Too much Fandom

Supernatural is in its 10th and possibly final season (I heard that season 11 was confirmed and also that this was the last season if someone knows for certain please tell me down in the comments) and a lot of things are happening that I was not prepared for. As well as Homestuck ending its year long gigapause, instigating a microgigapause, and then updating every day for a week straight. It is honestly gotten pretty overwhelming after months of radio silence. I am not complaining, it is just a bit too much to take in at the moment.

These are all my reaction

In Supernatural, Rowena, Crowley's mother, has made a bargain with Sam Winchester to translate
the book of the damned in exchange for Sam killing Crowley. Sam struck the bargain to save his brother Dean from the effects of the mark of Cain, which is slowly turning Dean into a demon. The spell in the book of the damned will cause a great tragedy if it is used, so Dean refuses to use it. So Sam has been working on it behind dean's back.

On top of all of that, a family called the Steins is hunting for the book that they used to possess eighty years before. They used the book to cause tragedies like world war two and the hundred year war. They used to be called the Frankenstein family before they had to go underground after Mary Shelly saw their genetic modifications of extra muscle and two hearts. One of them goes after a friend of the Winchesters',, Charlie thinking that she has the book and ends up killing her. Before she died, she was able to crack the code of the book and send it to Sam and Dean. Although Dean will be much more reluctant to try the cure after what happened to Charlie.

Homestuck is a slightly better story, since Cal, the creepy puppet that has been a mult-iuniversial constant since the beginning, turned out to be a seed for bringing Lord English into universes at their ends so he can destroy them. As a giant time traveling skull faced god, he is rather intimidating and tries to fight with the heroes of the story. The heroes must tie his soul to the doll to win the fight, along with a version of one of the heroes, Dirk, and a troll named Euqius.

All of that was communicated through bad claymation by the ultimate villain. Ah, yes, that was worth the gigapause, definitely. It is, however better than the timeline where everyone except Roxy and John died off in a pretty terrible way, considering that they are mostly god tiers, who can only die heroic or just deaths. You would think that they would be less heroic and temporarily evil.

The major difference between the timeline where nearly everyone died and the one we are currently in, is that Vriska is still alive. Although she is my patron troll, I did not like her for most of the story, probably because of the occasional murders and maimings, but I actually sort of like her now. Plus, if it means everyone is alive and have cut the garbage and Davekat is canon, I am fine with this change of events. In a recent update Dave and Karkat were analyzing all of Johns feelings.

So that is what has been happening in both of those fandoms.

How have I changed this year?

Throughout this school year I have become better at writing and less self-conscious about sharing what I write. I normally just shared little ideas for stories and would never let someone read something that I wrote unless I absolutely had to. I think that I feel better that I have expanded my vocabulary as well as learned more about grammar than I probably would have ever wanted to. I am still quiet and reserved in most conversations and in classes, and I do not think that is going to change.

However, I am less afraid that my ideas and bad puns (and yes, there have been way too many puns in these blog posts) will be overlooked or ridiculed and have shared them with people other than my sister. I feel more comfortable talking to people in person, even though writing allows for more editing and revision to make the point you are trying to make clearer.

I have joined more fandoms and met so many people at conventions. It is easy to get sidetracked by my dozens of fandoms and I procrastinate about practically everything except for keeping up with them. I think I have gotten better at managing my time, probably not by much. Although my grades are doing alright, so it can not be as bad as I think. I also cosplayed for the first time and that was cool. I hope that it becomes a tradition to go back to Anime Bonzi for years to come.

How I changed this year

One of my really good friends mother died and she had to live with her extended family, and I miss her very much. Another friend moved to South Jordan and we have not kept in touch very well, and another friend can not go to school anymore because of allergies. I am grateful for the rest of my friends and am really glad that they are here and are so nice to me all the time. I have also found that smashing watermelons in parking lots is really fun, so thanks guys.

I have also volunteered more than I have in the past, and it was so much fun to work at Swaner and Furberbia on the weekends with my sister. I have stopped skiing for the Park City team, and I think that doing that was an important thing for me to do, since I felt like I had to more than I wanted to and it gave me more time to focus on things that matter to me, such as fandoms, friends, and doing well in school. Even though that sounded sort of sarcastic and rude I do actually mean that I like doing well in school.

I have changed very much in the past year and I am proud of what I have done. I felt happy with what was happening in my life, and although High school is more difficult than I expected, based on this past years experience, I think that it is going to be pretty good.

Fandom Terms

It has occurred to me that most people in the world do not know what an OTP is or maybe even what a fandom is. I figured that google would sort of come into play at some point or someone would use the context to learn what some of the things I say mean during my never-ending monologues. I have finally thought that this is probably overdue and I should explain some of my nerd slang.

Courtesy of Pintrest

The word 'fandom' come from mushing the words fanatic and domain into one word, it basically means a group of people that like the same actor, band, TV show, anime, book, webcomic, etc. The populations that make up fandoms are called fangirls or fanboys, depending on gender. These people are sometimes really closely knit groups in real life or online. Now, you might be wondering, what do these strange subcultures do besides share a common like for something?

