beelikej | Them

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

I’ve often waxed lyrical about the joys of fandom at my journal, and I never need another excuse to do that, because there’s so much to love about fandom!

Fandom isn’t just a group of people who happen to like the same TV show or film, or book. We’re a family; a community. We’re a community of like-minded people who all love the same thing and who can openly share their likes, loves, and passions with each other.

And like any community, we interact, we have fun, we take care of the more vulnerable members of our community, we support each other’s dreams and cheerlead each other’s challenges.

But fandom isn’t just an abstract thing; to me it’s a place. It’s a place with no borders, where us fans, regardless of or race or sexuality or whatever other characteristics we may have can go to belong, to be welcomed into the arms of a community that is accepting and fun; a community that GETS us.

Somehow, friendships made through fandom are easy; easier than friendships forged in real life through work, or school or location. Real life friendships have to form and evolve. When you start out, you’re just two disparate strangers working for the same organisation, or living in the same street. Friendships made through fandom, on the other hand, begin with you both knowing something about each other - what you love and what you have in common. And although those friendships may start out as something as simple and superficial as a shared love of the same TV show, or the same book, they quickly grow into something far more meaningful.

Many of my fandom friendships have outgrown the computer screen and crossed over into real life, and those friendships have given me more joy than I could ever put into a simple post like this.

Members of fandom are often those of us that society thinks of as ‘weird’ or a bit odd, or on the edge of ‘normal’. A lot of us probably had a rough time at school and have never been regarded as 'cool' or in with the ‘in’ crowd; but in fandom, ‘weirdness’ is embraced, individuality is celebrated, imagination is admired. Fandom is where you can be yourself, where you can be all that you can be, and more.

And that is why I will always love fandom!

tarlanx

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scribblemoose posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post*
Meet the Mods Post
Challenge #1 * Challenge #2

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Challenge #3 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

brightly_lit

I've gotten so many kind responses to my first Snowflake Challenge post. Thank you all! It's so nice to meet/reconnect with you!!

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Though I had pets as a child, and allll I wanted for my whole youth was a horse, after my much-loved but extremely annoying Krazy Kat went to the great tuna buffet in the sky, I haven't had any more pets as an adult. We've discussed getting various farm animals, but it just doesn't sound appealing -- a lot of responsibility, poop, and fence repair. Plus I'm at least a little allergic to probably every animal with hair.

However, we do live in a pretty remote forested area, so we have a ball with sightings of the many kinds of animals we see on our property who consider it home, at least for a while: a lonely lady turkey, dozens of kinds of birds, a beautiful grey fox, many deer, a skunk who thinks it owns the place, plus a couple of stray cats whose eyes we saw glowing when we went out at night, and have only glimpsed in daylight when they thought no one was watching.

And of course, the giant slug who lives on one wall of our house! We call him Frisky.

dizzojay

Now that Christmas is over and done, and life is getting back to normal, it's time for me to say a big thank you to all you lovely peeps who made my Christmas so special.

I received all these wonderful cards from my fandom buddies. A big thank you to:

raloria

theymp

sasha_dragon

apachefirecat and

casey28

Not to mention my non-Lj friends, Jacq, Stephanie, Wendy, Malou, Chris and Natalie
( Read more... )

tarlanx

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tarlanx

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tarlanx

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tarlanx

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tarlanx

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dizzojay

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Oh, you’re going to regret challenging me to write about my pets! 😉

My pets are two very spoiled house rabbits. They are littermates (I hesitate to say siblings because I think there may be different fathers involved, so half siblings) and they came from a rabbit rescue sanctuary here in the UK. We got them when they were 16 weeks old, and they will be five in March.

They’re free roam in the living room, and out in the back garden when the weather’s nice – that’s because we have to sit out there to supervise them and keep an eye for predators.

My handsome little boy is Nutmeg, he’s a grumpy little ratbag plus he’s a jumper and an explorer. Since we’ve had him, he’s been up on the couch, the windowsill, the coffee table, various boxes we have around the place for them to play in, and on one memorable occasion, up on the dining table.

His beautiful 'sister' is Juniper. She’s much more sedentary than her brother. She’s all about the food and the comfort, a real lady of leisure. She’s very sweet and loving, and will sit around being fussed and loved while her brother squirms away like we’re dirty! Juniper was named in tribute to jj1564 whose name was June. We got the bunnies three months after June’s passing.

I’ve always loved rabbits, and have several throughout my life, but these are my first in the age of Social Media, so these two have their own Insta and their own Youtube channel.

I’ve always been a vocal supporter of rabbit welfare, and even more so now that house rabbits are becoming more of a thing, and knowledge of them and their needs is improving.

Here are just a few pointers as to why rabbits, although the third most popular pet in the UK (may well be similar in other countries), are also the most misunderstood, and as a result many of them live miserable, lonely and unhealthy lives:

Contrary to popular belief, rabbits are not good starter pets for children. Rabbits generally don’t like being picked up and held (they’re prey animals and picking up is a predation trigger). Children can often be noisy and unpredictable, something else that rabbits don’t do well with.
Rabbits can live upwards of ten years. I’ve known of rabbits to make it to fourteen years of age.
They’re active and require a lot of space. A hutch is not sufficient for them.
They are social animals and do better in pairs or groups than alone.
They have a level of intelligence similar to a domestic cat so they need attention and stimulation. They require toys and hidey holes, plus an environment gives them security and the freedom to engage in natural behaviours.
They’re nibblers and that can’t be stopped, so nibblesome stuff has to be kept out of their way, or protected from them
From a veterinary point of view, they are classed as exotic pets, and so veterinary care may be costly. It’s always best to find a rabbit savvy vet as they have complex needs to keep them healthy including annual vaccinations

And that’s just for starters!

