Past and present fandom culture.

Hello and happy Saturday, blog readers!

I'm pointing out that it's Saturday not because I feel you aren't aware of what the date is, but because I am proud of myself for sharing that knowledge. I had a minor freakout yesterday when I was sitting on the couch and thought to myself, "is it Thursday or Friday? I just - wait. When was Wednesday? Yesterday, or two days ago? How have I not looked at a calender enough recently to know what day it is?!"

It was in fact Friday. I used to work at a theatre where I sold tickets to musicals and was constantly, constantly looking at calenders. Not having that job anymore (and being on a break from 5AG, to be honest), I'm never quite as sure what day of the week it is. But yesterday was the first day I actually had to look it up.

Even though it's still technically "summer break", I've been learning how to battle myself to stay motivated and productive with all my free time. And aside from the exorbitant amounts of Buffy-watching, I think I've been doing a pretty good job, and actually do keep myself relatively busy with all the little projects I take on. But I'll admit, it helps that even the things I have to do are kind of fun.

Working for ZAXY (and preparing for all the fun PAX stuff happening next week) is the first time that I've actually realized I might not be nerdy enough. Seriously, after all my years of Harry Potter and Anime and Wizard Rock and YouTube - I sit down for a G'Ovah podcast interview or look at the PAX scheduling and I feel like the new kid on campus. So a lot of my time is being spent researching nerd subcultures I've never been part of, and learning to change my chameleon skin to fit that of PAX West.

Watching Buffy, too - I now understand how people feel who are only just reading Harry Potter for the first time. I am almost finished with Season 4 of Buffy, and I just watched the 2 episodes where Faith comes back (sorry, kind of a spoiler) and I had this sort of sad realization that the Buffy fandom was probably a really awesome one to have been part of. I mean, granted, I was only 11 when Season 4 aired on TV, but I get emails from plenty of 11 year old wizard rock fans or nerdfighters. I'm sad that I missed being part of that world when it was happening.

I wonder how different it would have been though. I only just started using a computer when I was 11 - the types of ways we create internet fan culture now are so different than they were back then. Is there anyone who reads my blog that WAS part of that world and can tell me more about what it was like?

But I guess at the same time, this whole realization sort of gives me hope that there are always going to be great things to be part of. I mean, just looking at the timeline of stuff I was into - Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Harry Potter, YouTube, Doctor Who - there are no shortage of fandoms to be part of, so in a way it's kind of nice to see that people were doing this kind of stuff long before I was, and will most likely to continue to do so ... probably forever.


Anyway, Spike still cracks me up every time he's onscreen, Xander and Anya are the funniest together, Riley is kind of Vanilla for my taste but I suppose he's okay, and every time Willow and Tara talk to each other I want to rip my eyes out because it's so awkward and overtly sexualized in a weirdly innocent way. Also, every time I think I've pinpointed who the villain is this season, they die. I like college!Buffy; it's been nice for the change of scenery and the mix-up of everyone's role in the group/relationships.

I had a whole list of questions left over from people on twitter that I was going to answer today, but I got distracted on my fandom tangent, so I think I will just stop here for the day.

My friend Strawburry17 was just talking about Cardcaptor Sakura on twitter and it brought back this flood of memories from middle school (it was my favorite anime). She sent me a site where you can watch them all online, so I think that might be something I am doing in the near future.

Questions for today's comments section:
1. What's the earliest internet fandom you became involved in?
2. What's your favorite anime?

Last google search: "toonami"
Chipotle burritos: 17