The Sound[s] of Settling

I care about things a lot. You get that, don’t you? Both of us can be enthusiastic about a world of ridiculous stuff. Barrages of whatever-it-is-now that we get excited about lead us into some of the most inconvenient series of emotions we’ve ever had or ever will. It’s kind of terrible.

Oftentimes, that inconvenient excitement is expressed in rather adoring and/or eccentric ways. I find I’m much more likely to find a self-proclaimed Fanboy/girl who has drawn numerous pieces of fanart of their favorite subjects than a self-proclaimed Fanboy/girl who thinks that such an outpouring is excessive. It’s just the way we are.

That being the way we are, we as fans like to seek out people and things that go well with our obsessions. This includes music. One of the biggest pulls for a song in the first place is how much it relates to its audience – we like to look for ourselves in our music. We want the  songs we listen to be able to be featured on the soundtracks for our lives.

In light of this fact, I’ve taken the liberty of finding a couple pieces that relate to me a little too well, or at least to the fangirl aspect of me.

Feel free to see if you can relate.

Piano Song by Meiko.

/I try so hard not to notice/I try so hard not to care/I try so hard not to know that you’re not here/But I’m counting down the hours/And I’m counting up the days*

*Oh, don’t pretend you’ve never counted down to a season, movie, or book premiere. You know what you did.

/I try so hard not to show this side of me*

*And we have all been there. Hiding a fan nature is exhausting.

The song goes on to describe how the singer is jealous of the people who get to be around the object of her attention, because “I don’t think they know just what they’ve got.”

Guilty. Not proud, but guilty.

And very  not alone, I think. In fact, a little bit ago, I saw a pin on Pinterest of Tom Hiddleston kissing a young woman, directly above a meme about a mourning fangirl who had been left in the dust. Apparently, Hiddles and his pictured lady have broken up now (as I learned from the three dozen or so relieved comments below the image), but I felt that the whole frantic ordeal caused by the picture really revealed something about fangirls.

Not sure what, but something.

How’d that gif get here? Totally not applicable. Not at all. I’ll delete it later.

But for now – next song!

Better Life by Paper Route.

/All the bridges that I’ve burnt/All the new ways that I hurt*

*How you as a fan will inevitably feel when you become immersed in a new story that is destined for tragedy.

/You gave up and I lost track/When you love someone who don’t love back/It doesn’t matter who’s at fault/Nothing matters now at all*

*Oh look, the you have now become infatuated with yet another fictional character/actor/musician. Just another day in the life ( ha, life, hilarious).

/I might have have said too much/I might have said too much/I won’t forget your touch/I’m saying too much*

*The second you realize you’ve been talking about Star Trek for twenty minutes to someone who started hating your guts exactly ten minutes ago.

And of course, as the title of the song breaks through the surface of the lyrics, the singer reminds you that “a better life, a better life is waiting.” This bit is reminiscent of the voice (of reason?) in the back of your head that sees the trouble you go through for all your cosplay, feverish album-buying, and clunky emotions. It lays an incorporeal hand on your shoulder, and reminds you that this is probably not the best or most productive thing you could be doing with your life.

Quick, pause the song. You don’t need that kind of negativity.

Next up:

Maintain Consciousness by Relient K

Our concentration, it contains a deadly flaw/our conversations change from words to bla bla bla*

*The voice (of reason?) is back

We took prescription drugs/look how much good that did/well I think I had a point/but I just got distracted/lately it just seems to me/like we’ve got the letters ADD/branded into our mentalities/we simply can’t focus on anything

*sweats nervously*

And that one thing of the moment/that we all happen to like/will only very temporarily kinda break the cycle/of the double-edged sword/of being lazy and being bored/we just want more and more and more/till it’s all we can afford*

*Okay, now stop immediately. I know I sound like a broken record now, but there’s nothing bad, wrong, or silly about enjoying things. Nothing whatsoever.  Being enthusiastic about something that means a lot to you is a beautiful thing, and this song is not saying that it isn’t. But I personally find myself needing to make sure not all that joy of mine is boxed up in one, temporary facet. There’s a lot out there to deserve our attention. Let’s use it wisely.

