Snowflake Day 9: brag about yourself

[deird1]

(Skipping days 7 and 8 because I'm thoroughly stumped, and don't want it to stop me from doing the rest of the challenge.)

So this challenge is for me to talk about how awesome I am! Which… I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but then I am totally about to brag…


I taught myself a bunch of stuff!

I taught myself Latin. And how to crochet. And how to make really nice loaves of bread. And how to play accordion.

Teaching myself new skills is really fun! I should totally do it more often.


I write cool BtVS fanfic!

So I suck at plot. And I'm pretty crap at romance. But I am good at short, character-heavy gen fic featuring lots of sneaky references to canon. And I'm also good at fun and silly fics in unusual formats.

These are some of my best fics.


I'm a great GM!

I am very good at running RPGs that are not Dungeons and Dragons. (I do play D&D, because it's hard not to in this hobby. But I'm not very good at the rules.) I come up with really fun NPCs, lots of interesting situations, and cool twists and turns.

It takes a lot of effort, but so do most worthwhile things.


I'm a great mum!

I love my kids. And I try to introduce them to fun stuff that they'll enjoy, and to listen to them and consider their feelings, and teach them skills they need to know, and spend time with them, and apologise to them (which… I need to do a lot).

I suck at imaginative play, but I'm pretty good at the other stuff.



There you go. I am thoroughly awesome. And so are you guys! Please, tell me the things that make you awesome, as I am very interested in you all.

Comments

[luthien]

That's a great collection of achievements! Teaching yourself stuff is an excellent skill to have - and one I need to get back to. Thanks for the reminder!

[deird1]

No worries!

What are you going to teach yourself next?

[luthien]

I'm good with words, less good with images - so maybe vidding will be my next challenge to myself.

[hnpcc]

Now I'm very curious about challenges 7 and 8.

[deird1]

7: come up with your own challenge
8: make a wish list (of fanfic you want to see, etc)

I suck at requesty things. I'm pretty good at fulfilling other people's, but I have no imagination for that sort of stuff.

[sjh2009]

You really are awesome! What a wonderful list of things, that's so cool you've been teaching yourself all those things, I tried to crochet again last year but still can't, Despite watching videos, lol. Oh well at least I can knit!

I've bookmarked your page so I can explore your stories once Snowflake is over.

Thank you for sharing.

[deird1]

I can't knit at all! For some reason, I can get crochet to work in my brain far more easily.

[tsuki_no_bara]

you do indeed sound pretty awesome. :D i have so much respect for people who can teach themselves languages. also, do you have any tips for making bread? it's on my list of things i want to do but which kind of intimidate me.

[deird1]

Honestly, the intimidation factor of bread baking was the main reason I wrote this post. I find bread recipes so complicated and confusing! But once you're aware of the main steps, it becomes way simpler.

You either need to spend a some time practising kneading, or get your hands on a no-knead bread technique. I started by reading Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast – a book which goes into excruciating detail about making no-knead artisan bread – but started kneading dough once I felt more confidence about the rest of the process. Once you're familiar with what dough feels like when you've kneaded it, it's much easier to handle.

[analise010]

Being a great parent is truly amazing and one of the best accomplishments in the world.

[deird1]

Indeed. I am very much hoping to do it well. (The teenage years look intimidating, though.)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yay! All great things to brag about! :)

[deird1]

Yay!

[vass]

A thing that's awesome about me: I've started learning to persist at learning things that I'm bad at. The results aren't necessarily impressive to people who don't know that's what I'm learning, but it's very important to me to learn that particular meta-skill.

And some questions about your answers:

Accordion: how did you get into it? Are they expensive to buy/hard to find? What sorts of music do you play? (Asking because that's yet another instrument, of many, that I've had a sneaking suspicion might be cool to learn myself one day.)

GM: what systems do you like to use?

Parenting: you said you suck at imaginative play, kind of right after you said you're a great GM! I know imaginative play with children isn't exactly the same thing, but it was still striking. When they're old enough, have you thought of running an RPG game (modified to be simpler/child-suitable) for your kids?

[deird1]

I've started learning to persist at learning things that I'm bad at.

That's remarkably important. (And something I'm not good at doing, yet.)

Re accordions:
- I got into it because my grandmother had one, so I had easy access. It's pretty fun (and good for my core strength). If you wanted to learn it, you would need at least some idea about the "circle of fifths", as that dictates the entire position of the left-hand buttons.
- New ones can be quite expensive, unless you get a very small one. But there are usually a few being sold on Gumtree. (Word of warning: never buy one unless you can play it before handing over money. I spent a lot of money on a worthless instrument that way.)
- I like playing lots of different music, but my favourite thing kind of thing to play is traditional English music (e.g. Greensleeves, or Scarborough Fair). It is my ambition to learn "You've Got A Friend In Me", from Toy Story, because I saw an accordion guy on YouTube playing it and it sounded EPIC.

GM: what systems do you like to use?

Things that aren't D20! And don't have classes! And don't level up! And are completely not D&D-like!

I love the system used by the Buffy RPG (cinematic, with a single D10), I love systems that use 2D6, because I'm a fan of the bellcurve, I love single-pagers (especially Grant Howitt's), I love the skill system used in Lady Blackbird, and I love the Stars Without Number book (although I've never played his system). I'm currently waiting on a delivery of Cortex Prime, and hoping to use it to run a Stargate game.

you said you suck at imaginative play, kind of right after you said you're a great GM!

Heh. True.

My GMing is great because:
- I have mad skillz for creating NPCs
- I'm good at thinking on my feet when my players do ridiculous stuff
- I have read far too much of The Alexandrian, and use his Three Clue Rule constantly

Two of those three points are basically me rocking the preplanning; the other is supported by my rocking the preplanning. And I can't preplan imaginative play with my kids! Which makes me very bad at it.

I am quite seriously considering running a Wallykazaam RPG for my kidlets. (With very clear rules about who has the magic stick at any given moment.)

[lirazel]

Yay! You are awesome!

[deird1]

Thanks!