I guess it's time to start moving to DW for good.
My new journal: https://neonspider.dreamwidth.org/
My graphics will be at: https://neonspiderwebs.dreamwidth.org/

yes, I want to start over without this nonsensical username that I'm certain people can't pronounce in their mind xD I love neon and I love spiders, so neonspider it is.

Please feel free to add me or friend me or subscribe or whatever it is that people do on DW, I don't really know how to use it yet so both the journal and comm are completely empty yet but hopefully won't remain so.

As a dumbass I've been storing all my icons on LJ's hosting since photobucket stopped cooperating, so now I need to reupload them AGAIN. I always thought that if anything happens to LJ i'll just go down with the ship cause I've been here so long that I can't start over, but now that it's sinking I just had the very strong feeling that the massive work I've put into my graphics, and most importantly the friendships I've made here, are worth saving after all. So I hope to see you on the other side <3

So I thought I'd FINALLY make a resource post, now that the rich text editor works at least bearably. This will be a long list.

( Resource creditsCollapse )


It's entirely possible that everyone who should be here isn't. That happens especially with artists who don't put their nicks on their texture files or make a preview pic with their nick on it. So if you notice I'm using one of your textures but can't find your name here, please inform me!

Today I officially graduated from uni. It was a great school and I enjoyed my studies so much. I'll miss it but at the same time I'm excited to move on.
I guess I have no excuse now, no reason to procrastinaste further, I should start looking for a job asap. But I'm not worried, I trust that someone will want me.

I have no interest in joining DW. I just don't see the icon thing really happening there. The icon community is already very very small as it is, so unless literally every active maker moves there, an attempt to move over there will only split us into two tiny sections, which doesn't make sense to me. Obviously it's everyone's choice ot leave or stay but yeah, if the iconing community on LJ is a sinking ship then I'm going down with it.I've already been kinda on-off and had mini breaks and considered longer breaks for a long time so idk, maybe it's time for me to stop iconing anyway. buuut we'll see how this goes.

Does anyone else find it weird when people rationalize their ships? I often see in fandom discussions that when asked why they ship something, people give reasons like:

- they would work so well together
- they would be good for each other
- the show would make more sense if they were together
- they would make each other happier than their current partners
- they complete each other

etc. That's just so weird to me, as if shipping is something rational where you can just pick what you want to ship. For me shipping is literally just the feeling of SQUEEE when two characters interact. It's not rational at all, it's 100% an emotional reaction, so if someone asked me why I ship something, the best answer I can give is just to say that their scenes titillate me, I see sparks between them, their angsting over erach other really hits me in the feels etc. This is why it makes no sense to me to judge other people's ships. Would I choose healthier ships if I could? Would I make my ships more diverse in terms of representation? I don't know, I probably wouldn't ship anything if that was the process. Being able to just pick my ships would make it so boring, there would be no passion.

omg I just noticed something awesome on my feed!
some of you might know that I'm not a huge fan of anon_icon and that I never really go there to preserve my sanity
HOWEVER

there's this other comm: iconfessing

it has a bit similar idea but way cooler, it's more like (or exactly like?) iconsecrets was. you send secrets, they get posted, you discuss secrets (anon or not). But no personal attacks against individual makers are allowed so I think I can hang out there and not run into secrets about how me & my icons suck, so that's nice :>
seriously I love the idea of that comm, I always loved iconsecrets even though back then I was too shy to talk a lot there.

so... see you there? :)

My first real 'fandom' was Harry Potter. In 2004 I started reading fic, then later commenting and discussing it on two Finnish fan forums. Later (in 2006, I think?) I started writing my own fic but was never very good at it.

Then I was into a few things without actually participating in the fandoms at all, but then in 2010 I got hardcore into Farscape and it has been my biggest fandom to date, measured by fandom participation.

I started by writing a lot of fanfic. That's what initially made me come to LJ and that was clearly a great decision. I started writing meta/reviews of each episode and tbh my reviews were kinda shallow and ship-focused :) but ehh it counts?? and I also started making icons. I made a crapload of them every single day and they were the most ridiculously horrible icons you can imagine but participating in farscape_20in20 made me up my game a bit.

The best fandom experience for me however was probably farscapeland, because it was a social activity where I got to know a lot of people. I participated in all kinds of fun challenges, and in these actual realtime chats which were surprisingly fun for a while until everyone started hating each other (or was it just me? I think it might have been just me :p). anyway I wish there was something similar for every fandom I like.

After that, almost all of my fandom contribution has been in the form of icons. It has been my passion for a few years now but tbh to me it's usually more about the actual graphicsmaking than about that fandom, even though I do work the best when I'm 100% into that fandom/subject.

There have been fandoms I've been into after Farscape, but online stuff hasn't really been a priority to me recently and whenever I see an interesting fannish discussion or other activity I usually don't bother participating. My fandom experiences these days are mostly just reading stuff at fandomsecrets, and browsing tumblr's ship tags (and when I'm feeling really grouchy, sometimes the anti ship tags lol).

my favorite part of being involved in a fandom is discussions with like-minded people. which there are none, usually, so this is an imaginary part. of the real fandom parts my fave thing is probably iconing, and daydreaming about my OTPs :) ♥

as for the last question - no I've never been to any cons/meetups, mostly because I'm a Finn and a student so I can't just fly to other countries whenever I want, and there are no fandom things here (for my fandoms). and even if there were cons that I could realistically attend, I doubt I would, my social anxiety would kick in plus I'm always afraid of what my online friends would think of me in person, and whether seeing how ridiculous I look would actually change how they see me as a person :D, so idk, I like to keep my online and RL personas completely separate.

sorry for the wall of text I wish there was a way to insert lj cuts into these answer thingies.