This poster is based on the Book-Head-Heart framework that Kylene Beers and Robert Probst developed and published in their book Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters.

As I’m student teaching at a Middle School with multilingual learners who speak Spanish or Portuguese natively I included translations for them. Here are some examples of how a student could use this framework. The first two examples are from Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House on Mango Street:

Here is an example from Jaqueline Woodson’s poetic memoir Brown Girl Dreaming:

Here are some more examples from Brown Girl Dreaming:

♥️ Ruby Bridges and James Baldwin are listed on p4. This seems to be a list of her heroes which makes my think about the list I put in my own memoir: Joan of Arc, Mary Dyer, Alice Paul, Felicia Elizondo, Marsha Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera. As she relates to her list from what I see as a black advocacy perspective I relate to my list from a transgender feminist perspective.

🧑‍🎓This is a book that’s clearly written using her “own voice” (p4).

♥️I didn’t realize Ruby Bridges was only 6 when she tried to attend school on the heels of desegregation (p6).

📘She wrote a whole poem about how her father would have named her Jack if it weren’t for her mother and aunt interfering (p7). What does she think of the name? It’s clear how she was named was important but was it because of the outcome or the process?

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Once upon a time there was an old woman named Lyla who lived alone. She was happy with her simple life. As was true with most homes of her time, she had no running water. Instead of running water Lyla owned two buckets and a carrying yoke. A carrying yoke is a nifty rod that fits behind a person’s neck and allows them to place heavy things on each end. This makes carrying far easier than just using hands! Shoulders are able to support far more weight than hands.

Every morning after Lyla got dressed and had breakfast she would attach the buckets to each end of the yoke. Once the buckets were secured she would place the yoke on her shoulder and walk to the well. The well was a few hundred feet away from her house. Today we might consider that to be the length of a football field! At the well she would fill the buckets with water and then Lyla would return with her buckets.

For several months one of her buckets had been leaking. One day as she returned home with her buckets the leaky bucket said, “Lyla, I think you should replace me. I’ve enjoyed bringing your water but lately I’ve been leaking half of the water.”

Lyla said to the leaky bucket, “the water you have been leaking has caused flowers to bloom on your side of the path. I don’t need two full buckets of water, I’m just one woman. What I do need is the beauty from the flowers caused by the water you provide.”

Now the second bucket said, “Lyla, if that’s true, wouldn’t it be nice to have flowers on both sides? Perhaps you should replace me.”

At this Lyla chuckled, “what has gotten into you both. You’re usually so quiet. Yes, I value the flowers from the leaked water. I also need the water. While you both look similar, you each provide me a different value.”

Both buckets asked in unison, “are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m very sure! If either of you were battered I would repair you. You are both irreplaceable. I need you both in my life. You provide the beauty for my walks, the water for my drinks, washing, and ramen.”

With that explanation both buckets felt a deep relieving sense of belonging. They continued their days living happily ever after. The End!

