there's four directions on the map but you're only going one way

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 16: my LJversary

ride_4ever — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:35:29 GMT

On this day in 2011 I got my first LiveJournal account. I consider my LJversary to also be my fanniversary since it marks the time I found online fandom community. LJ has been and continues to be one of only two social media platforms where I am consistently active (the other one is Dreamwidth, similar in style to LJ).

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 15: Heated Rivalry...but with rabbis

ride_4ever — Tue, 26 May 2026 23:10:51 GMT

Thank you kindly to the wonderful kassrachel for sharing the link to this Purim Spiel! "Heated Rabbi-ry" vid on Instagram. לאַפינג אויס הויך

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 14: relevant to the interests of due South fen

ride_4ever — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:21:22 GMT

cmcmck has posted a new article about DNA testing on the remains of some of the ill-fated sailors of Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage Expedition. Click here for that post on DW.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 13: my fic for the movie "Cold Comfort"

ride_4ever — Tue, 26 May 2026 00:38:22 GMT

There Are Content Warnings For This Fic! Content warnings for mental illness, bear-trap injury, bad parenting!

Also note: ends on a cliff-hanger.

Written for the Valentine Edition of the Firewhiskey Fic Challenge, a 48-hour period during which fanworks creators drink "adult beverages" or "do the 420" and create their fanworks "under the influence" with no editing allowed. Participants then view all the fanworks and vote on them in the categories of Most Coherent Entry, Least Coherent Entry, Funniest Entry, Favorite Entry, Best Use of Prompt, and Best Smut. I was awarded Most Coherent Entry (and not for just the first time: I do have a high tolerance level).

This was also written for the SNFU Fanworks Challenge (12SNFU) for writing fic where the title of the fic is taken from the title of one of the songs by Canadian punk rock band SNFU.

This was also written for the 2026 Edition of Be The First. That challenge is to write a fic for a fandom that had not yet been represented in AO3.

Title: I’m Real Scared (or: What Can Happen If a Psychopath Rescues You During a Manitoba Blizzard)
Fandoms: Cold Comfort; Canadian Six Degrees
Characters: Stephen Miller, Floyd Lucas, Dolores Lucas
Length: 551 words
Summary: What can happen if a psychopath rescues you during a Manitoba blizzard.

Fic on AO3.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 12: Man From Uncle Fandom

ride_4ever — Mon, 25 May 2026 23:43:05 GMT

Those of you who are very active in MFU fandom already know this, but for those who don't know about this and might find it interesting: the winner of the 2026 Preakness Stakes on May 16th was a horse named "Napoleon Solo". Furthermore, there is fic referencing this: A Horse Named Napoleon Solo by st_crispins.

(If you read the fic and leave comments, feel free to comment "here on a rec from ride_4ever".)

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 11: Two Fannish Remembrance Days

ride_4ever — Mon, 25 May 2026 23:08:47 GMT

May 25th is celebrated annually as Towel Day to honor the memory of Douglas Adams by carrying a towel in reference to his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where it says "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

May 25th is also the annual Wear the Lilac Day to honor the memory of Terry Pratchett by wearing a lilac in reference to his Discworld where characters wear a sprig of lilac to commemorate the fallen revolutionaries of "The Glorious Revolution" in Ankh-Morpork.

GNU Terry Pratchett. GNU Douglas Adams.

GNU Rubynye AKA Minoanmiss

ride_4ever — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:40:56 GMT

Part memorial tribute to Ny and part public health PSA, this by werpiper posted on AO3: COVID: Speaking Out About Rubynye. These are the notes for what werpiper said at Ny's memorial.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 10: due South fen Happy Eleventh of March!

ride_4ever — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:12:59 GMT

It's time to celebrate the annual due South fandom holiday!

oh noes...daylight saving time again

ride_4ever — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 02:42:26 GMT

fandom-adjacent death: this fucking era

ride_4ever — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 05:49:29 GMT

I just learned that spikedluv's mother died three weeks after spikedluv died. Gawd, this fucking era.

that poem Sonya wrote about Ny in 2022

ride_4ever — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:56:03 GMT

Most of you -- or perhaps all of you -- will understand why I am currently fixated on the last three lines of the Sonya Taaffe poem "The House Snakes: For Nyani Martin":

...our earth will always shake,

our restless scales unfurling to enfold

your arms of wine-dark honey as you come home.

