Category Archives: News

Extractions and Other Work

I’m making a few newish but older videos public, so you can go check my video page if you want to see the others. But anyway I thought I should try and hype this video up a bit because it is really popular on the festival/class talk circuit and I am pretty proud of it. Spoiler: the eggs never became embryos, which I talk about in another video called 13 Eggs (which is on private but if you want a password to see it please ask). But this is still an important video even though time has passed.

Anyway today I finally started putting captions on my videos. I hadn’t done it for so long! And I had a bunch of srt files just hanging around waiting, YEARNING, to be put on my videos so more people can access them. Unfortunately they aren’t ALL there, and some of them are really random. Like captions in German or Spanish and not English captions. Things like that. I am getting grant money soon tho and I’m going to try and make more English captions with REV because it’s built into Vimeo now if I want. The translations really depend on where my videos get screened and if the org makes subs for them. Often they do, and I do play in a lot of different countries, so it’s gonna be an ongoing project to include them now that I know how fucking easy it is to add captions to Vimeo. Also a lot of newer work was translated into Spanish when I was in Buenos Aires, so I’m hoping to get those srt files.

I also started a Ko-fi, which is definitely helpful because I think people are amenable to tossing a few dollars my way if they see one of my videos and like it, but less into signing up for a monthly Patreon subscription. I think five dollars is cheap though, I wish people could pay more. I know there’s the option though if they really want to send more money. And putting in five dollars makes people not feel so cheap I guess because it’s framed as a tip. I don’t know I guess I’ll see how it goes! So far no donations, but I’ve been seeing people follow me on Vimeo more recently so I tried to put the Ko-fi link on most of my videos.

I also figured out how to finally change my name in all the places on Vimeo so it’s a little less sketchy when I go there. Because dragging around the history of my deadname feels like being weighed down. So that’s good. I don’t really care if I see it lots of places, but the places I have control over I would like to be accurate.

I was gonna go to the gym today, but I don’t have money for my YMCA membership because I’m waiting for grant money to get deposited and also trying to keep my rent money in there so the rent cheque doesn’t bounce a SECOND time this month. It already bounced because I was 71 dollars short. And then I borrowed money from my mom and Visa took all of it by force with the banks permission, so I had to borrow AGAIN. Omg. It’s hell. I know money is coming but this just sucks. FREAKING HELL.

I also decided against continuing to write a grant for Ontario Creates. It was just a lot more work than I was prepared for, and also I want to apply for Canada Council money for that project later and I don’t know if that is still eligible or if it turns into a Corporate project. And I much prefer making video games that are art projects more than corporate projects. So yeah, that took a bunch of work off my schedule and frees me up to do my actual creative work and a short term gig I have.

Carmilla the Lonely is much closer to being able to release. I just need to finish the credits and then figure out how to notarize it with Apple so it will open on Macs instead of triggering the automatic Apple Malware alert. So yeah, a lot of work but honestly much less than before. I resolved most of the issues that came up in testing so I think it plays better. Also it’s harder to get blood because you need consent which was important to the idea of the video game.

Also Christmas is coming! I am spending it alone. Well, not totally alone, my faithful little hound will be with me. I’m looking forward to cheese plates and chocolates.

Anyway here is my Ko-fi!
https://ko-fi.com/theocuthand

The Governor General Awards

I went to the Governor General Awards this weekend to see my Mom and my Auntie Lori get their Governor General Awards. It was a pretty cute scene. They had four years of awards to get through because they paused doing the in person awards ceremony during the pandemic. We got to sit in Rideau Hall and the award winners went up and someone read part of the nomination for them and then they got to see the Governor General Mary Simon who gave them their award and took a photo. It was in this wild room that was made to look like a tent, a pink and white tent. And there was a big painting of the Coronation of Queen Victoria at the front of the room.

My Mom asked permission to hug the Governor General and then they hugged which was really sweet. It’s not against protocol apparently. It took a while to get through everyone but the whole event was very joyful which was nice. Then we got fed some fancy foods. There were all kinds of little desserts too. And then we did a tour of Rideau Hall, except for the upstairs because that’s where the private residence is. But we got to see the rooms they would meet people in or keep their art works. And we got to see the Greenhouse which was also very cool. So many orchids! Doing way better than my orchids.

My mom asked the guards about the guards out front with bearskin hats and apparently it’s Grizzly bearskin and they dye the fur black. I always wondered! Because Black Bear fur is not as thick as those hats seem to be.

I got to see lots of friends and my cousin Bianca also and it was just a nice occasion. Also I got to see my Mom which was nice.

After there was a party but we were too tired so instead we went to LL Bean where I got a new winter coat and Mom got some winter fleece lined pants. But I discovered later that LL Bean didn’t take out the security tag! So blahhh I got back to Toronto and didn’t want to look for my receipt (I don’t even know if I still have it) so I wrecked a fork trying to take the security tag out of the pocket and then finally gave up and cut a small hole to remove it. I am meaning to sew the hole shut (and it’s in my pocket so it’s not visible) but we’ll see how the executive dysfunction works and if I can get to it in a timely manner before losing an airpod into the lining.

Anyway now I’m back in Toronto. I am very tired because I got up early this morning and went to boxing class for noon and I exercised real hard and now I feel all achey. I used a heating pad to try and soothe myself but I think I need to do it again. I really want to be able to go back to the gym this week too because I like lifting weights.

