End of Year Update

This seemed like a good time to do an end of year wrap up. I feel bad that I've been so lax here and other social media platforms, it's just I've felt very unsocial in all aspects of life.

I tried Facebook for awhile, and decided that was a total bust. Got myself a Tumblr account, and spend hours scrolling through it, but after the first week or so, have had absolutely no communication with anyone on it--so that doesn't seem to be the thing for me either. I've read the different posts and meta/beta guides on how to make it work for you, truthfully I just don't get it. And seeing the same thing reblogged multiple times just annoys me, especially the things that you have to scroll, and scroll, and scroll to get to the bottom of. (sorry to anyone I may have offended there).

I miss having an actual conversation with people. I don't know how to do that, and occasionally I don't want the entire Tumblr world to know what I'm thinking, (what am I saying? I never want the entire Tumblr world to know what I'm saying)

So DW and LJ are the place for me, even though for the most part they both seem to be a deserted desert. I just hope I'm able to get back into the swing of things.

I traveled to Prague, which sadly for me was an absolute disaster. it's a beautiful city and others would love it, I'm sure. I went to Virginia and North Carolina, which was more enjoyable, but since walking is so difficult for me anymore, it's hard to really have a good time anywhere I go. Traveling is being put on a hard hold for a while.

I had a job for a while, and on paper when toting up the pros and the cons it was full of pros. Had an incredible amount of positives, but I was miserable and so quit after a month. Looking back, I'm sure it was my own incredibly disabling social anxiety that drove that decision. But then after I quit, I was informed that I had to obtain a new roof or lose my homeowner's insurance. The stock market took a nosedive which affected my retirement and investments in a unpleasant way, so beginning in a few days I'm back to employment search, again And I expect I will be working full time for the next 5 to 10 years to come, and as someone who has hit the magic age for Medicare, that is just too depressing for words.

I expect that when employment is found, I'll have even less time for fandom, other than the mindless scrolling. Tumblr is good for that.

Anyone got plans for the upcoming year they want to share?

Now to Fandom end of year post.

Fandom and I had pretty much a non speaking role this year.

My reading was way down and most of what I did read were rereads of previous favourites. I've not read a single Erised fic, nor any Owl Posts, though I am currently reading Femme and Noe's Advent Fic, "All I want for Christmas(is for you to stop talking)" . I'm loving it. Of course all of their fics, either together or individually, are completely brilliant.

I read a couple of HD_fan_fair fics. I finally got around to reading "Turn" by Sara's girl. Loved it, but it's going to take a lot for me to love anything as much as I loved and still love, "All Life is Yours to Miss" so I reread it. Just as good the 2nd time around. Stanley is still just as delightful as before.

I signed up for 4 different fests and dropped out of all of them, except for 1 that I still currently underway. Technically I dropped out of that one too, but ended up actually finishing the fic, so they let me submit it.

That was pretty much it for my active involvement with anything remotely associated with fandom.

I'm hoping I'll be doing some recs of my own this next year, but I don't know. I find recs to be soooo bloody hard to do. I never know why I like something, only that I do. And I get so frustrated trying to put it into words. Does anyone else have that some issue?

But now, I'm looking for some information: Does anyone know if Crack_broom is even still in business? The last post was a year ago, and the person listed as the owner's LJ is deleted. I know it had become massive and almost unmanageable, but it was a great way to rec and read recs of different pairings.

And does anyone know of any excellent Hermione/Pansy fics. I'm looking for something of a slow-burn type of fic. Something along the lines of a Harry/Draco enemies to friends, friends to shagmate, shagmate to soulmate. I've not read much femmeslash, but I don' know, I think those could be really hot and sexy and brilliant. (though I do still think Hermione totally belongs with Ron, still it's such fun to imagine her with others.)

Best of the New Year to all of you!