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I'm Heart, your friendly neighbourhood admin!


Heart

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Hey everyone!

I've been moderating various forums since being elected in February of 2014. I'm sad (but also happy) to say that I've now become an admin though, in April of 2017, and so I will be handing over the moderation of the Gender Discussion forum to someone new. Your current covering moderators are @Randomchaos and @Serran until a replacement moderator can be found (now @Laurann). And since this thread has become a bit of a community thread, the new moderator has agreed to leave it up, so we can keep being nerds in it!

The first thing you should know about me is that AVEN saved my life. Literally. All those years ago, in my pre-AVEN days, it still feels like an understatement to say that I was in dark times. I felt alone, alien, different, broken, like no one would ever understand me or love me. And then I found this amazing place. Ever since then, it has been my life goal to help as many others as I can to find their home in the AVEN community. And if there is anything I can ever do, all you have to do is send me a personal message; my inbox is always open. Which brings me to the second thing you should know about me; I care. I care a lot. I'm always here to listen, to help out where I can, to make new friends, and to improve the community in any way I can! Don't hesitate to shoot me a message :D

Now for the more fun stuff: a bit about myself off-AVEN. I am a physicist; I am working on graduate studies in particle physics. As such, I do my research at CERN (hint: that's where the big particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, aka LHC, is!). Now, I know some of you are going to ask: did I have anything to do with the discovery of the new boson? No, I work on something different but equally cool. I work on antimatter. Every day is a new challenge and a new discovery, I love my job!

However, as much as I love my job, I love horses more. I literally love nothing more than horses. Don't tell my partners ;) But at 3am, when the circuit I'm trying to solder has failed for the upteenth time and I'm becoming convinced that it's simply impossible, the thought that one day, if I just keep on keeping on, I'll be able to afford to own a horse keeps me going. And until that day, I lease and work with a beautiful but very green thoroughbred at a barn near me. She's a true sweetheart, but sometimes a bit of an ungraceful ball of legs :P

September-01-2011-22-24-59-124725252.jpe

 

(Have some adorableness courtesy of attackofthecute.com)

 


Oh, and I'm a closet humanities student. While getting my BSc, I wandered off and also got a BA majoring in Religious Studies, with a focus on the Eastern religions. I enjoy debating philosophy in my spare time, when I feel like getting my head out of physics for a bit, and I will soak up knowledge about different languages, cultures, religions and political science like no tomorrow.

And, somehow, I also manage to be a dancer. I've been dancing for what feels like forever, starting with salsa (and at points being part of a semi-professional dance troupe) and branching out over the years. Oh, and recently, on a dare, I tried pole dancing. The dare has long since expired, but I'm still learning it, because heck, it's fun! So my goal of world domination is temporarily on hold while I work on being the sexiest asexual in the world.

Well, that's a little about me. I hope there's something in there for everyone. The last thing I'll tell you about myself is that I like to collect things, so here are a few of my favourite articles and blog posts about gender-y things, enjoy!

The more subtle kind of gender dysphoria, by Anagori
The Null HypotheCis, by Natalie Reed
Kristin's Trans Life, a youtube series of videos by a trans woman about her experiences. Thanks goes to Hadley for suggesting and endorsing this link enough times that I finally added it ;)
25 Things I Do To Make My Body Dysphoria Feel Smaller and Quieter, by Kate
Sex Redefined, by Claire Ainsworth, an article about how biological sex is not as binary as society treats it, and how there is much more than just "male" and "female" in humans.

A Review of the Status of Brain Structure Research in Transsexualism, a handy review of the academic study of trans brains published in Oct 2016 by Antonio Guillamon, Carme Junque, and Esther Gómez-Gil. There's some talk about the correlation between coming out as trans early in life vs later in life, and sexual orientation. Which is cool.

A pdf booklet about FTM (female to male) surgeries, and another one for MTF surgeries. These books are remarkable in that they are accepting of nonbinary identities and sensitive to a great variety of genders and reasons a person may want these surgeries; it does not assume the gender binary. It addresses surgical details for both top and bottom surgeries as well as mental health, and side effects, in very accessible language in my experience. Written by A. J. Simpson and Joshua Mira Goldberg, and funded by Vancouver Coastal Health, Transcend Transgender Support & Education Society and Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition.

