As Samhain Day Fades Away
Nov. 1st, 2016 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarFANFIC FESTS VS. LIFE
It's definitely been frustrating to see so many cool things slipping by over here in fandom land, and barely having time to glance at them as they whiz past, let alone even think of participating!
Holmestice sign-up season came and I was so tempted, but I couldn't see how I would possibly have the time. The Remus/Sirius Games are now posting, and it's all I can do to skim the entries and maybe bookmark one or two for sometime later. I'm not participating this year, not even a pinch-hitter.
And Yuletide! I did consider trying to learn the ropes and do Yuletide (back before my time – or lack thereof – went completely nuts) because, how cool. It's a fest for small fandoms, and people can nominate any fandom as long as it's below a certain number-of-existing-fanworks limit, which means you get stuff like:
–Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (surprised that made the cut-off, actually)
–Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
–the Lord Peter Wimsey books
–the Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (that series about the medieval mystery-solving Welsh monk)
–that book On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta that I liked so much recently
–or even Norse mythology!
–...or John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme! (writing about the actors and not the characters, I assume, given that it's a sketch show and the characters are different each time?)
Then there are really, really small fandoms included, like for specific board games or TV commercials or blogs. Or fandoms that consist of anthropomorphizing cities, or wines, or varieties of cheese. What? But cool.
But... No time.
THEATER!
The reason I have no time is a good one, though: I'm working in theater again for the first time in 15 years! Theater was my life when I was in high school (the backstage side of things, mainly stage managing, plus playwriting), but then I moved away and got involved in other stuff. Now that I'm living back in my hometown all these years later, out of the blue an opportunity came up to stage manage a very cool and creative play...and I took it. Even though that meant definitively choosing theater over writing, for now. There is no way I can do both this play and NaNoWriMo!
But I made that choice deliberately, because I've been frustrated at finding so little time in my life lately for writing, or writing music, or even playing music – for any creative pursuit, basically. And this way, my creative pursuit is scheduled into my week (rehearsals), so I have no choice but to do it! Plus this way it's being creative together with people, rather than typing away alone at my laptop. Meeting people and making connections and all that good stuff.
So, yeah, I added this theater thing (the equivalent of a half-time job at least) on top of my other two jobs.
It's great, and exhausting, and after it ends and I return to normal life, it's going to feel like I have so much free time.
Luckily, it turns out the other local friends who wanted to do NaNo also have big obstacles in November (like: selling their house and moving), so there's talk of us all doing it in January instead. Phew!
BOOKS
I recently read my 80th book of this year, which means I've officially surpassed the number of books – 79 – that I read last year! Fittingly, book number 80 was Halldór Laxness' "Independent People," the by-turns-beautiful, by-turns-frustrating, by-all-accounts-takes-a-very-long-time-to-read Icelandic epic that I'd been wrestling with since back when I actually was in Iceland, in August.
I also went to the friends of the library book sale and – given what towering piles of books-to-read I still have from the last couple rounds of the book sale – managed to restrain myself, in fact only buying one single book. What was that book? ..."Teach Yourself Icelandic." Yes, I have a theme.
HARRY POTTER (IS LIFE)
But it always comes back to Harry Potter in the end! The beloved starting point of my fandom life.
At the school where I work, they finally made me a nameplate for my desk (I've worked there nearly a year...), and then next I had to track down a nameplate holder in which to put the nameplate. I got my hands on the nameplate holder, at last, today.
The nameplate is blue.
The holder it goes in is bronze.
I looked at it and thought, RAVENCLAW COLORS??? (I am, in fact, utterly-officially-by-Pottermore-sorting a Ravenclaw, not that that's any surprise.)
I have a Secretly Ravenclaw nameplate on my desk!
.
It's definitely been frustrating to see so many cool things slipping by over here in fandom land, and barely having time to glance at them as they whiz past, let alone even think of participating!
