vanessarama

1. On participation. I don't participate in fandom as much as I would like. Also, I know I am terrible at giving feedback, which is something I really need to work on.

2.On anon meme. I gave up even peeking at the anon meme about two months ago and honestly, it has changed my life. I realised that I was going there because I felt I was seeking more fannish participation - I would read all the fic and all the friendslist and then want MOAR MERLIN TALK. But what I was getting from the anon meme was more the illusion of fannish participation. There were some good times and interesting threads but in general I spent most of my time there getting furious at the way everything got blown up way out of proportion and wild conclusions were drawn from little evidence. The last time I was there I was getting into the beginnings of an (unintentional) argument with someone and suddenly realised "This is futile. It's just going to make more aggro in the world, and we'll never change one another's minds." And I haven't been back and I feel better for it. Now I'm not even tempted!

3. On personal encounters. Funny, but I don't feel the same sense of envy I did in previous years about people who got to see the filming at Pierrefonds, or go to events and meet the boys. Maybe that is because I got to Pierrefonds last year, and even though there was no filming while we were there it satisfied something (and we can now play the "Been there!" game when we watch the show). Maybe it was because I got to go to the BFI and be in the same room as the cast, even though I didn't get to meet them. Either way I feel delight not envy now when I see other people's reports.

4. On entitled fans. Having said that, I wish people would stop it with the massive sense of entitlement if the crew and cast don't give them what they want at Pierrefonds. Complaining that they spend too much time filming inside? That they smile and joke with their castmates but don't talk to the fans? That they all have "long faces"? For fuck's sake, people. These people are there WORKING, making a TV show, and that has to be their focus. It is our privilege that any of us gets within shouting distance of them AT ALL while they are filming. Don't go on and on and ON about how you didn't get what you wanted out of the experience.

5. On writing. I wish I wrote a bit quicker, but so much of work involves writing that I tend to not want to write in my spare time. This is a shame because I have many, MANY ideas I want to write. I am currently writing a sequel to one of my long epic fics and it's taking its sweet time to coalesce. I think about it every morning in the shower and every night while I'm falling asleep and I'm just in love with it, and I had to share it somewhere :)

Title: Thou Art All the Comfort the Gods Will Diet Me With
Author: andraste_oz/vanessarama
Rating: PG
Characters: Gen; Uther, Arthur, Merlin.
Words: 1403
Summary: Uther character study, postscript to the events of ep 2.08; written for the hc_bingo square: insomnia
Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me in any incarnation, and I am making no money from them.
Notes: Title is from Shakespeare, Cymbeline

( Thou Art All the Comfort the Gods Will Diet Me With )

Hail, flisties!

1. Yesterday I went out and bought an interlocking foam mat, the kind usually used for fitness purposes, for myself to use as a blocking board for knitting. It is HUGE. I got a pack of four which turn into a massive mat about six feet square - I can't imagine ever knitting anything bigger than that. I also got a digital kitchen scale so I can weigh all the various yarn remnants I have.

2. I've found the perfect shawl pattern for 'busy' variegated yarns. It's Matilda (scroll down) by Kate Blackburn. The nice big blocks of stocking stitch show off the colours well and the pattern is very easy.

3. Our Buffy/Angel marathon has just passed the most difficult hump in the road (The Body). It's still entirely devastating even though I've seen it many times before.

4. I'm writing another long long epic WIP on the Merlin kinkmeme and some people like it and I am BURSTING with smugness. BURSTING.

5. It is now less than six months before we go to the UK.

6. Sometimes it makes me happy just to know that Colin Morgan exists.