She strikes back

SAMARA!!!!

OH NOESS!!!!

If you weren't at the meeting last week, you missed out on the best event of your life. Too bad.

This week will be back to normal-ish with a discussion entitled "Queer 2.o." Queer 2.O will be about the Internet with respect to Q&A, including Downelink, Craigslist, and coming out over the internet. Come talk about creepy Internet people and the not creepy ones that you ended up becoming friends with in REAL LIFE (whaddaburger!). Maybe you'll even hear me talk about the time I went to about.com and found something out about myself and started freaking out and started taking a bunch of quizzes... ANYways... Coordinated:

What: Cal Q&A Discussion: Queer 2.0
Where: 305 Eshleman (QARC)
When: Wednesday, 4 Nov 2009
Time: 7:30-9:00P

Also happening at Wednesday's meeting is sign-ups for sushi rolling! If you don't know, we don't have classes next Wednesday (start crying). Therefore, there is no Q&A meeting (start bawling). However, we will be having a sushi-rolling event! YAY! Start cheering and dancing and jumping up and down. Do an Irish jig! Please bring money ($7USD, PayPal only (bring cash, actually)) on Wednesday or to Robert or Stephanie before next Tuesday if you would like to participate. This will cover the cost of sushi rice, vinegar, seaweed, cute little bamboo mats, and lovely fillings to stuff your sushi with. Sensei Robert will be teaching a crash course in rolling these delectable delightful delicacies. OH MY ZEUS MAKE THE ALLITERATION STOP! Anyways... the event details follow:

What: Cal Q&A Funtimes: Sushi Rolling!
Where: 2410 Warring Street (Oscar Wilde House)
When: Wednesday, 11 Nov 2009
Time: 12:00-3:00P
Cost: $7.00

That is all, my friend.

Fartfully yours,
-Hobutt

A dollop, a dollop, a dollop...

Of DAI-SY!!!!

Silly commercial jingles getting into my head, burrowing into my brain, and never leaving.

There's only one event this week (a little relief after last week's torrent of events/midterms/papers/rain... maybe?). Take a break and let loose this Wednesday. Our loverly Kimberly, Stephanie, and Raymond have put together a massive game of Assassins. It will basically be the EPICEST game of tag you have ever seen. Ever. EVER. Seen. Scene. Seam. Seem? It will be an outdoor activity, so please wear closed-toed shoes and loose warm-ish clothing (unless you're a wildperson and like to run around barefoot and naked, that's fine, too.... I guess?). Also, if you have one, bring your charged cell phones. We will be distributing contact numbers and have y'all exchange numbers in case anything semi-disastrous happens or a duckling gets lost. Please be on (Berkeley) time so we can start playing and running around campus like psychos... or not psychos. I quote Stephanie there. Bring all your friends! The more people we have, the more exciting and fun it will be. Coordinates:

What: Cal Q&A Social: Assassins: Tthe Mega Extreme Game of Epic Tag: The Beginning: Colons Ahoy!
Where: Meet at 305 Eshleman (QARC), running around on campus
When: Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Time: 7:30-9:00P
Bring/wear: Loose clothing, closed-toed shoes, charged cell phones

Again, please be on Berkeley time, which means arrive at QARC by 7:40. Do not dillydally, do not delay, do not druck.

See you tomorrow. I'm so ready to run around and squeal like a small child with lots of candy and a guinea pig allergy at a petting zoo.

Raining Cats and Dogs

Crackers and snacks. I want to live in a hamburger bun.

SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENING THIS WEEK.

Kelly, can you handle this?
Michelle, can you handle this?
Beyonce, can you handle this?
I don't think they can handle this (fish jelly?)

In honour of National Coming Out week and deviating a little from our alternating socials/discussions format, we will be having a discussion this week. Not surprisngly, the topic of discussion is coming out. Drawing a little from our storytime discussion as well as the format from last week's mental health discussion, prepare for a GREAT AWESOME DISCUSSION because I can't think of any more exciting adjectives at the moment. My stupid rhetoric factory is located in my feet, which are currently marinating nicely in my not-meant-for-rain old Chucks oh ew. Coordinate this:

What: Cal Q&A Discussion: Coming Out
Where: 305 Eshleman (QARC)
When: Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Time: 7:30-9:00P

==========

The following day, our very own loverly Robert will be holding a poetry writing/self-actualization workshop at my apartment, complete with lit candle.

