Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

I was going through my blog and journals (as you do this time of year;-), and I noticed I completely forgot to share the stuff I made for Land of Art in 2024. My year was mostly filled with work and travel (which was also mostly for work) but I did manage to squeeze in some creative times. So I figured for my end of year post, I'll just picspam y'all with my graphic designs.

But first, to round up this year properly, here's what I did since the previous journal post in October, with links to my photos on Instagram:

I had a quick weekend in London for a play that was cancelled last minute (but I found another one to at least make the most of my weekend in November)

I built a cabinet for my renovated shower

I went on another businesstrip to England as well, where I didn't really go sightseeing, but did discover a lovely outdoors pool that was decorated for Christmas in December

I celebrated Sinterklaas with my family

Now, without further ado: all the fanart graphics I made this year!

Land of Art Phase 22 - Summer 2024
I handed in Golden Tickets for Challenge 1, 9 and 11. I missed Challenge 3 and Challenge 14 was a puzzle challenge, so no artwork for all of these.

( Challenge 2 - Stop & Stare )

( Challenge 4 - Technique )

( Challenge 5 - Hide & Seek )

( Challenge 6 - If You Believe )

( Challenge 7 - That's New to Me )

( Challenge 8 - Mother's Day )

( Challenge 10 - The Scenic Route )

( Challenge 12 - Call Me Daddy )

( Challenge 13 - All About That Base )

( Challenge 15 - Show Me the Pain )

Land of Art Phase 23 - Autumn 2024
This phase was supposed to last through December and into 2025, but was cut short because everyone is too busy with work. Team challenge 3 is moved to the next phase, challenge 7&8 were not posted.

( PH23CH01 - Follow the Leader )

( PH23CH02 - Mini Bang )

( PH23CH04 - You were the First )

( PH23CH05 - What if I'm the Bad Guy )

( PH23CH06 - The Saddest Goodb )

( PH23CH09 - On The Side )

That's all! Wishing everyone all the best for the holidays :-)

J.


X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/585638.html
Lurk or comment wherever you like:)

Oh no, I was so busy with work and setting up a new weekly routine, that I completely mixed up dates and missed a round in the Land of Art challenge *pouts* I had been determined to at least get 100% attendence this Phase. Instead my life is filling up with other things, like spending more time with my mom and adding another Aquarobics session to my schedule. In the mean time I'm also keeping an eye on the SPN_ReverseBang and I have made a big decision about the NicknGreg WMTDB fic archive that's taking up my time (more about that soon!)

To get back on track with landofart I'm doing an graphicsdump of all the stuff I created for Phase 17 so far! I handed in Golden tickets for Challenges 1 (Secret Santa) and 6 (Tic-Tac-Toe), which also count as participation;) and here are all the challenges I did make something for...

( Challenge 2 - Tag, You're It )

( Challenge 3 - Hide & Seek )

Challenge 4 (Rainbow Things) is being voted on, so I can't share those icons just yet.

( Challenge 5 - Crossing Headers )

( Challenge 7 - You've Been Promoted )

( Challenge 8 - Five Techniques )

( Challenge 9 - Can You Change the Look? )

I made most of these in Affinity Photo, which only took a little bit of getting used to after using Photoshop for years. I'm very happy to have an actual program on my new laptop instead of a cloud service;) Highly recommended if you are looking for an alternative for Photoshop!

J.

Woohoo, managed to make reservations for two plays in London in March and July. The latter will be Hamlet with Cush Jumbo at the Young Vic; the first one is Endgame with Alan Cumming, Daniel Radcliffe and Jane Horrocks at the Old Vic. Looking forward to making arrangements for both these weekends. If you're in the UK and want to meet up for a cup of tea in London or anywhere else, let me know! I'm an introvert hermit, but I do like chatting over a (non alcoholic) drink or meal:)

I signed up for a February reading buddy in the thestoryinside to help me pick what to read next from my 2020 bookpile [DW]. It's a lovely low pressure community where you can chat about books in all genres (including non-fiction). If you would like a bookbuddy too (you get to make a readinglist for them!) - go to this post.