These people sometimes cosplay, ship, draw fanart, write fanfictions, role-play, go to conventions, and worship their actor, band, TV show, anime, book, webcomic, etc. Cosplay is when a person dresses up like a character from their fandom and at Anime Bonzi most of what I saw was from an anime or Homestuck. You may have heard of ComicCon or something similar, but it is basically a gathering of fandoms that nerd out together and there are panels where people talk about anything from headcanons to origami to actors talking about filming.

Fanart and fanfics are fan created drawings and stories that revolve around characters in the stories or original characters created by a fan. Shipping is when you like the idea of two characters being in a relationship, and it can be platonic or romantic as well as canon or not. The acceptance of shipping varies from fandom to fandom. A Headcanon is an event or fact that someone likes. An example being that a character is secretly ticklish or what their height is.

Going back to shipping, the ship that you consider your favorite is called an OTP, and although it stands for One True Pairing, most fangirls have a dozen or more. A common word used by all fans is 'feels' as in feelings, because typing out ing is too much to do when your feels have been hurt. Finally an AMV or MEP are some fanart with music playing in the background. They stand for Animated Music Video and Multi Editing Project respectively, the main difference being that more people work on a MEP.

After getting such an amazing crash course in fandom slang, you are ready to dive face first into the world of fandoms and read this blog with a basic understanding of what I am saying some of the time. Either of those, or you are just really very scared and want nothing to do with fandoms or anything like them ever again and have probably stopped reading. Whichever one you are, you can now better understand some of the nerds you will meet.

The Hobbit and the Five Armies

When I was in sixth grade we were given the Hobbit as assigned reading. Now, it is a simple law of nature that even if the book you have to read is something you would like to read in your own time, the fact that it is an assignment practically forces the reader to detest it. I was the only one that actually read the book all the way through instead of relying on spark notes or hoping the person sitting next to me knew the answers to the chapter quiz.

So I really liked the Hobbit and am in the midst of reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy since I got the box set for Christmas. I was apprehensive about seeing the Hobbit movies because although directors have good intensions when changing things to "make the story better" the fans of the book are there to see a movie about the book, not something vaguely based on it. I am still bitter about the Percy Jackson 'movies'. Anyways, I watched the first movie when I was sick and I do not remember much of it, but I felt like it stayed true to the story.

My copies of LOTR and the Hobbit

Besides the dwarf love and general orc shenanigans that went down in the second movie, it was also fairly in sync with the book throughout it. However, leaving three of the dwarves in lake town did not seem like something that the other questants would have done and it was not canonical, but I can live with that. The final movie showed more of the battle than the book, since it was from Bilbos perspective and he was knocked out pretty early in the fight. Then again just leaving out an epic battle for control of a mountain full of gold would have felt sort of cheap and removed the need for a third movie.

 I was sad when Kili and Fili died, but mostly because a twin or both of them always seem to get killed in movies (Avengers) and books(Sea of Shadows). As a twin, I take offense. Plus they seem like pretty good guys. Yes, Kili's romance was heartbreaking and sweet, but that was not all that big of a reason to why his character was appealing to me. Maybe it is a twin thing, but I feel really sad when a fictional twin dies.

It also felt overly heavy-handed when they referenced the Lord of the Rings. There were some scenes that someone would be really confused about if they did not have previous knowledge of the other movies or books. Overall it was one of the better movie adaptations tha
t I have seen, and to be fair I am being rather knit picky when it comes to this sort of thing. I would highly recommend this for anyone who wants a good fantasy movie to watch or story to read and any Tolkienies (that's probably wrong) that are apprehensive about the movies, they are not perfect but they are certainly worth watching.

Rereading Homestuck

Most of the time I will not reread thing that I have already read unless significant time has passed after the first time I have read it. Homestuck however is very very long and with April 13, the anniversary of it's creation quickly approaching, I thought that it would be pretty appropriate to reread it. It is so weird to understand all of the things that are plot relevant and realize when something is hinting at something else, and just like that, I am as hooked in the rereading as I was the first time I read through the story.

A few homestuck characters

I just hope that there is enough time for me to get through it all before the comic is due to start updating once more. The creator Andrew Hussie decided to put the "internet odyssey" on hold to pre write and draw some of the comic in the past year. He began updating on the day it had begun the "gigapause" as fans called it. Since then he decided to go on another break, this time called the "minigigapause" for a few months. Just like with the end of the gigapause, MS paint adventures is probably going to crash, but I cannot wait to finally read more of the story. 

Of course it was fun to be able to watch and read all the Homestuck I could to catch up to the gigapause but it is alright having periodical updates. I have forgotten how confusing it is to read Homestuck, and how funny it is. I have also come to the conclusion that Dave is basically the biggest of all the nerds and I liked it better when their biggest problems were shale monsters and not an immortal Lord of Time bent on destroying everyone and everything in the universe. Ah, the good old days. 