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 3 by 山田鐘人 - Despite knowing how the battle with Aura and her executioners was going to end I still found it intense to read. There are also some really hilarious parts like when the adventurers met another monk and what Frieren thought would be a good gift for Stark.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss - Goss was very ambitious with this book. It is a (second-wave) feminist, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction novel. It’s also hybrid in that the main character, Mary Jekyll, purports to be the author and included with the normal prose are notes from her as well as her found family. I think that had Goss only taken on those challenges it would have been a much better book. Unfortunately, she also incorporated characters from historical works including Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. From these various works she pulls one or more characters causing them to be important to the plot. Because there were so many characters there was little time to develop any of them. If Goss had taken an approach more like Marissa Meyer’s Cinder series it could have been a far better novel (or series). The Cinder series also replicated pre-existing characters but each character had a novel’s worth of introduction. Goss’s attempt at having the book be part mystery was foiled by including Sherlock Holmes and James Watson as characters. The book starts with the mystery of the money Mary Jekyll should have inherited from her father and the whereabouts of Mr. Hyde. With Sherlock involved the fact that her father was Mr. Hyde should have been solved as soon as he knew her background, instead Mary goes through almost the entire novel thinking her father is dead and not also Mr. Hyde. One of the big clues which the characters had was that her father transferred money to a bank in another country but the bank had no record of money deposited in his name. The money thread is completely dropped, it was obviously put in Mr. Hyde’s name and she should have claimed the money at the end of the novel instead of finding odd jobs to survive on. I found some of the writing of characters with mental health issues to be ableist which could have been resolved if there had been a sensitivity reader. What, however, almost caused me to stop reading was two throw-away sentences that used a racial slur to describe indigenous people of both Australia and the Americas. This was written in 2017 and set in the 1890s. The slur was used by one of the heroines of the story, and while perhaps a feminist of 1890 would have used that slur to refer to indigenous people there is no excuse for a feminist writing it in 2017.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison - A good look at what it was like to be black in America in the first half of the 20th century. It's a bit depressing. A great social commentary on masculinity and racism. It seemed scattered at first but the bits that seemed disconnected early on ended up getting tied together exceptionally. I enjoyed Beloved more, probably because I wasn't as interested in Milkman is a main character.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid - What's not to love! A forbidden lesbian romance between astronauts in the early years of the US shuttle program! It goes into depth about the sexism women faced at NASA and how being queer was considered a liability. I also enjoyed how the main character realizes as an adult that she's queer. The story of the niece being sidelined by her mother is also heartbreaking. I was in Maryland when I read this, and the flatness of Maryland reminded me of Cape Canaveral which the book is set.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - It’s very evident how comedy like Monty Python spawned from this play. It’s a very ridiculous story in a fashion only a Brit can pull off. While none of the characters are explicitly queer, it’s clear in retrospect that Wilde was exploring his challenges with being queer in British society while writing this. Obviously Wilde’s imprisonment and later years are a tragedy that reminds us why we need to be vigilante about queer rights.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - This was awesome! I really need to read more lesbian romance! While this is set in a fictional D&Dish setting I think taking two “villainous” races in this case Orcs and Succubi and humanizing helps confront the type of prejudice we have in the real world. In this case the Orc main character literally hangs up her sword to follow her dream of running a coffee shop.

Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - I’m not sure why it took me this long to read this. I really enjoyed the contrast between the mothers and the daughters. I kept having to remember that the daughters are my parents generation and the mothers came to the US during the Japanese invasion of China. The cycle of not understanding a parent as a person feels so real. The details of life in China prior to Mao’s China was insightful. I also liked learning a bit more about Mahjong, including differences between American and Chinese Mahjong.

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson - This book outlines how black people, especially women, have resisted oppression throughout the history of the Americas. She goes out of her way to point out that while violent resistance is often downplayed, there are times when she considers it the only correct option. What I found especially informative was the way federal marshals invaded northern states and communities used bells to warn people. That precipice to the civil war feels a lot like where we are with ICE today.

Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino - It’s a cute YA romance that explores Deaf Culture, imposter syndrome, and audism (ie: ableism against the deaf community). At times I felt it was a little overly preachy, though perhaps some of the ableism the characters experience aren’t as obvious as I found them. Most of the story is set in an Illinois camp dedicated to the area deaf and blind community. At the start of the book the main character uses hearing aids and uses voice as well as lip reading to communicate with friends and family. This is her first year as a camp counselor and she needs to brush up on her ASL because she hasn’t used it outside of camp. At the start of the book she feels like an outsider in both hearing and deaf communities. I especially connected with this book because I was a camp counselor for two years as a teen. I’ve spent weeks in Chicago so it was fun hearing about places I’m familiar with like Portillo’s, Wrigley Field, and Union Station. A recurring issue in the town where the camp is situated was a lack of cell service. Because my experience of Illinois is almost entirely Chicago-land it kept feeling surprising to remember that very little of Illinois is actually city.

Vile Verses by Roald Dahl - I read this for school. It’s just a collection of poetry from some of his other books. He’s a great writer but unless you really want the handful of unpublished poems in here it’s not worth finding it (the book is out of print).

On Beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss - I saw two reasons why they decided to stop publishing it. While it hasn’t aged well it is a ridiculous read that pokes fun at our alphabet.