/Cause it’s completely up to us/to maintain consciousness

________________________

There. Now, if my life were a musical (and it is), then you would have just gotten a preview into which songs would be featured. ::

What songs do you want in your life soundtrack?

Trailer Breakdown for Guardians of the Galaxy

Welcome, family, friends, and fangirls/boys.

Coming up on the horizon is a new Marvel movie, and a pretty bold one, considering that it introduces five new characters to the cinematic universe that it has never seen before. So, as would be expected, there’s a fair amount of introduction footage in this preview, as opposed to other Avengers trailers, which basically just have to say, “Loki is in this one, give us your  money.”

The official teaser was released yesterday morning, an exhaustive nineteen seconds, six of which were dedicated to title sequences. This special-effects-flavored snack held us over until supper, and now? Join me in welcoming, analyzing, over-analyzing, and going on rabbit trails that ultimately have nothing to do with the full trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy.

The  noble silhouette – always a fine way to introduce a hero.

Or, you know, this guy.

Well done, Peter Quill. You’ve unlocked the badge “Discount Indiana Jones!”

“Drop it! Now!”

“It belongs in a museum!”

“Yeah! Hey, cool man, no problem. No problem! At! All!”

It takes a big man to admit he’s been beat.

Or, you know, this guy.

“Who are you?”*

*The question every wannabe superhero dreams of being asked**

**Trust me, I know

“Starlord.”

“Who?”

“Starlord, man! Legendary outlaw?”

Face it, honey, you’re no Harriet Jones, Prime Minister.

“Forget it.”

A for effort and delivery. It’s what’s inside that counts.

*angel chorus that always accompanies Marvel sequence*

*I’m not the only person that hears that, right?*

“We arrested these five on Xandar, check out the rap sheets.”

Good. Thank you. Jotunheim and Svartalfheim weren’t hard enough to say.

“Drax, AKA the Destroyer. Since his wife and family were killed, he’s been on a rampage across the galaxy in a search for vengeance.”

Everybody – Drax: Abridged Version

“Gamora! Soldier, assassin. Wanted on over a dozen counts of murder.”

– And here as a constant, green remind that yes, we are in space.

“Rocket – wanted on over fifty charges of vehicular theft and escape from lockdown.”

Here as proof that Marvel can do anything it darn well pleases.

“What the hell -“

“Groot. Been traveling recently as Rocket’s personal houseplant/muscle.”

Here as more proof.

“Peter Jason Quill. He’s also known as Starlord?”

“Who calls him that?”

“Himself, mostly. He’s wanted largely on charges of minor assault, public intoxication, and fraud.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how this machine worked.”

Stay classy, San Diego.

Oh summer. I remember that.

*shakes fist at polar vortex* Curse you, Elsa.

Mm, the “Abbey Road” of movie posters. I can already see it on pinterest, faded out with some inspirational quote from the movie on it. 30 repins, 27 likes. 2 comments from trolls who hated the movie.

*Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede plays*

“Hey hey hey!

Robin Thicke? Are we not safe from you even here?

“That’s mine.”

*song continues playing*

“Son of a – hey! Take those headphones off right now!”

Yes. Fear the handcuffed man. He’ll bite your legs off.

*Blood-curdling yell blends with swelling music*

And now, a brief interlude from dialogue while we remind you about all the characters you think you may have imagined –

A big welcome to Rocket and Groot in a shot you never thought you’d see on the big screen,

introducing MouseRat (Any Parks and Rec fans in the audience today?) as the obligatory half-naked man,

U.S.S. Enterprise’s Uhura as the obligatory completely-naked woman,

aaand this plume of fire and smoke as the obligatory explosion. Huzzah!

