Intro Post

[obstinatecondolement]

[Updated Jan 2 2024]

I'm Art! My pronouns are they/them or he/him.

This got long, haha

As well as being obstinatecondolement here, I am also obstinatecondolement on Tumblr, obstinatecondolement on vidders.net (which I really must post some of my vids to!), obstinatecondolement on Vimeo (most of my videos are password protected, but they are all posted with the passwords on AO3), and (you guessed it) obstinatecondolement on my much neglected Pillowfort.

In terms of my other fannish pseudonyms, I'm SweetPollyOliver on AO3; unmanlygrief on Twitter (Edit Jan 2023: but, uh, given current events, watch this space? Edit Jan 2024: Still there for now, but I probably would have deleted if I didn't want to do ITPE and since I do not think that will be on the-platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter in 2024, it's not unlikely that I won't be there much longer either, but I have made such threats before and not followed through on them), and I am also unmanlygrief on Discord.

Feel free to add me or PM/DM me on any of these platforms, or email me at obstinatecondolement@vidding.com if you'd like to get in touch that way.

Let's talk fandoms! I am an evergreen Star Trek fan, despite beyind disgracefully behind on most of the newer iterations of canon bar Lower Decks, and I was very monofannishly creating things for The Karate Kid and/or Cobra Kai for a good while, but I have started branching out again in the past few years. I am still a big TKK/CK fan (Cobra Kai never dies!) and mean to write some stuff on my to-do list, but I am not as intense with it as I was and other things have drifted in and out of my number one spot in the mean time.

Most recently, I've fallen very hard for the CBS Ghosts show, I had a very intense love affair with Succession that may be heating up again, I was massively invested in S1 of OFMD and slightly disappointed with S2 (although not as devastated as some were), I love Only Murders in the Building and am chipping away at some Mabel/Theo fic that has not yet seen the light of day, and I pretty recently reignited my younger self's love of the 1970s sitcom Porridge. I am a lifelong Discworld fan, but I only started writing fic in the fandom in 2023. As of now I have a handful of Discworld fics and podfics on my AO3 account that I hope to keeping adding to on and off.

Other things that are less to the forefront, but are still very much bubblings away in the background: I love Quantum Leap, both old and new, and am even now still rending my garments in lamentation over the Willow tv show and A League of Their Own (2022) being cancelled. And, honestly, I have lots of other fandoms, past and present, and there are a few that I often request for exchanges and am not usually "active" in otherwise.

The ways I participate in fandom are larely writing fic, but I am a bit of a fanwork dilettante and have also dipped my toes into vidding, podfic, fanbinding, writing meta (or jokey-joke posts, depending on how serious I am being at the time), making character/ship fanmixes, and putting together the occasional graphic (mostly podfic covers at the moment). I also have made a few fancrafts over the years! Mostly crochet dolls of Star Trek characters, like these ones. I have also betaed fic for other people and I would like to do that more often.

My transformative works policy can be found on my AO3 profile, but TL;DR, I give blanket permission for non-commercial transformative works of my fanworks.

Other things I do/have done in fandom are volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler and modding a few fandom events. I modded allvalley100, a weekly Cobra Kai/Karate Kid drabble challenge, with trinityofone from 2021–2023, I previously modded trek-rarepair-swap, a (first monthly, then quarterly) exchange where people created fanworks for each other's rare (which we defined as <50 works on AO3) Star Trek ships, with cosmic-llin between 2016 and 2020 and we have plans to revive it at some point when we have the time, and I will be starting a new podfic challenge called tidepodchallenge in January 2024 where participants receive bingo cards with prompts and then fill them by making podfics of Yuletide works written by authors who give permission for podfics of their work. If you are a fan of podic, please follow the comm and, if you are a podficcer youself, consider signing up once I get the ball rolling on that in the next few weeks!

Non-fandom things to know about me are that I am bisexual, disabled, transmasc, a leftist, I love fibre arts and textiles (crochet, knitting, weaving, spinning, dyeing, sewing), I sing, I am (slowly) learning the cello, I love spreadsheets and planners (I am the most disorganised orderly person you will ever meet), I live with (most of) my siblings and parents, and, as well partial custody of the family pets (dogs, chickens, another cat), I have two very spoiled cats of my own.

I tend to go through phrases of being more and less active on Dreamwidth, but what I mostly post about here is just various things that are going on with me in real life, stuff about my hobbies, goals that I'm working on or thinking about setting, etc. I very occasionally post links to fanworks, but I will try to keep more up to date with that going forward, as I have found DW fandom to be very rewarding when I do go to the effort of being more active in it. This is also where I tend to post my exchange letters, so you will probably at least hear from me once a year when I sign up to Yuletide. Most of my more personal, non-fandom entries are access-only, but I'm very liberal about granting access, so don't feel shy about asking!

Comments

[spikedluv]

but my main fandom currently is Cobra Kai/The Karate Kid

You just said the magic words! I discovered Cobra Kai this fall. I'd been aware of it with some amusement, but I watched a vid that made me sit up and take notice. (St. Elmo's Fire by lilly_the_kid. I see you have them friended, so you've probably already seen it.) I've watched s1-3 and am waiting to get my hands on 4 (we can't stream due to internet data limits).

In conclusion, \o/

[obstinatecondolement]

It's so good! I have been deep in the Cobra Kai mines since October 2020 now and I may never emerge. I have seen lilly_the_kid's fic, it's amazing. They have another one, Notice Me, that I rewatch constantly. I hope you get a means of watching S4 soon!

[flamingsword]

Your pillowfort link is broken, but your post is on point!

[obstinatecondolement]

Thanks for flagging that for me!