People were pretty good about my name and pronouns at the Governor General Awards weekend which was nice, and people who messed up apologized which was kind. I actually misgendered myself when I introduced myself to the Governor General. I said “I’m Ruth’s daught-SON!” and she was just like “Ok” and I said nice to meet her and then I think I ran off because I was hungry. Even me!

Also I got to wear a suit at the Governor General Awards and it was really interesting. I was always so sure it would be way too hot, but it was fine. I could have wore it all day but I changed when we got back to the hotel. This was the first time I wore the suit for an actual event so that was nice. I have a grey suit jacket too but not the pants. I think I’m gonna try and get the pants tho so I have two full suits. The pants in my blue suit though are too big.

Most of my clothes are too big now, since my body shape changed and I lost some weight. A lot of my shirts are 2X and I’m XL to L now. Also a lot of shirts were deliberately baggy to hide my chest and now I want my chest to be more visible as a flat and hopefully soon to be muscly chest. I spent a LOT of money when I was in the Whitney Biennial and upgraded my wardrobe, and now I have to slowly build up my wardrobe in the right size again.

I got a Toronto Art Council grant to make a video about my transition and how political trans issues have gotten recently and so hopefully that will let me get some new jeans so I have pants that fit. Tight shirts are also on the list!

Ramblings Which are not Entirely Useful

I’m going to Ottawa tomorrow to see my Mom and my Auntie Lori both get their Governor General Awards in Visual Art. There’s a lot of people getting them because they have to get through all the people who won them during the pandemic. So it should be a time. I think it’s a luncheon. I hope they have fancy sandwiches. Or something! I’m gonna wear my suit for the first time. Although I wore it for a documentary, but only because they specifically asked me to wear the suit. BUT this will be my first official event wearing it. I also am gonna have to spend some time Friday morning learning how to tie a tie again. I meant to learn and practice (and I have done it a few times in my life) but I didn’t practice. Because to be honest other things seemed more pressing. But now I will probably look a little lopsided in the photos. Unless I get it perfectly, you never know.

Side note of fun thing before I get into sad things: I’ve been noticing this cool thing when I touch my nipples where they are still numb but the memory of what my nipples felt like just comes to mind, so it kind of helps feel like there is sensation. Like a ghost sensation! It’s not an actual physical sensation, it’s more like a memory of a sensation. But it’s nice, I hope someday to feel more but also hope lovers don’t stay away from them because it could help me reconfigure the way I feel in my body. If that makes sense.

I’m doing a lot of internal processing about my life and also the things happening in the world and also concerns about friends of mine and their safety. Every time I open Instagram there’s some new sad video from Gaza that breaks my heart in a new way. Today I saw a video of a mother holding her small dead son and saying she had 580 injections to have him. It was heart-wrenching. I only did one round of IVF and that was so hard on my body and emotions, I can’t imagine going through that so many times and then finally having a long sought after child only to have him be murdered by a brutal war. And this was just one video today, there’s so many other videos of so many other heartaches, thousands and thousands.

AND I watched a report about sexual violence and murder on Oct 7th and that was brutal too. You can look it up if you want but the details are really disturbing so be warned. I feel a responsibility to be conscious of the events which lead to all this. And yeah I know there’s a long history of occupation behind this as well so the events go way back. But if I was a survivor or close to someone who died or was assaulted or kidnapped in that attack I think I would be really upset at how there wasn’t really space to grieve it before all kinds of hellish things started happening to the other side. None of it has been okay.

AND ALSO just the two sides thing is weird because so many other countries are involved in this situation, like Canada itself supports Israel and I really criticize that because this bombing is relentless and genocidal. I know some people don’t like the words genocide or colonialism but it does look like that from my position as the survivor of a long range genocidal and colonial project. But really like why is Canada supporting this? (And side note why did we send military gear to Saudi Arabia a while back?) Why are we totally enabling brutal war crimes and repression? I know the real answer is that those are Canadian values according to how our government operates. Like yeah we pretend to be a polite country but there’s also military and police repression of Indigenous activists here. So it’s not an innocent country. Not to mention what our mining companies do abroad.

And I also see that there are things governments of countries want, and things their citizens want, and those things are often not aligned. And we have this pretence of democracy but really governments aren’t going to listen to their citizens, they are listening to larger forces like war profiteers who have good lobbyists and fossil fuel CEOs who give money to their campaigns and so on. It’s just frustrating. We’re also at this point in history where large quantities of money are concentrated into a small group of people, some of whom have batshit ideas like Elon Musk and his exploding cars and his “let’s not have safety glass” decisions.

AND it probably sounds so weird but really I’m just thinking fuck this would be the worst time ever to go manic.

I haven’t been manic since 2007, unless you count the mild hypomanias I’ve had which were just me being unusually happy. BUT MANIA omg. First thing of all is that I almost always try to start a revolution when I am manic, and that just ends up a big mess. Especially because no one wants to follow a revolutionary who is getting messages from pop songs and the television. Or I don’t know maybe they do now. Maybe people just want someone to take the wheel because Jesus isn’t cutting it. Ha ha omg. NO really though I am often embarrassed afterwards by my manifestos and all that ephemera from mania. I once had a burning where I burned all my stuff from my first mania. AND THEN three months later I was manic so yeah. Made more memories! Wheee!

But so far so good, haven’t been manic, going to sleep at a reasonable hour, I’m not sending tons of emails to people. I haven’t tracked down exes to send them mix tapes or whatever. I am being responsible and trying to stay aware of current events and hopefully not spin off into another world much to the chagrin of my friends and family. I have never had a psychosis in Toronto and I really hope I don’t. It’s just that people look at you different, or sometimes they think you’re like, forever broken and always gonna be manic. But really it usually resolves with meds and an unfortunate long depression. But being depressed AND embarrassed by all the things that happen while manic is a horrible feeling.

