Category: Personal

Snagged from starterpack 

Year in fandom meme – 2020

Your main fandom of the year?

Hmm, I’m going to say Game Of Thrones. I’ve read mostly Sandor Clegane fic, and a lot of my wallpapers have been GOT ones, plus I started uploding some 4K/UHD screencaps of the show too. So, Game Of Thrones.

Your favourite film watched this year?

I don’t remember which ones I saw this year… and they sort of blur together anyway. I can say that The Last Of The Mohicans and Piano remain among my favorite movies ever, even after watching them for the umpteenth time this year. I watch more tv shows than movies, they have better stories and characters these days IMO.

Your favourite book read this year?

I read 50 novels this year, and enjoyed Elly Griffiths (archeology and bodies) and Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s (Icelandic murders) books particularly.

Your favourite TV show of the year?

Star Trek: Picard because it continued the story past TNG movies. The Expanse for the story. Star Trek: Discovery for how it handled the story and characters this season, plus setting.

Your favourite online fandom community of the year?

I don’t feel like I’m part of an community anymore, because fandoms I’m interested in in the platforms I’m comfortable with are dead. I hate Twitter, Facebook is awful and Tumblr is like shouting to the void and those are the places fandoms are these days… if anywhere.

Favorite fanworks of the year?

I’ve seen so much amazing Game Of Thrones art on DeviantArt, I’m floored. And I’ve read so many fabulous Sansan fics this year, ranging all from canon compliant to full AUs. I’m too tired dig out Titles and URLs, maybe I’ll add some in later. But the Sansan fandom as a whole has been a gift that keeps on giving 😀 As an example, all the Sansan fics by The_Queen_In_The_North , Vermilion_Sunrise and Digging Westeros by OrangeTabby have given me so much joy 😀

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

I didn’t get into a new fandom this year, Game Of Thrones is my newest and I got into in 2019 after the abysmal season 8. I’ve this year catching up on Sandor Clegane fic (so much great Sansan!) and random other characters.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

That fandoms still exist on bad social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr.

And this isn’t a disappointment, but a surrendering: I gave up my Star Trek site this year. Happily, Bizarra took over but if she hadn’t, I’d have deleted it. This is/was a HUGE thing – a few years back I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever voluntarily delete it. I can’t do Star Trek in a small way – it’s all in, or not at all. So the only options were to keep growing the site (it was already over 300GB in disk space), or delete it if none wanted to take it over. I still feel the loss, but I’m happy I made the choice that I did.

Your TV boyfriend of the year?

Sandor Clegane.

Your TV girlfriend of the year?

Seven Of Nine (ST: VOY not PIC)

Your biggest squee moment of the year?

When Star Trek: Picard aired its first episode 😀

The most missed of your old fandoms?

Bloody all of them! They’re either dead, or somewhere I don’t know.

The fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to?

I don’t have one at the moment. Often I wish I was into big fandoms like Captain America/The Avengers/Marvel movies/Harry Potter/LOTR etc. but knowing myself, I’d get obsessed with some minor character instead of the juggernauts and still have the same problems I have now.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

The rest of The Expanse season 5, reading more great Sansan, maybe, hopefully finishing a fic myself for the first time in like 17 years.

Snagged this from starterpack@DW

What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before?

I’m surviving through a pandemic! Experienced Emergy Powers Act, something my country hadn’t declared since the wars in 1940s. That felt odd, and drove home how serious the pandemic is.

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Didn’t make any! I won’t now now either – I half-heartedly made some resolutions when I was younger, and then promptly forgot about them within like a week.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope.

Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

What countries did you visit?

None. Continue reading End of year general meme

My answers to this week’s thefridayfive questions.

1) What is your favorite thing about the winter?

The darkness! My eyes and nerves rest 😀 I also love snow when there’s just the right amount of it when it’s enough minus degrees out (Celcius): it’s thick enough on the ground that it’s good to walk on instead loose on top of the ice, making walking hazardous because it’s slippery. And if there’s enough snow that clearing the roads and parking lots forms snow mountains – well, that’s about the only time children making noise makes me grin, because playing in the snow is lovely 🙂

2) What is your favorite winter sport?

