Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

Today was my second day of classes, which all went well. I bicycled in the morning with my dad, which is a surprisingly fast method of transportation. For some magical reason, everything seems faster in peddle land than automobile-ville. It's a 30 minute bicycle ride that just, flies by. Unfortunately, wearing a binder while wearing a heavy backpack and sweating profusely for 30 minutes is not a good time. But I have developed a solution. Sort of. I put my bicycle outfit together last night, which consists of my loose jersey , my T-Kingdom 801 zip-up binder , and some light Underworks shorts. Then I made sure to start bicycling early enough this morning that it's nice and cool out and we have time to stop by a cafe before class. Here, I can use the cafe's single stall restroom to change out of my wet, uncomfortable binder and into a dry binder, shirt, and shorts. With all of that binder-swap prepping under my belt, my first class was Art History. Right when I walked i...

These past few days I have been moving.moving.moving - in with my parents. After 10 years of living on my own, moving in wasn't an easy decision to make... but, it's the one that will help me to succeed. I really want to take advantage of this opportunity to attend a private, liberal arts college. Which is a huge privilege. Even though my parents don't have a lot of room to spare, not having to pay rent while in school is an AMAZING opportunity and extremely kind of them. Not worrying about making rent will definitely help me to maintain the GPA that I need to hold on to my scholarships and to take full advantage of everything the McNair program offers. Admittedly, starting this whole process is really anxiety-inducing. I'm worried that I'm walking in to a world where I'll just end up being weeded out and burdened with a lot of debt. I am very tempted to bypass this opportunity and look for a full-time job, but I have to try. This is a really exciting one-time...

This is so sad. This just happened at the Utah Pride Center: The Utah Pride Center is located just a block north of West High School, where I went to school. I went to high school after another local school, East High School, had attempted to form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). The school refused to allow it and to avoid a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, the district decided to ban all non-curricular student groups. Fortunately, even without a GSA, we had the Utah Pride Center right down the street. Having the cafe (Cafe Marmalade), the support groups, and the entire compassionate and supportive environment - my friends and I could escape the discriminatory high school environment to go socialize in a place where we could feel safe being ourselves.  The following press statement was just released: Salt Lake City, UT:  This morning, August 20, 2010, staff of the Utah Pride Center and Café Marmalade discovered that the marquee in front of the bui...

I attended a transfer student orientation yesterday and had no idea what to expect. Registration for the orientation took place in a banquet hall where staff handed out packets and name tags. I was nervous about what name would be on the name tag - Dexter or my previous name. The last I had spoke with the college was earlier in July after I had just barely had my name legally changed. When I walked up to the registration table and told them my last name, I also disclaimed that it should be Dexter, but could be Mel. And there it was - my name tag saying  Dexter.  Boo-ya! On a side note, I discovered recently that there's a band called The Dexter Thomas Band , formed in 1995. Totally beat me to the punch. Anyway, I sat at a table with a few other students. We introduced ourselves and small talk ensued. I primarily interacted with a couple of girls at the table, one of whom had also transferred from the local community college and is a McNair Scholar. Eventually a guy acr...

Friday the 13th is the most ideal excuse in the world to make a post in homage of Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked (after the third film, anyway) killer zombie who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligent sexcapades of the horny teenage camp staff. I first watched Friday the 13th when I was about four years old. I loved it, knowing that the film was all fantasy and not real. Because of this, I became completely enamored with the how behind the special effects in the film. I learned about combining corn syrup with red food coloring to make "blood". About foam latex prosthetics, monster masks made out of silicone, rubber mask paint, skin paints, prop making, animatronics... on and on. For as long as I can remember horror films have been an obsessive well of endless fascination for me, worsened by the day I got my hands on a magazine called The Monster Make-Up Handbook by artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Scanners, The Hunger...)...

Earlier tonight while I was feeding my addiction to the television show The Shield starring Michael Chiklis my roommate blurted out while perusing this Jezebel site, "Oooo, there's an FTM character on Degrassi." On what? She posted the link on my Facebook wall. I have no idea what Degrassi is, but I do know at least two things. Thing #1 : Kids at the LGBQT youth center I volunteer at rave about it. Apparently it's popular. Thing #2 : They just introduced an FTM character. After watching all of the little excerpts, it looks like a predictable after-school special WB something-another drama of some sort. But an adorable one that aims to add a diversity of characters that kids in the real world can actually relate to. From this article about the show, the writers even read online diaries of trans kids and also had GLAAD consult on the script. So neat. Read more: Degrassi Introduces Trans Character

Go New York Times, with this article regarding one of Original Plumbing 's (FTM magazine) founders, Amos Mac: Giving Voice to the Once-Silent "WE figured we’ll print 500 copies and they’ll take months to sell," Rocco Kayiatos said the other day, referring to Original Plumbing, a quarterly he started a little over a year ago with a friend, Amos Mac. “We just thought there was a need because the world is pretty much ignorant of the existence of transmen,” said Mr. Kayiatos, a poet and rapper who performs under the name Katastrophe and who, like Mr. Mac, identifies himself as a transman. Read More >

On July 9th had an interview for the McNair Scholars Program . I learned about this amazing opportunity about four months ago after I had spontaneously decided to visit the Westminster College campus. I didn't believe it would be possible to actually attend school here, but it was within bicycling distance and I figured that asking a slew of academically inept questions on campus wouldn't hurt. Fortunately for me, I bumped into the right person who pointed me in the direction of McNair, which is: ... a United States Department of Education initiative with a goal of increasing "attainment of PhD degrees by students from underrepresented segments of society,” including first-generation low-income individuals and members from racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in graduate programs. It's so exciting. If accepted, I have access to a professor mentor. I receive training on how to actually get into a graduate school training program. I receive a summe...

It's been difficult to blog! My ghetto laptop of yesteryear imploded, but now a nifty little Samsung N310 netbook is in my possession. Exciting things are afoot that I fully intend to babble on about, but in the meantime, let's get this photo documentation out of the way. What must be done - must be done. 1 Year 9 Months on Testosterone Cypionate (0.7 mL every 2 weeks) Stomach (hair growth + fat redistribution): Not too many pictures of my stomach this time around. I couldn't help myself and shaved it two weeks ago, stemming from an impulsive moment of curiosity. It was satisfying at the time, and then disturbed me five minutes later. I'm excited for it to continue growing back. Grow stomach hair grow! Facial Hair/Acne/Facial Masculinizing: This is post-shave. I can't handle letting it grow out - but I'll try to one of these days, when it's not as patchy. Leg (hair growth + muscle development): Inner-thigh hairy action! ...