Coming out is one very small step in the process of self-actualization. This workshop hopes to examine the role that sexuality plays in our lives through exploring the way we process reality. Our connections with others, platonic or otherwise, bob and surface in our lives. Shackling down memories in writing, we elucidate the subjective experience of reality: how have you arrived where you are today? Do you choose to shape yourself and who has shaped you? Thinking caps on, and bring a poem to share, if you'd like.

What: Cal Q&A Workshop: Poetry and Coming Out
Where: 2017 Berkeley Way, Apt. 1
When: Thursday, 15 October 2009
Time: 6:30-8:00P

Following the workshop will be an informal dinner-getting affair with our internal chairs, Eric Ho and Sonny. You can ration wisely and be hungry by 8! Om nom nom.

==========

Also happening this weekend is a day of food eating and film watching. Come to the first fundraiser for all things Cal Q&A. We'll be having amazing Berkeley Thai House food, and the eyeball-entertaining movie entitled The Wedding Banquet. A casual Saturday full of good food, film, and friends.

Please please please come out and support Cal Q&A. Food is priced at ten dollars a plate. All the money goes toward Cal Q&A, which helps provide some foundation for our upcoming 3rd annual QACON in May of 2010. It comes back to you in the form of amazing events, more food, and an even better conference than last year.

To see what awesomeness happened last year, go here:
http://qacon09.wordpress.com/

What: Cal Q&A Fundraiser: The Wedding Banquet
Where: 2025 Durant Ave.
When: Saturday, 17 October 2009
Time: 12:00-3:00P
Cost: $10/plate (all proceeds go to QACON10)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149844909089&index=1

On a side note... if you want to get involved in planning QACON10, let me know, and I'll let you know our secret meeting time and location. Hint: It's a secret treehouse that requires an authorized thumbprint to enter. Otherwise, our lasers will SHOOT YOU BEW BEW BEW.

I'm kidding about the lasers. Only.

That is all, fair children.

Sincerely yours,
- Jane Bennett Darcy Rochester

Broccoli Boiled or Steamed?

STEAMED.

For me.

Plain.

With garlic. Garlique? Gar-leek. Garlicleeky? Leaky garlic.

Ew.

This week our discussion is on mental health. It will be a more serious but just as insightful discussion as before. Learn stress-relieving techniques, especially potent against the distress of midterms and papers. Sit comfortably while we massage your brain with a nice stimulating activity. Coordinates:

What: Cal Queer and Asian (Q&A) Discussion: Mental Health
Where: 305 Eshleman (QARC)
When: Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Time: 7:30-9:00PM

====================

Cal Queer and Asian is proud to present an excellent educational workshop led by Shin Yi Tsai, a queer Taiwanese American therapist with a private practice in Berkeley.

With over 12 years of experience working with diverse communities at agencies like The Pacific Center in Berkeley and the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center in San Francisco, Shin Yi specializes in helping queer, transgender and intersex people feel less isolated and more confident in who they are. Visit her website at www.510therapy.com.

Shin Yi's workshop will teach us how to pay closer attention to what your Inner Critic is saying and learn to effectively talk back to it. Being both Asian/Pacific Islander and LGBTQQI, we oftentimes develop painfully loud Inner Critics, who recite negative messages from the mainstream media, social institutions, our families of origin and many other sources. This workshop will help you to identify what your Inner Critic is saying, understand where it comes from and learn how to manage it in healthy ways. Individually and collectively, we don't have to give the Inner Critic so much power over telling us who we are and who we want to be.

What: Cal Q&A Workshop: Shut Up and Love Me! - Dealing With Your Inner Critic
Where: 81 Evans
When: Thursday, 8 October 2009
Time: 7:30-9:00PM
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159125582392&index=1

====================

Join Cal Q&A in our October Saturday Social! We will be having a scavenger hunt in the Castro. Bring digital cameras if you have one and if you want to, but we will be placing you into teams with a person with a camera. This means that evidence of finding "items" will be in the form of pictures/videos.