But I know what you guys are thinking. You heard that Karen Gillan, the actor who portrays our beloved Amy Pond, was going to be in the movie. Yeah, Amelia, you say. Little Scottish girl. Where is she? I promised her five minutes, but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her? 

… Amelia Pond hasn’t lived here in a long time.

I know, Drax. It hurts me too. I wanted to see Amy again, but not like this… never like this.

Ooh, do we get another explosion?

Yes, TV understands us.

But seriously, three cheers for Karen Gillan. She makes bad look so good. (Megamind reference not a coincidence – bald, blue minds do think alike)

Oh, I left out one of the most important introductions: Zoolander‘s Mugatu as Del Toro, or that-guy-none-of-us-trusted-with-the-aether-at-the-end-of-Thor:The Dark World. Seriously, who chose to give the aether to this dude? Who was in charge of this decision?

What’s that? You forgot the characters again? Have no fear, Marvel has prepared for this moment. Half-second montage – go!

Snacks Destroyer

Roots, The Sonic Screwdriver’s Worst Nightmare

Marvel Does What It Wants

And Starlord.

“They call themselves ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy.'”

(You’re hardly one to scoff, Mr. Wreck-it-Ralph)

“… What a bunch of A-holes.”

IIIIII’M HOOKED ON A FEELING I’M HIGH ON BELIEVING(Said in an attempted dead-pan voice as I jump up and down and clap like a seal) This movie looks pretty good.

If Marvel does right by itself, this movie is going to have countless tie-ins with Avengers: Age of Ultron. So you’ll want to watch it for that. Maybe there are a couple of other reasons. And who knows? It might be just as spectacular as it seems.

Summer has way too many reasons to be here right now.

This week on “I Have No Idea What I’m Doing”

I debated with myself for a long time about whether or not it would be a good idea to write a post about my job, what with the internet being a free service and my employers knowing about its existence. I soon realized however, that as I am the only one at my job that I have anything bad to say about, I really can’t make things worse for myself than I already have.

I hope I haven’t just subconsciously dared myself to say something ridiculous and embarrassing.

First: I really like my job, and I feel so blessed to have it.

However – with any new experience eventually comes blatant evidence of lack of experience.

I have never gotten so many consecutive paper cuts in all my years, nor have I ever endeavored so valiantly to communicate via telepathy with a fax machine. I certainly never before imagined myself alternately saying, “screw you” and “thanks, honey” to a copy machine so many times per day.  Yet here I am, and in a way, I suppose I am living my childhood dream – my chair does spin, after all.

This is my first proper job I’ve held that doesn’t involve looking after children, so all my victories are of the variety that you can’t get other people to be excited about. For example, whenever I take a phone message that doesn’t involve me calling the person on the other end “Patrick” (that’s another story), it’s cause for celebration.

Thankfully, the bulk of the customers who come in are regulars, so if they ask me to do something that leads me to adopt a deer-in-headlights expression, they can usually walk me through my job.

I’m getting better, I really am, but I also believe my entire learning curve can be summed up in two statements from my supervisor when she was first training me how to print checks:

Exhbit A:

“You’re a natural!”

(said after I successfully fed check forms into printer bypass tray)

Exhibit B:

“Oh. You’re not a natural! Haha!”

(said after I successfully printed checks upside down)

One day she taught me to book-bind, which was probably my favorite task so far. I was about half-way through when I decided I was really good at it. Not a single sheet punched incorrectly, I was wasting nothing. And I was fast, faster at this task than I was at anything else I’d tried.

I rocked. I was on top of the universe. I was on a roller coaster that only went up, my friend.

And then when I was looking over my impeccable work, my supervisor pointed out that I had forgotten to put one paper in every booklet.

One paper.

One sheet of paper in each booklet.

I spent the next two hours ripping the combs out of every single booklet and re-binding them again. Usefully, I didn’t cut any (really? any?) of the bindings as short as I was supposed to, so I was able to just re-use them. Silver linings!

