Menage à Trois Bingo

I have really not been posting this year. Even less than normal. Which has in the past sometimes been a sign of depression but really has not, this year. I've been surprisingly content and happy, what with all the *waves at the outside world*.

Last real updates in February and March. Dance lessons! AirBnB night! All kinds of goals related to singing!

And then the world changed, and we've hardly left the house since mid-March. Choir rehearsals & concerts cancelled. I now work from home 100% (Tammie and Chris have been doing up to 3 days a week in the office but probably an average of 1 day/week over all, due to illness or covid exposure or whatever). I've put gas in my car exactly three times in eight months.

Tammie was ill for six weeks or so in the spring; at first we thought Covid, but it wasn't. We still don't know exactly what it was, but she's been on steroids and several other new meds and is feeling mostly better, although the meds have had their share of unpleasant side effects.

Chris is doing more-or-less the same as usual. He's recently received a VA disability rating: we finally convinced him to apply, after 30 years out of the army when he should have been getting disability much of this time.

Rosa and her dad were both exposed to Covid recently, while she was with him for the weekend. They got tests (his was positive, hers was negative) but neither of them showed any symptoms, and after quarantining together for two weeks she's just come back home.

I've been generally healthy, modulo the usual summer allergies. I walk the dog twice everyday (occasional exceptions for nasty weather).

Back in September my parents extended a Thanksgiving invitation to all of us (which would be a first; C&T have only been to my parents' house once, on a random weekend in April a couple years ago--we all stayed in a hotel). My sister and her family were also going to come up from California. I'd thought even then it would probably be a bad idea due to the pandemic, and Tammie was disinclined to go regardless unless I come out fully about our marriage (which I need to do, I know; we've been married almost three years now). Then a few weeks ago we found out that my sister's breast cancer had recurred, and she was going to be on chemo/radiation so wouldn't be able to travel, but Rivendell!we were still welcome....until last week when dad called to say sorry, he was going to have to rescind the invitation because Wisconsin is a covid hotspot. I said that's ok I was about to decline it anyway, since Missouri is a hotspot too and also Rose was just exposed. But I've set up a family zoom for the Saturday, and hopefully that will at least be nice.

CHARIS has been meeting virtually, every other week or so, which is NOTHING like real choir but at least offers a chance to sing and hang out. We all have to be muted, because internet lag would make the sound awful. But we did make a virtual choir video that I'm in, at 1:17:40ish of this cabaret showcasing choir members and friends.

Fandom has been kind of my refuge and community as well. I am still very fond of Good Omens but I have not been as connected to that fandom since September, because I fell in love hard with The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi. I did attend the virtual Ineffable Con in October--which I'd never have been able to do in a normal year, since it was based in London--and co-presented a panel on podfic, watchable here! (sorry about the first five minutes of tech issues)

I have been INCREDIBLY prolific with podfic this year so far. Over 48 hours, 400K words so far, and I hope to get to a full 50 hours. Doubt I'll make it to 500k words, but one never knows. I have a lot of time off the rest of the year, so it could happen. If I get 70K more, I'll have surpassed a million words total podfic (and nearly half of it from 2020).

And in completely unexpected news, I've been WRITING. Not a lot, and some rather niche interest pairings (lol), but still. It's basically all been MDZS, except for a few hundred words back in January on an HP/Amber crossover that I've re-abandoned subsequently. Here, listen to me and some friends sing an MDZS filk that I wrote. And then hate me for the next several weeks because that shit is an EARWORM.

Part of the reason for all the writing is inspiration from a new fandom friend, Ollie. They and I watched the last 20 or so episodes of the Untamed together (ie, starting the ep at the same time and live-reacting on chat) . We've been chatting A LOT on discord DMs, and they like to send me snippets of writing or plot ideas or headcanons. Which I started sending responses to, and now we have an actual co-written fic, a bunch of plotted/outlined/partially-written stuff, and one set of fic-written-by-them and sequel-written-by-me (to be published this week--with my shield or on it). Plus I have a (small) pile of ideas and outlines all my own. I am shooketh.

