guingel | ok yeah this wasn't even going to be an intro post and now it's my position on everyone in hockey

ok yeah this wasn't even going to be an intro post and now it's my position on everyone in hockey

Hellooooo livejournal! As is my annual tradition now, I'm posting right after I went to the US Open. XDD But I don't have pictures yet so I'll post ABOUT the US Open some other time.

I've recently made a bunch of new friends through the friending meme/prompt challenge post at

home_ice. I kind of got the impression that a lot of people like me came out of the woodwork - newish hockey fans (or new to fandom) who have been enjoying hockey fandom on tumblr but who haven't been able to make new friends and have been really missing the community aspect of livejournal fandom. Anyway, everyone seems totally delightful! It's really, really exciting to have people to gab constantly about hockey and hockey RPF and cute hockey players with! I haven't gotten my twin sister into hockey yet (although she's much more mildly interested in the fanfic side of things than I am anyway, plus we don't talk about smut that much - but we're usually very much on the same page about players and people who we like) and she's great for squeeing to normally, which takes some of the pressure off my internet life.

I kind of focused a little on friending people who were on twitter, because that's where I do most of my social networking these days. And then I proceeded to tweet like a maniac for about 12 hours straight. XDD I... got a little excited? Bored at work + suddenly know a bunch more people who care about the stuff I'm excited about + also lbr a willingness to share anything that pops into my head = word vomit. It doesn't hurt that I'm the world's least laconic human being - except when I'm trying to write fic, for some reason. So I'm sorry to anyone who suddenly found that their entire timeline was me. >__> I'm going to be much busier the next couple days, at least? (I might declare an unfollow grace period - I really feel like people don't necessarily know the volume of tweets they might be getting when they say "oh yeah, let's be friends!" and I want to give them an out before they loathe me, haha.)

So yeah, quick current fandom rundown, although this was touched upon in the meme - mostly doing the sports and sports RPF thing these days: hockey, soccer, tennis. Big into Avengers, have been an avid reader of the DC Universe for much of my adolescence but they're a steaming pile of crap lately. Was really into Sherlock and Teen Wolf fic, and reasonably into both canons, but not so much anymore. Various Joss stuff is always relevant. Terry Pratchett enthusiast. I'm leaving a bajillion things out - I need something to be excited about, something to throw myself into and learn new things about. When there's no new fandoms, I'll start reading loads about Antarctic exploration or WWII spy technology. [ETA: also was very much into Japanese boybands, especially as produced by Johnny's & Associates - TOKIO are my favorites, of course, also into V6 (old people yay) and Arashi and at various points Kanjani8 and NEWS. And I've watched a certain number of dramas, although none recently.]

I'm also a fervent feminist (but absolutely in no way a radfem) and am always attempting to be more and more anti-racist, and I do tend to post serious shit sometimes or launch into rants. Currently trying to address some of my transphobia & ableism problems so I'm a safer space than most places but not totally safe.

Soccer: Schalke and Real Madrid. Absolutely wildly in love with Raul. Used to be a Liverpool fan but I was already moving away from them and I was so disgusted by the way they handled the Suarez racism incident that I'm not more than a casual fan now. My aforementioned sister is a huuuuge Arsenal fan and since she cares a lot more than me, I'm fairly invested in them as a result of caring about her emotional state. XD Also hugely into women's soccer. I'm madly in love with Spanish superstar Vero Boquete, which she probably knows because someone LINKED HER TO THAT POST and also to these gifs, which were posted at a point when my entire tumblr was filled with Vero gifs I'd made. I am often in small fandoms and have a lot of fourth wall problems. DX

Tennis: David Ferrer! Samantha Stosur!! Andrea Petkovic, the entire Italian Fed Cup Team, most of the Spanish Davis Cup Team, Andy Murray, Tommy Robredo... probably loads of people I'm missing. There's a lot of room in my heart for tennis players. I've been pretty lazy about following it lately.

HOCKEY: I grew up on Long Island, but when I got into hockey, I knew they'd been terrible and wanted to save myself the stress and pain. I wanted hockey to be a little more chill than my experiences with soccer! And

kikigirl stepped in and got me into the Pens (YAAAAAAAAAY) and I explored various other teams as well, but we weren't able to get affordable tickets to see the Pens play the Rangers, and I really wanted to see an NHL team while the blush was still on the rose, so I checked out the Islanders and discovered that I could get really great seats to see them play the Tampa Bay Lightning for just $65 (not cheap, haha, but cheap for pro sports tickets). And I was laughing when I told people at the time, because of all the NHL teams to see, the Islanders vs the Lightning seemed like... well, like no wonder I was able to get discount tickets!

