Snowflake Challenge: Introduce Yourself

[author_by_night]

 From here. This is for a fandom challenge, so non fandom people, feel free to breeze past as it's pretty fandom heavy.


Hi! I'm author_by_night   aka AuthorByNight and a bunch of other variations.

I'm fandom middle aged; I basically spend half my fandom time lamenting that I'm the last generation who remembers going online until the streetlights went out. Or rather, until someone needed to use the phone. I spend the rest of my time trying to impress the new generation of fandom by telling everyone to "take it sleazy". For some reason, that hasn't worked. Beginning to think I need a new method. What music do young people listen to? Anyone know?  I want to be the cool mom, damn it! 

All joking aside, I'm not <i>so</i> old fashioned. I've gotten into watching fannish YouTube videos and listening to fannish podcasts, and I also love getting fannish on LiveWidth when the opportunity presents itself. I don't write fanfic anymore, but I've had the occasional impulse to do so. I have a WIP I really should finish. I stopped because a lot of really bad things happened in the world that were adjacent to themes in the fic, but part of me also thinks the fic needs to be written <i>because</i> of how dark the world has been. 

I'm your typical frustrated millennial who really hates being called one by other people, but still calls herself one. I'm a Hufflepuff version of Luna Lovegood with a sizable helping of Hermione Granger, and a little bit of Jess Day from <i>New Girl.</i> Writing is my passion. Owned by a cat who has tragically never been fed. Or so she'd have you believe.

As for anything else, all I can say is that I work for a top secret agency. If I told you anything more than that, Will Smith would have to wipe your memory. Forever. Also, that weird teacher in middle school may have been an alien. You didn't hear it from me.

Looking forward to meeting everyone, and to the subsequent challenges! :)

Comments

[lunabee34]

That would explain a lot about several of my middle school teachers.

[rhoda_rants]

Fandom Middle Aged could apply to SO many of my mutuals here! These kids don't know the frustration of dial-up. They just don't KNOW. *high fives*

[author_by_night]

I know! *High fives right back*

Also, remember when there were 400 websites to choose from, but they always took SO long to load on dial up?

[rhoda_rants]

They took FOREVER! I can't even remember the last time I saw a broken JPG. I used to wait for them to load line by line.

---

[author_by_night]

I forgot about that! Yes. Broken jpg. Broken jpg. Broken jpg.

[seleneheart]

Hey! I taught middle school! *checks to see if I'm an alien* Would I know if I was?

[author_by_night]

Hm...

[delphi]

I'd love to try out some fannish podcasts, myself. Any you'd recommend?

[spikedluv]

I second this. I've recently started listening to my local NPR station podcasts while I walk, but I'm looking to branch out.

[author_by_night]

Okay!

First, I literally just discovered Nerdy Bitches, which is a multifannish podcast covering a lot of things. There's also a YouTube channel, The Take, which also covers a lot of genres and goes into depth.

Specific fandom podcasts:

Harry Potter

The Real Weird Sisters - They were recapping the books, and now they are doing character analysis.

The Restricted Sections - They just started PoA! They're more "adult", whereas The Real Weird Sisters tries to be more family friendly.

(Don't listen to Dear Mr. Potter. The host of it did some very horrible things to his ex-wife. At least if it's still Alstair Stephens.)


Buffy

Buffering the Vampire Slayer: They rewatch Buffy, spoiler free. There's also Angel on Top, which too is spoiler free, although they recently combined channels. (They're basically the same people anyway. It's like a very mini podcast channel.)

Still Dead: An Angel podcast, which has ended but was fun to listen to. Also spoiler free.

Still Pretty: Buffy podcast by one of the same hosts, this one all with spoilers all the time.

History Podcasts

Stuff You Missed in History Class

You're Dead to Me

[spikedluv]

Thank you so much for these!

[spikedluv]

until someone needed to use the phone.

OMG, I can so relate! And people knew you were online when they tried to call ten times and they kept getting a busy tone, lol! Oops!

[author_by_night]

I had a friend whose internet always went out when someone called. That was really annoying, honestly. Imagine if you were in the middle of an email?

[badfalcon]

I remember getting the internet in my late teens, and soon getting a Saturday job for the sole purpose of getting a second telephone line, just for my bedroom, so that I didn't have to keep getting off the internet (usually in the middle of reading a fanfic on Yahoo Groups emails) so my mum could have long gossippy chats. I still sometimes miss that wonder 'Welcome to AOL, you have email' greeting!

[author_by_night]

You know what, I think we made a similar arrangement!

I remember Yahoo Groups. I think their role in fandom is often overlooked. I never got into them, with the exception of a few RPGs, but a lot of groups were very active.

[tribble_of_tarth]

"Fandom middle aged," I love it! Oh, dial-up. I do not miss the days of having to walk away from the computer while it loaded an image heavy page.

[author_by_night]

Yes. Nightmares! Now I get annoyed if a page takes longer than forty seconds, lol.

[cornerofmadness]

Oh that old internet with the dial up modem sounds

[littlelostcat]

Oh man, you are bringing up long hidden memories of hiding in the corner of my room with the lights on reading fic and hoping no one needed the line, LOL.

What is LiveWidth? I'm slowly getting into fannish podcasts -- I'm a huge podcast junkie, to the point where I don't have enough time in my life to listen to them all, LOL.

[author_by_night]

Sorry, not sure why I didn't comment before!

LiveWidth is just my way of saying "Livejournal and DreamWidth."

[vriddy]

Haha, my parents found a deal to get a second landline installed for very cheap back in the day, which really changed my internet experience for the better :) How times have changed!!

Sorry, I don't remember how I ended up here, I've been following names who left interesting comments on entries I found interesting and, hm, here I am now. I re-joined DW last year and found the snowflake challenge quite enjoyable, and plan on participating again! Such a fun and chill event. Hope you don't mind me following as I enjoyed the public posts of yours I read. I particularly liked the one on parasocial relationships, as it's a topic that's been on my mind after an uncomfortable exchange on a fic recently.

[author_by_night]

We had a second landline, but it was connected to the fax machine, so I'd still get kicked off from time to time. But yes, times have changed!

And thank you! I'll follow back. I have way more on private, although not as much fandom as I used to. Actually just wrote a post about how people can have negative responses when people contribute to online conversations. https://author-by-night.dreamwidth.org/1354286.html

I'm sorry you had an uncomfortable exchange!