What I've been up to, Fandom Edition (plus some fannish history for my own personal benefit)
I've noticed a trend in my fannish behavior this year. I seem to have a thing with Januaries. I've gotten into three of my last four new fandoms in January. I feel like it would have been all four of my last four fandoms, but Live Free or Die Hard came out during the summer, so that was last July. There must be something about me and Januaries, though, since I really seem to go crazy with the new fandoms then. Maybe it's the whole "start of a new year" thing. I don't know. I think I'll be self-indulgent for a few minutes and talk a little about my fannish history, or at least how I got into the last couple of fandoms I've been in.
I started my involvement in the Harry Potter fandom in January 2002. I read the first book at the beginning of that school year's Thanksgiving break (so, 2001) because Mom wanted to see the movie, and I always like to read the book first. I read it on Tuesday night, we went to see the movie on Wednesday, and by Friday, I'd finished the rest of the books that were out at the time (up to GoF). Now, mind you, this time included cooking and having Thanksgiving dinner, so it's safe to say that all I did that Thanksgiving break was read. I resisted that fandom for a while. I was all "I am not going to read HP fic, no sir", but I ended up caving only a few days after coming back to school from Winter Break. When I was involved in the BtVS/Angel fandom, I participated mainly through mailing lists. I was pretty much done with that fandom by then (at least fic-wise, since I still talked about these shows until they ended), but I was still a member of several mailing lists. One of the members of one of these lists had a funny quote in their sig from someone's blog (a HP quote, actually, but that has no real bearing on the events that followed), that caused me to check out said blog. At that time, cassieclaire's Very Secret Diaries was a big thing. This was right around the time of the Frodo entry (I think. Checking them out, that was apparently posted on January 4th, but I know I wasn't back at school yet at that point. Maybe it was Gandalf or something. Who knows?). Since I tended to poke around at all the LJ links when I found a journal I liked (this was before I had my own LJ. Now, I just tend to friend people.), I checked out her "my website" link at the top. Which led me to Fiction Alley. I was all "yikes, huge fic archive! Ooh, humor-fic, that looks harmless! Well, maybe I'll give this a shot." Somehow (I can't remember the exact process at this point, I ended up reading one of these fics (I forget which one exactly, but Remus/Sirius for the win!). And I was hooked. This was around the second week of January.
Supernatural was another school-related situation. I was taking an intercession class at the U so that I could finish up my degree, and I had a paper due at the end of the weekend (last assignment). Of course, I decided to procrastinate with fic (fandom is the best time-waster ever). I had been loving SPN in the fall, even going so far as to save the current week's episode until the next Monday sometimes so that there was less time in between new episodes. At this point, I'd been totally offline since September, due to my busy work schedule, so I hadn't had a chance to even see that there was a SPN fandom. I don't know that there was anyone really into SPN on my flist at the time, but there were a bunch of people linking to oxoniensis's Porn Battle, which has not only been awesome every single time, but it's a great time-waster. I stumbled across this fic by ethrosdemon, and of course I was all "Sam/Dean, what?!", since I totally didn't (and still don't, really) see it on the show at all. But I read it (and whatever other SPN entries there were), and came away from that all "Sam/Dean, yay!". And then I trolled the Yuletide archive for more, and friended a bunch of people, and the rest is history.
And as you can see by my icon, this year, it's bandom. This is also kind of due to yuletide. Or, wait, actually it's because of last year's Wincon (I know, I definitely went to a Supernatural con and got pimped into bandom. WTF, right?). One of my awesome roommates at Wincon, dsudis, brought "Life On The Murder Scene" with her, and I was all "oh, a bunch of people on my flist are constantly talking about this; maybe I should watch it so I can at least understand their squee". I'm not one of those people who defriends just because we are in different fandoms. Unless I had only friended you for fic in a previous fandom, but I tend to not friend just for fic anymore, since I can get that from fandom newsletters (newsletters, ftw!). I mean, it took me until earlier this year to even make a significant friends cut, so you can see how I am.
