Introduction post

[oanja]

Hi! I've noticed people making these now that people might be coming back to journal fandom (for the time being) and I thought it would be a good idea to make one too.

I'm a Finnish woman, early 30's, I got my Master's degree in December 2018. I have a full time job I'm not particularly excited about and always wondering if I'm in the right line of work.

I have a cat (Maine Coon) called Taika and a Dog (Lagotto Romagnolo) called Leia [and omg why was posting a photo so hard!]



I'm single and maybe demisexual or somewhere on the Ace spectrum, I'm bisexual (and yes that includes more than two genders)

My life situation is a bit weird in that I keep moving all the freaking time! I don't think I've lived anywhere for more than a year since 2016 and since then I've moved four times and I'm about to move again this month. I keep changing jobs and all of them have been in different cities, which makes moving a real pain. We'll see how long I'll stay in this next apartment...

I read mainly fantasy with some scifi and historical mixed in. I like the idea of reading published romance, but I find I'm very picky these days so I haven't found many romance books I've genuinely enjoyed or finished. (this is pretty funny because when I was like 11-15 I used to read a shit ton of Harlequin romances and the like).

I've been in fandom since I was 19, so 13 years now, I've written some fic, but mostly I have been a lurker. I used to roleplay quite a bit in my early 20's when I had time for such things *sigh*

When fandom moved to tumblr I kind of became an even more passive fandom participant, as I found tumblr bizarre for having conversations or for making fandom friends, I did write quite a bit of Hockey rps at the time, but I didn't really get to know any other fans, except a few people on twitter, whom I still follow there.

My forever fandoms are Stargate Atlantis and Star Trek (tos and the new movies). I'm really glad I got to see a few of the massive fandoms that used to exist before it all got super fractured.

If I had to name my favourite fandom right now I would say Dragon Age, even though I've never read any of the fic :D I mostly like it for the meta and pretty art and gif sets. The fandom itself is strangely dominated by het pairings, which are not my cup of tea and I also have strong opinions about both the f/f and m/m pairings and I find most fic I've skimmed does not agree with me on these points... :'D

I'm also half way through Assassin's Creed Odyssey and I still love Kassandra to pieces, she is the best and the worst disaster bisexual. 100/100 would play again. (even though I think I need to do the Alexios playthrough too!)


I also play mmrpg's sometimes, even though I've never really found a new favourite after I got tired of WoW. I think Elder Scroll's Online is the one I like the most, but I'm also very fond of Star Wars the Old Republic. I've also started Guild Wars 2 but I'm not even at lvl 10 there.

Hmm what else? I started an urban fantasy novel in last year's nano and won, with maybe about 25% of the story still unwritten. I should get back to writing that, because I think it would be very cool to actually write and finish an actual book manuscript, even if it never goes anywhere. I have other ideas for original (fantasy) fiction, but I haven't really managed to write anything this year (except my thesis which was 42k so I'm pretty proud of that!)

I knit (socks mostly) and sow (cosplay stuff) sometimes, but I'm not very good at it and I keep starting and getting distracted by a new project and abandoning the old one, which is bad for ever finishing anything.

This got long and brambly, which is like peak me, or whatever the kids say these days... :P Anyway, hi and welcome! feel free to subscibe to my my journal, I hardly ever post anything locked and when I do it's just personal whining. I will most likely follow back if it looks like we have similar interests.

Edit for 2019: Have a new job now, which I like a lot more than the one I wrote about originally. Have moved yet again, but I think I will stay in this town for a few years *fingers crossed*

I have become totally addicted to Youtube, even more than I've previously been. (I just binge watched like 5 hours worth of Jenna Marbles videos) I think I should just cancel all my streaming services, it's not like I watch anything on there anymore...

I got into d&d during 2019, which has been great. I've also found out that I might actually prefer to DM instead of play (might be my control issues showing a bit...)

I also got into BTS this December, so that's a super new fandom for me. I'm very excited to have a new fandom again.

Comments

[northern]

Hi hi! I liked reading your intro post and love your pets and how big your cat is! I have two fairly big cats myself, a Ragdoll and a Norwegian Forest cat.

Dragon Age is a great fandom. Personally I mostly enjoy permutations of Iron Bull, Dorian and Cullen. Would you enjoy any of these: https://pinboard.in/u:northern/t:dragonage/ ?

I've played some Elder Scrolls Online and liked it, but I usually like the single player games more. Recently I've started new playthroughs of Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

[oanja]

Ooh! I almost got a Ragdoll when I was debating what type of cat I wanted and I still think I might want to get one some day, those blue eyes are so pretty! Have you posted photos of your cats somewhere, I'd love to see?

Taika isn't that big for a Maine Coon, she's a girl and "only" weight about 6kg. My dream is to have one of those giant Maine Coon male's that can get almost twice as big as that... :D Haha, but I'm trying not to get more cats or I'll end up as a real cat lady sooner than I want.

Heh, sadly Those are the pairings I mostly don't like. I really ship M!Inquisitor/Dorian and I'm not really into the bdsm dynamic in Dorian/Iron Bull. When it comes to Cullen I'm kind of ambivalent about him, so fics about him aren't really my cup of tea either... Like I said, I'm pretty difficult when it comes to Dragon Age pairings. But thank you for the recs, I really appreciate the gesture! If you have any M!Hawke/Anders recs, I'd be happy to browse those?

Yeah, single player games are closer to my heart as well, which is why I like ESO pretty well, as it doesn't really require the player to team up and you can do almost all things by yourself. How many times have you played through Inquisition? I've only done it once, I have like 10 inquisitors made, but it's such a long game that I always run out of steam or get distracted by other things. (hashtag casual gamer)

[northern]

Here's my instagram, plenty of cat photos! https://www.instagram.com/stellarian/. I also post pics on my twitter, northernishere, fairly often.

