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Challenge #14

In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

What were your top 5 fandoms for 2022 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
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What were your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) you experienced fandom in terms of time spent?
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What are the top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
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What were your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions? (i.e. in terms of likes, kudos, reblogs, comments, etc.)
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Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!
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I don't think there's anyone still reading this, but on the off-chance, I'm entirely over at DW these days and never log in here anymore.

I have a long and old history here - so many people, so many friends who've come and gone - but I guess nothing lasts forever on the intarwebs, and it's been 21 years. (Golly! 21 years!)

Anyway, going to try to migrate this LJ over. It's gotten sparse the last dozen years, but hey, there's some rich history and memories back in the early 00s.

Last week, my mother - an Australian citizen for over 50 years and an Australian resident for over 60 years - tried to change her address with an official government organisation.

They told her that neither her electoral enrolment, nor her Australian passport were sufficient evidence that she was an Australian citizen, and she needed her citizenship papers.

AND THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS.

After fifty years, do you think she still has her citizenship papers? And if they still have the records somewhere, do you think that she can get them cheaply and easily? Do you think the process would be simple to go through for someone who, perhaps, doesn't speak good English - ftr, my mother speaks excellent English although she's going a little deaf. My mother may be up to jumping through whatever hoops are put forward - how many others aren't?

And it raises questions, doesn't it?

Am I safe anymore? Is my citizenship truly unassailable if I'm not white? I was born to non-white Australians - one born here, one immigrated and naturalised here - will I get the benefit of the doubt, or will I spend the rest of my life proving my Australian bona fides? The far end of that question is: will I spend part of my life in a camp like George Takei and other Americans like him did - my goods and property and rights forfeit, my citizenship and loyalty in doubt - simply for being born non-white in a time of conflict?

I said a couple of weeks ago that Australians of Chinese descent were far too successful - individually and collectively - for White Australians to let us pass by without them taking a stab at us. I sincerely didn't think it would be this prophetic (or this personal) this soon.

Yesterday, I went to one of the many rallies for a Tamil family who've been denied refuge (or politically thrown under the bus, take your pick) and are being deported quite viciously back to Sri Lanka.

Priya and Nades lived for four years in a little Queensland community, giving birth to two daughters, raising them in the community, and being involved at every level that they could - working, volunteering, making friends with the people around them.

Eighteen months ago, our version of Border Patrol came for them. They were taken away at dawn to a 'center' where they were more or less left to rot - to be forgotten by the Australian people so they could safely be deported back to Sri Lanka, which is hostile to Tamils at best, and lethal to them at worst.

This is a story that we've seen played out in the US a great deal lately - but it's also happening here in Australia.

The rally yesterday was both to stand in solidarity with the Biloela family (Priya, Nades, Kopika, and Thaarunica) and to mobilise people to act before the final judgement on their removal happens this week.

If you're Australian, and you have time, spoons, and heart for this, there are three offices you can contact, by phone or email, all the way to Wednesday.

PM Scott Morrison - on Friday his parliamentary voicemail was full (2 6271 5111), so also considering calling his electorate office on 02 9523 0339. You can also contact the office of the PM by form - however you'll have to leave your name, email, and street address, which can be confronting.

Also:
Peter Dutton (02) 9523 0339
David Coleman on (02) 9771 3400

You will reach an office worker who'll take your phone call. Be polite, state that you're calling about the Biloela family (Priya, Nades, and their two Australian-born daughters) and how they should be returned into their community and refuge granted to them by special dispensation of the minister. They should only need your name and postcode.

To remind UK folks with the ability to vote to do so?

Please?

A friend on DW said that she felt bad about sharing good news; that in her midwestern culture it was considered 'boasting' and that it might be highlighting to others what they don't have.

I don't know what the term for that is, but I do feel it quite a lot. Not as much as she does, perhaps, but enough that I think twice about sharing good news or good things.

( count your blessings name them one by one... )

September 2016:

March 2017:

Okay, so granted quite a lot of that is summer growth and the verdancy granted by three weeks of near-constant rain in 25-35 degree temps, but still!

