<BREEDING A NEW CULTURE>

Coming Out

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-07-12 05:13:40

Originally published on my Google+ and Facebook pages, back at the beginning of June... This isn’t a particularly easy post to put out on the Internet, but here goes nothing... In the next few days, I’ll be changing my name on Facebook and Google+ from “Rusty Haskell” to “Kate Haskell”. I’m changing my name here on social media because that’s the name that I’m now going by at my new job and in face-to-face interactions with people. I’m in the process of changing my legal name to “Kathryn Ripley Haskell” as well. I would really appreciate if you would use female pronouns... (Read More)

Friday Linkfest

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-20 12:00:40

Every Friday, I'm going to serve up a delicious helping of articles I saw on the Internet that you really should consider reading. Those of you who follow me on Google+ will likely already have seen some of these links, but there will always be at least one or two that I haven't shared. "I'll tell you why movie revenue is dropping..." by Roger Ebert "Your Morning Cry: Single Mom Found Dead With A List Of Dreams In Her Pocket" by Cassie Murdoch "How to Drink: Whiskey" by Laneia "'Plus Sized' Clothes: Translating the Baffling Euphemisms" by Christina H "Being Mad On Twitter" by Margaret... (Read More)

Losing Weight For the Last Time

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-19 18:38:45

I'm in the process of losing weight for the last time. Long-time readers of the blog will have been with me through a couple of weight loss journeys, but this time, the weight loss is different. You see, this time I'm losing weight for the last time because the weight isn't ever going back on from here. The Ghosts of Weight Loss Past Related to all the problems that eventually sent me to the doctor, in the past when I've lost weight, I somewhat paradoxically felt worse about myself. Dozens of well-meaning people, both in person and over the Internet, would... (Read More)

Beware the living!

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-19 17:15:50

After a few months away, I've finally started playing WoW again. Everyone, meet Bellworth. I started playing WoW because I missed hanging out with my guildies and because Skyrim inspired me to play a rogue. I initially planned on making an orc rogue, but I decided that the undead reflected my closet gothiness a bit more. I'm going to be leveling Bellworth without any heirlooms or stockpiles of gold from my established characters. Bellworth is the 99%. In RP terms, Bellworth is not part of the secret cabal that Hemlock and Besom set up to keep things running in spite of the... (Read More)

And I become the Phoenix once again...

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-18 19:20:21

A few years ago, I kind of dropped off the planet. This blog presents ample evidence of this fact. For reasons I’m not yet ready to get into, daily existence became such a Herculean effort that just getting up and going to work took all of my energy. This wasn’t a sudden thing, mind you. I’ve been frank on this blog about my struggles with depression and isolation, and it just finally reached the point where I didn’t see a point in publishing my thoughts, or perhaps more accurately, my thoughts became such a dark and toxic place that they were... (Read More)

The Ongoing Saga of My Beautiful Hair

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-18 17:04:41

One of the professors just came in, checked his mail, and started to head out the door. He stopped halfway out the door and turned back around. "Do you ever have a bad hair day? It always looks so nice." "Well, I guess I'm just lucky in that regard." "You don't. You're very lucky." And then he turned around and walked out the door. ... (Read More)

Random Thoughts On Gender and Transgender

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2012-01-18 14:45:42

To be "other" in our society is to be lesser. In nearly every binary pair, one side is viewed as positive while the other is weaker or negative. Man is stronger than woman. Light is better than dark. Genderqueer folks take the matter a step further, calling the very structure itself into question. Is a trans woman male or female? How do I characterize this person? You don't even have to be transgender to cause this breakdown. Butch lesbians aren't "real women". When such ingrained structures are called into question, people turn to frustrated violence to try to enforce their orthodoxy. The... (Read More)

The Five Comics Everyone Should Read

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2011-12-16 10:05:31

I am of the opinion that every person on the planet should read the following comic series. This includes all those people who don't think they like comics. Gotham Central by Brubaker and Rucka. Watchmen by Alan Moore. Y the Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn. New X-Men by Grant Morrison. Fables by Bill Willingham Get crackin', people. This will be on the final exam. ... (Read More)

Things I'm Looking Forward To At My New House

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2011-06-29 10:47:35

As those of you who follow my Twitter and Facebook know, I'm officially a homeowner. Allyson and I closed on our first house back on June 10th, and we'll actually be moving in on July 8th. Now, I'm not the sort of person who gets really excited about all things homeowner. Going to Home Depot or Lowe's is still a form of torture for me. I don't get all excited about landscaping, building shelves, or installing gutters. Even still, I'm pretty excited about some of the parts of moving into a standalone house that we actually own. For posterity, this is... (Read More)

Little Dinosaur

Posted by Kate Haskell
Published: 2011-03-18 05:21:07

Little Dinosaur a photo by fuzzcat on Flickr.This little plastic toy showed up on my desk at work one day without explanation. Now he just lives there. ... (Read More)