straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2024-01-20 09:57 am
straightforwardly) wrote2024-01-20 09:57 am
Entry tags:
261 | Snowflake Challenge 2024, days 3, 4, and 7
So, I’ve fallen behind on the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
snowflake_challenge, but as I meant to take this in a low-pressure thing in the first place, it's fine. I do want to tackle a few more of the challenges, however, so I’m going to play catch-up.
Day Three’s prompt was create a fandom wishlist, but—there’s not anything in particular I’m wanting? I’ve done enough exchanges in my life that receiving fic is pretty much covered, and I’m also pretty good on the recs front as well. The only thing I can think of that I do want is recs for fanartists taking commissions in a particular fandom—but as I’m not yet at the point of my life where making(/requesting? what is the proper verb to use here…) that commission is a priority, it doesn’t make sense to ask for that now, since by the time I do get around to it the artists in question may have moved on from that fandom or in taking commissions in general.
tl;dr I have thoughts on this one, but don’t actually have a real request to fill it with!
Day Four was tell us about yourself. Which I was originally going to skip, but—then it occurred to me that I really don’t say all that much about myself? My (deliberate) lack of an intro post or a traditional profile does mean that there’s a lot of basic facts about myself that just never come up.
So.
I go by straightforwardly, with a lowercase “s”. The username comes from the Pablo Neruda poem I quote in my profile (hence, also, why it’s quoted in my profile). I’m in my early 30s and have been in fandom since I was 11 or 12, getting my start with self-insert fic on Quizilla (RIP) before moving on to livejournal a couple of years later, so I’ve been in fannish spaces for quite some time, and it’s shaped a lot of my life.
This particular fannish identity has existed since 2013, I believe, and I made it back when I was in college, mostly because I was uncomfortable with how much real life, potentially identifying info I shared under my old username back when I was a teenager. I do think I overcorrected and swung too hard into “not sharing anything” territory—you do need to share some things about yourself when making friendships, after all—but I’m still trying to find the correct balance on that front.
I grew up in the mountain time zone and now live in the Central European time zone, in a move that I sometimes refer to as having been reverse immigration. (By which I mean, I grew up as the child of immigrants, but then moved back to my parents’ home country as an adult.) I grew up in a rural area with lots of animals, but tragically don’t have any of my own at the moment, though I’m hoping for that to change in the coming year.
I’m also realizing why I don’t usually do these kinds of intros, because I’m struggling with what to say and how to say it. So I’m going to skip over the rest of the usual biographical stuff—if you’re curious about anything in particular, feel free to ask.
Otherwise, I’m someone who is constantly reading—as my coworkers can attest to, as my lunch breaks are spent with my eyes glued to either my phone or an ereader, depending on what it is I’m reading. (Phone = books checked out from the library, most fics. Ereader = purchased ebooks, certain longfics.) Reading is absolutely my most preferred way to consume media. After that is video games, my second most beloved that I absolutely do not make enough time for.
I struggle with impatience whenever I try to watch things, so I rarely do, and am quick to DNF things—I quit most shows and movies that I try within the first 10-15 minutes, and the shows that make it past that point then get DNFed around the 2-4 episode mark. Though I do better when I’m watching things with my brother, and sometimes the stars do align enough for me to truly fall in love with a show. See: last year, with Till the End of the Moon, and also my history with The Borgias. (...Both of which I do need/want to rewatch… eventually;;;) I also like listening to podcasts, though that’s mainly something that happens while doing mindless, quiet chores, like dishes or laundry.
I’m in love with stories, which is the connecting thread that binds all those things together in my mind—my passion/arguably obsession with stories and storytelling has literally been a lifelong thing, since before I even knew how to read, and it’s that which draws me to all the aforementioned activities, to writing, and to fandom and fanfiction in general.
Finally, I also like spreadsheets! I made one that I use to track my yearly media consumption, with separate specialized stats tabs for my bookish reading and my fic reading, and updating it every time I finish something and seeing the way my stats shift in response bring me a ridiculous amount of joy and satisfaction. I did a big update/refresh in how I do things for 2024, and it's gotten so much prettier, more organized, and informative; I'm so happy with it <3
I feel zero desire to do Day Five (link and description here), so skipping that one.
