pronker

In your own space, talk about what you think the future holds for fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

*groan* Oh gads, I'm better at hindsight ... per this fantastic post awhile back ...

but after Anecdote Time, I'll predict something.

Anecdote: At sleepovers, we five girls wrote Star Trek fics as TOS unfolded; Superfan, who wrote furiously in ballpoint on yellow legal pads as we participated in a Round Robin sort of way, preferred Spock as the whumpee while Kirk tended to him lovingly after their shuttlecraft crashed and they took refuge in a cave. Whatever happened to these works? Through the years before and after she became my roomie, Superfan went on to attend many more conventions, cosplay and generally participate IRL in fandom more than I did because she was just, well, More. She still is.

Then came Life full force and until Star Wars' A New Hope release, I didn't participate in fandom. I'd given up comics, but saved the ones collected. Star Wars hit and so did "Nostalgia Shows," places in large venues for vintage furniture, books, comics, anything older than maybe ten years. At one of the shows, someone displayed a 'zine to a customer at a comic booth where I browsed and thrust it in a box under the show table afterwards. After the first customer left without purchasing, I asked to see it, too, and the vendor seemed pleased to relate what 'zines were, though they also seemed to keep it hush hush. Whatever.

I attended numerous shows to look at comics among other things, and then after asking shiftily, "Got any 'zines?," I bought a 'zine for maybe $25, which was average price. (I had more disposable income then.) For some time, 'zines filled boxes in my apartment and then I joined a letterzine for writing LOCs (Letters of Comment) regarding all aspects of fandom, including fics, in 'zines. My preference was for a 'zine with numerous fandoms, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Laredo, and Alias Smith and Jones, with many illo's (illustrations) by artists talented and enthusiastic. Such darn fun!

Life now included Family so timeskip to 2005, when I first got online. Wow! First came one year of lurking and reading both meta and fics on starwars.com, theforceDOTnet, fanfictionDOTnet, various personal websites on geocities and elsewhere, and master-apprenticeDOTorg. Eyes bugging, I realized that the 'zines' response time of three months to a comment shrank to thirty seconds on the internet! I interacted with admired authors, dipping toes into reviewing, brainstorming plots, and writing fic. More fun came with drawing and posting, too. And all free of charge.

Life is good in fandom. I do not miss 'zine days of mishandled funds via snailmail, weird feuds via LOCs that could last months, and so forth. I do miss illo's and the way that most fics were completed. Online, people being people, I grieved over online friends feuding and defriending and how interests flagged for a loved comm that withered despite efforts to save it. Online is lots like RL, just faster.

Predictions? In future, fandom becomes so widespread that cosplay enters things like your doctor wearing a Zuckuss suit for your exam and you think nothing of it; the cop on the beat dons Clone Trooper armor; the bus driver wears a penguins suit and it's not Halloween. I look forward to those days.

In your own space, create your own challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Fandom challenges generally involve sitting, although one may stand while reading on one's phone on the subway, recline in bed or on the couch while thinking of how to respond to today's challenge, etc., so let's change that up. I challenge Snowflakes to get physical: roll the shoulders, twitch the toes, do isometrics with the fingers, and exercise the body part that most needs it, the glutes. Yes! On count of three, clench those glutes! All together now!

One two three CLENCH!

and relax and

CLENCH!

and relax and

CLENCH! Harder! You can do it! Let's go, Snowflakes!!

Let me hear your body talk. Let's get physical, physical I wanna get physical Let's get into physical Let me hear your body talk, your body talk Let me hear your body talk. I'm sure you'll understand my point of view We know each other mentally You gotta know that you're bringin' out The animal in me. Let's get physical, PHYSICAL!

Create a fanwork.

Another chapter of Undertow sees daylight.