AND AND AND...Under the influence of my infatuation with MDZS, I started doing Chinese lessons on duolingo. I've done almost 60 days straight, and a total of 65 or so? But because I'm me, and always like to make things difficult for myself, I am ALSO doing Japanese at the same time. As my longtime readers know, I have a bachelor's degree in Japanese and was near-fluent once upon a time (in the late 80's/early 90's) but I've forgotten a lot. So I had been hoping that I could resurrect that knowledge as well, given that languages-not-english seem to all live somewhere similar in my brain. And it's been working, I think. I understand tons more of the anime that I watch with Rosa than I did even three months ago. Still use the subtitles some, but less and less.

How long I've been a fan depends on how you define it. How long I've been in fandom is rather a different thing, but again depends on which definition of fandom you're using.

I've been reading all the science fiction and fantasy I could get my hands on since I was a child. Literally: I received a special prize in a "kids' reading contest" at the local library the summer before I entered third grade (for anyone who wants to know exactly how old I am, that was 1976) because while I hadn't read anywhere near the winning number of *books*, the total number of *pages* I'd read dwarfed all the other entrants' totals--but the contest organizers hadn't thought about that when they set up the prize structure. One of those books was the Lord of the Rings (okay, three of them). To be fair, most of it went over my head and I didn't really come to appreciate it until I read it again at about age 15.

I read all the SF and fantasy my local library had, but was a fan alone for years. I had basically no access to TV shows until after I graduated from high school, but I did see a few fannish movies when my parents were also interested in them (yes, I stood in a line that snaked around the block to get into Star Wars, and I remember the newspaper ads that said "Held over! 16 weeks!!!" or such).

In high school though, I did find a few similar friends. The boys who liked D&D or SF were not welcoming to a girl, shared interests or no, but there were a few girls. One girl in particular was in my world literature class, and we spent most of that class hour all semester writing a collaborative alternate-sentence multiverse-spanning Doctor Who adventure involving a number of our classmates and whatever other assorted characters we felt like throwing in. Note that I'd never actually seen Doctor Who at this point, except maybe one or two episodes.

I found the early internet in college (ie Usenet groups). I was mostly a lurker though, and didn't really subscribe to fannish groups as they'd be understood here. I did read rec.arts.sf-written and the like, which were the version of fandom that organizes and attends SF cons, and I've attended a few of those over the years.

When I was a senior, I subscribed to the SF Book-of-the-Month Club, and that is where I encountered the first thing I became truly fannish about: the Chronicles of Amber. I no longer remember how I learned of the existence of the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, but I started playing it online sometime around 1997. I do remember how that happened. I had set up a pseudonym to use in a usenet group where I wanted to be anonymous (previously, when I posted--which was rare--I did so with my legal name). Said pseudonym was "Fiona of Amber", and I signed all my posts "semper, fiona". When I joined AOL in 1995 or so, I had the username fionamber. One day I received an instant message from someone that said "Hi mom!" She had an ADRPG character who was a daughter of Fiona. We RP'ed over IM for a while in a casual directionless way, and eventually joined up with someone who was running a AOL-chat based game. That game lasted...five-ish years? ADRPG is a writing-intensive game, and I wrote thousands of words of character journals, character memoirs, etc...all posted on my AOL webpage and now lost to the sands of time. Yes, I've tried the wayback machine. I think I had set my pages to no-index, and now they're gone.

I found livejournal in 2001, thanks to other Amber players I met once I started attending ADRPG conventions--I used to go to three or so a year. Now I haven't been to one since 2014, and the one before that was 2007. I suppose I'm due to attend again in 2021.

It took me a while to discover any fannish communities on LJ outside of the Amber community. I can't recall exactly why I landed on it or when, but I do know I started mainlining Harry/Draco fic around 2012 because it resonated for me with a relationship I was in at the time. I started subscribing to more and more LJ comms to find more fic.

The thing is, I was also aware of (though not involved in) strikethrough and boldthrough and racefail and the origins of the AO3 and many other fannish history items as they happened, so while I wasn't myself a member of the communities, I know I had many LJ friends who were. So obviously I was peripherally associated with fandom from at least '07. But, nonetheless, 2012 or so is when I started following for myself. Before long I also discovered podfics and downloaded tons of them to my phone.