I hate all sports so I never watch them and apart from things like Olympics, never know what’s going on.

3) What is the best winter treat?

Hot chocolate after playing/a nice long walk in thick snow with lots of minus degrees.

4) What is the earliest time in the year it ever snowed where you live?

I can’t remember! My area doesn’t get snow really anymore (global warming), and back in the 80s when we still got really proper winters, I was a kid and didn’t memorize such things! Snow came down when it did, and it did every year.

5) What is the best way to stay warm in the winter?

I’m rather hot blooded, and tend to get over-heated easily so I’m usually lighter dressed compared to most other people, so I’m not the best to answer this. For me it’s always just been regular autumn clothing plus I’d add in one more blouse, or just a bit thicker one. Especially the last 20 years with our no-good, pretend winters I haven’t needed to dress for cold like when I was a kid in the 80s. I’d say dress in layers, so you can shed them as needed both inside and out, have long underwear close to your skin (if it’s too loose it doesn’t warm you) and have good, warm winter boots for your feet. Gloves and a warm hat are needed some of the time too!

Answers to this week’s questions @ thefridayfive

1) What kinds of gifts will you give this holiday season?

The usual: chocolates. I’m poor and can’t spend too much money on gifts so it has to be something I can afford to buy for both my Mom and her SO, and we all think there’s never enough chocolate, so chocolate it is! Sometimes Mom requests a novel or a poetry book, but there’s nothing this year she’d like.

2) What are the best types of presents to give?

I love to give books that have been requested. Because I love reading myself and so do the people who request one from me, I know that a book will be an appreciated gift! After that, I love to give presents that I know are truly needed and wanted, usually of the practical type. In our family it’s totally normal to point out a piece of clothing that one needs, color and size and all, or music cd one wants, and to get that as a present. I’ve been known to ask for a new kettle, or a frying pan, for a present next, or a new pillow (I go through a lot of pillows) and I’m always so happy with them 🙂 I think of my Mom everytime I used that frying pan 🙂

We’ve never given expensive gits, so things like phones or TVs are out. Things like normal priced clothes (nightgowns or a sweater etc.) is as high as we go as a family. I myself don’t want things like jewellery, or TVs as a gift, because I have no use for expensive jewellery and want to choose my own electronics. I assume other people feel the same. I also feel they’re too expensive to buy as gifts, propably because I’ve always been too poor to buy expensive gifts. So practical gifts that I know will be used are my favorite to give.

3) Have you ever given someone a gift as a surprise? Why did you give the gift?

I haven’t as a true gift. I sometimes bring over a new chocolate I found and loved, and want my friend or Mom to taste it, but it’s not really a gift. More like a fun, surprise tasty thing they might like. Or maybe a really pretty flower I saw in the shops. But it’s not a regular thing I do at all.

4) Have you ever received a gift that you didn’t like? How did you respond?

Yeah, when I was a kid in the mid-1980s my Grandma gave me a pale pink sweater! I hated it on sight and couldn’t believe my Grandma hadn’t figured out I hated pink from the fact that I never, ever wore it. I thanked her though because it was polite to do so, then Mom sort of forced me to wear it once or twice when we visited my Grandma. Moved my Mom and I separated our household (I stayed in our apartment, and she moved in with her SO in mid-1990s, I refused to have in my home so Mom took it with her. She wore it like 25 years around home, until it got scrappy enough to throw out. Yeah, that’s pink sweater the only piece of clothing of “mine”, or a gift, I’ve ever hated.

5) Would you rather give someone a gift or receive a gift? Why?

I’d rather both give *and* receive. I’m not used to giving or receiving gifts without it going both ways, it’d feel weird. I’m usually poor enough that receiving one means I’ll have a little more money left for other things that month (or soonish) if it were something I’d spend money on myself anyway at some point.