In the “That Rocks” department, I’ve managed to find enough regular work to pay rent, buy food, and have some extra fun money each month for the next six months. Phew!

In the “Bummer” department, I’ve been so busy trying to fill my life with all this for-money work that I haven’t had a chance to pitch anything worthwhile in weeks.

In the “Eh” department, the planning, shopping, and paperwork continue. Moving is fun. The days before the moving, not so much.

Me: An editor of mine invited me to Los Angeles to attend a women’s conference.

Him: Wow, you and all your feminist friends in the same place. Ooh, let’s all burn our bras!

Me: I don’t mind wearing bras.

Him: Ooh, let’s all not burn our bras!

Me: To be fair, some of them will want to burn their bras.

Him: (exasperated) Ooh, let’s all do whatever the fuck we want with our bras!

Me: Damn right!

My name is Dakpa. I’m 24 years old. I was born in Thepo, in the Amdo province of Tibet in 1984. I’m a Tibetan monk and a refugee. This is my story.

When I was a child, I used to look after the cattle with my mother. Our village is very small and the school has only 15 students. My father was a farmer and he knew the value of education.

He sent me to the village school in 1993, and for four years, I was determined to study hard so I wouldn’t waste my parents’ support. Because of my financial situation, I would work with old books and pens collected from the garbage.

Continue reading:
http://www.orato.com/current-events/2008/08/15/i-escaped-tibet

The law labels them criminals. Society labels them different, morally corrupt, and sometimes even mentally ill. Friends and family often label them a disgrace. But in June this year, homosexuals in four cities came together and labelled themselves proud.

My article on the first gay pride parade in India appears in this month’s issue of Elle magazine. Page 114. Check it out.

“I got to thinking about the point in every freelancer’s life where he has to decide whether he wants to A, have a social life, and do art in his spare time, or B, do art, and have a social life in his spare time. It has always seemed to me that if you have any hope of making a living as an artist—writer, musician, whatever—you absolutely must learn to tell people to leave you alone, and to mean it, and to eject them from your life if they don’t respect that. This is necessary not because your job is more important than anyone else’s—it isn’t—but because a great many people will think of you as not having a job. ‘Oh, how wonderful—you can work whenever you want to!’ Well, yes, to a point, but generally ‘whenever you want to!’ had better be most of the time, or else you won’t have a roof over your head.”

– Poppy Z. Brite