And then it was. Such. A good. Game. It was the April 6th game that the Islanders won 4-2 and I actually did manage to write about it in my previous entry so I won't go on about it but basically I was hooked, and totally in love with the Coliseum (and so was my dad! He hates the fighting and wasn't a hockey fan, but he's a good dad so he went with me and I'm so glad he had a good time, and now he's totally an Islanders fan too :333). And then the Islanders started kicking ass!! (I became a Pens fan just before they went unbeated through March, and I became an Islanders fan just as they started rocking their way through April, JUST SAYING.) So dad and I look like bandwagon fans, but we actually snuck in just before! But just in time for stuff like this! (I used tumblr as an LJ a couple times so I'll link to those here now cos I'm compulsive like that. XD)

So of course I HAD to try to get playoff tickets when the team I just fell in love with made it to the playoffs for the first time in...6 years? 7? That whole saga is in my previous entry but wooooow watching the Pens vs the Islanders was so emotionally destructive for those first few matches. XDD It was NOT "i like them both, I'll be happy whatever happens." It was "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BABIES WAIT BUT NOOOOOOOO" and the Islanders lost the first game 5-0 and I felt SO BAD for them and tumbljournaled some feelings. And then... they totally won the second game. Except after the first one I was like "shit I can't watch this alone again" so I made some friends (not into hockey) go to a bar with me, but they were mostly showing the Knicks. And the Islanders went down and I got drunk as hell and they tied and I was still drunk and we went to get dessert and the Islanders won! So I kind of didn't fully experience that game. But I was SO relieved that I wouldn't be seeing an elimination game!!

And the Islanders lost their first home playoff game in overtime, after an epic game - they hadn't won a home playoff game in 11 years. UNTIL I SHOWED UP. And it was an absolutely incredible experience which I luckily already wrote about. The atmosphere, though!! The dressing rooms at the Coliseum might be from the dawn of time, and there might be just five stalls in the bathrooms, but it is a GREAT place to watch hockey. It was absolutely electric - dad and I were both so tense, and the game was completely wild and intense and amazing.

So. Yes. BUT I also adore the Penguins!! It took me a while to find a player that I wanted to latch onto - I just am wildly in love with Sid, and I love Geno, but because I developed a love for the Penguins instead of falling into it, I wanted to have a player that wasn't one of the two most famous players in the world to latch onto and have my own feelings about... and it ended up being James Neal? XDDD Haha I also love Tanner Glass, and I have Duper and Flower feelings like all right-thinking human beings, but awwww Nealsy is my pretty, confused little darling! NGL if I ever find out he's intellectual I will be kind of sad.

I'm a pretty relaxed shipper, btw - if there's a character I love, I'm happy to ship them with anyone, but I have pairings I love and I have a couple OTPs. I am totally into how fandom writes Sid/Geno, I'm also delighted to read Geno/Nealsy, I savored our brief dalliance with Brenden Morrow/Nealsy, I coo over Paulie and James, someone is writing a Sid/Mario/Natalie series that I am reading over and over... I'm very easy.

I actually don't read as much fic about the Oilers, though - they're my third team. I don't have the same relationship with them as I do with the Pens or the Isles though, yet - just a lot of warm, cuddly affection. But yeah, it's not that I don't ship Ebs/Hallsy, it's that I'm... not aroused by their dynamic? So I'll read oodles of posts about what the two of them get up to, but not oodles of fanfic. Nuge, I am into. Throw in Nuge and his prettiness and his quiet seriousness and maybe a touch of vulnerability in his position, and I will read any combination of Oilers. Or Gabe Landeskog. [ETA: I feel bad for not mentioning all these other teams that have loads of players that I love - Canadiens and Hurricanes and, to be completely honest, Rangers are probably atop that list.]

Blackhawks and I, by the way, have a cordial relationship. I enjoy a lot of their players - I'm very into Bollig/Shaw, I'm REALLY into Johnny Odouya. Patrick Kane kind of broke my ability to suspend my disbelief about him not being an obnoxious bro (I don't necessarily think he's worse, he just made it impossible for me to pretend I'd like him at all, and I don't have a lot of respect for him) but if a fic establishes a character for him well, I can still embrace the fanon version most of the time. I prefer Jonny-centric fic, especially when he's more vulnerable. I am really into vulnerable Jonny Toews... I am really into vulnerability full stop!

