It took five minutes, including plug-ins…holy cow!

This should be awesomely fun perking up fresh posts…thank you all for reading by the way.   I really appreciate it!

Click over to this link to learn about the awesome wonderfulness that is WordPress 3.0

C O D E   I S  P O E T R Y

Women In Military Service to America Memorial

Military.com’s coverage of Memorial Day

TAVA, Transgender American Veterans Association

By the by, Ohio is also the birthplace of Pink Essence TG social network.  We’ll be covering them in a future post and why, if you are a trans-person, you might not want to be on Facebook and might want to consider Pink Essence and (for everyone) Diaspora instead.

Powerhouse Song: Done by a harmonica band; amazing skill!

Powerhouse as led by Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott’s Web Site

You might get bummed as the days progress this week. So here are some tips others have found that can help make life a little less gray.

(1) Look: Did you get a photo of yourself at FE10? Not a glam photo per se, just any photo while you were presenting as you. Look at yourself. It’s not narcissistic it’s like looking at a mirror. Sometimes, when our inside and outsides don’t match and your feeling dysphoric, looking at a photo of yourself can be a nice reminder that who you are inside is who you are outside. This can be a real help for you to get your feet on the ground.

(2) Chat: Friends. You need ‘em and you need to talk with them. Rekindling the memories can be extremely helpful to laugh and get life back on the lighter side when you feel blue as you get further away from your fun and meaningful time at First Event. So chat with your friends DO NOT go back into a shell or into your closet. This is not healthy for you. Virtually, you can chat at TCNE’s Yahoo Group or another good place is at Pink Essence on their terrific chat line.  The Transgendered Planet is another good one.  These are very safe spaces. Talk on the phone with someone you exchanged phone numbers with.  Process your feelings! You need it.

(3) Plan: Your next time out. That’s right. You need to get out and see people. There are many transgender conferences both small and large throughout the U.S.  TCNE’s “TG Conference List” is updated monthly for you to find a conference close to you. And there is likely a support group near you in your own city or town or within an hour or two so you can go out and feel safe and not exposed.  Tiffany Club, the sponsors of First Event, would welcome you if you can make it to their offices in Waltham, MA.  But if they are too far away, IFGE is a great resource to find such places and TCNE has a list as well.

(4) Give: Give back; that’s right, even if it was your first time out you can give back to move forward causes that effect others. And in doing so you give yourself a big emotional boost, banish those blues and help others. What a triple play! There are many transgender rights actions happening all around us, from the national ENDA bill to Massachusetts Transgender Civil Rights Bill (H.1728/S1687). There are many womens issues you could involve yourself in as well, from helping those who are the victims of domestic violence, to womens health issues, to women in shelters (many times with their children). Finally, are there any other trans-persons near you who are homeless or out of a job or who knows what? Reach out to them in some way to help them out. We may not always agree with each other, but we do need to support each other.

This isn’t fantasy, it’s your life..so live it, have fun and if you get the blues, remember to LOOK – CHAT – PLAN – GIVE!

And, for those of you interested in this topic, at 11Am I’ll be speaking, along with Gunner Scott, Michelle Madison and Paula Howard on Transgender Rights on a panel called, “The Unlikely Activist”.

Also, if you are not going to the Fashion Show, come join me, Arjay, Michelle, Nancy, Paula, Jamie, and a host of others for an informal community dinner in the Marriott’s Restaurant!  We’d love to have you at our table.

Many sincere thanks to Staci Lana at Femulate for nominating us!

