imhilien: Lady Riding (Lady Riding)
Well, the weather is up and down - some days it's t-shirt weather (hooray!) and then the next day it's put on those extra layers again. Sigh. How did it get to being December tomorrow? Some Dr Who trickery involved, I'm sure.

*whirring sounds*

TV I've Watched

I've finally caught up watching S3 of 'The Mandalorian' and I really liked it - the last few episodes made me feel happy about Star Wars again. I'm sure I've said I sometimes view the recent movie trilogy as fan fic because of *spoilers* what happened to the original cast. Must watch the new Dr Who special.

What I've Read

I loved the book 'The Fourth Wing' but after reading the sequel 'Iron Flame' I sadly felt the wheels fall off for me after the half way mark. I'm not sure how much I will be looking forward to the next book.

A new genre bookshop has recently opened in my city (hooray) and I went and bought 'All the Seas in the World' by Guy Gavriel Kay. Ah, it's so nice to have a good range of SFF books to look at again, instead of the familiar 'one whole shelf of those few for SFF must be taken up with multiple copies of Wheel of Time because there's no other SFF authors out there, ha ha' attitude that other places have.

Anyway, so this book by GGK is set during Renaissance Europe, but set on a world with two moons and there's magic too. He's written other books set in this alternate Earth, the best being the two Sarantine Mosaic books, set in alternate Eastern Roman Empire. They will break your heart at places though, so be warned.

What I've Seen

I haven't seen any movies for a while but 'Napoleon' is trying to get my attention. I've always had a soft spot for Joaquin Phoenix and I think I would almost be looking out for time-traveling Bill and Ted to nab him mid-battle for their school history assignment (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure).

imhilien: Lady Riding (Lady Riding)
July is winter here in New Zealand and it's windy and cold right now. I have an old, hand-me-down black faux fur coat that comes down just past my waist that I wear indoors over clothes. The fact that it is lined keeps me warm.

What I've Seen

I went to 'Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny' the other day. I wasn't sure whether to go or not, but when I heard it featured a fantasy version of the Antikythera device (a 2,000 year old machine made by Archimedes for moon calculations, found in an early 20th century shipwreck), my history nerd side lifted its head and said 'let's go!'. The film was better than I thought it would be and featured Mads Mikkelson (sp?) as the baddie. I saw the trailer for the new Mission Impossible movie but it left me cold, unfortunately.

We recently had the French Film festival at some local theatres and I saw the docu drama 'Notre Dame on Fire'. It's from the POV of the fire department who had to deal with the fire there a few years ago. Carrying all their heavy fire fighting equipment up narrow, medieval staircases would have been a nightmare. Then there was the melting lead roof that was literally coming down the gutters and had to be avoided too.

What I've Read

At a recent book club meeting a lot of people were recommending fantasy book 'The Fourth Wing' by Rebecca Yarros. I heard it featured dragons (hmm) so I read it and it was a page turner for me. A disabled, bookish woman from a military family is forced to train as a dragon rider. If she survives that, she must try and bond with a dragon. Simone St James writes paranormal thrillers with just the rightest amount of spookiness and her latest one is 'Silence for the Dead'. Set post-WW1, a woman on the run fakes her CV so she can work as a nurse in the countryside. She ends up at a place for soldiers with shell-shock but there's something creepy about the place. Also, all of the patients seem to be having the same nightmare. The book also looks at how shell-shock was seen as something shameful by society at the time, who didn't know better.

imhilien: New Zealand (New Zealand)
This song made me laugh - NZ begs to be part of 'Eurovusion'.


imhilien: Sad (Sad)
My city is under a State of Emergency (again) because of constant, heavy rain today. A lot of businesses sent people home at midday-ish so the roads and motorways will be clogged with people and also floodwaters possibly.

Sadly, someone has been lost - a group of school children had gone caving(!) today up north and it sounds like one of them got swept away. But seriously, what teacher thought it was ok to go caving of all things when heavy rain was forecast in advance.

