I'm alive! Been slammed with classwork, but I'm free for the summer
now that I've cranked out a few behemoth essays. And hey, I graduate
with my associate's degree on Friday! I'll be jumping right back in
for a bachelor's degree, but it's nice to hit that milestone and see
the work pays off. Makes me feel like I'm going somewhere.

I've been chipping away at little side projects lately, mostly tech
stuff. I've been making my own Plasma theme (CalmEyes- I already put
the color scheme and Kate theme out there), working on various articles
for my personal site (note to self: update town site this week), and
messing with crafts. I've enjoyed UV resin lately and made a few cute
pawpad keycaps! I'm also working on a community project I opted into.
I owe at least 250 lines of voice acting and I've got until the end of
June to do as much of that as I can manage. Wish me luck! It's fun and
tedious.

Also, happy Pride month to all my fellow queers and gender weirdos.
You know who you are. 'Tis the season for rainbow capitalism and riots.
May we all find the chance to live as who we are one day without it
being a problem, and may the ignorant jerks learn to be better than they
are now.

To folks that are questioning, and really for anyone who might be
queer or trans or anything at all:
It's okay not to know. You don't have to have the right words or get
it right. It's messy territory and sometimes you've got to carve your
own space and say "you know, I don't fit in the boxes quite right and
that's just how it's going to be." Sometimes questioning isn't about
finding the One True Label, but about breaking away from the need for
labels and finding your own path through the maze. It's a Choose Your
Own Adventure and you can rip out the pages to tack in your own if you
want to. Smash words together. Push at taboos. Play with the ideas and
toss them at each other until something sticks and says "I see you, I
know who you are inside, and you are home." Make your truth out of
popsicle sticks and chewing gum if you have to. It's okay. You're okay.

I've been reading Stone Butch Blues this month (which, by the way, is
available for free- gotta love it when an author practices what they
preach, just look the book up and the PDF is free to yank in from the
author's site [RIP Leslie Feinburg] https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/).
It's a very good read, but definitely look up a list of content warnings
before reading if you're sensitive to heavy content. You name it, it's
probably in the book. I'm glad I'm reading it. In a strange way, I feel
seen by a fictional character decades in the past living in a substantially
different situation from me. It feels important, particularly the phrases
"gender traitor" and "he-she". I'm not alone.