I guess the big question will be what it looks like in September 2017... Hopefully it's looking even more crazily growth-fuelled...

( about last night, in WA )

"It’s not about adding diversity for the sake of diversity, it’s about subtracting homogeneity for the sake of realism."
― Mary Robinette Kowal

--

Yonic: resembling of vulva/labia/vagina

Yonic, from from sanskrit word Yoni

--

In answer to a guy sarcastically saying 'So I can never talk to a woman again?' when someone reprimands them for sexist thinking: "If you automatically think that you are more qualified to speak about a topic than a woman, then yeah, you should probably keep your trap shut when women start speaking."

Mostly it's just trying to make sure that everything is cleared off my HD, including passwords and apps and suchlike, and saying goodbye to people.

I came in at 8am this morning, I plan to be gone after lunch. Must talk to the woman doing my exit interview to check if we can get it done before lunch.

(The woman doing my exit interview is my previous line manager, before they shuffled everything around earlier this year and then I got to get told of my redundancy over the phone through a manager who'd never met me in person. Clusterfuck, much?

And that's not even counting that to tell me that a redundancy might be on my horizon (they hadn't actually made me redundant at the time), they arranged an appointment for 10am Monday morning and told me HR, my line manager, and his line manager would be there, and that I could bring a support person. They arranged this appointment at 10am Friday morning, leaving me 72 hours - including the weekend - to stew.

They're fucking lucky that I don't have anxiety, or I'd have been a mess by Monday. As it was, I contemplated the worst case scenarios, then stressed a little here and there over the weekend, but didn't let it bother me.

So, in conclusion: clusterfuck.)

I'm not sorry to leave the company; it used to be a good little company to work for, before it got bought out by a big Australian tech conglomerate, and then that got bought out by a big US tech-and-business conglomerate, and...wouldn't you know it, this is the company that gave me my first redundancy when they bought out the little company that I worked for from age 18 to age 24! Colour me surprised.

Anyway, mostly, I am scrubbing things from my laptop, and working out how to not only clear but erase my browser history in the shortest time possible. Oh, and must delete my Dropbox connection.

moment of greatest tech hilarity in this morass: Being told by the system that my password is about to expire - YESTERDAY.

One day to go and they want me to change my password? AHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, no, I didn't bother, and I seem to be okay and in the system right now, so...

I will be sorry to leave the people - there are some really good people here. It's a good place to work. Ah well, my job being what it is, I'm sure I'll encounter them in the future here, there, and everywhere...

A couple of amusing videos at Junkee about Australia Day. The style of the 'piracy' is particularly funny to Australians because they've been trying to get Australians to stop pirating things the companies wouldn't legally sell us since Day Dot.

I admit, I really like the idea of changing Australia Day to May 8 (MAAAAATE), although it's a pity we can't make it fall somewhere in August so we have a public holiday between the June long weekend and the October long weekend. Come on - that's a four month stint without public holidays! It would be a welcome relief in that long stretch through the middle of the winter/early spring...

Day at work; ostensibly to print things, go through my mail, check my things, and work out how to delete my computer HD when i leave next week...

getyourwordsout is asking if people want to be put into 'encouragement groups' for our writing this year.

While my instinctive answer is 'yes', I'm well aware that I should be extremely wary of signing up to be randomly grouped with people that I'll be accountable to for an entire year, and with whom I may or may not have anything in common.

Technically, I have my real-world writing buddies, but that group's more social and less writing these days. The person who organised the write-ins went to Wales for a couple of years and is due back in May this year, and we've become more social, less writing over the last five years that we've all known each other.

( stuff )

I'm not sure what I want in a writing group, I guess. I'm bad at reading other people's fic, TBH, so I'm not good for feedback. I guess I want people to write with, and talk with about my fic, or my original ideas, and possibly to be accountable to...

IDEK.

Every year for the last dozen or so, the

halfamoon challenge has run from the 1st-14th February, encouraging people to focus on fictional female characters that they love.