Yeah, my Bedelia's father was very big and she's... fairly large. Much larger than Esfir (the red cat in the pictures) who admittedly has almost no teeth and doesn't eat as much.

Ah well, with the DA fics - yeah, Dorian and Bull is the biggest pairing to be sure! The only other rec I have is the Hawke/Fenris in the middle of that pinboard page, by emilyenrose. I really enjoyed that, and she is great at long!fic.

I've only done two whole playthroughs of DAI, but I've started three times more and watched complete letsplays maybe... four times? I love it. Also DA2, for the noir feeling of it. I'm looking forward to DA4 so much!!

[oanja]

I followed you on there, if it's okay. I'm morphs_into. Your kitties are so pretty!

Is Esfir old? Poor kitty, teeth problems are the worst.

Yep, and I kind of get why people like the pairing, but I guess I just didn't like Bull that much in general. (I think a big part of it is the re-design they did for the qunari. I wish they still looked like they did in DAII and the comics.)

Dragon Age II is my favourite. I really liked how compact it was like you weren't trying to save the whole world, it was just this one city. Also because I think they had the most fleshed out characters in that one. I do like inquisition too and I'm excited for the new game, it was so nice to get that short teaser! (did you do a Solasmance in your first playthrough? I didn't so the whole thing wasn't as impactful for me)

[northern]

I wasn't sure if you meant twitter or instagram, so I followed you on both. I love seeing people's pets!

Esfir is 11, but she's just had bad luck with her genetics - tooth resorption as well as gingivitis. She's had two surgeries and only has her front teeth now. As long as it doesn't hurt her anymore, poor thing.

Yeah. I like the redesign okay. It may have helped that I played female Qunari on my first playthrough (romanced Sera) and got used to how I looked that way. I agree that the DA2 Qunari looked really good, though. Every time I played that game I wished I could recruit the Arishok, or at least romance him. My latest DAI I'm playing an elf for the first time. I thought I'd romance Solas, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to do it...

[oanja]

Haha sorry, I was a bit unclear. I'm not very active on twitter, as I feel like it's pretty much shouting into the void. I mostly use it to follow writer/editor/writing accounts mostly, but I'll add you back.

Oh no, that really is bad luck!

Yeah, I have one playthrough where I made an elf lady to play the Solas romance, but because I know what an asshole he is, I just feel like my inquisitor deserves better...

[sewn]

Hi, I saw you comment on another journal and took a peek and I think I'd like to add you. :D
Signed, another early 30s Finn who can't seem to to find a permanent home and would just like to stop moving for a while!

[oanja]

Added you back and yay another fannish Finn. :D It's always nice to meet others in the wilds of the internet.

Moving is the worst, but at the same time I've done it so many times that at this point I'm pretty good at it. Blegh, I would like to settle down somewhere though... maybe one of these years.

I looked at your intro post and we do have a lot of interests in common, especially the books you mentioned, I had read most of them too! Also the Expanse is so good, why can't Netflix have the next season already, I need it!

[sewn]

This sudden revival of dreamwidth has really inspired me to go around poking at people's journals to find new people to follow. I haven't been this active in namespace since the days of livejournal. It's quite exciting!

I need to move in January... I'm kinda hoping that would be the last time I move for a while, but depending on where I find a flat it might not work out. This will be my fourth move in as many years, I could do with some downtime :'D

We do seem to have a pretty similar taste in books. I read mostly SFF these days for fun.

I watched S3 of The Expanse through non-Netflix means, and it was really good! I wish some streaming service would pick it up here too. Maybe it'll be available on Amazon when S4 comes out, since they bought it.

[oanja]

It's been so refreshing and fun! I feel like I've had more conversations with people this past week than I ever did on tumblr in like 6 years (or five, I'm not sure when I got tumblr)

Hopefully you get to stay in the new flat for a while! I'm hoping for the same for myself, but I may change jobs again next autumn, so who knows. :P

I guess HBO would be the best option, but they don't really have a lot of overlap in their shows, might be a rights thing? I'm hoping netflix will add it soon, I mean the season has been out for a while now. I haven't really been pirating anything in years and I'm not sure I want to start again, I feel like everything is more surveiled now that it was like 5-10 years ago. *sigh*

[fosfomifira]

You have the fluffiest and most adorable cat and dog I’ve seen in a long time :)

[oanja]

Thank you! Luckily only the cat sheds or I would drown in hair :D

[nonniemous]

*waves*

I'm here via the friending meme over on St. Aurafina's blog, and we have a lot in common. Mind if I friend?

And I SO need to redo my intro post. :D

[oanja]

Hi! Friend away, that was the point of the friending meme, always happy to have more people in my friend circle here. :D

I really need to update mine too, but it's only a year old, so it's still so, so okay and I'm lazy...

[coulditbemagic]

Your cat and dog are beautiful

[oanja]

Thank you! They can be quite the handful but generally they are lovely buddies to have

[unavee]

Taika and Leia are adorable! So fluffy. So charmed by them sharing that big bed together <3

Someday, I think I will have to get around to playing a Dragon Age game. I'm pretty sure I would like them a lot, I've just fallen out of playing games for anything but short spurts.

[oanja]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, the holidays have been pretty busy and I've been mostly offline.

They don't usually share a space that closely, so the photo was a bit of a fluke, but they are pretty adorable

Yeah, playing longer games is pretty tough if you have a job and have to do adult things... I have so many games I'd love to play (and own) yet haven't even started. But if you get the chance I'd recommend them, they're a lot of fun