Archive for 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
I've spent 2007 attempting to responsibly act regarding my money and my stuff. The first 11 months of the year I tried various organizational tools to help me Get Things Done [1] ala David Allen [2]. Vitalist [3] and Remember the Milk [4] were helpful.
But I had fallen prey to an-all-too common GTD behavior: I was spending more time updating my lists than actually doing the things on my list.
So I pared back by moving everything to a lo-fi list using a moleskin and Behance's stunning, wonderful swag [5]. I highly recommend their tools if you are a pencil and paper kind of trannie, queer or genderqueer. The fact that I don't have to fire up the laptop every time I want to check my grocery list is worth the cost alone. Plus, Behance really convinced me that using beautiful tools enahce's my creative output. Don't know if that is true for you, but it certainly is for me.
Behance's tools make me happy to write down my to-do items, happy to review them and happy to check them off. And what's more, I actually save the lists as a reminder of things I've done. A quick review of the lists whenever I'm not motivated can help me get motivated.
But even with these inspired and inspiring tools, what has really helped me get organized is doing less. The art of doing less has been an kind of awareness-shift for me, and I'm going to work very hard on doing less in 2008.
Here's why:
1. Spiritual Growth ~ Don't know about you, but I'm the perfect workaholic tranny activist. This past weekend I vowed that I would neither turn on my laptop nor work on work. Instead, I finished up a funky-looking frame for postcards from our Ireland trip. Now, this frame has been on my to-do list since about September of 2006. With always working, though, it kept getting pushed back to someday. But by not working on working, I was free to finish this project. As an experiment, I just watched my mind and feelings as I puttered around the basement finishing up the frame. What I observed knocked me off center.
I work because I hate unstructured time. In fact, I fear unstructured time. By doing less I've gotten in touch with a core fear. Namely, that I am nothing and will amount nothing in my life. Knowing this fear is within me, I can work to more fully integrateit into my psyche and be okay here and now.
2. Personal Care ~ You know, the dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning just really aren't that important because, you know, I'm working on the Revolution! The dishes piled up and so did the laundry and I possessed a nagging sense that these tasks were somehow the work of Ms. H. since she wanted a clean house. Such a lie! Such bull pucky! I've always wanted a clean house but somehow I had positioned cleaning as diametrically opposed to work. So I've spent this past week between jesus' birthday and new year's eve cleaning as I go, wiping down the kitchen counters every night before I go to bed and doing the laundry regularly. By doing less, I can take better care of the messes I make. This helps me feel less flustered, angry, more integrated.
3. Political Revolution ~ I can hear all of you saying what does political change have to do with doing less. A lot. By more meaningfully integrating personal care as part of my responsible work in this lifetime, I'm creating less messes. I'm also taking one hundred percent responsibility for cleaning them up. This helps reduce a behavior I call "shitting in bed, kicking it on the floor and expecting somebody else to clean it up." In our North American society, how many of us unconsciously act like it is somebody else's job to fix the crap in our life?
By doing less, I create less crap, can clean up the crap I create and more fully and responsibly enter into my next crap-making endeavor.
4. Time for Lovers, Family, Friends ~ This one seems like a no brainer. But for a workaholic like me, doing less means doing the difficult work of maintaining my connections with Ms. H., my family and dear friends. In the end, they are the ones thatcare for me as I age, spend time with me when I am sick or troubled, support me through the ups and downs. An empty email inbox can't do that.
Now, I'm totally down with an empty inbox, but if I'm frittering away time checking email fifty or more times a day instead of calling my family every once in awhile, I've lost sight of the profound fact that Ms. H. and my family love me. By doing less I'm willing to face all the difficulties and ickiness that is sometimes part of relationships. Most importantly, though, by doing less I have to face the fact that they do love me, which for me, is one of the top three most difficult facts for me to accept in life. It's probably no. 1, actually.