So yeah, trying to stay sane right now which I feel is something most of us are feeling. It’s a very distressing time. And then the rise of Islamophobia and Antisemitism is extremely disturbing. That war is far from Canada and yet it really is impacting people here. And also I just think about white supremacists and how much they must love this moment and how much recruiting they are trying to do. I’m trying to be more conscious of things I share on social media because I don’t want to share straight up propaganda for either side. I don’t know, I know things are going in a really bad direction and I have a lot of friends who are more directly affected by antisemitism and Islamophobia that I want to keep safe. I also think about how activists are getting criminalized here in Toronto specifically but also broadly in the world.

I’ve been called an activist. I don’t know if I feel like one. I think I have Opinions but I don’t know if they are helpful. They’re really not helpful here except now you know how fucked up I feel by this situation. I do know I have a bit of a public figure standing which means more people hear my Opinions. But it’s just hard for me, I am a questions person more than an answers person. And hopefully other people have answers but I really don’t, except that there should be a ceasefire and Palestinians deserve to stay in their lands. I do not have answers about how to resolve this though, it’s bigger and older than me.

I’ve been talking with my therapist about it all and she helped me get some new perspectives. Which I appreciate.

I just want a kinder more just world. And some days that seems very out of reach.

Anyway tomorrow I am going to Ottawa to see my Mom and my Auntie get their awards, and wear a suit, and maybe I can shake my fist at Parliament Hill as we go past it. My dog has a friend coming to stay with her. I’m generally safe and secure and warm and things do generally work out for me. I got a Toronto Art Council grant to make a video about my transition and how political things have gotten around trans people. So that’s good, I feel supported by my community. I have another grant I am working on now, and am going to hear from another grant next year. Just a lot of struggle trying to get my money situation back in a good place. I’ve been dodging calls from CRA but I have to call them next week and make a payment plan again. Being responsible! Ugh. How did I become an adult?

My neck, My Back

Theo's Back, it is a triangle shape
My back has changed shape!

I went to the gym again today instead of hooking up with someone. So I did manage to make it 3 times this week. This morning I was rubbing my lower back before I got in the bathtub and it felt way more muscly, so I took a pic in the mirror and wow! My back is finally in the coveted Dorito shape. I wasn’t sure I was gonna get there. Transition can feel so slow when you’re really wanting it. But it’s been over a year and a half and my thighs and hips got skinny and my shoulders and back are way more muscled. I’m also working on my pecs and they look cute but not as muscly as I hoped. I know I have to start doing a short workout even on the days I don’t go to the gym. I just keep putting it off. I was also able to do the Gravitron today and the last time I went to the gym. So I feel way better about my upper body strength. I have a pull up bar in my house but I haven’t tried it in a long time. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see if I can do anything with it.

I’m so happy my back is changing shape. I knew that shoulders can get broader on T and I was starting to see a difference in my profile pics in terms of how my shoulders look. But I hadn’t looked at my back in a long time.

I’m pretty happy with my transition overall. I am going up to 80mg a week on Monday, which is cool and I hope it helps. I’m really not sure about my body/facial hair situation. If it goes by matrilineal lines, that’s all Scottish stuff. And I’ve seen historical photos of Scottish men, they have GIANT beards. So I guess I am hopeful again, but also it might just be Cree genes and I won’t get a big beard. Like I think my Cree Grandpa had four facial hairs, it was very little of anything.

I’ve noticed I smell a lot better since top surgery healing is done. The binder was getting smelly, and before that all my sports bras and binders would get smelly. So now I just wear a shirt that I change every day and at the gym and it’s made my armpits smell much more subtle. Which is a relief because my bras would get RANK. Odiferous!

I think I want to record my voice more. I did record along the way, but mostly I didn’t use it for work things because I dunno, I was letting it become what it was becoming I guess. But I like my voice and normally I use it in my work so I’m probably gonna start making videos again. Like those personal monologue videos.

I’m doing good otherwise. I am halfway done my application for this job on Monday. I got all my references together so that’s the main thing I was stressed about. Now I just have to do my CV and teaching statement. I also found a grant I can apply to for developing my next video game, but it’s more of a corporate grant so I have to really put specific work into it. I’m basically just scrambling for money right now hoping I won’t be as broke in 2024 as I have been this year. It was a bum year! I did do a lot of work but some of the grants for this year came a while ago and so it was just trying to catch up. 2022 was way better.

But also I came out a year and a half ago and have been super insular about my transition and watching all the things happen. So it’s been a generative year and a half I suppose, but not “productive” as I would like. Although I did make that giant video game.

The video game is almost done but I’m putting it aside until this job application is in on Monday. I did fix a lot of things really fast though. It’s getting there! I’m almost ready to test a build of it again. I need to redo the credits tho.

I was able to buy casein protein again for my protein shakes. I was super getting into drinking that while I was working out, like in the evening before bed. Anyway I think I am gonna go do that right now.

