very bright...or perpetually confused

Hey! So if we met at MJ and good feelings held through to the end, this is me! Same zeplum in ALL the places.

Had a large Give Up The Ghost moment Saturday afternoon wherein I decided that active participation in fandom might not be a decent reality any longer, or that I just need to learn to love a different bomb (ie, figure out personal fannish interaction with fellow awesome people).

ANYWHO. I have gotten waaaay out of the habit of posting at LJ/DW, and both are flocked (but I'll friend back if you're not a Cylon) though I'm trying to jump back in, and my Twitter is locked, though fair notice, a lot of it is squee about hockey ass, etc. or general crankiness because half the departments I have to work with are WORTHLESS as alas, Twitter's my outlet.

Thankfully, my tumblr is a THING OF JOY. :)

holiday love meme 2012

my thread here

Yes, I know. But I'm actually NOT feeling misanthropic, so love spreading shall happen, whether it's anon or not! Because I've been neglectful of all!

Last night I found this shirt and squealed because of it's relation to my long lost love, Tour of Duty.

And it got me thinking - I think we ALL have fandoms like this - multiple fandoms, even - the ones that were small, or the ones that have kind of fallen out of fashion or by the wayside, but they're fandoms that we still go back and visit from time to time.

For instance, I came to Tour of Duty WAY late, or I'd love to know who else out there still has much love for The Pretender.


ANYWAY, I had this notion that this would be a great thing to do at muskratjamboree - have some sort of card that people could fill out and stick on a bulletin board and like some personals ad, find OTHER people that love the same shit you do, but that you've never met before, etc.

It could likely go very well in an online medium, but I really like the personal aspect to it, possibly just because in-person squee is a lovely thing to behold.

Y'know that point where you just need to try even though it's not what you were trying for in the first place? Yeah, well, I hit that yesterday.

( The 18 millionth entry into the How Darcy Got to Work at S.H.I.E.L.D )


I'm still trying to work on the whole Steve & Darcy thing, but hi, one of the problems of having so many great writers around (and many of them that you *know*) is, sadly, insecurity locks in, even if you have something to say that's maybe valid.

So, y'know, trying. And constantly remembering that bit from Wonderfalls about GETTING HER WORDS OUT.

Day 13

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favourite interview, a book) and explain why you love it so much.

A sampling:

1. The Flaming Riv/Ray's Confession/Rubber Duckies scene in "Burning Down the House" due South.

Whenever I think of dS, my love for the show, or even when I just mention it to Muggles, this is the scene that pops in my head. To me, it's everything about the show - absurdity, magical realism, Canada Yay!, buddies and HEART.


2. The Farscape episode "Nerve". It was the ep that made me sit up and take notice, as it hit higher and lower brain functions all at once.

To me, this is where Farscape came into itself - it's where the arc that carried through the next three seasons was laid out, and there was a deep shift in tone. Yeah, sure, we got CARTOON episodes and cracked out everything too, but "Nerve" is representative of Farscape's strong, darker side. And it's where shit gets real. Okay, yeah, getting goose pimples just thinking about it.


3. The bit with the treats cart in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

My sister was the first to read the books, and I remember her reading this scene to me and my dad in our tiny kitchen. The creativity of just that part was what got me interested. Who cared about this complex and emotional plot arc? I wanted to know more about this WORLD.

Like, 12 or 13 years later and not a bit has changed.


4. Prime/Not Prime from Stargate Atlantis. Geeks! Being fully geeky! And, I mean, we had already latched on to the show as a whole, but man, that did it for me.


5. "This is the best party EVER." - Kat Warbler, The Class

The Class. The show that no one watched, but was (and is) beloved by a faithful few. And, um, probably has the closest approximation of ME as a character anywhere. That was THE line from the pilot ep (which was pretty strong as pilots go), and well, I love it in a narcissistic way.


6. That bit in the mini of BSG where Kara's in the brig, and Lee comes to say, "Hi", and they do that bit where there's leaning and um, there's sexual tension all over the place. SCREAMING with it.

I knew I was already hooked (hi, BATTLE DRUMS), but god, there's pretty much no better way to pique my interest.

And then, years later, the finale kind of killed me (and I will never for how bexless knew exactly how and why, or at least remembered that I'd be distraught), and I haven't been able to re-watch it since.


7. When Miss Parker ties up Jarod during that hurricane.

You want a show with a strong female character? Check out The Pretender. There's a hurricane, snark, bondage, and no soft edges. It's awesome.