When the customer who’d ordered the booklets came to pick them up, she indicated the last page and said she was hoping that it would be the other way around.  My supervisor apologized, but the customer waved it off, laughing, “Don’t worry about it, you can do it next time. It’s not like I would make you un-bind them all!”

My supervisor laughed. My boss laughed. I laughed.

Hilarious.

All this to repeat what a wiser man than me once said:

Behold the sophisticated hipster version of a disjointed dialogue from a cartoon yellow dog named Jake –

Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something.

Can I get an amen?

This is basically to encourage myself and everyone who’s ever been in this sort of situation.

All that bother I described was a couple months ago. I’ve gotten better. I’m growing some roots.

In fact, a couple of days ago, my supervisor dropped a freshly-printed batch of robot stickers on my desk. I nearly squealed.

“I thought you’d like them,” she said, smiling. So I have been discovered.

But this event begs the question – was it the Star Trek  and Doctor Who references, or was it maybe the Marvel poster that I put up in the ladies’ room that tipped her off about my severely eleven-year-old-boy-esque tastes?

We may never know.

*To Be Read in River Song’s Voice*

Spoilers.

Long before the word “spoilers” conjured up a mental image of one of my favorite time-traveling companions, it meant what is has always meant – foreknowledge of a subject that, as indicated, spoils it.

I’ve had far too much experience with this particular delight.

A lot of it was my fault, like the time I begged my sister to tell me why she was so depressed at the end of Mockingjay, or when I knowingly watched “Turn Left” from series four of Doctor Who before I even started season three.

Of course, spoiling has also just been due to unfortunate happenstances, such as when my sister and I tripped over some Doctor Who series seven plot points the day of the season premiere, and that one time when I accidentally did anything on the internet before reading The Fault in our Stars.

Seriously.

I still haven’t gotten around to reading that book, but, somehow, I can quote it for days.

All this to say, I don’t usually do enough to stay away from spoilers, what with the internet existing, and my priorities being all out of order. But a problem has arisen that requires me to play a little game I like to call “The Internet is Lava.”

If you had a childhood, you can probably guess how this game is played. Just for reference, it’s just ever so slightly less enticing than its eponymous schoolyard counterpart.

In any case, the problem that made this game necessary is as follows: I’m going to miss the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode. Now it’s not quite as bad as all that, I am still seeing it, as a theater in my town has graciously made it possible for me to see it three days later on Monday night.

I will be dressing up as Eleven and attending with my gorgeous friends Wasp and Invisible Woman, and my lovely [and tenaciously patient] mother. You could say I’m kind of excited.

I’m stupid excited.

But the fact remains that that is three days after every other fanboy and girl with BBC or BBCAmerica has seen it, reviewed it, gif-ed it, story-boarded it, and fanfic-ed it.

And for me, the internet, until that third day, will be a yawning pit of seductively available foreknowledge.

Dangerous thing, foreknowledge.

So between Saturday and Tuesday, I’m going radio silent as far as internet is concerned.

And when I get back, if the past is any indicator, you’ll know me from the all-caps declaration of how many times I died during the episode.

What about you all? Are viewing parties in the works, or is anyone else planning to play the internet is lava with me?

Trailer Breakdown for The Day of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor.

The 50-year anniversary of the classic sci-fi show, Doctor Who.

It’s fair to say every DW fan who didn’t go to this year’s Comic-Con has been [very impatiently] awaiting this trailer since July.

And now that it’s finally here? Obviously, the next logical stage is to watch it until the very mention of it sickens you, correct? Click here to begin that particular journey, and then swing back around here to freak the heck out share in an insightful dialogue about it.

Or something.

(TARDIS noises)

FEZ YES

Also, Doctor. That’s important too.

Is this whole trailer going to be in black and white? Because I appreciate a nod to original, colorless 1960’s television as much as the next guy, but I also really like the shade blue on that box over there.

There we go, FEZ IN ALL ITS BURGUNDY GLORY

(And Doctor, too.)

Ah, the first and fabulous. Look at that spectacular iceberg of a head of hair.