I'm ok where I am at the moment; the rain is steady and I can't see any obvious flooding out in the street.
Feb. 14th, 2023 04:33 pm

Cyclone

imhilien: Rainbow (Keep Calm)
So New Zealand is currently under a State of Emergency because of Cyclone Gabrielle that's been working its way down the east coast of the North Island for the last few days. There's been a lot of widespread damage; evacuations, power cuts, cellphone towers down. I'm ok, the cyclone has moved away to the point it's stopped raining here but there's still gale force winds out there. People had been advised to stay indoors the last few days and off the roads. A friend of mine here in Auckland had a tree come down in her yard last night, luckily it didn't fall on her house.

The last cyclone that did this much damage was Cyclone Bola in the '80's. Usually cyclones from the tropics up north lose their power by the time they come down here, but every so often there's one that comes down ready to rumble. That's what happened this time. :(

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weather-news/300806079/live-state-of-national-emergency-declared-as-cyclone-gabrielle-smashes-nz
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge #14

In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge.


What were your top 5 fandoms for 2022 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. Lucifer (TV)
2. Exiles Saga / Galactic Milieu
3. Babylon 5
4. Star Wars
5. Phantom of the Opera

What were your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) you experienced fandom in terms of time spent?
1. A03
2. Tumblr
3. Dreamwidth
4. Reddit
5. Instagram

What are the top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
1. Write
2. Comment
3. Kudos
4. Bookmark
5. Art

What were your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions? (i.e. in terms of likes, kudos, reblogs, comments, etc.)

Stories on A03

1. A Choice of Roads
2. Winter Heart
3. Descent
4. The Right Thing To Do
5. Fallen Feathers

Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!

Top 5 Cool Evil Guys / Anti-Heroes

1. Jareth, The Goblin King
2. Marc Remillard
3. The Darkling
4. Phantom of the Opera
5. Darth Vader
imhilien: Tea (Tea)
Yesterday, Auckland had so much torrential rain that a State of Emergency was declared. Two people died and one person is missing. Parts of West Auckland flooded to the point that Search and Rescue needed a kayak to go from door to door in a neighbourhood. The airport was flooded and had to close and today only the domestic terminal is open.

There was supposed to be an Elton John concert last night but that was cancelled and so is tonight's concert. Today is fine but tonight around midnight we're supposed to have round two of Rain, ugh.

I'm ok, the kitchen roof leaked yesterday but it's fine now. It's been a day for eating chocolate, though!
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge #13

In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.


AU story recs for Dragonriders of Pern, Shadow & Bone and Lucifer (TV)

Read more... )
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
#12 - Set some goals for the coming year

- Try and find a job
- Work on that original story
- Write fan fic
- Keep painting

imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
#11 Talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme

I have a few favourite tropes, actually.

'Rag tag bag of misfits save the world' - A world is in danger, but there's only a group of misfits who can actually do something about it. But none of them are actual heroes. Never mind, they'll come up with unorthodox ways to save the day that a hero might have overlooked.

'Middle Aged Chosen One' - You're treated as a Chosen One, but surely you're the wrong age? Maybe you're dealing with trauma too, if you have day to day struggles, how can you save the world?

'Enemies to Lovers' - If only they can save the world, but they barely trust each other. What do they have to go through to get to that point

imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge #9

Celebrate a personal win from the past year.

A short story I wrote last year for the fandomweekly community was voted the winner for that weeks challenge. It was 'Saved by the Storm', a Star Wars AU.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36755818

imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge #7

In your own space, interact with a community or a fic.


Well, I belong to the DW writing group fandomweekly that posts weekly challenges that you can write fanfiction (or original) for.

A recent challenge was 'Hero' and I wrote a short 'Phantom of the Opera' story called 'I Can Be Your Hero'  for it. :)

https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/593358.html 
imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge #4

In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon.


For one of my favourite fandoms, the Exiles / Galactic Milieu saga, I'm recommending a podcast series two women did as they re-read all the books. Or the “magnificent family of weirdo psychic Kennedys” as they put it. :D

https://www.theincomparable.com/saga/

imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
In your own space, Scream Into the Void. Get it all out. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Ok. Well, I have a chronic illness and I'm trying to find a part time job in a pandemic.