I used to have an absolutely raging crush on Jonny Toews, but it's faded a bit - the bro thing maybe, but just that he's... I have a crush on 2010 Tazer, when he's young and a prodigy and a bit insecure in his position. Now he's pretty confident, and I'm not into him as much - not a reflection on him as a person. (or on anyone who is still into him, of course!) I am SUPER into him at this Team Canada camp thing, he's looked so sweet and excited and THIGHTASTIC.

So yeah, that's a lot of words about a team I don't follow but since there's a lot of squee about them around - I am basically squee-ready and fanfic-ready but unlikely to initiate.

Anyway, these days I spend a lot of time crushing on John Tavares. Even though he's by far the Islanders most popular and well known player and I totally thought I'd have to find a James Neal, it turns out he's not so popular in fandom that he can't meet my obnoxious hipstery needs to like someone different (although of course they're all my babies - Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo are probably my two other biggest faves). And I adore Johnny. He's... intriguingly hard to place? He contains multitudes. Very competitive multitudes. When you see him with people he knows, like PK or Matt Moulson, he's kind of giggly and relaxed. When you see him with the media, he is so endearingly, heartbreakingly awkward and a bit shy. (I am DESPERATE to find a way to gif his press conference when he signed his contract extension but you really have to hear it.) This is the side that gets set up to live with Doug Weight and then Matt Moulson when he first joins the Islanders, you know?

And then on the ice, he's a leader. A first overall draft pick who is the reluctant face of a struggling fanchise, pulling it out of obscurity. The only guy the media talks about, the guy that the other teams gun for, the guy that's expected to make things happen even though he's still basically the youngest in the room. And he's always been someone whose talent has been widely discussed, who's been expected to carry a lot of weight on his teams and live up to a lot of pressure.

It's all a very interesting combination - is he confident, cocky? Does he like to be in control? Or does he like to be taken care of? I love each aspect so much, and I love the combination. But it does make him hard to fic! But I ship him with EVERYONE anyway. :D I am honestly trying to become a semi-competent writer of fanfiction primarily so I can maybe increase the volume of Johnny fics in the world.

Haha everyone else has been writing great little posts about something in fandom, and I'm like "HERE READ ABOUT ME FOR AN HOUR". But I like knowing that the people I'm dealing with know who I am, I guess? (haha I hope so, given how personal I got on tumblr this morning!) I like representing myself accurately - I hate when people put words in my mouth or make assumptions about me - it's probably why I go on so long, I want to really express every feeling. Idk. Anyway, I do have some more generic fandom-related thoughts that I was going to put into this post, I didn't actually set out to make an intro post!! But given my tendency towards long-windedness, I will have to just cut myself off here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're a twin too? And your twin is also into fandom or more into the sports side of everything? I ask because I'm a twin, and my sister and I are both in fandom, and I think it means that I look at fandom differently than I might if she weren't. If that makes any sense at all.

I actually don't read as much fic about the Oilers, though - they're my third team.

I am... confused. Also, fair warning, if you are not overly invested in the Oilers, I may very well be v annoying. (If you don't care about Junior hockey, I can promise you I will be.) If I get too annoying for you, feel free to unfollow me.

haha I root for the Oilers and I care about the players, but I (1) don't identify with them as heavily as with the Pens and Islanders - at the moment, my emotional well-being is a little bit more divorced from their successes/failures, and (2) just happen not to read a lot of fic about their most popular ship, eve though I adore both players involved and totes think they're in love. Does that clear it up at all?

I'm not super into junior hockey, but - you follow the Oil Kings, right? i was wondering if you had any opinions/feelings about Griffin Reinhart? As an Islanders fan, I am of course intrigued!

I am a twin! It's the best. :D My twin is... she's into fandom but she doesn't participate in fan communities the same way as I do. She's about as into tennis as I am, and at this point much more into soccer - she follows a bajillion athletes and reporters on twitter and listens to so many podcasts about everything, and she reads books and articles about tactics and is a lot more committed in that way. But she doesn't read much fanfic, even though she doesn't mind slashiness, and she doesn't try to interact with other fans. However, even though her approach is more, I don't know, serious? She still has a fandomy attitude towards the players - she's interested in their personalities and their relationships.