There are a few rules of course that come with our award, first, yours truly, Chief Barrista, has to:

1. Thank the person who nominated me: Thank you so much Staci!
2. Copy the award and place it on my blog: See column to your right
3. Link to the nominator’s site: Femulate is in our blog roll (please do visit her scrumptuous reading)
4. List seven interesting things about myself: Always a chore but here they are:
   1. For many years I taught Sunday school for ages 5 to 8
   2. My first “portable” computer was the original Compaq Computer
   3. I’m a musical omnivore but at the top of my list are Blues, Jazz, Classical and House Music
   4. I truly love shopping at Kohl’s and on Newbury Street
   5. Sushi is one of my passions
   6. My favorite part of the Bible is the Letter to the Phillipians though living it is more of a challenge than reading it
   7. I once traveled around the United States for two months
5. Nominate seven bloggers that you find beautiful. Here are my nominees for the Beautiful Blogger Award (in alphabetical order):
   1. Amy at AmyNews.com
   2. Jamie at I Am Transgendered!
   3. Kellie at Kellie’s Web Log
   4. Mona at Thoughts on Transgender
   5. Sonia at Sonia Keys
   6. Zoe at A.E. Brain
   7. Nancy at NancyWichmann

And so with that we’ll take our new found awardism forward to more blogging, writing and mocha-coffee drinking

So, now to perk some fresh post including an award Beck’s Cafe was honored with to start 2010!   We were mentioned in Spirit Magazine back in 2007 as one of Boston’s Blogs To Read but this recent award is very special.  Look for our next post to learn why

• Trackbacks not working
• Scheduled posts not posting and reporting “missed schedule”

Then you likely have one of these three errors:

• Could not be converted to UTF-8 / WordPress should cache failed feed fetches so as to avoid overloading feed sources
• Fatal error: Call to undefined method WP_Error::__destruct()
• Cron stopped working with standard configuration

There’s three patches that can be easily applied to fix your hair pulling issues in a jiffy.  You can find them over at Semi-Logical under the post: WP 2.9 three bugs, and how to fix them.

You may also find fixes at this wordpress.org/forums support post.  Ther are three or more pages of discussions and justifiable complaints but the fixes are there:  2.9 Schedule Posts “missed”

The errors were frustrating, no question about that.  But, the wordpress community responded amazingly.  The problem happened and in 24 hours there was a fix.  Here at Beck’s Cafe we should have waited a bit till WP 2.9.1 to upgrade but we upgraded the cafe to 2.9; lesson learned on first run software.   WordPress is open source software, free to download, has a great support community and rocks as a CMS for developing web sites and for blogs.  But, as open source, sometimes things get through the development community that shouldn’t.  None-the-less, it’s a testimony to the commitment by the wordpress community that things have been tidied up as fast as they have.   Now, I definitely need a second cup of coffee

• Click to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs web site.
• You can also learn more about Veterans Day at Military.com’s Veteran’s Day Page.
• The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation has a nice web page on Women in our Military and special Veteran’s Day remembrance for our valiant women.
• Stories of War from Women Veterans is an excellent podcast done at NPR which tells the stories of women at war
• Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks from Vietnam to Iraq (the biographies of the women are well worth the read themselves)

For as long as Terry* could remember, she never felt comfortable with her body. The 35-year-old New Jersey native was born with XY chromosomes and had the right corresponding anatomy, but “my body parts felt wrong,” says Terry. As a child, Terry preferred to play with girl toys, have female friends, and tried to hide her urge to cross-dress. “My dad would flip a lid if I played with girl stuff.” During her teen years, Terry struggled with low self-esteem and emotional issues as she tried to suppress her hidden gender identity. Terry had no doubt she was a female trapped in a male’s body, but it would take years of anguish and psychological counseling before she could completely transform into being the woman and mother she is today.

On this first Transparent Day, you can read more of Terry’s story at Mom Logic, by visiting, “Trans-Parenting: How Daddy Became Mommy“.

a day of celebration for all parents and kids that can focus on the family and it’s importance. It will help reinforce the fact that we as Trangendered parents continue to have that bond and that love that all parents share with their children.

This is pretty important topic. Many of us work very hard to be parents and manage our Gender Dysphoria as well. It can be very trying wanting to do what’s best in all cases. TransParentDay.org is the web site that celebrates this day and has some wonderful resources to help parents who are transgender to navigate and thrive in being who they are and in being parents.

So go get that first, fresh, steaming mug of morning coffee and go have a read at transparent.org ….. the go give your kids a big hug and tell ‘em that you love them and that they are your special gifts to you.

This, dear readers, is a fact.

