Hils's journal

It's interesting (to me) how some actors stick with you through the years after they first take your attention and others don't.

I just did a quiz at spnland which had screencaps of various actors in other roles which you had to identify which is what got me thinking about it.

There's a handful of actors that I discovered through fandom that I still follow but a whole lot more that I haven't stuck with.

I used to watch anything and everything an actor I like had done but I've sat through too many bad films and TV shows to keep that up any more. This is why I haven't seen My Bloody Valentine or Friday the 13th to name but a couple

For example I will still make an effort to watch anything James Marsters does (although I still haven't seen Moonshot) and Sean Bean and Viggo Mortensen will usually get me to watch a film I might not necessarily have bothered with. Michael Rosenbaum is another one who I think is worth following and it's such a shame he hasn't been in more since he left Smallville.

I watched BSG because I fell in love with Jamie Bamber in Hornblower and wasn't that the best decision I ever made. BSG is still my tied fave show with Buffy at the moment in terms of the writing. I didn't stick with Law and Order UK but I did watch the first ep because he was in it. And now he's going to be in another of my fandom shows which I won't mention in case it's a spoiler

I watched Misha's episode of Nip/Tuck because notsowise_sage made me but I have no interest in seeing any of his other past stuff. I am looking forward to seeing what he does after SPN though, probably moreso than either Jared or Jensen to be honest.

A couple of things have got me thinking about where I am with my fandoms at the moment so I thought I'd do a little post. I don't know how other people define fandom but to me it's something that I am actively involved in. There's plenty of shows that I watch and post about but it doesn't go beyond that. To me a fandom is something where I write and/or read fic, make icons, those sorts of things.

So, here we go. All my fandoms to date and where I am with them.

Buffy:
This will always be a show that I love, and I still have loads of friends on here that I made during my time in the fandom and I love you guys. Occasionally I will make icons for this show but I don't read or write fic about it any more.

Pirates of the Caribbean:
Sadly the third film caved in a lot of the interest I had in this fandom. I still love the first two but I doubt there will be any more fandom involvement from me

LotR:
I still love the films but I've left all the comms relating to it.

Lost:
I really don't ship anyone in this show any more. Kate/Sawyer was my OTP but it really isn't now, and I can't even work up any enthusiasm to ship Sawyer/Jack. I still enjoy the show even though I have no idea what's going on but I won't miss it after it ends next year

Torchwood:
OMG! So excited about the new series

Smallville:
It really makes me sad when I hear myself talking about this show to people. The crappy writing has made me very bitter towards a show I used to love so much. I will be continuing my icons when I get spare time and I'm not ruling out more fic but I don't think it's likely

Iron Man:
On hiatus but I'm sure my squee will be back in full force when Iron Man 2 comes out

Merlin:
I'm not really reading much fic any more but I think it's just a summer blues thing and my focus currently being on SPN. Still very much in love with the show and I will be continuing icons and other fandom activities until S2 starts when I'm sure I will start reading again. lou_angel and I have a fic in the works at the moment so watch this space

Supernatural:
Funny how you can watch a show for years and somehow manage to stay out of the fandom. I worked out the other day that it's all goth_clark's fault. She got me reading Dean/Castiel which got me over at spnstoryfinders looking for stuff to read which is where I discovered J2.
I'm still reading all the fic posted to deancastiel and obviously I'm reading the J2 stuff on spn_j2_bigbang. My writing time now is being filled with my rpf_big_bang fic which is SPN and SV so it's not like I've abandoned writing for Smallville entirely. I'm just choosing to write about the actors rather than the characters

And that's it

Season four of Supernatural was voted as the best with 37% of the vote. Season two came a close second with 34%

I'm guessing a lot of the S4 votes were due to Castiel. Am I wrong?

Don't get me wrong, I love Cas (as if that wasn't obvious) but in terms of the overall arc plot I definitely prefer the earlier seasons.

Season 1 is probably my favourite, even though a lot of the storylines were formulaic and predicatable. Episodes of S1 scared me which is the closest I've come to having any sort of emotional reaction to the show, apart from the ones that make me laugh of course.

S2 is definitly a close second and in fact it's probably more well structured than S1.

The less said about S3 the better. I think the fact that only two people voted for it says a lot

Buffy was the fandom that most people on my flist share with me, with Merlin coming second and Supernatural coming third

I think it's all kinds of awesome that even though Buffy has been off the air for the longest out of all the fandoms it's still the most popular. YAY! I know I don't write or really read Buffy fic any more but I still have huge love for the show and it's probably my favourite (or maybe tied for first with BSG)

Merlin/Arthur was the most popular ship, with Clark/Lex coming second and Buffy/Spike coming third.

