It's the final day of the Snowflake challenge and for today, the challenge is to share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fangirls (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

So many wonderful memories, I'm gonna kind of hit the highlights by fandom.

( It all started with Steve Carlson oddly enough... )

( And then there was the first Kane gig in Portland... )

( Oh Wincon... yes, Wincon is totally it's own fandom! )

( Fanfic, oh you glorious beast you... )

Heh, ok I kind of babbled a bit there, didn't I? I'll stop there but let me just say before I do that I am thankful to all of my fandoms for bringing me the friends I have. Even if you are just someone I know online and we've never met face to face, or if I did meet you but it was at a horribly loud party and I had a migraine at the time, or if we shared a drink at sound check waiting for the boys, or you commented on my icons, etc... I am so beyond grateful to have you part of my fandom family. *hugs you all*

Wow, Day 11 of the Snowflake Challenge already!

Todays challenge:

In your own space, ask for recs. Something as simple as "I like XYZ (where XYZ is a kink, a pairing, a trope, etc) - please rec me some

I've done this a couple times, but I'm gonna lump everything together in one post for today.

Things/tropes I like:
- angst (preferably with a happy ending, but I am totally ok with not)
- hurt comfort
- AUs (most especially werewolf/panther/whatever creature, hookers, FBI, RomCom - not huge on vampires or high school since I have kind of burned out on them, but again if they are great, I'll give them a try... really any well written AU is golden)
- fusions (take characters from X fandom and put them in the world of Y show/movie/book/etc)
- case file
- long fic

Things I am not a fan of:
- schmoop/fluffy fic
- crack
- mpreg

I'm good with any rating, and in case it hasn't been made obvious before, any variation on pairing : Het, Slash, Poly, I want them all.  

Fandoms I currently read:
- SPN/RPS
- CW RPS
- Kane RPS
- Star Trek/RPS (mostly Nu!Trek but I love TOS as well)
- Inception
- X-Men: First Class
- Avengers movie verse as well as Marvel comics
- Hawaii 5-0 (new tv series)
- Bandom (MCR, FOB, PatD)
- Glamdom/Adam Lambert
- Iron Man (mostly movie verse) 
- Thor (mostly move verse)
- The Losers (movie or comics)

So yeah.. there you go.  Rec me anything and I'll love you forever :)  

OH! Edited to add... I'm happy to read on LJ or Dreamwidth.  Also, anyone know of a good Bandom centric newsletter like SPN and Trek have?  Or a rec comm like Crack_Impala or CrackEnterprise?

Man my sleep schedule is so screwed up right now... migraine earlier had me hibernating pretty much all afternoon/night and now I can't get back to sleep. Ugh.

Anyways, the Day 8 challenge is up at the Snowflake Challenge and it's about talent. Specifically it asks:

In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at.

As arrogant as it sounds, this one is actually one of the easiest challenges so far. There are things I know I am good at, and it's taken me a long time to come to understand that it isn't bragging to admit them. It is realizing that I have worth as a human being, and I am good at things. And so do you, and you, and you. Just sayin.

So anyways, one of the things that I have a talent for is massage. I was incredibly lucky in my 20's and was able to quit my job at a soul destroying multi million dollar company and follow one of my dreams and go to massage school. I graduated a year later and started my own business, and within 2 years I was to the point where I was able to make a very comfortable living and sustain myself entirely from giving massages. Sadly just as that happened, 9/11 occurred and the bottom fell out of the industry. No one wanted to spend money on something as "frivolous" as a massage when the world had fallen down around us.

I had to give up the dream at that point, and went back to the 9 to 5 corporate world. But I still have my knowledge and talent. And I love being able to work on someone and make their pain go away, to relax muscles that have been tense and sore for who knows how long. I wish I could do it more, but just being able to help friends and family when they are hurting... it means a lot. I've thought about going back to it again, but my certification has lapsed so I'd have to start all over and frankly my body is not as young as it used to be and massage is hard on you physically, so yeah I don't see it happening. But I can and will always work on people when they ask me to, that will never change.

( The other thing I consider myself talented at is cooking... )

I should be asleep now, instead I am posting my day 6 entry for the Snowflake Challenge. Today's challenge is as follows:

... rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) and that you ended up loving.

This one was harder because I don't have a lot of hard limits where fic is concerned... but taking a look through my Pinboard I think I managed to get a decent cross section of things that fit the bill.

First off, is a pairing that I never would have thought I would like. I love Trek, love Trek fic and I even love the way Spock and McCoy jibe at each other... but I can honestly say I never in a million years would have thought I would like Spock/McCoy. What turned me around was Scarred Beautiful by notboldly. Everyone is perfectly in character and the slow progression of things is pitch perfect. Summary: McCoy had never put much credence in judging people based on their scars, probably because he had more than a few himself.

