All posts by Sandra

Domestic Tension Exhibit

I saw this on the evening news – an Iraqi American artist who has created an interactive art exhibit in Chicago where he will live in a small gallery for 45 days, and with a webcam allow visitors to his website to control a paintball gun aimed at him, even allowing them to fire it. It’s a great concept, meant to convey the anxiety of living in a war zone, and apparently the site has been so busy that the server can barely keep up.

From my obsessive point of view it makes me wonder about new and diabolical ways to interact with people on a webcam, especially in a bondage or self-bondage scene. (Speaking of which, I’ve been setting up a new Flash based webcam that I’ll probably try out in the next week or so. I haven’t chatted online in months but have been getting the bug again lately. So I’ll post an update when I get it ready.)

Okay, but back to the Iraqi guy. Here’s some links:

Article from CBS2 Chicago

His Crude Oils site, with links to the exhibit

Flatfile Gallery, where he’s holed up for the project.

Gettin’ used to IE7

Okay, another geeky browser post:

I very reluctantly upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 last week in order to see firsthand this display problem I was having on the Ts in Trouble Video page, which only occurred in that particular browser. I fully intended to uninstall the upgrade and switch back to IE6 after I fixed my problem, but, golly, I have to admit I’m actually kind of liking IE7, in spite of myself.

I didn’t want to like it. I was fully prepared to hate it. Indeed, it’s a completely under-whelming upgrade, still very buggy, and adding features that Firefox has had all along since 2004. It’s nothing special at all, and yet I do like how it handles tabbed browsing, and, you know, I think I’m going to keep it. Maybe I’m just easily satisfied. Go figure.

Of course, I should just use Firefox exclusively, which I recommend all the time to anyone who’ll listen, but I don’t take my own advice often enough. I’m used to Internet Explorer, and a bit lazy, and I just keep using it anyway. I guess that’s my dirty little secret for tonight. I just can’t break the habit. And Internet Explorer works really well with Roboform, which I use ALL the time – and is like the greatest software ever invented, in my inexpert opinion – “Still logging in manually? Let the Robot do it!” (Okay, Roboform works in Firefox too, so who am I kidding?)

And now Microsoft’s already talking about IE8, and working on fixing all the bugs in IE7 and making it support CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Standards better. But we have to wait eighteen months till that one comes out.

Time and Age

I was talking to a local model recently who told me about a photographer friend of hers who just recently died from an aneurysm. I didn’t know the guy well but had seen him at a studio maybe two months ago. He wasn’t all that old, I would guess 50s or early 60s. It doesn’t last forever.

I just had a birthday myself, just turned 44. I’ve always been kind of funny in that I sort of like getting older. I remember when I turned 40 just feeling a big relief, as if all those bad years were behind me now. When I was younger, in my 20s and 30s, I was just depressed so much of the time that life usually seemed not really worth the trouble. Like I’ve said before, I’m way happier now than I’ve ever been. It’s not all sunbeams and unicorns, especially in this neighborhood where I live, but it’s a heck of a lot better than it used to be.

I figure that once I get too old to look decent in bondage pictures, I’ll just shoot pictures of other younger t-girls, and enjoy bondage just playing privately or at parties. I might even enjoy that arrangement more than what I do now, because sometimes getting ready for a shoot and worrying about how I look and whether I’m sweating and all can sometimes kill some of the fun. When I’m shooting other girls there’s less of that pressure and I can focus more on the bondage and the lighting and so on. And sometimes when I can tell that a girl’s really getting into being tied up, it can be a lot of fun. That’s when I want to surprise them by putting duct tape over their eyes or locking them in a small trunk (okay, I don’t own a small trunk but it would be neat if I did.) That moment of surprise when you’re tied up and something unexpected happens that makes you realize that, wait, you Really Are Helpless can be such a great moment.

That charge – Probably the best moment of that kind I’ve had, and I wasn’t even tied up at the time, was this one evening when I was sixteen and I was coming home late from working at a Chinese restaurant where I worked as a busboy (I wanted to be the waitress, but alas). I know I’ve written about his before, but it was raining hard outside and this guy stopped and offered me a ride home. For some reason I said yes, and then once I was in his car I got this nervous feeling. As we got closer to the nearby 7-11 store, I said, “You can just let me out here,” but he just let out this strange little laugh and kept driving. I remember I had this moment of adrenaline wash over me, that sick-in-the-stomach feeling, where your insides sort of turn over. I sat there thinking, “Uh, what’s going on?” And then after a moment he drove a little farther, pulled over, and I got out and thanked him for the lift.

I wasn’t sure afterward if he had been trying to scare me, or hadn’t heard what I said, or what exactly had just happened, but in my imagination I had this fantasy of being taken back to his home against my will, being forced to dress up like a girl, and being bound and gagged and locked away in his basement to become his “special” girlfriend. At that moment, when he laughed, it was like the possibility of this fantasy actually becoming real was right there in front of me. Of course, it wasn’t, and it would be nearly impossible to make that fantasy come true and to still maintain that “good” charge of excitement and fear – the reality would quickly turn into a nightmare, and very possibly end up being fatal, and whereas role-playing can be fun, you still always know that it’s just role-playing. It would be a lot easier I sometimes think to just be turned on by tits and vaginas.

Wow, this turned out to be way longer than I intended. Sleepy time.

Email Issues

I’ve moved the Trannies In Trouble site to a new larger server, which is a good thing, but it’s kind of made a mess of my email accounts. So anyone who’s been trying to write me is probably having their emails bounce back. I’ll be working on this today to resolve it, and if you need to, feel free to leave me a comment and I can write you from one of my other email addresses.

Update: Looks like everything’s back to normal…Whew!

Oh Glory Be!