(Fandom Snowflake Challenge and master post)

Day 10

In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing.

Skipping this one because it makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm trying to get back on the feedback train (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Kudos Button @ AO3), and I've managed to fangirl a few authors in my day (bless, sparky77 for not thinking I was totally weird).

I will add that I'm regularly caught saying IN REAL LIFE how much I love fandom's brain (brains of individuals, and our collective brain - which makes me sound like a zombie, or something even more sinister...oops?).

I love what we can create given sub-par source material. I love what we create with fantastic source material. I am continually gobsmacked by the intelligence and heart I see everyday with fic, meta, random whatevering.

And okay, one of my favourite things is how Person B will make a little off-hand comment in response to Person A's post, and maybe it'll turn into this grand discussion regarding the nature of Ray Kowalksi's hair, or maybe Person B will realize that hey, maybe they've got a fic on their hands with this! Or that Persons C, D, and E will feel free to join in, maybe meet new people.

[However, Person F will be left out of their Reindeer Games. But not really, because there's always a comment thread running somewhere. The Fandom Fairy just has to find you the right home.]


So, that's more a little diatribe on why I think fandom is amazing, because I think we're all creators. Yes, even lurkers too - you guys help supply Zen energy too, or something!

I have seen truly great "creators" in my day. I've made friends with a few, so now I kind of look at them as hoopy froods that make cool shit. And that, fangirls and others, is my crappy answer to that question.



Day 11

In your own space, ask for recs. Something as simple as "I like XYZ (where XYZ is a kink, a pairing, a trope, etc) - please rec me some."

I love, love, love long UST stuff. Or, y'know, short UST stuff. With resolution at the end. Doesn't even have to be grand trumpets or anything, just even an acknowledgement that yeah, they know what's going on.

That stuff SO works for me.

I'm always willing to take a peek into new fandoms, but yeah, not the American Idol stuff? Maybe? I mean, I know I looked askance at bandom and then the next thing I knew there was Mikey's sparkly bass and his general GYAH, Gerard in skeleton PJs, and Wentz being a damned gateway drug to it all.

Also? Panic! in roses.

IDEK. So that just goes to prove that I am easy like Sunday morning.

HEY! See what I did there!

Had bad job related news this morning, but this has actually been a really good, confidence building exercise:

(Fandom Snowflake Challenge and master post)

In your own space, share something non-fannish you are passionate about with your fannish friends.

It's probably well known that I have a great passion for history. I was raised around it - my father has an extensive library, mostly related to military history, and so I grew up with books about Vietnam, German military history, and everything in between. My parents also made it a point to have us watch the news every night, to have NPR on all day (ah, memorably being forced to listen to the Iran-Contra hearings and Supreme Court nomination reviews), and we'd discuss it ALL.

I never knew anything different. I knew other families didn't operate like this, but never thought it was that uncommon until I was much older, and by that point the History Geek thing was firmly in place.

Now, I can look back and pick out a few things in my younger years that stick out almost in a fannish sense: Watching Johnny Tremaine in elementary school and being all, "Cute boy!, or watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks and 1) wondering what was up with that whole title sequence (the Bayeux Tapestry), because the way it was presented meant that it HAD to be important, and then 2) at the end, when she calls up all the "ghosts" from the museum, wanting to know who all those people were - Caveliers, etc. Then there's that whole business how, at 14 or so, I totally looked forward to Friday nights because Ken Burns The Civil War was on. Fourteen years old, and that was the highlight of my week. Yeah. Oh, and 1776, where I developed a actualfax crush on John Adams. [And was the only reason I was able to drunkenly recognize Independence Hall in Philly while on a pub crawl/Groundhog Day scavenger hunt with serialkarma. Go me.]

I got my degree in History from Florida State, and had pretty awesome professors, who, for the most part, tended to present the material in a manner I agreed with - don't worry so much about the dates, but WHY and HOW things happened. What were the circumstances, philosophies and social movements that brought about change, etc. Possibly needless to say, but I'm kind of a revolution geek too. [Side note: Just discovered an article about Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Army in Mexico in the mid-late 90s that I'd kept. Yeah, while everyone was mooning over Clooney (for my high school years featured a dearth of eye-candy - oh, if only we'd understood how uttlerly awesome Chris Hardwick was...I did, but couldn't convince anyone else), I was mooning over a revolutionary leader thanks to a 60 Minutes piece. Yeah.]