But I agree that having a twin sharing these interests really changes my experience of them - but our experience is more that I filter through fandom for her and she filters through information for me, I guess! So it's not quite like her being in fandom. But we can spend hours talking about our shared interests!

lolol. Fair enough. And (1) is probably the best coping mechanism around for dealing with their recent form tbh. I personally find it impossible to engage in any sort of sports fandom outside of my specific areas of interest. For example, with football, I find it impossible to engage with anything that doesn't directly involve either Real Madrid or the Spanish national team. I know a lot of people who can separate fandom in a sort of fic writing/reading sense from the actual sport, which is a skill I greatly admire because I cannot do it.

My current Griffin Reinhart feelings can be best summed up as follows: don't leave us, Captain! ;_________; But seriously, he is an amazing defenceman and a great leader for our team. I'm pretty sure he is/was super well liked in our room, and when I've had the chance to interact with him (not something I enjoy doing tbh but my sister does, and the Oil Kings habitually do autograph signings for their fans), he was unfailingly polite. And really great with the kids. Also, he is really fucking tall, which may partially just be perception on my part because I am not very tall, but yeah. I have a very vivid recollection of seeing him in his walking boot last spring in a terrible, plaid suit and thinking, holy shit, that kid is tall. (Also, could I sound any more like a creeper? I promise, I am not.)

Ah, that's super interesting to me tbh because my sister basically interacts with fandom in the same way I do, so I spend a lot of time shouting across our apartment about stuff. And she puts up with watching sporting events with me, which can be a trying task.

I'm not a good sports fan when I don't care about the team or player, but I'm a great fangirl - that is, I don't get that much out of watching games or matches that I'm not invested in, but you can definitely get me to care about a player who isn't on my team - or in some cases, on a rival team. (Less so in football, though. Maybe in MLS.) I'm finding that my player interests are even more diverse in hockey than usual, which is probably a reflection on the more laid-back approach of fandom as a whole? It could just be the different ways I've approached the fandoms, but I feel like in football, fans of each time are a little more insular - in hockey I've found more quality blogs that just post a lot of cute player pics from a variety of teams, instead of having to follow team-specific blogs (although I do that too). It could also be, actually, just that the scope is less intimidating. Hockey fandom is almost entirely NHL players whereas football fandom for me includes about 4-5 leagues, publishing PR materials in several languages I don't speak!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww I'm sorry you'll be losing Griff soon but I'm so excited/optimistic about him playing for us within a couple years! Yay for bbs with leadership ability! Reading your description is making me all bouncy and excited. :DD (Totally with you about not wanting to interact with the players btw. It's just awkward at best!)

Yeah, somehow Katie and I end up on the same page about most of the players/teams, and share inside jokes about everything, without actually spending any of our time doing the same thing in our online pursuit of fandom material.

I agree the scope of the fandom is a lot smaller when it comes to hockey. Even though I know people who follow smaller leagues, it's almost like everyone has the NHL in common?

hahaha. I just want him for one more year so that we have 3 d-men who have played in the WHL on the team. :/ So many of last year's team have either aged out or are moving on to their pro careers. D:

It is SO NICE to have all of these new lj posts to read! :D I've been blissful for days about it in a very silly way.

ALL THE TEAMS is the most fun way to read hockeyfic! Or at least ALL THE GUYS because I thoroughly support not getting too down when the Oilers are failing HARD, even if I do want the fic about them in all possible combinations. I need a lot of Nuge fic because he is so pretty, except that he is inconveniently quiet, and it's difficult to find plot in things like Sam saying he's "too nice".

There should absolutely be a lot more Johnny fic! If you ever need a beta or someone to chat ideas with, let me know. I loooooove doing that kind of thing, and I really need there to be more fic about him. His team just loves him soooooooo much. :D

I've barely been checking LJ for the past couple years, it's so nostalgic! Although it keeps telling me to update the style for my friends page, which is from the dawn of time, but I'm afraid to!