There's everything from daily prompts to a friending meme to opportunities to meta...whatever you wish. Themes are offered but don't need to be rigidly adhered to - pretty much we encourage you in anything positive you wish to do or promote regarding any fictional female character, or just female characters generally.

There's a corresponding comm on LJ

halfamoon, and you can post to either or both.

I'll be assisting in running it with

tamsin - does anyone have ideas, or a willingness to help?

My Marvel diorama, a.k.a. "A Version of Civil War That Addresses The Question 'Does Great Power Really Come With Great Responsibility Or Just A Moral Free Pass?'"

( happens to involve Maria and Pepper )

Anyway, I set all this up because I went to look at the review of the Maria Hill doll and found no comments and the guy said "Maria won't be the centre of anyone's Avengers toy display" and I said, "Hold my drink".

--

Let's say there's a disease making the rounds. You can get a vaccination for it, but there are side effects - dizziness, nausea, exhaustion for a while before it kicks in and you're generally okay after, sometimes there's mild scarring at the injection site.

The disease is...well, it's been known to be deadly, or very close. At the least, it's debilitating, the symptoms last for years, and it's contagious.

Let's assume that the vaccine is free: would you take it and risk the side effects?

--

Clearing out the quilting room has resulted in the discovery of a great many things that I'd kind of forgotten I even had...

I think I might need to have a goal of at least 1 quilt top a month, and at least 6 finished quilts by the end of the year - not counting my show quilts (at least 2).

And no more fabric purchases...

--

Dammit. I may have to go to the big hardware store AGAIN after going every day for the last four. But I fear I really do need the watering system in before tomorrow's heatwave. My back garden is not doing so well (and neither is the front one, but at least there's a watering system in).

--

Went to the gym for the first time in a year. I'm going to try to get back to going regularly this month, before I cancel the membership when I'm made redundant... I just realised it's been about 5 years since I regularly went to the gym (as in religiously, week in, week out) and all that time I've been paying a chunk of money for a gym membership.

I'd like to boost my muscle, make my metabolism work better, and redevelop my fitness. I may have to accept that I will never be as fit as I was at 24, or even at 34, but I can damn well not be down for the count at 44...

Day 8: In your own space, make a list of at least 3 things that you like about yourself. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This is a difficult one to answer. I don't know. Everything?

I like my writing - even my mediocre fics are pretty good (once I've gotten a bit of distance from them).

I like the way I see the world - a blend of conflicting ideas: that Christianity is best when it's not the official religion, that women and what they do are worthy of being celebrated even when men and other women don't see that or can't celebrate that, that a good society both gives the individual the ability to achieve and excel and be marked out for it, but also requires community and social capital to keep everything running smoothly.

I like myself.

It's not the done thing to like yourself. We're supposed to pick at our faults, expose our weaknesses, be self-deprecating.

The truth is...most of the time, I think I'm pretty hot stuff. Okay, maybe not hot stuff but I'm someone that people like being around. I'm someone that people like talking to. That people like listening to. I hope I'm a good listener (truthfully, that's probably something I'm bad at - I struggle to remember distinct things about people, particularly on social media when I haven't met them or interacted much with them).

I like myself. And I like that I like myself. It's a good position from which to start: the assumption that you are the good stuff and that people want to know you and will be enriched by knowing you.

Does it need to be leavened with humility? Well, yes. Yes, it does. :)

And yes, a lot of this is because I've had good fortune to be among people who gave value to others - as the challenge post for Day 8 says, "children have such great self-confidence, because they have people in their lives that tell them that they are great, that they have value." And I have had people in my life tell me that I am great, and that I have value - from the God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ, to the parents who - while being entirely human and flawed themselves - have never let me doubt that I am loved, to friends who want to spend time with me, to a cat who is sitting on my mousepad looking adoringly up at me right as I type this.

The truth is that I have been taught that I have value and I have never unlearned it; God willing, I never will.

You have worth, too; you are valuable.

Dad had a bad case of the shakes this afternoon - as in, 1 hour of uncontrollable, full-body shivering. He's been rather less than 100% the last few days, but the shaking freaked me out.