Day Six and Day Eight feel like they’d flow better as their own posts, so I’ll save them for another time. I also kind of accidentally did Day Nine without realizing it when I shared those links to my Three Sentence Ficathon fills in my last entry—the prompt was to rec the latest thing you made
So I’ll end this catch-up with Day Seven, which was to share a list of creative/fannish resources.
I actually turn to the Fire Emblem wiki a lot whenever I’m writing fic for Fates or Awakening. What I valued most about it is that it has transcripts of all of the supports for each character, as well as the scripts for the main story + the endings, so it’s been great for quick canon review. (Or gameplay review, like when I want to doublecheck what classes characters have available to them, or what weapon it would make the most sense for them to use…)
I go to the Stardew Valley wiki for similar reasons whenever writing fic for that fandom. (I use it heavily while the playing the game too.) It’s also a great place to look up/double check the little canon details I like to include in my fics.
When writing fic for Pokémon, I turn to a combination of Serebii or Bulbapedia, depending on whether what I want is Pokédex or other gameplay-specific information (Serebii) or canon/characterization review via scripts of the in-game dialogue (Bulbapedia).
Otherwise… on the off-chance you’re wanting to write for Star Ocean: The Second Story, there are transcribed scripts for all of the endings that someone compiled over on GameFaqs?
And hey, that’s an actual list <3 That’s a pleasant surprise, considering I thought I only had one thing to name when I first started typing.
snowflake_challenge, but as I meant to take this in a low-pressure thing in the first place, it's fine. I do want to tackle a few more of the challenges, however, so I’m going to play catch-up. Day Three’s prompt was create a fandom wishlist, but—there’s not anything in particular I’m wanting? I’ve done enough exchanges in my life that receiving fic is pretty much covered, and I’m also pretty good on the recs front as well. The only thing I can think of that I do want is recs for fanartists taking commissions in a particular fandom—but as I’m not yet at the point of my life where making(/requesting? what is the proper verb to use here…) that commission is a priority, it doesn’t make sense to ask for that now, since by the time I do get around to it the artists in question may have moved on from that fandom or in taking commissions in general.
tl;dr I have thoughts on this one, but don’t actually have a real request to fill it with!
Day Four was tell us about yourself. Which I was originally going to skip, but—then it occurred to me that I really don’t say all that much about myself? My (deliberate) lack of an intro post or a traditional profile does mean that there’s a lot of basic facts about myself that just never come up.
So.
I go by straightforwardly, with a lowercase “s”. The username comes from the Pablo Neruda poem I quote in my profile (hence, also, why it’s quoted in my profile). I’m in my early 30s and have been in fandom since I was 11 or 12, getting my start with self-insert fic on Quizilla (RIP) before moving on to livejournal a couple of years later, so I’ve been in fannish spaces for quite some time, and it’s shaped a lot of my life.
This particular fannish identity has existed since 2013, I believe, and I made it back when I was in college, mostly because I was uncomfortable with how much real life, potentially identifying info I shared under my old username back when I was a teenager. I do think I overcorrected and swung too hard into “not sharing anything” territory—you do need to share some things about yourself when making friendships, after all—but I’m still trying to find the correct balance on that front.
I grew up in the mountain time zone and now live in the Central European time zone, in a move that I sometimes refer to as having been reverse immigration. (By which I mean, I grew up as the child of immigrants, but then moved back to my parents’ home country as an adult.) I grew up in a rural area with lots of animals, but tragically don’t have any of my own at the moment, though I’m hoping for that to change in the coming year.
I’m also realizing why I don’t usually do these kinds of intros, because I’m struggling with what to say and how to say it. So I’m going to skip over the rest of the usual biographical stuff—if you’re curious about anything in particular, feel free to ask.
Otherwise, I’m someone who is constantly reading—as my coworkers can attest to, as my lunch breaks are spent with my eyes glued to either my phone or an ereader, depending on what it is I’m reading. (Phone = books checked out from the library, most fics. Ereader = purchased ebooks, certain longfics.) Reading is absolutely my most preferred way to consume media. After that is video games, my second most beloved that I absolutely do not make enough time for.
