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delphiComment below and I'll ask you five questions. Answer them in your own journal, offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue!
A second cup of meme borrowed frompauraque, who was kind enough to provide these excellent questions:
1) What's your favorite holiday?
Is it weird to say other people's birthdays? I don't really like doing much for my own, but especially now that I'm older and even making plans with friends who live in town takes some coordination, I love an excuse to get together and catch up over dinner and drinks. I find shopping for family members who celebrate Christmas stressful because it's a lot to buy at once and also involves having to package and ship things across the country. Birthday present shopping is spaced out across the year, and I find it nice to be thinking about someone I like in the weeks leading up to their birthday, keeping an eye out for a book they might enjoy or something their style that they might appreciate having around the house.
(But if those don't count as holidays, then it's definitely Hallowe'en.)
2) Is there a trope or theme you love to read but don't feel like you can write it (or just don't want to)?
SLOW BURN ROMANCE. I adore a good slow burn romance. But it takes so much just to discipline my brain into finishing one short fic that I don't know if I'll ever have the focus it would require for me to plan out, stick with, and complete a long, satisfying journey like this. Especially since plot is my weak point and a good slow burn romance usually hangs off at least some semblance of plot. I was looking back at my collection of fic, and even the basic get-togethers in the 10-20k range are some of the ones that took the most out of me.
3) Why did you pick your username?
Long nostalgic rambling ahead. (Sorry!)
Okay, so, it started with signing up for Hotmail, far back enough that it might actually have still been HoTMaiL at the time. Having previously been a lurker or used systems where your ISP email address was what was going to be displayed, this was one of the first times I ever picked a username.
I was a young comics nerd at the time, and while I wasn't particularly a DC fan outside of Vertigo, casting about for ideas I followed a train of thought from the Batmanverse to Oracle (the character who was a computer expert). So I chose "orakle13" as my username. The "13" was because I was thirteen. The "k" was also because I was thirteen. The only thing cooler than deliberate using k's instead of c's when you're on the internet at thirteen is raNDoM CApiTilaZATioNS, which unfortunately you could not do with this service at that time despite its name.
I posted some stories as orakle13, but soon enough I was pretending to be over 18 on mailing lists and so through word association and an attempt to not blatantly announce my age, I switched to variations on The Oracle at Delphi. For the next couple of years, depending on sites' username limitations or whether other people had similar pen names, I went with various permutations of those words, landing on De Orakle for a while thanks to a particularly prolific period after signing up for some forum where all my usual attempts were taken and "Delphi Orakle" got chopped down to "de_orakle".
By the time I joined Livejournal in early 2002, "orakle", "oracle" and "delphi" were already taken. By then I was seventeen and wanted to drop the kewl misspellings anyhow, so I went with "atdelphi" - both as in the second half of "The Oracle..." and as a minor, unsuccessful pun about domains.
LJ soon became my primary place of doing fandom, and depending on whether the header called for an LJ username or pen name, I published equally as atdelphi and Delphi until the latter won out.
Not a particularly interesting or meaningful story, I'm afraid. Just the result of a spur of the moment teenage decision in the days before SEO, followed by a quarter century of largely uninterrupted fannish involvement.
I've actually been thinking a lot lately about whether I want to change my username. On the one hand, even if it doesn't really fit me anymore, it's what people I'd hate to accidentally lose touch with know me by. There are advantages (although also many pitfalls) to having a traceable history in fandom across multiple platforms. I've come up with throwaway pseuds when I've wandered off to summer vacation fandoms and inevitably I've felt the need to fold those back in under my main account. The only thing that stops that from completely swaying me is that most of my stories are in the Harry Potter fandom, which did not have a character named Delphi when I started writing in it but now sure does. It's left me in the position of appearing to have a fandom-specific username when that's something I've always aimed to avoid as a multifandom person. It's also made me less findable when people try to search for my stories, and occasionally earns me confused or annoyed DMs from actual HP Delphi fans.
4) What's your bedtime routine?
When I'm exercising good sleep hygiene: I shut off screens 30-60 minutes before a reasonable bedtime and read for a little while. I then change into my pyjamas (just your classic boxer-brief and t-shirt not worth wearing in public combo) and wash my face and brush my teeth. I refill my water bottle, climb into bed, turn off the lights, and dwell on iddy fictional scenarios until I fall asleep.
When I am not exercising good sleep hygiene: I stay up watching just one more video or reading just one more chapter until it's eight hours before I need to get up. I then race through the pyjama + face-washing + teethbrushing part and grumpily throw myself into bed, knowing that I'm in for a sleepless night and rough morning.