I tried a few times to write something fannish, and for whatever unknown reason have been blocked. So having listened to hours of podfic, I had the thought that maybe if I couldn't write, I could at least *read*. I contacted my friend tryslora (someone I originally met through Amber who was also in HP fandom--so there's one of the crossovers) and asked her if I could make a podfic of one of her stories. She said yes, gave me some suggestions and also some names of other podficcers and links to how-to tutorials, and I was off to the races. Five years ago yesterday, I published that first podfic on the AO3. A few weeks ago, I published the sequel. I had meant to do the second sequel in time for the anniversary, but lost track of it at the last minute. Soon.

Might as well copy my answers over here.

Names I go by:Semperfiona, Fiona
Other Places I Can Be Found:
Livejournal: Semperfiona (my journal is empty except for a sticky post directing people to DW, but I still read my list every day)
Twitter: Semperfiona (I only occasionally read twitter unless I get a DM, and I almost never tweet--except for #ITPE 2018)
Tumblr: Semperfiona (I never log in and never post. I never really "got" Tumblr)
AO3: Semperfiona

The fannish platform(s) I am most active on is/are: Dreamwidth and AO3

My main contribution(s) to fandom is/are: Podficcing and cover art
Link(s) to my Masterlist(s): https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperfiona/works

Fandom(s) I enjoy: Harry Potter, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wonder Woman, Star Wars (no prequels, no TV), Discworld, Chronicles of Amber
I like lots of other canon, but haven't really gotten into the fanworks (yet?).

My favorite people/characters in this/these fandom(s) are:
HP: Someone's fic somewhere has made me appreciate everyone, except for Dolores Umbridge, Voldemort, and Bellatrix. But I'm partial to Draco.
MCU: Captain America, Black Widow
WW: Diana, obvi
SW: General Leia
Pairing(s)/grouping(s) I ship within this/these fandom(s) is/are:
HP: Drarry. Harry/Hermione/Draco (is there a ship name for this?). Wolfstar
MCU: I am open to almost any pairing/group, but mostly I've been reading femslash. Rather fond of the Polycule!Avengers though
WW: Gen, mostly.
SW: Rey/Finn/Poe.

The type(s) of fanwork(s) I consume the most is/are: Fic and podfic
Fanwork tropes/clichés I enjoy are:

Non-fandom things I enjoy: (hobbies, interests, job, etc…) Singing, reading, drawing, fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, quilting, weaving, sewing), stained glass
I post/want to post mostly about: Daily life, computer programming (my career), progress on my fanworks or crafts, occasionally politics although that's just depressing and I've lost interest

One thing I am good at: Math for crafters (how much yarn/fabric do I need, etc)
Other things I want to share about myself: Bi, poly, cis, old enough to have a kid in college

I seem to be getting more and more sense-sensitive over the years. By which I mean that smells and sounds that didn't use to annoy me are doing so more and more. Some of it also appears to be a heightened startle reflex.

I am not actually allergic to fragrances, as far as I can tell, but I do seem to have a sensitivity. I have to hold my nose and dash if I need something from the laundry detergent aisle at the supermarket, and I hate going into the ladies' room at work after someone has put perfume on. Enough fragrance at one time will set off a headache. But I don't mind scented lotions or soaps, and I occasionally use BPAL or light sprays of eau de toilette. Back in the day (probably more than 20 years ago now) I used to wear Poison. There's no way I could do that now, and while Tammie sprays about six or eight times when she uses her eau de toilette, I might do three...and I stay out of the bathroom right after she uses it. It dissipates quickly, thank gods.

And sounds, oh my god. I spend all summer in a mild state of irritation because my house does not have central air, so we run room air conditioners and fans instead. I hate the noise. Hate it. If I'm alone, I'll turn them off and be hot to avoid having to listen to it. Sometimes I go to another room and do that even when people are home.

Whining dogs. Both of our dogs have the horrible habit of whining constantly. The bigger one will also burst out of complete silence with a loud sharp bark that nearly always startles the hell out of me. I end up twitchy for quite a while afterward.

Dog chewing and licking and slurping. Both of the dogs lick themselves ALL THE RUDDY TIME.

Leafblower man. Our neighbor across the street runs his leafblower for nearly all the hours of daylight from February to November.

Styrofoam. I've posted about that before, long ago, but the very thought of styrofoam makes the hairs on my arms stand up.

Most of my sound issues are with mechanical noises, but there's a whole set associated with the dogs. I think those may be less sound issues than dog issues, but I'm not sure. The noises irritate the everloving shit out of me, but I don't mind the dogs when they are not making those noises.