I'm planning to organize another round of the quicky_bang. Last time there were plenty of authors and awesome short fics, but a rather low ratio of artists, as per usual in fandom. So I want to warm up first by doing a head count of interested fandom artists. Go here to let me know if you're an artist up for a quicky and spread the word among your social media, please!

Another fandom hangout I'd like to promote is the Sunday Morning Porn Club, aka smpc; we'd love for more naughty authors and artists to become active members! Of course consumers of pervy pleasures are also always welcome. You are invited to squee or give input on how to make your Sundays better, here:)

Last but not least, a short update on life.
On Friday I had a bit of a surprise, when two years after menopause I got another period. What the fuck, body. I've been having such a lovely relaxed life, don't want to start this mess again. I did some reading and apparently this can happen for 7-10 years? Can I nope out of this? Now I'm even happier with my bath bucket [DW], because soaking in a warm bubblebath for a couple of hours was exactly what I needed. <3

My elbow is healing nicely; I tried to get the stitches out today, but I couldn't reach well enough to cut through them with my left hand. So I do have to wait until my dinner with mom on Wednesday and she can help me with that:)

Went to a really cool presentation on Deep Learning and how to train a computer to recognize bridges, which could be very helpful for collection of geodata in the future. I definitely want to explore the more technical side of GIS, so this was inspirational and gave me a few ideas on how to expand my potential jobsearch (because my contract is unfortunately not indefinitely).
Next month I will train a new group of MGCP data collectors again, so the next few weeks I will be busy updating the course and instruction manuals. There may be some changes coming to the workplace that I'm not too sure about, but I'm still enjoying the day-to-day exploring of the world (currently checking out Venezuela!), so I'll hold on to that until we know more about the future.

In the meantime I also hope to find joy in making some more Japan picspams;)

J.

So... I got a promotion! I now officially have a senior position at the MGCP project (Multinational Geospatial Co-production Program). I still get to do the same geographical data collection, but in addition the senior team also checks the data. We get to explore new areas before the rest of the team to make decisions on how to draw new features (such as for instance the elevated highways they have on Java, Indonesia:)
Last week we mostly spent our time in meetings to get the whole team up to speed with documents and management, and I'm very much looking forward to getting back on the floor and dive into real work again, pfff.

In fandom news: looks like a whole bunch of youngsters have discovered the CSI: Nick/Greg fandom, and since they are mostly on Tumblr, this means they are making the most marvelous new gif sets or our old boys:) It's very cool to be able to fill up the NicknGreg Tumblr with new pretty.

The (Supernatural/RPF) MatchMakerChallenge at quicky_bang is counting down; you can still join in for a date until March 15, with posting until the end of the month.

I'm considering starting up a Graphic Banner challenge next over there, would anyone besides me be interested in that? Asking artists and authors of short fic (<4000 words:)

J.

Told you I would post more! I wanted to share my podcast reclist and I didn't want to postpone putting it up, because one of these has an expiration date and I hope to get more people to listen to it before it's taken offline.

When my co-workers in the office get too loud (or talk too much nonsense, oh my lord) I put on my headphones so I can focus on my job. I often listen to music, but last year I discovered a type of podcast I can listen to while I work. (I tried podfics before, but I just can't do anything else when listening to a story). Below are my recommendations of various types of postcasts: series of interviews, booktalks and a radio play (first episode available until January 30th!)