On nights when the concert venue next door to me hosts an EDM show (which go until 2 a.m., as opposed to the regular shows that finish up well before midnight), I transform my laundry room into a makeshift bedroom and make it an early night. I cozy up in there and watch a movie before bed, which allows me to gaslight myself into believing that sleeping on the floor of a laundry room is a special treat instead of a deep imposition and overall life disappointment that I could otherwise come to miserably resent.
5) When was the last time you laughed really, really hard?
Two days ago, I rewatched an episode of the Dropout series Breaking News (an improv show where comedians have to present silly news off a teleprompter that they haven't seen in advance and lose points if they laugh). This was one dedicated to revealing embarrassing true facts about one of the performers/writers. That episode's behind a paywall, but there's a best-of compilation that has two very verbally NSFW moments that made me crack up. Not sure if they still hit out of context or cut off, but...
https://youtu.be/KHgGofK6TiA?t=13
https://youtu.be/KHgGofK6TiA?t=186
A second cup of meme borrowed from
pauraque, who was kind enough to provide these excellent questions:1) What's your favorite holiday?
Is it weird to say other people's birthdays? I don't really like doing much for my own, but especially now that I'm older and even making plans with friends who live in town takes some coordination, I love an excuse to get together and catch up over dinner and drinks. I find shopping for family members who celebrate Christmas stressful because it's a lot to buy at once and also involves having to package and ship things across the country. Birthday present shopping is spaced out across the year, and I find it nice to be thinking about someone I like in the weeks leading up to their birthday, keeping an eye out for a book they might enjoy or something their style that they might appreciate having around the house.
(But if those don't count as holidays, then it's definitely Hallowe'en.)
2) Is there a trope or theme you love to read but don't feel like you can write it (or just don't want to)?
SLOW BURN ROMANCE. I adore a good slow burn romance. But it takes so much just to discipline my brain into finishing one short fic that I don't know if I'll ever have the focus it would require for me to plan out, stick with, and complete a long, satisfying journey like this. Especially since plot is my weak point and a good slow burn romance usually hangs off at least some semblance of plot. I was looking back at my collection of fic, and even the basic get-togethers in the 10-20k range are some of the ones that took the most out of me.
3) Why did you pick your username?
Long nostalgic rambling ahead. (Sorry!)
Okay, so, it started with signing up for Hotmail, far back enough that it might actually have still been HoTMaiL at the time. Having previously been a lurker or used systems where your ISP email address was what was going to be displayed, this was one of the first times I ever picked a username.
I was a young comics nerd at the time, and while I wasn't particularly a DC fan outside of Vertigo, casting about for ideas I followed a train of thought from the Batmanverse to Oracle (the character who was a computer expert). So I chose "orakle13" as my username. The "13" was because I was thirteen. The "k" was also because I was thirteen. The only thing cooler than deliberate using k's instead of c's when you're on the internet at thirteen is raNDoM CApiTilaZATioNS, which unfortunately you could not do with this service at that time despite its name.
I posted some stories as orakle13, but soon enough I was pretending to be over 18 on mailing lists and so through word association and an attempt to not blatantly announce my age, I switched to variations on The Oracle at Delphi. For the next couple of years, depending on sites' username limitations or whether other people had similar pen names, I went with various permutations of those words, landing on De Orakle for a while thanks to a particularly prolific period after signing up for some forum where all my usual attempts were taken and "Delphi Orakle" got chopped down to "de_orakle".
By the time I joined Livejournal in early 2002, "orakle", "oracle" and "delphi" were already taken. By then I was seventeen and wanted to drop the kewl misspellings anyhow, so I went with "atdelphi" - both as in the second half of "The Oracle..." and as a minor, unsuccessful pun about domains.
LJ soon became my primary place of doing fandom, and depending on whether the header called for an LJ username or pen name, I published equally as atdelphi and Delphi until the latter won out.
Not a particularly interesting or meaningful story, I'm afraid. Just the result of a spur of the moment teenage decision in the days before SEO, followed by a quarter century of largely uninterrupted fannish involvement.
I've actually been thinking a lot lately about whether I want to change my username. On the one hand, even if it doesn't really fit me anymore, it's what people I'd hate to accidentally lose touch with know me by. There are advantages (although also many pitfalls) to having a traceable history in fandom across multiple platforms. I've come up with throwaway pseuds when I've wandered off to summer vacation fandoms and inevitably I've felt the need to fold those back in under my main account. The only thing that stops that from completely swaying me is that most of my stories are in the Harry Potter fandom, which did not have a character named Delphi when I started writing in it but now sure does. It's left me in the position of appearing to have a fandom-specific username when that's something I've always aimed to avoid as a multifandom person. It's also made me less findable when people try to search for my stories, and occasionally earns me confused or annoyed DMs from actual HP Delphi fans.
4) What's your bedtime routine?