The full poem appears in issue 44 of "Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy".

In Memoriam: shocking news about minoanmiss

ride_4ever — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:54:17 GMT

Via a post from goss on Dreamwidth: tragic, shocking news about minoanmiss AKA Rubynye on AO3.

My icon says "sad" but this is way beyond that. I am utterly shocked and crushed. minoanmiss and I met once at a con and I hoped to meet up again...and now never will. We communicated regularly on DW and often sent each other postal mail...and now never will again.

May her memory be a blessing...and an inspiration.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 9: This One's for the Amigurumi Fancrafters

ride_4ever — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 23:35:25 GMT

Here's what happens when fandom and amigurumi collide: Crochet Your Celebrity Crush by Lee Sartori, ISBN 9780760393659.

In Memoriam: sad, shocking news about spikedluv

ride_4ever — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 22:37:09 GMT

spikedluv. Seemingly fine one day and gone soon thereafter. I can't even.

Link to obituary.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 8: Firewhiskey Fic Event Reminder

ride_4ever — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 06:51:46 GMT

Firewhiskey Fic will be running its Valentine Edition inebriated fanworks-a-thon this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Prompts are now posted in the comm. You can see the prompts and details about this no-signup, no-stress, no-sobriety event at Firewhiskey Fic on Dreamwidth.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 7: Postal Mail from Fen

ride_4ever — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 07:04:04 GMT

Thank you kindly to the following fen who sent me postal mail in January: a letter from oldtoadwoman, a handmade needlepoint card from smallhobbit, and handmade "the god of feathers" art from mific. I am blessed to be the recipient of these lovely words and crafts and arts. <3

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 6: No-Stress Multifandom "5 Soulmates" Prompt Table Challenge

ride_4ever — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 06:17:39 GMT

No deadline, no stress, multifandom prompt table challenge for creating fanworks in the Soulmates trope. If you are into this trope...or want to get into this trope...check out the 5 Soulmates Challenge on Dreamwidth. This link will take you to all the info and FAQs about how the prompts and the claims work for this challenge.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 5: Stargore's No-Stress SNFU Fanworks Challenge

ride_4ever — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:55:30 GMT

Oh noes! I thought that I did a Fannish Fifty 2025 post about stargore's SNFU Fanworks Challenge, but I haven't been able to find that post and now I'm wondering if what I'm recalling is that I intended to post about it...but got sidetracked somewhere along the way and didn't post. So now it's 2026 and here I am to pimp the SNFU Fanworks Challenge from 2025...but no worries that we're into the next year now...it's an open-ended challenge with no deadline.

The inspo for this challenge comes from Hard Core Logo and from the C6D (Canadian Six Degrees) fandoms, but there are no restrictions on what fandom you can choose for the challenge. See details on stargore's Dreamwidth and stargore's neocities website.

random post is random: banned books

ride_4ever — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:42:16 GMT

I'm putting together a program at the public library where I work as an Acquisitions and Collection Management Librarian. It's a program about books that have been challenged or banned in the recent onslaught against the freedom to read in the U.S. Some of the reasons...I can't even! I don't know whether to engage in bitter laughter or to just plain cry...or both...yeah, both.

Just a few moments ago I encountered this one about a book I read recently: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has been banned in some parts of the U.S. because Dunbar-Ortiz puts Indigenous Native Americans at the center of her telling of U.S. history "causing the book to gain detractors who prefer that history be told from the colonizer perspective". To paraphrase Shakespeare in Hamlet: "If all history books were to be judged on preferred perspective 'who should scape whipping'."

