Fangirl, Huh?

I was going to write a nice little post about how Nerds are all-awesome; however, that did not work out too well...  (Want to see the gif set that inspired the post originally?  Click here.)  Instead, I think I shall define some words in dire need of defining.  They are as follows:

• Fangirl
• Fangirl
• Fandom
• Ship(ping)
• OTP
• Canon
• FEELS

Okay, stop.  Breathe.  This won't be too hard.  Oh, wait.  You weren't freaking out?  Whoops.  Didn't think my heartbeat was that loud...
I don't know how many of you (eight or nine...) are on Tumblr or anything like that, but let me tell you: no one is ever really there to explain these terms to you.  You're welcome; Merry Christmas.  It's just something you pick up.  It's the slang of the fangirl world.  Look, there I go using a word that has yet to be defined.  The point is, unless you're seriously considering throwing the rest of your life away by sitting on your butt all day long wasting countless hours on Tumblr and reading fanfiction, these words won't really come in handy.  Especially considering every normal person has no clue what's being said.  That's when you're really in a pickle because by the time you start using these terms in normal, everyday conversation, you've forgotten the correct, universally understood term.  So, at long last, here goes...!

Fangirl
Really this is just a term for a female fan of anything.  (Without the italics,) this can also be fitted to the male gender: fanboy.

Fangirl
Fangirl encompasses all genders.  We're They're the extremists.  The ones who freak out over the smallest touch between two characters, details, release dates, merch(andise), actors/actresses, shooting locations, etc.  Be warned: context clues are really what are gonna tell you which version is being used.

Fandom
The best way I can explain this is a kingdom of fans.  Let's use the ILL (I Love Lucy) fandom.  The "royalty" would be Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and Frawley because they are the main stars of the show.  The fans of the show make up the kingdom's people.  But there are also fandoms for ships/OTPs (see below), in which case (still with ILL), the Ricardos would be your "royalty."

Ship(ping)
Shipping is the act of being for the relationship between two people/characters.  It could be male/female, male/male, female/female, or other...things depending on the...extremeness...Yeah there are some BAD fanfics out there...This is the tricky one.  Once you learn this word and fully understand it, you'll start using it in everyday conversation.  An example for you:  "Oh, Lucy and Desi.  I totally ship it!" or "Oh, Betty Haynes and Bob Wallace: ship it!"  Yes, it is completely acceptable to use this term for real people/couples.  At which point couple names come in handy.  (Jaggie, Brangalina, etc.)

OTP
One True Pairing.  Now, remember this one.  It's so important.  OTP really goes hand-in-hand with shipping.  I guess OTP was originally intended to be your TOP ship from all your fandoms, but no one on Tumblr follows the rules.  Ergo, it is very much acceptable to have multiple OTPs from multiple fandoms.  Want some examples?  Psych OTPs: Shules, Carlowe; CH OTPs: Lucy/Ricky, Nick Charles/Nora Charles, Betty Haynes/Bob Wallace, etc.  There are also BrOTPs, which are like bromances (brotherly romance, but definitely not incest.  See: Shawn and Gus (Shus).)

Canon
Canon relates to OTPs and shipping and refers to established couples (or couples already together) within a show/movie/book.

FEELS
The worst one, the most taxing one.  FEELS are feelings, plain and simple.  However, they aren't especially used in the same context.  FEELS for the fangirl world (the really obsessive fangirls, in case you didn't catch that) are feelings so strong that you basically have an attack.  Like a feelings seizure.  This especially occurs when OTPs (especially when not canon) share a cute moment or something really surprising happens.  Common responses for Tumblr users especially include "I can't" and "asd;klfalskd," or something to that affect.  It basically just indicates that we they are unable to properly function after what they just watched.

Lastly, I did not list this, but I did mention it a few times.  Fanfiction.  I don't know if there's anyone who does not know what FF is, but in case you do not...
Fanfiction is stories written by fans of a show/book/movie, or sometimes even a song/band.  Often it's a good way to get through a hiatus or to get some much needed OTP moments not provided on the show.  Some important terms to know, especially if you read on fanfiction.net are OOC (out of character), AU (alternate universe), A/N (author's note), R&R (read & review), songfic (FF written based on a song with the lyrics moving the story along), one-shot (mostly one page stories, also known as shorts), crossover (where a story is written combining two different shows, etc.), fluff (cute scenes between characters that really doesn't have a plot), slash (FF with same-sex pairings).

For those of you who stayed on to read everything, I hope this helped clear up any language issues you've been having.  I know this isn't really related to the purpose of this blog, but I feel this really needed to be done.  And remember: URBAN DICTIONARY IS YOUR FRIEND!

And this is exactly what I'm talking about...

Wow, time flies.  Yupp, this is exactly how every website/blog/whatever that I've created/worked on/whatever became neglected.  It's been nearly 3 weeks: shame on me.  School started Wednesday the 15th, so between that, swimming, homework, Tumblr, Psych, and other things I have neglected something very important.

Onward ho!

Last night I finally finished one of the books I highlighted three weeks ago, Alicia: My Story.  Can we all just take a moment to appreciate people like Alicia Appleman-Jurman?  If you read the post, you might recall that Alicia is a Polish Jew.  The book is about 433 pages long and covers 8 years.  The whole story is so heartbreaking; she goes through so much.  Living through the pain that both Alicia and her mother live through is terrible.  At one point her mother, knowing she is going to die anyway, throws herself in front of the bullet meant to kill Alicia.  This was maybe the saddest part of the book for me.  Sitting in Algebra 2, I had to take a deep breath and quickly close the book before my tears started to fall.  After the war is completely over and Alicia is allowed to return to Buczacz, her hometown, she still does so much more for so many people.  Remember, Ala is only 14 or 15 when the war ends.  She goes on to run an orphanage consisting of roughly 24 children who survived the concentration camps, work for the Brecha, learn 2 more languages, find at least 3 surviving extended family members, and travel to Eretz Israel (Palestine) only to be captured by the British and be imprisoned for 8 months.  You could really say the war doesn't end for Ala until 1947.  But this is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.  It's really capturing.

Lately, I've really gotten into (okay, maybe really is an understatement) a show called Psych on USA Network.  Now, I'm not one for modern TV shows or movies or TV in general.  But this is one awesome show.  It's full of culture and I guess that's one of the reasons I respect it.  It's packed full of references mostly to movies from the 1980's.  While not my favorite decade, I still like watching movies from then.  Besides that, you do get the very, very occasional CH reference (Ginger Rogers, Phantom of the Opera 1940's, etc.), and some modern references to awesome book series (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson).  Plus, the random breaking out into song sometimes seen in the show (but mostly in the bloopers.)  While I love the whole cast (have you ever seen a modern-day couple as cute as Maggie Lawson and James Roday?!), I really respect and envy Corbin Bernsen.  That name probably doesn't ring a bell: why do I like him so much?  Well it's really the fact that he was in the movie Radioland Murders, something I really want to see.  Sure, the movie looks pretty good.  But my dear Rosie (Rosemary Clooney) is in the movie, according to her Wikipedia filmography list.  Now, whether she really was in it or her voice/a clip of her was used from the CH days I'm not sure.  But the fact that he was in a movie that I associate with Rosemary Clooney just makes me all happy and warm inside.  If I ever meet or write to him, my first question will be about Radioland Murders.

Schpeal over; have a picture!

...Or two.  :D
Top: Rosie, who seems fakely surprised with her book
Bottom: Jaggie, or James Roday and Maggie Lawson

~Bailey