I’ve been having this weird bug in the paysite at Ts in Trouble, where some of the video links wouldn’t highlight for certain Internet Explorer users. I was pretty sure that it was only happening in IE7, but I’ve been running IE6 and didn’t really want to “upgrade” to 7, which apparently behaves even wackier than ever.

But I really wanted to know what’s causing the bug. And I couldn’t really do it, at least not in a very efficient manner, without testing the site in IE7. So I researched how to install IE7 and then how to uninstall it and go back to IE6, which is actually supposed to be fairly easy to do. (We shall see.)

Okay, I took the plunge and upgraded to IE7 (boy, this is an exciting post, isn’t it?) And after an hour or so of farting around I finally tracked it down: a css issue where adding an extra div around the navigation links at the bottom and a couple extra lines in the style sheet made everything once again work like it was supposed to. Such a fussy little thing to fix and it only seemed to act weird in IE7. IE6 behaved fine, as did Firefox and Opera.

What a relief though to have finally figured it out. Tomorrow’s Club Fantasy will be even happier than normal for me!

Now if I can just uninstall IE7 tomorrow and go back to 6. Sleepy time now.

Transgender Stories in the News

Wow, there are lots of “out” transgender people in the news lately. It’s not all good news, as the last story shows, but it’s good to see people being visible and making themselves heard.

Old Mike, New Christine

Transgender Candidate on Prom King Ballot

This one has been in the news for a while, about the City Commissioner who was fired for “incompetance,” even though the year before he got a raise and good reviews.

Transgender Florida City Manager Loses Job

Bondage / Hanging Mishap

Here’s an article that immediately caught my eye when I saw it in a random unrelated Google search. What an awful way to die (then again, maybe it was the ultimate thrill for him – though we’ll never know). And what a nightmare for his girlfriend. Another good lesson, don’t try this at home, and don’t rely on a dull knife.

Don’t you also love the way they use the word “pervert” in the headline? The word has such a connotation of, “Ah, what the hell, he was just a pervert anyway…” Like, why even bother giving the guy the time of day? Of course, I guess it did catch my attention. Not to tempt the gods, but if I ever ended up in a bad bondage mishap, I can only guess what the headline would be – though they’d use the word “transvestite” too, which I rather like.

Upcoming Events – April, ’07

A couple people have written to verify the date for Club Fantasy – this month it’ll be on Friday, April 27th, from 8 till midnight at Hollywoodland Studios in North Hollywood, CA.

Also, the Rope Bondage Workshop that I run will be Sunday, April 22nd, from 4 till 6 PM, also in N. Hollywood.

I also wanted to mention Charly B’s Bondage and Suspension Classes, which have been ongoing and are continuing for the next four Sundays (April 15th, 22nd, 29th and May 6th), from 3 to 6 PM at Passive Arts Studios, located near LAX. More info. on this earlier blog post.

Vegas Weekend

So I was out of town over the weekend seeing my friend K. in Las Vegas. I’ve been there more times than I can count and usually enjoy it, but always with a strange mixture of pleasure and disdain. Really, it’s the person (or people) that I’m travelling with that makes it fun (or not). The town itself can be pretty dreadful. I always have that sense when I go that there has to be more to life than this, but I keep going back for more.

I drove from L.A., and I always enjoy the drive through the desert. I was just in “Robert” mode for the trip but still had a great time. We stayed at a friend’s timeshare, and did the usual stuff – lots of walking through the casinos, people watching, eating too much, and soaking in the hot tub. I’m not much of a gambler so I only played the slots for maybe fifteen minutes tops.

I always feel sad when I say goodbye to K., and this time was no different. But it’s great to see her, and breaking up the usual routine always helps. Back to work now.

Somewhere in beautiful Barstow, CA.

DomCon LA

I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to make DomCon this year. Mistress Cyan has put together a first-rate event and it should be a fun one. I’ll be out of town over the weekend, though, visiting a friend, so alas, it’s not to be for moi. But hopefully I’ll see some pictures from Barbara or Sharon Porter, whom I believe are both going to be there.

Saturday Night at Syren!

The opening night at the new club Syren! seems to have gone really well. I was there for a few hours Saturday night and had a good time, although I felt a little nervous at first. It’s a small-ish club in West Hollywood and many of the usual faces and friends from the L.A. TG scene were there. It always amazes me how small the “scene” is, but there were a lot of friends there whom I’m very fond of. And the place seemed to be pretty active and hopping when I finally left (way past my bedtime.) I’ll definitely check it out again.

New TG Night in West Hollywood – Syren!

We have a new Saturday night TG event opening tomorrow night, Saturday, March 31st, in West Hollywood! I’ll definitely be there and hope to see lots of friends. Thanks go to Wayne and Irv from WIT Productions, who quickly put this night together after a previous venue backed out at the last minute. Here’s the info. from Wayne…

I’m proud to announce the NEW location for SYREN! *drum roll* Syren! will debut at 9PM on Saturday, 31 March, 2007 at Tempest, 7323 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood (323) 850-5115, conveniently located between Fairfax Ave and LaBrea Ave at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Fuller Ave AND across the street from the Yukon Mining Company.

This venue is spacious, with plenty of booth seating, an ample air conditioned dance floor, excellent sound system and is capable of holding near 400 patrons. There is a smoking area/patio in front of the venue, with a very popular sidewalk seating arrangement like many of the top nightclubs in the area. Drink prices are the norm for the area, $5-$6 for beers, $6-$7 for mixed drinks. Valet parking MAY be available (that will be verified on Monday), and there is also street parking available on either side of the Yukon Mining Company and the parking lot across the street is also available, meaning no parking issues. I am confident that you will LOVE this venue and WIT Productions and the management of Tempest are looking forward to serving your needs and providing a safe, comfortable place for us to have a great time!

Sincerely,
Wayne
WIT Productions