Richard Herring Leicester Square Theatre Podcast [RHLSP]
These podcast are also available on video on YouTube and are filmed in front of a live audience (Me! I was in the audience!). I've known Richard Herring since the nineties when he did a comedy Sundaymorning show on the BBC with Lee Herring. I love his humor and how chill he is with his guests. Most of them come from the UK comedy scene, (big stars like Stephen Fry or Dawn French for instance, but I also loved possibly lesser known Rose Matafeo (from New Zealand) en Nish Kumar, whom I both saw when I visited the recording of the podcast during my last visit to London;) but there was also a hilarious interview with author Jonathan Ames. There are over a hundred interviews on archive; they last about 75 minutes each. Be warned: they can be a bit raunchy, also thanks to Richard's collection of Emergency Questions, that he created to help him out when conversations falter.

PotterLess Podcast
Potterless is a podcast from 25 year old American Mike who's reading the Harry Potter books for the first time. ( Pottermore (see what I did there?) )

Stone Clearing with Richard Herring
Ahw, yes another Richard Herring beauty; a recently started podcast where he talks about Stone Clearing. As one listener put it: "Whilst listening to @Herring1967’s stone clearing podcast I can’t decide if I’m listening to his slow mental decline or his beautiful genius. Or both. [x] Episodes last from 30 - 40 minutes and start with Richard leaving his house to walk the dog (or so he tells his family. He's really on a mission to clear a nearby farmer's field of stones, but don't tell anyone, it's a secret!)

Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum
Interviews by Michael Rosenbaum with his actor friends. I mostly know Michael from CW fanfic, hehehe, nah, that's not true, I really knew him from Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, I never watched Smallville beyond the pilot. ( Inside Rosy )

Last but not least, a recently discovered gem: a radioplay for BBC radio, written by - there he is again- Richard Herring. It's a sitcom with emotional moments about an extended family. Currently there are two seasons with 4 episodes of about 30 minutes each. The final episode of S2 will be on BBC Radio 4 this Friday. You can listen to the first season on Soundcloud: Relativity S1 and the second season is available on the BBC website: Relativity S2 (NOTE: there is an expiration date! The first episode is only available on the BBC website until January 31!)

Do you listen to podcasts? Have any recommendations? Fangirling about Harry Potter, Michael Rosenbaum or Richard Herring is also welcome :-)

J.

Spread the word: I just opened up another round of the MatchMaker Challenge over at quicky_bang!


Sign up with a date in January or February and you will be assigned a mystery match:
a short SPN or RPF fic (<4000 words) to create artwork for!

Sample promo:
<center><a href="https://quicky-bang.livejournal.com/40438.html"><img src="https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/beelikej/7499883/2347103/2347103_original.png" alt="MatchMaker LOGO2019.png" title="MatchMaker LOGO2019.png"/></a> <i>Sign up with a date in January or February and you will be assigned a mystery match: a short SPN or RPF fic (<4000 words) to create artwork for!</i></center>

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Other modjobs in 2019
I also filled the queue of the NicknGreg Tumblr where I post daily scenes for that tiny corner of the CSI fandom.

This Sunday starts another cycle in the smpc, a Supernatural community that I run together with somer and that offers a weekly dose of Sam/Dean and/or J2 porn:) Come over to watch! (Or join in if you're up for the challenge of creating something pervy once every two months:)

Last but not least I will be moderating the spn_reversebang again this year. I welcome any and all suggestions and comments on that event!

J.

Hello!
I put up my second BigBang artpost yesterday! Would love for you to check it out: on LJ or on DW:) It's mixed media with some paperporn (bondage), but the risky bits are behind spoilercuts (these don't work on DW, so if you only want to browse the PG13 section, go to LiveJournal;).



Also: I just opened another round in the quicky_bang, a low pressure collaboration community for SPN artists and authors of short stories. Authors can submit fic until July 31st; artists can claim and play until August 31st:) We welcome art in any medium from artists on any level of experience; this is a great project to find out how you like to do collaborations:)


QUICKY_BANG 2018 ROUND 2:
submit short SPN/RPF stories all through July; create art before the end of August

It was great to see a fandom crowd come together on LJ again, but I must admit I'm utterly shocked by the over all response to a discussion on amberdreams' journal, where she asked the question: what is your view on fanfic authors who don't reply to the people who comment on their stories?