 

 

 

 

A neat little graphic (if someone knows who made this, I would be more than happy to give credit where credit is due!):
tumblr_inline_n15uqaqCCn1qezgqs.png

 

 

Life can be complicated and confusing. So let's band together and see what order we can scrounge out of the chaos ;) Oh, and for posterity, the old gender forum welcome thread is here, with a few old but cool links.

It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you around the forums! Feel free to leave a comment here to introduce yourself, say hi, share a cool gender article for my collection, or give suggestions for how I can improve life here on AVEN.

 

 

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Nice to meet you, Heart! I almost feel like we know each other already. Had no idea you're in CERN. That's awesome!

I did had an inkling about the horses, though. I personally think horses are large and scary animals. As a child I was encouraged to feed horses from my hand, and I did so that I wouldn't look like a coward, but it really struck me how easily their huge teeth snapped carrots in two and how much larger their mouths are than my hands. Granted, horses haven't done anything bad to me yet. Yet.

Everybody, read these if you haven't already and understand 21st Century English! They're good words.

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You learn something new every day, eh? (I'm also Canadian ;) ).

A toothless horse, just for you!

funnyface.jpg

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Ricecream-man

So if the world randomly blows up there's a good chance you might have had something to do with it. Now I know who to blame :P

That's really cool though. Super jealous of you physics minded folks!

Hmm, super awkward timing to read those articles. Still thought inducing so thanks though. Time to retreat into a bubble of confused introspection.

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Haha. No, if the world explodes, then the chemists are the blame. If it implodes, though, that's another story... pesky black holes :ph34r:

And remember, the one biggest piece of advice that I give to everyone is this: give it time. Self exploration always takes time. It's very normal and natural to be confused, and an integral part of the process. Take your time, Ricecream-man, and let us know if we can help :)

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butterflydreams

Heart? No, that name doesn't ring a bell...

Oh wait, I know you!

13b.jpg

You work with antimatter? Too. Much. Coolness!

As always, I greatly appreciate your modly work here ^_^

I did had an inkling about the horses, though. I personally think horses are large and scary animals. As a child I was encouraged to feed horses from my hand, and I did so that I wouldn't look like a coward, but it really struck me how easily their huge teeth snapped carrots in two and how much larger their mouths are than my hands. Granted, horses haven't done anything bad to me yet. Yet.

I know, right?! I remember this big draft horse at the petting farm when I was a kid. He was HUGE! (Ok, so I was little at the time too, but still). They had boards to keep him from getting too close to kids, and he would kick them, and I was so scared of him. Fast forward two decades or so...I love horses now! I even got to ride one a few years ago. It was fun, but I prefer just petting them, or watching them. It's never to late to give em a chance! :)

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nerdperson777

Physics? Help me with my class! No kidding. I'm taking Modern Physics right now so I just learned about the Hadron Collider a few weeks ago. I finally understand things now! No I don't. I envy those who can do science and humanities, since I can only do well in one. I'm absolutely terrible at humanities yet I'm planning to minor in theatre. I just switched my major to from Engineering to Math since I haven't been in the best state. We need to know more about Heart! :)

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Hadley, if I was only half as adorable as that dog, I'd already rule the world! :P But I gotta say, it's watching stories like yours that make my modding duties feel so much less like duties and so much more like heaven. When I say that I do what I do for you guys, I'm not just being corny! :wub: (OK, so maybe I'm being a bit corny, but hey, it's still true!)

And Nerd, I'd be totally down to help. Like, actually. Shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions or things you just want to chat about and I'll do my best. Physics is kinda one of my passions, I'll take any excuse to talk about it ;) And as for minoring in theatre, that would be so cool! I love doing performances, though I admit I have only ever really done dance performances. I come alive in front of an audience, I can't possibly wipe the smile off my face! (I'd make a terrible actor...)

