KSena's Journal

I am home sick today. Ugh. Every time I get sick, in having a cold, it effects my throat. Everytime. I sound like shit (if you follow me on Instagram/Snapchat you've heard my horrible voice.) It started on Sunday when we were at my cousin and mom. And then it just got worse and worse... :-P Monday and yesterday was really really bad. I was really short of breath and it... "whistled"... when I was breathing? And it was hard to breath. Not to the point I felt a need to go to the ER, but it was still not very fun. And I was coughing. SO MUCH! So now my ribs ache. :-P And I had a fever. Because why not. It's a good thing the kids/teens are off school this week what with Easter, or I would have felt horribly guilty as well. Bah. But as it is, no school this week so I can be at home and get well in peace.

Yesterday though I'd taken a day off and had planned to go shopping with Alexandra. And we did! But man, my breathing was so bad when we came home I had to sit down and focus on my breathing for a moment when we came home. After that though, I've just taken it easy. Taking care of me. I know I'm bad at that. But I get when I'm beaten by germ. *raises fist at fucking germs*

Anyway, since I'm home anyway, I'll just finish off this challenge that I started. I'm late as all hell, but I WILL FINISH IT DAMMIT!!!



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Day 11

Share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life

Oh dear... This is a hard one to answer, since I've been around for quite a lot of years. *LOL* Old farts unite! I'm allowed to call myself that when I'm 40, right? ;-)

Anyway, well... If I go to books I've reread the most, I'd say there's a few series that kind of changed my mind. That I can say opened my mind and set my imagination on fire when I was young.

First off there's CS Lews Narnia series. It was the first fantasy-series I read, and it was very much an AHA-moment for me when I read them. I was... 11-12 when I read them the first time, I think. And when I reread them today, I still enjoy them (although I see the issues today to... Because there are quite a few.)

Then there's The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. NOT The Ring Trilogy, actually. To be quite honest, I think they're boring. But The Hobbit I love! Same thing there, it just again showed the width of the imagination for me.

And then there's all the comics I've read through the years.

Donald Duck and C/O is the first comic I ever got a subscription on when I was 6 years old. I'm still subscribed to it. Get a comic in the mail once a week. I can't imagine a Friday without it, to be honest. :-)

And then there's Elfquest. I found the first two issues in a corner in the public library, broken and worn, but they spoke to me and I could NOT get enough of them! They stopped publishing them in swedish, but I now have nearly everything published in english. I don't know what it is with that comic, but I can not get enough of it. When I was young I saw one thing when reading it and as an adult another. Pretty incredible.

When it comes to movies and TV-show, the first one that really knocked me out was... Xena The WarriorPrincess. I do remember that there was two things with Xena. One: There's a woman that's far tougher than any man! And Two: She was the bad guy first!

Then there's Buffy, and it's the same thing there. A bad ass WOMAN in the lead. And vampires. Which I've always had a thing for. Just like with the others it was one of those AHA-moments.

I think all off these gave me AHA-moments. I could go on, I suppose, but these are the main ones. :-)

Day 12

In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a podfic, an icon, a sketch, a meta, or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Cross stitch. Draft an essay about a particular medium. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of book you love, a ship manifesto, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Create something.

I'm not a contributer to fandoms, so I don't have anything in particular. I just read, watch and listen. :-P But I do try to comment all the things that I do enjoy. Especially fanfic, for some reason. And fanart. Because that's people that write/draw something they are passionate about, and they should know there are more people that are passionate about the same thing.

I did create a list about my favorite YouTube channels once, I guess that's as close to something I've done. :-P

Day 13

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

My goal is to just do what makes me happy. If you're in a fandom, or a fan of something/someone that does not make you happy, then why do you do it? So yeah. I'm not going to force it. I'm always so tired after work anyway, so I don't even have energy to talk to friends. So why should I do/read/watch anything that just makes me sad or upset me? I mean, really? My time is worth more than that.

Day 14

In your own space, create your own challenge. Whatever your challenge is, and have fun with it!

