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Sep. 17th, 2013 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnyYou spin meme right round baby, right round
List 15 of your favourite things
ACK I DON'T LIKE IT THERE IS TOO MUCH HOW THE HELL DO I ACK
I like so many things, okay, so many. Um um um. I am going to have to be very bigly wide in my nominations, I think? Like, I could tell you my 15 favourite musicians or artists or places or whatever, but 15 favourite things is absurd and too much.
Okay. Calm. We can do this, Nny. In no particular order:
1. Music through big headphones.
I remember the very first time I used headphones. It was the over the head foam-padded metal-banded sort you got with Sony cassette walkmen. I have no idea how it came so late in life, because I must have been at least 12, but I remember just being blown away at the fact that I had music that no one else could hear, and I remember being so delighted that the music was somehow inside my head. Big headphones, the ear covering sort, make everything so much better because the music doesn't have to compete with the world. These are my headphones from Urbanears, but you can get much cheaper pairs; they are very good headphones, though. For an awesome headphone experience I would recommend Back From Space by Amon Tobin because of the all-encompassing soundscape, or What A Catch, Donnie by Fall Out Boy because I just listened to it and it made me cry a little.
2. Stained glass.
I love stained glass. It started out as an extension of my love of sacred spaces, cathedrals and churches, but now I have an equal appreciation for secular stained glass. I love any art that's dynamic and changes with the environment, and although the V&A stained glass section is incredible and beautiful it is a little sad not to see them with changing light pouring through them. Obviously some of my favourites are in Winchester Cathedral, because it's my favourite space for a reason; Edward Burne Jones (artist who also did the Perseus Cycle that I love) has some there. I love the history of it, and the changes that are evident over time, and I like how it influences current art (Banksy, for instance).
3. Tea.
I love tea. Not to be too predictable or anything. I love the comfort of it, the tradition of it, the monotony of the English tea making ritual. I love how creative people are with it, but while I think that the fannish blends available on Adagio and the like are geekily fantastic and a seriously awesome use of creative fannish energy, I much prefer to buy my tea in person, especially when I'm buying something new - the familiar can be bought online if necessary. For the everyday, I like Mr Scruff's English Breakfast when I can get it, and Twinings Assam when I can't. When I'm looking for something new my favourite places are The Tea House in Neal Street, Covent Garden (just down the road from the big Forbidden Planet), and Char in Winchester. I need to find somewhere local, clearly. :D
4. Secondhand bookshops.
Oh god, I'm coming off as a horrible hipster, aren't I? I just. The smell. I love clambering about between stacks of books and lopsided shelves, I love the idiosyncrasies of labelling systems and what shopkeepers prioritise, I love finding things I never would have considered looking for in mainstream bookshops. I love unexpected bargains (especially if the shopkeeper is a little outraged and huffs about mistakes, hee). I love that secondhand bookshops are always cool on summer days and bloody freezing in winter. I love most of all Hay-on-Wye, which is a town shaped bookshop. L-Space lives there. I also really want to go to Barter Books.
5. The sea.
I'm not even going to explain this one. I can't explain it, not in words rather than high pitched and flaily noises. Just. The sea.
6. Pretty dresses.
This one's been kind of a long time coming. Anyone who's read this journal for a while knows that my relationship with my self-image is ridiculously uneven and frequently appallingly abusive. For a really long time I was defiant about pretty dresses, and it was a weird sort of double negative - the defiant insistence that people shouldn't care what I look like with the underlying negative self-image that was sure people couldn't ever approve of what I looked like. So it's been kind of a struggle which has wavered back and forth, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I do really like dresses; I like how they feel and how they look and the fact that they are an outfit on their own.
I have a wardrobe full of black and white dresses with a couple of grey for variety; I like that because it means I can accessorise with any colour I choose; I like stripes and spots best. At the moment my favourite dresses are from Top Shop and New Look, but if it's pining I'm going to be doing I go and pine at Mod Cloth. This, this, and this are a very quick selection of my current pinings.
