Designers (with a capital “D”) are people in whom a following of consumers place their trust to satisfy what they want or need out of a product.  Most of us know about Designers from the area of fashion, but the concept also exists in other industries even though the D-word is not commonly applied.  For instance, Apple would be considered a Designer in the Computer industry, perhaps garnering as much blind faith in the quality and prestige of its products as would a handbag by Prada, or shoes by Louis Vuitton.

However, design is the natural process that goes hand in hand with the implementation of just about anything manmade – an object, a process, an idea.  A design can be the result of meticulous planning, or it can take shape purely as a consequence of its needed function.  A good design satisfies its objective with relative ease, while a bad design perhaps defeats its own purpose.  Designs are solutions to specific problems, and thus can never be perfect for all applications.  However they can be gradually improved and expanded through an evolutionary process of use, feedback, and renewal.

So many, if not all of us are designers (lower-case “d”).  In our everyday lives we may rely on other people’s designs a great deal, but there is still room or requirement for us to create our own designs in order to solve unique and unexplored problems.
Informally, a designer can collect and combine other designs to be used as pieces in a larger design of their own.  For instance, a drag queen or drag king designs their performance as a patchwork of outfits, makeup, songs and props, all weaved together by their own stylings.

In business, where we stand to profit from design, we have an obligation to purposely reject exact existing designs to come up with something distinctive enough to call our own.  For instance, as a business, GayCalgary fills the role of magazine and website while still striving to maintain a unique identity from other magazines and websites.  It would be wrong for one business to impersonate or copy exactly the identity or design of another business; exact designs can become an identifying characteristic of those who created them, so to copy them too closely is, in a way, identity theft.  For businesses to coexist in the same industry, they must each design their own distinct identities and fill their roles in different ways.

But design isn’t limited to things external to us.  When you think about it, we are also designing our own lives and identities through the decisions we make (or avoid making), the friends we keep, and the actions we commit.

Designing for Life
Hardest to make are the decisions that greatly impact our lives where there is no clear best - no right or wrong answer.  These are the free decisions which rarely come our way, such as: which courses do you take in school, do you stay put or move to another city, what sort of career do you pursue, or do you start a business; do you avoid making a decision and end up working a menial job only for the sake of surviving, or simply spend your time sulking in your parent’s basement for as long as they will let you.

The rest of your life is built on the direction that you set with these free decisions, because down the line the choices only get narrower.  More often than not you will find that your current situation will limit your options, even decide for you by twisting you arm toward the one that requires the least effort or personal change.
So it is all a revolving cycle: situation affects choices, decisions affect situation.  It starts with the situation that your parents design for you, and doesn’t end until you die.  The trick to living a better life, it would seem, is going with the choices that aren’t the easiest way out; the decisions that aren’t just the best solutions for you at that moment in time, but rather the ones that will be good for you many years into the future.  Things that are worthwhile take effort, and making decisions that commit you to making an effort will open up more choices down the line, if not immediately.

People often do start off with such tragic situations, and/or make such poor decisions that their lives can spin out of control.  True, bad things do happen to good people, but most good people that I know, naturally accumulate others who truly care about them, and can help them get through tough times.  The whole concept of bad Karma is an accumulation of consequences from past decisions that strangle your ability to move forward – it is how people guarantee their own failure for the rest of their lives.
In reality, Mother Nature’s safety net, when you can no longer meet your minimal requirements for life, is death.  Of course, even making all of the right decisions can’t put it off forever – we are designed to die.  Nevertheless, the simple brutal rule of life is to either adapt, or die to make room for those who can.

But in the society that we know, while people may deserve many things, dying is not one of them.  Even when a person wrongs us in the most grievous way, I think it is safe to say that most of us would rather see them live and change, than see their life extinguished, and their memory languishing in error for eternity.  This is what we try to do to keep them away from Mother Nature’s solution to weakness, even if it means taking away control by force until they are no longer a danger to themselves and others.  Even if it just means patching them up so that they can make all the same bad decisions over again.

But as long as a person is alive, there is still time for them to change, to make up for mistakes, to start making better decisions, to cast off the people they think are their friends but keep dragging them down, and embrace the ones who can help them be stronger, better people.

I write this for those I often see spiralling out of control in the community, but don’t know how to help.  You, and only you, are the designer of your own life – no matter what materials you start with, there is always a way to shape them into something beautiful.  It’s time to start collecting the tools and accessories you need to pull this outfit off, and discarding all that sweet nonsense that is weighing you down.

March 2010
We spent a good deal of time with Steve’s sister this past month, helping her getting settled in Edmonton for her new research position at the University of Alberta.  While she’s still hunting for a good place to rent near the University, she has been staying in a fully furnished suite for the time being.  That means that Steve and I had, and will have a proper place to stay when we visit Edmonton...no offense to the bathhouses but loud music is a difficult thing to train yourself to sleep through.

Sadly we had to miss the Alberta Weekend of Leather while we were in Edmonton to cover Woody’s 8th anniversary.  The weekend after was the Bearbash, where I opted to let Steve take care of photographing and have a little fun without the ball and chain...settle down, I’m just referring to the camera bag.  Though there were a few sombre moments at Boots as people felt the absence of owner Jim Shafer who had passed away earlier in the month.  I didn’t know him too well myself, but I found myself glancing over at his spot at the end of the bar to see if, and who else, was occupying it throughout the night.  This month we published a small piece on his life, which you can read on page 44.

There are some months where coincidence has us bumping into particular people an abnormally frequent number of times.  This month, hands down, it was the GLBT Police Liaison, Lynn MacDonald, who was present for virtually every Calgary event that we made it out for.  She MC’d at the Coming Out Monologues, spoke at the GLBT Violence discussion panel, sat beside me on the Queers on Campus discussion panel, attended the FairyTales “Reels on Wheels” movie night, had a booth at the Apollo Casino Night, and at the end of it all, took a night off at the Western Cup dance.  Now that’s commitment!

Speaking of Apollo Western cup, we were really impressed with the turnout this year.  Even the organizers of many of the sports told us they had noticed more people coming to watch.  The Casino Night must have had twice the attendance of last year, and we were told they had pre-sold close to 600 tickets for the dance.

We did a pentathlon of our own, darting between Curling, Bowling, Running, Dodgeball, and Volleyball.  The big difference, and saving grace this year was that we were driving.  This made it a great deal easier for us to get to all the sporting venues scattered across the city, and even return a second time in some cases.  For running however, I did have to jog a good distance the opposite way around the circuit to catch the runners as they made it to the home stretch for the 10K jog.  Whew.

April 2010
The big attraction this upcoming month is, of course, Coronation week!  Coronation 34 is happening on April 17th – tickets are on sale at participating businesses, see their ad in this issue for further details.  We have an interview with Emperor 33 Joey Hailey-Boink about his experience over the past year on page 61.

But before the Coronation happens, we as a community must first vote in the new monarchs.  Voting day has been set for April 10th from noon until midnight at the Backlot.  The candidates for Empress this year are Makayla Quinn and Malibu Stacey, and once again we will be having a yes/no vote for our sole candidate for Emperor, Fred.

If you ever found reason to complain about the monarchs this past year, then consider it a duty to put in your vote!  The candidates have been performing at a number of Candidate Shows leading up to Coronation week, so hopefully you have had the opportunity to meet them and get a feel for who they are and what they hope to accomplish during their reign.