Current Affairs

Let’s catch up, shall we?

Web Dev

I have a job I ADORE but it’s completely unrelated to my degree (and doesn’t require a degree) and I haven’t done any real web development in years. I have only a passing knowledge of how people build good websites nowadays. It’s bizarre how fast the industry moves. A while back, I spent a year at a job I hated where they stuck me with in-house PHP work versus the client-side HTML/CSS work that I enjoy, and I feel like in that time, mobile development (as a skill) passed me by entirely. I did my best to learn on my own, but with nobody to bounce ideas off of and no client work to force me to get it right, I just hoped I was on the right track. I didn’t even have a smartphone at the time so it was difficult to assess my efforts.

Anyway — I feel like I don’t know where to start with web dev anymore, even for hobby stuff like this ancient website. (Side note: did you know that I bought this domain in 2003? Yipes.) That said, CSS has always been fun for me so I might experiment with bringing this WP theme into the current decade.

Roller Derby

I did roller derby for nearly a year until The Incident, and I’m conflicted over how much I want to keep reaching for something I may never have again. I could NSO (be a “non-skating official”) for bouts still, which I know would be appreciated, but… I miss my friends! I wanted to have roller derby adventures with them, not be stuck on the sidelines. Derby was FUN and I miss skating and seeing friends and being a part of a group of badass women. *weeps forever*

I feel like I’ve had a pretty chipper attitude toward my leg/ankle breaking and me missing out on fun derby stuff, but this week all my teammates started receiving their official new uniforms in the mail and I am so jealous!!! Argh.

Hair

I cut off half my hair a couple years ago and I still love it and have zero regrets. I’ve never done anything interesting with my hair and what finally pushed me over the edge was this excellent exchange from Melissa and Aisling:

Just prior to cutting my hair, I attempted to come out to Daniel as bisexual, and he sort of laughed and said he’s known that about me for forever.

I’m still figuring out how to navigate being very hetero-passing due to marriage/kids but wanting to be visible as a bi person! It’s a weird place to be in! I don’t have all the answers yet, but I have a deep and abiding gratitude toward my bi friends who have come out publicly recently and who have given me the courage to start saying some stuff out loud. I am also grateful for Whip from my derby team exclaiming at an afterparty that this was “the gayest team we’ve ever had,” and then pointing out all the queer team members before turning to me and saying, “…and I don’t know you very well but you have a gay haircut so…” I felt so SEEN. Haha!

In other hair news, a couple of months ago I got anonymously quoted in an Autostraddle article about the bisexual haircut so *hair flip* it’s almost like I’m famous.

(I’m thinking now about all the internet friends I’ve made via personal websites or the Qbee and WOW who would have thought so many of us would wind up identifying as queer?!)

Kids

Wesley is in third grade and is about to turn nine, and Thora is four and will go to kindergarten in the fall. She can read already, and is whip-smart and more clever than you’d expect. Classic Slytherin. Wesley is a Hufflepuff and is such a thoughtful, kind boy. For as much as I loved the baby stage, I’m really enjoying having older kids. They’re funny! They’re able to help around the house! They can buckle their own carseats! Many advantages.

Books

I’ve read so many good ones recently! Here’s a few:

• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.
  Easy, entertaining read? Explicitly bisexual main character? Adventure and mystery and some very hot flirting?  SIGN ME UP. The sequel (from the sister’s perspective) is also excellent.
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Recommended reading for all humans.
• The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. Depressing but fascinating look at how dangerous stuff gets passed off as “perfectly fine” if people can still make money off of it.
• I also re-read the first two Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo so I could make sense of the third one, Ruin and Rising, and MAN I had forgotten how much I enjoy her stuff. I then went on to read the other Grishaverse books that are out now – The Tailor, The Demon in the Woods, Little Knife, and The Too-Clever Fox. I also read Six of Crows and am excited for the sequel to come out.

TV and Movies

I went to a movie by myself for the first time ever – I put on some red lipstick and took myself to see Wonder Woman. I cried in the theater during the “No Man’s Land” scene like everybody else did. I can’t even describe why… Something about her body positioning and what she was doing and GAHHH I ended up buying a digital copy of the movie and I can’t watch it without getting a little misty-eyed at that part!

I also took myself to Thor: Ragnarok because HELLO – Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth! I haven’t seen really any of the other Marvel movies besides the first Thor movie but you know? Sometimes you just have to trust in Taika Waititi and you’re not disappointed. I’m very interested in the new Men In Black movie starring the both of them.

TV-wise, obviously I am currently obsessed with The Magicians, but I also love Sense8 and am super sad it’s done but grateful we got to get a conclusion with that special episode they put out. I like Marvel’s Runaways, and I have a love-hate relationship with Riverdale. It’s like a horrible soap opera and it’s objectively terrible but also amazing and I love it? I think? Except Archie was recently bucking bales of hay shirtless which is I think the stupidest thing I’ve seen on that show so I’m still recovering from that scene.

In 2019 I’m trying to lean more into the interests I’m a little embarrassed by, so I’ll probably be tweeting and/or posting more about TV and makeup/skincare and pop music and other things because I LIKE THEM and I usually talk myself out of posting about them but man do I have a lot to say about media sometimes.

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