Snowflake day 15, Taskmaster, and recs/links
I have one more challenge to complete:
Challenge 15: In your own space, create your own challenge.
I was seriously considering skipping this one (I know you're allowed! but I tend to be a completist), because I seriously do not need more challenges in my life, thanks. And I already have a full set of goals for myself (which, because I take an MBO/OKR/KPI/other horrible corporatese acronym approach to them, I find less stressful because there's not one specific thing I *have* to do, but rather make adequate progress on a number of different things).
But then this idea occurred to me and I do kind of like it:
Give serendipity a chance to guide you to the next fun fannish thing. Pick up a book from a library aisle you'd normally not go into. Pick up a book from a Little Free Library. Click on a "Random Work" in an AO3 collection. Go on a Wikipedia or YouTube random walk until you hit a reference to a work of fiction, then consume that.
(This challenge is brought to you by the fact that my last two "discoveries" in fannish space -- Taskmaster and Cracking the Cryptic -- just happened to come my way through no effort on my own, and it's a really lovely feeling to go into something with zero expectations like that. And also by the time I found a copy of War for the Oaks forgotten on a bus at a terminal, and it ended up becoming one of my favorite urban fantasy books. So, put your trust in serendipity!)
P.S. Hello, new Snowflake friends!
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What I've been doing with my leisure time is watching Taskmaster, having been rabbit-holed into it by YouTube. As I mentioned in the scavenger hunt post, I seem to have hit some kind of level of stress -- nothing terrible, but work, thinking about other people's school/work stresses, assorted family logistics -- where I can't handle a fictional narrative anymore (just more things to keep track of, I guess), or the level of concentration required for passively following Sudoku solutions, so I'm watching Taskmaster instead. I started with task clips and highlight reels and then progressed to full series, and have now mainlined two:
Series 6 -- spoilers
Liza Tarbuck ended up being my favorite pretty much from the start -- she just seemed to be having so much fun, and giving so few fucks, regardless of if she were being successful at a task or completely bombing it (I mean, she did end up in the lead for most of the series, which probably doesn't hurt one's enjoyment, but still). Like, the "remove a fiver from underneath a full pint" and "how long is a piece of string" tasks -- she did terrible at those, but seemed to not mind. Other Liza highlights included for me the lizard spinning triumph, stomping the little man, and bringing in a donkey as her sturdiest thing. And even th things she did which weren't necessarily a great match for my sense of humour -- the plate of manure or the thing with the cake and poor Alex -- were definitely memorable, and she seemed completely secure in her choices in a way that's honestly kind of "life goals", lol. And I grew to really enjoy her laugh! Oh, and also I was really impressed by the range of things she could be awesome at -- art, building a parachute and various other contraptions, and the tiny electronics rig for the cholcolate egg -- that's a lot of diverse skills!
Other than Liza, Alice was an early favorite of mine -- I was very impressed by the perfect execution of the wheelbarrow stunt, plus she looks all pixie and cute, like a modern Willow Rosenberg. Unfortunately, she seemed progressively bummed out by her low standing, or the show overall, and just didn't seem to be having fun, so she wasn't that much fun for me to watch, either, as the show wore on. I did feel like some of her moves that I thought were really clever were ignored in the scoring; like I think the "how long is a piece of string" approach -- it genuinely didn't say WHICH piece of string -- was really brilliant, and deserved at least second place to Tim's lobster. But at least her managing to surprise Alex with his ID number in the chocolate egg was properly recognized, hooray! Conversely, Russel grew on me over the course of the show, since I started out kind of disliking him after seeing him just in clips. He still didn't end up as my favorite or anything, but I don't mind his less "on" persona -- he spent more time poking fun at himself than I'd expected, where in the competition clips he just came across as smug. And also, a ridiculously minor but nevertheless salient point, I think -- I find him a lot less offputting when he's wearing glasses, which he did a lot for the in-studio appearnaces, while he tended to be in contacts for the tasks (understandably). There's just something about his face that rubs me the wrong way, but the glasses mitigate it significantly XD
There were individual performances in tasks and prizes that stood out to me, as mentioned above (notably, the physical skill ones are absent, because who cares), but one task where I thought almost everyone had a really cool take and it was neat to see the sheer range was the "do something manly with a wheelbarrow" one. Liza's was absolutely brilliant and deserved the elevation above the others, and I thought Alice's was a too dry and Tim's not very interesting compared to the others' takes, but Asim's talking-about-feelings robot was my favorite thing about his performance in the series, and Russel's was quite memorable. I was glad the Taskmaster gave everyone at least 4 points for that one.
I then progressed to watching (because why not go backwards):
Series 5 -- spoilers
My favorite contestant for this series was Mark, whom I found adorable and also someone I'd genuinely want to be friends with -- he's very much my kind of awkward nerd. I really enjoyed Mark's nebbish-ness, the extra tasks and his betrayed shock when he learned they were just for him, the particular ways in which he failed (usually when going the extra mile) and he even won in a particularly nebbishy way -- like when he tied with Bob for first place in the can-stacking but Bob had named 3 countries to Mark's 92 (!!), or when he came in second in the balloon filling be default despite his balloon phobia.
Nish was an interesting case where I didn't *like* him, necessarily, but he was just so hilarious to watch, between the distinctive laugh, the distinctive swearing, the moments of rage, and the sort of... embracing of failure, but like in a different way than Mark's hangdog approach? I found it hard to tell how much of it was genuine and how much was just a persona, but I found it very entertaining in a way where I didn't feel sorry for him/didn't feel bad laughing at his failures (because he was usually the first to do so). And he did have some moments of genuine triumph, like propelling the boat, and the phenomenal coconut businessman impersonation. And then back on the other side, I was literally WEEPING with laughter when his cupcake flame went out because he yelled "you bubbly fuck!" -- that was, like, Nish in a nutshell. Amazing XD So, yeah, even though he was not my favorite as a person, I always lit up in anticipation of something hilarious when it was Nish's turn to do anything.