“I’ve been running all my lives,”

“Exterminate!”

YOU DALEKS YOU RUIN ALL THE THINGS

but I’m actually kind of happy to see you so hey there man

This is probably the first time that I’ve seen that skeleton-through-the-skin graphic and not scoffed loudly.

Well done, BBC.

“Through time and space,”

I have this theory that every time Matt Smith says the words “time and space,” a baby smiles for the first time. No way to prove it, but the point still stands.

Well, hello there, Doctor Two. You and your bowl cut look exceptional today.

“Every second of every minute of every day for over nine hundred years.”

Mm, yes. I would know The internet at large would know that scarf anywhere.

“I fought for peace in a universe at war.”

that expression

them jelly babies

I believe I’ve been compromised

Okay, let’s talk about this enigmatic, hastily-shot graffiti.

No more what? No more fighting for peace in a universe at war? No more Doctors? No more jelly babies? No more explanation?

Probably.

But seriously, no more what?

also

K-NIIIIIIIINE I MISSED YOU

SARAH JANE I MISSED YOU TOO

“Now, the time has come to face the choices I made in the name of the Doctor.”

You  know, I think fencing in a fancy suit was one of your better decisions.

Why, Clara, my adorable, hardcore, little baby barn owl. Welcome home.

“Our future depends on one single moment, on one impossible day;”

wUT *loses mind because perfect scene*

but GUYS IT’S ROSE AND NINE’S CHIN AND SIX’S LEFT ARM AND AN OOD A DALEK AND NUMBER EIGHT and some guy I don’t recognize

AND

TEN

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

“The day I’ve been running from all my life…”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAoh hey I’m sorry that was obnoxious.

… And you know it’s about to get real.

“The day of the Doctor.”

Please, darling, I don’t speak European.

(All of America, in unison) “Ohhh!” 

Everybody, that’s really soon. I feel a countdown coming on.

Thirty-five days starting… NOW.

*dons bowtie and grabs screwdriver*

I’m gonna need a pot of coffee, twelve jammy dodgers, and a fez.

Geronimo.

Trailer Breakdown for Frozen

Yesterday, the trailer for Disney’s Frozen was released. Suffice to say I was a little excited, having been checking for this trailer nearly every day for something like three weeks. I like my Disney movies. But now that I’ve seen the trailer seventy times, it’s time to subject it to the breakdown.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you can watch it here, and then you can come on back and analyze it with me.

[Dramatic voice-over]

“Summer in the city of Rivendell Arendelle: it couldn’t be warmer.”

That actually sounds pretty unpleasant.

“It couldn’t be sunnier.”

Why are all those people wearing long sleeves?

“But that’s about to change.”

Does anyone here know how to dress for the weather?

“Forever.”

Oh, now, she’s wearing a sleeveless dress. Now that she’s on top of a mountain shooting sparkly ice out of her hands. I guess you do what you want when you’re queen.

I mean, if we’ve learned anything from the Chronicles of Narnia, it’s that queens have a propensity for cold, right?

And hey, everyone’s gonna be happy they’re already wearing winter clothes.

“Coldcoldcoldcoldcold”

Except this fool.

Anna, honey, you gonna catch your death of cold.

Is anything fandom-related not happening in November? And don’t say Sherlock. We don’t need that kind of negativity here.

Introducing: this obligatory Disney white horse and its incompetent rider.

… Who has yet to figure out the mechanics of a jacket. I mean, come on. It’s snowing.

“Really?”

Really.

“If we don’t do something soon, we’ll all freeze to death!”

“You want to talk about a problem? I sell ice for a living.”

“Ooh, that’s a rough business to be in right now! I mean that is really –

That’s unfortunate.”

Look at the pain on Ice Guy’s face. How could you be so insensitive, Anna?

We could ignore the horse’s expression, but I’d rather not. What is that?

I’m going with “up to something.”

Disney animals are the biggest shippers of us all, folks.