So yeah, to me, history is kind of less about dates, but more about PEOPLE. I can even remember the first moment I really internalized this. I was reading Patriots by AJ Langguth while I was, er, supposed to be working on actual school work (including AP US). The book's great, because it presents our hallowed founding fathers as, guess what, REAL PEOPLE, warts and all. There's a bit in there about how, while crossing a river (might've been the famous Delaware crossing), Henry Knox stood up in a boat, and it started tipping and George Washington actually told him to, "Sit your fat ass down, Harry." OMG <3

History is full of weird, and funny, and starkly human stories, because yeah, humans are the ones who made the history. Obvious. I've laughed a lot, learned a lot, and on a few occasions (Philippine Insurrection) cried a lot.

I'm going to leave off this entry with some of my favourite stories or excerpts that I've collected and posted to LJ over the years.

( Alastair Horne, on the outbreak of WWI, and then a quote from during the Paris Commune )


( Talk of The Magic Lantern, the Warsaw elections in the late 80s )


( Ethan Allen and the (crazy-hilarious) Green Mountain Boys )


"It is very difficult in France to make reforms; we make revolutions in France, not reforms." - Louis-Napoleon

"How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?" - Charles de Gaulle


( excerpt from The Fall of Paris by Horne )


( Haussman: Or, Urban Planning to decrease riots )


( Plum's take on the Middle Ages: Sex, Drugs, and the mandolin, baby )


So, if you made it through all that - or just have skipped to this point - thank you for reading along as much as you have.

My history concentrations are in Medievalism (religion, mostly), France (medieval to 1940s, mostly), WWI in general, esp. from a view of the after effects - art/literature that was produced after the war, and European upheavals. I've got a fascination with Russian stuff, but have no background, and soon I'll be starting a book on the English Civil war even though I have little to no knowledge of English history outside of TV and whatever's presented in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.



Oh, and remember how I mentioned that there were a few things that completely influenced me when I was younger (and this, at the very least, influenced me on *how* I looked at things): Stan Freberg's United States of America: Part I, the Early Years. My dad sat me down in front of the hi-fi, started the record and yeah, it's all his fault.

Washington Crosses the Delaware
Battle of Yorktown (yeah, and that's pretty much all I know about the end of the Revolutionary War. SAD, I know.


If you're interested in some book recs, let me know and I'll be happy to help out where I can.

See also: youknowyoureahistoryfanwhen, fuckyeahhistorycrushes (though caveats there), on Tumblr. My contribution would be, "when you start collecting mini-siege engines", because yeah, guilty. Not to mention my Pope Innocent II action figure, or my collection of Historical Boyfriends.

( Life in Washington: September 2010 - June 2011 )

Upon reflection (or, that this post is long enough already), the Last Goonie Weekend retrospective will get its own post.

Oh, tumblr, you beautiful thing - in general - but specifically for providing me with gems like this:

"I think he's different in the way everyone is different in The Avengers, in that the whole cast is building together the concept of a team. When you look at the team it's made out of rock stars, divas, and giant muscles with superpowers so somebody has the job backstage at Lollapalooza to make them all play in the same concert and super band - and that’s what Agent Coulson does."


— Clark Gregg on how Agent Coulson’s role in The Avengers compares to his role in the previous films (via fuckyeahitstheavengers)

Lollapalooza! <333



Basically, in the future, I will just be using Tumblr as story inspiration (god, the visuals) and I feel ZERO guilt about this.

So, here's the haps:

The 7th Annual Holiday Love Meme, Secret Santa Style run by allthingsgood filled up QUICKLY this year and had to be split into multiple parts. The problem? Well, I know of a few people that would've really liked to leave comments, but weren't able to because the comment limit was reached very fast. Sure, a second page was posted, but unless you repeated your entry...yeah.

I don't know if anyone else has hosted a sort of "refugee" meme, but like I said, I do know people that wanted to share good tidings but were unable, so...

LOVE AND APPRECIATION MEME


You know the drill: Drop your user name in the comments and then people can respond with anon (OR NOT, it's all up to you) love and appreciation comments. Easy peasy mincemeat pie.

(I don't know why the "appreciation" part is important to add, but I'm doing it anyway, because that's how I roll.)


Sorry, no fancy coding to offer, only good will and the desire to do something nice for the community I love (and am so very thankful for, believe you me) so much.

Now here's hoping I've got all the comment permissions set right. *fingers crossed*