I love interviewing people and unfortunately have not had the chance to interview a candidate for the last few years. Specifically I like meeting new people and learning about them. Some folks recently asked me about what my interview process is so I dug up my notes and polished them.

In this article I’ll start by discussing how I begin an interview and then the kind of questions I use for specific positions. I’ll also go into detail of why I ask the question and what I’m looking for.

In general I prefer what’s known as “behavioral” interview questions. By asking people about their experiences you get a sense for how they have handled similar issues in the past. It’s harder, but not impossible, to “lie” for behavioral questions.

Keep in mind, interviews are a two way street. You want to show candidates that you are somebody they might want to work with and that there is value in being at your company. While the hiring market has ups-and-downs, you don’t want to leave an interviewee with a bad perception about you or the company even if you don’t think the person should be hired.

Often interviewers are advised to do the entire interview even if they know early on that the candidate isn’t a fit and the interviewer will recommend against hiring. In part, this advice is to prevent a candidate from feeling they are being discriminated against or give a candidate a bad experience that they share on social media. If you are the hiring manager, or somebody that has and will veto their candidacy I think it can be valuable, especially for people new to the job market, to tell them why they aren’t a fit and where instead they should consider interviewing. For example, I’ve had several candidates who interviewed at a startup that clearly would prefer to work in a more established/stable company and I’ve advised them accordingly.

Interview Prep

Take time to pre-read the candidate’s resume. The resume can be a great source of behaviour questions. They should be able to talk in detail about everything on it so you can potentially pick a couple things to ask about that are relevant to the job. You might want to ask the other interviewers what they will be asking to limit overlap.

You should read a candidate’s LinkedIn. You may also want to do an internet search for them and check their GitHub.

Have a document or paper with your questions. I’ve totally blanked on my questions. Write down notes on what they say vs “pass”/ “fail”. Don’t write anything you’d be embarrassed for the candidate to see. The details of the answer can help qualify your rating.

Remember that you are human. If somebody spilled coffee on you and your kid just got an “F” in math don’t take it out on the candidate. Research shows that interviewers who are in bad moods give more negative feedback about candidates. This is why your notes can be critical in helping you compare candidates more objectively.

Sometimes you end up having less time than planned for interviews. Feel empowered to tell a candidate to be more concise. If you are running low on time make sure to get to the highest priority questions and still give them time to ask questions.

Opening

• Intros - State pronouns (don’t ask for them), title, when joined, etc.

  • This may seem obvious, but it’s important to start with introductions. Candidates are nervous and starting with easy conversation will reduce the nervousness. Start by introducing yourself and sharing your pronouns. Do not ask the candidate for their pronouns because they may not feel safe to share, may be in the closet, and may be insulted by the question. Tell them your title at the company and when you joined. Give them an opportunity to introduce themself. If they state their pronouns make sure you write them down.

• Anything they need? - Water, bio break, etc.

  • Make sure they are comfortable. Maybe they just got into the office from an intense weather day. Often interviews are back-to-back and the candidate might need a bio break. Ask them if they need a break, water, or anything else! Do not hold it against them if this reduces your interview time.

• Discuss Group and Role

  • Don’t assume they understand the details of the group or role. Sometimes job postings are very generic. A candidate might be interviewing for several different positions at once and misremember getting the details jumbled. Give them your insider perspective of what the group is, what the culture is, and what they would be expected to do if hired.

For All

• Career Goals

  • This is a critical question, which is why I list if first. As an interviewer, especially a hiring manager, I want to make sure the candidate’s longterm goals can align with the goals of the team and company. If a candidate has the goal to be a phlebotomist and I’m hiring a software engineer they probably won’t be happy if I hire them. I won’t have any assignments that lead them to their phlebotomy dreams.

• Interest in Company

  • This tells you if they’ve done their homework on the company. I don’t consider this a pass/fail, it’s possibly they blanked on the details about the company. This also gives you a chance to clarify what the company does.

• Tell me about your Worst Boss. I don’t want to know who they are, but what about them made it difficult for you to work for. It doesn’t have to be a boss, it could be a commander, captain, coach, professor, etc.

