Lol. I’ve never heard them called Gryffindor propoganda before but I approve.
Tag: unforth-ninawaters
I missed the biggest scare at my HS by a year; the World Trade Center was less than a half mile from where I went to school but I had left for college by then. Theres a whole album of photos students took that morning, showing the whole thing going down, and the school was used a triage center for rmonths after, the students were sent to a different building.
That’s scary as hell. I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like. I was still in grade school at the time. Damn.
unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “Haunted house!”
Damn yeah that’s fucking scary. I’ve only been in like two lock down situations and knew from the get go I was in no particular danger.
When I got to high school we had about one lock down drill every two months. Those were easier because they’d tell you before hand that there was a drill that week so you knew to expect it. (Though everyone was scared to ask to go to the bathroom because we were told if you weren’t in the classroom at the time the lock down started you weren’t allowed into one and you had to figure it out yourself. Which is awesome *eye roll*) But I’ve been in a few where we didn’t actually know if there was any real danger.
Regardless, lock downs are never fun. Present danger or not they suck.
Haunted house!
what’s your scariest memory? (if you don’t have one/ don’t want to talk about it, what’s your biggest fear?)
Hmmm. When I was in eighth grade we had a lock down because there was an “armed and dangerous” person either on school grounds or close enough to the school that it was a danger, I don’t remember which. Now, this was right before Virginia Tech, so kids weren’t really getting how serious this kind of thing was. We’d heard about Columbine but mass shootings weren’t a thing we even considered a possibility.
It was the last class of the day and it’s in the barracks so it’s hot and uncomfortable and everyone here is 14 and shitty so getting them to shut the fuck up is honestly not a possibility. We’re sitting in the dark, under the windows, the bell’s already run and parents have already started calling asking kids why they’re not home yet. This kid next to me literally will not stop talking. The teacher is getting pissed. It’s just not fun. The the fucking door knob jiggles.
I’ve been in a lot of lock downs. Never in any of the lock downs prior or since has a door knob jiggled. To this day I don’t know if it was a security guard checking to see if the door was locked (unlikely if there was really a guy wandering around the school) or if it was some shithead kid or if it was actually a real threat, but I do know everyone heard it and everyone got real quiet after that. One girl started crying. It was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever experienced. But then it stops and no one talks anymore.
We had to wait for another hour, I think, and finally we were released to go home. I rode the bus at the time, so after getting on the school bus and getting, oh, maybe a block away from school we’re told by the dispatch that we have to turn back around, go back to school, and wait. So for another 15 minutes I’m sitting in a school bus, out in the open, waiting for the adults to figure out what the fuck they’re going to do and whether or not I get to just go home. The Vice Principal comes out and tells the bus driver he has to take us home because no one is going to stick around and wait with us inside the school. So finally after all that we get to go home.
So that was one of the scariest experiences of my life.
@unforth-ninawaters
I didn’t know you were a Civil War nerd! That’s exciting! I guess I missed that, too.
To be fair, I don’t talk too much about history on my blog. Maybe I should more often?
@unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “@unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “@unforth-ninawaters replied…”
It was excellent meta, hopefully someone else seeing this remembers it too…it was maybe a year or year and a half ago that I read it, though, and I can’t even remember where I saw it. I wish I could be more helpful. 😦
No worries. If anyone else remembers it and has a link, they can send it my way. If not, I’ll just start looking lol.
@unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “@unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “I’m getting that itch again…”
I’ve read some meta about how there is a vocal faction of f/f readers across fandom who police the content that is considered “acceptable” for f/f fic and tend to come down *extremely* hard on anyone who deviates from their idea of what is appropriate.
Hmmm. It really doesn’t surprise me. Outside of fandom there’s the trend on tumblr of treating f/f relationships and wlw in general with this… almost dehumanizing standard of purity and perfection. Like, I’m not sure how much of it you’ve encountered but there’s a definite trend of painting lesbian relationships in such a rosy light that when someone speaks up and says normal, logical things like “women aren’t perfect” and “your girlfriends can be abusive, too” it gets hit with heavy backlash. It was really only a matter of time before that line of thinking infected fandom, too.
I’m going to go looking through some of the “discourse” blogs I know and see if I can find that meta. If I do, I’ll reblog it.