Due to bureaucracy / pandemic / other issues, it might be a while before there's another sci-fi convention in my neck of the woods. Due to my health issues, taking a trip to another city having a convention is near impossible (also expensive). So I'm sad about that.

I write fanfic for a small fandom on A03 (Exiles / Galactic Milieu book series by Julian May). It can be tough thinking, 'Is there anyone else writing for this fandom right now? No, it's just me...'

imhilien: Fangirls (Fangirls)
Challenge: In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom.


Well, it's the 30th anniversary (eep!) of sci-fi TV series Babylon 5, which I'm a fan of. It's been called 'Lord of the Rings in Space' about a space station built in neutral territory so different alien races can work out their differences without things developing into galactic war (again). It's the show I always measure others against and sometimes they get there (The Expanse).

Many characters are flawed but try and do the right thing anyway. Even when I rewatch the show, some episodes will still have me on the edge of my seat. I'm on Tumblr and the #babylon 5 section has been more active in recent years, probably due to the show being on HBO Max, although I hear that's going to cease soon on that TV network.

I live in New Zealand and in ancient days of old we had to wait a year to catch up with America's episode screenings. My friends group got around this by having an American friend tape episodes on VHS and send them to us by actual mail. Then we had binge-watching sessions (and once annoyed the neighbours, but in our defense, we were watching Season 4).

That's certainly how much the show meant to us.

imhilien: Celebration (Celebration)
It's a new year, how did that happen? In 2022, New Zealand came out of another lockdown and I was glad to get back to my art group. I didn't get Covid or colds so that was a relief. Although we now have a new wave of Covid so I'm always careful when going out. Christmas and New Year was just a quiet one with my folks.

I recently went to the quirky English film 'The Lost King' about the woman who went hunting for the lost remains of King Richard III (is it a spoiler to say she succeeded?). She deals with skeptical people who think it can't be done and are reluctant to fund a search. Complicating matters is that after she goes to see a performance of the Shakespeare play about him, an imaginary (or is it?), gloomy version of him then starts following her around! But there is some humour with this at times.

I wouldn't mind seeing the new Avatar movie but at 3 hours, 13 mins I don't think my chronic fatigue brain would like that, ouch. Instant headache. I'll have to wait until the DVD comes out and watch it in stages.

Resolutions for 2023; my art group often has exhibitions so I want to put one of my paintings in the next one. I've only done this once before but it was one of my tiny paintings and that was nerve-racking enough! But I can offer a bigger one this time. Keep writing.  Try and find a part-time job.
imhilien: Lady Riding (Lady Riding)
I recently finished a painting of a castle and it's available in my Redbubble store as a greeting card, tote bag and other stuffs.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Castle-by-NicciArt/132074660.EJUG5

Tags:
imhilien: New Zealand (New Zealand)
I recently finished a painting of Rangitoto Island (or 'what's in the harbour') and it's available in my Redbubble store as a greeting card, tote bag and other stuffs.

NicciArt.redbubble.com



Tags:
imhilien: Rainbow (Keep Calm)
1. How many stars can you see in the sky at night where you live? (Not looking for an exact number here, just a general description.)

Quite a few; I live in New Zealand and I can see the Milky Way fairly easily, for example.


2. What is your favorite constellation?

Orion. In autumn, I can look out of my bathroom window at night and see it in the west.


3. Are you able to see and identify any planets in the sky? Which ones?

I see Venus the most. Sometimes Mars; if it's close enough I can think, 'yes, it's definitely the Red Planet'.


4. Have you ever seen a satellite orbiting above the earth?

Once or twice but only by sheer luck.


5. Have you ever seen a rocket blasted off into space?

No.
imhilien: Rainbow (Reading)
Passing on information from ruuger that it sounds like the people running fanfiction.net (ahem) may have actually run away a while ago. I can't log in any more so this may be part and parcel of what is going on.

Try and save copies of your stuff before the site vanishes some day soon. :(

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imhilien: Rainbow (Default)
imhilien

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