I struggle with impatience whenever I try to watch things, so I rarely do, and am quick to DNF things—I quit most shows and movies that I try within the first 10-15 minutes, and the shows that make it past that point then get DNFed around the 2-4 episode mark. Though I do better when I’m watching things with my brother, and sometimes the stars do align enough for me to truly fall in love with a show. See: last year, with Till the End of the Moon, and also my history with The Borgias. (...Both of which I do need/want to rewatch… eventually;;;) I also like listening to podcasts, though that’s mainly something that happens while doing mindless, quiet chores, like dishes or laundry.
I’m in love with stories, which is the connecting thread that binds all those things together in my mind—my passion/arguably obsession with stories and storytelling has literally been a lifelong thing, since before I even knew how to read, and it’s that which draws me to all the aforementioned activities, to writing, and to fandom and fanfiction in general.
Finally, I also like spreadsheets! I made one that I use to track my yearly media consumption, with separate specialized stats tabs for my bookish reading and my fic reading, and updating it every time I finish something and seeing the way my stats shift in response bring me a ridiculous amount of joy and satisfaction. I did a big update/refresh in how I do things for 2024, and it's gotten so much prettier, more organized, and informative; I'm so happy with it <3
I feel zero desire to do Day Five (link and description here), so skipping that one.
Day Six and Day Eight feel like they’d flow better as their own posts, so I’ll save them for another time. I also kind of accidentally did Day Nine without realizing it when I shared those links to my Three Sentence Ficathon fills in my last entry—the prompt was to rec the latest thing you made
So I’ll end this catch-up with Day Seven, which was to share a list of creative/fannish resources.
I actually turn to the Fire Emblem wiki a lot whenever I’m writing fic for Fates or Awakening. What I valued most about it is that it has transcripts of all of the supports for each character, as well as the scripts for the main story + the endings, so it’s been great for quick canon review. (Or gameplay review, like when I want to doublecheck what classes characters have available to them, or what weapon it would make the most sense for them to use…)
I go to the Stardew Valley wiki for similar reasons whenever writing fic for that fandom. (I use it heavily while the playing the game too.) It’s also a great place to look up/double check the little canon details I like to include in my fics.
When writing fic for Pokémon, I turn to a combination of Serebii or Bulbapedia, depending on whether what I want is Pokédex or other gameplay-specific information (Serebii) or canon/characterization review via scripts of the in-game dialogue (Bulbapedia).
Otherwise… on the off-chance you’re wanting to write for Star Ocean: The Second Story, there are transcribed scripts for all of the endings that someone compiled over on GameFaqs?
And hey, that’s an actual list <3 That’s a pleasant surprise, considering I thought I only had one thing to name when I first started typing.
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It definitely has its flaws as a show, and there's subplots I don't care about, but it also can be a lot of fun, and the parts of it that do work have sunk their claws into me so deep. I marathoned the whole series like 2.5 times in a row* when I first saw it, which is. Not a thing I usually ever do.
(*with the caveat that I skipped the scenes I didn't care about on said rewatches)
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I'm very willing! I'm using google sheets, so you can actually look directly at the template I made if you'd like!
A few notes:
- please ignore the colors; over the weekend, I got indecisive about what sort of color palette I want (and only just found out about custom themes on google sheets like three days ago, to my simultaneous delight and dismay...I've been doing this by hand all this time;;;;), so they're all over the place at the moment
- there's a hidden tab where all my categories (e.g. genres, types of things read, etc.) live
- the last few years, I was tracking my "short pieces" read in a separate tab, but I had some issues with that last year, so this year I'm logging them all in the same tab and only splitting them out when it comes to the stats page. We'll see how I like it!
- similarly, my genres list underwent a huge overhaul this year, since my old list wasn't really working for me. The biggest change is that I now also track subcategories for certain genres, and also clarified the divisions between the different kinds of nonfiction I read a little better. I already had to do a little fine-tuning on the subcategories I chose, so I do anticipate them shifting up as the year goes on and I figure out my needs better.
- my "other media" tab is pretty much the same as it was last year, but it also needs an overhaul at some point—I just haven't settled on what I want/need from that section yet, so that's a task for future me.
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