KJ

So that game I posted about the other day, Cinders? I wrote a fic for it (yes, already, why are you looking at me like that), just a bit of end-game fluff, and put it on AO3, where it's only the second fic for the fandom.

This morning, I woke up to an email alerting me that the creator of the game retweeted a link to my story.

I realize that indie game developers feel very differently about fandom than most major publishers (although to be fair Bioware is clearly aware of its fandom and happy to encourage us, up to a point, and Squeenix seems to express, at worst, an indifferent tolerance, so I've never really been in a "must hide the children!!" fandom) but I still had a bit of an OMG THEY KNOW moment. Then I flailed for awhile. Then I made what I hope was a friendly and enthusiastic response.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I'm still not sure what to do with it, but one thing I do know: being part of the first steps of an emerging fandom sure is fun. :)

Yeah, so much for that.

There's a Valentine's Day exchange on Tumblr, the dragonagewomen challenge, already working on a response for ot3_promptfest (wallwalker couldn't have left better KJ-bait if she'd tried), the next round of the Porn Battle coming up at the beginning of next month, halfway through the 30 Days of Dragon Age meme, and though the response to my query about hosting a DA Kiss Battle was fairly small, those who did reply were enthusiastic enough that I'm still seriously considering doing that. Not to mention the Final Fantasy Kiss Battle, if that happens, and I hope it does because I would be all over that, and I imagine that new rounds of ff_exchange and newgameplus are on the horizon, and soon it'll be time to start thinking about megaflare_ff again, and...

And of course I have two major WIPs still in the works, too.

So I have today off work, which means this should be a great time to get some serious time in on some of these projects, right? But instead I spent the morning poking around the Internet, and now I'm half-plotting to start Alim Surana's run through either Awakening or Witch Hunt -- Witch Hunt is more important for his character, I think, but I have this weird compulsion to do these things in order, unless I decide that he washed his hands of the Wardens and decided not to take the offer to serve as Warden-Commander. But he'd probably see that as shirking his responsibility, and there's something appealing about playing Awakening with a Warden who just does. not. want. to be there...

Obsessions are fun. But maybe I can get this one out of my system if I write the ficbit that's clawing at my brain. We'll see.

I have posted about my love of videoblogger Jay Smooth before. He's probably best known on the Internets for his famous video on how to tell people they sound racist, which I expect most of you have seen before (but if not you should go watch it right now). Recently, he gave a follow-up TED talk at Hampshire College, and it is very excellent.



There's also a transcript on his site, here. But if you are video-enabled, watching the whole thing is very worth your time.

This is something I've been meaning to do for awhile, and the demise of Google Reader as a sharing platform seems as good a time as any. The changeover to the new design happened a few days ago, and I think it's safe to respond with a nice hearty "DO. NOT. WANT." The design is so clean as to be difficult to navigate, and I find it hard to determine which entries are unread, which would seem to defeat the point of an RSS reader, so it's probably time to start searching for a new one. Any recommendations?

But anyway. I've been thinking about how I want to present myself online, which tools I want to use for what, how to interact with new fandoms and old, the best ways to forge new relationships while sustaining existing ones. I feel like I'm at a crossroads of sorts, in a good position to remake myself, and I should take best advantage of that.

So, with that, here's a list of my current online services, and what you can expect to find at each one. Of course, any of these are subject to change, or current whims -- they're my living rooms, after all, and I reserve the right to redecorate at will. But for now, this is the plan.

iamkj - Twitter is for daily life spam (although not too much of it; I'd say I average maybe five tweets per day) and quick link sharing. This tends to be the place with the least fandom-related content, although of course I can never keep it out entirely. It's also where I tend to be the most political lately.

lifeofkj - Tumblr is still very new to me, and I don't always feel like I'm doing it "right", but I'm starting to see its charms. A lot of the Dragon Age action seems to be happening on Tumblr, and I really like it as a way to share images, photos, and quick tidbits that are too long for Twitter. But I will probably never warm to it as a way of long-form blogging, or posting fic. Right now, I am mostly reblogging stuff, mostly Dragon Age and cute animals (or Dragon Age characters with cute animals), but that is very much subject to change.