I was saying above, coming from soccer where there's 4-6 relatively well-known leagues with news in at least 5 languages, following loads of different teams and people in the NHL is so easy!! And I love finding out new things, so slowly extending my tendrils of interest to more and more teams should keep me interested longer. XD

I would definitely LOVE to chat fic and Johnny and Johnny fic with you!! When work gets quieter (or possibly before then) I'll probably be sending out plaintive "does anyone want to gchat?" tendrils on twitter, haha. It's really hard for me to establish a character for him... he has so many different sides, and there's so little fic about him, and a lot of it I think is... from people who are less immersed in the Islanders, so they only see certain sides of him? I could be totally wrong about that, of course, and it's not like I've seen him mischaracterized anywhere! But I'm not particularly good at characterization, and I'm quite new to writing fic, so to be faced with this guy who doesn't really have a solid fanon is challenging! (tbh writing fic in general is challenging to me, but I will probably keep plugging away until more people are writing about JT, haha.)

Also, when it comes to smut, I'm usually more relaxed than I probably should be about characterization - I mean, it's good for me because I can enjoy a wide range of things, but it's bad if I want to produce something that other people can actually enjoy, and don't really feel the need to think too hard about the actual person! But it's probably why I'll read anything about Nuge. He's like a blank slate, which actually makes it easier for me to imagine him in kinkier scenarios than some of the other guys? ...Which is often what I'm looking for, haha.

I've been grimly checking it, but I have to admit, there's usually only one or two posts a day, even though I'm still a member of a bunch of comms that used to have posts every 10 minutes. :P

Hockey's just so incestuous! When you come into it from info about the players, it's so hard, at least for me, to care desperately about team rivalries because all these guys have friends on both sides!

Wicked. :D My gchat/gmail is lidabet so feel free to hit me up whenever (I'm online a lot, but also terrible about remembering to list myself as offline/busy when I am, btw.) Yeah, there are very few Isles fans in this fandom so far, and I'm pretty sure the rest of us are basing all our characterisation on two or three videos and some general impressions. I have a lot of John headcanon because of plotting fic, but I don't know if it's accurate to anything except itself.

Hmmmm, it varies for me? Like, I totally agree that you don't need a reason for someone to be into kink, people often just ARE, but then there's ways to play it out that can ping me as wrong? Like, it's not my headcanon, but I'd read Johnny doing kink. Otoh, if he's acknowledging that it's kink, I can't imagine that he hasn't done at least a little research and isn't prepared. If he's supposed to be really into e.g. restraints, he'd better have some planned out and also have done all the things the websites tell you to do re: spare keys or ways to cut people out of them if necessary. You don't have to go into serious detail about that stuff, but if it's really obviously not happening, I'll find it implausible because he's so conscientious about everything else. Does that make sense?

I am soooo much less stressed about rivalries in hockey! Of course I root against the Rangers, but I love half that team. And I have stronger feelings about Philadelphia, and a couple other teams that I tend to root against, but I still have crushes on various players on all of them. XD In soccer I have a whole bunch of teams that I just despise - the lack of salary cap and authoritative league structure don't help, either - there are serious imbalances of power and resources.

I'm usually on as starryhandfish at work, but I'm almost always logged on cos that's the account that I use to email myself fic to read during breaks. ;) So I'll try to actually mark myself available when I can genuinely chat.

Johnny keeps things pretty close to the chest, so you're probably not ever going to be proven wrong, at least! (That's a really nice way of saying he often has no visible personality, hahaha)

I think what I have is a willingness to chuck away major parts of their personalities - to simplify everything, even if it's into a stereotype or trope. Like if you (generic you) just took the fact that Johnny's young and Cal Clutterbuck used to call him "his little pigeon" and ignored, like... Johnny's drive and intensity and seriousness and just wrote him as a sweet little bunny that just wants to cuddle Cal, I'd totally be into it. Or if you were just like "Nuge is quiet and young, let's write him as totally submissive," I could run with it, and not be too bothered even if I also knew of parts of his personality that totally conflicted with that.

On the other hand, of course, fics that can build out of a player's character, so you can really recognize the player and then give depth and meaning that rings true to all their actions and motivations, it'll be a much better fic and I will enjoy it more - but I can definitely just roll with the flat, stereotype-y, exaggerated ones without being too bothered, and still totally get off. And then also sometimes write like that as well. XD BUT if someone is building up characterization, and not just relying on a trope, and THAT doesn't fit with the actual person (or rather, their public persona), then I'll notice and be put off.

Yeah, the closest I usually manage is that I want some teams to win more than others because I care more about how sad their players are.

Sure. :)

Ahaha, truth.

