#end of year survey

[eldritchsurveys]

1274.

How many books did you read this year? >> 27.

Did you have any reading goals? if yes, did you complete them? >> I don't set reading goals, that feels weird for me. I'm just not a goal/achievement-oriented person. I'm driven by whim and caprice and the tidal rhythms of desire. To put arbitrary demands on myself is against my nature.

What was the first book you read this year? >> PDA by PDAers: From Anxiety to Avoidance and Masking to Meltdowns, edited by Sally Cat.

What was/will be the last book you read this year? >> The last book I finished was Woom by Duncan Ralston.

The longest book you read this year >> The Witching Hour (Anne Rice), by far. Like, no other book I read this year comes even close (except Lasher, which is that book's sequel, lol).

The shortest book you read this year >> The Necrophiliac, Gabrielle Wittkop. Damn, I don't even remember that one. I read the synopsis and... yeah, no, I just don't remember it at all.

The oldest book you read this year >> Earth Abides, George Stewart (1949). The newest release of the year >> I didn't read anything that was released this year.

A book that was better than you expected it to be >> I didn't expect to enjoy Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone or Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares nearly as much as I did. Although I must say that "enjoy" is a strange word to use for both of those books. They were... harrowing.

A book that didn’t live up to your expectations >> Probably, you know, the 11 DNFs.

A book that was most out of your comfort zone >> I don't think any of them were out of my comfort zone, except maybe how The Witching Hour is much longer than I prefer my books to be. But I'd also read it before so I was prepared for that. What was the most unexpected book you read this year? >> I don't know what would make a book unexpected. Or, more unexpected than any other book I randomly decide to read.

The funniest book you read this year

lmao, none of them.

A book that made you cry >> CJ Leede's Maeve Fly not only made me angry-cry to the point of feeling nauseous but had me fighting off depression for like 3 straight days. That fucking ending ruined me. I also cried during The Great Alone, Marabou Stork Nightmares, and at least two of the stories in Rajesh Parameswaran's I am an Executioner: Love Stories.

What was the book you were most excited about before you started reading it? >> The Anne Rice books because I was revisiting a formative series. Also, Laurell K Hamilton's A Kiss of Shadows because... I was revisiting a formative series.

A book you already want to reread >> Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie.

Top five books of the year >> Episode Thirteen, The Vaster Wilds (Lauren Groff), Marabou Stork Nightmares, Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance (Peter Stark), I Am an Executioner: Love Stories. Also, Feed Them Silence (Lee Mandelo). Least favourite books of the year >> Again, the ones I DNF'd. Not gonna bother devoting energy to talking about them when I need that energy to talk about the ones I did like.

Best non-fiction book(s) you read this year >> Last Breath is like... kind of nonfictional? It's written in a fictional style. The stories are made up but the scenarios are cobbled together from real shit that happened to real people. It's honestly my favourite way to have information like that presented to me and I wish there were more examples of books like that. I feel like I retain the information so much more readily when there's an engaging lil scenario. Oh, I also read A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness, which is straight nonfiction. What a story.

Best fiction you read this year >> Same as my top five books, barring Last Breath.

Best book you read for uni/college/school .

Worst book you read for uni/college/school .

The book with the prettiest cover >> Honestly, none of these covers stand out at all except Maeve Fly's, which is... well, it's kind of pretty, I guess. Depends on how you feel about eyeballs and teeth.

The book with the best title >> The Vaster Wilds, or Feed Them Silence, or The Country Will Bring Us No Peace.

Did you discover any new authors? >> Most of the authors I read this year were new to me.

What was your top genre for the year? >> Horror, by a landslide.

Did you discover any new genres? >> I did not. Did you start any new series? >> I did, as mentioned earlier.

Did you finish any series? >> I did not.

Did you reread anything? >> The two Anne Rice books, the LKH book, and Blake Crouch's Dark Matter, which I read ahead of the new TV adaptation dropping, but found I didn't like as much as I did when I first read it. I meant to reread Recursion, which was the first book by his I read and which I think is probably the better of the two, but then I forgot. I'll try to remember next year.

Did you read any translations? >> I did not. Unless I'm unaware.

Were there any books you planned on reading but didn’t end up reading/finishing? >> Story of my life.

Did you DNF anything? >> I DNF'd 11 books. A couple of them I might revisit (I just didn't have time/energy for them, or whatever), but most of them I just lost interest in.

