Sixty-six // Thirty-three
One-third of my life. That's how much of my life I've lived outside of America. My so-called "home country."
humbled
it’s always humbling (for me) to be told by someone that something i made / did / said matters to them, but for whatever reason it feels especially… significant? when i’m told it out of the blue offline. i mean, the last thing i expected to happen going into work today was for a coworker, who happened to be in town for an in-house training event, to approach me about having seen me in a BuzzFeed video about asexuality…
…ok, so i lied about not posting sappy cat updates till i bring him home.
anyway. went back to the petshop for another visit after work today and finally got some decent snaps of still-yet-to-be-named kitten. i know i said previously that i’d be bringing him home on September 25th, but i’m doing everything i can to get him out of that petshop sooner. hopefully by this Saturday after work, so sorry for the Tumblr silence broken only by goblin kitten spam. things will get back to “normal” around here eventually. after, you know, the kitten is home, has a name and his own Instagram account that possibly maybe might repost to a Tumblr blog eventually. yeah. then you’ll stop seeing goblin kitten spam here and things will get back to “normal”. yeah.
YouTube Pride Academy 2017
ever so aptly timed with YouTube’s second attempt at spotlighting LGBTQIA YouTube with the hashtag #ProudToBe, the first ever Pride Academy was held at YouTube Space Tokyo today. the name of the event itself being a play on one of YouTube’s programs for creators, Creator Academy. the event was aimed at encouraging and offering support to LGBTQIA people in Japan who might be interested in creating a channel on YouTube– regardless of the content that they chose to put on their channel. another aim of the event was to host a 交流会 (networking event) after the presentations in the hopes of fostering community among LGBTQIA youtubers in Japan by giving them a chance to meet each other. to that end, Google promoted the event at its booth during Tokyo Rainbow Pride this past May and i was pleasantly surprised to see the turn out, given the current state of LGBTQIA…
temporary hiatus
with tomorrow being my final day at my current job, less than 48 hours until i move to the lovely city shown above and less than a week until i start a new job that i must hit the ground running with, it’s time to put this blog on hiatus. i’ll still check in from time to time to like posts for future reference, but i will not be otherwise active on this blog. asks will be responded to in the order they’re received unless noted to be time sensitive or otherwise urgent. noteworthy stuff: April 16th, 2017 – the Tokyo LGBTQIAP+ and Supporters Meetup Group will be having a picnic again this year. last year’s was fun and (provided nothing comes up last minute) i’ll be there again this year. see the meetup group or contact me for details. April 29th – May 7th, 2017 – Tokyo Rainbow Pride will be held…
…mmm, so.
i’m extremely busy and low on spoons right now, so i’ve been silently keeping a very weary eye on the ongoing situation regarding YouTube’s age-restricted censorship of LGBTQIA content. as youtuber after youtuber responded to the censorship of their videos and the outcry from youtubers and non-youtubers alike grew, i’ve remained silent because, as i said, i’m extremely busy and low on spoons– but also because i glanced at Creator Studio, the backend of YouTube for content creators, and saw no change in my video listing or anything else that indicated restriction. well, my exhausted, weary (and wary) ass turned on “Restricted Mode” tonight. 29 out of 65 of my videos and 4 entire playlists have been marked as potentially inappropriate for young viewers. and you know, if i weren’t barely functioning, struggling to even find the time to eat and sleep right now, i’d most certainly be livid and…
re: fuck my life
18 days and two near anxiety attacks later, the ball is finally starting to roll again after having been stalled for weeks because of Japan’s love of Red Tape™. now that it’s finally rolling again, gravity has it rapidly gaining speed down a sharp incline of 15 days until i officially move out, with smaller finish lines in the form of various deadlines along the way. sigh!
QAC 56 – Non-Binary In The Workplace: Job Hunting In Japan
navigating any job market as a non-binary and / or gender non-conforming person can be tough, especially given the current void of information and resources available on the subject. since i’ve recently found myself having to navigate Japan’s job market, i figured i might as well threw my own personal experience out there into the void. perhaps it’ll help someone else out there. please note that this video is not a ‘how-to’ on finding a job in Japan. rather, i talk about my own (limited) personal experience the job market in Japan in terms of navigating names when your actual name differs from your current legal name, navigating Japanese standards of “professional attire”, being forced to reevaluate things like HRT and “activism” outside of the workplace, etc. long video is long, so here are some jump points for ease of viewing: 🕐00:56 – disclaimers 🕑02:26 – background information 🕒03:19 –…
…頑張るから。
as a follow up on this post about losing my job and a general life update, i guess: after a month of what felt like running a 40km marathon of creating multiple resumes, writing cover letter after cover letter, waking up at 4am to catch the 6:20am train to Tokyo and back for interviews and such all before going to work for 8 hours that same day– i’ve finally got a new job…! and not just any job, a job that’s better than my current job in every possible way minus paid vacation– ouch. the new job is going to be really challenging for me because while i have experience teaching high school students, i have never actually taught at a high school let alone an international one! as much as i could jump out of my own skin right now out of anxiety, among other things, i’m also excited…! except for the…
on perpetual exhaustion
that feel when someone asks you how you are and you respond saying that you’re “tired”, knowing full well that they’ll take what you said differently from how you meant it. but that’s okay. because you’re fucking tired. you don’t have the energy to do anything about their understanding of the word anyway. hell, you yourself may not even know what kind of tired you are that day. are you depressed tired? are you anemic tired? are you queer tired? are you gaslighted tired? are you black tired? are you expat tired? are you anxious tired? are you one of the Many Other Kinds of tired? are you All Of The Above And More tired? ah yes, that’s right. you are a unique concoction of All The Above And More tired, further compounded upon by having to persevere through life as if you aren’t actually tired at all. when life…