I see where you're coming from, and I can do that generally, if I think about it as situational? Like, Johnny is super driven and focused and I couldn't read fic where he explicitly ducked out of all his important obligations to cuddle with Cal, but I could definitely read shorter fic that focused on the cuddling. I can believe that there are times when Johnny might rather be petted and called ridiculous things than do anything else, and it doesn't mean that at other times he doesn't want to be serious and driven.

Also, because I will read all the fic about virtually anyone, I tend to think in terms of at least matching part of someone's characterisation to the trope? To use Johnny as an example yet again, I just don't understand the appeal of using him for a trope about e.g. being sloppy and careless as a matter of routine, when that's never seemed to be any part of his character, and there are lots of other people who fit it better, if the trope is what you care about.

Yeah, that makes sense - you'd have to simplify with short fic anyway! I guess it's something where I see other people complain, like "uuuuuugh this fic just uses all these cliches (i've been searching for that word this whole time) and uuuugh it's so OOC" and I totally see where they're coming from, but if the fic is hot enough, the things that seem to bother most of my friends don't really bother me that much.

I'm totes on the same page with matching to the trope though - especially given how many options there are in hockey! It's quite different from other fandoms for me - especially tv show fandoms with about five characters, of course.

That's fair! I'm just super picky about porn, so I'm a lot more likely to be meh about it and busy noticing the cliches, though if it works for someone else, more power to them!

True, though I think a lot of my favourite tropes are more "something happens" tropes, so it's more about how would X react differently than Y anyway, even when there's only a few options.

You know, I bet that's it! I am way less picky about porn - the pornier something is, the less picky I am. Or, well, that's only if there are kinks I like, really. It's to the point where I mentally separate between written erotica and written porn, where erotica might contain porny bits, but it's the content of the story that matters and makes everything hot. Whereas porn the characters don't really matter and I'll read original works and stuff that is pretty badly written and totally enjoy it. (I know in the world of fanfic we'll say porn for anything with smut, but I think in general use, a lot of people use porn for video and erotica for writing and that is definitely giving too much credit to some of the stuff I read!!)

I know what you mean, because I've definitely read tons of stuff where it was totally OOC or cliche or whatever and I didn't care because HOT. I'm just really picky about what hot means. Which is totally my problem and more a question of idiosyncrasies than quality, I will readily admit.

I've never thought to distinguish between porn and erotica, to be honest, unless we mean visual vs. written. Porn sounds filthier, I suppose, but I've read so many delightfully filthy things, which also went to the trouble of establishing contrast and character. Ymmv, obviously.

Yeah, it's more a distinction that I just make in my head, and it's more about me acknowledging that whatever I'm reading has no artistic value beyond its ability to get me off, haha. Whereas what I'd categorize as erotica can also totally get me off and be full of filth, but it'll have some quality of plot or character development or emotional content. (Although the non-fanfic porn I read is always operating at an extremely high filth content.)

Anyway, these days I spend a lot of time crushing on John Tavares.

Who doesn't, really?

Only cruel or disturbed individuals ;)

Now the next thing is to turn everyone's crush on JT into them caring about the Islanders, haha!

It's one of my goals in life to increase Tavares fic in fandom :) if I could only stop writing Sid and Geno.

It's basically the primary reason I write any fic. XD "Maybe if I can write good enough JT fic, other people will realize that they should too!!"

Of course, Sid & Geno are always a good use of your time! :)

The wonderful Sam/John stuff recently has made me such a happy girl. I can't lie, either, the increase in press for Johnny is a great thing. The Islanders can't hide him anymore :D

Johnny had BETTER be heading to Vail so people get more Sam/John inspiration!!

I knooooooooooowwww on the one hand, it makes me randomly really happy that the Islanders shielded him a bit, and kind of looked after him and set him up with Doug and protected him like the precious darling he is. But on the other hand, even though he's laboring away in obscurity, tucked off on Long Island, he deserves to have all the attention and accolades!!

Heeeeyyyyyy, it's so great to hear from you again! ^______________^ I'm not on tumblr or twitter (... they look confusing! D:), so I kind of miss most of the fandom interaction nowaday. (I kind of feel like my own grandma, who's like "yes, yes, by all means do your internet thing! ...And then you can give me a digest, yes?")

