GCSE Results

Not mine, silly!

My eldest picked up hers today: 2 A*, 5 A and 2B. Results she deserves for all the hard work she's put in. Must admit I didn't think she'd do so well, and was concerned she was working too hard, but I'm very proud of her.

She's very special, both of them are.

Discoveries

It was just an ordinary Friday night like any other, but little did I know what discoveries lay ahead...

Out for drink down the boozer, with a mate, I discovered Clipper IPA tastes like shite.

And it was only because afterwards we wandered across the road that I discovered "Melone mit Wodka" by Back is heavenly. I had no idea I was drinking vodka distilled with melons; it was more like schnapps, Archers but without the cloying sweetness. Amazing stuff, bought a bottle at about 14 quid. It ain't gonna last very long. :)

More Vanity

Could play for hours!

Celebrity lookalikes...

Miss K is responsible for this...

MAC Insult

Oooh, has MAC Cosmetics upset part of their customer base?

Wonder if someone is going to get fired over this...

Smokey Eyes Video

Came across this while looking for stuff on CSS. I love serendipity!

www.videojug.com/film/how-to-create-a-smoky-eye-effect

Progress Me Thinks

Let me set the scene for those of you who aren't familiar with my TG situation.

Married 27yrs - in a few days time. My wife has known I'm TV for 26 years, I told her. She doesn't want to see me as Rachel, but is very supportive of me going out (since 1997 anyway).

She has never wanted to meet other TG girls or their partners.

Now my two daughters are away for the week and Vanessa (a TS friend) is working just down the road for a couple of weeks. So I decided to ask my wife if Vanessa could come over for a meal. Bless her she didn't freak, but I had to reassure her I wasn't going to change into Rachel, or talk in a squeaky voice. And she's agreed to it.

Vanessa comes over on Thursday evening. I'll let you know if it works out or turns into a complete disaster. Tomorrow evening we're off to see some mutual TG friends locally, but unfortunately I won't be able to go as Rachel. :(

The Ultimate Trannie Digital Camera?

I've been agonising over the right digital camera for nearly a year now - and it hasn't been easy I can tell you.

First of all I set my mind on a Nikon D70 and then the D70s came out. After that I ummed and ahhed about the price, as I wasn't quick enough to pick up the D70 bargains.

After that I thought about the Canon 350D, but that stupid thing called brand loyalty got in the way. More megapixels (8 point something) but it wasn't a Nikon. Stupid, I know, but there were sentimental baggage reasons attached.

A while later I chatted with a retired Master Photographer friend of the family, and he'd gone for the Nikon D50. He said there was plenty of functionality with the D50, and he probably didn't need the "extras" on the D70s.

I did even pop into the local camera store and have a play with the D50 - and fell in love with the smooth action and fast picture-taking ability. But the shop didn't recommend the 70-300mm Nikkor lens, because it didn't have a macro facility. They suggested the Sigma equivalent, but this was more your Lada to Nikon's Rolls-Royce in terms of smoothness of operation. So I went away undecided as to what to do.

Also, my wife was saying I'd never use it what with having to carry around two lenses, it was bulky so I wouldn't take it out very often etc. etc.. And I had a sneaking suspicion she'd be right. More indecision.

In the meantime, my wife had been wanting a small digital camera and had been her usual thorough self checking out Internet reviews. She came to the conclusion the Fuji Finepix F10 was the camera for her. One of her main reasons was the good reviews and the point that the delay time for taking pictures was significantly better than the rest in class.

Come Christmas I bought it for her (£199 inc. VAT) - it was a complete surprise and she's very chuffed with it. Since then I 've been borrowing it quite frequently. It fits neatly on a belt in a hama carrycase and at 92 x 58 x 27 mm(3.6 x 2.3 x 1.1 in) and 200 g (7.1 oz) it'll fit inconspicuously into the smallest of handbags (trannie points scored).

It's this experience that's finally convinced me to go for it's later model sister the Fuji Finepix F30, which is slightly smaller! One of the major reasons was the new ISO 3200 capability, which should mean being able to take pictures in low light (nightclubs and other dim and dingy venues trannies seem to frequent) more trannie points. Another is the 580 pics per battery charge - yet more trannie points. Have to say I thought I'd prefer a camera that could take NiCad rechargeables as I've been used to in the past, but having used the F10 on holiday for a week I'm converted to inbuilt power sources, even if it means being reliant on the manufacturer's camera charger.

I still don't like camera software for transferring images to PC so the USB 2 lead works a treat for me.

How much? It depends where you shop. PC World want £279 inc. VAT or from their business site £180 plus VAT plus £11 odd for postage. Amazon want £279 for the camera (don't know what they charge for postage) but I chose Micro Warehouse (part of dixons) at £217.38 including VAT and postage. Hopefully it'll be here in the next few days...