Aisling was also pretty fun. She's not the kind of person I'd want to hang out with, I think -- she is A Lot -- but she was fun to watch, and I did have to admire her just GOING for stuff, whether it worked out for her (rolling around in paint) or (more often) not. I also enjoyed looking at her selection of dangly earrings. I also liked Sally and her determination to turn every task the least bit suited to it into a raunchy good time. And she was clearly really enjoying the whole experience, and her little curtsies at particularly amazing accomplishments were a thing of beauty. And leaving Bob for last doesn't at all mean I didn't enjoy him -- I very much did! Actually, I found him both funny and very sweet, both in a down-to-earth sort of way. Like, how cute was it that several of the prizes he brought in were things he'd made or won for his kids? And, OK, this is random, but while Greg Davies makes *everyone* look like a Hobbit when standing next to them, I couldn't shake a Hobbitish sort of feeling about Bob -- just, that down-to-earth easy-going demeanor and his perennial smile and his kind eyes.
So, yeah, this was a series in which I either liked or at least enjoyed watching all of the contestants most of the time (so, not surprised listed it as one of her favorites). And I also thought all five of them had really nice chemistry together. There were all of these sweet moments in the studio, like Sally giving Mark a hug when it turns out he's getting no points for the solo "five months of cheeky messages" task, and Aisling and Sally's female solidarity support group, and especially Nish and Mark being bros (especially in the final, when watching the playback of their -- absolutely amazing -- song). The whole group felt more touchy-feely, holding hands and high-fiving each other in a way I didn't remember of the series 6 folks doing -- they really felt less like a group of solo competitors and more like a cohort, which was really cool.
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Speaking of Taskmaster, Festivids had FOUR Taskmaster vids, of which I enjoyed the three G-rated ones (and discovered the hard way that I can't do RPF in a visual medium at the M rating, heh). But my favorite, hands down -- as in, I've watched it at least half a dozen times by now -- is this vid to "All Star", which is perfect from AO3 summary and opening scene to every last moment.
Another highlight of the Festivids collection for me was the Babylon 5 vid Runs in the Family (Teen, Lyta and telepaths, mind the tags)
While I'm reccing things, and/or recording them to be able to find them later, a few more things picked up via Snowflake:
- Westeros ladies household products (fanart)
- Disney princesses paper art
- The Adventures of Chewie the Wook (Star Wars/Winnie-the-Pooh fanart mashup)
- fanifesto, a comm that deserves more action
And a very different sort of rec, courtesy of : Nerdle -- like Wordle, but with equations rather than words. I did manage to get the first one I tried, even with one guess to spare, but I needed scratch paper and it took me way longer to work out than a word-based guessing game. So I don't see this one becoming part of my daily routine, but it was neat to give it a shot, and I do think I'll come back to play it when I'm looking for a particular kind of brain-itch scratching. And I'm tickled to know it exists!
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I took this quiz (what type of narrator are you) and got:
the peripheral narrator
okay, let's be real: you're rarely at the center of the action in this story. you're usually there when it goes down, but off to the side observing and reporting what you see - often mixed in with information you picked up later. you're more likely to contemplate the situation than do anything about it, a move that isn't always popular with others, but it does keep you alive to see the end of the book. you provide a number of vital services to the story: being a level-headed narrative foil, providing a great number of witty remarks in your internal monologue, and being the voice of reason that the audience can trust.
I mean, fair, and I appreciate that last part, actually.
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tinnny had a really fun alternative take on the fannish scavenger hunt from Snowflake day 14 -- she answered the questions with icons she already had, or made new ones for any that were missing. I wanted to try a go at it, too, though instead of making new icons, I just went with the closest approximation I already had uploaded.
1. a fannish item
- OK, this is definitely cheating, because the icon predates the object by a lot, but by this point I own a pair of fabulous fannish socks with "Alas, earwax" written on them.
2. something round
3. something that is your favorite color
-- the greenest of my many Tyrell icons
4. the last game you played (video, phone, table top, etc.)
-- OK this is definitely not a game I played most or at all recently, but it is associated with a game. This was a mascot my team adopted in a Family Feud tournament. I do not remember where the letters or the critter came from, but I do remember it being a good time XD
5. a book you are currently reading
6. album art of the first song that comes up on shuffle
still no shuffle, but I think I can use this one for "song" and "movie" (7. the last movie you watched) with hardly any cheating:
8. TV show you're currently watching
Most recently watched TV show for which I have an icon =
9. the homescreen, lockscreen, or desktop wallpaper from your devic
As mentioned in the first version of this challenge answer, this is not currently my wallpaper but was for a long time, before I even had LJ to have icons in:
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Finally, I'm going to take a leaf out of seal_girl's book:
With new folks on my flist, an “Ask-Me-A-Question” post seems like a good idea.
So: is there something you’d like to know about me? My fannish interests, or about me in Real Life? Leave a question in the comments and I’ll post the answer in a follow-on post.
Of course, old friends are also very welcome to ask questions!
(I still have not cleaned up my RL intro post for DW, but it's still a decent reference, if, uh, 10 years behind the times at this point, because the imports fail to update it. But my fannish intro post from two Snowflakes ago is still spot on.)