What’s a book you’ve recommended the most this year? .

Did you use your library? >> I did not use the library.

How many books did you buy? >> I did not buy any of these books either.

Are there any books you want to finish before the year is over? >> The year will be over in 45 minutes, I think I'm good.

Releases you’re looking forward to next year .

Five books you absolutely want to read next year? >> Well. The aforementioned Recursion, of course, then... well, I want to finish Kushiel's Dart (which I'm currently on), and I have In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger queued up next, and I'd like to reread Dune, and that's quite enough on my plate for now.

Do you have any reading goals for next year? >> Absolutely not 🖤

[mi6-cafe]

End of Year survey analysis.

Last weekend the Cafe mods and the newly expanded volunteer squad met to go over the survey responses and make some plans for the next year. Here's some of what we talked about:

Monthly formats

To accompany our quarterly theme (something we started based on 2022 survey feedback), we are going to start making more of our monthly themes format based. You can look forward to some themes like poetry, epistolary, and moodboards. Thanks for helping us brainstorm!

Changes to Saturday Cafe

Some of you expressed interest in having a little more of of a focused time thing during Saturday Cafe. We are going to try rotating a point person to run a couple prompt-based sprints over on discord during these Saturday Cafe days. We will be adding a discord role to be notified of these events when we win the battle against discord settings.

Updates to events page

We have a lot of events. We've updated our static page listing all of what we've got going on and where it happens. Check it out here: https://mi6cafe.wordpress.com/events/

Event swapping

We are not running Riverhouse Remix this year. We will be trialling a new spring-time event.

Instead we are going to finally try a version of LDWS that is focused on creating moodboards!

The return of workshops

It's been a few years since we regularly did workshops, but people expressed interest for these again. Stay on the lookout for a survey to help us gather who is available to host. These work best when we get a big group of rotating hosts.

And finally, your fandom highlights from 2023!

I continue to love WIP Wednesdays for the hype :)

I've been pretty MIA this year, but I'm always so touched by the new friendships I've made through MI6 cafe, they really mean a lot to me.

i enjoyed stretching my creative muscles in fest with art of all things! :D

I love fest

007 Fest is always fun!

I really enjoyed seeing everyone come together to complete the short stuff bingo. It didn't look like we would complete it at first, but then in a few short hours suddenly there were more recs than squares!

Probably my favorite thing I made for Fest was the video of the Bond baby book.  I haven't made a video since a wedding video in the early naughts so it was fun new challenge and even though I misread the assignment, I still had a blast making it.  I also enjoyed hosting the moodboard workshop.  Writing has been a bit of a struggle this year, but also enjpyed making progress on wips.

[signourneybooks]

End of Year Survey | 2024

2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 Yes we are at that time of year again where we start looking back and often we do that with the end of the year survey as created by The Perpetual Page-Turner. The last updated survey was updated in 2020 (that I can find). As per every year I’ve discarded some questions about love interests and others I never have an answer for haha. You can…

[sometimesraven]

It's been A Year, huh. I started 2024 with high hopes for my content and career, and ended up spending most of it trying to figure out how to exist with my illnesses and mental health issues lmao. But I feel I've learned a lot, and I'd like to move forward with my audience in mind. I've put together a survey and I'd be super happy if you could answer as many questions as you can, no matter how invested you are in my work or how long you've known me. It's all anonymous, so you're free to be 100% honest <3

FILL OUT THE SURVEY

[flufftober]

Flufftober 2024 Wrap-Up

Another October has passed, our fourth round of Flufftober is history, and every year we're more and more blown away by the phenomenal participation 🥰 some of you we recognized from previous years while others joined us for the first time; some of you brought us daily entries while others showed up only a few times. Whichever it was, please know this:

We love you all and we thank you for yet another great year!!

🔹 Badges

You've earned them - so please feel free to use them 😘

🔹 End Survey

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts about this round and also find the top five prompts of 2024 - those will once again become next year's alt prompts, so please take a few minutes to fill out our

-> End Survey <-

There's always room for your suggestions for prompts so go ahead and shape our future prompt lists 😉

🔹 Reblogs

As always, we'll keep reblogging all your entries as long as you tag and/or mention us - it just won't be as often anymore as it was during October.