Oh, and as a side note, I'm sorry to hear that you're going through rocky times. I'm sending all the good vibes I can. There's a part of me that's a bit selfish and had to think "at least they're only changing their major, not leaving AVEN!" Gender would not be the same without all our family! And, honestly, I often wish I could do more math in my degree, it's fascinating and awe-inspiring stuff. I have nothing but wonder for mathematicians. We'll have to trade: I'll tell you physics stories, and you'll have to tell me math ones :)

PS - Some baby mini horses for you Hadley! Not so intimidating now, eh? ^_^

article-0-0ce7c3de00000578__oPt.jpgfea76a6cde561868b0495ae29a4c0605.jpg

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littlepersonparadox

Oh heart the more i learn about you the more awesome you sound! Isn't there many major projects going on at CERN right now? I know the Higgs Boson is only a fraction of what it is that you guys do there. I think what you're working on with anti-matter is cool since anti-matter makes for some unique and equally amazing physics. Did you get any new up-grades to the equipment you use since they shut the LHC down for up-grades and only just re-operated the LHC? I bet its fun working there when everything is full force again. I bet you're super busy with everything on you're plate.

edit: Darn it now I want a cute tiny pony pet.

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Greetings, Heart! :)

I am totally jealous of your work at CERN. I am a physicist, too (but MS, not PhD), but have not had as an interesting assignment. Making antimatter at CERN reminds me of Angels & Demons, where they made copious amounts of it for evil intents (and not completely accurate as to just how much one can make there).

Thanks for moderating the Gender forum. You are awesome. :wub:

AVEN saved my life. Literally.

This statement is impressive.

*agrees*

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Oh heart the more i learn about you the more awesome you sound! Isn't there many major projects going on at CERN right now? I know the Higgs Boson is only a fraction of what it is that you guys do there. I think what you're working on with anti-matter is cool since anti-matter makes for some unique and equally amazing physics. Did you get any new up-grades to the equipment you use since they shut the LHC down for up-grades and only just re-operated the LHC? I bet its fun working there when everything is full force again. I bet you're super busy with everything on you're plate.

edit: Darn it now I want a cute tiny pony pet.

The antimatter contingent was actually still running while they powered down the boson part. We are on a bit of a different schedule in which we pause once a year to add things. The newest additions are only just up and running now, it's exciting! And you're right, there are so many cool projects going on at CERN, even I don't know about them all. And it's expanding every day; I get periodic press releases in my email about exciting happenings. I'm not actually in Europe right now, though I will be later this summer, so I'm just busy getting ready :D

Also, if you ever get a cute tiny pony pet, you are morally obliged to tell me and send me photos. Just so you know.

AVEN saved my life. Literally.

This statement is impressive.

And yet, I'm sure I'm not the only one. My loyalty to AVEN will always burn on for that.

Greetings, Heart! :)

I am totally jealous of your work at CERN. I am a physicist, too (but MS, not PhD), but have not had as an interesting assignment. Making antimatter at CERN reminds me of Angels & Demons, where they made copious amounts of it for evil intents (and not completely accurate as to just how much one can make there).

Thanks for moderating the Gender forum. You are awesome. :wub:

Haha. I don't quite have an MS yet, but I'm hopefully on track to become one soon! Or go straight for the PhD, I haven't decided yet. Either way though, my work can never compare to your level of experience Kelly. You are and always will be a role model for me!

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Calligraphette_Coe

Antimatter, eh? Positrons make some of the equipment I've had a hand in designing possible. A few years ago, I was working with a group of people on PET boxes. I'm only lightly versed in the theory, doing more of the nuts and bolts physical engineering. Small world!

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I have great respect for engineers. I often wish I were better at the nuts and bolts aspect of things, but it's not nearly as easy as some of you talented people make it look!

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butterflydreams

What's the difference between a mathematician/physicist and an engineer? Here's a little anecdote to help you remember!

A mathematician and an engineer are in a room. On the other side of the room is a big, delicious cake. A generic scientist tells them both that they can only walk half the distance to the cake. Then they have to stop. Then they can walk half the distance again. Will either of them get to the cake? The mathematician responds that no, of course not. If you only halve the distance each time, you'll never get to the cake!

The engineer smirks and says, yeah, but I'll get close enough!

I build power generation systems as a hobby, so I guess I'm a hobbyist engineer. Wish I could do it for realz though! In real life I'm just a lowly software engineer ;)

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But a physicist in this case will sum the infinite series and find that it will get them there exactly, to the very spot (not "close enough" but precisely).

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A "lowly software engineer"?!? I HAVE SO MUCH RESPECT FOR YOU PEOPLE! Engineers are engineers. Period. You people make useful stuff. I just explode things :P Also, you'll probably always make more than me, just as one of those facts of life I've come to accept. The smart money was on engineer, not physicist...

