Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 5

Stretch yourself a little and try something new. Go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing. Try working in a new medium. Or consume different fanworks. Give that new fandom a go. Listen to a podfic or watch some vids if you haven’t before. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

This one was tough to think of something to do! I read pretty widely and capriciously, so stretching my fic-reading boundaries was out. I thought maybe I'd try recording a short podfic before remembering that I really don't like listening to my own voice. In the end, I stuck Pokémon White in my DS and started playing my first Pokémon game.

I bought my DS used, and it came with several Pokémon games (Pearl, HeartGold, and White) that I have been side-eyeing for the past month and a half. I had no clue whether I would like playing Pokémon or not. On the one hand, lots of cute things to collect! I like cute things! (They are possibly my favorite part of video games.) On the other hand, I have a couple friends who are way more into Pokémon than I will ever be who put me off the series. And a third friend scoffed at me when I told her I might play one of the games.

But I'm about two hours into it and thoroughly enjoying myself. I have a fluffly little otter as my main pokémon! So far I have been able to navigate the menus and win battles with relative ease, so I am doing pretty good skill-wise I think. And it is free to stay at the inn! I do like that. I only have four pokémons on my team so far, so I expect things will get slightly more complicated after I capture my seventh pokémon. But yes, I have enjoying what I've played of Pokémon White and am glad I didn't wait for months on end like I probably would have without this challenge spurring me on.

Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 6

In your own space, pimp recommend three comms or challenges and explain why you love them. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1) fandom_on_dw & fandomcalendar are both great resources for finding fannish activities. fandom_on_dw focuses on any sort of fannish activity as long as its on Dreamwidth, and fandomcalendar focuses on fannish events (e.g., big bangs and fests) no matter the location. It's fun to see all the different activities and a good way for me to increase the chance of coming across something I find interesting.

2) month_of_meta is a fest in March that seeks to produce and promote fannish meta. I like seeing all the thinky thoughts fellow fanpeople have, so I think month_of_meta is a great idea and would love if more people participated.

3) shakydismount/shakydismount is a comm for fannish, feminist parents (and others) who are concerned about gender representation in the media that their little ones consume. It's not very active and I feel that I have to add the caveat that I don't have any kids myself, but I think it's an important community. I'll probably make more use of it once I'm an aunt and wanting to find things for any nieces and nephews I have.