Called Uncle Doctor #1 for a phone diagnosis, he said "get him to hospital", so we got him to emergency.

After 2 hours of waiting to see a doctor, 2 hours of waiting for results to come back, 1 hour of double-checking the results, he's been admitted overnight for observation. Slightly elevated inflammation levels in his bloodwork.

I am le tired, because I was the responsible adult for the afternoon, which involved:
a) keeping my stepmother informed
b) keeping my dad from walking out
c) keeping assorted other parties informed
d) 5 hours of waiting

And now we have stepmother, stepbrother, and step-aunt staying at our place overnight, so the house is pretty much FULL UP in that way which we were trying to avoid by putting dad and the steps in B2's apartment, and having B2 stay here.

Finally, I have an appointment with the dentist tomorrow to discuss the swelling in the gum. Let's hope he listens...

426654 words to 95 fanfics that got updated or published (not counting the ones that have been written but haven't yet seen the light of day).

Dats a lotta words...

Starting a local movement. I know at least one woman living in my area who has many FB people who don't like Australia's current stance on refugees.

Job prospects for 2017.

Working out how to minister more to people-who-are-not-like-me and people-who-don't-have-my-opportunities.

Spending more time in contact with my cousin's wife, who is just starting out writing.

George Michael. Carrie Fisher. Vera Rubin.

( epitaphs of heroism )

From a couple of friends' yearly Christmas Party, wherein I made Ottolenghi's delicious Vegetarian Christmas Platter, and ate this utterly amazing watermelon cake (made by a guy who does professional desserts), to the big family luncheon of my mother's side of the family wherein we do our once-a-year catch up.

( Watermelon cake )

That's an almond "macaroon" style base, with layers of chantilly cream, watermelon, another "macaroon" layer, and glazed straberries and blueberries on top.

Did I mention it tasted AMAZING? Because it did.

--

Christmas Day this year was quiet. The usual 'relatives bash' was happening on Boxing Day (the 26th) rather than Christmas Day, so the sistren and I went to mum's for a light lunch of Vietnamese rice paper rolls, and bombe alaska.

( Vietnamese rice paper rolls )

The bombe alaska was my fault - she asked what dessert we should have on Christmas Day, and for some reason, I'd been thinking longingly of bombe alaska.

A bombe alaska is a dessert from the 1970s, that involves ice cream over a cake, covered in meringue and heated long enough to harden the meringue, which then has heated almond liqueur poured over it and is set on fire.

Sounds complicated? It is, kind of. Mostly, it takes timing...

Cake on the bottom, ice-cream on top of that, and berries, with the meringue cover being put on.

Setting it alight turned out to be a bit tricksy, my stepfather boiled the almond liqueur which meant the alcohol fumes all evaporated and the almond liqueur wouldn't set alight! So we had to heat some more and try again...

( video attempt )

I also learned to play Monopoly Deal (which is Monopoly with cards, goes a lot faster, is a lot more prone to the status quo being upset, and rather more fun as a result).

Gifts were...actually, my sisters and I kind of skipped the gift-giving deal. We're awful at giving each other gifts, mostly because I buy everything that I want when I want it and have the money, and most of the time they would rather me do something for them, or give them money straight out.

--

Boxing Day was the big party with relatives - my mother, her brothers, their wives/partners, their kids, their kids' partners, their kids' kids, and anyone else who my aunt and uncle decided to invite.

It was mayhem. Happy, foody mayhem, but mayhem nevertheless.

( groaning tables )

On the whole, a good Christmas, except that I have spent most of today sleeping and drowsing and snoozing and not writing my Captain Hill fic which is due in a couple of days...

Today, I celebrate the birth of a Jewish man of colour, born to an unwed teenager, who spent his infancy as a refugee before returning to his home country to hang out with sinners and drunkards, and teach a doctrine of love, equality, and forgiveness that included paying taxes, offering healthcare for free, and sharing resources within a community.

When Jesus said the world would hate Him and His, He wasn’t wrong.

O, come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

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Writing In Twilight

Where Nobody Reads

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