My challenge to any writer and/or artist is to write/draw a character that is the least popular in your fandom. Try it. Maybe you end up like it.

Challenge for me is to be more social. To dare to be online and talk to people again. And not be ashamed if I end up zoning out. It's fine to do that, even if whoever I talk to have to remind me of their existence. I'm a 40 year old mom working full time. I'm allowed to zone out in the evenings.

Day 15

In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, or to your flist/circle/followers. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to.

Dear fandom,

Without you I would not have discovered so many things about myself. Without you I would have been so lonely. Without you I would not be who I am today. Without you I would not have so many friends for life. And for all that and more, I will be eternally grateful.

Yours truly
// KSena

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

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Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

Help? I'm not a creator, I'm a consumer when it comes to fandoms. I really am.

My current obsession, as I've said, are YouTube vids where fans discuss various things.

But I've read tons and tons and tons of fanfic previous years and years involved in fandoms. And I did try to write as well.

And what I've learned is I was the best at writing quick drabbles. In specific What-If-drabbles. So I did that a lot for a while there.

I did try to do a writing-challange once, which produced a bit of drabbles for sure, that were just a little longer. In the Buffy fandom I mostly wrote them short drabbles.

I have written ONE fanfic, a little bit longer smutty one, but just one. So there's that.

And I've written in so so so many roleplaying games. (During the height of the Buffy fandom, I even got awarded as the best roleplayer in a couple of games...)

Anyhow, I am not sure what to link to, so I'll just link to my tag My Fanfic, and you can cruise along there.

Also, here's the one and only sorta proper fanfic I've written to. It was betad and everything! It takes two

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Since I was out being drunk with my colleagues yesterday (yes, librarians do get drunk sometimes and it's quite hilarious...), I figured I'd answer the two questions I got for the fandom meme. :-)

If anyone else wants to add a question, please do so HERE!

gajastar asked me this: 15, any fandom., meaning: 15. Most loathed character. EVER.

OK. Now THAT is a hard question to answer!!!

I have a lot in World of Warcraft, actually. But that's because the lore and history for that game is SO VAST, there's bound to be characters that are badly written there. Interestingly enough, most of those are on the Alliance side. Ever since the game was released it seems as if Blizzard has a love for the Horde.

In the Xena-fandom there's the character Joxer. Now, I wouldn't say I loath him. I actually enjoy him sometimes. And the fandom as a whole had so So SO much hate for this character, that the actor, Ted Raimi, stopped doing interviews and stopped being online or anything like that. HE liked playing Joxer, but the fans really really hated that character. I find him annoying at most at times, but I always thought he got more hate than he deserved, to be honest. In some episodes though he really really just destroys the storyline, and I hate that. While in others, he really saves it. So he is a troublesome character. Deserves more cred though.

I do LOATH however how they portrayed the Norse gods in Xena though!!! I did not expect accuracy. Hell no. The best part with Xena is how that series doesn't take anything seriously. But at least they could have stuck to the basics with them gods? Please? *sigh*

In Pirates of the Caribbean it's Syrena the mermaid and Phillip. OMG, I was SO ANNOYED WITH THEM!!! And they were supposed to be the main love-interest in the fourth movie. ARGH!!! I have so many feelings about that movie over all. But, yeah. I was bored and so annoyed as soon as I saw them on screen. The concept of the mermaids in that movie was totally cool. So I wonder why Syrena was such SUCH a roll over little weakling, when the others were downright monsters... *shakes head* Plot hole big enough for a damn truck! And Philip? Not any more interesting than a wet washcloth. For serious.

In Buffy there's a lot of bad guys that are supposed to be oh so scary, but... they don't really DO anything. The Master for instance. And The Anointed One. You're supposed to be this big bad. Supposed to be this big threat that the Slayer has to defeat. Well... BE SCARY THEN!!!

