{"id":77607,"date":"2025-01-01T15:27:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/?p=77607"},"modified":"2025-01-26T15:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T23:35:48","slug":"evidence-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/01\/evidence-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>First, a quick callback<\/strong> to last month\u2019s post about <a href=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2024\/12\/15\/a-little-too-queer\/\">my experience at DiaTipo<\/a> in S\u00e3o Paulo is purely for the sake of my vanity. The photographer covering the event got this absolute glamor shot of me that is one of the rare photos of myself that I actually enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"753\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-753x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77608\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-753x1024.jpeg 753w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-221x300.jpeg 221w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-768x1044.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-1130x1536.jpeg 1130w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-1507x2048.jpeg 1507w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o-1200x1631.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/54276598281_212b98e710_o.jpeg 1738w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The truth is, I\u2019ve been grappling with self-confidence about the way I look for the last couple of years, so I don\u2019t have a lot of documentation that I feel great about. It hasn\u2019t been about age, surprisingly. I actually think I\u2019ve sailed into my 50s more successfully than I had expected, all things considered. But I put on just enough weight during the Covid years to make me feel really uncomfortable in my body, not feeling or looking quite like I have always pictured myself. There is some vanity to that certainly, but a lot of it is just the everyday dysmorphia of not feeling like myself, and it taking far too long to return to a version that once again felt right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That weird feeling about how I see myself even got in the way of what had become an annual tradition of taking self-portraits on New Year\u2019s Day every year, to mark the passing of time. I returned that tradition this year, since my sense of self has been on the upswing once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"656\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"77610\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-656x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77610\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-656x1024.jpg 656w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-192x300.jpg 192w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-768x1199.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-984x1536.jpg 984w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-1312x2048.jpg 1312w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-1200x1873.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001058-Enhanced-NR-scaled.jpg 1640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"649\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"77611\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-649x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-649x1024.jpg 649w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-190x300.jpg 190w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-768x1212.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-974x1536.jpg 974w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-1298x2048.jpg 1298w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-1200x1893.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/L1001089-Enhanced-NR-scaled.jpg 1623w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, a quick callback to last month\u2019s post about my experience at DiaTipo in S\u00e3o Paulo is purely for the sake of my vanity. The photographer covering the event got this absolute glamor shot of me that is one of the rare photos of myself that I actually enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultrapersonal","category-ultraphotographic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77607"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77615,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77607\/revisions\/77615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}