“This is awkward. Not you’re awkward, but just cos we’re –

I’m awkward. You’re gorgeous.

Wait, what?”

Ladies and gentlemen, if you were looking for a way to identify with Anna, then there you go. We’re done here.

No.

“Hi, everyone! I’m Olaf.”

In case you haven’t seen it, the original teaser for this film was a plot-free, human-free, dialogue-free two minutes of this little jerk fighting with a reindeer over a carrot, Ice Age-Scrat style. I think that’s enough backstory to explain why I may be a little hostile towards him.

Let’s all just appreciate the freckles for a second.

“I know how to stop this winter.”

Ice Guy has a sweet ride. How much does the ice business pay?

“I like fast!”

“WHOA WHOA whoawhoawhoa. Get your feet down. This is fresh lacquer.

Seriously, were you raised in a barn?”

If no one else is gonna say it, I will.

“Let’s go bring back summer!”

Said the snowman.

Doesn’t something about that seem wrong to you?

“Wolves!”

Thank you, Ice Guy. I was curious about those feral, canine animals.

“Duck!”

Mandolin: the new frying pan?

“Oh mama, I have got to get me one of these!”

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve got a thick skull.”

Ice Guy, you’re adorable.

“I don’t have a skull.”

NO ONE ASKED YOU OLAF

If you make a snowman joke, I will lose my mind.

gah.

“Now we just have to survive this blizzard!”

“That’s no blizzard!”

“That’s my sister!”

Well, I guess you could say her sister Elsa is a… cold mess.

Get it? Like, not a hot mess, but a… You know what, forget it.

Look at Olaf’s smug little face.  Ice Guy had to carry him. Ice Guy has to carry a snowman through a snowstorm. 

“It is not nice to throw snowpeople!”

Anna, even this bionicle snowman is frustrated that you’re defending that guy.

There’s November again. Taunting us.

“Olaf, you’re melting!”

Elsa, your voice doesn’t have any of the joy that I would think would go with that sentence. I’m concerned.

“Some people are worth melting for.”

Wait, snowman/sorceress pairing? Is that legal?

awesome

scene

montage

“Olaf!”

“Hang in there, guys!”

DANGIT OLAF

I am so far beyond excited for this movie.

“I can’t feel my legs! I can’t feel my legs!”

Olaf, you are MADE OF SNOW

“Those are my legs.”

“Oh, hey, do me a favor and grab my butt!”

Did you justIce Guy,  you’re just encouraging him.

The Super-Sweet Liebster Award

The marvelous ladies who run the blogs Awkward Geeky Girl and The Thousand Lives have nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging award and the Liebster award. Many thanks, darlings!

And everyone else – check those ladies out. You’ve got geek-flavored loveliness from Awkward Geeky Girl, and literary fabulousness from The Thousand Lives. I believe you will enjoy.

Since I waited an unacceptably long time to accept either of these awards, I will merge them into one super-post of lengthy question-answering.

All right, everyone ready?

*cricket sounds*

Let’s get this drawn-out and incredibly low-key party started!

To accept the Super Sweet Blogger award, rules dictate that I answer five scrumptious inquiries:

1. Cookies or Cake? Cake. More specifically, funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting. It’s important to know what you want out of life.
2. Chocolate or vanilla? Oh, something like me… Exotic with a touch of mystery… Vanilla. [Also, if you understood that even-more-obscure-than-normal reference, we should be best friends]
3. Favorite sweet treat? Mango  or pink lemonade sorbet.
4. When do you crave sweet things the most? Evening. Seven O’ clock and later.
5. Sweet nickname? The only nickname that has stuck is Valkyrie. I don’t know how “sweet” that is, but I like it.

And now to nominate some other super sweet bloggers! I know of a couple.

