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Tamsin
PageType: HomePage    

Hi, I live in Chester in North West England. I've been playing go since 1999 and my ranks are 1k UK, 1k* on dashn and 2k* on IGS. I am known on IGS as "Xena" and on KGS as "Tamsin". I'm 1d on KGS - but how long will that last!?

I am obsessed with music, which is just as well as it is my profession. I particularly like Schuetz, Praetorius, Sheryl Crow and The Beatles.

To send me e-mail, please use doctortjonesSPAMbeGONE*****yahoo.co.uk

Here's an interesting tit-bit. John Lennon's sister used to live in my house! Apparently, she had the flat directly above mine. I love The Beatles, so that's quite a cool connection to have, dontcha think?

As many of you will know, I have a predilection for coining new terms. My first and finest minting is Wiki Vandal.

More on Music and Me

Primarily, I am a musicologist. That means that I take a professional interest in the history, theory and aesthetics of music. My specialist interests within musicology are the works of Heinrich Schuetz (1585-1672), often nicknamed "The Father of German Music", and his German contemporaries, and problems of generic (and other) terminology. My doctoral thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Colin Timms of the University of Birmingham was entitled "Passions in Perspective: An Analytical Discussion of the Three Passion Settings of Heinrich Schuetz against their Historical and Stylistic Backgrounds". I am currently finishing an article on terminology, but goodness knows when I will get it published.

I also take an interest in Japanese and Indian musics (btw, that is the correct plural for different kinds of music).

I currently make my living by singing alto in the choir of Chester Cathedral. I live with two young cats, Dusty the Donut (girl) and Zhin Zha (boy), in a flat in a run-down, but rather beautiful 250-year old building facing the Dean's Field in Chester. Five days a week during term time I take my place in the Quire, with its fantastic 700-year old wooden carvings, and sing beautiful music in one of the country's finest buildings.

To my great pleasure and satisfaction, we sometimes sing music of my own composition: my Evening Canticles in D Major are popular here and you can hear the Magnificat on our latest CD, "The Water of Life".

I love being a musician and I don't think there's anything I enjoy more than singing and teaching singing.


I seem to have started a language war - sorry, "lively debate on English".

I am very interested in the Learning Process. I'm also heavily into studying Study Techniques. I am particularly interested to find out which of these have been most effective for the strongest players.

I am a big admirer of the go of the new Oza, O Meien.

I am prone to Losing Streaks. :-(

I am slowly developing my own ideas on go theory. Among these are Deadweight Value of Thickness and the YinYang Principle.

I am currently experimenting with a learning strategy I call "Force Feeding".

I sometimes work with Alexandre Dinerchtein on webpage material that he publishes at dashn and go4go.

Luck And Aji

OpenGoStory


What happened to Tristan Jones?

Tristan Jones was not a bad person, but he was a very unhappy one.

(Sebastian:) Hi TeeJ! Nice to see a posting from you again. So what's up with you lately? You made us curious with your alias change and the announcement that the reason was to become apparent in the new year - which would be now!

TeeJ: Please prepare for a surprise!

All being well, I will become "Tamsin Jones", at some point this year. I have been on female hormones and other treatements for a while and I am progressing toward social transition. Life as a man was utter torture for me and I am bringing it to an end. Dropping my old name for "TJ" or "Teej" (which will be used temporarily) is part of the transition process.

My handle on KGS, by the way, is "Tamsin". Now that I am becoming the real me, I see no reason to hide behind pseudonyms. I celebrated my first time on KGS under my real name by being taken apart by my friend Alexandre Dinerchtein, with whom I have done various bits of editing work on his publications, in front of hundreds of observers, who opined that my strength was about 17 kyu.

ChrisSchack: The comment on your edit made me curious, so I looked, and I have one thing to say ... congratulations!

Tamsin: Thankyou very much :-)

TJ: Congratulations, Tamsin! Sharing initials with someone so brave in the quest of Self is an honour. I look forward to the battle of the TJ's on KGS sometime soon.^^

- (Sebastian:) All the best to you! It is hard to top TJ's nice words. I'm happy, too, because it shifts the proportion towards women go players. :-)

--TimBrent;Tamsin,it is brave to do what you are doing,to be you. gassho.