  • This is probably more useful for a hiring manager to ask. The intent here is to hear a story relating to what they disliked with a past manager. If, for example, they disliked being macromanaged and you consider yourself a macromanager maybe this won’t be a good fit. Asking them this also can show you as a leader are open to feedback from employees.

• Tell me about your Best Boss

  • Similar to the prior question, this helps tell a hiring manager if they would work well with the candidate. If you can’t hope to be in the same ballpark as what they are looking for in a leader this might not work out.

• What have you learned recently?

  • If you have a job where people have to continually learn you might prefer to hire somebody who has a passion for learning. I think it’s important to be open to the learning they list being unrelated to the work.

• What motivates you to come into work every day?

  • This helps you get a sense for a person’s intrinsic motivation. Can you provide an environment where this person will feel motivated to work?

• How do you rely on others to make you better?

  • I ask this to get a sense of a person’s ability to be a part of a team and to gauge their humility.

• Who inspires you and why?

  • This can be an alternative to the best boss/worst boss. It helps you determine if the candidate can be inspired by the team.

• Questions for me?

  • This is a critical question. Interviews are a give and take. It is frustrating to be a candidate and not be able to ask any questions. These questions also can give you further insight into what the candidate is looking for and if you can provide it. This can also show you they’ve thought about the role. Sometimes the questions will reflect how they’ve been burned at prior companies and if they would similarly be burned at your company. It’s okay if they say they have no questions. They may have already asked all their questions, they may have forgotten their questions, or they may be uncomfortable asking their questions to you specifically (which is okay).

• Still Interested?

  • If in the interview they’ve realized they don’t want the job this will save everybody time to know now. Thank them for whatever response they give you. If they aren’t interested make sure the recruiting team knows directly after you finish meeting with the candidate.

Customer Success Engineer Questions

• An example of improving a customer relationship?

  • An experienced customer success engineer will have worked with MANY unhappy customers. If they are good at their job they should have at least one story of improving a customer’s view of a company.

• Experience w/ Command Line

  • This can give you a sense for how technical they are. This can also give insight if their background is Linux, Mac/Unix, and/or Windows. This is not a pass/fail, just an indicator of how much they might need to learn to get up-to-speed.

Programming Question

• Favorite Programming Language? Why? What is it Bad For?

  • It’s important to have this as a three part question. A candidate might be tempted to list a language your company uses or the job description stated. Every programmer has a favorite language, let them tell you theirs. If they didn’t state why, ask explicitly. This gives you insight into their knowledge of their “alleged” favorite language and their preferences. Finally, ask what the language is bad for. This last question is critical as it gives insight into how flexible an engineer is. If the candidate says Python (for example) is their favorite and it isn’t bad at anything they are clearly wrong. All languages have their trade-offs and weaknesses. A programmer who says their favorite language isn’t bad for anything could be unreceptive to using other languages when needed.

Senior Data Scientist

• ML experience?

  • I have almost no machine learning experience, so it was critical for me to determine what experience candidates had. I also had a data scientist ask more useful ML questions.

• Experience managing ML projects (including design)?

  • This was a critical part of the job role. I asked this to hear their history of leading their own projects.

• Programming experience w/ Data Science languages like Python, MATLAB, and R?

  • These match the languages that were on the job description. This gives a sense for how much they might need to learn for the job.

• Database experience?

  • Does the candidate have experience with the row-based and columnar databases your company uses? Do they have equivalent experience? Do you have time for them to learn your database stack on the job?

Senior Software Engineer

• Mentoring experience?

  • I generally expect senior engineers to spend time mentoring interns and non-senior engineers. Are they comfortable with that kind of work? Do they seem to have enjoyed or loathed it?

• Feeling about support work?

  • Most engineering roles have an amount of support responsibilities that could include being on-call and working directly with customers. Are they open to this kind of work or would they prefer doing greenfield work?

Management

• Example of how an employee’s career has evolved?

  • I want to see that a perspective member of the management team has experience and interest in growing employee careers. This can give you a sense if the candidate is autocratic or a servant leader.

• D&I initiatives that have failed and worked?