Also, I'd be that person eating the cake saying "Yeah? And why exactly can I only go half the way? You gonna stop me? 'cause it's already too late."

And if it were a fruit cheesecake, I wouldn't even be talking.

61f9c3f2a9e90be678e8b9055eb4f4cb.jpg

^ See? I left you engineers a piece ;)

Edit: ninja'ed by Kelly, the ever rational physicist. You're more patient than I, for sure!

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Calligraphette_Coe

What's the difference between a mathematician/physicist and an engineer? Here's a little anecdote to help you remember!

A mathematician and an engineer are in a room. On the other side of the room is a big, delicious cake. A generic scientist tells them both that they can only walk half the distance to the cake. Then they have to stop. Then they can walk half the distance again. Will either of them get to the cake? The mathematician responds that no, of course not. If you only halve the distance each time, you'll never get to the cake!

The engineer smirks and says, yeah, but I'll get close enough!

I build power generation systems as a hobby, so I guess I'm a hobbyist engineer. Wish I could do it for realz though! In real life I'm just a lowly software engineer ;)

heheehe..... I have some like that one, too.

In a college math class, the professor challenged the students to find out the height of the apartment building where they lived using no instruments, electronics or lab equipment.

The next day, the physicist in the class used a homemade sundial and a table giving solar declinations at their latitude to solve the problem.

One of the math students used trig and plastic compass to solve the problem.

The professor accepted their answers, but said "Technically, your solutions *did* use equipment, albeit ingenously."

Then the prof called on the engineer, who was smiling broadly. "Ok, Miss Engineer, let's hear *your* solution."

The engineer then said, "I used a Choice Delmonico steak to solve the problem".

Everyone said, "Oh right, NO way!"

"Way. I bribed the Super with it, and he gave me the exact answer from the blueprints. : :)

Moral: Before you devise complicated methods to solve simple problems, ALWAYS try to find someone who already knows the answer first. " :)

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:)

That is the way to do it. 8)

I'm just a lowly software engineer ;)

There is no such thing as a "lowly" software engineer. ;)

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Calligraphette_Coe

I have great respect for engineers. I often wish I were better at the nuts and bolts aspect of things, but it's not nearly as easy as some of you talented people make it look!

See, I always was in awe of the people who develop the theories and the math. Because once you have a proven theory on how something works, there's noting you can't fix or make with a little imagination. It's *really* difficult to pull the theory out of the air, though.

I just look at things, go over the specs, do some Murphy's Law Sanity Checks, and I pretty much know, "Yeah, I can do that." And after the 10,000th copy of the design has gone down the line, I'm pretty much ready to stop worrying about Finagle's Law anomalies cropping up.

For me, I'd have NEVER thought about sneaking 18-F into a glucose molecule to masquerade as oxygen and using that to measure SUV of different parts of the body. But I *can* tell you how to make a box to manufacture and monitor it. And how to make the box rad hard enough to survive repeated exposure.

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Dodecahedron314

I know I've probably already said this somewhere, but Heart, I want to be you when I grow up, physics, gender wisdom, and all. (And by "grow up", I mean when I'm an actual physicist, rather than a not-yet-undergrad who hasn't gotten past the stage of daydreaming about working at national laboratories because I still have over six months to go until the government will let me.) Who knows, maybe I'll end up working for you over the summer in a few years! ;)

Also: Zen's story about finding the height of the building has actually been (possibly apocryphally) said to have been how Niels Bohr passed his physics exams, with a slight variation. The story is that he was given a barometer, and told to find the height of the building. The way that experiment is supposed to work is by taking pressure readings at the top and bottom of the building, and calculating the difference in height that way. Instead, he bribed the janitor with the barometer. The examiners were furious, but in the end he won.

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littlepersonparadox

I wouldn't be surprised if Bohr or some other person did that to pass the math exam IRL. Although that make him and captian James kirk have something in common. Won by cheating (technically) however that reminds me of a old joke all of you probably heard before or at least a variation of it,

A mathamation, a physicist and a engineer all are sharing a room at a hotel.