Holmestice sign-up season came and I was so tempted, but I couldn't see how I would possibly have the time. The Remus/Sirius Games are now posting, and it's all I can do to skim the entries and maybe bookmark one or two for sometime later. I'm not participating this year, not even a pinch-hitter.
And Yuletide! I did consider trying to learn the ropes and do Yuletide (back before my time – or lack thereof – went completely nuts) because, how cool. It's a fest for small fandoms, and people can nominate any fandom as long as it's below a certain number-of-existing-fanworks limit, which means you get stuff like:
–Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (surprised that made the cut-off, actually)
–Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
–the Lord Peter Wimsey books
–the Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (that series about the medieval mystery-solving Welsh monk)
–that book On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta that I liked so much recently
–or even Norse mythology!
–...or John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme! (writing about the actors and not the characters, I assume, given that it's a sketch show and the characters are different each time?)
Then there are really, really small fandoms included, like for specific board games or TV commercials or blogs. Or fandoms that consist of anthropomorphizing cities, or wines, or varieties of cheese. What? But cool.
But... No time.
THEATER!
The reason I have no time is a good one, though: I'm working in theater again for the first time in 15 years! Theater was my life when I was in high school (the backstage side of things, mainly stage managing, plus playwriting), but then I moved away and got involved in other stuff. Now that I'm living back in my hometown all these years later, out of the blue an opportunity came up to stage manage a very cool and creative play...and I took it. Even though that meant definitively choosing theater over writing, for now. There is no way I can do both this play and NaNoWriMo!
But I made that choice deliberately, because I've been frustrated at finding so little time in my life lately for writing, or writing music, or even playing music – for any creative pursuit, basically. And this way, my creative pursuit is scheduled into my week (rehearsals), so I have no choice but to do it! Plus this way it's being creative together with people, rather than typing away alone at my laptop. Meeting people and making connections and all that good stuff.
So, yeah, I added this theater thing (the equivalent of a half-time job at least) on top of my other two jobs.
It's great, and exhausting, and after it ends and I return to normal life, it's going to feel like I have so much free time.
Luckily, it turns out the other local friends who wanted to do NaNo also have big obstacles in November (like: selling their house and moving), so there's talk of us all doing it in January instead. Phew!
BOOKS
I recently read my 80th book of this year, which means I've officially surpassed the number of books – 79 – that I read last year! Fittingly, book number 80 was Halldór Laxness' "Independent People," the by-turns-beautiful, by-turns-frustrating, by-all-accounts-takes-a-very-long-time-to-read Icelandic epic that I'd been wrestling with since back when I actually was in Iceland, in August.
I also went to the friends of the library book sale and – given what towering piles of books-to-read I still have from the last couple rounds of the book sale – managed to restrain myself, in fact only buying one single book. What was that book? ..."Teach Yourself Icelandic." Yes, I have a theme.
HARRY POTTER (IS LIFE)
But it always comes back to Harry Potter in the end! The beloved starting point of my fandom life.
At the school where I work, they finally made me a nameplate for my desk (I've worked there nearly a year...), and then next I had to track down a nameplate holder in which to put the nameplate. I got my hands on the nameplate holder, at last, today.
The nameplate is blue.
The holder it goes in is bronze.
I looked at it and thought, RAVENCLAW COLORS??? (I am, in fact, utterly-officially-by-Pottermore-sorting a Ravenclaw, not that that's any surprise.)
I have a Secretly Ravenclaw nameplate on my desk!
.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-11-02 02:10 am (UTC)I am also seriously doubting my commitment to NaNo, I'm in Vietnam still right now, so much travel, so tired... Maybe I'll do it in january as well *g*
And yay for secret Ravenclaw pride!
no subject
Date: 2016-11-04 11:18 am (UTC)I say, definitely think about doing it in January if November doesn't work out. It's always a little nerve-wracking to shove something like this off (because if I postpone it now, what's to stop me from postponing it again next time, and next time...?) But I think the Na-No-in-January idea is a pretty great solution if it's just really, truly not possible in November. Especially if other people are doing it too! :-)