5. Time for Hobbies ~ Do activists have hobbies? I surely don't. Everything gets subsumed under the Cause and the Revolution. Hobbies are Frivolous. So by doing less, I'm actually learning to engage in activities for the simple pleasure they bring me. Shocking. And I'm learning to deal with how very awkward I feel about engaging in activities that are not good for the Cause, my Health or the Work, they are just good for me, because they make me happy.
Bonus: Bigger Bang for Your Buck ~ One of the main problems with staying busy, busy, busy, is that I've frittered away time on low-hanging fruit. Not focusing on the big ticket items like this blog, Homofactus Press, working on my novels and short stories, my various speaking-gig presentations and my cartoons, just about guarantees a kind of successful mediocrity. By doing less, I am working more productively on those tasks that are most important. I am also learning to view email and such as the work to be completed around the big tasks, not instead of.
Happy New Year!
[1] http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done
[2] http://www.davidco.com/
[3] http://vitalist.com/
[4] http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
[5] http://www.behance.com/Outfitter#cat2
Posted in Cartoons, Features, The Good Life | 4 Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2007
(Projection/Narration, intersected by images of Montgomery, Alabama, and other Sims statues in NYC, South Carolina, other Alabama towns, and images of slave life in the 1840s and 50s)1846: Montgomery doctor J. Marion Sims pays to build a hospital with 16 beds in his backyard. He was setting out to find an operative cure for women’s fistula, openings between the bladder and the vaginal or rectal region, often caused by prolonged childbirth - a relatively common condition that made women incontinent.
Sims asked plantation owners to provide him with subjects, slave women. In the following 3 years, Sims worked on up to 11 patients at a time.
We only know 3 names: ANARCHA, BETSEY and LUCY. Sims tells in his biography that he operated on ANARCHA more than 30 times. He did not use anesthesia for the operations on their vaginas, but he used opium to aid with recovery. His development of the speculum made him the first modern doctor to actually look at and into women’s vaginas.
We know nothing about the women, about whether they were cured, where they went, when they died. Later, Sims used the methods and instruments he developed to become the celebrated and well-traveled ‘father of gynecology’.
(excerpted from The Anarcha Project [1])
When the anesthesia forced my body to unconsciousness for my hysterectomy, I did not know about Sims and the medical plantation; had not been taught about the tremendous suffering endured by Anarcha. I think Sim's behavior and Anarcha's pain is another connection white people have to african-americans that we struggle to even acknowledge. That our lives are better because of the history of real pain and suffering of African-Americans.
Sims brutalized Anarcha, his pre-modern speculum a weapon. Each endeavor on his part to find a surgical answer to fistulas a rape. Yet his pioneering work culminates in my complete hysterectomy.
Anarcha become a tool in his medical manifest destiny and mine. Her cries echo in echo in that cavity that remains in my body.
[1] http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Epetra/anarcha.htm
Posted in A Bespoke Body | No Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2007
How does a 32-year-old lesbian become a man? Phallocy is an autobiographical film using spoken word, music and experimental techniques to explore the struggles of a female-to-male transsexual. The double-exposed, sepia-toned footage and sharp editing create the mood for the filmmaker’s confrontation with living as female-bodied man.
Posted in Video | Comments Off
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
Nina at Queercents [1] recently asked me Ten Money Questions [2].
Besides being a shameless plug to read yet more about me, I encourage all seven of my dearly devoted readers to check out Queercents.
A whole lotta queers have money issues, problems, etc. Nina and her pals do a fantastic job looking at money from all kinds of angles, from getting out of debt to the spirituality of money.
Rock on!
[1] http://www.queercents.com/
[2] http://www.queercents.com/2007/04/06/ten-money-questions-for-jay-sennett/
Posted in Features, The Good Life | 3 Comments »
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
I've been tickering on this blog quite a bit behind the scenes.
2008 will bring a new look. This new look will allow me to combine my other two blogs and have everything be in one place.
Happy Winter Solstice to all.
Take care,
Jay
Posted in Etc. | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
is The Hanukkah Song [1].
No images here. Just the lovely lyrics.