• Ramblings of a Misguided Squirrel – A lass named Beth who Doesn’t Forget To Be Awesome. She writes (in true fangirl fashion) about fandoms, nerdiness, music, and other random goodness.
• GunStonesUnborn – This young lady runs a mainly theological blog, and I like to read her posts and start off the day with Bible-flavored niceness. This blogger also watches BlimeyCow, so we know she’s pretty great.
• The Ultimate Voyage – Yes, I know, I’ve talked about how much I like this blog before. Well, I still like it. The Voyager writes a bit of nerdy, a bit of gospel truth, and a lot of awesome. If you didn’t check her out the other times I mentioned her, do it now.
• That’s Geektastic! – I’ve followed this woman for a while now (virtually. I want to point that out.), and her Doctor Who/Supernatural/other assorted TV-related posts always make me smile. Actually, I just realized about seven seconds ago that she also nominated me for this award. I think that means I can’t nominate her. Well, I am going to anyway, because she’s fabulous. Take that.

As for the Liebster award acceptance, I answer the questions of my nominator and assign questions of my own to the nominees. Kayla’s (from the Thousand Lives) questions for me were:

1. How long did it take you to settle into your blog? I got comfortable after about a month, but in the third month, I began to really establish my style and create a design I liked.
2. How long have you been blogging, and what made you start blogging? I’ve been blogging for seven months (my little baby’s growing so fast). I started Freak of Fandom because I loved to write, but I needed practice and structure, and I thought writing this blog would be a good way to get those things.
3. Give me a profile of yourself? I am sixteen years old, I live in Central Oregon (Also known as Gravity Falls), I babysit frequently, I am homeschooled, I am passionate about parmesan cheese and all forms of story-telling, and I love Jesus!
4. What was your best memory in high school? Probably my 2010 field trip to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
5. Who inspires you, and why? C. S. Lewis. The life of this man amazes me, and his books are nothing short of inspirational. He took sophisticated themes and turned them into legendary stories dripping with wisdom, and for that, readers everywhere are grateful. He understood and communicated things I may never have thought about; he was a beautiful instrument of God’s.
6. What are your three favorite books? Well, three of them are A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle), Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick), and The Beatrice Letters (Lemony Snicket).
7. What book has influenced you the most in your life? Jimmy Coates: Assassin by Joe Craig. It was the story to get me out of my anti-book slump, and it was the first book (series) I ever fangirled over. (I couldn’t not write about that experience)
8. Which character would be your best friend, if they were in the flesh? Lucy Pevensie from C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. I would love to have an adventure with her.
9. What is your favorite book-to-movie adaption? Holes. I loved that movie when I was little, and when I finally read the book, it was like reading a transcript of the movie. Very faithfully adapted.
10. If you could say one thing to your favorite author, what would it be and who would it be to? Lemony Snicket (given name Daniel Handler). I would want to let him know that I owe my dark sense of humor to him, and half my vocabulary as well. And I would very much like to give him a massive hug.

My questions:

1. State your name, rank, and intention. (No, it’s not a question, but it’s fun to say out loud)
2. What is your favorite quotation?
3. If you could have any fictional character’s life for a day, who would you choose?
4. How would you handle that life?
5. Do you have any fictional crushes? If so, who?
6. If you could make any canonical crossover happen between two fictional universes, which ones would you choose?
7. Who are three of your heroes? (These ones have to be real people)
8. What period of history interests you the most?
9. If you could fill a swimming pool with any food or drink (other than water), what would you fill it with?
10. Would you rather live in a library where you can have all the books and movies you want with no late fees, a zoo where all the animals know and love you, or a theater, where you get front-row seats and backstage passes to every play?

