have the older posts from the old blog get highlighted here upon their arrival, as they would be placed in a more recent position. The enthusiasm wore off and I just decided to do a full import of the old blog. Since my last post over there was in June 2008, and since the imported posts just get merged, time-wise, anyone wanting to read what I wrote on diverse topics would have to go back through the old stuff before that date. I don’t assume that anyone’s that big of a Jacky fan (except for that one stalker . . . you know who you are ; )so I went through and put them all in the category: “Blast from the past series.” So if you’re curious about what was going on in the mind of pre-transition Jacky, you’re welcome to check it out. Most of it is not gender related. Remember though that most of the posts were written by Nancy, the pre-transition me so don’t be too confused about female self-references! And of course, all of us change so it’s quite possible that I no longer completely agree with myself on all the finer points and nuances I previously made.

In the end, I do still have two blogs. I’ve deleted Jacky’s Place but I now also have Anthro Jack. This case is a bit different since I use this blog to spread awareness in my host community of the anthropological fieldwork that I’m doing. It’s a link that I give out freely to colleauges, students and blood family and it will also eventually contain information about professional presentations that I do. So these two blogs are much more different in intent and character than Tboy Jacky and Jacky’s Place ever were.

Blast from the past: Pink Triangle

(Originally written April 5, 2006 on my old blog. I’m transferring this now because I gave this talk again twice this week. A friend accompanied me to one of them and, in the car ride home after, she mentioned that she had the same realisation that I discuss at the end of this post. So as I sit at home recovering once again from having to deal with this gruesome topic but also from the energy of raising much needed awareness on the issue and reflecting on how I now fear more violence as a visibly queer guy than I ever did before, I thought it would be a good time to transfer this post.)

Maybe you already know this symbol . . . it can often be seen in connection to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) communuty. Perhaps you already knew that the origin of this symbol can be found in Nazi concentration camps where not only Jews, Roma, people with disabilities and Jehova’s Witnesses were persecuted but where at least 10,000 homosexual and bisexual men were persecuted as well. I’m assuming that people who would, today, perhaps identify as trans women were included as well. Heck, some hetero men who were perceived as gay were probably in there as well since gossip was commonly used as evidence.

Blast from the past II: Dating site rant

All this talk of dating has made me want to transfer another blast from the past over to this blog from my other blog that is on it’s way to cyber oblivion. I first wrote this as a note on Facebook in December 2007. I was still living as female but I had just decided to transition. So my experience of dating sites up until then had all been as female. Enjoy!

Blast from the past I – An intermittent obsession

I’m beginning to transfer blog posts from my other more “general” blog over to here so that I can close down Jacky’s Place. This post was actually first written on my first blog ever on Friendster. I transferred it to Jacky’s Place, and now I’m transferring it here with the hopes that it will find a permanent home. I was still identifying as female when I wrote this, which explains some of my comments on heterosexuality in reference to attraction to men. I thought this would be appropriate to bring over hot on the heels of the post where I described last’s year’s identity crisis about my sexual orientation

Blast from the past: Canada apologises for Residential Schools . . .now what?

A mere 9 months after refusing to sign the U.N. declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, Stephen Harper formally apologises to  Canada’s Aboriginal peoples for a system of assimilation that has had destructive effects up until today. The residential school system, funded by the federal government and run by churches, isolated Aboriginal children from their families and communities so that they could more easily be assimilated into Euro-Canadian cultures. Inside the schools, siblings were seperated and children were forbidden to speak their languages or practice their culture in any way. Living conditions for these children were abhorrent: bad ventilation, overcrowding, bad heating in the winter and rotten food led to much illness and death. Furthermore, since the schools were badly funded, children were often forced to work on school grounds on tasks such as farming, cleaning and so forth rather than get an actual education.

Blast from the past: Suicide and Life

A few weeks ago was Suicide Prevention Week. It got me thinking. A lot. I don’t actually have a problem with suicide. I think that, in some cases, it’s a legitimate decision for someone to take their life and start all over again, somehow. I have no idea what happens to us – our spirits, souls or whatever the hell it is that makes us US – when we die but I’m pretty sure we don’t just disappear. In any case, who is anyone else to assess the legitimacy of what someone wants to do with their own life anyway?

Blast from the past: Of sex and scamming

I got fucked! I got screwed! I got fucked in the ass!

No, I’m not describing my first gang bang (although . . . ummmm . . . never mind). These are all phrases people would use not to describe their latest experiences as a sexual penetratee, but situations in which they were ripped off or deceived.

Blast from the past: Gracious – A prog rock discovery that led to some weird, psychadelic stuff happening in my brain

(Originally written a long, long time ago and transferred between a couple of old blogs.)

Close friends know this story. A long time ago, when I was 20, I lived with a guy who was 17 years my senior. It ended in disaster (sort of) but the upshot is that, while I was with him, I was exposed to tons of excellent music that existed before I had even been born in 1973. Among this music was a gem of a band called Gracious.

Blast from the past: Up the Irons!

(Originally written July 29, 2005 on a much older blog)

Well, I’m still in the afterglow of yet another fantastic Iron Maiden adventure. I don’t believe I could ever get tired of seeing the boys live and of feeling the music course through my veins in a way that just isn’t possible when listening to them on the stereo.

We were 3rd row this time and the guards at the Collisée Pepsi in Quebec would not let us move up to the gate for some strange reason . . . but it was still a great show.

Blast from the past: Roland’s clearing at the end of the path . . .

(Originlly written in 2006 on a much older blog)

**Spolier alert! Read past the “read more” link or the stars at your own risk!**

. . . is not what one would have expected. And mere minutes after having discovered this, I’m not as sad as I thought I would be upon finishing this 7-part series describing the adventure of Roland of Gilead, the last true Gunslinger, and his ka-tet.

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