IsConsensual Bool

Theo's flat chest with faded top surgery scars
Settled in with my new body

My chest is settling in really well. I got the seroma drained a couple days ago (there were actually two!) and now that side of my chest is less swollen and I’m actually getting hope again that it will smooth down enough that I won’t need a revision. It was probably the most difficult part of my chest, it had a stitch coming out for a long time so it was inflamed, PLUS the seroma was causing swelling. It’s still getting over being inflamed from the stitch, I had to stop doing scar care on that one area because the skin was broken there and taping it wasn’t letting it heal. But it’s healed now and hopefully I can keep doing scar care on it a while longer and it will start fading too. None of my scars got raised so far which is good. I had a keloid on my bellybutton scar from my gallbladder surgery for a long time, so I know it can happen on me sometimes. It did flatten and fade after a number of years though but I didn’t know to do scar care on it so it was left all on it’s own. But anyway, so far so good. I’m not really expecting my scar to totally vanish, but it might be less noticeable eventually which could be cool.

I am applying for a teaching job. I might not get it. I was swearing off doing this for a while just because my career was paying me enough without teaching. Also I was concerned for my disability and my career and teaching and how much time I had. BUT ALSO I have a lot more energy since getting on testosterone, so really I might be able to do all of this. I’m also only applying for one teaching job, just to see. Like a sessional gig, not a full time job. It’s a job that requires almost all of my technical skills, so that’s exciting because I know that’s a very specific kind of person who could teach that course. Also it would be good for me to get more income in this house. It wouldn’t pay me enough to live, but with that AND the regular ongoing income I get from my film career, I think it could work out. So I am hopeful for that. But also hopefully whoever is hiring isn’t reading this and feeling pressured into hiring me. Because really I could make it either way. BUT this is a cool job and would help for a few months AND I know all about all the things for it.

Posey and I have been enjoying the change of seasons. Her little green sweater is coming out with us again. When I got her from her breeder, she came with the sweater. Like, it’s a specifically “female” dog anatomy sweater because there’s no long bare spot where a penis would go. And sweaters and coats that cover an entire tummy don’t really exist for dogs, and I feel bad for her because she’s a smooth so her tummy is like, bare skin. Poor pup! Anyway, I’ve never found another sweater that covers her whole tummy, so mostly that’s been her winter clothes. That and her horse blanket jacket. But I have not really found an ideal dog jacket for her. There was this like, super fancy dachshund jacket store that I’ve looked extensively at, but the jackets are too pricey for us.

She would look like a really boogie dog if she had one of those jackets.

ANYWAY.

It’s weird thinking of who reads this blog. Like it’s really just such an overshare ridiculous blog and I don’t think I have any ambitious aims in writing it. It’s an outlet. I sometimes wonder what will happen when I pass away and the bills for this website stop getting paid and where this blog will disappear to. It’s been a writing project for a long time and some people talked with me about maybe making a book out of it. I tried to save up some posts that could be a good book but I think then I got to the year I had my last manic episode and got overwhelmed.

I’m busy with other projects. I got back into finishing my video game yesterday. FINALLY there is a specific bool for “IsConsensual” and you need consent to be able to feed on this particular character. And if you don’t have consent, you’re just draining her blood and not getting your needs met and eventually you’ll get staked. I was surprised actually how easy it was to program when I looked at the code for the other bool “InLove.” It just clicked so easy.

I also opened up the responses to my video game play testers form. Only one person responded (ugh! After all those people got a copy) BUT she gave really good responses and I know a couple other things I can fix now with the sound. Also I have to test the dialogue again on the build to make sure it’s not going too fast. So that’s good. I am trying to track down my other friend to see if she can help me build the image for the app. Like, the block you click on to open the app on a desktop computer. The ICON I guess, I dunno. I’m just a boy! I already know I just want it to be the vampire’s head.

Aside from that, trying to figure out what to do with my unwieldy debt I owe to the government and Visa. I’ve heard about some other people’s debt to the government tho and I am LUCKILY not that bad. It’s bad but like, I could get it down. I talked to a financial advisor but he gave me bad advice which could have ended up preventing me from getting a grant for seven years so like, NO I don’t think so. I just gotta make more money I guess. Like it’s not that I am handling my money completely wrong, it’s just that there isn’t a lot of it right now.

ALSO I really think this video game is SO CLOSE to being able to be released, and then people will see that I made something this past year. It’s very thankless tho, video games. Like, people might tell me about playing it. Or they might not say anything more likely. And then I’ll be wondering if there was an audience for it at all. My Bipolar Journey game got attention but it was also floating around for a long time. I did get featured on VICE for it tho. And I dunno, I could probably submit it to ImagineNATIVE next year because they have space for new media projects.

Cutting back and Being Responsible

I redid my budget this morning and put my cleaning service on pause for a while. And told my personal trainer I can’t hire her again right now because I’m so broke. Anyway it cut a lot from my budget and it’s way more reasonable now. I still need to get out of debt tho, and also make sure there’s regular money coming in. My money is made up of so many little gigs from institutions and universities and it can take WEEKS to process. So that’s always a struggle, and trying to remember who owes me money and remembering to check if I owe someone forms so I can get paid. There’s multiple places owing me money right now and it’s just like, ugh I hope it comes a little quicker.

It would be nice to win an award with a large amount of money attached so I could wipe out my debt and go back to that blissful debt free life I had for six months after my student loans were paid off. It was like, a good feeling. Owing no one anything.

The thing is if we get Cows and Plows I can get hopefully $15,000 and pay off my credit card and a big chunk of taxes and I’d feel way better. But my rez is still all arguing over Cows and Plows and what to do and it’s just stressful. It’s this mythical money right now. Some rez gave their members $35,000 each so there’s this like, tension where some members want more. And some of it gets reinvested into our community which is good. But also there’s always been this tension amongst NDNs over whose rez gave better per caps and Christmas bonuses and stuff. Like one rez gave full turkeys for Christmas and I think this other rez gave like, half a chicken. And we aren’t a separated people, so people from different reserves know what the other reserves are giving. And it’s awkward as fuck. Disparities among reservations.