So it anyone you know mentions ‘getting a rabbit for the kids’, please show them my post!

Anyway, that's it from Nutmeg and Juniper...

Signing off!

stardust_rifle posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet The Mods Post * Challenge #1

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

Pets! We know them, we probably have positive associations with at least one type of pet, and they've appeared in our creative endeavors since time immemorial. Considering that, we felt that a challenge revolving around them would be appropriate.

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

tarlanx

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xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3189/

They're not generally used for crewed spacecraft because astronauts HATE going around the corners.

https://xkcd.com/3189/

brightly_lit

Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I'm a writer mostly, who is FINALLY getting around to trying to market my existing work. I'm super into gardening and preserving food. I'm also really interested in trying to close the circle of production and consumption. Instead of paying a lot of money for stuff and creating a lot of trash, I love things like composting, which takes the trash and turns it into something useful, which makes rich soil that can be used to grow food and cut down on my grocery bill.

The dream before I got to actually put some of these theories into practice was total self-sufficiency, but it turns out that's MUCH harder than it sounds. Still, being able to close that circle to any degree is fun and satisfying, and that's what I'm really into exploring these days, as well as going back to basics wherever it's feasible. There are modern conveniences that make life sooo much easier, but there are others that just seem to complicate things. I'm interested in finding and utilizing the old-school methods that make sense and don't take up too much time and energy, because they also tend to be a lot cheaper and more friendly to the environment. I write about this kind of thing a lot! And I play with it in reality a lot, too.

I was so disappointed this year with anime specifically, and tv in general, that I felt like maybe I shouldn't even participate in Snowflake this year because I have so little good to say about fandom-related things! We've mostly resorted to rewatching old favorites since we could hardly find anything new to enjoy. Then I realized, maybe I can use Snowflake to solicit recommendations from other participants! So please, pleeeease, give me your recs!! If the show/movie is old, that's great, too. Tell me your all-time favorites!

But also, I want to get back into blogging more generally! I did some in the middle of last year, then life went completely off the rails. I've been dipping my toe here and there lately on DreamWidth, then I realized Snowflake was about to return, and I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to get back into it!

siberian_angel posting in

thestoryinside

The themes for January are:
THRILLER // NON-FICTION // FEMALE AUTHOR
You must choose books with these genres and themes for your buddy. If you think you might not have books in your TBR pile that fits this month's choices, please let your buddy know.

You can find your buddy's TBR lists here.

royalblue31 &

monkiainen

badfalcon &

siberian_angel

miscuartosamores &

killercahill

fred_mouse &

yourivy

You have until the 5th to choose your partner's books.

tarlanx

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tarlanx

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dizzojay

Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I’m delighted that Snowflake Challenge is back! New year can sometimes be such a grim time with manky weather and long nights. The Snowflake always gives me such a great little positivity boost during that dreary time and January wouldn’t be the same without it!

So fandom-wise, I'm still mainly active in the Supernatural fandom although my participation has diminished significantly, I still seem to be inspired to produce a fair amount of traditional art, plus I seem to be going to more conventions than ever! Best of all, the friendships I made through the Spn fandom haven’t just lasted the distance, they seem to have grown stronger!

Anyway, in terms of fandom information, mine is mostly the same as previous years:

All of my fan fiction can be found at Fanfiction.net and AO3

All of my fan art, both digital and traditional can be found at Deviantart

I’m still present on Livejournal. I’ve always described Livejournal as my online home, and it’s sad to see that it’s such an empty shadow of its former self. However, I’ve got too many wonderful memories of that place to ever give up on it entirely. I have a back up mirror account at Dreamwidth where I cross post from Livejournal

I used to have a Twitter account which was mostly based in fannish stuff, but I deleted my account last year for the hellscape it became. I’ve been playing in the Blue Sky sandbox instead and feel much more at home there!

So that's me :)

tarlanx

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Profile

BeeLikeJ

A Selfish Kind Of Life

December 2025

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Page Summary

dizzojay - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 3
tarlanx - Snowflake Challenge 2026
scribblemoose in snowflake_challenge - Fandom Snowflake Challenge #3
brightly_lit - Snowflake Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom
dizzojay - Happy Post: Thank you
tarlanx - Fandom Update
tarlanx - 100 FANDOM ICONS - 2026
tarlanx - Snowflake Challenge 2026
tarlanx - Fannish 50 - Masterlist for 2025
tarlanx - Fannish 50 - 2025 Round Up
dizzojay - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 2
stardust_rifle in snowflake_challenge - Snowflake Challenge #2
tarlanx - Fannish 50
xkcd_feed - Conic Sections
brightly_lit - Snowflake Challenge #1
siberian_angel in thestoryinside - January Buddy Assignments
tarlanx - PG13 SLASH: All My Roads, They Lead To You - Zang Hai/Zhuang Zhixing, Legend of Zang Hai
tarlanx - PG SLASH: Essential Items - John/Rodney, Stargate Atlantis
dizzojay - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 1
tarlanx - Snowflake Challenge 2026

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Page generated Jan. 5th, 2026 11:40 pm

If you think you've got it - why don't you flaunt it

Them

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 3

Snowflake Challenge 2026

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #3

Snowflake Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Happy Post: Thank you

Fandom Update

100 FANDOM ICONS - 2026

Snowflake Challenge 2026

Fannish 50 - Masterlist for 2025

Fannish 50 - 2025 Round Up

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 2

Snowflake Challenge #2

Fannish 50

Conic Sections

Snowflake Challenge #1

January Buddy Assignments

PG13 SLASH: All My Roads, They Lead To You - Zang Hai/Zhuang Zhixing, Legend of Zang Hai

PG SLASH: Essential Items - John/Rodney, Stargate Atlantis

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 1

Snowflake Challenge 2026

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December 2025

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