[tellshannon815]

Cobra Kai is one I’ve been meaning to check out for a while!

[obstinatecondolement]

It's very fun! Incredibly silly, but once you get the vibe and roll with it then it's great. Feel free to chat with me about it if you check it out!

[spikedluv]

And you're selling more people on Cobra Kai! *g*

Leverage: Redemption has been So Good!!

[obstinatecondolement]

Haha, yes, my ongoing mission!

I've been loving Leverage: Redemption! I am slightly sad that the OT3 is less canon than previously advertised, but you can't have it all.

[spikedluv]

That struck me last season when Eliot got a girlfriend. I was like o_O??

[obstinatecondolement]

Yeah that was a big uM moment for me, lol. I know that from a narrative POV it was so they, as a team, had access to the resources that she did as a US Marshal, but it felt very weird. Not that polyfidelity is the only kind of polyamory and that you couldn't write a fic where Eliot was dating Paker and Hardison and Maria, but it was definitely a bit of a swerve for me in terms of what I had thought was understood to be canon based on John Rodger's Twitter comments/confirmation after The Long Good-bye Job aired in 2015. Also I felt a bit uncomfortable with a Heroic Cop character in this kind of setting, but I guess fiction is fiction.

[highlymotivatedghost]

Omg, I adore ALOTO (2022). Do you have a favorite character?

[obstinatecondolement]

It's so hard to pick! It's such a great ensemble and I love all the characters. I do love Jess and Max especially though, maybe.

[highlymotivatedghost]

This is one of the only shows where I like the entire ensemble because they’re just so great! I love Jess too.

[obstinatecondolement]

Yes! They're all so great and I love them. I can't think of any character (except maybe Dove, lol) who I outright don't care for.

[highlymotivatedghost]

Dove sure is…something all right.

[obstinatecondolement]

Haha, yeah. I do think it was very clever that they teased him as the Jimmy Dugan-esque character and then were like "Lol, never mind, we're not doing that this time."

[peardita]

Aaaaaaart!!! Hi!!!!!!!!

[obstinatecondolement]

*waves vigorously* Hello!

[peardita]

what a nice coincidence joining the same writing comm you were in C:

[obstinatecondolement]

It's a small world after all here on DW! ;)

[capsquared]

Hi, I wrote for you for space_swap. Do you mind if I friend you as we have fandoms in common?

[obstinatecondolement]

Of course I don't mind! I'll add you now.

[teigh_corvus]

Those DS9 dolls are ADORABLE. <3

I have found DW fandom to be very rewarding when I do go to the effort of being more active in it.

It really is! Which is prolly why Snowflake garners so much enthusiasm. :) It's certainly why I return, year after year.

Do you use a drop spindle at all?

[obstinatecondolement]

Thank you very much! I've made a few others, (Seven and Sarina Douglas, Worf and Data, Worf and Jadzia). It's amazing how distinct you can make quite simple dolls!

Yes, I love doing Snowflake in January! It's a lovely way to start off the year and reconnect with Dreamwidth.

I do indeed use a drop spindle! Here is a link to a post about some Cobra Kai inspired rollags I spun on one of my drop spindles. I don't have a spinning wheel yet (I am waiting patiently for a second hand one to be advertised by my local guild), but I love spinning on a spindle. It truly is the original fidget spinner. I haven't done a lot of spinning, or much crafting in general, in a while, but I want to get back into the swing (or spin) of things. I certainly cannot let another Tour de Fleece pass me by accidentally, as it has every single year since I started spinning.

[teigh_corvus]

Oh! I'm so glad you shared those links - they are all truly fantastic. And reading through the notes with Worf and Jadzia boggled my mind a bit. That's a lot of altering/adding to the project. I'm really impressed.

That rollag is lovely. The depth of character representation in your color choices really shows your fannish love. And I hadn't considered the fidget spinner inherent in a drop spindle. I don't know why, it seems so obvious. But I'm definitely itching to give one a try now!

Tour de Fleece? That sounds like fun. :D

[obstinatecondolement]

Oh, I highly recommend getting a drop spindle to have a go if you haven't got one! You can even make one out of a CD and a wooden dowel, or the lid of a jar and a pencil, with a hook that you screw into your dowel/pencil, if you'd prefer not to spend any money before you know it's for you (although to be honest beginner spindles are generally not hugely expensive and one that's about $10 will spin a good bit better than a DIY one). If you're having trouble figuring it out I am also very happy to jump in a video call to offer some remote help.

There are various spinning forums on Ravelry, some of which have destash threads, so you might be able to pick up some fibre there if you didn't want to buy any.

My advice would be to start with wool, because it's grippier than more slippery fibres like alpaca or flax, and if you can lay your hands on a wool with a long staple length like Blue Faced Leicester rather than Merino that is even better still.

If you like craft books, one I got on well with as a beginner was Respect The Spindle by Abby Franquemont. I started with YouTube videos, but it took me ages to figure out how to get the first but of fibre to stay spun, because I couldn't get a great look at what people were doing at the very start, but fwiw I have seen lots of other beginners get it straight away with someone showing them (I volunteered to be someone's lovely assistant when they were teaching a class) and once I figured out the first bit myself I progressed very quickly.

Tour de Fleece is basically a spinning event that coincides with the Tour de France every year. There are rest days when the cyclists rest, challenge days when they're going uphill, etc. The basic idea is "When their wheels are spinning, so are ours" but plenty of spindle spinners participate too.

[goodbyebird]

Noticed the icon, and see we have several interests and subscriptions in common :)

[obstinatecondolement]

Hi there! Nice to see you outside of Discord :D