I know how to be poor tho, like I do remember all the things you do. There was a point in my life where I could estimate how many groceries I could get for how much and be accurate down to the penny. And that involved including tax in my head because they don’t put the real prices on most food in Canada. I hate having to calculate for taxes in my head tho it’s so annoying.

AND ALSO like geez just give me the $15,000 already I want to pay bills.

Anyway I am being responsible today I guess because I also made a doctor’s appointment and also got an appointment to see my surgeon to get this seroma drained. I hope that’s the end of it really. I’m tired of it coming back. I also have a plan to balance my household budget by unsubscribing to a couple more things and seeing about getting NIHB to pay for my therapy. I think my therapist just has to do some paperwork and I’ll be able to get paid back for future appointments for over a year. Which would help me out a lot. I think there’s things I can do to improve this money issue. I’m also thinking about teaching maybe one or two classes, if I can get them. I mean who knows right? Maybe if it’s just one or two classes I can do it.

I am seeing some more money come in, and I will get some grant results in February. But I gotta cut back until it’s better. No more frivolous purchases!

This is a terrible time to talk about something unrelated to injustice

OK so first of all, yes I am doing what I can to ask for a ceasefire. I’ve started a faxing practice where every morning I amend my last letter to Justin Trudeau and fax it to his office. I’ve only done this twice so far but it feels like SOMETHING. I don’t know, I am going to a protest in the next while. I repost things online about the genocide in Gaza. I’ve also been learning more about antisemitism and trying to make sure I’m not posting anything questionable like that because I am also worried about my Jewish friends and loved ones who are scared. Today I walked Posey and saw a poster that said “Free Palestine, Ceasefire Now” and I thought about taking a pic, but then I noticed how someone had worked really hard to try and tear as much of it off the pole as they could. And it’s still legible but just the idea of someone taking that much time to try and remove it made me sad. And I didn’t want to take a pic of that.

I have no eloquent summary of those current events, so here’s a buffer sentence between my earnest desires for a just world, and my more tawdry desires I’ve just been noticing that I find kind of interesting and wanted to write about.

SO that being said…

I’ve been watching my sexuality shift around over the last while. Some days life just feels too awful to get horny about anything. But then also there’s been this like, low level hum of a desire that is starting to get noisy. And it’s very specific and I haven’t felt it this strongly in a while. It’s just this desire to be submissive with someone. Like a deep LONGING to be submissive for someone.

But also I am like, so ridiculously particular about who I feel submissive for. It’s like a demisexual type of submissiveness that needs a deep meaningful relationship to go with it. And to be honest I’ve only felt that way about maybe three or four people in my lifetime so far. I mean like there’s people I would bottom for as a masochist but if they tried to get me to be submissive I’d probably be like “Nahhh fuck you.” Ha ha omg. Like most of the time I do feel too tough to sub for anyone. But when I do feel subby it’s like, so rare and precious and damn I just wish I had someone I could feel that for. I miss that. It’s just living as a day dream in my head now. Like in moments of stillness I start thinking “It would be nice to be obedient for someone. It would be nice to be owned.” Which if you know me as a person is just not the kind of person I am, like I’m not subservient for anyone really. But in fantasies it just would be nice.

I wonder if I will ever find the person who clicks with that? It seems unlikely the older I get. I can see why some people just end up in vanilla relationships. But damn that’s a nice fantasy. And anyone who inspired that feeling in me would have to be pretty amazing.

ANYWAY besides that, I’ve just been smoking this homegrown weed a friend grew for me this summer. It’s fucking amazing! And I found a couple seeds in it, so hopefully next year we can grow it again. It is Apple Fritter weed. Which is one of my favourite doughnuts. I also love Dutchies but Tim Hortons stopped selling them. I don’t know where to find a Dutchie anymore.

I felt sad today after reading all the newish news (Meta has stopped allowing news in Canada, so some of our news gets delayed) and I ended up playing some rounds of MarioKart. I was playing as Bowser for the first time. Usually I am Tanooki Mario. But I wanted to see if Bowser was a better fit. I don’t think I’m a big enough man to feel comfortable being Bowser tho so I might have to keep looking for a new Mariokart character. Maybe I’ll be that ghost, or the skull guy.

I’m also just like, doing work and hoping my money will come in again. It’s so choppy. I need to get a more even income stream. I actually started rethinking my prior position on University teaching which was NO WAY and now I’m like “Welllllllll it would be nice to get a regular income.” Ahhhhh. I don’t want to teach tho but also I should not say that in case in the future I apply for a teaching job and they do a background check. OK so I DO like teaching and have done it in workshops, but I am apprehensive of academia. But all the art departments I’ve gone to do talks at in the last year have been very baffled by me not having a teaching job. So maybe I should? Ahhh.

OK but that is not an inner voice debate for the interwebs.

I really like Toronto tho. But the last two teaching jobs that intrigued me were in the USA. BUT politically things look kind of dicey down there. BUT ALSO Canada kinda sucks too.

EVERYWHERE SUCKS.

I have to make the best decisions for my dogs quality of life. So far she is happy. But she is also overdue on her next vet appointment because I don’t have the money for all her annual tests and shots. And it’s not coming!