So, I watched LOTMS, and could totally understand the squee, since I came away from it kind of adoring MCR (my response was pretty much "oh, Gerard"), even though I wasn't really a fan of their music. Yeah, that should have been my first clue, right? By the end of the weekend, I'd decided that I had nothing against bandom, and even though I could see why people liked these dudes, I was probably not going to get into it. I got back from CA, and got a job, which allowed me zero time on the Internet, since I was exhausted every day after work, or I was at the chiropractor for my shoulder pain, or at a doctor's office for an appointment before my insurance expired. I was driving myself pretty much every day, and since Dad got his new car (VW Beetle), I have had to remember to bring a CD to listen to, rather than having the luxury of leaving my CDs in the changer in the trunk. So, needless to say, I was forced to listen to our crappy local radio on several occasions. And since our radio stations are really weird about when they start overplaying singles (witness them playing the crap out of "I Write Sins" in late 2006, way after it came out), I heard "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" a whole bunch of times. And I was all "hey, this song is pretty awesome". I'd always liked "Sugar, We're Going Down", and liked "Arms Race" when that came out but had never heard anything else by Fall Out Boy, so had no real opinion of them, other than the fact that some of their titles are pretty pretentious. And at some point I was in the Circuit City checking out the weekly ad (as you do), when I saw Infinity on High Deluxe Edition on sale for $10. I was all "sweet, a bonus disc", so I bought it. And before I knew it, I somehow ended up with a bunch more CDs. This was probably my downfall, since I always said I couldn't really get into a fandom without liking the source material (which is why I don't read SGA fic--I have no desire to watch the show), in this case music.
Anyway, in late December, I finally worked out my schedule so that I could manage a little Internet time. Since I am a huge fan of Yuletide, and hadn't really read any fic for months, I read a bunch of fics there, including a re-read of one of my absolute favorites, The Ballad of Mark and Roger by marksykins (ugh, this fic is so good, seriously, if you like RENT at all (musical or movie), read this right now. It is definitely part of my personal canon.). Since it's one of my faves, I decided to see if I could find a good downloadable version to save to my computer, in case I really needed to read it when I was without Internet access. I visited Marks' LJ, and the post right at the top was recs. Including this fic (this is also ridiculously awesome, seriously). I waffled for a while on reading it (I bookmarked it and sat on that until like January 2nd), since on the one hand awesome sounding FOB AU! But on the other hand, my issues with RPS, let me show you them.
Actually, let me show you them (why, yes, that was the crappiest segue ever). I have the strangest issues with RPF, seriously. I don't think it's wrong at all (unless you're one of those weirdos who gives RPS fic or art to the persons involved [just say no!]), but I have a lot of trouble reading it sometimes. I think it has something to do with both the level of fame of the people involved (like hackthis's George Clooney-related stuff doesn't bother me at all), and maybe the likelihood that I might work with the people involved someday (so musicians don't really bother me, but actors do, since I ultimately want a career in film). Also, it might have something to do with how long I've known of them. Like the whole LotRips thing didn't work for me, since I couldn't stop thinking of Elijah Wood as that tiny little kid from Radio Flyer. So, SPN RPS, I just can't do. Even though some of the AUs sound amazing. I just have this bizarre mental block about it. But bandom didn't really bother me that much. It probably helped that I read/watched almost no interviews at first. Helped me divorce the real people with their fictional counterparts. Although, the fact that I had seen a ridiculous amount of pictures of and knew many personal details about the members of Panic before I'd ever even heard their music (that's what happens when you have fangirls on your flist, yo. I know more about SGA and Torchwood than anyone who doesn't watch them should, really), didn't really stop me from reading fic about them. I don't pretend to understand my issues.
But, it's safe to say that I am in bandom for the near future. But seriously, it's not like I'm giving up other fandoms for bandom or anything. I'm still watching SPN (er, sort of, in the way that I was so far behind that I finally gave up and deleted the whole season from my DVR, and am going to watch it all as soon as it comes out on DVD), and I would still be reading SPN fic if I were at all caught up on this season (please, for the love of all that is holy, don't spoil me!). I will still be talking about SPN (especially once I manage to watch this season), but I will also be talking about bandom, just so you know. I mean, this summer I am spending far too much money to go see shows (at least three more that I know of right now), so I will totally be talking about them (and the ones I've gone to already this month at some point).
Also, let me just say that this is honestly, the nicest fandom I've ever been in. ♥, you guys. Granted, there's still wank (because what's a fandom without wank, amirite?), and there's still disagreements, but everyone is so freaking happy to be here. Plus, it really is the craziest, most awesome canon ever. Like really. So much stuff that would be fanon in other fandoms is canon in bandom. It's kind of amazing.