7. Fanfiction.
Um. Obviously? It's obvious, right? I mean. I've been reading fanfic since the age of 13-ish. That's nearly 18 years now; my fanficcy soul is nearly old enough to drink. I started off in X-Files fandom, somehow stumbled into the Severus Snape Fuh-Q-Fest, and through that came to the wonderland that is livejournal. My particular favourites are believable characterisation, well-done AUs and absurdly long build-ups with huge dollops of pining. Here are my bookmarks on AO3, and at some point I'm going to organise them on a tumblr I've set up for the purpose, but it hasn't been started yet. I do have another, however, for a particular sort of rec:
John Sheppard Loves You is a tumblr dedicated to 'A collection of declarations of love, both canon and fanon, from various fandoms and from characters who would rather climb the outside of a skyscraper than discuss their feelings.' I don't update it often, but I recommend everything on there.
8. Postcards.
The ones I've received so far in this house are stuck to my wardrobe, and the collection I got for my 30th were without question the best present I could have hoped for. :D I like sending them too!
9. People's bedrooms.
OKAY THAT SOUNDS REALLY WEIRD. I don't mean to be weird! I just really love seeing people's spaces, and I guess apartments, houses or flats stand in for this; calling it bedrooms stems I think from student days, when bedrooms were the only part of a place that were really yours, and they were all completely different and reflected people's personalities in awesome ways. I love seeing people's decorative choices and I love looking at how the spaces is arranged reflects how they use it. People always apologise for the mess, and I don't think they should, because it reflects their personality and life in a way that neatness doesn't, unless that neatness is automatic and constant, which reveals things of its own.
I am horribly nosy and I like knowing stuff about you guys. Why else would I be on blogging sites?!
10. Heating device disguised as sleepy-happy baby or cat.
11. Urban fantasy.
Mostly I think that putting things into genres is kind of limiting, and I put into this particular genre a lot of things that others would define as YA fiction, because YA doesn't define anything other than the age of the protagonist. I love the whole idea that there's a whole other world or culture or set of powers just a half-step out of true, and while I know that none of it is true I don't give a good goddamn because it belongs to the world I want to live in. Rivers of London is the current book series of my heart, for reasons of actually being good and having an awesome diverse cast of characters who are all interesting and have agency, a beautiful architectural look at London and its history, and a carefully considered type of magic woven through it. Genre also loved in TV, although that is usually slightly crappy for various reasons, and rarely likes its women.
12. Anthropomorphism.
Specifically of my possessions. I like naming things and having things to name, so I have a whole bundle of action figures and cuddly things scattered about the room I currently inhabit. It's going to sound awful and self-pitying but it's really not, when I say that I think it springs from aloneness. (Please take note of wording - it's not necessarily or always about being lonely). I grew up with three siblings and two parents in a teeny tiny house, and our means of communication has always been loudly and lengthily verbal, with humour woven through every interaction. I had problems with the humour through my teenage years, and I'm probably still the most sensitive to being harshly mocked in the family. It's definitely influenced my interaction with people, though, and when you graduate to being mocked it means I trust you not to turn on me, which is a seriously Big Deal.
(This is in fact an important character note. I pretty much have no secrets and will tell potentially embarrassing stuff to practically anyone, but if I'm teasing/mean to you, that means I trust you and love you).
So yeah - I name things and have things with faces around so I have someone to mutter and rant at when there's no one else around.
13. Travelling.
I can't do this as much as I want because I have responsibilities and security is more important to me; I don't really have anyone to fall back on. I mean, my parents would take me in in dire circumstances, but dire circumstances are not wanting to go on holiday. :D I also suck at budgeting and I'm choosing to spend saved money on a masters, so.
Still, I can do it on a small scale, and I absolutely love spending time on trains. Time spent on trains is guilt-free reading time, time I couldn't really be doing much of anything more productive. It also is an opportunity to look at beautiful scenery, and it's kind of hilarious how completely sidetracked I am when a train runs past any body of open water. The person waiting on the other end is the point, of course, but the travelling is a delightful bonus.
14. Sharing.
I love sharing! I love introducing people to new things, and making people taste what I'm tasting and touch what feels nice to me and telling them why and listening to why things are so shiny cool.
15. Imagining.
Especially the part where it bubbles under the surface and suddenly something clicks into place and there are whole new dimensions to the imagining and it seems entirely organic, beyond your control. Imagining is best.
List 15 of your favourite things
ACK I DON'T LIKE IT THERE IS TOO MUCH HOW THE HELL DO I ACK
I like so many things, okay, so many. Um um um. I am going to have to be very bigly wide in my nominations, I think? Like, I could tell you my 15 favourite musicians or artists or places or whatever, but 15 favourite things is absurd and too much.
