Sunshine Challenge Prompt 1: Fannish Housekeeping

I'm getting a bit of a late start on the sunshine_challenge, but it doesn't matter! The challenge even says so! (I'm a strict rule-follower, for better or worse, so this works for me).

The prompt:
As the sunshine_challenge begins, we invite everyone to prepare their journal spaces for new guests who may be visiting. Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time or go back and do any prompts you've missed!

I'm actually pretty on top of fannish housekeeping (nothing else, but definitely that), so my AO3 profile, my about me sticky and my dreamwidth profile are all up-to-date, though I did go in and refresh my comics reading list and added some of my (current) favourite icons.

I did, also, throw my old pseudonym a bone and updated that profile, too.

Improvements I have also tried to make recently, on dreamwidth:
1. Titles for every post
2. Tags for every post

Oh, and I did finally figure out how to adds links to my sidebar here. I thought about changing my template, but it turns I am very emotionally attached to this one, for inexplicable reasons.

Sunshine Challenge Prompt 2: Fannish Identity

Prompt 2: Fannish Identity

As the sunshine_challenge continues, we invite everyone to take a deeper look at their own fandom identities. Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time or go back and do any prompts you've missed!

I started using Tangerine in 1996 or so, possibly earlier. I was really into the X-Men at the time, and I really wanted to talk about the X-Men, but I had no way of doing that. Literally and figuratively. I didn't know anyone into the X-Men like I was, and my speech impediment (stutter) was at its absolute worst, so speaking was actual physical and mental agony for me. But I could type. And I came across an X-Men bulletin board, and well... I needed a name, and I was reading back issues of Excalibur at the time. Tangerine was only in it for two issues (66 and 67) so I figured the name was likely available. ::points at default icon:: That's Tangerine. She's a telepath. This is the Earth-811 version of her. There are others.

I've always felt most comfortable with this pseudonym. This icon, which I have dragged around for decades, makes me happy whenever I see it. I definitely respond to Tan or Tange in real life. It is almost my truest self, because while my speech has improved somewhat in real life (i.e. I know every trick in the book by now to improve my fluency), I'm still not much of a talker. I have been Tangerine for so long that it just feels like another layer of myself. I kind of drift in and out of fandom, but I know it's always there for me, if and when I need it.

(My other pseudonym, Rhys St. John, more commonly known as Rhys, was made up on the fly because everyone else was having secret identities for popslash, and it felt like the thing to do. I was still into X-Men and, also, really into Jonathan Rhys Meyers (thank you, Velvet Goldmine), so I basically took the Rhys from him and the St. John from Pyro in X-Men and voila. I haven't really used the name since 2004, but it's still kicking around.)

The moral of these stories is, probably, I'm really into the X-Men. Still. Decades later. They were something I identified with as a very sheltered teenager in the 90s, who felt different and didn't really understand why until I came out as bisexual for the first time in the late 90s. And I continue to identify with them now, as a mostly formed adult. I'm glad my fannish identity has an X-Men connection. It would feel very weird if it didn't. :)