Money and Politics and other Dirty Things

I’m so tired! Today my friend Aylan and her son and I went to pick up Posey from her dog sitters, who is a ways away so it took a while. Also on the way we stopped at Six Nations to see our friend Terri. It was a good day, but a long day and me and my pup are sleepy. It was great seeing Posey again, she was excited, I was excited. She was wagging her tail and if I had a tail it would have been wagging too. We just love each other! I missed her so much! She was away since the beginning of October, so we had a month away from each other. A long time! I’m glad her sitter loves her so much and they have fun together.

I didn’t get my travel grant to go to London. Which sucks. But my Mom offered to pay for it since she just got an award and also we’d been wanting to go to London for a while anyway. So I guess we had a vacation. It still sucks not being supported for a travel grant because you really don’t know if you can afford it until you’re back and find out if you got the grant or not. BUT ALSO it concerns me because I have consistently gotten all the travel grants I’ve applied for for the last decade or so, and the only difference between then and now is that I’m trans and the grant was to travel with a film about being trans. And it was to a relatively prominent film festival too, so it sucks that I didn’t get it. Suspish.

My income has generally gone down a bit since I came out as trans, which is something I was worried would happen. I know so much of film industry stuff is being appealing to the masses, and marginalized people just aren’t as appealing according to a capitalist reading of audiences. So that’s frustrating. I’ve also posted on some social media in support of Free Palestine and ending the genocide and I know people are getting blacklisted around that. So that’s another concern. I’m honestly so relieved I chose not to go into academia, because of the silencing of scholars on these issues. And I feel like if I didn’t say anything I would feel like I wasn’t living up to my principles. BUT does it mean I will never get to make a feature film, and be confined to only doing a life of low budget short videos? I think it would rob the world of some great art, but also honestly probably some part of me feels like if I am punished for saying what I think is unjust, then that’s what happens. And if the world doesn’t want to fund my projects, then I’ll probably just keep making them and do sex work or something. Like, I know what it’s like to spend years doing DIY projects. And I know how to be poor. And I am not losing some job with benefits, I am just getting a slow trickle of money instead of what it was before I came out.

I was trying to encourage a friend to keep asking people out because she got rejected recently, but so did I this morning so it was kind of funny timing. I was telling her to try try again with someone new. And then I said something like “I’ve been rejected by so many amazing people!” Which is true the people I have asked out on more romantic dates this past year were all really amazing but not interested. So I guess at least I am picking amazing people. Not aligned yet I guess.

The strangest thing happened to me, I was talking about my last broken heart in the car with my friend today and after I was done telling them all about it, Snapchat sent me a friend suggestion and the friend was my ex. It was kind of eerie! I know it’s probably just listening or something creepy. But it always feels like “Is the Universe sending me a sign?” when really it probably just went through contacts and found someone with the same name as who I was telling the story about.

OR I DON’T KNOW maybe it is the Universe. They’ve been heavily on my mind and I’m just so tired and frustrated of myself and not being able to just move on. I feel like a failure in the art of letting go. And it seems like they’ve completely let go of me, they probably don’t even really remember me by now. And I’m just stuck with these reminders and haunted by these memories. And the sad thing is I really still wish it could work out some how, but I am so stuck and I can’t message them because they told me not to. Like I wish they had left it open so we could have talked a few months later, but NO they wanted no contact. Ever ever ever. So what am I supposed to do about that? Nothing, there’s nothing I can do and it’s the worst feeling. They could talk to me but not the other way around.

I also had an awkward session with my therapist recently around current events and I feel anxious about that now too. This world is getting so ugly and things are getting torn apart everywhere because of it. It really sucks.

I don’t know if things will get better. I wish they would but it looks pretty dire out there. I also think the refusal of the Canadian and American governments to listen to their citizens about issues like not sending arms to Israel has demonstrated pretty clearly that we don’t live in the democracies we are pretending we live in. Like the United States government listens to big money lobbyists more than their constituents, I think that’s a government run by capitalism more than democracy. And I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with Canada even tho I live here. We’re stuck with the Liberals and if we go Conservative it’s gonna get so shitty and fascist and I’ll probably lose my access to legal HRT. ARGH! And the NDP DID finally turn around and start asking for a ceasefire, but there was a long period where they went along with all the other parties in terms of the bombing of Gaza, which was really disheartening to me as a progressive. I really don’t know where a safe place is anymore. Fascism is rising all over the place, and based on my reading about what happened with the Nazis after the war, it makes sense. Most of them weren’t punished, most of them were welcomed to other countries all over the world. It just went more places. It is very disturbing.

And I was reading about the rise in hate crimes in Canada, and there’s some against Muslims, but a LOT against Jewish people. Like it definitely spiked. And that’s really scary and something I am trying to remember in all of this. I don’t want people to be unsafe because of what is happening. And also just the fact that I can never have a view of the world from all these different perspectives because I don’t have lived experiences in those communities. I can try to empathize. But I’m limited, and the fact that Meta decided Canadians can’t share news stories has meant I don’t see these events as easily unless I deliberately seek out news sources. Which I was just lazy about before and would read what friends shared on Facebook. But now I have like, a responsibility to actually keep on top of this stuff.

I read about the Hellfire Missiles today and saw a blurred video of a man with his legs chopped off in Gaza. Like it’s basically a missile with giant blades around it to chop people up. It’s disgusting, what kind of fucking monster would imagine something like that into existence? This genocide is bringing new horrors to the world every day. And yet we’re getting blacklisted for saying it’s wrong? Ugh fuck.