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 4: Firewhiskey Fic Event Returns in February

ride_4ever — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 07:11:15 GMT

The next Firewhiskey Fic event for the altered-states creation of fanworks along with lots of sociability amongst fellow participants will take place from Friday, February 13th to Sunday, February 15th. If you'd like to spend some time creating fanworks while either imbibing or doing the 420 in an environment of online partying with the FWF fen, join the comm at Firewhiskey Fic on Dreamwidth. No signups, no stress, no sobriety.

More info will be posted the week before the event.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 3: Postal Mail from Fen (Holiday Edition)

ride_4ever — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 06:38:00 GMT

Thank you kindly to the fen who sent me holiday cards in December and early January: noxelementalist, james, dine, adafrog, aurumcalendula, spikesgirl58, elayna, lauramcewan, sidleypkhermit, and brumeier.

If you sent me a card and you aren't listed here, that's a postal fail. If you are listed here and didn't get a card from me, that's another postal fail.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 2: More Joy Day giving & receiving

ride_4ever — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 01:21:21 GMT

What I did for More Joy Day: wrote a Guardian ficlet Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka for amedia; made a donation to Fraser.org, an organization that supports mental health, emotional health, and disability care (made as a memorial donation in memory of andeincascade and I notified Ande's family about it); sent a letter of appreciation to my primary-care doctor of many years who retired last month; sent letters of solidarity to neighbors who have "No Kings in America" signs in their front yard; sent an ILU letter and fannish bookmark to a fan who -- the day before More Joy Day -- posted the comment "tell someone you love them today".

What I received for More Joy Day: a due South x Venom crossover fic The Pause That Reinvigorates by petra and a penpal-type letter in the postal mail from oldtoadwoman. (The letter did not say it was FOR More Joy Day, but it arrived ON More Joy Day, so I'm "counting" it.)

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 1: Goldfish Explanation for Be A Goldfish Multifandom Microbang

ride_4ever — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 08:42:20 GMT

For those who are wondering why the Multifandom Multimedia Microbang is called "Be A Goldfish," here's the explanation from the comm's Admin devinwolfi:

When we started this event earlier this year, it was a Ted Lasso fandom exclusive event. We always had every intention to go multifandom later, this just gave us the opportunity to beta test it on a smaller group. In that series, a recurring line is to "be a goldfish," (based on the now disproved idea that goldfish have 3-10 second memories), meaning to let go of past hurts, move on, brave the new day, and try new things, all of which we hope to embody and encourage throughout this event. We've found that smaller works and folks who leave comments tend to get less attention, but those small works and comments are by no means less important to the fandom ecosystem so we wanted to give them, and the fans who share them, the support and attention they deserve. We also know that it's very easy to get bogged down by expectation, past experiences, and the pressure of trying to be "successful" in fandom and be paralyzed by it all to the point of inaction. We want to give people the space to try new things and develop new fannish skills without feeling like they have to commit to big projects.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2025: Post # 50: Fannish Fifty 2026 Sign-Up

ride_4ever — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:13:54 GMT

Any blogger can challenge themselves to an annual Fannish Fifty without signing up to the Fannish Fifty Challenge on DW, but if you want to be part of the "official" Fannish Fifty click here to sign up.

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2025: # 49: Canada Fandom: HBC, Can Tire, Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund

ride_4ever — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 17:39:54 GMT

My #49 Fannish Fifty links to the #49 Fannish Fifty of my fanpair, verushka70. And how's that for being fairly literal about the pairing thing, matching Fannish Fifty numbers.

For her extensive post about Canadian Tire acquiring Hudson Bay Company's intellectual property -- including the iconic striped blanket design -- and about the partnership between Canadian Tire and the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (the retailer has guaranteed at least $1 million a year to support Oshki Wupoowane -- The Blanket Fund --with the money being used to support grassroots Indigenous organizations and Indigenous cultural, artistic and educational projects) click here.

Also: direct link to Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund home page.