Oh, man, I just spent my entire time at work today (working at Mom's store while my parents are out of town [thank you god!]), writing this entry. I was supposed to be bookmarking and tagging things to my del.icio.us, which OMG is ridiculously useful, why didn't anyone tell me this before. It's like the LJ memories, but better, since you can bookmark anything, and you can write little descriptions of stuff. And the tags! Oh the tags are amazing. At any rate, I'd better end this before it gets too out of control. Plus, I need to spellcheck and stuff before I have to close the store.
I started my involvement in the Harry Potter fandom in January 2002. I read the first book at the beginning of that school year's Thanksgiving break (so, 2001) because Mom wanted to see the movie, and I always like to read the book first. I read it on Tuesday night, we went to see the movie on Wednesday, and by Friday, I'd finished the rest of the books that were out at the time (up to GoF). Now, mind you, this time included cooking and having Thanksgiving dinner, so it's safe to say that all I did that Thanksgiving break was read. I resisted that fandom for a while. I was all "I am not going to read HP fic, no sir", but I ended up caving only a few days after coming back to school from Winter Break. When I was involved in the BtVS/Angel fandom, I participated mainly through mailing lists. I was pretty much done with that fandom by then (at least fic-wise, since I still talked about these shows until they ended), but I was still a member of several mailing lists. One of the members of one of these lists had a funny quote in their sig from someone's blog (a HP quote, actually, but that has no real bearing on the events that followed), that caused me to check out said blog. At that time, cassieclaire's Very Secret Diaries was a big thing. This was right around the time of the Frodo entry (I think. Checking them out, that was apparently posted on January 4th, but I know I wasn't back at school yet at that point. Maybe it was Gandalf or something. Who knows?). Since I tended to poke around at all the LJ links when I found a journal I liked (this was before I had my own LJ. Now, I just tend to friend people.), I checked out her "my website" link at the top. Which led me to Fiction Alley. I was all "yikes, huge fic archive! Ooh, humor-fic, that looks harmless! Well, maybe I'll give this a shot." Somehow (I can't remember the exact process at this point, I ended up reading one of these fics (I forget which one exactly, but Remus/Sirius for the win!). And I was hooked. This was around the second week of January.
Supernatural was another school-related situation. I was taking an intercession class at the U so that I could finish up my degree, and I had a paper due at the end of the weekend (last assignment). Of course, I decided to procrastinate with fic (fandom is the best time-waster ever). I had been loving SPN in the fall, even going so far as to save the current week's episode until the next Monday sometimes so that there was less time in between new episodes. At this point, I'd been totally offline since September, due to my busy work schedule, so I hadn't had a chance to even see that there was a SPN fandom. I don't know that there was anyone really into SPN on my flist at the time, but there were a bunch of people linking to oxoniensis's Porn Battle, which has not only been awesome every single time, but it's a great time-waster. I stumbled across this fic by ethrosdemon, and of course I was all "Sam/Dean, what?!", since I totally didn't (and still don't, really) see it on the show at all. But I read it (and whatever other SPN entries there were), and came away from that all "Sam/Dean, yay!". And then I trolled the Yuletide archive for more, and friended a bunch of people, and the rest is history.
And as you can see by my icon, this year, it's bandom. This is also kind of due to yuletide. Or, wait, actually it's because of last year's Wincon (I know, I definitely went to a Supernatural con and got pimped into bandom. WTF, right?). One of my awesome roommates at Wincon, dsudis, brought "Life On The Murder Scene" with her, and I was all "oh, a bunch of people on my flist are constantly talking about this; maybe I should watch it so I can at least understand their squee". I'm not one of those people who defriends just because we are in different fandoms. Unless I had only friended you for fic in a previous fandom, but I tend to not friend just for fic anymore, since I can get that from fandom newsletters (newsletters, ftw!). I mean, it took me until earlier this year to even make a significant friends cut, so you can see how I am.