@unforth-ninawaters replied to your post “I’m getting that itch again to dig into fandom, pick everyone’s brain,…”
What theories? Now I’m curious too
Oh, man, I have so many, just depending on what fandom and what sub-fandom we’re talking about.
Theory Number One: Big Name Fans set the tone and level of acceptability for certain behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs within the fandom. This, as well as peer pressure, leads “smaller” fans to accept the opinions of BNFs as normal for the given fandom/sub-fandom. This is why some fandoms believe things so radically different from others, despite the fact that the people one each side are reasonably intelligent. (eg. Fan Group A says “the actor’s opinion on their character doesn’t matter and might be wrong” while Fan Group B says “we should listen to what the actor says about their character because they know them best”.)
Theory Number Two: The Rise of Anti-ism is, in part, a reaction to not having a safe outlet for teenage/young adult rejection of and rebellion against oppressive social structures. I’ve noticed quite a few similarities between young Atheists who turn away from religion for the first time and young antis in some fandoms, including their unconscious clinging to aspects of (mostly Christian) religious structure (”If you were enlightened like me, you wouldn’t be a sinner/religious/shipper. Let me tell you the truth.” “I don’t care that it helps you with some aspect of your life, it’s wrong!” “Everyone who doesn’t agree with me is a godless heathen/moron.”). It might not be the cause, but there could be a correlation between the lack of online safe places for young Atheists to express their anger due to the increasing right-leaning nature of online Atheism and Anti shipping. Add to this the fact that much of the West is dealing with tremendous political and social pressure at the moment and you get more anxious, angry young people with few outlets and the need to find some level of control in their own lives. Add fandom, and you might get Anti-ism.
Theory Number Three: Fanfiction, broadly speaking, varies on emphasis depending on the gender break down of the ship it’s written for. Obviously, there are more factors than just gender, like canon dynamics and wants/needs of the author, but there’s something drastically different between M/M and F/F fiction even in the same fandom. It’s possible that m/m is “safer” for both reader and writer to explore topics like gender, sexuality, etc., while f/f is held to a higher standard. Why exactly, I’m unsure, but I feel it has something to do with fear of female sexuality. M/M is safer because there is a separation from the author/reader and the characters (as most fans who read slash are women) but the same kind of separation isn’t present in f/f. There might also be a fear of doing female sexuality “wrong” in the current fandom climate that plays in to the lack of femslash as well.
Those are some of the big, general ones I have at the moment. I have no idea how to test any of these out in full, but they’re what I’ve been thinking about off and on for a while now.
Bad urban fantasy is reaaaaally bad.
Oh, no question. Flat characters, love triangles (gag), prophecy that involves one special person saving the world, simultaneous over and under explaining of the world and how it works, refusal to use words like werewolf for some reason… and none of that takes into account the skill of the writer and *how* the thing is actually written. (Oh! And I almost forgot heavy handed social commentary that doesn’t make sense in the context of the universe created by the film/book because it’s topical and heavy handed and copy/pastes real world issues into the fictional world and doesn’t consider how social inequality would be different in the fictional universe.)
Bad urban fantasy can be painful, honestly. Which isn’t to say that any of the things I mentioned can’t be done well – I do believe they can be (except flat characters) – it’s just that they’re particularly irritating in bad urban fantasy.
Made up title: Choo Choo
Uggg. I’m sorry this has been sitting around for a few days!
FinnPoe Modern AU feat. Single Dad Poe
Poe Dameron is a single father and freight train conductor. He loves his job and his daughter, Sadie, very much, but more often than not his job takes him away for much too long. It wasn’t such an issue when his daughter’s mom was around, but now that she’s not… well he’s faced with the prospect of the uncomfortable prospect of giving up his dream job.
Enter Finn, recent college graduate struggling to find a job and an affordable place to live. A chance encounter with Poe leaves him the opportunity he’s actually excited to have. All he has to do is be the live in nanny for Poe and his little girl. The pay’s great, and Sadie is adorable and he quickly falls in love with both the dashing conductor and his curious little daughter.
Problems start to arise, however, when Finn and Poe both find themselves getting a little too domestic with each other and missing each other more than the usual amount when Poe’s away.
This is Not a Blog 