wanderings

Today's snowflake challenge is goal-setting.

Because this is how I roll, I look at last year's goals first. I set myself one goal for 2024: to get a specific post out of my drafts. And I did it. I published a post I had started writing fifteen years prior about fanwork trailers. I would have taken deleting the draft as success, too. (It's really nice to have it out of drafts.)

This year I'm sticking to the one goal thing and I'm going to go with: publish a fic rec. I have so many incomplete drafts to choose from for filling that. I haven't done a tabs collection entry or fic round-up in almost two years and I have all of these themed rec drafts hanging about, too, so if I don't hit my minimum number of fics for a round-up there are lots of other options.

It seems like an achievable goal. I'm hopeful.

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

1.) (ETA: The poll has closed with my pick in the lead. Thank you!) This is a campaign. I am campaigning. I figured out my wishlist for Day 3 of the Snowflake Challenge late on the 17th, so I am posting it here, hoping that more people will go vote in an online poll.

tjs_whatnot made sad tragic noises about their pick losing snowflake_challenge's poll for today's challenge, and it's not like I had other plans, so I am just going to do the also rans here

2.) Dinner Party: You're having a dinner party, you can invite anyone--yes, living or dead if that's your thing--who are you inviting and why?

I'm going to interpret this as "talk about some people who you think might be cool", because in my heart of hearts I am getting myself a plate of assorted vegetable maki rolls and maybe a bottle of wine and I am inviting no one, even if it is an imaginary dinner party. Especially then, maybe.

So:

• Emily Graslie is the science communicator behind The Brain Scoop, recently back from a hiatus. She is so enthusiastic and interested in learning and is a joy.


• Joseph Saunders co-organised the inaugural black birders week and does some really cool wildlife photography that he posts on instagram - reelsonwheels - and does a whole other slew of things that you can find out about here


• Alie Ward is the host of Ologies, a science podcast about all of those different -ologies that people study. A typical episode features Alie in conversation with an -ologist and fleshes out that field. There are a lot of fields.


• Earyn McGee is a herpetologist, science communicator, potter, and dog-owner. She is afro_herper and responsible for #FindThatLizard. I am very bad at finding lizards.

3.) Happy Place: Tell us where you go these days to be happy. Whether that's a literal actual place or a space in fandom world that gives you the jollies.

The PWHL! Specifically, like, all of Montréal's games games, which have all been really exciting, with lots of good back and forth and scoring, containing some excellent hockey drama. I wrote about their first game here, for Day 6 of the Snowflake Challenge, and also the PWHL and North American's women's hockey in general. It is still a thing that is making really happy.

4.) Cast Your Fandom: (or recast your fandom if your fandom is already a show/movie/video). Give us your Dream Cast and tell us why.

I'm going with Persuasion, because someone needs to make a decent adaptation this century, and I'm casting by age, because I need all the help I can get. Ages in brackets are not specifically listed in the novel.

Anne Elliot is played by Lana Condor of To All the Boys I've Loved Before, who is apparently 27 (how).
John Boyega of Attack the Block, at 31, is Captain Wentworth.
Idris Elba (51) of Luther is Sir Walter Elliot, whose age isn't specifically listed on Persuasion's wiki page, but is old enough to have plausibly fathered a 27 year old, and also I want to see Idris Elba act alongside John Boyega and think that he might enjoy being Sir Walter.
Dakota Fanning (29) of Uptown Girls is Elizabeth Elliot, the eldest daughter.
Mckenna Grace (17) of Gifted is Mary Musgrove (she married young, right? My memory was sketchy and I think the family tree on wiki made me panic and maybe cast her too young, it's fine).
Jharrel Jerome (26) of Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse is Charles Musgrove Jr, because that's an age where he might have proposed to Anne first, right?
Claudia Black (51) of Farscape is Lady Russell, because I wanted someone born the same year as Idris and also Claudia Black.
Sarah Shahi (44) of The L Word is Penelope Clay, because that's young enough to be Elizabeth's friend, right?
Oscar Isaac (44) of Inside Llewyn Davis is Admiral Croft.
Tatiana Maslany, 38, of Orphan Black is Sophia Croft and is also the only person on this list that I have complete and unshakeable confidence that they would nail the accent in spite of not being British (I have a fair amount of faith in a good chunk of the others, also, but Maslany can do any accent, probably).
Dafne Keen, about 19, of His Dark Materials is Louisa Musgrove.
Isabella Wei, about 20, of 1899 is Henrietta Musgrove.
Jonathan Bailey (35) of Brigerton is Captain Harville, because I decided that was an age Wentworth's friend could conceivably be.
Vedang Raina (20) of Archie is Captain James Benwick, because I cannot make myself watch a much older man decide to marry a child.
Michael B Jordan (36) of Black Panther is William Elliot, because that's an age where a man might consider going for a 27 year old or a 44 year old, right?
Jessie Mei Li (28) of Shadow and Bone is Mrs. Smith, because that's young enough to have been at school with Anne.
Sophie Okonedo (55) of Slow Horses is Lady Dalrymple, because I couldn't remember how old she was and decided to make her a contemporary of Sir. Walter.
Tati Gabrielle (27) of The Owl House is her daughter, Miss Carteret, who I decided to make Anne's age.

Done. I refuse to do more research/reviewing or improve it. It cannot be worse than that other thing.

