Not much geeking out but plenty of lack of diplomacy...

It's occurred to me that this blog has become more of a social commentary blog than a geek blog. I should be feeling bad about that but not so much because, you see, the title of the blog is still relevant.

There's a difference between speaking up and speaking out and being out and out rude. It's the difference between respecting boundaries and crossing over them, despite being told not to do so.

And sometimes...sometimes, boundaries are consciously crossed because the violation being done to a person means action must be taken.

I grew up in a small north Minnesotan town where everyone was encouraged to kowtow to "normalcy." Anyone who looked different, who acted different, who was different was regarded as an outsider and was bullied, ostracized, and made to feel like there was something inherently wrong with who they were.

I escaped with my life (barely) and rebuilt who I was little by little. It has not been an easy journey and I am still discovering who I am but like everyone else, that's a lifelong process. I figure that's death's final hah hah...just when things seem to be going the right way and a person has a grip on who they are, BOOM, dead.

I stand at the crossroads and choose again and again, much like Joscelin, and I never have regretted that choice. Intersectionality is what I live and breathe and let me tell you, as a genderqueer person of colour, there's plenty of opportunity to speak up so people understand who I am, who I represent, and that their assumptions and their utter rudeness isn't acceptable.

No, I will not go quietly and though my voice shakes from time to time, I'm going to have my say.

This has burned bridges. This has created a distance I cannot bridge between people who liked and knew me when I was a me five to ten years ago but am not that me now. This has me standing on the scorched earth and looking at the devastation and wanting to weep. But. Nobody has time for that. Not when I can also see the green sprouts of new growth pushing their way up through the ashes.

Sometimes. Sometimes, great good comes out of destruction.

So, I'll try to keep a balance between geeking out (because I do like to geek out) and my social activism and advocacy.

But if I don't, I'm not going to let it bother me too much. After all, I rolled a one in Diplomacy, mon chats. To put it bluntly, I don't give a rat's ass if I'm making you uncomfortable or not with my thoughts/feelings/observations about social construct, classicism, racism, sexism, nonconformity etc etc wah wah you have to think outside the box wah wah here's the tiniest violin in the world playing a tune for you blah blah blah...

Right.

Let's get back to it. I write what I want. You read if you want. That's how it rolls in the end.