I've read a lot of Avengers fanfiction in the last year, and I'm SO EXCITED for the whole "Agent of SHIELD" series, you can't even imagine! Mostly because, while I enjoy the whole "people in the limelight are awesome" stuff, I absolutely LOVE the "people behind the scenes who're making sure that everything works out" stuff so much! *-*

I'm also into Sherlock, but not the fandom, just the series - it's the one portrayal of Sherlock Holmes that comes closest to the way I always imagined Sherlock Holmes and John Watson to be from the stories (which I read before I ever watched any kind of adaptation). Btw, since it's my newest interest - have you ever listened to "Cabin Pressure"? It's a series of radio-plays written by John Finnamore (?sp?), starring Benedict Cumberbatch. It's about the crew of a small charter plane and it's delightfully nerdy. If you don't know it, I recommend it, I think you might enjoy it. ^-^

I'm a ...kind of low-key Hockey fan? I mean, I'm a dutiful fan of my home team (YAY, GO HAMBURG FREEZERS!!), my dad and I go to games together (since it's not one of the big leagues, it's not that expensive), and I do follow the most important NHL updates, but I'm not into the fandom so much. I do read some fanfictions, though! I kind of like the Keith/Seabrooke pairing (I like Defensemen!), but I'll read pretty much anything that looks well-written. (And I kind of enjoy the whole "Sidney Crosby is a robot, Geno is the one who understands him best and the NHL are the worst foster home ever" stories. ;P)

Hiiiiiiiiii!! Yayyy, so great to hear from you! I've been meaning to leave a comment on an old entry of yours or something, just to see how you were doing! (but I see you've updated now :D) I'm going to try to be on LJ more, but it'll probably be quite fannish. There's quite a lot of stability in my life right now, I guess. I keep starting to write super duper serious entries pondering various social issues, but they're such delicate subjects that I'm usually satisfied by getting my thoughts out, and I publish them as private. Hopefully I can get back into the habit of writing stuff that isn't monstrously long.

Agent of Shield looks like it should be so awesome!! I'm pretty terrible about motivating myself to watch TV, but I have very high hopes! It's such a cool idea and I think they'll have fun with it. Have you watched any of the animated Avengers show? I've only seen bits of it but it seems really cute. Although i think it got cancelled...

I've heard of Cabin Pressure, but I have't listened to it - although I've seen a bunch of fanworks for it and it seems pretty charming! I can't actually tell anymore what my mental image of Sherlock and Watson was from the books. Sherlock was kind of unknowable to me, I think? I've reread a bit since watching various adaptations but not enough to really get a grasp on things, I'll have to do that. I don't think I pictured him as being quite as harsh as Sherlock, I guess, although he certainly operates on his own rules of social interaction.

Awwwwwwwww, Hamburg Freezers, that is so cute! I don't know, I'm always so charmed by the names of European hockey teams? They seem slightly goofy in the same way that MLS team names seem a little off. Everything I know about European hockey I learned from players who went over there during the lockout, although aforementioned favorite player John Tavares was in Switzerland, with SC Bern.

I have not been able to find enough fic about Duncs and Seabs for my liking! And I also love the robot!Sid fics! I've seen people get defensive on Sid's behalf and it's true - after being exposed to a lot of fanon Sid, when I actually saw him in interviews I was like "wait, he is a lot more socially competent than fandom makes him seem" - although he is still somewhat awkward. But I like when people make him even more awkward in fic because... I relate to it so much!

I'm totally fine with other people being fannish on LJ! Actually, I like it, because it means I get to participate in fannish stuff in proxy, without having to do any of the work. XD And if I'm not interested in it (truthfully, while I know several people in football fandom, I never really got into it), I can always ignore it. ^-^

And it's great to hear that you've got a lot of stability in your life! I hope you'll keep it as much as possible!

I don't watch much TV, but I do like having one or two things a week to look forward to on TV (or downloaded from the internet, when it's not available yet where I am... *cough*). Last season I watched "Hannibal" on NBC, which was really cool; and at the moment there's a six episode TV adaptation of Jane Eyre on the French/German culture TV channel that I like to watch.

