This and that

[luzula]

1) Tierra del Fuego is pretty great! Dad had contacts at the university, so we spent the first night at a barbecue with (among others) a bunch of Canadians who were there to study beavers. This amused me muchly. Also, one of them had done field work on Ellesmere Island. *goes green with envy*

The next day, a really nice Argentinian post-doc in plant ecology took us out on a drive, and we geeked out about plants together. Strangely, Tierra del Fuego looks a bit like southern Sweden, only with more mountains? I mean, there's deciduous forest here--I expected it to look much more harsh. Photos to follow, I promise...

2) Am reccing on crack_van this month; my first recs are here. I've also finally imported the delicious due south crack van account to Pinboard. I'm going to fix up the tags a little (I'm so glad they have tag bundles!) and bookmark the backlog, and then post on the noticeboard about it.

3) I'm hosting a Skype chat for alternate_ds_c6d on Sunday at 7 pm GMT. Do feel free to show up even if you're not sure you're going to do anything for the challenge! : )

4) Have cut down on my tag wrangling a bit--I'd been one of the wranglers for the Tolkien fandoms, but I dropped The Hobbit. It only made sense, since it's now a big fandom and I'm not in it at all. The rest of the Tolkien fandoms are not nearly as high traffic, and also there's a clear cultural difference in that they don't have the same Tumblr-style tags that Hobbit fandom does. If you're wondering what else I wrangle, it's due South, a lot of C6D fandoms, Generation Kill, Aubrey-Maturin, and lots of low-traffic rarelit fandoms. Feel free to ask if you have any tag-related questions about any of them!

Comments

[seascribble]

I can't wait to see pictures! Glad you are enjoying your travels.

I hadn't read your first rec, and it sounds awesome. I'm looking forward to the others.

My stupid work schedule means I am probably going to miss most of the AU chat on Sunday, but I think it is a great idea! Is this the only one you'll be hosting over the course of the challenge? I really want to write something for it, I need to get my act together!

[luzula]

I don't know how long the chat is going to last (at least an hour, but we'll see how long people want to stick around?) but you can always check when you do get home? And yes, I'm sure there will be more chats! I'm thinking at least one more chat before the first round of posting.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks so much for your tag-wrangling work, in addition to all the other fan activities which brings happiness to me weekly.

I'm so geographically stunted I'll ask this: isn't Tierra del Fuego's relationship to the South Pole the same as Sweden's to the North?

[luzula]

Thanks so much for your tag-wrangling work, in addition to all the other fan activities which brings happiness to me weekly.

♥

I'm so geographically stunted I'll ask this: isn't Tierra del Fuego's relationship to the South Pole the same as Sweden's to the North?

Yes, you're right! Checking the coordinates, it turns out that Usuaia (the capital of Tierra del Fuego) is further from the south pole than the southern tip of Sweden is from the north pole. It's just that I had built it up in my head as being a more extreme place, what with all the stuff about how hard it is to round Cape Horn and how close it is to Antarctica. But then, Antarctica itself is pretty big, too.