treatment

hi

i'm going to send a duplicate over facebook, as i hope to get a referral out by monday if i need to do it that way. however, i suspect it may be easier to simply book an appointment.

the purpose of contacting you is to get my hormone prescription renewed. i've already been through all of the mtf transgender diagnosis - and a very long time ago at that. i've been on hormones absolutely steadily since 2010.

i was previously dealing with a doctor in ottawa. about a year ago, i moved to windsor. last month, i had my prescription renewal denied due to the doctor no longer practicing. i've had *general* difficulties with the doctors in windsor - they won't take my odsp seriously, and they won't write me hormone prescriptions. i'm really at a loss of understanding.

i couldn't even contemplate how i'd react if i were to stop taking them. i've been on them five years! my entire life exists in a female identity. i simply don't understand why the doctor in windsor is refusing to prescribe, but it's forcing me to look outside the city.

i was able to get an emergency prescription to the end of december from the hospital ER room. that's an extreme step, but i had nowhere else to go to get the extension. what that means is i'm hoping to see somebody before the new year.

i'll have to take the bus down, which shouldn't be a problem so long as i have enough time to plan. again: my records are with the doctor in ottawa. would you be willing to see me?

jessica

if you're curious for cost purposes...

the main heat is about to finally kick in - meaning it's about to hit 21 in here. meaning it's been above 21 in here without the heat on all fall so far. it's 21.3, so it'll fall within the next few hours. it's a little earlier than last year, but the temperature hasn't been very high. considering this is a basement, and it's been cold for weeks, that's actually sort of remarkable. had we not got these intense drops.....

the small heater in the bathroom has been on since the first week of october.

libby.

libby. libby....

so, if you argue that we should not restrict the flow of people from africa because it would damage the economy, does that mean you think we should not restrict the flow of capital across borders because it would damage growth? well, you're citing the who. are you going to cite the world bank and the imf, too?

it's the same neo-liberal argument, applied to a different context. if the aim is the well-being of the local population, it's equally wrong across both contexts.

now, did the government actually do anything? no. are they playing politics in their reaction? sure. is the american right being laughably hypocritical in capitalizing on public fears? sure. so, is it a meaningless political response directed at harper's base? absolutely.

but it's a really bad argument, libby. it's a scary argument. and, it aligns snugly into the existing perspective on the left that we've lost the ndp, to the extent that we ever had it in the first place.

if you're serious about this, you realize the who is pushing market fundamentalism in it's position. this ought not be an issue where travelers from africa are given the opportunity to make the choice to be dishonest. the quarantine should be total. it's the kind of situation that the clauses in the constitution were inserted for - with an extreme public health crisis, the public safety dominates over individual rights. and if that means that sick people choose to stay in africa instead of come to canada - well, yeah, that's the point. sorry, africa, but you're contagious right now.

when a so-called socialist party can criticize a ruling conservative party for abandoning the principles of neo-liberalism without anybody batting an eye about it, you know you're living in a one party state.

i have to admit that i kind of don't get it. gaming is such a dude thing. i don't see it as comparable to women picking up guitars or going to work or any of these sorts of things. it's more like women showing up outside the boys club and demanding to be let in.

i don't really claim to have a grasp of what's going on. i don't know who any of these people are or any of the forums or anything beyond the broad idea of misogyny in gaming. i just don't understand why women want into this world that doesn't offer them anything except wasted hours and doesn't seem to want them in it.

maybe it's a guy thing. i'm certainly revolted by the androcentric nature of the gaming industry, so i don't play the games. why can't there be guy things? why can't you just let the boys play their stupid games and leave it at that....?

i understand a lot of youngish women were raised with the idea that gaming is gender neutral. but, maybe that perception - wherever it came from - is wrong and, maybe, instead of trying to force yourself into something that doesn't want you in it, you should just get the message and voluntarily walk away from it...

there's no end goal of social advancement or hierarchical positioning inherent within taking part in the gaming industry. there's no victory for equality, here. i don't see any feminist gains to be made from fighting for the "right" to engage in mind-numbing stupidity as equals...

conversely, i think this kind of ultra-authoritarianism and interference in the sovereign lives of others is likely to harm general perceptions of feminism. there's really nothing worthwhile and nothing positive that can come out of fighting this battle.

it's fairly well understood at this point that a desire to be a police officer implies a certain level of mental illness. the idea of a "good cop" is a contradiction in terms - these are people that want to walk around with guns and tell people what to do, and there can never be anything "good" about that kind of a tendency.

i've seen the argument made that politicians should not be allowed to announce their own candidacies, for similar reasons. the argument is that nobody that chooses to run could be anything better than corrupt, so the only way to get a clean system is for the masses to nominate people - and possibly against their will.

i think a similar mindset needs to be adopted with teachers. i've spent a good deal of my life preparing to become one, but in the end decided it would be a horrible job. i'd be the kind of teacher that would make no effort to reach out to struggling students and would happily fail 75% of the class if it didn't hold up to my expectations. then, they'd pull this circular argument on me that i'm not meeting expectations. so, i wouldn't last very long. the core of my disinterest would be a complete inability to discipline the children of strangers. that's a totally foreign - and somewhat frightening - concept to me.

what kind of mental illness does it require to want to stand in the front of a room and enforce this neurotic, hierarchical structure down on kids? so, how can we speak of "good teachers", in the context of the mentality that the profession requires?