Hils's journal

Bored so I meme. Stolen from kath_ballantyne

1. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now. I don't tend to use soap as it dries out my skin and I don't tend to take baths either as I much prefer a shower. But I've got some Radox ocean minerals body wash which I like. The bottle claims it's for men but bollocks to gendered washing products. So stupid.

( And the rest )

Well, this is an easy way to summarise what I'm up to at the moment.

Shamelessly stolen from scribblemoose

Major life changes? Same old same old?

God, where to even begin. I can't even remember what I was up to last time I did a post that wasn't fic recs.

Have a new job which I started a couple of months ago. Am off the 12 hour shifts and back to working Monday to Friday which is lovely. It's totally different to what I was doing before (service desk) so I'm learning a lot but my new boss is lovely. She's based in Manchester while I'm in York so we mostly chat via Skype and she leaves me be to manage my own workload and ask her if I need help with stuff.

Because it's not a customer facing job I'm allowed to work from home if I want so I've started doing that on a Friday which makes a nice peaceful end to the week.

I'm so lucky to have this job. They're investing a lot of time and money in me, training me up and giving me valuable skills to put on my CV. Even though I've been doing it since the start of July it still doesn't quite seem real. Am off down to London for a meeting next month and because it's more than 2 hours on the train I get sent first class. Wowsers.

In non-work stuff I can't remember if I told you my BFF from Uni had a baby. Well, he's 3 now so not really baby. I've been visiting every week since just after he was born and it's been so wonderful to see him grow up. We may not be related by blood but I very much consider him my nephew and he calls me Aunty Hirree. He's unbelievably cute.


What fandom are you in/do you spend most of your time in?

In fandom stuff been mostly playing in the Marvel sandbox. Winter Soldier ruined my life because it was so perfect and gave me so many feels. I'm not sure any other Marvel movie is going to live up to it to be honest, Civil War may come close. We'll see I guess.

And then just before Christmas I bought Dragon Age: Inquisition and lost several months of my life. I have been a fan of the Dragon Age series since I bought the first one not long after I got my PS3 and I play them to death, forget about it for a while, and then get reminded how much I love them and play them to death all over again. This is the first time I've been properly involved in the fandom though. I wrote a fic back in Feb and had ideas for more which sadly never really progressed beyond writing some notes. I made some wonderful friends in the fandom, though, and have got quite pally with the voice actress of the female Inquisitor (the character you play). She lives down in London and we've made vague sort of if we're ever in the same city at the same time we should get together sort of plans. May never happen but it's kind of nice that she suggested it.

And then, as is probably obvious, I have suddenly and unexpectedly fallen hard and deep into the Man From UNCLE fandom. I used to watch it on TV (well, repeats anyway) with my mum when I was a kid and jacqui_hw and I decided it would be fun to rewatch it all before the movie came out. Didn't quite work out as there's a lot more than I thought there was so we only made it to the end of S2 before the film was released

But, wow. I have been so amazed at how GOOD this show is! I'd never seen any of the black and white episodes before so that was fun and I love that it's actually pretty progressive in terms of gender at least for a show that was made in the 60s. It has more well-rounded and well-written female characters than some modern shows and movies do. In terms of racial representation it's pretty terrible sadly but for a 60s show it stands up pretty well.

And oh my did my crush on Illya Kuryakin come crashing back at full force. Only difference is I am now aware of what slash is and BOY is it a slashy show. I really do wonder if they were doing it on purpose, at least to a certain extent.

Anyway in the space of a few weeks I went from watching the show, to reading fic, to writing fic. And then I saw the movie and loved it! Have already seen it twice and am probably going to go again tomorrow. Henry Cavill is so beautiful I'm pretty sure he was grown in a lab.

So that's where I am right now.

Where do you hang out online?

Mostly on Twitter and Tumblr but I have to say I'm enjoying being back here too.

What are you reading?

As much Man From UNCLE fic as I can get my hands on. I'm also trying to get back into regular book reading so I've started reading one of the books on my huge to read pile during my lunch breaks at work. Currently reading Catching Fire. The Hunger Games books are so much better than the movies just in case you were wondering.

What are you watching?

Well due to the whole Dragon Age consuming my life thing coupled with marathoning The Man From UNCLE I am WAY behind on just about all of my shows. So here's a list of what I'm watching at the moment most of which I am behind on

Hannibal
Person of Interest
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Arrow
The Blacklist
Black Sails
The Musketeers
Gotham
Elementary
Vikings
The Librarians
The 100
Once Upon A Time
Homeland
Archer
Galavant
The Flash
How To Get Away With Murder
Agent Carter
Agents of SHIELD
Daredevil
Orphan Black
Sense8

What are you making?

I don't really do the whole making thing but I am considering getting back into icon making. That was always fun.

What are you writing?

At the moment I am editing a Man From UNCLE movieverse fic. It was just supposed to be something short and silly but it's kicking my ass and I can't seem to get it into a state where I'm even willing to let a beta look at it. I don't know why I'm struggling so much with it. Frustrating.

I've also got a half-finished Man From UNCLE TVverse fic which is equally silly and I'll be finishing that once I can get this other one sorted out.

What are you squeeing about today?

Henry Cavill's chin and Illya Kuryakin in general.

If you could rope old fandom friends into a new fandom, it would be...

I seem to do this just by constantly flailing and squeeing about stuff. I've dragged people into the Dragon Age and Man From UNCLE fandoms by just not shutting up about them. If you are one of them you're welcome ;)

And you should watch The Man From UNCLE (TV show first and then the movie - or the other way around I guess so long as you watch the show)

I should really watch/read/dive into _______ and then come talk to you about it!

The Man From UNCLE

What else is on your mind?

The fact that I am not as young as I used to be and am considering going to bed soon

Oh, and it's writerconuk next month and you should all come and hang out with me there.

And I'm going back to the US in October but more on that in another post I think. I've rambled long enough here. Well done if you made it this far!

Stolen from ithildyn

Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post. Possibly with pictures.