Not, I AM Transgendered, en|Gender, Beck’s Cafe, or a host of other well known, well read, nails broken whilst typing, brows furrowed in focused writing, and dog eared blogs….no….as well honed as these others may be, Femulate is indeed Queen.

This realization dawned on many of us two weeks ago.

(overheard whilst I drank goblets of cheap wine with dear, super smart, beer chugging chica, Michelle at a local run down dive inhabited by drunk truckers, out of work physicists, and dangerous women)

Becki: “Did you see that article on Tall Women on Femulate? That Staci has a great list. She makes me feel so normal”
Michelle: “So true Becki, so true. You know, I think she’s just like me actually the way she glides effortlessly through both genders. I just love her.”

I didn’t think anything of my interaction with Michelle. I mean, we had been drinking afterall.

Then it happened, again, amongst a group of women who were both well heeled and well known and I realized something cosmic was happening.

As many of my jittery, caffeine addicted, readers know, Beckscafe was in Provincetown for Women’s Week ending and Fantasia Fair’s beginning. That’s a cosmic nexus by itself. But then the real planetary alignment happened. Sitting at lunch at the Crowne and Anchor in Provincetown, with Miqqui Gilbert (yes THE Miqqi Gilbert) and Jamie Dailey, my colleague in marketing crime on the conferenc scene, and two new friends, Robin and Abbey.

Becki: “Well Miqqi I write a blog, as you may know, and I found your name on the web as I did research on various and odd topics.” (I smile my best Ms. Sophisticate Smile; New England clam chowder smeared across my MAC lipsticked lips)
Miqqi: “I read your blog; on occassion”
Becki: (me beaming) “Why thank you SO MUCH Miqqi. You know, another great blog is that Femulate blog. Great reading. I get so much traffic to Beck’s Cafe from her too.”
Jamie: (light dawning on her face look)“Femulate blog…(she turns to Miqqi)…You know, Miqqi, I think our Fantasia Fair web site gets all its traffic from Femulate too!”

Jamie and I stare at each other and we realize that Femulate has become the center of our known blog universe!

So go have a look. I mean, EVERYONE gets their traffic from her so go ahead…just pick up your ice espresso, mocca thingy a gogo and go ahead…go see Femulate; you’ll see for yourself…she really IS the center of the blog universe

We give voice to women whose experiences, creativity, and insights are often unrecognized and undervalued. Through various avenues of expression, we will offer insights into our experiences and to the reality of homelessness.

Well worth a read with that first cup of coffee you have there this morning    Please click on over to the Voices Together Blog

I have friends who are obsessed with plastic surgery (or maybe I’m just jealous I can’t afford it!) but I think some of these items are really over the top. Here is a quick excerpt:

Around two years ago, a reliable English paper called Metro reported the outbreak of DIY plastic surgery. The obsession with celebrity culture, and media pressure that make everyone feel bad if they don’t look amazing, was leading people to take matters into their own hands. It did not go well.

“In the worst case, a man gave himself a nose job with a chisel and replaced the cartilage he removed with a chicken bone,” according to consultant psychiatrist Dr David Veale. “Others have cut their stomachs in DIY tummy tucks, and used glue to try to pin back their ears.”

Over your morning brew you can read the full article at Wisebread.com at their article, “DIY Plastic Surgery: This Is Not A Hoax”

(Photo courtesy of Colros’ Photos used under Creative Commons License)

I’ve got it downloaded to my Curve (that’s my phone not my figure!) and gosh this is really neat. And what is the magic word this Frugal Tech girl likes with her apps? Free that’s right Automattic, the code is poetry folks behind WordPress, are providing this for free Thank You Automattic!

You can try your own copy of WordPress for Blackberry beta at WordPress.org here:

7-8-09 Update
Well, I’m having that early morning coffee and posting from my hated “loved” Acer /Vista laptop to update this post.  It seems the Blackberry WordPress app has a little bug (or a little user issue) in terms of HTML links showing.   So, here they are.  For the Blackberrry WordPress client, you can find it at their site here.   For Crackberry, you can surf on over to their site here.