🔹 Fluff Boosts

Fluff Boosts are now open again - so remember to send us your own events, challenges, bingos, prompt lists, etc. and we'll give you a signal boost 💖

🔹 2025

Next year's list is once again almost done and since it will be our 5-year-anniversary, we have some surprises planned for you. We might also have something planned for early 2025, so make sure to keep an eye on the blog...

💚 We hope to see you all again in 2025 💚

[fjordfolk]

I was reading through posts on the Lundehund after the recent news and was wondering, why are characteristics like the closing ears and weird shoulders never to be demonstrated in the show ring? The legs I get since that’s just not nice for the dog but the ears? And how do you confirm that the dog follows the breed standard if it’s not demonstrated?

The traits noted in the breed compendium to not be demonstrated in the ring are the 90 degree extension of the front limbs and the bending of the neck. For context, these ones:

It's because these are extremes. It's one thing for the dog to do it naturally, by themselves and under their own control - or even by a trusted person in a calm environment. In a foreign, hectic environment, maybe handled by strangers, it could cause injury.

(The 'typical Lundehund temperament' also doesn't, uh. Lend itself to compliant demonstration. This is why we watch dog shows and joke that 'the Lundehund enters the ring, waiting for the handler to look away so it can f*ck off back home. 10/10 standard compliance!')

The closing of the ears doesn't have a do-not-demonstrate in the guidelines, so I suppose it could be demonstrated. Probably by asking it to please behave like a normal dog, or something like that.

As for confirming that the dog is bred to standard - that's ultimately the breeder's job. Every breed has required traits that won't be properly demonstrated in a show ring, or traits that can be played up for the occasion. Lundehunds are rare and breeders are an exclusive group, they've fought tooth and nail for many decades to keep this breed as special and true (read: fucking bizarre) as its environment and purpose have made it. So when a project dog gets entered into the studbook, I expect two things: 1) This is a dog they have faith in and that checks all the boxes and 2) if it didn't Do The Things that make a Lundehund a Lundehund, they'd be publicly executed.

[hasellia]

I want to know: do you feel dissociated from the current time? Have you noticed if any others have? & If yes to either, why do you think so? ( Writing why is NOT obligatory)

Author's thoughts & reasoning under the cut below V

As the year closes, I've noticed a lot of people feeling dissociated with the passing of time. This has been something I usually see at least once as a " time flies huh" kinda way. Maybe a liiitle bit more since the pandemic & with the current being internet so focused on the attention economy, understandably.

But within 2024; I've noticed so much more of this sense of " I should not be in this moment of time", and much much more from the people I would assume to be neurotypical or "well adjusted".

The people I've talked to agree on this: It is likely from how the business sector & hustle culture has influenced society in a "post" COVID-19 pandemic world. "Bali-bali" (hurry-hurry) is a term I hear a lot from a personal friend from Korea. The context being that folks post Korea-war had to act fast & snappy to rebuild their lives, & still act as such even if they're in prosperity. It's tearing children apart from how hard they're studying & adults from working.

It seems to be creeping here, too. For my personal micro-bubble, I understand. But not so for the world at large.

[onlyswan]

onlyswan year-end survey as i have begun building plans for our journey in 2024 👩‍💻

what is your favorite/s from the drabbles i’ve put out this year (second in which collection)? themes, lines, paragraphs, or scenes that stood out to you? and if it is not too much to ask- who is your favorite character, oc or jungkook?

which year/s would you like to see more of from 2017 to 2023? and which season (spring/summer/autumn/winter)? (yes this is very important) (like very) (no one: ..... me: *writes a metaphor to reveal the season* *clutches chest in distress* oc… must wear… season-appropriate outfit…theyneedtoknow)

[thoughtpeek]

I'VE FINALLY FINISHED BROTHERSHIP IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!

[tpup]

Lord I thought there was another day of January still 😔 been trying without success to find a room to move into and now most places aren't available til the start of March 😩 fuckeddd up genuinely shit is so expensive! I just need a bed and room for a desk I can actually work at and you can't get that for less than $1k ffs. need to be able to get around without my car; tricky situation bc while on one hand it's a massively helpful accomodation, it's also getting too dangerous for me to drive. passing out on public transit is scary af too but better than behind a wheel. tickets also add up bc i can't physically move it all the time and am so outta it I keep making dumb mistakes like running lights. been expensive and horrible.

[asphodeldreams]

the only reason i haven’t been posting as much lately is because all i can think about at the moment is spider-man and like. i keep forgetting that this isn’t an rvb blog. it’s just my blog. i can just post my spider-man shit here too LMAO

[eldritchsurveys]

1161.