European hockey team names are ridiculous! XD But they wear their names with pride... or as much pride as you can have when you have such a name! XD The German press likes to call the Freezers "die Eisschränke", which is a literal but extremely old-fashioned translation of the word "freezer", which amuses me to no end. But it's a lot of fun to watch them, because while they're definitely not on the same level as the NHL players (the German teams have a lot of guys from the North American minor leagues, so that's probably about the level the German league is at), it's a whole lot of fun to watch them and they've got a lot of dedicated fans who ensure that there's a great atmosphere during the games.
I'm still mourning the fact that I didn't manage to watch the game between the Freezers and the Berlin Polar Bears (Berliner Eisbären) when Danny Brière and Claude Giroux were playing for Berlin during the lock-out. I have a certain fondness for Brière as a player (and as a person, after I read that his girlfriend is in the armed forces and was supposedly stationed in Afghanistan, because that would make him pretty much the only hockey player in existence with a girlfriend who's more badass than he is) and really, the chances are slim that there will be another opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world play my home hockey team. But, oh well, it wasn't to be. ^-^

I'm kind of glad that there are the "Sid's a robot" fics, because I've found that the only way I can comfortably read RPF is when there's a certain level of alienation from the "real person" happening that I'm aware of; and a good way to achieve this alienation is, I think, to consciously exaggerate one aspect of their public persona. So, with Sid I'm comfortable reading about him being a very socially awkward person, even though he probably isn't as awkward in real life, and with Duncs and Seabs I'm very comfortable reading about them being totally married and soul-bonded for ever and ever, but less comforatble about reading fic about them breaking apart because Duncs got real-life married. (Plus - it's totally more interesting reading about Sid being or at least feeling absolutely socially awkward, because it's something that I can identify with. XD)

Yes, stability is good! Hopefully I'll have some roommate stability now - so far so good, but I feel like every time I've LJ'ed about my roomies, something has gone awry. XDD We're staying out of each other's way a lot so nothing to report, anyway.

I'm way too much of a squeamish wimp to watch Hannibal, but I love the fandom - the goofy jokes and stuff that people make to offset the intensity of the show (like so (http://lecterings.tumblr.com/tagged/shenannibals) - the lame joke series has been cracking me up!!) and I've read some detailed summaries and stuff.

Yeah, it seemed like the fans took a sort of football atmosphere ethos to the ice hockey, which is kind of cool. (And again, kind of like how MLS has an American fan approach - that a lot of football purists find weird.) I was going to bring up Danny and Claude, haha - I love them!! Especially Danny... even though they're an incredibly cute pairing, I'm pretty glad he went to Montreal, because as a Penguins fan I'm contractually obliged to be anti-Flyers. ;) He seems like a great guy, even though he's a slightly dirty hockey player.

And funnily enough, your feelings about going to see them during the lockout are kind of like how MLS fans approach our "Designated Players" - the ones who are allowed to break the salary cap, usually former European stars. So sometimes you'll plan to go see your local team when the team with the DP that you like is going to be in town.

I FEEL EXACTLY THE SAME WAY ABOUT RPF. The more it seems like the author is really trying to probe at what the person might really be like, the more it seems like they might think that the pairing they ship is real, then I get really uncomfortable with the whole phenomenon. To use someone's public persona for inspiration or a fantasy, I think is basically ok - I understand that some of the subjects might be uncomfortable with it, but I think part of that is that it's not well established that most of us are really not thinking about the characters we write about as being actual them!

OMG that lame jokes series! XD XD XD And yes - the show is so dark and so grim, that really, the only thing you CAN do is laugh and make lame jokes. Which makes the fandom (at least the parts that I have seen) really sweet, I find - unlike some other fandoms, where the show is nice and funny, but the fangirls are the most rabid people ever seen. O_o

I was going to bring up Danny and Claude, haha - I love them!! Especially Danny... even though they're an incredibly cute pairing, I'm pretty glad he went to Montreal, because as a Penguins fan I'm contractually obliged to be anti-Flyers.

I love the Danny/Claude-Pairing! (And so do the North American news, apparently. XD) But I'm also apparently a very bad person, because when Claude moved out of Danny's house and Sean moved in, most of the fans' reaction was kind of "DO NOT WANT", while my first thought was: "DANNY BUILDS HIMSELF A HAREM! XD".
So that's my mental picture of Danny Brière: The guy who builds himself a harem of young hockey player. v-v"

Yes, the fandom seems totally delightful! I'm really enjoying playing around in it even though I don't watch the show. XDD

loooooool the Sean Couturier fic I mentioned in the teeth comment was pretty much about Danny building a harem. (Um, with some daddy!kink in there as well.) Pretty young French kid? Move on in! Haha get it, Danny.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ok yeah this wasn't even going to be an intro post and now it's my position on everyone in hockey

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