When I'm exercising good sleep hygiene: I shut off screens 30-60 minutes before a reasonable bedtime and read for a little while. I then change into my pyjamas (just your classic boxer-brief and t-shirt not worth wearing in public combo) and wash my face and brush my teeth. I refill my water bottle, climb into bed, turn off the lights, and dwell on iddy fictional scenarios until I fall asleep.
When I am not exercising good sleep hygiene: I stay up watching just one more video or reading just one more chapter until it's eight hours before I need to get up. I then race through the pyjama + face-washing + teethbrushing part and grumpily throw myself into bed, knowing that I'm in for a sleepless night and rough morning.
On nights when the concert venue next door to me hosts an EDM show (which go until 2 a.m., as opposed to the regular shows that finish up well before midnight), I transform my laundry room into a makeshift bedroom and make it an early night. I cozy up in there and watch a movie before bed, which allows me to gaslight myself into believing that sleeping on the floor of a laundry room is a special treat instead of a deep imposition and overall life disappointment that I could otherwise come to miserably resent.
5) When was the last time you laughed really, really hard?
Two days ago, I rewatched an episode of the Dropout series Breaking News (an improv show where comedians have to present silly news off a teleprompter that they haven't seen in advance and lose points if they laugh). This was one dedicated to revealing embarrassing true facts about one of the performers/writers. That episode's behind a paywall, but there's a best-of compilation that has two very verbally NSFW moments that made me crack up. Not sure if they still hit out of context or cut off, but...
https://youtu.be/KHgGofK6TiA?t=13
https://youtu.be/KHgGofK6TiA?t=186
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-26 02:33 am (UTC)I sort of want to travel to wherever you are and cut the power lines to the concert venue but... since unable to do that, I'm glad you have the laundry room as a backup. I do like your version of making lemonades out of lemons!
Oh geez, I have a very not-so-secret crush on Ally Beardsley ever since I saw them on Critical Role.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-26 05:08 am (UTC)I totally forgot about the now-HP canonical Delphi. :O
So do I for long periods of time, especially because I never saw/read The Cursed Child and only track a handful of rarer HP tags these days. But when I do run into mentions, it throws me for a loop.
Cutting the power to the concert venue would be very much appreciated. But I think if I can just build up the 'mattress' in the laundry room a little better, I can make this a tenable situation. I am fortunate to be closet-length in height, and I like cozy spaces. :)
And oh, I hear you re: Ally. Erika Ishii is my forever Dropout crush, but Ally is a very close second in my heart. They're great in the Dimension 20 D&D games, and I adore the semi-deadpan chaotic energy they bring to the Dropout game shows.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-26 04:34 am (UTC)I'll take some questions!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-26 05:40 am (UTC)1. What's your favourite article of clothing that you own?
2. Are there any foods you used to dislike that you've come around on, or that you tried for the first time as an adult and now love?
3. If you could go back in time and witness any historic event, were would you go?
4. What's your favourite thing to do at Disneyland?
5. If you could order a (good) sequel to any book you've ever read, what would you want to see?
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-27 02:53 pm (UTC)I also frequently forget that there is a canon character named Delphi, probably because if fan writers use any part of The Cursed Child it's almost always going to be the cute idea of Al/Scorpius, and not the significantly-less-cute retconning of Voldemort/Bellatrix. You really get DMs about your name? What exactly are people annoyed about?
I'm sorry you have to deal with living right next to a concert venue, but I admire your creative solution. (When my neighbor is noisy I have considered sleeping in the bathroom, but that would probably be an unwelcome surprise to anyone else getting up in the middle of the night.)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-27 08:19 pm (UTC)I definitely go the "short glimpses" route, myself. I'm writing one now that even with generous cuts and hopping from Significant Moment to Significant Moment is going to be around 7k and has taken me months to get this far. But I keep telling myself, better to get a 7k fic that tells a story I want to tell out there eventually than commit to it being its 50k+ and - realistically - never have it see the light of day. That said, I love reading get-togethers that happen vignette by vignette too. I just have extra admiration for stories that dole it out in full real-time glory.
Regarding my username, I was contacted by someone who wanted it for DW roleplaying, got some misfires for someone else who now uses the pen name, and had a spate of flames/trolly comments on the couple of Albus Severus fics I've written where I think the person/people involved assumed my fic was trolling or coming from a certain anti-Al/Scorpius angle because of my username. Just little things that prompted me to stick my head through the doorway and remember how big and different major streams of the Harry Potter fandom continue to be.
And oof, yeah, sleeping in the bathroom is a lot more complicated when you live with other people. I started off with that as my quiet alternative, since it's a lot more soundproof and pleasantly cooler than the laundry room, but laziness won out because I can store a bundle of bedding permanently in the laundry room and don't need to fully pack up each time.