Number of Movies/Documentaries I Watched in 2023: 226 Genre I Watched the Most in 2023: I... don't know. horror, probably. Mike showed me what I was doin wrong with using Lboxd so when I take this for 2024 I should hopefully have stuff like genre stats

1. Best Movies I Watched In 2023? >> from each month, one new-to-me favourite and one old favourite that I rewatched: 1. Hagazussa / Velvet Goldmine 2. Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. / Twelve Monkeys 3. Nanny / The Fly 4. Sugar & Spice / Dead Ringers 5. Rigor Mortis / Birds of Prey 6. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse / Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story 7. You Won't Be Alone / Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey 8. Swiss Army Man / His House 9. In the Earth / The Woman 10. Perfect Blue / Silence 11. Akira / The House That Jack Built 12. Angel Heart (didn't rewatch a fave in December)

2. Movie I Was Excited About & Thought I Was Going To Love More But Didn’t? >> I wasn't exactly excited about Beau is Afraid but I definitely thought I would enjoy it more than I did. the first 20-30 minutes or so were pretty fun and weird but then it just... *longsuffering sigh* I had also hoped The Blackening would be a bit funnier than it turned out to be. still watchable and I'd still like more Black horror-comedies, but I definitely wanted more guffaws out of it. I'm not even gonna bother talkin about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania... (at least Kang was good) OH! Renfield! THAT'S the one I was excited for and heavily disappointed by. I knew there was one (also, Last Voyage of the Demeter. not at all my favourite year for Dracula movies, that's for sure)

3. Most Surprising (in a good way) Movie I Watched in 2023? >> I was surprised by both Akira and Perfect Blue because I just assumed they would be a bit inscrutable to me (when a lot of "buffs" speak highly about a work I assume it's some shit I won't understand), but they really drew me in. also surprised by Host (2020) which I'd assumed would be watchable but not really anything to write home about considering the gimmick. but they pulled that one off pretty well!

4. Movie I ��Pushed” The Most People To Watch (And They Did) In 2023? .

5. Best Sequel of 2023? Best Ending of a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> Across the Spider-Verse and as for ending I'm just gonna agree with prev "can't beat a dancing naked man" (Saltburn) because that was pretty good

6. Most Action Packed/Thrilling Movies of the Year? >> the John Wick quadrilogy

7. Movie I Watched in 2023 That I Am Most Likely To Re-Watch in 2024? >> In the Earth, The Lodge, maybe Noroi? I might rewatch I Saw the Devil because for some reason I forgot a lot of that one despite enjoying it

8. Favorite Poster for a Movie I Watched in 2023? .

9. Most Memorable Characters/Talent of 2023? >> oof... can I just say Ben Wheatley (director) for talent because he really sucker-punched me with the two movies of his that I watched this year

10. Standout Writing / Directing of a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> obviously that goes to whoever wrote Call Girl Of Cthulhu

11. Most Thought-Provoking/Impactful Movies I Watched in 2023? >> The Vast of Night, Silence, Titane, Perfect Blue, Akira, Aniara. also 2001: A Space Odyssey except the thought it provoked was "why am I still fucking watching this" and the impact it had was "I'm annoyed to the point of anger and I have a splitting headache"

12. Movie I Can’t Believe I Waited Until 2023 To Finally Watch? >> Die Hard lmao. it was way more entertaining than I expected. also how did I go my whole life without ever learning that Alan Rickman was the bad guy in that also Battle Royale and ofc Akira

13. Favorite Scene From a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> oh man this is impossible, give me a break

14. Movie That Shocked Me The Most? (Because of a plot twist, character death, etc.) >> I didn't expect Swiss Army Man to be quite what it was (this is not a complaint, I loved it, but the whole farting business definitely threw me for a loop lol) honestly my bar for shock is seeing Oldboy for the first time last year having never had it spoiled for me and losing my whole ass MIND at the plot twist. nothing has come close to that since

15. OTP (One True Pairing) – You will go down with this ship? >> those two girls from Do Revenge

16. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship? >> the vampire family in Near Dark

17. Best Movie I Watched In 2023 That I Watched Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody? >> Noroi: The Curse but also The Adjustment Bureau was an incredibly solid and cute flick (both Sparrow's recs)

18. Most Exciting Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting? >> ooo let's see... well, I did rewatch The Neverending Story this year :p Rigor Mortis had a really memorable setting for me but I wouldn't call it exciting OR vivid. like, it was just an apartment building lol. it was just... I don't know. I can't explain it. it sticks in ya El Hoyo (The Platform), maybe? definitely an intriguing setup and setting there. A Field in England was literally just a goddamn field in England but man.... I also like the new worldbuilding ideas Hellraiser (2022) brings to the table.