...and I have run out of also rans, so a vid rec:

5.) Masters of War (Pegasus Rising Remix) by bironic
Stargate: Atlantis | 4:02
Summary: The Atlanteans came, they explored, they destroyed lives and families and whole civilizations. The people of Pegasus have had enough.
Music: "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan (edited)
     + The Atlanteans and their actions from the perspective of the Pegasus Galaxy. It's a vid I've been thinking about lately, along with the ways in which the various Stargate series have always very clearly functioned as American military propaganda. This vid is a well-executed critique of the Atlantean narrative with some great audio/visual matches.

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The second game of the inaugural season of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL): Montréal at Ottawa January 2, 2024. (Youtube.)

The first PWHL game apparently made a lot of people cry, because of the significance to women, women's sports, hockey, these players, future players, hockey fans, etc.

That first game was unreal to me. I don't think that the existence of this league and what it means has sunk in yet. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, because I was a fan of one of the PWHL's predecessors, the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL), and when it unexpectedly folded in 2019 it broke my heart a little.

After the CWHL folded there were a bunch of players, many of them Olympic gold medalists, who didn't have a league to play in, until now. The difference between 2019 and now is ridiculous, just in terms of the resources that have been mobilized to support this league that weren't there 5 years ago. They're playing in bigger rinks, to sold-out crowds, televised on multiple channels, with a continuous stream of articles about the league and its players and games.

          The First CBA In Women’s Hockey Is A Picture Of The Future, And A Story Of The Past by Maitreyi Anantharaman (The Defector, Jan. 11, 2024.) does a really good job of painting a picture of what came before and how the PWHL got going.

          Liz Knox (interviewed for that piece) has been doing some really good press work in general, supporting this league and giving it and the reality of women's hockey context. Her December 3rd piece for CBC (How we built a women’s pro hockey league: Stories from a 10-year effort) is also a good read.

It feels like the landscape of women's hockey has completely changed.

When my hockey friend and I used to go to regular season games in Toronto we'd transit out and our walk to the arena would take us past residential dwellings. We didn't actually need to buy our tickets in advance, but we often did, and we'd show them to the volunteer running the table outside the rink and they'd scrawl "TF" on our hands. We'd show our marked hands to another volunteer who'd wave us in and then we'd go and pick out our seats. Nobody else I knew followed the league, though we did drag other people out with us on occasion, especially when there were bigger games, at bigger rinks.

Every single Canadian PWHL home game is sold out this season.

I had people from three separate friend groups texting me during the Montréal at Ottawa game, and it was such joyful hockey. It was fast-paced and exciting and there was wait, was that a goal drama, with lingering shots of the net, and I got to see players that I've followed for years, as a CWHL and Olympic Women's Hockey fan, play a game of hockey in a league that their player's union chose, and get paid an actual wage for it.

This is a dream that has been decades in the making. A chunk of these women grew up dreaming of playing in the NHL, knowing that they would never be allowed to do so, and they have worked for years for this, and now they have a league of their own, that is paying them real money to play. It is not perfect - another league folded to make this happen and players lost contracts, took pay cuts, and they have been rushing to get these women on the ice, to have them play, to carry the momentum forward. This is the season without logos. The team names are just the cities.

But you know what else it also is? This is the season where someone hugged their fiancée after they scored a goal and the play-by-play announcers dropped that into the commentary. When they took the photo of both teams after the game, someone went to hang out with someone on the other team for it. When players were asked about interview questions that they hate for a TSN promo interview/smelling salts challenge thing, people talked about bullshit rivalry narratives and being friends with people on the other team.

They're building something, and it looks pretty good so far.

(Games stream on the PHWHL's youtube channel and also on a whole host of other channels, especially if you're in Canada. CBC has their upcoming and in-progress games here and their archive here, including that January 2nd Montréal at Toronto game). TSN's broadcast schedule is here. Sportsnet's PWHL content is here. I am definitely missing things with this list - there's a lot of different coverage.)

This post has been adapted from a comment I left on luthien's post, "Snowflake Challenge 2024, Day 3".

1) I decided that I wanted to do more journal posts, so I signed up for Fannish Fifty and as of this posting have completed 14% of my entries, which is 1.75x what I posted all of last year, and also pretty good progress for a single calendar month. (It's working well for me and I am pleased with that.)

2) forestofglory posted in ladybusiness this week about the World Builders Book Club and their rec list for that, also linking to the storygraph page for it where there are more book recommendations. I don't have any immediate writing plans that would benefit from that kind of research, but I do love non-fiction and learning about diverse subjects, so I want to do a kind of quiet read-along and try to check off reading things in those categories. I'm setting myself a very pared back goal of four books/categories this year because I strongly suspect that this year is going to be a lot, and realistic goals are where it's at.

3) I also want to write 100 words for my WIP that I started as comment!fic in 2011 and have not updated since that year. I don't have to post those words, but I do have to write them. (I am trying to trick myself into eventually finishing this fic.)

This post was written for snowflake_challenge - details about the twelfth challenge are here - and also for fannish50.

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, time you spent in the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Last year I posted Meta on Reccing: A Rather Haphazard and Certainly Incomplete List to my journal, having started the process of making that post over a decade earlier.

I might pick it up again in the future and do some more work on it, perform some actual analysis, but I'm really happy just to have gotten it out there so that it's available to other people and that other people can read it and go there's a piece of 2006 meta talking about people beginning to self-identify as reccers and a 2019 piece posing the question of whether or not reccers and reccing are still needed, on the heels of a 2018 piece about people not being able to conceive of recommending fic at all, that's kind of cool or wow, there are really some repeating themes and cyclical discussions in meta, aren't there. I like that it's out there for people to use it, build off of it, or transform it however.

I like that it is no longer haunting my drafts folder, that feels like a major accomplishment.