for the most sensitive among us the noise can be too much.

YAY! I REACHED MY GOAL THANKS TO YOUUUUU!

We did it, we did it! Thank you everyone for your incredible generosity. I would've been grateful with $10 but you guys really went above and beyond and I appreciate that so much. As I stated in the previous entry, I'm putting it all here so that every dime is accounted for and so that you know where your money is going. I know the interwebs hasn't been so kind to people's generosity and I do not want to be one of those people. So let me break down the totals:

DreamHost hosting per month: $10.95
Total for the year: $131.40

Money Received --
US Dollars: $216.95
Other Currency: $80
Total Received: $296.95 (will alter with currency exchange to over $300)

Wow. When I see that total all laid out like that, it's really incredible, and again, I am so, so grateful to have anything at all and definitely grateful for your support. I'll be able to keep the site going for two plus years with everything received and that is amazing! I'm so blown away by it. Again, the money is going only to the qafcaps.com site. The reason I asked for PayPal is because that's how I pay DreamHost every month. It's an easy transfer and it takes seconds. Now I'll be able to have something to put into that account every month, yay! It's certainly a large weight off of my shoulders and I have fandom to thank for that.

I really don't know how to thank you guys for this. You certainly have my appreciation and the promise that this site's going to stay up. Thank you again! You guys are ammmaaazzzinnnngggggg! ♥

Permanent Account, Created on 11 July 2003 (#1177026), Last updated on 11 July 2014

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I can't believe I've been here for 11 years. This journal was not pretty in the beginning. I was literally a teenager when I started. I was 18 and I was entering my freshman year of college. Now I'm 29 (BRIAN KINNEY'S AGE) and looking back at that time both feels like another life and feels like it was just yesterday. I was brand-new in the Queer as Folk fandom. I came in around Season Three and it's never really left me. It's provided me so, so much as a fandom. It's the fandom that keeps on giving. I've met the most amazing friends, friends I used to admire from afar when they were posting here and being so popular on LJ while I was just a wallflower. Back then, I didn't even think that was possible as silly as it sounds. But it's possible and it's been an awesome 11 years.

I can't wait to see what the next 11 years have in store for me. Hopefully, more photos, more fun travel adventures, just more of everything. LJ's definitely still my happy place and it's going to be the main place I go to be me.

Queer as Folk Convention 2013.

It's been 13 years since Queer as Folk debuted on Showtime. I didn't watch it when the show started. I was 15 years old and too involved (or obsessed) with music at the time to turn my attention to television. I swear, I watched every single show I liked on VHS when I recorded an episode because I didn't have the time to watch it on weeknights. Too much homework. And Queer as Folk just wasn't on my radar.

It wasn't until the summer of 2003 when I graduated from high school and could do nothing for the summer that I discovered the show. I rented every DVD at Blockbuster because I remember those QaF DVD seasons were around $120 retail price when they first came out. I bought mine on eBay for $55 each -- seasons one and two. Some generous soul sent me season three which just ended by the time I decided to start watching.

I got hooked on it and ten years later, I'm still here. I'm still in fandom (currently inactive because someone waves something shiny in front of me and I look somewhere else) and I always have plans to revive something and be a little more active. I want to refresh the qafrecs community since I have it. I'm sure a lot of those links are dead or aren't linked to the correct and current active link. I want to go through those and write some kind of definitive list. I want to go back and read tons and tons of fanfic and not just my old favorites. There's still plenty I'd like to do. So I don't see this train stopping anytime soon.

More than that, I'm grateful for all the friends the show brought me. Even though I may not have known them in the height of fandom, I'm really happy to have friends who can remember the good old days and reminisce about all the fun. I really can't believe all the things I've encountered and all the things I've been fortunate enough to do these past ten years. I've visited my QaF/Lure friends (and yearly vacations have been awesome), I've seen Randy in the Berkshires, I've seen various play performances by Gale, Scott, and Peter, and I went to the most recent Queer as Folk convention. Not only was I an attendee as a fan, but I got the opportunity to photograph every moment, spend some quality time with cast members, and make new friends.

