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EleCivil

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Posts posted by EleCivil

  3. Tom Gabel Comes Out as Transgendered

    in News & Views

    Posted

    http://www.rollingst...gender-20120508

    WOW. Apparently I'm a month or so late hearing this, but I was kind of shocked.

    Tom Gabel is the vocalist/guitarist for the punk band Against Me!. I don't know how many of you follow the punk scene, but about a decade ago they released "Reinventing Axl Rose", one of the most respected and influential punk albums in recent history.

    I'm wondering if hormone therapy will change his singing voice, because he's got this rough-around-the-edges punk-rock snarl that is decidedly masculine. I've seen these guys live a few times...now I'm hoping they come back, because I want to hear Laura's voice.

    If I'm not mistaken, Tom/Laura might be the first rock star to transition genders while still active/touring. It'll be interesting to see the reaction of the general public. The punk scene as a whole (fascist-punks aside) are generally very supportive and welcoming of LGBTQ people, and a strong distaste for gender binaries and traditional social views of masculinity/femininity, so the few comments I've seen so far have been positive.

    He's said that he plans to stay married to his wife, and stay with his daughter.

    I must say, I didn't see this coming, but I probably should have. Listen to the second verse to this song (starts around 1:30). The one that begins "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman. My mother once told me she would have named me Laura."

    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HvWeP18RpmM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    Before/After:

    tom-gabel-2.jpgmain.jpg

  4. deus ex machina

    in Writers' Workshop

    Posted

    It could be made to work, of course, by setting it up, but just to happen to have it there when needed, and left there by the crook, boggles the imagination.

    This.

    If you need to do something like this, and you set it up right, it can become a fun "Oh man, if they hadn't missed this one tiny detail..." scenario. But then again, that would mean it's not a deus ex machina anymore.

  6. Ray Bradbury dies at age 91

    in News & Views

    Posted

    "And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on."

    -Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

  7. Character Comparison

    in Writers' Workshop

    Posted

    When writing a character, I think of two main "Operating Conditions" - a Primary Driving Force and a Typical Emotional Response.

    The Primary Driving Force (PDF) would be what that character wants above all else. It could be "To fall in love," "To get rich," "To help others," or just "To be left alone for a while." This instantly gives me a reason for that character to be doing whatever it is that they're doing. If their actions are contradictory to their PDF, they need to be explained. If a character is consistently acting against his/her PDF, I know that I either need to re-think that character, or that the character needs to go through some kind of transformative event. A character's PDF can change completely from one scene to another, of course, just as our own short-term goals are constantly shifting. Your PDF at school might be "Just stay awake and keep out of trouble," while after school it may be "Find some adventure."

    The Typical Emotional Response (TER) gives me a basic guideline as to that character's most automatic way of reacting to things. I think we've all got one particular response that is so ingrained in our personalities that it is near-reflexive. When faced with a new or challenging situation, do we experience fear, curiosity, excitement, anger, etc? (We are capable of reacting differently, of course, but it takes conscious effort.) This, I think, is what really helps us stretch into writing characters that are unlike us. I think that most of us, at one point or another, have felt nearly every emotion we can name (I could get into whether or not we are feeling more that we do not have names for, and thus cannot percieve, but let's save that for another thread), and therefore have a baseline for writing characters whose typical reactions are different from our own.

    So, to take the opening example of playing in the mud, we've got two kids.

    The Other Author's Character would be operating with the Primary Driving Force of "Stay out of trouble," with the Typical Emotional Response of "Hesitate before acting, think through consequences."

    Beagle's Character would be operating with the Primary Driving Force of "Build an awesome mud thing!", with the Typical Emotional Response of "Impulsively pursue goals without giving much thought to consequences."

    And, of course, if one of them is acting atypically, you could still use this scene to show their typical responses by having another character make a comment like "That's not like you - you usually think things through before doing something like this," or "What, NOW you're worried about getting in trouble? Where was that yesterday, when we were shaving the cat?"

    Neither of these characters is unrealistic, and we've all felt both impulsivity AND hesitation, so we're able to understand the thoughts and feelings associated with each one. The hardest part is remembering to write in such a way that all of your characters do not have the same Typical Emotional Response as you, the author. Taking the time to identify the Operating Conditions of the characters helps you avoid that.

  8. Ray Bradbury dies at age 91

    in News & Views

    Posted

    Oh man, Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked are some of my favorites. Guess I should give those a re-read in honor of the man himself, but my reading backlog is so long right now...

    Our middle school English department always opens the school year with Ray Bradbury short stories:

    Drummer Boy of Shiloh for 8th grade (A 14 year old protagonist in a terrifying situation - great for Socratic discussions about duty, courage, and facing ones fears).