Time for my Liebster nominees. This award is meant to introduce people to new blogs and is generally reserved for people who have under a hundred followers and deserve way, way more. Therefore, I nominate the following:

• The Random Ramblings of a Devoted Fangirl – A lovely, geeky young lady who is new to the blogging scene. She runs a delightful blog, loves her BBC and other assorted fandoms, owns a hedgehog (whaaaaat), and deserves a follow.
• I Am Such A Geekly Girl – A, well, “geekly” girl whose blog is nothing short of adorable, and who posts a lot of kawaii sweetness. I just found her on the blogosphere today. Give her a look?
• BlogBlogBlog ~ The Random Rantings of a Teenage Girl – You would think that you could pretty much get an idea of her posts from her title, but her posts range from joyful book-fangirling to deep and thoughtful posts about the things on her mind. I know this girl in real life, and I am very blessed to. Go meet her!
• For the Win – Once again, yes, I’ve already said nice things about this blogger, but they still stand. Hop on over to her blog for fangirl-isms, Jesus love, Tom Hiddleston appreciation, and writing and gifs that will make you smile.

Thus concludes the passing of the Super-sweet Liebster torches!

I apologize for the rambly post today; we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming right after this break.

Have a sparkling day!

Labelmaker

If you’ve even tossed a sideways glance at my blog, you can probably tell I’m a fangirl. Whether your first clue was my casual declarations of love for people who don’t know I’m alive, or whether you just read the title of my blog, you know.

I’m an open book about this. A graphic novel, probably.

But I digress.

I’m a fangirl, yes. You may be one too, or a fanboy, if you’re reading this. (or maybe you just know me in real life, so you think you’re bound by contract to look at this thing)

But that is not our beginning and end, is it? There’s more to us.

A person could be a baby-sitting, music-writing, wildlife-enthusiast who loves to skateboard, and we would just call this person a “skater” and leave it at that.

That, my friends, is the magic of labels!

Labels have a definite negative connotation, but they don’t always feel like a bad thing. I’ve grown so accustomed to the label “nerd” that I’ve changed from detesting it to preferring it.  I feel as if I would be almost unrecognizable without that sticker on my forehead.

Labels are comfortable. If you’re given a label, it feels like you’ve been categorized. You know where you belong. You find people with the same label and make easy friends. But as much as labels are capable of bringing people together, we can’t forget that the entire purpose of labeling is to keep like items in the same place, and to separate them from other objects.

Obviously, that is no perfect metaphor. If I, as a fangirl, spend a day with a hipster, some all-powerful, OCD-driven dude doesn’t reach out of the sky and stuff me back in my room with my laptop open to tumblr. I do that by myself What I’m trying to say, is that if one of your traits, hobbies, or interests earns you a label, that label does not define you. That label was created for a people who are similar to you, but are in no way, shape, or form, you.

Labels not only provide you with a name, they lay expectations on you. You are suddenly supposed to be the prime example of your kind. You’re not expected to exhibit any traits that are incongruent with your label.

And no matter what label you’ve been assigned, or what label you’ve chosen to identify with, you will fail. Plain and simple.

I’ve been called “geek,” “nerd,” and “fangirl,” all of which I tend to agree with, but I don’t watch My Little Pony, and I have no clue what Homestuck is. I’m not a straight-A student, I don’t enjoy science and I’m not good at math. I really enjoyed Iron Man 2 and 3. Do these things mean that my nerd card is going to be revoked?

Are the geek police going to burn down my house tonight?

[Please don’t.]

I am a Christian, and that word can sometimes be used as a label too. Not a bad label – I don’t regret my decision to be one – and I think that “Christian” is different from other labels because it cannot be assigned to you unless you assign it to yourself. But it still can function as a label, because it’s another title that I fail in. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Well now, that was quick.

See, I’ve failed in every label I’ve taken on, and I will continue to do just that.

No label is a perfect label, because labels do not work on us. 

(Unless you are an office supply)

Humans are not boxes of items to be neatly categorized. We are crazy, beautiful, and far too messy to be labelled in any cohesive fashion.

We’re just… so changeable.

I think we can all agree that we should not stuff something as important as our identities into a neat little box. Your identity is important. Don’t base it in anything more temporary than eternal, or anything more constricting than infinite.

So next time someone labels you, or you label yourself, or you label somebody else (It’ll happen. We’re human. We name stuff.), just remember that people are not office supplies; no human organization technique is one-size-fits-all.

You are the only you.

Own it.