  • This will give you a sense for their interest and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. This might also give you ideas for initiatives to copy or have them implement if they are hired!

• Retention Strategy?

  • This can give you another sense of their leadership style and how they value employees. Do they work to make employees happy? If an employee’s growth is limited in the company are they willing to help them explore outside the company? Have they written LinkedIn recommendations, showing the world how much they value their employees?

• What do you enjoy about leadership?

  • This can give you a sense in what motivates the candidate and again what their leadership style is.

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Page Text

I walked to the house to the left of where I grew up. There was a window open so I went right in. It was a pretty big place. It smelled like a place that truly needed me. I could make my living getting rid of tons of fruit and house flies.

It sounded like nobody was home. I found a good corner in the living room and started building my trap. I took my time, just like Momma taught me. After about an hour I finished my trap. I was tired, so I found a good spot near the base to relax and wait.

I had fallen asleep quickly. I was startled awake when a house fly shook my trap as it got stuck. I was so hungry I skittered over to it. The fly looked delicious. I quickly wrapped it up and began to prep it. Once it was ready I ate it. It was yummy. One less fly to bother my new roommate or roommates.

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Page Text

My momma always told me to make something of myself. “Samantha,” she’d say, “we can work together to make the world better or we can fight and make the world worse.”

I hated when she called me Samantha. Being called Sammy wasn’t so bad, but I really preferred Sam. All my close siblings, which aren’t many, call me Sam. My neighbors called me Sam too.

Momma may not have been good at calling me Sam, but it seemed so right to work together. I decided to start keeping this diary so I could share what I learned with my own kids.

When I left home I would go into pest control. I could get a meal anywhere, but wouldn’t it be great if I could make people happy at the same time.

Author’s Note

As this is a children’s book the contents of the Sam Spindle page posts will be child-friendly. If you want to comment please make sure your comments are appropriate for a young audience.

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Future posts will probably be two pages together. I’m not sure how readable that will be in a web format since it’s meant for a book format.

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The first time I became politically active was when president George H. W. Bush sent our troops to liberate Kuwait from Iraq. I believed the war was about oil and that we shouldn’t get involved. The war crystallized my views as a pacifist.

As a member of my Junior High School’s newspaper staff I began reporting on the war. Often my stories had to be shortened to a quarter of my original submissions.

With my mother, I attended Quaker peace vigils in the plainly adorned and dimly lit meetinghouse. While I consider myself a humanist, I embrace some of the traditions of Quakerism including not worshiping idols, direct connections to the divine, and pacifism.

As the war went on I attended nighttime protests in Providence that enveloped us in darkness. I began wearing a pin that said “No Blood for Oil.”

In the Gulf War of the early ‘90s it was common for people to have yellow ribbons to support troops. Giant bows of yellow would be tied around trees. People would wear yellow ribbon pins. There were also, of course, yellow ribbon bumper stickers. To me, the yellow ribbons were about wishing our troops would come home safely. I bought a pin that had a tiny US flag with a yellow bow under it which I began to wear. It was my way of showing I wished for the safe return of our troops.

I was deeply involved in scouting. I was a year or two away from attaining the rank of Eagle Scout during the war. My troop decided to attend a yellow ribbon rally in Providence, a few blocks from where the protests had been. I was excited to go, as I wanted to be with my peers showing my support of the troops. The sun was brightly shining as we assembled to hear several speeches. Near the end a speaker lambasted the protests that I had taken part in only a handful of blocks away. He carried with him a large American flag. He spoke of how the protesters cared not for the safety of our troops. I stared at that flag with its red, white, and blue. I see no incongruity with wearing a “No Blood for Oil” pin and a yellow ribbon as I support the troops, not the president who sent them nor his policies. To me that flag of red and white stripes, the field of blue, and its now fifty white stars, had been a promise of liberty and freedom.

