November 20: Remember

I Stayed up until 10:30 in the Morning and it was Worth It

I wrote my first research brief (my first school-induced overnighter), also known as a position paper, for my Community Leadership and Development class. As I frequently do, I wrote about LGBTQ kids, specifically, LGBTQ youth and suicide prevention. The first draft was worth 30 points. Here is the front cover with grade. "Outstanding in every way. You're done," which means I've got no rewrites to do!

Read the (outstanding!) paper here.

I Lurves Me Some Tina Fey!

She's receiving the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy! Hooray, Tina!

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

via HuffPo

Hank Learns the Bad News

"I just told Hank about the words 'Speaker of the House John Boehner.'"

via Slog

Fa La La La La: A Local Christmas Experiment

Since I'm still in school, and we have limited monies for Christmas gifts, we're trying some new things:

1. J and I aren't gifting to each other. Boo.... I guess my present from J is ... school? Blerg.
2. We're planning to buy all our gifts locally/regionally. This is savvy in regards to money and in regards to the environment. It means no Amazon, no extra monies for shipping and no carbon footprint for the transportation of an item from wherever it comes from to Broad Street, no disappointment if the UPS driver leaves a note instead of a package. Not only will we be supporting the local economy, we'll be able to give slightly larger gifts since we won't be paying for shipping from 5, 8, 12 different online purveyors.
3. Additionally, we'll be patronizing local shops, bookstores, farmers markets and craft shows and only hitting the big box stores if we have to.
4. We're not buying any wrapping paper this year. We'll be using what we have or what we find or what we can repurpose.

J and I both really love giving totally unique gifts; hopefully we'll be able to find and gift neat things despite the (lack of) local shopping options. I suppose I can concede on gift amazingness provided that we're being better to the planet and the local economy. If it goes well, we'll probably try it again!

image via Perfect Duluth Day

It Gets Better: Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles

I love this.

BTW

I got my first haircut in six months today. SIX MONTHS, folks!!

And Now... (drum roll)

A baby in a watermelon eating a watermelon!

Thanks, boingboing! I needed that!

Over-Thinking is Classic Lisa

So, I've volunteered twice at Identity, the LGBTQ youth drop-in center which is affiliated with the Southern Tier Aids Program (STAP). Identity is where I'll do my 120-hour internship during my Spring 2011 semester.

If you've been paying any attention to me at all, you know LGBTQ rights and equality and activism and related topics are pretty G-damn important to me. I do a lot of research and writing on LGBTQ youth, I really have a heart for this population. I'm also really into LGBTQ kids not killing themselves after they've been marginalized and overexposed to homophobic, heteronormative, hateful, and oppressive surroundings. By extension, I'm really into the It Gets Better Project. Further, I'm pro the obliteration of DOMA and DADT (speaking of which, WTF, Barack? What are you doing? I am totally your friend, but I just don't understand). So, considering all that, I'm volunteering at Identity!

Brief deviation: I think I may ultimately be more cut out for LGBTQ advocacy, but since I don't know anything for sure, this is a totally reasonable and fitting segue, right? Right.

Back to Identity: like I said, I've only been twice. I don't have a great feel for what I'm supposed to do now or what I might be doing during my internship. I just keep getting told that I'm going to "work with the youth." Really? Ok.... Besides general uneasiness about newness, the main thing I've been concerned with is this: do I mention/refer to my husband. After my second afternoon at Identity, I'd decided that maybe I should refer to J as my partner and let folks assume what they may. In a world where these kids are often "the other," at Identity, they're not; I am (or maybe I'm not; I kind of feel like I am). So, allies are great! I think these kids think allies are great, right? I just don't know what to say. I don't want to seem too "straight" and estrange myself and then maybe they don't trust me? Or they don't accept me like they would if I fit better into their initialism? ::furrow:: So, J is my partner...?

Skip ahead eighteen hours. I was watching my favorite YouTube webcast everyone is gay, and I was making J watch a couple episodes, too. (I have to watch so much boring or annoying shit that he likes; I made him watch a couple episodes of something I like.) Anyway, it just so happens that one of the questions to my favorite lesbian advice-givers (from their bio: "Kristin and Dannielle are girls who like girls, and who give advice to those who are confused about sexuality, gender identity, dating, falling in love, or even dressing up like Super Woman") had an answer just for me. I'm not going to tell you about the question and answer; you have to watch it yourself and you should. "My" question is the second one and starts after the brief lip-sync to Rocky Horror Picture Show. Don't let me down. Watch this; it's not long at all. Maybe you'll understand more of what my goal is and you'll learn something about what is exceptionally critical to me (and about a gajillion other peeps).

UPDATE: Speed up to 3:58 or so to see "my" question and answer if you can't take the 7 or 8 minutes to see the whole thing.