Pride in Buenos Aires and random stuff

I am writing this from Canada, I got back here yesterday. On Saturday I went to Pride with Diego and it was fucking incredible. Over a million people marching for LGBTQ Human Rights, but also in solidarity with a lot of other movements like Free Palestine. And they were also super political because an election is coming up with a far right guy they don’t want. And while I was there they also told me a lot about the military dictatorship and I found out about a lot of trauma that happened around those times. And it was over in 1983 which really isn’t that long ago. Like I would have been five years old when it ended, totally unaware in Canada. But they did a really amazing job at preserving sites of remembrance of the terrible things that happened. I showed my films at a building on the same grounds as ESMA which is one of the bigger detention camps where a lot of torture happened. And murders. And they had a plane on the grounds that was one of the death planes where people were sedated and bound and thrown into the ocean or the river. And the plane ended up being sold to the US for a mail plane, and then it went on to be a plane for a skydiving business in Arizona. And then they tracked it down and brought it back to Argentina. It’s intense seeing stuff like that. Canada really does its best to sanitize it’s history. Like, I don’t know that we have a specific residential school as a site of memory. It feels like we should but people kept burning them down.

But anyway, I think I was trying to figure out why they connected with my work and then I thought about some of the newer stuff I’d shown there and how it talks about Indigenous trauma and historical trauma and stuff and I realized nêhiyaw people and Argentinian people are both traumatized people. So maybe that’s the connection.

I do notice that I feel more comfortable around people who have trauma in their history like that.

Anyway Pride was amazing and inspiring and I got to march with some trans people which was super cool. I also went to a trans art exhibit and the curators gave a bunch of us a tour. And then my last night in Buenos Aires I went into an Airbnb with a hot tub, and floated around in just a pair of swimming trunks for the first time. Only two other people were in the hot tub area, so it was a nice intro to being topless in public. Like a regular guy.

I went on Grindr in Buenos Aires and made plans with a guy who bailed, I think he just wanted to jerk off. So that was fine I guess lol awkward but then I didn’t feel like continuing to find a date there. I have a man interested in fooling around in Toronto, so that might happen which would be nice.

I got on this big plane and flew 10 hours to NYC and then in NYC I got delayed for three hours while they fixed something on the plane. And I had a screening last night of work I curated with KJ Edwards and it was like, totally nuts doing ALL the things before and in time for the screening. Like customs/baggage pickup/getting home/taking a bath. And also I had to pick up food but then my card stopped working, so I had to call and get someone’s credit card numbers for the customer service woman to get paid so I could leave. But it all worked out. And today I had a massage and then talked in a class and then just finally relaxed. I’m trying to conserve money so I am smoking roaches in a pipe until Friday when I can pick up weed someone grew for me. And trying to eat the things in my house already. I need to go buy coffee and toilet paper tomorrow tho.

Anyway my point is I’ve been go go go for a while and I’m glad I just get to relax more again. I have therapy tomorrow morning and that’s gonna be nice. I hope! I don’t know I might feel weird who knows. I thought I was gonna have to reschedule her next week but I think 40 minutes is enough time to get home. I have a talk at 1:30 so yeah it’s cutting it close, therapy usually ends at 12:50. But there’s a bus that goes from there to here and I think it’s pretty quick.

It’s so much work being me! I’m glad my work is picking up again though. My income took a hit when I couldn’t work while recovering from surgery. But I think it’s starting to come in again. I remember there was this nice moment when I decided to be a full time artist that I knew I just had to keep doing all these gigs that were offered to me and I could make a living at it. I mean also the big creative projects sustain me. But doing talks and events also brings in a lot of money. I was meaning to do a break down of my income and see what pays me what. But I haven’t.

I’ve been passing as a man pretty consistently these days. There was one guy who called me seniorita in Argentina, just some guy on the street, but mostly people treated me like a man. I’ve noticed people in queer spaces aren’t sure what to do with me tho. I think I read more transmasculine to people who know trans people. But I dunno. It’s like people are shy to flirt with me because they don’t know if I am a fag or a dyke. And that is a weird feeling, to know if people were less confused it might make more dates happen. I was thinking of getting a bisexual flag pin or something to look more open to different genders.

I’ve noticed straight women treat me different, which is interesting. Like, they are a bit more flirty/open to me than when I was presenting as a masculine woman. I haven’t gone on a date with a straight woman yet, but I’m nervous to and also I just have always liked bisexual women. But I should try being open to a straight woman, I don’t know what dating them is like. I did fall for a straight woman once and it was very confusing for me.

Anyway I am passing so well that I had a trans experience with TSA finally on the way back from Buenos Aires. I got a red square over my crotch in the sensor thingy and they did a pat down which was VERY INVASIVE. Very awkward. I don’t understand why someone missing a penis could be hiding something. Where am I hiding something? There’s nothing there! Like that is the anomaly is that there’s an absence, how is that suspicious!? And what about the smoothies?! I guess they are always suspicious?

Anyway ugh. I am doing my name change finally and I gotta do a gender change too on my birth certificate, but that’s not gonna stop the TSA pat down. I was literally standing there getting this pat down and thinking “Maybe I should do phalloplasty just so I don’t have to do this all the time now.” But I don’t want phalloplasty, it was just some desperate thought. Aw. I don’t know if packing would help either because that’s definitely a detachable thing. I think next time I’ll just tell them I’m trans and see what they say.

Blahhhh.

It’s freezing rain here today so I didn’t go out after I got back from my massage. But tomorrow I am going to the post office to mail my name change, and also to the parcel place to get my packing underwear. I ordered five pairs! One for every weekday. I hope they fit good, I think they will. I’m just looking forward to underwear that will help me pack, because honestly I would do it more if it was simpler and I didn’t have to wear a harness or deal with it moving around in a sock. Like they fall out so often if they aren’t attached somehow. I think I’ll feel better.