Plus the Youtube comments on the videos are amusing to read, because they are a mixture of new Homestucks confusion, old Homestucks reassurance that they will want to read it no matter how boring or confusing it is, and atrocious puns that deserve an award for their existence. I am at the end of act two where the Wayward Vagabond stumbles across a spaceship in the sand full of food and does what any logical person would do in his place. He built a town out of the cans he found and proclaimed himself the mayor by writing an R on a label for mayo and sticking it to his chest. See what I mean? Homestuck used to be so simple and easy to follow. Just wait until act five, you will see what I am talking about here.

The Amazing book is not on Fire

The Amazing Book is not on Fire

Two of my biggest role models and influences wrote a book together. I may seem calm, but I honestly cannot stop freaking out right now. The release date is October eighth 2015, which seems to be a magical day for book publishings, since the last two years both Blood of Olympus and House of Hades were released on October eighth. 

This seems to be a good years for Dan and Phil since they have started a co-gaming channel, written a book, and announced a tour in the UK that may be taken international (fingers crossed for that). I am really happy for the success of some of my favorite people. The Amazing book is not on Fire tells various antidotes about Dan and Phil’s lives, including Phil’s teenage diary, Reasons why Dan’s a Fail, advice on what to do in an awkward situation, and what happened in Vegas. Dan promised to upload a vlog about what they did in Vegas, although he never did which has lead to much speculation by the phandom. 

They say on their website that they also have a test to see which of their dinning chairs represent you emotionally. I would probably buy it based on that alone. They are going to be uploading a making of video, so we know that the book was not “ghost written” where the celebrity tells a few personal facts and someone else writes it without getting any credit. Many youtubers are partnering with publishing companies like Penguin Random House to write books and Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil really got into all of the choices they could make, like in the book trailer, the cover, and even the texture of the paper. 

I think it will be a well written book with plenty of humor since Phil graduated from the University of York with a English Language and Linguistics degree and Dan is naturally very articulate person if he cares to sound that way. They are both giant nerds if you could not tell from the fact that they have a joint gaming channel, so I am going to bet that there is going to be a ton of silly references.

 I cannot wait for the tips for drawing the perfect cat whiskers, so if you see me walking around looking awesome with loads of sharpie on my face, you will know where that came from. It is kind of difficult to believe that they could keep a secret of this magnitude quiet for so long but i am proud of them for being able to do it. Another thing is that it is already the number 1 book on Amazon after it’s announcement yesterday and thousands of people have pre purchased the book on their website. 

Whatever is in the book, I want it, so I am going to go preorder it right now. The future looks really exciting for the two of them, and I can not wait for what the future might hold for them and their fans around the world.

Grey's Anatomy (or the unexpected virtue of fangirling)

One fateful day on Netflix, my sister and I were looking for something new to watch together, having just finished two animes and the sitcom How I met your Mother. We then stumbled across something that looked interesting on the recommended for you list called Grey's Anatomy. We decided that it would be okay to try it, and we were at season two before the end of the week. There are ten seasons up on Netflix, and the eleventh is currently airing. The rest of this blog post will contain spoilers, you have been warned.

Wow those are a lot of scrubs

This is a pretty great show, and coming from someone who is not a big fan of realistic fiction, I liked it. My knowledge of tumors and how to read a MRI has improved indefinitely. It starts with Meredith Grey and the four other interns assigned to Miranda Bailey as they start their year of internship and the subsequent four years as residents. Meredith's best friend is Cristina Yang a extremely competitive heart surgeon, and the other interns are Alex Kerev, the guy who has the worst human skills ever, Isobel (Izzy) Stevens, the girl who got through medical school by modeling, and George O'Malley, who was basically a human Bambi. In a later season Seattle Grace merges with Mercy West hospital and April Kepner and Jackson Avery are introduced to the group. George also dies in a bus crash after pushing a stranger out of the way and Izzy is diagnosed with cancer.

The Attendings that teach them are Derek Shepard, Meredith's boyfriend (later husband) and top neurologist in the country,  Preston Berek, Cristina's boyfriend, who leaves after Cristina freaks out at their wedding (heart), Addison Montgomery Derek's wife(ob/gyn),  Mark Sloan the reason Addison and Derek split up (plastics). After the first season we are also introduced to Arizona Robins (pediatrics), Callie Torrez who marries George, divorces him, and marries Arizona (orthopedics), Miranda Bailey who is like their mom (General), Owen Hunt an ex-military surgeon (trauma) and the chief of surgery Richard Webber who is like a grandpa (general). Teddy Altman is the heart surgeon that replaces Berek.

The first five seasons are sort of less intense, Meredith reconnects with her dad and his family, including her half sister Lexi a surgical student a year younger than her at Seattle Grace who has an identical memory and the average relationship drama you would expect from such a show. Then there are about five minutes where things are okay before the end of season 5 when things looked good, and then George was hit by a bus, Izzy's heart stopped, and all at once, every season finally got a little worse. There is a shooting and Derek, Lexi, and Richard are the targets, Derek's Alzheimer's research is ruined, and the doctors are in a plane crash that kills Lexi and Mark and causes terrible areophobia for most of the rest of the doctors. Basically every tragedy less than a meteor hitting the hospital has happened, but I am only on season eight, so the meteor strike might still happen.

Despite the occasional trama drama combo it is a engaging story that is fun to watch.