A happy hanukkah to all.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEY2KOXrSZI
Posted in Etc. | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
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[1]
The green monster boss says "of course we have to work on Christmas day! Where do you think we are? Europe??"
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2087077274_7b8e6d2e76.jpg
Posted in Cartoons | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
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[1]
new pussy for xmas [2], originally uploaded by Jay Sennett [3].
The kitty kat and the big-toothed creature say in unison "we want a new pussy for xmas!"
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2087060464/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2087060464/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/people/85559923@N00/
Posted in Cartoons | No Comments »
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
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[1]
Size Matters [2], originally uploaded by Jay Sennett [3].
Indeed size does matter. Especially where candy canes, pies, tarts and chocolates are concerned.
The image is a red and black and white candy cane with the text size matters.
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2080279335/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2080279335/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/people/85559923@N00/
Posted in Cartoons | No Comments »
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
[1]
A little girl says "Can I have a penis for Christmas?"
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/Unto%20Us%20a%20Son%20is%20Born.htm
Posted in Cartoons | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Ms. H. shared with me last night that I dress better now than when we first began dating. As I've assumed a more public role over the last two years, I've come to believe that appearance - be it clothing, blog design, handwriting - really means a great deal for me.
So I've been devouring behance [1] of late. I love their swag [2]. And today's post seemed to speak to me.
"In essence, your productivity as a creative professional requires that you create an advertisement of you. Not a literal advertisement, but rather a concise message, a repetition of your goals, and a collective display of all you have accomplished and learned in the pursuit of your passion."
Whether it is your virtual or physical portfolio, day-to-day correspondence, or your actual physical appearance, constant effort is a necessity; this may be as simple as running a spell-check or making sure you're wearing clean socks or as complex as redesigning your entire website. For some, these things may come more naturally than for others -- in theory, writers should be able to edit, and designers able to create portfolios -- but all too often the adage "a dentist's children have the worst teeth" rings true.
"You are your own PR agent, and you must manage the opportunities and risks throughout every interaction, communication, career move, and decision." (Read more [3].)
I sometimes use the word style rather than presentation. But whether it's style or presentation, the look of what we do and the look of how we do it, really, really matters. Most of all to ourselves.
[1] http://www.behance.com/
[2] http://www.behance.com/Outfitter
[3] http://www.behance.com/Featured/Articles/Checkpoints-Self-Presentation/5647
Posted in Anti Assclownery | No Comments »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
I've always felt a bit of a disconnect between this blog and other parts of my life, especially my book, Self-Organizing Men [1].
I seem more dedicated to various processes than to things like Theory! or Current Events!. Then in a blast of I-don't-know-what I realized I wanted to include the phrase self-organizing in the title of this blog. Since I seem happiest when I am digesting all the incoming bits of information through questions like "how does this affect me?" or "why do I do x this way and not that way?" self-organizing as both a life principle and a title seems appropriate.
And I am a man, most of the time ;-)
Rock on.
[1] http://www.selforganizingmen.com
Posted in Weblogs | No Comments »
Monday, November 26th, 2007
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[1]
It's All It's Cracked Up to Be [2], originally uploaded by Jay Sennett [3].
This gender thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Really.
I've started spinning regularly these past few weeks. The hard pumping heart, not a gender, becomes the transcendent reality.
Rock on.
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2066099288/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2066099288/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/people/85559923@N00/
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 4 Comments »
Monday, November 26th, 2007
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[1]
neil as moth5 [2], originally uploaded by Jay Sennett [3].
A multi colored mixed media rendering of Neil Marcus as a moth.
Art by Neil Marcus
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2052978844/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2052978844/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/people/85559923@N00/
Posted in Anti Assclownery | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
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[1]
New Cover for Self-Organizing Men [2], originally uploaded by Jay Sennett [3].
A possible new cover for Self-Organizing Men. What do you folks think?
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2052215515/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/85559923@N00/2052215515/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/people/85559923@N00/
Posted in Anti Assclownery | 1 Comment »