We're all a community. Well, we are in my head and in the heads of Kristin and Dannielle. So, J is my husband? Discuss.

image via everyone is gay

I Just Learned This Word: Defenestration

Definition of DEFENESTRATION

1

: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window

2

: a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)

— de·fen·es·trate transitive verb

Origin of DEFENESTRATION

de- + Latin fenestra window

First Known Use: 1620

via Radio Lab: Falling (the portion about the cats falling out of windows) and Merriam-Webster

It Gets Better: Bishop Gene Robbinson Comes to the Defense of a Loving God

Overheard in the J and L House

The radiators make loud and creeeeeepy noises. Grumbling, bubbling, hissing, wheezing, whistling, gurgling. This house is scary! And it might be a very old, dying man.

Suggested Viewing: Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell on Jimmy Fallon!

Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell from NPR's Wait wait... Don't tell me! Yesssss!

It Gets Better: A Theological Response

Professor Stephen Sprinkle is "out and free" and is an ordained Baptist minister and professor of divinity at Brite Divinity School. His message is honest and wise, and I loved hearing his encouraging and courageous story. "Tie a not at the end of your rope and hang on."

via Slog

Re: Actual Required Viewing

I know I can't actually make you watch it. But you should. You really, really, really should. I mean it.

Actual Required Viewing

Please, please watch this. Please spread it around.

The Advocate:

Writer Dan Savage is reaching out to LGBT teenagers to let them know life may be difficult now, but "it gets better."

The "It Gets Better" Project is inspired by the suicide of 15-year-old Indiana teenager Billy Lucas, who hanged himself last week in his family's barn after enduring bullying from his classmates. After writinga post on The Slog about Lucas's death last week, one commenter expressed a desire to have spoken to him to tell him that things get better.

Just Sayin'

via Married to the Sea

Re: Hellllllllo, Broad Street!

Yesterday, we had a most excellent housewarming party. Some of my very favorite people were there, and I was so happy. Superb friends and family, Jessica & Sung, tasty foods, David & Dan, good wine and beer, Amanda & Jamie, old and new friends, Mark (& Stacy) old and new memories, Eric & Tiffany, catching up, Mom and Dad, gummy bears, Lauren, Uncle Richard, Apples to Apples. 808 1/2 Broad Street has never had a better day. Thanks, thanks, everyone!

p.s. why were there so many cameras but not one picture? nuts!

Re: Fall 2010

Here's what I'm actually taking (not this) this semester:

• Social Justice
• Holistic Health Practices
• Child Welfare Policies
• Community Leadership & Development

I've finished my second week of classes, and I'm pretty sure this semester is going to be a good one. Here are some neat things coming up (I don't care if Christopher Moore says bulleting things isn't blogging. He hasn't written anything good since 2006.):

• I'll be attending a local training on Child on Child Sexually Aggressive Behavior
• I'll be on a research panel for a study on body image in young women
• I'll be attending a workshop in Syracuse on LGBTQ Teens and Suicide Prevention
• I am in the process of writing a research brief on LGBTQ teens and suicide
• I have an interview at Planned Parenthood for my Spring 2011 internship
• I'll be researching the Southern Tier Aids Program (STAP, one of my favorite local organizations) and SayIT intervention team, a part of the Crime Victims Assistance Center

I feel energized and excited to be involved in more than just my required class work. I can feel that my interests are sharpening and that soon I'll have a good sense of which population (LGBTQ teens, women in crisis) I'm most suited to advocate for and work with.

I definitely have a bee in my bonnet about going to grad school next year. I feel like I'm really amping up and will definitely be ready to flourish very soon. The question is whether or not we can afford it (we can't). If we figure out a way to pay for it (LOANS!), by the time I'm finished and start a career, will I have time for a baby? Which is more important to me? What if I forgo grad school for a baby and my parts don't work? It may seem as though I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm not. This is the exact semester during which I need to do all sorts of work about grad school. I feel like if I don't do it now, I may not ever; I don't know if that's ok with me.

Smaller Than a....

Yesterday, I was listening to "A Way With Words," an NPR show (I listen via podcast) about words and grammar and language-all things that I love. On this particular episode, entitled "Sufficiently Suffonsified,"A Japanese woman called to ask about the expression "happy as a clam." As the hosts, Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, were talking to her, they asked her about other Japanese colloquialisms. The caller shared that, when describing something that is very small, folks from her area of Japan often say that something is "smaller than a cat's forehead." Isn't that great! You know where this is going, right? I want to start saying that very small things are smaller than a bunny's forehead! That's pretty small!

p.s. This isn't exactly her forehead, but Olive is only so amenable (which is to say, not very).