owlmoose - I'm going to see how Pinboard words as a substitute for sharing links on Google Reader. Consider it an experiment. Right now I don't have much of a network over there, so please do add me if you're interested!

owlmoose - The home for fanfic. Everything new (save drabbles and commentfic that I decide not to save for posterity) will get posted on AO3. My FF.net account is essentially defunct as a place for posting now that "Aftermath" is finished. So if you're looking for the fanfic, AO3 is your definitive source.

owlmoose/owlmoose - And now we come to the big question, the one I've been asking myself for months now. If I'm sharing daily life tidbits on Twitter, and following fandom on Tumblr, and posting my fic to AO3, what's a journal for? That's the part I'm going to have to feel out a little more, but I expect it will be for all the things that don't fit into the other spaces: longer posts about politics and fandom and books and movies and everything else that I love writing about. So maybe that means I'm not posting as often as I used to, but maybe that's okay: fewer posts, but more substantial ones. (Except in November, of course...) I'll keep crossposting fic, of course; no reason not to. I will also continue to crosspost all entries to both journals for the foreseeable future. I do think of DW as my primary journal, but I'm happy to keep the conversation going in both places.

Feel free to add me or follow me anywhere! I am always happy to meet people, expand my circles, find new friends or meet old friends in new venues. This is meant to be a welcoming space.

(Keen eyed readers may notice that Facebook is missing from this list. That's because I do Facebook under my real name, and I have a lot of coworkers and family friended there, people who I am not comfortable inviting into my fandom life. That's where I draw the hard line, where I've built the wall. I know that anyone who was truly determined to link this journal with my offline/work persona could probably do so, but I prefer not to make it any easier than it has to be. Thanks to everyone for respecting this over the years -- I appreciate it a great deal.)

I am really, seriously craving a trip to Fandom Island. Anyone else want to come?

1. Final Fantasy folks: muggy_mountain has a modest proposal regarding feedback and remedying the recent lack thereof in our fandom. Check it out, and join in!

2. Avatar fans, or anyone who appreciates awesome television: KORRA. There is a trailer. It is awesome. I might need to watch it another fifteen dozen times.



More info and lots of pictures from the ComicCon panel here. So excited. Is it 2012 yet?

3. I get a weekend! Last week, I did not, so this is much-needed. I kicked it off yesterday evening with a friend's birthday party -- good company, toasted marshmallows, and maybe too much sangria. Today is quality time with T, and tomorrow I anticipate video games, shopping (I need jeans and shoes), and writing. Should be a good time. Hope you all are enjoying yours.

The sneak peak for the next round of areyougame is out, and I found myself scanning for Dragon Age prompts before Final Fantasy ones. Oh game, what have you done to me?

That said, there are a lot of good FF prompts up there. Whoever asked for a bunch of character studies, I love you. I'll have to restrain myself from claiming like half of them!

Ganked from renay and 3_2_1. Oh-so-very image heavy.

So the idea is to take a picture of the bag you carry around along with its contents. But I couldn't narrow it down to just one; there are no fewer than four (4) bags that I use on a regular basis, and it didn't seem fair to leave one out.

( Many pictures behind the cut. )

And there you have it. Hopefully it is at least vaguely interesting as a slice of my life. Sorry I didn't get clever and number the items in each picture like some other folks did. I thought about it, but with five photos to number I would never have gotten around to it.

So there's this fanworks fest just getting underway: Festability, featuring fanworks about disabled characters, canonical and otherwise.

I am tempted to go spam them all with Noojfic.

I am undecided as to whether this is the best idea I've ever had, or the worst, or (given all my other writing commitments, projects, and life stuff in general going on right now) just plain unworkable. But when there's a fanworks festival in process, and half of your OTP is a textbook example of what the organizers are looking for, that's hard to resist...