Naustin-- Congratulations, peace, and good luck!

Tamsin: Thankyou all above for your encouraging words. It helps a lot, I assure you.


SOME WORDS ON WHAT TRANSSEXUALISM IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

It is a matter of identity. It is not a sexual fetish.

It does not happen overnight. It is a gradual process.

It is not selfish or incosiderate to others. Of course it causes pain to family and friends, but that pain is lifted when they begin to see the real person emerge, as a happy and vibrant woman or man, instead of the miserable, ill-adjusted man or woman that they were.

It is not transvestism. Transvestism is generally a sexual fetish. TVs typically overdo the feminine things, such as wigs, make-up, jewellry, miniskirts, because for them it is either a thrill or a temporary escape from a male identity with which they are otherwise very happy.

TSs, on other hand, take pains to fit in and not stand out. I wear women's clothes now much of the time, but I haven't had any grief for it yet, even though I am not yet passable as female. Why? Because I choose female versions of unisex clothes, e.g., women's cut trousers, t-shirts and hoodies. That said, I have noticed people starting to second-guess me, but even so, I have had no stares or unpleasant comments (so far).

Gender Transition is a Slow Process

For a male-to-female (MTF), it involves at the least hormone replacement treatment (HRT), laser and/or electrolysis to remove the beard and gender reasignment surgery (GRS). The penis is not "chopped off", but inverted to form a working vagina. This is called "vaginoplasty". A portion of the penis is retained and reconnected to sensitive nerves to form a functioning clitoris ("clitoroplasty").

Additional procedures include surgical work to boney structures in the skull, such as brow-bossing. This is "facial feminisation surgery". Occasionally, breast augmentation is also performed.

For a female-to-male (FTM), the process is largely dependent on taking large doses of testosterone. This has an extremely dramatic effect, more potent than that of oestrogen on an MTF. The patient typically puts on weight, develops muscle, has his voice break, and acquires extensive body hair and a beard. It is usually impossible to "read" (i.e., spot as a transsexual) an FTM after he has had a full course of testosterone treatment.

Additionally, testosterone causes the clitoris to increase in size until it resembles a small penis. However, surgery is now progressing to enable the construction of a viable penis ("phalloplasty").

As you can see, there is a lot to go through for people heading in both directions.

Let me tell you that laser and electrolysis are both very painful. Imagine, if you will, a tiny needle being inserted into a beard hair and then being charged with pulses of electricity. After that, the hair is pulled out with tweezers. That happens with every hair on your face. Laser is not much more fun, either. A scorching beam of light is fired onto your face, so that the dark pigment in the follicle absorbs it and dies because of the heat energy. Typically you would get over 500 shots in a session.

Hormones, too, have very interesting effects. My interests and whole way of thinking have changed. I am much more interested in clothes, smells, hair, people, having fun than I used to be; I still enjoy playing go, but I do not have a drive to play it like I used to. I have been through amazing mood-swings. Everything is hysterically funny one day, and anything can cause floods of tears the next.

Anyway, now you know what it's all about. See you at a go tournament sometime, and be nice to me :-) Otherwise I will have to kill all your groups.

DISCLAIMER

I have tried to write in a very matter-of-fact way about the more intimate issues. However, if you feel offended that I dealt with them here, I will redo this page. My intention is to satisfy natural curiosity about the condition, without providing anything to feed more prurient interests.


(Sebastian:) Of course, readers may point out that this strays far away from the topic of Go. However, I believe Go is more than meets the eye. Our Go club's T-shirt reads: "以棋会友", which is not a claim, but a charge. You have been an essential part of SL, so SL should be a support group for you. In order to support someone, it is important to understand him/her (sic!).

Our T-shirt also quotes Go Seigen's saying: "Go is essentially a form of harmony". I hope that Go can provide this harmony for you now that basics of your life are changing and temporarily out of balance.

Tamsin: You're very right that what I have written strays far away from go. I thought it was fair enough on my homepage, though. Really, I just wanted to clarify a few things, as most people don't know very much about TSism, and I thought many of the people who know me here would like to understand better what I'm going through.

I'm interested in getting one of your club T-shirts, btw. Please send me a picture of one! Thanks in advance.



This is a copy of the living page "Tamsin" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.