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Snowflake Challenge #5
Jan. 9th, 2023 03:44 pmIn your own space, tell us about 3 creative/fannish resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy. (One or two is fine, especially if you're in a smaller fandom or like many people at the moment, fannishly adrift right now) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Fandom is a fantastic place, and something that brought many of us together. Fandom is also a huge place made up of amazing and creative people doing incredible things. Anything goes, writing, podficcing, artwork, beta reading, commenting, general squee and so much more. It all combines to help make fandom the brilliant thing that it is.
The problem is, sometimes it's hard to find the places which enable you to indulge your passions. Hopefully, this challenge will help that. So, for example, tell us about a stock image place you enjoy, or a favourite archive. Is there a rec list you keep going back to, an online space where you enjoy a chat or a podcast series that always makes your day?
And of course, these places can be beyond fandom, that recipe site that's your go-to. The step-by-step instructions you saved to make your own cheese. Do you garden and have a favourite blog that's taught you how to grow amazing tomatoes?
Wikis, websites, videos, software, games, books, people, communities... anything! Share those places that you love, and hopefully others will love them too.
I'm glad they gave the gardening example, because in fact I amobsessed with quite interested in gardening, and Dreamwidth and AO3 are really my only fandom places these days, except myanimelist! This got me thinking on three of the YouTube channels I utilize as resources or simply enjoy. The first and the last are gardening focused, and the middle is about Japan.
Mossy Bottom: If you're thinking this one is at all risque and talking about bottoms, rest easy--that couldn't be farther from what this gentle, thoughtful channel is like. Daniel is a homesteader in Ireland who keeps pigs, ducks, rabbits, some beautiful cats, and a most lovable dog named Moss. He loves all his creatures, and they plainly adore him. He mostly explores what it means to be a homesteader, how he makes a living off the land and related projects (such as his YouTube channel!), and gardening, but he also has videos on local legends, books that influenced him, and his personal philosophy. Seeing a new upload from his channel is always a treat!
Abroad in Japan: Chris Broad is a Brit who's lived in Japan for over ten years, and he vlogs entertainingly and informatively on Japan, which I know is a subject of great interest to many of us who watch anime. Apparently he's the top English-speaking vlogger who makes videos on Japan now, so you may well have heard of him. I've been watching his channel since well before he was famous, and frankly, I quite prefer his older videos. He has great interest in, and talent for, filmmaking, and has made a number of short films of stunning quality. He complains about what it takes to be a successful YouTuber (especially click-baity titles he despises, but utilizes), and about how his higher quality videos get fewer views, and like ... man, I write fic I know will be unpopular, and who cares? I figure, if one is doing all right financially as a YouTuber, then why not intersperse the money-making videos with those that are personally and creatively satisfying for the creator? That does not seem to be his approach, so I haven't enjoyed his videos as much in the past year or so. I still watch them and they're still sometimes enjoyable, but his old videos are fantastic, so if you're interested in checking him out, I recommend you start there. He's hilarious, with a dry, sarcastic, irreverent sense of humor, and has interesting thoughts on Japanese culture.
Li ZiQi: There's a very good chance you've heard of Li ZiQi, since she holds a Guinness World Record for "The most subscribers for a Chinese language channel on YouTube." She hasn't uploaded in a long time now, but the videos that are available are nevertheless sublimely beautiful, informative on life in rural China, and very inspiring for people interested in homesteading, gardening, and cooking. Now, particularly in the very beginning, her videos weren't especially realistic. (Dyeing a dress with purple grape skins--while wearing pristine pale drapey clothes, no less!--comes to mind ....) She defends this by saying her goal was less realism and more to inspire, and boy does it do that, but also, it's gotten more accurate and realistic as it's gone on, and she covers how to make just about anything from scratch. If you ever had a fantasy of a bucolic life in a beautiful place, living off a lush piece of land all your own and handmaking everything yourself (not that I've ever had such a fantasy! no sirree), boy is this the channel for you.
Fandom is a fantastic place, and something that brought many of us together. Fandom is also a huge place made up of amazing and creative people doing incredible things. Anything goes, writing, podficcing, artwork, beta reading, commenting, general squee and so much more. It all combines to help make fandom the brilliant thing that it is.
The problem is, sometimes it's hard to find the places which enable you to indulge your passions. Hopefully, this challenge will help that. So, for example, tell us about a stock image place you enjoy, or a favourite archive. Is there a rec list you keep going back to, an online space where you enjoy a chat or a podcast series that always makes your day?
And of course, these places can be beyond fandom, that recipe site that's your go-to. The step-by-step instructions you saved to make your own cheese. Do you garden and have a favourite blog that's taught you how to grow amazing tomatoes?
Wikis, websites, videos, software, games, books, people, communities... anything! Share those places that you love, and hopefully others will love them too.
I'm glad they gave the gardening example, because in fact I am
Mossy Bottom: If you're thinking this one is at all risque and talking about bottoms, rest easy--that couldn't be farther from what this gentle, thoughtful channel is like. Daniel is a homesteader in Ireland who keeps pigs, ducks, rabbits, some beautiful cats, and a most lovable dog named Moss. He loves all his creatures, and they plainly adore him. He mostly explores what it means to be a homesteader, how he makes a living off the land and related projects (such as his YouTube channel!), and gardening, but he also has videos on local legends, books that influenced him, and his personal philosophy. Seeing a new upload from his channel is always a treat!
Abroad in Japan: Chris Broad is a Brit who's lived in Japan for over ten years, and he vlogs entertainingly and informatively on Japan, which I know is a subject of great interest to many of us who watch anime. Apparently he's the top English-speaking vlogger who makes videos on Japan now, so you may well have heard of him. I've been watching his channel since well before he was famous, and frankly, I quite prefer his older videos. He has great interest in, and talent for, filmmaking, and has made a number of short films of stunning quality. He complains about what it takes to be a successful YouTuber (especially click-baity titles he despises, but utilizes), and about how his higher quality videos get fewer views, and like ... man, I write fic I know will be unpopular, and who cares? I figure, if one is doing all right financially as a YouTuber, then why not intersperse the money-making videos with those that are personally and creatively satisfying for the creator? That does not seem to be his approach, so I haven't enjoyed his videos as much in the past year or so. I still watch them and they're still sometimes enjoyable, but his old videos are fantastic, so if you're interested in checking him out, I recommend you start there. He's hilarious, with a dry, sarcastic, irreverent sense of humor, and has interesting thoughts on Japanese culture.
Li ZiQi: There's a very good chance you've heard of Li ZiQi, since she holds a Guinness World Record for "The most subscribers for a Chinese language channel on YouTube." She hasn't uploaded in a long time now, but the videos that are available are nevertheless sublimely beautiful, informative on life in rural China, and very inspiring for people interested in homesteading, gardening, and cooking. Now, particularly in the very beginning, her videos weren't especially realistic. (Dyeing a dress with purple grape skins--while wearing pristine pale drapey clothes, no less!--comes to mind ....) She defends this by saying her goal was less realism and more to inspire, and boy does it do that, but also, it's gotten more accurate and realistic as it's gone on, and she covers how to make just about anything from scratch. If you ever had a fantasy of a bucolic life in a beautiful place, living off a lush piece of land all your own and handmaking everything yourself (not that I've ever had such a fantasy! no sirree), boy is this the channel for you.