Snowflake Challenge #1, and other Stuff

[pensnest]

In your own space, introduce yourself! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Introduce myself.
I'm Pen, pensnest on DW, LJ and AO3, Nestholder on Ravelry. I first found fandom as a Star Trek: TNG lover, and Data was my Adored One for several years. Found fanfic, to my great delight. Fell out of fandom when I fell out of love with TNG fandom, in 2000, and had five years skittering around the edge of things and not really writing—and my sole Harry Potter fic was deemed too racy for the SugarQuill. (I did introduce my daughter to HP fic....)

These things twine through one's life, though, and it was because of a vague memory from the days when I produced An Idiosyncratic Review (a review+ad zine for fanfic) that I went to a convention where I met nopseud who introduced me to LJ and popslash, which brought me many years of creativity. It became so easy to write, it was such a joy. Popslash led to many things, but they'll probably come up again on Snowflake so I won't go into details. I got reasonably hooked on Glambert as well, which I tend to combine with popslash. Lambass ftw! I really miss my active fandom, and don't have a replacement, but I read sporadically in quite a few, usually older canons like Sayers, Heyer, Vorkosigan series and random things that crop up.

When not being fannish, I sing, for twenty-five years with an amateur theatre group, and now with a women's barbershop chorus. We're fighting onwards by doing rehearsals on Zoom. I craft, doing various bits and pieces but most consistently knitting and glasspainting. I am married to Beast, have two grown children (Bun and Boy) and live in Norwich, Norfolk. Other denizens of the house are my FIL and my cat (Sable).

My DW is usually fairly trivial, although as I have been increasingly angry since 2016, occasional bursts of venom in the general direction of my government may occur.

*

Didn't stay up to celebrate for New Year, although a fusillade of fireworks began at 11.55pm and stopped about eight minutes later. As Beast and I were both in bed, we fretted somewhat about Sable, on the sofa downstairs, but I know that on 5th November she was okay with the fireworks (if somewhat amazed at the bright sparkles from next-door. She had a snuggle with me last night as I watched The Sound of Music—it was on, okay, I came across it while looking through the guide, so obviously I watched it. Although I think we have it on DVD? Hmm.

Just now, I watched on iPlayer the BBC's Happy New Year Live (from London), which is rather fabulous and not quite like anything I've seen before (admittedly, I don't get out much). The beginning, lasers, is a bit dull, but once it gets to the Dome/O2, there's some very clever stuff. And, eventually, David Attenborough and—surely—Terry Pratchett. I recommend it.

I've been seeing long memes about What I Did Last Year, but as the answer is basically, not a whole lot, I'm not going to bother. I did, amazingly, finish a story. I think I put the final touches to it yesterday. It flowed like tarmac for most of the year, but I got a bit better at it in December, and I might actually have a go at the next story pretty soon. I have signed up to write 75,000 words in 2021, so... well, we shall see.

*

A recycling tip for those of you who know what Christmas crackers are:
take:
ribbons/ties from your used crackers
cut outs from Christmas card pictures, ideally cut with decorative-edged scissors
hole punch
combine, to form large, cheerful gift tags for next year. I just spent a while doing this, and it is quite satisfying.

*
A new comm, some of you may find interesting.



cookbook_challenge
background image by Joanna Lopez on Unsplash

Comments

[wenchpixie]

Happy new year!


That's a really good idea re:the cracker ribbons *plots*

[turps]

I'm so glad A brought you into popslash back in the day. The place wouldn't be the same without you.

Those drone shows were amazing. The planning must have been extensive with each movement needing to be precise to the millisecond. I enjoyed them all, but the turtle was the highlight.

And, congratulations on finishing your story!

[spikedluv]

although as I have been increasingly angry since 2016

This. Also, hi! *waves*

[frausorge]

Yay for Sable snuggles!

Can't wait to see the story up.

[yarnofariadne]

Ooh that's such a good idea about the Christmas cracker ribbons! I'll have to remember that for next year.

[ephemera]

Sounds like your neighbours were timely with the fireworks - we had an intermittent barrage from about 10pm onwards - including one very late batch about 8am this morning!

[sperrywink]

Yay popslash!

And yay finished story! Good luck with your 75k goal. That's my goal too.

Good DIY idea!

[corvidology]

Happy New Year!

[stellar_dust]

Oh, cookbook_challenge looks interesting!

[turlough]

Happy New Year! I didn't stay up until midnight either but I did get up to check on Lancecat during our 15 minutes of bangs and flashes. Fireworks are just about the only thing that makes him hide under the bed but when they last for this short a while he usually emerges pretty quickly.

You wrote, go you!! *waves celebratory pompoms* Good luck with the writing in 2021!

That looks like an interesting challenge. I have far too many cookbooks and saved recipes from online that I haven't used.