Year-end meme answers for 2021

[szzzt]

Fannish meme questions for 2021/2022 (list stolen from umadoshi)

Your main fandom this year?

Still a mixture for me in 2021. Reading some Voltron, some Untamed, some Witcher. The Voltron WIPS are sending out little shoots and sprouts and I am watering them but not pushing.

As for what I've read and reread the most this year, that would still be LtLJ's Hercules/Iolaus fics from lo those many ages past. I've about gotten them memorized. Send help (or more good Iolaus fics)

OH but all of astolat's Transformers works make a solid second-place run for the rereading award.

Any new secondary-fandom feelings?

Transformerssss!! My friends, I took up crochet again since last summer, and I have crochet projects that are 90% made up of the nonsense robots I was binging during those evenings. The three Netflix CG miniserieses were especially nonsensical and I deeply enjoyed them.

(But I have feelings about character design my friends. The Optimus Prime design for those Netflix miniseries is clearly the best of all Optimuses in his poignant eyeshine and inchoate simplicity, but for everyone else, the CG Transformers Prime cartoon character designs are the best and I accept none other.)

Umbrella fandom you most enjoyed being part of/adjacent to?

Mmmm not sure. Witcher at the moment I believe, but more because I am imagining the delighted/enraged screams about season 2 than because I have actually gone and listened for them.

Your favorite book read this year?

This question! This question I have an answer to!!

My fave this year was The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, with second place going to the entire Greenwing & Dart series by the same author. (That whole series together might be about the same length as Hands of the Emperor, which is a long book.) It has been a couple months since I blazed through the Greenwing & Dart books and now might be about time to start a reread. These books basically caused me to take that day off work.

Your favorite show that you didn't develop fannish feelings for?

Uhhh I can't even remember watching any shows. Surely I did though. I guess I watched a lot of Explained on Netflix along with various doomsday documentaries it served me, but no fannish feelings about those. I watched the entire show about babies! Verdict: many babies are VERY cute.

Oh, we enjoyed Arcane quite a bit, and I loved the art, but as with many well-crafted shows it felt self-contained and complete (well not complete but you know) to me, and didn't cry out for me to add or fix anything. I'm also enjoying Centaurworld but likewise no fannish feels, just canon enjoyment.

Your favorite online fandom community of the year?

Listen I basically engaged in no community this year. I probably looked at reddit more often than I went into fandom spaces, which is truly sad, given how little I like reddit. Can I count the comment threads for all of bomberqueen17's Witcher fics? I didn't post but I read them with glee.

What impending new media are you looking forward to in 2022?

I have no idea what even. There might be a sequel to The Hands of the Emperor I think. I have a vague recollection? Honestly I preorder that stuff as soon as humanly possible and then months/years later, when I least expect it, my phone receives a book!!

What not-new media do you (really, seriously, and everyone believes you) intend to check out in 2020?

Hmmm, I might finish Hercules: The Legendary Journeys or Leverage, or I might start watching the original Transformers cartoon. That's Transformers Gen 1, right? That is probably a large total amount of nonsense robots, it would serve my nonsense robots needs for a while.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

Don't think I had any!

Oh wait. I remembered. Space Brothers: I really like big parts of this anime, I love space, but at a certain plot point the misogyny (and let's not forget the racism!) of this story completely soured me on it. I probably would have shrugged and overlooked it in another anime, but in realistic near-future science fiction? I just can't. I hold my space agencies to a higher standard, and I know that about myself now. SF is too close to my heart, and I have to keep that idiocy away from my heart.

I had some pretty strong fic feels for this show, and some words written, but I don't think I can go back even to do a fix-it. I haven't watched the last ten or so episodes, just put down the remote and walked out.

Number of times you watched your favorite fanvids?

I don't think I watched any vids this year T_T

Media property with the most confusing-to-you total lack of a fandom?

Errr I can't say it's confusing, nor that I have actually looked for a fandom, but I would rather like to read a fic about Tipp from Ring Fit Adventure. Something existential, perhaps about having a body without having a body. No, I can't explain it. Happy stories only please.

---

Non-fannish meme questions:

Romantic relationship status?