Okay. Calm. We can do this, Nny. In no particular order:
1. Music through big headphones.
I remember the very first time I used headphones. It was the over the head foam-padded metal-banded sort you got with Sony cassette walkmen. I have no idea how it came so late in life, because I must have been at least 12, but I remember just being blown away at the fact that I had music that no one else could hear, and I remember being so delighted that the music was somehow inside my head. Big headphones, the ear covering sort, make everything so much better because the music doesn't have to compete with the world. These are my headphones from Urbanears, but you can get much cheaper pairs; they are very good headphones, though. For an awesome headphone experience I would recommend Back From Space by Amon Tobin because of the all-encompassing soundscape, or What A Catch, Donnie by Fall Out Boy because I just listened to it and it made me cry a little.
2. Stained glass.
I love stained glass. It started out as an extension of my love of sacred spaces, cathedrals and churches, but now I have an equal appreciation for secular stained glass. I love any art that's dynamic and changes with the environment, and although the V&A stained glass section is incredible and beautiful it is a little sad not to see them with changing light pouring through them. Obviously some of my favourites are in Winchester Cathedral, because it's my favourite space for a reason; Edward Burne Jones (artist who also did the Perseus Cycle that I love) has some there. I love the history of it, and the changes that are evident over time, and I like how it influences current art (Banksy, for instance).
3. Tea.
I love tea. Not to be too predictable or anything. I love the comfort of it, the tradition of it, the monotony of the English tea making ritual. I love how creative people are with it, but while I think that the fannish blends available on Adagio and the like are geekily fantastic and a seriously awesome use of creative fannish energy, I much prefer to buy my tea in person, especially when I'm buying something new - the familiar can be bought online if necessary. For the everyday, I like Mr Scruff's English Breakfast when I can get it, and Twinings Assam when I can't. When I'm looking for something new my favourite places are The Tea House in Neal Street, Covent Garden (just down the road from the big Forbidden Planet), and Char in Winchester. I need to find somewhere local, clearly. :D
4. Secondhand bookshops.
Oh god, I'm coming off as a horrible hipster, aren't I? I just. The smell. I love clambering about between stacks of books and lopsided shelves, I love the idiosyncrasies of labelling systems and what shopkeepers prioritise, I love finding things I never would have considered looking for in mainstream bookshops. I love unexpected bargains (especially if the shopkeeper is a little outraged and huffs about mistakes, hee). I love that secondhand bookshops are always cool on summer days and bloody freezing in winter. I love most of all Hay-on-Wye, which is a town shaped bookshop. L-Space lives there. I also really want to go to Barter Books.
5. The sea.
I'm not even going to explain this one. I can't explain it, not in words rather than high pitched and flaily noises. Just. The sea.
6. Pretty dresses.
This one's been kind of a long time coming. Anyone who's read this journal for a while knows that my relationship with my self-image is ridiculously uneven and frequently appallingly abusive. For a really long time I was defiant about pretty dresses, and it was a weird sort of double negative - the defiant insistence that people shouldn't care what I look like with the underlying negative self-image that was sure people couldn't ever approve of what I looked like. So it's been kind of a struggle which has wavered back and forth, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I do really like dresses; I like how they feel and how they look and the fact that they are an outfit on their own.
I have a wardrobe full of black and white dresses with a couple of grey for variety; I like that because it means I can accessorise with any colour I choose; I like stripes and spots best. At the moment my favourite dresses are from Top Shop and New Look, but if it's pining I'm going to be doing I go and pine at Mod Cloth. This, this, and this are a very quick selection of my current pinings.
7. Fanfiction.
Um. Obviously? It's obvious, right? I mean. I've been reading fanfic since the age of 13-ish. That's nearly 18 years now; my fanficcy soul is nearly old enough to drink. I started off in X-Files fandom, somehow stumbled into the Severus Snape Fuh-Q-Fest, and through that came to the wonderland that is livejournal. My particular favourites are believable characterisation, well-done AUs and absurdly long build-ups with huge dollops of pining. Here are my bookmarks on AO3, and at some point I'm going to organise them on a tumblr I've set up for the purpose, but it hasn't been started yet. I do have another, however, for a particular sort of rec:
John Sheppard Loves You is a tumblr dedicated to 'A collection of declarations of love, both canon and fanon, from various fandoms and from characters who would rather climb the outside of a skyscraper than discuss their feelings.' I don't update it often, but I recommend everything on there.