It's interesting that Smallville didn't place in the top three fandoms but Clex placed here. I think it's probably because a lot of people don't rate Smallville as a fandom now that it's shit. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

Again it's nice to see Spuffy is still popular even though the show has been over for years

Michael Rosenbaum was more popular than Tom Welling. No real surprise there given my flist *g*

Bradley is more popular than Colin. Again, I'm not really surprised by this result although I love them both pretty much equally so I don't think I'd have been able to choose

Jensen beat Jared in a landslide. This makes me sad. Is it just because Jensen is pretty, people?

So, looking at those results it seems that most of you prefer the extrovert actor apart from Jared. Poor Jared :(

So, now we have the second (and final) part of the poll. Do you prefer the actors or their fictional counterparts?

[Poll #1393679]

I think I've sort of got used to being in small-ish fandoms. I mean the Merlin fandom is growing but I joined back in the beginning where there weren't many people writing fic, and I joined the Smallville fandom when most of the BNFs and such had already moved on to other things.

The Supernatural fandom scares me, and this is maybe why I never really got involved before. It's just so huge, and the sheer amount of wank that is generated is scary in itself.

I had a quiet little corner where I read a few fics but now I've made the mistake of joining comms and my flist has exploded to the point where I'm probably going to have to start actually filtering comms because I can't keep up with it all.

But at the same time, and I was talking about this with someone at the Merlin meetup yesterday, nothing tops that excited and gleeful feeling you get when you discover a new fandom. So, I like it but I kind of don't at the same time.

I'm going to write some more of my Colin/Bradley fic and try not to think about it I think

I might cross-post this to LJ later. Not sure yet.

This is mostly for the benefit of new people on my flist but anyone is welcome to read of course.

thisissirius posts all the best 'getting to know you memes'

If you've friended me after January then I have a rather detailed intro post (with photos!) here

But now we're onto me and LJ.

( All about me and my LJ )

Best. Day. Ever

I have had an awesome day! Seriously, I don't think anything tops hanging out with a bunch of like-minded people in a pub *g*

I had a couple of nice surprises too! lex_a_like turned out to be on the train just behind mine so he came and joined us in the pub for lunch. Also, while I was on the train spikewriter called me. She's in the UK to see David Tennant in Hamlet so she came to the pub to to say hello. WHEE! *loves meeting LJ people*

yavannauk, complicat and I arrived at the pub just after 12, which was handily just as it opened. We must have looked like total alcoholics wandering in as soon as it opened. Hehe!

spikewriter arrived not long after that and we decided to order lunch.

lex_a_like got lost finding the pub so I had to go and rescue him, which is impressive because I didn't know where I was myself. LOL! It all worked out ok in the end though and we finished eating just as the Merlin fangirl posse arrived.

For reasons only lou_angel will understand I had a steak and cheese sandwich. It was delicious and also hilarious. I'll explain why in another post.

I pretty much leapt on lou_angel when she arrived. Hehe! I also got to meet Rizzy who has been working as our colaborative beta. He was fabulous and it's a shame he couldn't stay. I'm making it my mission to get him onto LJ

j_apollo had name badges for all of us to wear so that was cool. There's a pic of mine under the cut.

Then multiclassgeek had the awesome idea of doing a round robin fic and pretty soon a notebook was being passed around for us all to add a few lines. It turned into something quite epic. j_apollo is going to type up so I will link you to that as soon as I can. Once it was finished someone read it aloud to the whole group. LOL! Awesome.

(Fic can be found here)

I did my best to mingle and I did meet some new people so that was fun. It was also a mini Smallville meetup because as well as me, complicat and yavannauk we also had littlehollyleaf join us which was awesome. She's lovely! *waves*

I also met lisson17, krazykipper, ionaonie and kelene from my flist. It was awesome!

I'm already very much looking forward to the next one.

( Piccies )

I'm at the airport and all checked in. My flight leaves in just over an hour so I'm just sat around.

I'm actually not feeling that great and I hope it's a combination of the cold weather and the fact that I'm tired rather than me getting ill. I don't want to be ill.

I'm going to miss Merlin on Saturday and this makes me sad :( What makes me happy though is the number of people on my flist who are in the Merlin fandom already. I am spoiled rotten by icons and fic. elandrialore is writing a Merlin/Princess Bride crossover which makes me all kinds of happy when I see a new chapter posted.

I haven't forgotten about my Clex boys though. Oh no. As soon as my merlin_the_elf fic is done I will be back to my Snow White fic which now has a title!

Oh, and I managed to watch Heroes and True Blood while I was on the train

( Heroes 3.07 )

( True Blood 1.08 )

I've got Chuck, Fringe and Pushing Daisies on my iPod to watch on the plane

*cough*And all of Merlin*cough*

There's a fandom love meme going on at the moment. This is the first time I've ever got a mention in one of these things, which makes me all kinds of happy (and a shade embarassed too)

This is a great essay on why 'Flooded' is a blueprint episode for Season 6 of Buffy. Further evidence of how Buffy stands head and shoulders above all my other fandoms in terms of how clever it is.

I've just realised today is the first day of my month at svroundtable. I'll have to put together some recs this weekend but I still have no idea what to use *flails and panics*