Please sign up so we can place you into teams:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGN4R1k1dVlJdVEtYVpWZ1BsUzhvT0E6MA

If you're not sure, you should sign-up anyways. We can also last-minute attendees, but to be placed on the BEST TEAM POSSIBLE, apply NOW.

What: Cal Q&A Saturday Social: Castro Crawl
Where: The Castro, San Francisco, CA
When: Saturday, 10 October 2009
Time: Meet at Downtown Berkeley BART Station at 10:30AM
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147572571500&index=1


Holy crap. I'm so. EXxXcited. For. EVERYTHING!

RAWR!

Cold toes and cold nose, but cold Ho's prose?

Crlspitypoo,
-Hopuu

Website Update, New Year

Hooray it's a new year and new semester. Our website blew up, so we'll be using this one for now. It works, and it's free. Our first general meeting will be next Wednesday, 2 September at our usual time, 7:30PM in 305 Eshleman Hall (QARC). There will be food, fun, and fuzzy sweaters.


Maybe not fuzzy sweaters, but other things just as fun as fuzzy sweaters and a shag carpet.

See you there, kids!

-HO

wiqaable has stolen me.

"Oh, so you're gaybestfriends now?"

Jamie Tan asked me why all the cute and talented boys in Q&A weren't constantly making out with each other.

I told her that it is very difficult to manage that sort of thing and, generally, everyone is good friends with one another and that we see each other often enough for it to become nonspecial.

Or, maybe they do and they just don't tell me.

Her point was, though, that everyone in Q&A is special and hot, especially in comparison to the rest of the world since the microcosm if the Q&A conference made us look fantastic since we were somewhat in control of things and power is sexy.

(disclaimer: That was not her point)

What was refreshing, though, was the fact that someone agreed with me, for once in my life. Throughout highschool, I was friends with women with no taste. One of them lived in England, where they have dreadful standards of beauty, and when I'd show her pictures of my crushes she'd always say "He reminds me of my father" or something equally appalling. She also found Alan Rickman hot. My other friends weren't into Asians and liked pretty whiteboys, or miscellaneous boywaifs that wear makeup. It was very annoying and mostly I wondered what was wrong with them. (What do I like in boys? I like condensed faces, even proportions of feature and flesh, skin pulled close to the bone, rounded juts, spheres rather than ovals and evenly spaced teeth. I see the thinned cheeks, eyebrows that limn the socket, a pinhead mannequin with a chin. Just look at what myspace shots try to accentuate, it's basically that.)

After Jamie and I decided we were hot for everyone, I went on a facebook friending frenzy that was largely motivated by misplaced good cheer all the while wondering why I hadn't made a move on anyone I knew already. I remembered, then, that I was only good friends with about 1 male in Q&A, and that I didn't particularly know what to do with it except indulge in the sundry catty gossip he heard. When I was trying to not look like a dumbass in front of someone else over dinner (by being cleverly furtive about gossip I basically knew nothing about), he asked me where I'd heard it from. I told him that it was from my 1 male person in Q&A, and he replied, "Oh, so you're gaybestfriends now?" I made an indecisive noise but eventually agreed that yes, we were gaybestfriends, because it really does deserve its own category in that it is confusing and that even the slightest breeze in any direction will send everything spiralling into DOOM because emotions are terrifying and I do not know what males are, but I care to know more (and that's the worst part).

Mainly, I'm just horrified by desire since it simplifies the way we see things, and tears lives apart in the same way anger does.

In other, stalky news, I was googling my old receptacle of adoration referenced in "Have they invented that meal-in-a-pill thing yet?" and I discovered that, shockingly, like other normal people, he comes home to visit during important holidays like Christmas and my birthday (in my head). I know this because he was referred to in a recipe for bread pudding that he made during the holiday season of 2008, and I saw a similar blog post from one of his friends from the bay area commenting on how delicious it had been. I then remembered that wrong-gendered stalkers were quite possibly the lowest possible item on his "People to visit list" malingering a few notches under "proctologist" and "uncle who works at the morgue and likes to bring his work home with him" and it was pleasantly comforting.