WTF? What's up with Gender and Bikes?

I recently wrote a column for the Davis Enterprise on Women Trans Friends night at the Davis Bike Collective. Those ~600 words took me ALL DAY. Writing about gender and bikes in a fun, approachable tone while attempting to hold onto some nuance and ambiguity is hard for me. In any case, you can see the results of my intellectual and creative labor here:

At the Davis Enterprise website or at the Davis Bike website, home of many Davis bike-related things. The second one has cool pictures, taken by Jordan Thompson.

If you feel inclined, lemme know what you think.

Crafting a QE

Tomorrow I officially begin my qualifying exam, but I have been crafting the exam for some time now. This is a story of how I crafted my exam, up till now. Crafting research for me involves crayolas, scissors, markers, old drafing paper, push-pins, tape, step stools, and nice music sometimes.

We shall begin the story back in May 2009. On this day, I crayola-ed and marker-ed a map of my mind, my passions, my histories, my interests, and my questions onto my bedroom wall.

Thank you, Master Recycler, for saving so much wonderful paper from the UC Davis dumpsters.

These papers helped me for a long time, but eventually I took them down once they had served their purpose. Sleeping under your research can get a bit oppressive eventually.

Also crucial to my research process was the place where I wrote, a collapsible Ikea desk while sitting on a big red exercise ball. I like the mobility sitting on the ball provided, and I didn't have a desk chair. Then, one day, the unimaginable happened.

My ball died. I was just sitting on it, not even bouncing or anything, and suddenly...

POP!!!!

I was sitting on the floor, confused. How did I get here? Did my ball just disapparate? Or get "beamed" back to the mothership? Where did it go? These emotions were quickly followed by an inexplicable sentiment that was a mix of feeling aghast, confused, sad, bemused, amused, shocked, and just generally lost. I felt the need to do something, perform some ritual.

Time passed, and eventually I got rid of it's ripped carcass during the Big Move. In my new residence, I have an office thanks to the space-saving practice of cohabitation.

Isn't it a lovely yellow? But wait!!!!!

It's also ORANGE!!!!

We painted.

I've never thought of myself as an orange or yellow person. Reds and pinks sometimes, more often blues, with an occasional flirtation with greens or purples. Never the more sunny side of the color wheel.

But I finally found the place of citrus in my life.

My mother tells me this is not new. As a wee little girl, she asked me what color I wanted my bedroom painted. I confidently responded, "Orange." And stood by that request. Sometimes we have to relearn things our four-year-old selves just knew.

This is my new work/play station, replete with all the requisite substances and remains of a long day's work.

But where did the craft go? Well, I should mention all those fancy schmancy devices above are part of my craft too. They're more my everyday tools. I like maintaining a large and varied toolbox. I once hoped to add a treadmill into the mix, but that's a sorrowful story for another day.

In the end though, there's something about a sharp pair of scissors that ultimately brings everything together. As my second-to-final step in crafting my QE exam, I made a puzzle.

Unfortunately I did this about a half hour before I needed to go run a 5k race, the physical challenge part of my exam (more on this later). This kinda rushed things, but I work well under pressure.

TA-DA!!!

The first day of my qualifying exam essays! Done!

Sorta.

I'll iron out the rough parts tomorrow. The good news is that I made this with plenty of time to hit the starting line! I mean, I must have had at least two minutes to spare.

I passed the physical challenge, though not with flying colors. In fact, I merely passed on a technicality involving a blue water bottle and a frisbee. We'll see how the next week and a half goes, but I think I've already identified the part of my research regime needed the most work.

Scholar, RUN!