I’m doing fine I guess, transition wise. I need more testosterone soon, I gotta call my pharmacy for it. My chest is healing well, the scars are getting lighter with all this scar care I am doing. I massage it with scar cream and then I put silicone scar strips over it most of the day until I have a bath again and do scar massage again. I did leave it off a couple of nights, but it’s definitely working and I want to minimize them. I know likely they would lighten on their own though. But it’s keeping the scars from getting raised which is good. I still need to get a seroma drained. It’s just not absorbing fast enough.

What else? I’m tired! I’ve got a lot of thoughts on my mind. And tomorrow is the two year anniversary of getting dumped by the person I hoped would be a true love so it’s like yay feelings ugh. At least I get to see my therapist tomorrow.

Considered Pornography by the Internet Service Provider

Well, I was gonna post on this page but I guess I have to tether my phone to actually do that, so I am writing this offline and posting later to save data. I was wondering because the wifi here won’t let me look at definitely legit pornography, so I was tethering to my phone for j/o sessions. BUT NOW I find out my own sad sack overshare blog is ALSO pornography.

Please let me know if you have ever orgasmed from my self-indulgent anxieties as detailed here. I would love to know! I never thought of myself as a pornographer but I guess I am, according to right wing leaning Internet Service Providers. I should step it up I don’t think my writing or art has ever made anyone cum. Lol emotional pornography. I do know that my friend who is a school teacher says their school blocks this webpage, and that was a long time ago.

ANYWAY I am in Buenos Aires and it’s been really nice. I am TOTALLY out of my element in terms of not knowing enough Spanish tho, I know very minimal things. I need to practice more. Google has been helpful though, I learned the word for pumpkin (calabaza). Someone on Grindr taught me the word for cocksucking because he prefers to use the Spanish word as it isn’t so rough (peteros). I guess that’s a trigger word for pornography but like whatever grow up.

I’m feeling in between here because I feel too hairless for the men (and also I’m not sure how to signal I also date men) and too dudely for the women (and also I date women but I don’t think I’m around women who date trans men but who knows). There was that one guy on Grindr into peteros tho so I might meet him (and he did specifically say he liked how hairless I was). It’s a confusing time! I also don’t know enough Spanish and I can do easy things like order uno café con leche y dos medìalunas, or uno calabaza risotto y uno limonada. But the menu and google is helping me. I had an awkward time at the store because I was trying to buy blueberries at the wrong counter and they were trying to tell me to go to the fruit and veg guy’s till. I did figure it out (or they figured out how to show me what they meant). I’ve been eating a lot of empanadas and I think the festival people are like “Uhhh but there are also all these other things you could be eating” which is fair but I know where the nearby cheap empanada place is that seems to know enough English so it’s kind of a standby at the moment.

The festival people are great, they are radicalizing me ha ha. The director Diego was telling me how their gender identity laws work here because they are MUCH better than Canada. In Canada I need to get a doctor’s letter to change my gender on my ID, but here you just go and tell them who you are and they change it. Even eight year olds can just go to their teachers and state their name and gender identity without needing anyone’s permission. Diego was saying Identity is a human right and I’m like fuck of course it is that makes so much sense. Also it makes me realize how backwards Canada is still. I mean the whole thing with trans kids is still being debated there, and here it’s just a human right.

Of course tho there’s a lot of violence against trans people in Argentina, one trans person gets murdered every week. I know we have violence against trans folks in Canada but I don’t know if it’s because our population is smaller but it’s not at that scale.
But also the population of Buenos Aires alone is comparable to the population of all of Canada. So there’s differences.

The economy here is in a bad way, so things are really cheap according to my exchange rate. However I notice I get charged more in certain touristy places, like, I think they just know I have more money. Like I bought a stamp and postcards and it was kind of nuts, and of course it was from a touristy gift store. So I just mailed one postcard. I might mail the rest from Canada, but I don’t know.

My money situation is also sucky but I’ve managed to coast on my perdium so far. BUT FUCK! So many places owe me money and they all very happily tell me I’ll get it in a few weeks while their systems process whatever. No one is in a hurry to pay artists. It sucks. It really does, and I know they could speed it up but they don’t, it’s not THEM who has to pay the rent, it’s ME. So I could get tossed out of my apartment but whatever, they’re not gonna rush the administration to put my payments through. I also still have $8000 worth of travel grants that I don’t know about yet. I would love to have them because I’ve had to front a lot of money for the London trip. For this trip I got some help from the Embassy of Canada because we were waiting and waiting and I needed to get a plane ticket to come here so they used my artist fee to buy it. But now I’m in this weird situation of needing my artist fee and I still am waiting to hear from the ISO if I am getting covered.

Basically I don’t think I’m gonna get any money until I’m back in Canada. Because people who have money to give me are fucking slow and not in a hurry at all. And I still have another week here and I guess I’m just lucky that the economy here is not great so I can get things relatively cheaply unless they know I’m a tourist (which they clue in on pretty fast when I don’t understand what they are saying). But really I just wish I had money again so I could like, actually go get a steak and not another dos empanadas. I’ll be fine I guess I have a place to stay this whole time and the festival is looking out for me, and I do have family back home who could send me money in an emergency.

ANYWAY ha ha I guess that’s all for this blog. I am gonna tether to my phone now and try to post this.

It's a pornography store, I was buying pornography