    There Will Come Soft Rains for 7th grade (Introduces post-apocalyptic sci-fi and lets them know the darker, more serious turn the curriculum takes in 7th grade, as well as being a big attention-grabber with discussions of atomic bombs).

    All Summer in a Day for 6th grade (Hard Sci-Fi - a genre most of the kids aren't familiar with - but with themes of feeling bullied and outcast that lends itself well to roleplaying).

    The Sound of Summer Running for 5th grade (Realistic, relatable fiction about summer vaction - good opener for personal connection journaling).

    ...Can you tell that I had a hand in designing this curriculum? Haha.

    Thanks, Bradbury. You make the first week of school very entertaining. Easilly tied with Oct-POE-ber for my favorite time of the school year.

  10. Leaves & Lunatics by EleCivil

    in Readers Rule!

    Posted

    ...I haven't quite forgiven you for not finishing Leviathan Rusts which promised to be as good as anything you'd done before. Beggars can't be choosers, though, so if that's still on hold and there's a new story in the offing I'll love reading that too.

    Lev. Rusts is still on indefinite hiatus. I just wasn't feeling it. And to be honest, neither were most of the fans - most of the feedback I got was luke-warm at best. It just didn't feel right. I was writing it for the sake of writing something, not for the sake of telling a good story...and I can't work that way. If I don't love my own story, it's gonna suck. Now, yeah, there were parts of it that I loved, but it just couldn't mesh.

    The current story I'm working on is more cohesive and focused than Lev. Rusts, and more interesting and fun for me. And the way I see it, if I'm having fun, the readers will have fun.

  11. Fun with Electric Play-Doh -- Paging EleCivil

    in The Web Wiz

    Posted

    I must admit, I do enjoy running electric current through things. And setting things on fire. And chemicals. Really, there's a reason I got my Gen. Science certification - I wanted to blow stuff up at work.

    I'm forwarding this link to my school's science teachers. Also contacting a local art teacher to see if she wants to co-teach this - maybe build some conductive sculptures with the stuff, like the car shown in that link. And speaking of link, maybe I should grab some sausages, too*. We've already done electricity/circuits, but our school year runs until June 20th, so we have time for a few extra experiments.

    Thanks for the ideas, Blue and Paul!

    *Totally not innuendo. Probably.

  14. Leaves & Lunatics by EleCivil

    in Readers Rule!

    Posted

    Hey, thanks, all!

    It kind of floors me that people are still reading something I started writing 7-8 years ago. And Laika is 4 years old. That means it's 29 years old in dog years (but a bit younger than that in space-dog years, what with relativistic speed and...aw, forget it).

    I started writing something yesterday. It's the first time in a couple years that I've been able to sit down and just write. I've missed that. Maybe I'll get a couple chapters done by the end of the month and start sharing them. (Billionaire grants not necessary, but appreciated.)

  15. Gay-Friendly Ads

    in Laughs & Limericks

    Posted

    What, exactly, is Gabbana selling?

    Dolce & Gabbana Ad Caption Contest! GO!

    Blackshirt: "See, guys? I told you. The map to the secret entrance to the vault, tattooed on his thigh."

    Open Jacket: "...Well, yeah, but I still don't see why the group sex was neccessary."

    Blackshirt: "Hey, if you can think of a better way to get him to fall asleep, I'd be glad to hear it."

    Open Jacket: "We could have used chloroform, or-"

    Blackshirt: "Shut up and take some pictures. There's plunder afoot!"

    Open Jacket: "...Now I understand why the other thieves laughed when I said I was joining the Gabbana Boys heist crew."

  18. This explains it!

    in News & Views

    Posted

    I self-identified as "born-again" at age six. I didn't quite get the irony of needing to be born again so soon after having been, uh...born.

    But now that I identify as agnostic, would that make me re-born-again? Un-born-again? If, some day, I convert back to Christianity, would that make me re-un-born-again? Born-again-again? Double-plus-born-again-no-tag-backs?

  19. The Power of Introverts in a World that Won't Stop Talking

    in The Raccoon's Den

    Posted

    Being a learned person, you've certainly heard of the Peter Principal.

    It's funny you should mention that - I had to explain the Peter Principle to one of my bosses just the other day. It was right before they promoted me, which made me laugh.

    Honestly, though, I'm better at building-level than I am at classroom-level. Specifically, my job is to use what I know of theory, curriculum, neurological research, educational psychology, etc. and drive the curriculum school-wide. To bring it back to the topic at hand, it appeals perfectly to my introverted nature - I get to read, study data, think deeply, and implement big-picture plans, while at the same time being an active force in the school - moving between classrooms to see how things are going, modeling lessons and methods for the teachers, and still working with the kids. Instead of working to make sure that 30 kids had a really good reading teacher, I get to work toward making sure 200 kids have excellent teachers in every subject.