Some of my ancestors came to the Americas on the Mayflower. Two of my ancestors, Mary and William Dyer, had gone with their fellow Quakers to Roger Williams to seek refuge from the religious persecution of Massachusetts Bay Colony and on Williams’ suggestion paid the indigenous people of Aquidneck island for their land. Williams had similarly purchased Providence from the Narragansett Sachems. The Quakers went on to found Portsmouth and later Newport. Williams, a baptist theologian, wrote in his diary that he was pleased he was able to help secure a safe home for the Quakers though he was sad because he believed they would go to hell when they died. Mary Dyer returned to Boston to become the last Quaker hung in the Boston Common.

While Williams and my ancestors paid for their land, King Philip’s war led the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony to commit The Great Swamp Massacre in what is now South Kingstown Rhode Island. In the 1700s the colonists continued to encroach on their land and the hogs they brought began diminishing the food supply that had sustained them for thousands of years. In the 1800s the Narragansetts were illegally “detribalized.” We continue to build on stolen land where slavery reigned for hundreds of years. While many Quakers were abolitionists it wasn’t until 1787 it became a requirement of the faith that Quakers not own slaves. I cannot find evidence that the Dyer family owned slaves, it is possible, especially since Newport was a major hub for the slave trade.

The flag felt like progress with new stars being added as recently as my parents’ lifetime. We had abolished slavery and segregation. Yet here we are, still acting on imperialist instincts. George Bush’s son signed into law the “Patriot Act” that took away the constitutional right of due process from immigrants. It also increased surveillance of our nation. The spying provisions were extended by a law Obama signed in 2011.

Despite being a nation of immigrants, we arrest and turn back the immigrants of today. We have aided the colonial nation of Isreal in it’s genocide of Palestinians. From that yellow ribbon rally on I’ve seen the red as representing the blood that flag truly represents. I’ve realized that it is near impossible to have freedom and liberty in a nation built upon lies. I’ve realized that the American flag is not for me and I see no way to truly reclaim it.

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Moment of joy,
Moment of pain,
Moment of birth,
Moment of fear.

A mother with high blood pressure,
A doctor pushing Pitocin,
A couple unaware the risk,
A medicated IV drip.

Preclampsia leads to caesarean,
Caesarean leads to hemorrhaging,
Hemorrhaging leads to other mother feeding,
Feeding leads to tears in the dark.

We should be three,
We could be two,
We had wishes for one,
We almost had none.

Hard to breathe,
Enveloped in darkness,
Rocking in silence,
Holding the newborn son.

Would birth mother survive?
Would baby thrive?
Would formula sustain?
Would I survive the strain?

Writing

I completed Fixing the System. I started and completed The Gold Ceiling. I completed a creative writing course at UIS and have published some of the works from it here.

Perhaps writing is a misnomer as a lot of what I did was drawing. My art went from this at the start of the year:

To this at the end of the year:

And that’s just the stuff I’ve published so far. The first pages of Sam Spindle were done after this but won’t be published for a few more weeks. The Sam Spindle work feels far better than what I was doing for The Gold Ceiling.

Worldcon

Almost on a whim I went to my first Worldcon. At Arisia I talked to the people at the Seattle Worldcon booth and after hearing it was taking place in a state that was still welcoming to trans people I decided to go. I have wanted to go in the past, but the timing never worked out before.

I had been to Detcon1, which was the North American Science Fiction and Fantasy convention that only takes place in years when Worldcon is on another continent. I was a speaker at Detcon1, so my expectations were the same. I had not expected to moderate a panel with famous writers like G. Willow Wilson, the creator of Ms. Marvel, Hugo Award winner Ryan North who writes for Fantastic Four, or Jim Zub who writes for Conan the Barbarian. I also didn’t expect to be on a Doctor Who panel with Hugo Award winner Lynne Thomas who I’ve been listening to on the Verity Podcast for years. I also didn’t expect to see some of my favorite authors, Martha Wells and Becky Chambers.

School

I completed another 20 credit hours at UIS towards my degree and maintained my 4.0 GPA. One of my professors said I was the class’s unofficial TA because I noticed some errors in the assignments. Another professor said it was good she didn’t read my work first as she would have probably given lower grades to other students due to how their writing compared.

Substack

At the start of 2025 I only had 6 subscribers and 15 followers. I now have 69 subscribers and 143 followers, including a few paid subscribers. My mother, one of my followers from 2024, shared my content more than anyone else leading to 40 views, <3 Thank you.

