The setting up of other roads...

Challenge #2

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My goals: let me show you them.

• Complete my 120-days of writing Habit Pledge for getyourwordsout

• Finally start that deep dive into Tolkien that I've been thinking about for decades.

• Journal every day.

• Bring my blood pressure under control so that I don't have to go on medication. :( This will involve 30 minutes of activity per day, and less coffee, sugar, and processed foods. (I probably should stop freaking out about things too. On that note...)

• Do well in my two classes this semester. No procrastinating!!

• Find a good skincare routine! My face is looking so dull. I'm hoping drinking more water will help (I'm someone who walks around thirsty, and not in a fun way).

• Read 12 non-school-related books.

• Make time for my friends (or I will finish school and be a lonely person). This includes Dreamwidth.

• Craft a budget that will make me feel more in control of my finances. And stick with it.

• Reinstall my Buffy mood theme here. I miss it.

Please enjoy this truly random 'fandom nosiness' poll that I crafted for Challenge #8 of the snowflake_challenge:

So, Challenge #2 for the snowflake_challenge is to write a manifesto, explaining who our favorite person/fandom/etc. is, and why. I want to tell you allll about my adoration for BTS's Kim Seokjin.



There are seven BTS members, and many fans have a favorite (also called a "bias"). Seokjin became mine after about a half a year of following them, mostly because I relate to him: he's kind of awkward and unsure of himself in so many ways, and he uses humor to make people - and himself - feel comfortable. (Also, he's the oldest of them, but he tends to behave like the youngest. Relatable.) He is the most endearing and goofy person!

And then there is the DUALITY. He can go from smoking hot to ridiculously adorable in the blink of an eye. Let us observe. *pulls out pointer stick*

So smoulder-y!

( more... )

But then also... adorable?

( more... )

And he has the best laugh.

And his solo songs range from over-the-top delightful to sweetly heartfelt:

singin' about fish...


his farewell-for-now song to the fandom as he leaves for mandatory military service...


I love him so much, I brought him to live in my kitchen! (Though he is now chilling in the living room. He kept startling me.)



And his bandmates love him EVEN MORE THAN I DO, somehow.

( individual love under here... )



That last pic is of the band members dropping him off at the training center on his first day of military service last month. It was a rough day for everyone. And that's another thing about our Seokjin: he loves his little "brothers" so much!

He is patient with them: ( see? )

And helps them out: ( oldest brother... )

And makes them laugh: ( I LOVE HIM )

He's honestly just the best. 🥺 I guess I'm done now. Okay one more:

group hug!

I'm taking part in the Community Thursdays challenge, which means:

On Thursdays I'll make an effort to engage with communities on Dreamwidth in one way or another: by commenting, posting, reccing, or something else. I'll then talk about what I got up to in my journal, using the Community Thursdays tag.

❤️ join in on bringing our communities back ❤️
~ originated by goodbyebird

A slow week, but I:

• signed up for the latest round of comment_bingo

and

• made a post over at the_postal_pub promoting World Postcard Day, which is on Saturday.

I'm taking part in the Community Thursdays challenge, which means:

On Thursdays I'll make an effort to engage with communities on Dreamwidth in one way or another: by commenting, posting, reccing, or something else. I'll then talk about what I got up to in my journal, using the Community Thursdays tag.

❤️ join in on bringing our communities back ❤️
~ originated by goodbyebird

Not much to report today:

I posted a picture of this week's decorations in my planner over at journalsandplanners yesterday, and have been having a bit of discussion in the comments. Planner people are my people!

And last night I started a drabble for emotion100 . I'm not sure I'll end up posting it, but it produced my first foray into a new BTS pairing (JinKook! What am I becoming??!), so that was cool.

On to the weekend!

I don't know why I wasn't expecting to be able to get into it - it's GREAT. It kept my attention, had the perfect mix of scares and humor (dwarves & elves will never not be funny), had some eye candy... I never managed to read beyond the main novel, so I don't have the background to be able to tell how close it is sticking to canon, but I find that it's probably best that I *don't* know, in these situations: less chance of disappointment. I ALMOST wish that they'd put it out all at once so that I could binge. Almost. Waiting can be fun, too.

I made a birthday bookmark/card for my friend Emil, who loves hiking in the woods and has three chinchillas. I used to do collage regularly, but then *gestures at 2020 and beyond*... I should play more often.

click to enlarge, if you'd like:

Challenge #2

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I worked on these in my planner over the weekend, so I'm just going to copy them over here. Nice to have goals in multiple places. ;)

• Get off to a good start on my Master's Degree. Aside from staying healthy, this is my main goal this year. Doing well isn't a given, since I haven't had to be a student for decades. I'm going to go into it knowing that it's going to be hard, but worth it.

• Complete the getyourwordsout Challenge by December. My goal is to write on 120 days this year, which works out to 10 per month. I hope school will allow brainspace for it! On days when I can write, I'd like to work on some of the fic that I produced last year that needs fleshing out. Hoping to do some challenges for fan_flashworks .

• Get back into regular activism work. 2020 really took it out of me, energy-wise, with things like postcarding and campaign work, which led to me taking pretty much all of last year off. I want to make more time for it this year. I'm making a point to add 1 hour of this type of work to my planner each week and stick with it.

• Post regularly on Dreamwidth. This was one of my goals last year, and I think I did fairly well. I posted at least once a month, which was better than the year before. I'm going to try to *at least* stick to that frequency, and anything more than that will be a nice surprise. ;)

• Read 10 non-schoolwork-related books. Fingers crossed on this one. Like so many people, I joined a virtual book club in 2020, so that boosted my reading. However, last year I stopped going, and I hardly touched any books.

• Finish up my beginner-level Korean workbooks. I really want to be able to sing along to my favorite BTS songs without relying on my own brand of phonetics. (That doesn't go well for me, or anyone listening. *g*)

• Keep going with my weight loss and fitness goals. Winter has slowed my walking down a bit, but it'll sort itself out once the temperatures are reliably above freezing. I think 19 degrees Fahrenheit was the high today? *unamused face* I took my walk, but it was SHORT. *g*

This seems like a lot... I'll keep my fingers crossed. :p

kat_lair is hosting a new challenge that offers prompts loosely based on the poem Monday's Child. The prompts are meant to get people creating and having fun!

Today's prompt is based on the third line of the poem:

Wednesday's child is full of woe...
Tell us about a cause you’re passionate about. Feel free to link to informational videos or articles where people can learn more about that or be inspired. Tell us how we can get involved and make a difference, whether through donating, volunteering, learning, changing our behaviours or thinking etc.

The main "cause" that fills my head these days is democracy, in general — and US voting rights in particular. I can't imagine there are any US citizens reading this who don't know why these things are a current concern, so I'm not gonna harp on it. But- if you happen to need some information on how to get involved in just some little ways, or to donate a bit, here are just a few resources:

Vote Save America's 'No Off Years' volunteer program will keep you informed on action items.

Check out the Americans of Conscience Checklist for a twice-a-month guided list of activities to do. Some are quite quick!

Black Voters Matter does some excellent work that I support regularly. I highly recommend adding them to your list of orgs to support if you want to/can.

I have more if you want them, but these are just a start. :)