This one hits one of my strange self imposed limits. Yes, I am in the SPN fandom, and yes I read Wincest. BUT, I don't like and never read any RPS incest between actual siblings, it squicks the hell out of me. I just can't do it. And this fic is one of the only - if not the only - exception I can remember to that rule. It is another case of loving the author and basically devouring any/everything they write. Sorry Neil... but I love this one. Blue_Soaring's I know there's better brothers but you're the only one that's mine Summary: Glamdom. Adam Lambert/Neil Lambert. NC-17. ~6300 words. Incest. Pre-idol. Neil would like to think he's had a remarkably dick-free life when it comes to Adam.

And then there is the most WTF fic I ever loved *laugh* But see, I love cherrybina and I trust her not to steer me wrong fannishly, so when she recced formerdinosaur's The Scenic Route and flailed about it, I had to give it a try. Even though it was South Park fic. Yes, that South Park. BUT don't think I have lost it... it's the South Park boys all grown up and heading off to college. It's an epic story (clocking in at around 100k) about coming of age and road trips with friends and trying to figure out who you are and what you want and best friends and fuck it's just gorgeous. Seriously, if you ignore everything else I have recced, give this one a try. Summary: Summary: The boys embark on a six day road trip to California before separating for college. Cartman is a pain in the ass, Kenny has no future, Butters is in crisis, and Kyle doesn't know how he'll say goodbye to Stan.

Ok, totally not related to the challenge, but I think I am changing my default user icon. It feels like it is time and I like this one more than the other now. So.. yeah, yay me.


Day 2 of the Snowflake Challenge is to rec fanworks that you didn't create.

Now as soon as I read the challenge for today, I knew a few things I was going to rec immediately.

First, Cari's The Blessing in the Moon. It's... fuck, it is probably one of my top 5 fics of all times. It's Alice in Chains, but it's also an amazing world where werewolves and pixies exist. Where people are fucked up and make bad choices and fall in love even when that is the last thing they ever expect. It's not post-apoc but it's dark and real and written so well you will cry.

Next is an amazing Inception collage/pic-spam by fallingstars that I stumbled across back when I was first getting into Inception. It is simply gorgeous and I want to print up poster sized panels and decorate a room of my house with them. It is something I go to when I need inspiration, and something I aspire to when I feel like I am crap at my graphics. ❝I'm thinking: my plant, his chair, the ashtray that we bought together.❞

This one is definately a small fandom, but oh... this story just owns my heart. I *love* the movie The Philadelphia Story. LOVE IT. It is my number one go to movie when the world is too much and I think I watch it at least once a month even when I'm not going off the rails. And every year that I have participated in Yuletide, this is my first request. So when I got Caviar Sandwiches and Beer from jlh I was blown away. It's epistolary fic, and it's Dex and Liz and Mike and Tracy set against the backdrop of war. It's friends keeping each other connected and their voices are perfect and I just want to curl up in this story forever.

Hmmm, not a small fandom, but not the usual pairing at all... _beetle_'s Sulu/McCoy story The Human Mating Dance (In ten easy steps). The summary reads "Sometimes, Sulu's a guard dog and sometimes McCoy is extra pissed off", but the story is so much more than that. It's actually ten ficlets and there is wooing with unusual plants and swordfights and McCoy being so incredibly oblivous. It's charming and funny and heartbreaking and just fantastic.

Ok, last one is Tomorrow Belongs to Me by valtyr written for the Cap-Ironman Big Bang. The summary is Steve wakes up in the 21st Century. He doesn't think much of it, and it's dubious about him. He meets a Norse God, joins a superhero team, and feels terribly awkward about the whole momument at Arlington he's rendered obsolete by not being dead. Meanwhile, Tony is trying to make his mark on history by being the man who finally drove Nick Fury over the edge. And everyone is fairly close to their characters in the Marvel movies. Thor made me laugh out loud so many times, and Steve and Tony are just perfect.

Ok, ok, so I fail at this, lol. I was going to close out my Pinboard page after I posted this and realized I had left off a few pieces that I couldn't not rec. *grin*

So have a few more quirky bits :)

Twitter Enterprise... It's basically a day in the life of the Enterprise crew told entirely through Twitter. The link takes you to the bottom of the story... that isn't wrong, you read it up just like you do your Twitter feed. HILARIOUS. Seriously, if you like Trek at all, give it a shot, you will love it.

The Last Post which is a lovely creepy bit of meta fic. It's... well I can't write too much without giving it away, but it's seriously awesome.

And lastly (for reals this time) Address is approximate Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.