Snowflake challenge - challenges 1 to 3

[sauronnaise]

FANDOM SNOWFLAKE CHALLENGE #1

Self-introduction o’clock.

Eh. There’s my sticky entry, but I suppose time calls for an updated introduction.

Here’s my petite personne in bullet points:

- Home gymbro (Caroline Girvan, Chris & Edi and Jasper Macdermot ftw)
- Currently being busy transitioning from twink to twunk (well, I surprise myself with using gay slang. It’s the one that fits best. Thank you, gay terminology)
- I want a six pack of abs. I miss my shredded abs. I'm getting there!

- I spend a lot of time outside
- I like birds. I have a guide on birds of Québec and the Northeast that I consult (we do have strange visitors every now and then). I recently bought a book on trees and plants in Québec and the Maritimes because I wish to be able to identify more than the basics

- My English is wonky because I only get to use it online (minus the occasional opportunities irl)
- Yet I did my undergrad in this language
- English is a difficult language. Whoever believes otherwise is a moron (ok, maybe not, but I dare them to write an entire lay). Or masters it like Tolkien
- Tolkien made me love English. And Tolkien made me love Tolkien. I own about 12 books by him

- I casually play a rpg gacha game called Onmyoji
- I’m not a big gamer, but I do like videogame scores
- I listen to various stuff, from niche doomgaze to not-so-niche Stray Kids’ and Ateez’s hit songs

I want to do the snowflake challenge because I aim to be more active on Dreamwidth. I’m quite bad at logging in, blogging and keeping up with others’ journal entries. In fact, online, I’m bad with whatever isn’t my close friends reaching out to me or work emails... Perhaps increasing my DW activity will entice me to work on my unfinished fics. Who knows. Not me lol


FANDOM SNOWFLAKE CHALLENGE #2 – PETS

You will be delighted to learn that ‘pet’ means ‘fart’ in French.

I’m not part of the Path of Exile fandom, but their pet kiwi is adorable. It’s available on PoE 2. It follows you everywhere you go. You can smash it by accident, and it won’t die. I don’t fail to mention the kiwi to my friend who’s a PoE player everytime I see him.


FANDOM SNOWFLAKE CHALLENGE #3 – FANDOM LOVE

The Tolkien fandom is rather not one entity, but rather, connected or disconnected communities. Either way, people are knowledgeable and passionate. It makes for great conversations irl and online. I fulfill my duty by luring people into reading the Silm.

People say what they want about fanfiction, but I’ve read several Silmarillion fanfics which prose, plotline, character development and character arcs, and so forth, were greater than those of published fiction. Being published fiction doesn’t preclude quality (I can attest with all the wacko things I read at college and university), and fanfiction doesn’t preclude mediocrity. I can thank the transformative side of the Tolkien fandom for it.

Two of my all time favourite authors happen to be fanfic authors (Darth Fingon and c1are. C1are mainly writes Onmyoji fics, most of which are in Chinese, but they translate some of their works to English).

Comments

Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> - I spend a lot of time outside <<

You might like common_nature. People often share pictures or talk about their locale.

>> - I like birds. I have a guide on birds of Québec and the Northeast that I consult (we do have strange visitors every now and then). I recently bought a book on trees and plants in Québec and the Maritimes because I wish to be able to identify more than the basics <<

It's more fun the more you can identify! birdfeeding is good for sharing about birds.

>> - English is a difficult language. <<

It's a category 5 language, the hardest to learn as a second language, right up there with things like Diné / Navajo.

>> - Tolkien made me love English. And Tolkien made me love Tolkien. I own about 12 books by him <<

That's very popular here. Communities include tolkien100, silwritersguild, and tolkienshortfanworks.

>>I want to do the snowflake challenge because I aim to be more active on Dreamwidth.<<

That's a good idea.

>> I’m quite bad at logging in, blogging and keeping up with others’ journal entries.<<

I use a desktop calendar to track my recurring posts, otherwise I'd never remember them all.

>>People say what they want about fanfiction, but I’ve read several Silmarillion fanfics which prose, plotline, character development and character arcs, and so forth, were greater than those of published fiction.<<

Me too. starspray leaps readily to mind.

Re: Hello!

[sauronnaise]

Hello hello, nice to meet you

I'm already part of these three Tolkien communities, but I had no idea about common_nature and birdfeeding. I joined and suscribed. Thank you!

And yes, starspray is great.

'It's a category 5 language, the hardest to learn as a second language, right up there with things like Diné / Navajo.'
Communicational English wasn't challenging. It helps that French and English are part of the same language family (Indo-European) and from branches that are close to each other (Latin and Germanic). Once at an intermediate level, it's the grammatical and vocabulary subtleties of English that are lost to me, and it has a 'freeform' to it that adds a layer of difficulty (as opposed to international standard French that is more rigid in nature. Spoken is another thing, French, just like English, changes a lot from a dialect to another).

Diné is tonal, isn't it? If it's doable for a Dene or Apache speaker, it'd be the end of me! I would be more at ease with Innu-Aimun, for instance. I'd suck big times, but I've had more contact with the language, as opposed to Diné that is veeery far away from home.

Funnily enough, I had a colleague who said that her mother tongue, Anicinabemowin, was easier than French or English. It certainly is a matter of perspective because it would take me serious immersion before being able to form proper sentences in Anicinabemowin.

Re: Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I joined and suscribed. <<

Yay!

>> Once at an intermediate level, it's the grammatical and vocabulary subtleties of English that are lost to me, and it has a 'freeform' to it that adds a layer of difficulty <<

True. The vocabulary, well, English has stolen words from every other language it ever met, so that adds up.

>> Diné is tonal, isn't it? <<

Yes. If you want to hear it, the TV show Dark Winds has a good deal of it with subtitles.

>> Funnily enough, I had a colleague who said that her mother tongue, Anicinabemowin, <<

Ah, I know about that one -- it's part of the Algonquian language family. I have enough Native American characters to have an idea of where some of the language families cluster.

[elennalore]

Yay for birdwatching! I remember that we have talked about birds before. Also identifying more trees in your environment sounds a wonderful way to connect with it.

[sauronnaise]

Not only trees, but also plants and flowers. I learnt in my forestry class I live in the most diverse forest of the province (hickory-sugar maple forest. After all, Québec produces about 70% of the world's maple syrup. Neighbouring places also make maple syrup as well like Ontario, Canada and Vermont, USA), and sadly, the most endangered. Ontario's Carolinian forest suffers from a similar predicament (most diverse and highly endangered).

I have a book on edible forest plants, mushrooms, and river alguae. I like to munch on dandelion and plantain (European imports, funnily enough, but I don't have beef against them. It's the giant hogweed from the Caucasus that I hate. Stupid, invasive plant!)

[ellynn_ithilwen]

"pet" is "five" in croatian, but french meaning is much more hillarious 😂

[sauronnaise]

Similar to the Russian 'piet'

Chat GPT in Québec French is pronounced 'tchatt zhay-pay-tay'. The 'zhay-pay-tay' part sounds the same as « J'ai pété » which means 'I farted'. Chat means 'cat' but we pronounced it 'sha'. Chat GPT is basically a cat full of gas..

[ellynn_ithilwen]

🤣