1/3rd of my subscribers found me via a MUCH APPRECIATED recommendation from Trans United Fund. If you haven’t visited their substack, please take a moment to do so. They do the very important work of covering news of violence against transgender folks which most media outlets ignore or report inaccurately. Further, if you become a paid subscriber of Trans United Fund your money is used to provide safe housing for the most vulnerable of transgender folks, homeless black trans women. I am personally a paid subscriber of Trans United Fund.

Birthday

I spent my birthday in Chicago with two friends. We ended up reading some of our works to each other on a beach after a nice dinner. I’m pretty sure this is the best birthday I’ve ever had.

Protesting

I went to at least 25 protests this year, that’s more than any other year. Most of the protests were very local with the largest being in Worcester or North Hampton and the smallest being in Grafton on a rainy Thursday afternoon.

Running

I made a new distance record for the century, slightly exceeding the distance of a half marathon. I beat my 5K personal record on purpose and unexpectedly beat my 10k personal record because of how flat Maryland is compared to where I usually run.

Japanese

I’ve made progress, but not as much as I would like. I have improved my reading speed and comprehension. I have also improved my typing and speaking. I prioritize work, school, and family over this. My biggest limitation is how slowly my rate of vocabulary acquisition.

Friendships

I was hoping to deepen some of my friendships this year and potentially make some more friends. While I have made a few friends, I don’t think I’ve been able to deepen any. In fact, I suspect some (or all) people I consider friends just consider me an acquaintance. I knew this would be hard to do, especially with my intention to leave the country in the next few years and being so busy.

Health

I started the year with the flu. Later in the year I had shingles, which was so bad and because it was misdiagnosed twice I started losing vision in my left eye. Fortunately it was caught before it could do any permanent damage, although I do still have a scar.

Immigrant Rights

This feels to me like what has gone the most wrong this year. Having an honor student in the town next door arrested by ICE and having a woman with a valid visa arrested because of some mild comments in a college newspaper are just two local examples. I know many immigrants that feel unsafe and foreigners who don’t want to travel here.

Trans Rights

I was worried that the rights for my non-binary teenager would cause me to need to flee the country in 2025. This is still a possibility in 2026.

Passports of transgender folks have been in limbo. Fortunately there haven’t been any revoked yet.

There are far fewer places teens can get gender affirming care in the US. It has become completely inaccessible in Connecticut. In Boston, Fenway Health has stopped providing it despite being a hospital dedicated to queer patients.

Transgender people are now banned from serving in the US military and intelligence services.

Palestine

Globally this feels like the biggest tragedy of the year. The genocide is horrific. Hundreds of journalists were killed by the IDF.

Iran and US Aid

The president of peace had us bomb Iran. We ended US AID, which has led to a death rate of 88 people per hour! Both of these actions destabilize regions which increase the likelihood of terrorism against us.

What’s Next?

I’m signed up for 9 credits in the spring semester which starts the Monday before MLK weekend. I’m running a silly game about Dictionaries at the end of January and running Flipping Politics at the end of February. I added Fiery Chat to the background information for the second run of Flipping Politics.

The schedule for Arisia isn’t available to the public yet, but I’m scheduled to give a reading and be on a few panels. I haven’t decided what I’ll read yet, though I’m strongly considering Fiery Chat.

I’m a bit more hopeful that it will be safe for us to stay in the US at least until the summer. I already booked travel arrangements for Worldcon in August. This year Worldcon is in LA and next year it is in Montreal. I suspect even fewer international folks will attend this year.

The Sam Spindle illustrations are a lot more time consuming than the graphic novels, in part because I’m drawing everything from scratch for every page and I’ll be publishing two pages at a time. This might cause me to reduce my posting frequency. Quality over quantity 🤷‍♀️.

I’m not one to set New Years resolutions. I do hope to beat my 5K personal record again.

Thank you for reading my Substack. Becoming a paid subscriber will support me after I leave the country. Sharing my work is also greatly appreciated. I wish you a safe and happy new year.