Call it DAFIA?

[akirlu]

100_1074.JPG
Originally uploaded by tigerb

As I was walking past the Daleks on my way to catch my morning bus, I was pondering how my life seems to have drifted accidentally into the mundane lately. I'm knitting scarves for breast cancer survivors on the train, and fostering rescue dogs, and the two books I'm currently reading are a mystery by Agatha Christie and a dog training book by Cesar Milan. The magazines I subscribe to are Sunset, and This Old House, and Threads, and (!)Martha Stewart. If you look at my pursuits from one week to the next, you'd be hard pressed to find the fannishness. When did all this happen?

It seems to be just a natural evolution of interests, really. It's not as if I deliberately tried to Get Away From It All, and I can't claim to really have been Forced Away From It All. It's more as if I've Drifted Away From it All. DAFIA. Oh, well, there, I've invented a fannish acronym. That has to count for something. That, and calling them Daleks...

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I thought FAFIA was Falling Away From It All.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I've always heard it as "forced" too, FWIW.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

That's not an expansion of the acronym that I've ever heard before. Certainly "Forced Away From It All" was how I learned it at LASFS, and all the online definition of the fannish acronym I can find say "forced", viz. frex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFIA

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

And apparently you're right. I looked up all three Fancyclopedias and it isn't in the first, but the last two have Forced Away From It All.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I think Dafia probably happens more often than Gafia or Fafia. Still, aren't you on the Potlatch concom? That's pretty darned fannish.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not totally away from it all yet. Still, I can talk for a long damn' time about what I'm up to lately without touching on any fannish subjects at all. And when I stopped by Steamcon last weekend to try to drop off some Potlatch flyers, my basic reaction was "Yeah, yeah, lotsa costumes, total chaotic disorder, bad signage, and no obvious fan table alley or flyer boards to drop the flyers at. Whatever. Ho hum, gotta go." Which, I dunno, seems rather blase compared to what I think my response would have been in my neofannish yout'.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Right, in your neofannish youth you would have thought, "There's sex to be had here!"

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, bother you. Yes, quite right. But I think I would also have been more dazzled by the sheer panoply of costuming. Now, I am an old fan and tired.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

What, you mean Threads isn't fannish? I could swear there was a loc from Terry Garey in one of the back issues... it might have been somebody else, but I'm sure there was a loc from a fan in some issue or other. Then again, I once saw an article by Leah Smith in a magazine about women in banking, and I would never argue that there was anything fannish about banking.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I think Threads does sort of drift into the borderlands between the mundane and the fannish, somehow. It isn't as obviously mainstream as Martha Stewart to be sure. Still, it isn't something you have to explain at length to non-fan acquaintances and colleagues if you drop it into conversation.

[jimhenley.livejournal.com]

Would it be okay to try to put you off Millan?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

If you wish, it's fine. Not everyone agrees with his approach, I know, but then, I think a lot of people also misunderstand or misapply it. In many ways, one needs to learn to be a good observer and interpreter of canine mood and communication to apply it well, and lots and lots of people don't recognize what an animal is actually signalling with its behavior. What I do know is that when dealing with a dominant, high-energy dog that is not at all food motivated, Cesar's techniques helped where other approaches failed. In Kaylee's case, it's far less crucial because she is very food motivated, and also naturally submissive.

[kaffy-r.livejournal.com]

DAFIA sounds about right, although PAFIA (poor away from it all) seems to have been my fate. Even when I was at my most active, though, there were tides, both high and low.

Oh, and yeah, those are totally Dalek. Kewl.

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

There are Goth Daleks on Capitol Hill. Does the Dr. know about this?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Even I do not know about this -- where are the Goth Daleks?

Gothick Daleks in Seattle

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

Gothic Daleks I haven't quite figured out how to post to other people's journals, so I''m not sure it's going to work, but I hope so - my photo of the Gothic Daleks of Capitol Hill. They're across from the Polyclinic on the west side, at the south end of the church.

Re: Gothick Daleks in Seattle

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yep, that worked beautifully. Very cool.

[carbonel]

You're in Seattle, right? I have a friend (a media fan) that I made a nearly identical photo into an LJ user icon for, and she lives in Seattle.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am indeed in Seattle (for sufficiently broad values of 'Seattle' anyhow) and the Daleks certainly are.

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

But those are really nice things to do, knitting scarves and fostering dogs!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, of course! No argument from me -- I'm the one choosing to spend my time that way, after all! I'm mostly marveling at how very normal my pastimes have become. There's nothing really wrong with being normal, it's just not my usual approach.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

I used 'dafia' years ago. Daggers at fifty paces, madam!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, I said I invented it. I didn't say I was the first to do so...

I think it'll have to be pen knives though. I don't think I have a dagger anywhere handy.