It's been an amazing ten years all thanks to this one show. Thank you for existing, Queer as Folk. Don't know what I would've done without you.

I was trying to think of something to post that really explained all my feelings for the show in a succinct and yet uplifting way and this video was it.

Remember back in the day when we were all *click* "Yay! New wonderful fic! Oh my god. There's so many and they're all good. I don't really know where to go next!"

And then it was like, "Oh, okay. Show's over but look! New wave of people discovering the show!"

And then it was more like, *wades through tons of badfic* followed by *finds a rare gem of good fic* "Oh my god, you guys! There's a new fic writer and it's all shiny and new and GOOD!"

And then that new person is just all, "Later, Queer as Folk. Something shiny's over here."

And we go... :(

Well, here I am to say that I think we've found a winner.

moonbrightnites suddenly popped up with her excellent taste in good fic and her eye for avoiding the bad ones and I knew that she was a good egg. Better, she writes fic. EVEN BETTER, YOU SAY? It is damn good. I'm throwing my rec out there for you to read everything she's ever written. I'm experiencing sleep deprivation because of it. I still need to read through most of it but what I have read? Yes. Just... yes.

Not only that but she has created a wonderfully, active community called qaf_ficwriters which has inspired such a wide range of conversation topics such as pet peeves in fanfic, fan fiction summaries, and I'm very much looking forward to even more discussions. Personally, I'd love to get into banner vs. no-banner argument since banners were once used as indicators to avoid fic at all costs, it now seems like an acceptable practice. Me? I'm still against them. (This is not the place to discuss it. I'm just throwing out a topic.)

Even you long gone QaF writers, pop back in to take a look. Do it.

EDIT: MASTER LIST OF HER FICS RIGHT HERE. GET READING.

Y'all. I am not kidding. I will hunt all of you down until you read it and then talk about it with me.

1. I watched Queer as Folk episode 101 last night and the nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a lot of warm and fuzzies and I can't wait to marathon the series when I have a little more time!

2. I also got sucked into a tumblr vortex for the past few days where I did nothing but get connected from tumblr to tumblr to tumble. Of course, ran into some gifs that I think are worth seeing. I'll start with a safe one and then dive into the not so safe for work ones.

Who doesn't love this speech? I believe in this.

( Other QaF related gifs. )

I'll be back with a tumblr list.

3. I also totally became obsessed with Tangled the movie and got sucked into 10,000 Disney/Disneyland tumblrs. My favorite line from the movie?

"You're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your magic hair around my injured hand."

I seriously died laughing.

I'm also probably going to do a Disney meme. One's a regular Disney themed meme and the other's a Disneyland meme. I do love them both so much. I'm Disney deprived, sigh.

Hope everyone who celebrates had a great Easter! This is the first Easter that I missed The Ten Commandments. I forgot it was on Saturday and I still don't own the movie. cindergal, I hope you had a very happy birthday! Everyone have a great week. :D

Since we're all fandom happy around here, I've got a fandomy question! For those fic junkies out there, what fics have made you cry? I'm a total lush so I cry a lot but there are a couple of stories that come to mind that I can't even read anymore because I know I'll end up sobbing. Okay, so maybe stories that make you sob or cry. Any fanfic that does that to you? Share them!

I call CRAZYPANTS on that one. Crazypants. I was 15 when the show came out. So, I didn't watch it when it first premiered. I was too involved in my boy band phase that lasted for a little while. I didn't have time for that many obsessions! But, once my first year of college hit? I was all ready to begin anew.

Well, that's my story. I started watching the show at the tail end of S3 but wanted to watch the whole thing and get caught up. These were the pre-YouTube and pre-downloading days unless you had a fast DSL line. It was 2003 and I had to do things the old fashioned way! I rented the DVDs at Blockbuster in the summer of 2003. I watched everything over and over again, repeated favorite lines, favorite episodes until I felt like I had the whole Season 1 memorized. On to eBay to buy Season 2 for $50. I lost the first auction and got the second one. I had to wait an agonizing two weeks for it since I took a trip up north. When I got back, I watched all 20 episodes over a few days.

Finally, Season 3 came in the form of ripped copies from TV from a very generous person, and I watched those on my computer to get all caught up!