Haha! Still Thanks No Thanks!

Travel?

Ahahaha! Also opting out of that!

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope!

Did anyone close to you die?

Also nope, thank God!

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Made more coffee! And even MORE jam. Listen, homemade jam on homemade bread, my friends.

What would make the coming year better than this one?

Mmmmm if I could come to a better equilibrium in my work life, that would be nice. WFH has been good for that overall, but I would like to get more enjoyment and less self-mediated stress from what I do all day. However, the more I read about it the worse capitalism seems to be, so down with profit and down with productivity in general.

What did you want to do/get that didn't work out?

tilts head

Still don't have any non-drifty Joy-Cons. The really drifty set is only for Ring Fit and Just Dance now.

Hmmm, I went on a bra replacement spree, but I still don't have a bra that I love to wear AND can wear every day. (I deeply love the Enell I got, but I've been able to notice that my body does not want that level of compression for longer than a day. Still mulling over trying the next size up.)

What was the best thing you got, bought, pilfered, or stole?

Ring Fit Adventure has been great. I should have gotten that game sooner. 3000% more wholesome and acceptable to me than any gym experience I have had. I might develop a satisfied relationship with my body??

I started some sourdough starter on a whim over the Thanksgiving break, and it has been both an excellent diversion AND is now making me some amazingly delicious bread.

OH in the early summer I got a proper Bluetooth headset with noise cancellation and I basically did not take it off for months. Bluetooth! Modern Bluetooth with modern devices like my phone from last year: it's really long range now!! Was I listening to work meetings from the kitchen while making breakfast? I MIGHT have been! It's the Shure 50 something or other and I highly recc, though I doubt I would have bought it of my own accord. I haven't yet used it for videoconference interpreting, but I'm ready.

I'm typing this now on a new Windows Surface Go 3, the smollest windows I have ever owned, and so far it is completely suitable to my needs. I'm really glad I could find something with the same form factor as my dear elderly Pixel C tablet, my steadfast companion of many years. I'm getting used to windows again and still like all the things I always liked about it, such as the freedom to install whatever the hell I want and also size and place windows how I want. Bluetooth! Bluetooth is really good now??????

Any new body art/piercings?

YES. In September I took the plunge and got three piercings in my left earlobe. They're still healing. When I take out the posts I plan to put in titanium captive bead rings anodized to various colors, for maximum piracy. I've ordered the rings and when will they arrive? Waves Hands probably before my 40th birthday in July — when, as mentioned last year, I complete my transformation to ojisan.

Until these darn things fully heal, I can't wear my beloved Bluetooth headset. You know I wanted piercings because I was willing to give up that headset for 4 months so far.

So it's funny how piercings are considered part of a 'tough guy' look when they are actually super fragile?? Like I now know these are a huge weak point if I were to fight someone, or try to survive outdoors or without antibiotics. (I haven't needed antibiotics but my friends, when they say do not touch your ear for 3 months, they mean it!)

Any health developments?

The optometrist TRIED to tell me I need old people glasses now, because it's hard to focus on the nonsense robots when I look up from my crochet. Ha! I told them! squints at clouds

Did you take up any new hobbies/start any new projects?

• Lots and lots of crochet. Wearing a lot of it this past week since it's extra cold at the moment.


• I've been doing morning pages on my slatey since March 2021. I have now 523 pages of journaling — I don't do it every day, nor do I force myself to do 3 pages a day, but it does something for me or I wouldn't have continued anywhere near this long. This is many orders of magnitude longer than I've ever kept any journal thing.

Any new hobbies/projects/habits you want to start in on?

• Continue arting on the remarkable 2 slatey!


• Continue crochet.


• Get really good at using Obsidian.md on my new computer and phone. It has pretty much replaced Jotterpad as my writing app already, and looks like a very capable replacement for Evernote stuff.

Things that theoretically/ideally will happen in 2022?

• Earrings!


• Continue arranging zoom chats with family. People who hadn't seen each other for at least 15 years saw each other on the last one. Maybe my introvert soul will have the strength to arrange 2 chats next year instead of just one!