  20. The Power of Introverts in a World that Won't Stop Talking

    in The Raccoon's Den

    Posted

    The problem here is one of perception. If you have only seen an artist when they are presenting their work, you might well consider they are an extrovert. However, long before they reach that stage they will likely have spent quite some time in a state of introspection (introversion) in order to achieve the state of mind as well as the skills to present their work for public access in an extrovert manner required by the work.

    This is me. I'm pretty solidly introverted. I've been known to go weeks or even months without human interaction, spending time in isolation meditating, studying, and occasionally even experiencing a bit of ego death. But I'm also a good public speaker. Once, after seeing me give a speech to the school's assembled parents, another teacher said something along the lines of "Man, I wish I had that natural speaking talent."

    I took it as a compliment, but deep down, I was a little offended - there's nothing natural about it. It's taken me years of study and practice. I don't have much in the way of "natural" communication ability. Facial expressions? Subtext? Inflection? I had to study that. Most of it didn't fall into place until I was in my twenties, and even now I'm shaky at times. Just to pass as "normal", I've spent my life studying everything I can about how people work - history, politics, psychology, philosophy, religion, endocrinology, sociology, literature, art...just to crack the code that everyone around me seems to speak fluently. And still, there are days I fight just to leave the house, knowing that if I go outside, someone will try to talk to me, and I might not be in the right state of mind to power through it.

    ...And yet, give me a microphone and a podium, and I'll rock ya like a ha'penny harlot. Figuratively.

    I think it isn't about what we're capable of doing, but rather where we spend the most energy. I can disappear into my own head and forget that I am a being separate from my surroundings fairly easily - heck, that happened to me just the other day while I was trying to buy groceries. ("Hey there's a sale on...wait...I'M AN INDEPENDENT BEING!? No way...my mind is functioning separately from the minds of those around me, and yet, I feel like a single cell in the body of the universe!...Oh, hey, coffee filters. I need some of those.") Quiet study and reflection happen to me without trying - it takes no expendature of mental energy on my part. I am capable of communicating with the humans, but it takes a great deal of effort, and I need to both prepare ahead of time and recharge afterward.

    I imagine it's the opposite for extroverts - they're certainly capable of quiet reflection (Look at all the extroverted politicians with law degrees - at some point, they had to stop shaking hands and read some books), but it takes a greater deal of mental energy for them. They "recharge" after quiet reflection by going out and hanging with people.

    And, like Susan Cain mentioned, very few (if any) people are pure introverts/extroverts. Des mentioned the Kinsey scale, and it's probably similar, with most people falling somewhere in between.

    In the book, she even mentions Intro/Extrovertedness being a horizontal axis, with shyness/confidence as a vertical...so you end up with four quadrants - shy extroverts, shy introverts, confident extroverts, and confident introverts. So you could end up with a shy extrovert - like a great singer/actor with terrible stage fright - or a confident introvert - someone who prefers to be alone, but is not nervous in social situations.

    Hey, EC, you must be on spring break or something. Glad to see you!

    Hey! Good guess. Half right. I'm on Spring Break...but I'm still on call. Believe it or not, they bumped me up to administration. Now I get to tell teachers what to do! Which means now I have to rebel against...myself? Huh. This merits further reflection. Perhaps I should mismatch my shoes, as well.

  24. Ground Beef rejected by McDonalds and Taco Bell - But Good Enough For School Lunches!

    in News & Views

    Posted

    Last year, the food service at my school was miserable. Undercooked chicken, spoiled milk, and sometimes even bread-and-water were on the menu. Now, I'm in a high-poverty area, so the kids all get breakfast and lunch free of charge...but for a lot of them, those were the ONLY meals they got. "If you don't like it, pack a lunch" was not an option.

    My 5th graders formed a student union, passed around a petition, and staged a boycot. There MAY have been certain...faculty advisors...pulling the strings, but I won't confirm that. :wink:

    Now the food is pretty decent. On par with other school lunches, at least.

    Change can happen.

  25. The Bully Project (new 2012 documentary)

    in News & Views

    Posted

    There's an interesting documentary about the MPAA ratings board called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. It's available for streaming on Netflix. It reveals how completely subjective the ratings process is, and how impossible it is to get ratings overturned - the ratings board won't give straight answers on what needs to be cut in order to drop a rating, or they will give a list of offending scenes/dialogue, and once it has been edited, they give a different list. Very interesting watch.

    My school's policy is to not show anything rated higher than PG, so even if it's dropped to PG-13, we're out of luck. Granted, most of us know how to lock our doors and do what we need to do in our classrooms...but we are a non-union school, so we know we're taking a huge risk every time - one complaint and we're gone.

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