Of Swords and Parasols

Snowflake Challenge is wrapping up today and awww, they didn't do the Make A Challenge thing this round. You know what, it's happening, can't stop won't stop.

When you are logged in and go to Dreamwidth (home page), scroll down and you can see your tag cloud.

Are there any tags you feel don't represent you very well now? Are there tags you feel should be there?

Go into your tags, have a look at the numbers, and make a plan for 2026 to be the year you whip that cloud into shape 💪

Sooo... Supernatural, ey? This is what happens when you get a giga-fandom! (same thing giving me HR vid songs atm; shouting I don't even go here at my brain to no avail.

SPN has 139 entries tagged. Looking over potential rivals, television is at 92, assemble! 102, buffyverse 90, music 103, rec: vid 83.

Or do I hard mode it and go for IWTV? *g*

+ Yesterday was rough. Just walking around vibrating, had a cry in the storage room, absolutely hated the feel of washing my hands. Extremely over-stimulated. People being around all the time, and complete disruption of routines will do that eventually, which I did not appreciate learning. Thankfully I got a full nights sleep after I dozed off - got a sleeping pill from my dad to help out, still my brain was trying to scrabble back awake several times before I succeeded.

Fishery is somewhat more decent yoday, god I hope that holds up. January is supposed to be prime fishing season 😤

+ Today is Festivids Go Live Day \o/ hopefully it opens up earlier in the day for me, I absolutely cannot allow myself shiny new vids late in the evening. I just get too worked up.

+ Discovered I'd left some small fandom icons behind at forsquares, including Borgen, so I have one more masterpost to put up before I move on to re-uploading the existing spankulert icon posts to Dreamwidth. Those random black images are really starting to piss me off.

+ Also toying with the idea of fiddling with my journal layout. Gotta admit I'm too old for the piddly font size at this point, le sigh. Could be better for mobile as well.

+ Decided that yes, I will make myself a mood theme when I get home, thank you very much. Probably IWTV, and just the top/base moods, as I'd like to incorporate s3 as well. Making gifs is absolutely not in my wheelhouse, but imma give it my all.

+ Ugh a mail about Susanne Sundfør concert happening when I'll be at sea. I am having a sulk about it. Raye is performing in Oslo a few days before I get home. My bad concert luck is not letting up boo.

+ Refrained from making this post until I had the icon that's been living in my head made and uploaded. (I have now opened my laptop two whole times this trip)

+ Fishery is still bad. People are here aalllll the tiiiime. I want to shove my face in a pillow and banshee shriek. I want to be in a small, slightly chilly and soundproof box. Absolute and utter isolation for one, please.

+ Adding to that, one of the crew has started sitting at my (usually empty) back table for meals, so now it's active conversation time on top of it all. And boy does she want to talk about how the solar flares are affecting her, and what are my thoughts on the aliens, she thinks they're friendly (watches yt about aliens every day). Girl, I know you know I'm into tarot, but we are Not The Same.

+ I'm not sleeping enough and it's not helping.

+ Did a silly and signed up for Fandom Trumps Hate. Do people still want icons at all time will tell 🤷🏻‍♀️ Offered IWTV, Pluribus, and WoT with the fandom ticky boxes, "You're welcome to request specific pairings, characters, or scenes from those three fandoms. I am also willing to do icons from the following comics: Absolute Wonder Woman, Thompson's Birds of Prey, Wilson's Poison Ivy, Galaxy The Prettiest Star, Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow, Far Sector, Abbott, Ahmed's Exiles." Should maybe have specified a number, but I figured I'd wait and see the bid amount to decide.

+ The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction.
On the surface, this feels like it should be a good thing: More fic readers means more people in fandom, right? Instead, I read post after post talking about how distant writers felt from these newer readers—how impersonal and lonely the act of fannish creation has become. Anecdotes where readers gush about a fic on Discord, but make zero attempts to connect with the author. Screenshots of fic titles or passages with no URLs—and captions like, “I wish I could tell the person who wrote this how incredible it is.”

+ To Fandom, With Love. (previously at Bitch Magazine, published 2020, now re-uploaded)
I also made friends through fanfic—actual, honest-to-goodness close friends. Comments on each others’ fics turned into email correspondences that began with exchanging headcanons about our favorite characters, and expanded into mutual care and support—often around issues we’d first broached anonymously in our respective works.

+ Neil Young trashes Amazon, gives his complete musical catalog to Greenland for free.
“Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, a billionaire backer of the president,” he wrote. “The president’s international policies and his support of ICE make it impossible for me to ignore his actions. If you feel as I do, I strongly recommend that you do not use Amazon. There are many ways to avoid Amazon and support individual Americans and American companies that supply the same products. I have done that with my music and people who are looking can find it in a lot of other places."

+ There is no such thing as other people’s children.

+ Talking Greatness to Death. On Ryan Coogler's sins and the kinds of performances that attract vampires.

+ Does anybody want me to do a lil tarot draw for them? I can do A World Without Shrimp (feeling as though something is missing from your life, this spread can help you identify what you're craving), or Five By Five (general idea of how things are going).

+ Dropkick Murphy's performing Citizen I.C.E. live in Paris. Enjoy!