I found it rather odd that so many people expect an author to reply to comments. To me that comes across as incredibly entitled. You already got a great story and now you want direct communications too?
Personally I always respond to comments on my art, because I like the interaction.
However, I know plenty of authors who get overwhelmed by comments and feel awkward about responding to praise. Plus if you get a lot of comments, it takes a ton of time, even if you give a short answer.
So, no, I don't expect a thank you if I leave feed back; MY comment was a Thank You to the author, if I'd demand a thanks in return, would I then have to say you're welcome back? I imagine you could end up in a neverending loop of so called politeness and that's just silly.

Since circles of friends can differ even in our little corner of the internet, I wonder if there are more people who think like me?

My personal pet peeve these days is the low amount of comments on artwork; there has been such a decline and even though I don't need it to enjoy fandom, I do miss the enthusiasm from the old days.

Anyway, I'm off to Groningen with my mom, for a Mini High Tea (a present I got for my birthday:) - I think it will be good to be away from the internet for a bit. Yay, day off!

J.

Oooh, I found treats at spnspringfling that are very relevant to my interests. I'm always so happy to discover (new?) fellow lovers of my favorite pairings in this fandom. I'm gonna keep an eye on these fics until it is revealed who wrote these beauties so I can smother them with hugs and kisses:)

Symbiosis
Pairing: John/Dean | Rating: E (aka NC-17;) | Warnings/Enticements: panty kink, slight feminization
Delicious: sweet anticipation after a hunt; how will John react to Dean's little experiment?

It's Cold Outside The Covers
Pairing: Jensen/Jared/Danneel | Rating: NC-17 (I'd say R) | Warnings/Enticements: nipples!
Snoozing and comfort snuggling turning into nibbling and more. Omnomnom.

What’s In A Name?
Pairing: Jensen/JDM | Rating: R | Warnings/Enticements: angst, amnesia, and schmoop
Jensen has a thing about pet names. He doesn’t like them. Never has. Until Jeff.
- "Sweetheart." Need I say more. Also: in space. This.Is.Everything.

Snot is not completely gone yet, but I can breathe through my nose again and I seemed to have been able to avoid moving on to the barking cough (although I haven't slept through the night yet without waking up from an extremely dry throat, so keep your fingers crossed). Did of course work throughout the week, because it beats being bored at home;)

I've opened up a new round of the quicky_bang, so here's a call out to all SPN/RPF authors to submit short fics so us needy artists can claim them and get creative! There are already some stories on offer for eager artists, GOGOGO!



Other fandom news: I'M GOING TO THE SPN CONVENTION IN BIRMINGHAM!!! I know, I know: for years I've been saying a con isn't my thing and I still stand by that, but I'd already bought myself a ticket for the Saturday Night Special (because a concert is different from a con, okay and Birmingham is so relatively close, shush) and then the day tickets went up for sale and the costs for a Sunday seat were acceptable, so I went for it.
I still have to arrange travel and organize a place to sleep, but that will have to wait until after I have paid for the GIS course I'm starting this week.
Even though I am a hermit and a loner, I do love to meet up with fellow fangirls, so if you are going to this CON too, let me know! (PM or mail is cool if you don't want to expose yourself). It's also perfectly fine to not want to meet me there and only share that you're going, you won't hurt my feelings, but we can squeeeeeeeeeeeeee, yay;)

Oh, right, the course, don't think I mentioned that here yet. This Friday I will start a course called Cartography in GIS (Geographic Information Systems). So instead of working on Fridaymornings, I will be getting up even earlier to travel to the GeoFort to learn more about making maps professionally. Since this training will benefit my employer, they pay part of the bill and the rest will be taken from my weekly salary. That's why I can't make arrangements for Birmingham until I get fully paid again. Hey, I'll go camping there if I have to, but I WILL be there in MAY. Who's with me?

J.