Also. The Buffy-bot. I never really liked that whole storyline. That was just to let Spike get his damn rocks off. :-P Sorry to those that liked her. The idea and the whole storyline that season was totally cool. But yeah, no. Buffy-bot? Do not like her.

The character from Sons of Anarchy that I both hate and love is Gemma Teller. She is really really good in the first few seasons, but is really overused in the last seasons, which is really annoying. She should have meet Mr Mayhem aka been killed WAY earlier! The shit she pulled during the show had other full patched members killed and/or tortured. I mean, seirously. In the show it might be because she'd been married to two presidents and the mother of one. But STILL! That's some shit she pulls. And how she tangles herself up in some serious webs of lies. Yeah, no. If I loath any character in SoA, it's Gemma Teller.

In Game of Thrones, it was hard to pick. Because even the bad guys and good guys work in a grey area. But the character that was mostly overused here and that annoyed me was Ramsey Bolton. I get the use he had for the story, but for serious. He was mostly used for torture-porn. Really. Especially in Season Three, where all he does is torture Theon and then Sansa. And you get to see it all. Yeah, OK. I'm a darkfic fan as much as anyone, but I did not need to see all of that, thanks. Rape, torture, cutting off of body-parts. He does it all. With a smile on his face.

There's a lot of fucked up characters in Game of Thrones and I rather like them all, but Ramsey Bolton really pushes it for me. Gladly though he gets it in the end. Which was very satisfying to see, fucked up as it might seem, considering how he got to go. X-D

The good guy that I really find so boring on the show that it borders on loathing is Jon Snow. He is just to much of a good guy, to clueless and to self-sacrificing and just... To much for me. I really really dislike him without even being able to pinpoint why. :-P

So apparently I could answer that. X-D

Right on, onwards to the next one. :-)

hexenhasel wanted #7 :). Meaning: 7. Top 3 Favorite books.

Because of course. Because I'm a librarian. X-D *lol* Right on. Let's see.

One of my absolute favorites all time is: Ronia - The Robbers daughter by Astrid Lindgren. Now, I've re-read this SO MANY TIMES, I've lost count. I love many of Astrid Lindgrens books, some more than others. She really was a master at writing kid/tween books, with things in them that would go over the head of the younger audience, but as an adult you really catch on what is really going on between the lines... Which is totally cool! So yeah, that would be my top favorite one. :-)

A book that touched me, that I didn't think would, is Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Ho boy! I was crying and sniffling making my way through this book. It's a couple of years ago I read this book, but I still remember it clearly as if I read it just now. It's an amazing book! An amazing life! One small life that changed the lifes of so many. I adored this whole story and I adored Dewey and I wish I could have meet him. Or that I could have had a cat in the library I work at. *sigh* Cats over all needs more cred for the work they do and the lives they change.

A third book that I guess have to go to my favorite list is The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx. I do have a thing for rockstar biographies, but this one? Is oh so very different. Apparently Nikki kept diaries while he was at the most deep into his heroin addiction. Or drug-addiction, maybe I should say. Because we're not only talking heroin here.

And Nikki is BRUTALLY honest in this book. Not holding any punches at all. 80% or so of the book is pretty much pages straight out of his diary. Including insane scribbles, paranoia, cravings, drawings... the works. He has added explanations all over the place for the book and there's commentaries from friends and relatives as well thrown in, which gives the insane diary scribbles a sense of time and you get what is going on and why he for example felt the need for MORE drugs at certain points during that time. So you don't really read this book like a normal book. And to be honest, this is not a normal book. It's a fucking punch to the gut. And after wards, I say thank you and ask for another one. EVERYONE should read this book! REALLY!

Bonus, my favorite graphic novel: Maus. Wow. This one is also one that really gives you a punch to the gut. The art is fucking amazing. And the story, how a young comic-artist start question his elderly father about his experiences during World War II and the camps, and said father starts telling his story... It's just... amazing. I have no other words for it. This graphic novel won the Pulitzer prize. To say it was well deserved is an understatement.


So yeah, that was those answers. :-) Let's see if I'll get some more or not?

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.