So, I watched LOTMS, and could totally understand the squee, since I came away from it kind of adoring MCR (my response was pretty much "oh, Gerard"), even though I wasn't really a fan of their music. Yeah, that should have been my first clue, right? By the end of the weekend, I'd decided that I had nothing against bandom, and even though I could see why people liked these dudes, I was probably not going to get into it. I got back from CA, and got a job, which allowed me zero time on the Internet, since I was exhausted every day after work, or I was at the chiropractor for my shoulder pain, or at a doctor's office for an appointment before my insurance expired. I was driving myself pretty much every day, and since Dad got his new car (VW Beetle), I have had to remember to bring a CD to listen to, rather than having the luxury of leaving my CDs in the changer in the trunk. So, needless to say, I was forced to listen to our crappy local radio on several occasions. And since our radio stations are really weird about when they start overplaying singles (witness them playing the crap out of "I Write Sins" in late 2006, way after it came out), I heard "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" a whole bunch of times. And I was all "hey, this song is pretty awesome". I'd always liked "Sugar, We're Going Down", and liked "Arms Race" when that came out but had never heard anything else by Fall Out Boy, so had no real opinion of them, other than the fact that some of their titles are pretty pretentious. And at some point I was in the Circuit City checking out the weekly ad (as you do), when I saw Infinity on High Deluxe Edition on sale for $10. I was all "sweet, a bonus disc", so I bought it. And before I knew it, I somehow ended up with a bunch more CDs. This was probably my downfall, since I always said I couldn't really get into a fandom without liking the source material (which is why I don't read SGA fic--I have no desire to watch the show), in this case music.
Anyway, in late December, I finally worked out my schedule so that I could manage a little Internet time. Since I am a huge fan of Yuletide, and hadn't really read any fic for months, I read a bunch of fics there, including a re-read of one of my absolute favorites, The Ballad of Mark and Roger by marksykins (ugh, this fic is so good, seriously, if you like RENT at all (musical or movie), read this right now. It is definitely part of my personal canon.). Since it's one of my faves, I decided to see if I could find a good downloadable version to save to my computer, in case I really needed to read it when I was without Internet access. I visited Marks' LJ, and the post right at the top was recs. Including this fic (this is also ridiculously awesome, seriously). I waffled for a while on reading it (I bookmarked it and sat on that until like January 2nd), since on the one hand awesome sounding FOB AU! But on the other hand, my issues with RPS, let me show you them.
Actually, let me show you them (why, yes, that was the crappiest segue ever). I have the strangest issues with RPF, seriously. I don't think it's wrong at all (unless you're one of those weirdos who gives RPS fic or art to the persons involved [just say no!]), but I have a lot of trouble reading it sometimes. I think it has something to do with both the level of fame of the people involved (like hackthis's George Clooney-related stuff doesn't bother me at all), and maybe the likelihood that I might work with the people involved someday (so musicians don't really bother me, but actors do, since I ultimately want a career in film). Also, it might have something to do with how long I've known of them. Like the whole LotRips thing didn't work for me, since I couldn't stop thinking of Elijah Wood as that tiny little kid from Radio Flyer. So, SPN RPS, I just can't do. Even though some of the AUs sound amazing. I just have this bizarre mental block about it. But bandom didn't really bother me that much. It probably helped that I read/watched almost no interviews at first. Helped me divorce the real people with their fictional counterparts. Although, the fact that I had seen a ridiculous amount of pictures of and knew many personal details about the members of Panic before I'd ever even heard their music (that's what happens when you have fangirls on your flist, yo. I know more about SGA and Torchwood than anyone who doesn't watch them should, really), didn't really stop me from reading fic about them. I don't pretend to understand my issues.
But, it's safe to say that I am in bandom for the near future. But seriously, it's not like I'm giving up other fandoms for bandom or anything. I'm still watching SPN (er, sort of, in the way that I was so far behind that I finally gave up and deleted the whole season from my DVR, and am going to watch it all as soon as it comes out on DVD), and I would still be reading SPN fic if I were at all caught up on this season (please, for the love of all that is holy, don't spoil me!). I will still be talking about SPN (especially once I manage to watch this season), but I will also be talking about bandom, just so you know. I mean, this summer I am spending far too much money to go see shows (at least three more that I know of right now), so I will totally be talking about them (and the ones I've gone to already this month at some point).
Also, let me just say that this is honestly, the nicest fandom I've ever been in. ♥, you guys. Granted, there's still wank (because what's a fandom without wank, amirite?), and there's still disagreements, but everyone is so freaking happy to be here. Plus, it really is the craziest, most awesome canon ever. Like really. So much stuff that would be fanon in other fandoms is canon in bandom. It's kind of amazing.
Oh, man, I just spent my entire time at work today (working at Mom's store while my parents are out of town [thank you god!]), writing this entry. I was supposed to be bookmarking and tagging things to my del.icio.us, which OMG is ridiculously useful, why didn't anyone tell me this before. It's like the LJ memories, but better, since you can bookmark anything, and you can write little descriptions of stuff. And the tags! Oh the tags are amazing. At any rate, I'd better end this before it gets too out of control. Plus, I need to spellcheck and stuff before I have to close the store.