In the middle of the night a fire breaks out in the hall and the engineer goes out and after looking around puts the fire out with the extinguisher on the wall. (Practicality nature of the engineer being showcased. alterively they designs and builds a more effective fire extinguisher and puts out the fire with that)

Later that same night a fire breaks out again. This time the physicist deals with it by after careful calculation puts the fire out with the least amount of required liquid.

Later A small ember in the hall starts growing and the mathemation strikes a match and dropped it leaves satisfied he's reduced the problem to a previously solved one.

It's a bad joke I know but kinda relevant. I love all three personally. my dad was a railway mechanical engineer when I was 6. Then he switched to transportation management for monetary value. He still has friends from CN tho.

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Ricecream-man

As a biological sciences guy who due to some odd circumstances is working on the field work side of electronics (yay hospital equipment)

This is my face while I'm reading your responses and standing in your presence.

amazed-face_1.jpg

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What's the difference between a mathematician/physicist and an engineer? Here's a little anecdote to help you remember!

A mathematician and an engineer are in a room. On the other side of the room is a big, delicious cake. A generic scientist tells them both that they can only walk half the distance to the cake. Then they have to stop. Then they can walk half the distance again. Will either of them get to the cake? The mathematician responds that no, of course not. If you only halve the distance each time, you'll never get to the cake!

The engineer smirks and says, yeah, but I'll get close enough!

I build power generation systems as a hobby, so I guess I'm a hobbyist engineer. Wish I could do it for realz though! In real life I'm just a lowly software engineer ;)

heheehe..... I have some like that one, too.

In a college math class, the professor challenged the students to find out the height of the apartment building where they lived using no instruments, electronics or lab equipment.

The next day, the physicist in the class used a homemade sundial and a table giving solar declinations at their latitude to solve the problem.

One of the math students used trig and plastic compass to solve the problem.

The professor accepted their answers, but said "Technically, your solutions *did* use equipment, albeit ingenously."

Then the prof called on the engineer, who was smiling broadly. "Ok, Miss Engineer, let's hear *your* solution."

The engineer then said, "I used a Choice Delmonico steak to solve the problem".

Everyone said, "Oh right, NO way!"

"Way. I bribed the Super with it, and he gave me the exact answer from the blueprints. : :)

Moral: Before you devise complicated methods to solve simple problems, ALWAYS try to find someone who already knows the answer first. " :)

I LOVE ALL OF THESE JOKES! Seriously, I'm getting weird looks for bursting into laughter for no apparent reason.

It also made me smile that the engineer was MISS engineer. I love it.

What did I do to deserve such an amazing community of awesome people? I should have done this AGES ago.

Also, Ricecream-man, that's difficult! To be thrown into electronics with no training is... daunting. I'm sorry you're needing to do that, but I hope it's going all right!

And Dodecahedron, you're on the right path ;)

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Ricecream-man

Haha I got training later on, and it's a whole lot of fun. It makes me hate some of the engineers out there though. Putting simple repairs in complicated places xD

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Calligraphette_Coe

Here's another old one, then. :)

An engineering major sees a classmate riding up on a new bike and asks when she got it. "I was walking back from the computer lab when the most handsome man I had ever seen rode up on this bike, stopped, took all his clothes off and said to me 'I'll give you what you really want, baby.'

"Good choice!" the friend replies. "The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you."

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nerdperson777

Thanks for the help offer! ^_^

So many smart people here. I go to a nerd school so I don't feel like a nerd there. I decided I wasn't an engineer because my school was too conceptual when I just wanted to do labs and plug things in. I didn't really feel like I was doing actual engineering. I think I do more with my toolbox. But I realized math was what I've enjoyed my entire life and I was denying it. Took me almost 3 years to change because I was stubborn and didn't want to lower my standards or change my future. If I want an engineering degree, I'd have to study grad school at my home university which is a much more hands on CSU.

Open spoiler for supremist joke made by my math professor this month:

Professor does example on the board where we have to prove the statement is true for all positive real numbers. He talks about pseudo-mathematicians because they just prove by case but does not imply that it works for all numbers. He said, "I could call them physicists."

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Professor does example on the board where we have to prove the statement is true for all positive real numbers. He talks about pseudo-mathematicians because they just prove by case but does not imply that it works for all numbers. He said, "I could call them physicists."

purity.png

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butterflydreams

hahahaha, omg, Kelly :lol:

XKCD does it again!

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