Stretch yourself a little and try something new. Go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing. Try working in a new medium. Or check out some fanworks that are new to you. (The recs from Day 2 might be a good place to start.) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I enjoyed a picspam by marzipan77 of the NCIS female characters and learned how the program offs female characters to give the male characters chances to emote, find revenge, and by the by, further male careers. Hmmmph. This stretched my fandom horizons because the program, while long-lived, I've never seen. TV watching is down, down, down from ages ago when I used to look forward eagerly to the September TV Guide to see what new shows I'd watch!

In your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Last year, I recommended Wikifur as a resource, and this year nudged two resources from Tired Brain. This year hones the subject down from furries in general to one subject (Penguins of Madagascar) with just two entries.

1. Brendan Boman administers the Madagascar wiki. If you want rundowns on each episode, transcribed episodes and songs, photos, and other fun stuff, come pay a visit!

3. I had a little trouble eliciting a second one from Tired Brain, but theforceDOTnet won. Since its beginning in the 20th century *insert echoing effect*, this site's fanfiction concentrated on Star Wars; later on, it sensibly included Non-Star Wars fanfiction. You may read Married With Children fics, The Hobbit tales, and many other fandoms, including POM stories, which is where this link goes. :)

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

So go! Share a piece of canon you adore, spread that love. See why others love their fandoms, whether it be someone who loves he same stuff you do, or maybe even a fandom you've always wondered about. You might find a new fandom to love too.

https://youtu.be/BTEp83vAMxw

"We Are The Penguins" combines riffs on Gilbert and Sullivan and Frank Sinatra. The program won "Outstanding Animated Program 2012" at the Emmy Awards, richly deserved and never more for this particular song in this particular episode, "Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole." Gadzooks, Dr. Blowhole is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris in his best form! Skipper gets to channel his singing alter ego, Frank Sinatra, with be bops and skoodely woodelys. I love this hour-long episode because it uses nearly all the characters at Central Park Zoo, not easy to write when there are about fifteen of them, and because Danny Jacobs contributes to the shenanigans in his role as King Julien. Much to admire, so let's have some fun.

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.



Even if you are having a hard time finding your Happy Place. Maybe it sustained damage in the storms and disasters that were 2018 and what worked before isn’t anymore. Maybe you just want to redecorate, try something else but don’t know what—talk about it, share it. Investigating and contemplating what doesn’t work is just as important as sharing what does. Maybe you’ll see a pattern you could tweak or maybe you’ll get ideas from other people.

Let’s just spend this first day of a new year talking about Joy; where we find it, how it manifests and where to look for it when it goes.

My Happy Place consists of many things: computer time, which means pronking from site to site that can include copywriting on textbroker.com; prayer time, mainly the Rosary; gardening, although developing a hernia in 2018 put a stop to many heavy duty tasks I used to accomplish without even blinking *sob*; cooking new recipes; observing/participating in Nature, because, damn, I really love the outdoors! I love the squirrels that visit the yard, the way that the sun arcs south to north throughout the year, my fig tree's produce, the wild miner's lettuce springing up on the yard's north side with no effort from me and other natural things. My Happy Place expanded further early in December with a family reunion to join folks I'd not seen for years. The time was just so precious that we spent together.

I've concluded that the Unexpected contributes to my Happy Place, because while strolling along the levee this morning about 9:30, the middle 5 foot diameter drain pipe cover roared and shivered with displaced air and I knew, I knew, that someone On High (the water company? a county official? I dunno) authorized release of waters to the levee stream. Sure enough, fifteen seconds later burst gouts of water onto the riprock and thence to the stream. The anticipation of seeing the power of water plunging inspired a whoop of joy.

where to look for it when it goes 2018's downers made me put away joy into the closet weeks at a time to resolve matters of 1. evicting a tenant who was making it financially, but who could not get along with household occupants. I really tried for a year to hold off eviction and did not make the decision lightly; and 2. giving up on a refi after nine months' attempts in four different institutions, which discouraged me no end. Bleurgh. Just had to face it, I need to regroup. Currently, New Tenant Works Well With Others and I'm making ends meet.