Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer...

++ snowflake_challenge is hosting a fandom friending meme, which although posted a little while ago is still going on, if you're so inclined to participate.

++ Hearing what's going on with Discord, it's honestly worrying about how online privacy has been gradually dwindling away over the years. From what I remember, anonymity on the Internet has always been celebrated in the past, and online safety was heavily encouraged and promoted especially towards kids. Now, the opposite is happening where if you're not revealing your real name, age, or even your face online then you're automatically suspicious, which is ridiculous and such a bizarre 180 from the online safety etiquette that was drilled into me as a younger teenager (and truthfully it makes me feel horrible for the younger generations who are growing up online like this, not just for the privacy issues but also for not being able to be embarrassing online without it following you around in real life because of it). Of course, corporations pushing for this are doing so for their own agendas which is frustrating in itself, but that makes it even scarier considering all that's happening in the world now. *sigh*

Challenge #05: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

01. Icons Of: Huo Wensi and/or Huo Wensi/Luo Fei from the cdrama Detective L.

02. Recommendations of programs to create fanwork. This is quite a specific one because I've been itching for years to create something, from icons and graphics to fanvids because I have ideas. I used to have a program ages ago (Microsoft's Picture It!) which I created various things including graphics for the fanmixes I did way back when, but that was on an old computer and that program has long since been discontinued and defunct. I've been attempting to look for comparable programs, however my findings lead me to being confused and overwhelmed and a bit apprehensive on the legitimacy since some places are websites only instead of a program you download onto your computer, and even then I don't want to download anything that is going to take forever to load or cause problems, which I know is a risk for anything these days anyway.

So, my request is mainly for the graphic makers and vidders in fandom: what programs do you use, your pros and cons for them, how much of a learning curve there is and if there is good tutorial out there. Note that I mainly use my laptop, I don't do anything on mobile.

Challenge #03: Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

( My love letter to fandom. )

Challenge #01: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I'm a fangirl who has been involved with fandom for a very long time, started my online fandom journey on LJ in 2003 and I haven't stopped since. As one can see on my profile just a taste of the various fandoms and interests that I'm into.

When it comes to snowflake_challenge, I have participated in the challenge itself for some years because, ultimately, it's just fun. I like being given prompts where I can give insightful answers to, I like the level of engagement it provides with interacting with others with fannish interests, from just those on your friendslist to others who participated in this challenge. Which is another thing, last year was the first time I actively participated in the challenge by linking my posts to the community and reading/commenting on others who also participated in the challenge, as well. I miss fandom engagement like that, and that's why I like doing this challenge every year.

++ We had rainstorms from Christmas all through New Years, which was a great present for me because, yay rain and thunder! Unfortunately, our backyard did get a little flooded because of how intense the downpour was (it cleared up within hours, don't worry) and a lot of stuff did get blown around the backyard....one item actually flew out from our backyard and across the street. So, that was fun to retrieve. With that being said, it was a pretty chill Christmas and we welcomed 2026 with minimal fireworks due to the rain.

++ There is a New Years friending meme currently up and active.

++ I will be participating in this years snowflake_challenge, something I've enjoyed doing in previous years and last year was one that I was very active in commenting on other people's posts on various challenges which was fun. I'll be doing that again this year, I just need to find the right moment to do so because I've been kind of stressed this week alone with some personal things that I truly haven't had enough time to actually sit down and write something.

++ VERY IMPORTANT NEWS: I don't know how widespread this is at the moment, but it seems that LiveJournal is undergoing a recent change that will drastically affect all users, including Russian users. denise has already made a post welcoming Russian users who are importing their journals from LJ to DW due to this situation, but she has also appeared in various individual places in fandom communities imploring all people who still have access to their LJ accounts (personal journals or communities) to backup/import them to DW immediately. This is quite literally an LJ Exodus 2.0, but this does seem like this could really be final for many people, especially if they're attempting to gatekeep the website from anyone who isn't Russian or complies with Russian law, which isn't surprising considering the way things have been going since the ownership change years ago but it's still devastating to witness all the same. The fact that LJ used to be incredibly lively and has, gradually overtime, turned into a virtual graveyard of what once was a rich and thriving website featuring various communities (fandom, personal, other subcultures) is heartbreaking, and to lose all of that history would be even more so.

If you still have an LJ account please back it up, and if you know someone who does still have access to their account(s) also please notify them of this so they can also back up their information while they still can. Either importing to DW, saving and transporting fanfic to AO3, using the Wayback Machine, whatever possibility is available to preserve LJ/fandom history.