In general website news, a few days ago on a whim I decided to do a bit of advertising. So I bought a few ads (for this site and for my Transformers toy review website) via a service called Project Wonderful. This is a service that allows you to bid on ad space at various websites, and I found a few relatively inexpensive ads and placed them. We'll see if I get any increased traffic, I suppose. If you came here via one of these ads, do say hello! Also, if you by chance decide to check out Project Wonderful yourself, hope it is useful for you! I just hope you don't bid on any of the same ad space I'm using!
I'd also like to give an unsolicited shout-out to the website where I first decided to place an ad. It is a web comic by a woman named Terra Snover which is called Mock Girl. If you're looking for a new comic to get into this one has only been around since the beginning of this year, so it isn't like you have an overpowering amount of archive you'll have to slog through to get completely caught up on the story. Plus, it is an enjoyable tale... and the comic is being presented for a good cause!
Like any other web comic I read (being the cheep bastard I am) it is free of charge, but it also accepts donations. But these donations are not simply to line the pockets of the artist. (Not that that wouldn't of itself be theoretically worth it... after all, web comic artists are creating for us a product we enjoy and should support.) In the case of Mock Girl, the donations go towards raising money for Ms. Snover's sexual reassignment surgery.
In my case, in real life I am happy with my own gender. In the stories on my website, any issues of gender identity are barely addressed, and if they are it is at best a passing joke. My fictionalized self still mainly identifies as the gender he was born with, and it is as simple as a splash of water to make a change between male and female.
Real life doesn't work that way, and someone who finds their biology not compatible with who they are has to resort to rather more complex means. And in trying to raise the money she needs, Ms. Snover is generously providing us with an entertaining product and leaving it up to us if we wish to help or not.
I'm not telling you to go and give her your money right this moment. But I am suggesting you go check out her website, read her comics, read her own story, and decide for yourself what you want to do from there.