8. Postcards.
The ones I've received so far in this house are stuck to my wardrobe, and the collection I got for my 30th were without question the best present I could have hoped for. :D I like sending them too!
9. People's bedrooms.
OKAY THAT SOUNDS REALLY WEIRD. I don't mean to be weird! I just really love seeing people's spaces, and I guess apartments, houses or flats stand in for this; calling it bedrooms stems I think from student days, when bedrooms were the only part of a place that were really yours, and they were all completely different and reflected people's personalities in awesome ways. I love seeing people's decorative choices and I love looking at how the spaces is arranged reflects how they use it. People always apologise for the mess, and I don't think they should, because it reflects their personality and life in a way that neatness doesn't, unless that neatness is automatic and constant, which reveals things of its own.
I am horribly nosy and I like knowing stuff about you guys. Why else would I be on blogging sites?!
10. Heating device disguised as sleepy-happy baby or cat.
11. Urban fantasy.
Mostly I think that putting things into genres is kind of limiting, and I put into this particular genre a lot of things that others would define as YA fiction, because YA doesn't define anything other than the age of the protagonist. I love the whole idea that there's a whole other world or culture or set of powers just a half-step out of true, and while I know that none of it is true I don't give a good goddamn because it belongs to the world I want to live in. Rivers of London is the current book series of my heart, for reasons of actually being good and having an awesome diverse cast of characters who are all interesting and have agency, a beautiful architectural look at London and its history, and a carefully considered type of magic woven through it. Genre also loved in TV, although that is usually slightly crappy for various reasons, and rarely likes its women.
12. Anthropomorphism.
Specifically of my possessions. I like naming things and having things to name, so I have a whole bundle of action figures and cuddly things scattered about the room I currently inhabit. It's going to sound awful and self-pitying but it's really not, when I say that I think it springs from aloneness. (Please take note of wording - it's not necessarily or always about being lonely). I grew up with three siblings and two parents in a teeny tiny house, and our means of communication has always been loudly and lengthily verbal, with humour woven through every interaction. I had problems with the humour through my teenage years, and I'm probably still the most sensitive to being harshly mocked in the family. It's definitely influenced my interaction with people, though, and when you graduate to being mocked it means I trust you not to turn on me, which is a seriously Big Deal.
(This is in fact an important character note. I pretty much have no secrets and will tell potentially embarrassing stuff to practically anyone, but if I'm teasing/mean to you, that means I trust you and love you).
So yeah - I name things and have things with faces around so I have someone to mutter and rant at when there's no one else around.
13. Travelling.
I can't do this as much as I want because I have responsibilities and security is more important to me; I don't really have anyone to fall back on. I mean, my parents would take me in in dire circumstances, but dire circumstances are not wanting to go on holiday. :D I also suck at budgeting and I'm choosing to spend saved money on a masters, so.
Still, I can do it on a small scale, and I absolutely love spending time on trains. Time spent on trains is guilt-free reading time, time I couldn't really be doing much of anything more productive. It also is an opportunity to look at beautiful scenery, and it's kind of hilarious how completely sidetracked I am when a train runs past any body of open water. The person waiting on the other end is the point, of course, but the travelling is a delightful bonus.
14. Sharing.
I love sharing! I love introducing people to new things, and making people taste what I'm tasting and touch what feels nice to me and telling them why and listening to why things are so shiny cool.
15. Imagining.
Especially the part where it bubbles under the surface and suddenly something clicks into place and there are whole new dimensions to the imagining and it seems entirely organic, beyond your control. Imagining is best.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 04:10 pm (UTC)The first is kind of noirish, set in San Francisco, in a world where the faerie courts have been secretly existing in the human world since pretty much ever. It stars October "Toby" Daye: half fae and half human, sometime private detective, sometime knight to the Duke of Shadowed Hills, struggling to put her life back together after [spoiler].
The second is somewhat lighter but only somewhat. The first two books (all that's out so far) star Verity Price, who's trying to make it as a dancer in New York City while simultaneously keeping up the family business: protecting humans from monsters ... and vice versa.
The official writeups for the series can be found here and here.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 06:37 pm (UTC)Hahaha, Severus Snape Fuh-Q-Fest. I haven't thought of that in years.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-23 10:25 pm (UTC)