Some product features:

• Real Photo Processor and new Super CCD HR VI
• ISO 3200 sensitivity at full resolution
• 6.3 million pixels
• 3.0x optical zoom
• Long-life battery (up to 500 shots)
• VGA movie capture of 30 frames per second with sound
• PictBridge ™ compatible for direct printing without a PC
• Quick response times (0.01 second shutter lag and 1.4 second start-up)

The ultimate trannie digital camera? I think it comes close - it ticked enough of my boxes.

Is the UK TG "Community" hard done by?

It's all relative, I suppose. Well, it's a good get-out clause when a million other things need to be done - so no long discourse. Not that I'd be motivated to write one anyway, regardless of time. That one can be left to the more politically active TGs among us.

But here's a bit of perspective which may make us feel more positive about what it's like to be TG gifted here in blighty.

African Drag Queen in London

Over The Moon

Haven't had time to blog about this bit of news recently but my TS friend, Vanessa, is having a blessing ceremony in November and has asked me to give her away!

Vanessa has been a wonderful friend for five years or more now, and I feel privileged to have, in a sense, been given a birds-eye of her continuing transition.

And the reason I haven't blogged about her before (much) is because alot of what we have discussed has been very personal and confidential.

But I am going to touch on a number issues that whilst not too personal do, I think, have a bearing on why I think she's a wonderful person.

First off, Vanessa is not a child of the Internet. She didn't learn or gain support from this online medium that has helped so many of us. She's always been very level-headed and thought through all the issues, never rushing to reach decisions and always weighing up the situation.

She's had very difficult decisions to make with regard to family and professional life and has made the transition to professional working life as Vanessa almost seamlessly. In fact, whilst working in male mode previously has had more issues regarding her gender than she does now. In fact, gender issues now are almost non-existent.

And when you consider she acts as a locum within her profession, and continually gets invited back to cover for absent staff I think that's a testimony to how well she gets on with everyone she works for. In fact, it's obvious she has a great laugh with most of her tempoary colleagues. Added to which she is often put in a managerial role, which potentially adds to the chances of personality clashes. So good on ya, girl... and respect.

Of course this blessing ceremony means I'm obliged to shop for a new outfit - damn.

Beauty Vs Personality

"Should we be putting emphasis on surface-beauty and superficial indicators of 'attractiveness', or concentrating on people's personalities."

This quote came from yesterday's post on Siobhan's blog and I thought it worthy of comment.

How many relationships based on an over-riding sense of someone's physical beauty have stood the test of time? I'm talking about days or even weeks. Not many I'd guess. There has to be something more... and that's personality. And to take the point further, it has to be two compatible personalities otherwise the whole relationship can fall apart leaving two people having serious self-doubts about their self-worth. Alternatively, those two personalities have to work at accommodating their differing "world-views".

Take for example the high S and the high C (DISC). The high C sees the high S's willingness to co-operate as being spineless while the high D sees the high C's attention to detail as obstructive and unecessarily awkward.

But getting back to the point, if you value looks above personality it's possible to end up missing out on a whole bunch of potentially rewarding relationships - that's sad.

Moving on to another related issue, mentioned in my previous post, that is if someone in the tranniesphere misrepresents their image (OK, uses someone else's image) is this unforgivable? For me the answer is a resounding no. Why? Because looks shouldn't matter unless you're looking for a physical relationship.

OK, so I meet this person and work out what they've done. Should that change my perception of whether I liked them or not before I discovered the anomaly in looks. I think not.

A rider: Taking someone else's image will probably infringe copyright, and almost certainly will upset the person concerned, and therefore is not an action I'd recommend. Also, I think it shows a person has issues with their looks that needs addressing. On the other hand maybe they did it to avoid the fear of being recognised by those outside the tranniesphere. And I'm sure there are other "takes" on this.

Some have said the fact that a person uses someone else's image makes them feel their efforts have been insulted, possibly even denigrated in some way, but why? Unless what they are doing is putting themselves in some sort of worthiness order based on looks? This is what makes me really sad. If I said I didn't understand it I'd be lying. In the past I've looked at images of beautiful trannies and it's made me feel inferior, but here's the point...

I did that to myself. I compared my hereditry looks to someone else and beat myself up about it. I think trannies need to get out of this mentality; it's not easy but it can be done.

After that you're free to admire someone's looks without scuppering your own self-esteem. Try it sometime.

That's why, to refer to my previous post, I don't get uptight about other trannies who feel the need to use pictures of genetic females for their profiles or flickr album, taking due note of the above rider, of course.

I know this post has meandered a bit, but getting back to the point I think we all know personality outweighs physical beauty, so let's keep things in proportion, yeah?