Then, obsession began.

I wasn't as active in 2003 up until the show ended. I was in college and even though I read all the fic, visited all the websites, commented here in LJ, and spoke up every once in a while, I wasn't as involved as I would've liked to have been.

Still, I made some friends here and I'm happy to say that I have most of them still friended and they've friended me back.

Sometimes, I still get a little fanfic/QaF fan starstruck. I'll never forget the first time I came across paddies icons and all of her talent and skill. I remember when url_girl came on the scene and brought the funny with her doodles and icons (still brings the funny!). I remember freaking out with my Bestie every time that sandstorm63 would post a new clip on her site. I remember I was flying to Vancouver to visit the Bestie and someone sent me the scene from 403 early. I remember reading Crisis by jane2005 and holding my breath the entire time. I remember reading Forever Changes Everything by rhiannonhero over and over and over again because that's how I imagined their future. I remember dying from excitement every time that burnitbackwards posted anything new and shiny.

The whole of LJ was just littered with incredible fic on an almost daily basis from '03 to '05. I didn't know how good I had it. There were definitely a list of authors that I kept returning to because I loved anything that they wrote. My nostalgia list pretty much has everyone on it but the most memorable names were people like bigboobedcanuck, juteux, darksylvia, lennongirl, sparkledark and brosen, xhaleslowly, ragingpixie, severina2001 and twistinside, and others that I know I'm forgetting!

There were INCREDIBLE vidders in fandom! I think we really had some of the best. It was the way that I discovered new tunes, that's for sure. There was Blank Monday's Pillow, Jonatha Brooke's Because I Told You So, Rufus Wainwright's music was used. Choimimi's videos were really something else and had a great use of the music. Aida's never failed to make me cry my eyes out! Defying Gravity will never fail to be one of my faves followed by f1renze's Affirmation. Wendy's vids ... I can never watch musical Buffy the same way ever, ever again.

And then there were the fantastic people that came after the show was done! The brilliant suzvoy, talented ohfreckle, arlad, and so many more!

In other words, I can't believe that it's been 10 years since the first episode of the show, that changed my life, aired. I'm so happy to call you guys friends, that we're all still here years later, and you can definitely always count on me to suck you into my web of nostalgia! I've met such wonderful friends through this little show and I am forever grateful to it for that.

Queer as Folk is amazon.com's Gold Box deal of the day.

UH. REMEMBER HOW I PAID THIS MUCH FOR SEASON 5? GRR.

Remember how much everyone paid for the first few seasons when they were new? lol. Good times, good times.

Already wanting it to be Lure-time. Is it Lure time yet?! 3 hours to go! So far away.

This post hit my nostalgia button.

I'm feeling better about yesterday's Lure thanks to the wonderful members of lure_atwt. Stories, videos, gifs? They all work.

Now that there's a bit of a Lure break until Thursday, let's discuss this brand spanking new CowLip interview that has randomly popped up out of nowhere. Now that I've had a little time to digest it all, I can happily say, what are they on and can I have some of it?

What is this "of course Brian and Justin are together"? There was never an of course. I think that they made a very strong effort for there not to be an of course. I remember the talk at the convention. Who was there? Postoff? There was quite the ruckus there. I remember the lack of communication between various writers and the creators of the show and the cast. I remember the joy I felt when I heard that Brian and Justin were getting married and it wasn't because I thought that their marriage would bond them together forever. I already felt like they were together forever but at least we'd get to see them have a happy ending, see them together to the end. Is that what happened? No.

I remember how pissed off I was to see Justin just disappearing like that and Brian bouncing around like a club boy, giving me the impression that -- no -- he never grew up and there he is dancing without Justin.

In case you need quotes from 2005 from both CowLip and Postoff, you can find it here in gaedhal's journal.

I mean, it's nice for them to think that that was their intention but it didn't seem like it was then. It's what they think it is now and personally, I just think that they're trying to appease people five years later. Most old fandom doesn't care about this now but they cared about it then and people who only watched through DVDs and caught up with the show later will probably accept these answers.

Sooooooooooooooooo sigh.