19. Movies That Put A Smile On My Face/Were The Most Fun To Watch? >> Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Ref, Cocaine Bear, Sugar & Spice, Airheads, Polite Society, Totally Killer, Do Revenge, D&D: Honor Among Thieves, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Earth Girls are Easy, both Sister Acts, Call Girl of Cthulhu, Idle Hands, Van Helsing, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. yeah there were a lot of these this year

20. Movie/Documentary That Made Me Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2023? >> Swiss Army Man and Akira, but also Velvet Goldmine, Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, and Sister Act 2.

21. Hidden Gem Of The Year? >> not sure how to determine this

22. Movie That Crushed My Soul? >> [insert another snarky comment about 2001]

23. Most Unique Movie I Watched In 2023? >> so many of the movies I've seen this year were incredibly unique to me! let me see if I can find one I haven't already mentioned... ah yes, of course. how could I forget Mad God 💀

24. Movie That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)? >> I will refrain from mentioning That Movie again (although that is the true answer lol) and instead I'll go with... Lake Mungo bc I thought that was gonna be way more interesting than it was just based upon the fact that the tumblr girlies used to be all over that shit back in the day

25. Notable Mentions of the Year? >> some more movies I really liked that didn't get a chance to get mentioned yet: The Banshees of Inisherin, Baskın, On the Count of Three, Hell House LLC, Ringu, and Mad Max 2.

Bonus: Favorite Movie Moment?

Bonus: Five Movies I Am Anticipating in 2024? >> Furiosa, the Joker sequel, apparently there's a new Alien flick coming out? Dune Part 1 was Fine, I guess, so I might as well see Part 2 🤷🏿‍♂️ meh

[mi6-cafe]

Happy almost end of the year!

That means it's time for our annual End of the Year survey. Every year we ask you to give your feedback on the things we've run here at the Cafe this past year and give some suggestions for the next year.

You all have helped shape our little community and we can't wait to keep that going next year. We already have some changes planned based on feedback from the end of Fest survey we think you'll enjoy.

The survey is open now until Jan 12th.

>>Survey here!<<

[signourneybooks]

2023 End of the Year Survey

2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 Yes we are at that time of year again where we start looking back and often we do that with the end of the year survey as created by The Perpetual Page-Turner. The last updated survey was updated in 2020 (that I can find). As per every year I’ve discarded some questions about love interests and others I never have an answer for haha. You can see it…

[flufftober]

Flufftober 2023 Wrap-Up

My friends! Another October has passed, another round of Flufftober is over, and once again we couldn't be happier with the phenomenal participation 🥰

Thank you all so much for such a great year!!

🔹 Badges

You've earned them - so please feel free to use them 😘

🔹 End Survey

Once again, we would love to hear your thoughts on how this year went for you as well as determine the top five prompts of 2023 - remember that those will become next year's alt prompts, so please take a few minutes to fill out our

-> End Survey <-

There's also room for your suggestions for future prompts - next year's list is mostly done but I made sure to keep a few spaces open specifically for those wishes. So go and shape our future prompt lists 😉

🔹 Reblogs

As always, we'll keep reblogging all your entries as long as you tag and/or mention us - it just won't be as often anymore as it was during October.

Important: We noticed that many people tagged us as #flufftober 2023 (with a gap) instead of #flufftober2023 - thankfully, we noticed this early on, as it does make a difference. It might very well be why in previous years many posts got "lost". Since the event was already going strong, we didn't say anything to not confuse anyone and instead checked both tags - but we hope you'll understand that we won't be doing that in future years! We understand it might be an aesthetical thing for some of you but in that case, just make sure to mention our blog within the post so you appear in the activity log. We'll make sure to remind you in next year's main post 😊

🔹 Fluff Boosts

Fluff Boosts were "closed" during October but are open again now - so remember to send us your own events, challenges, bingos, prompt lists, etc. and we'll give you a signal boost 💖

🔹 2024

As said above, next year's list is almost done - so yes, we'll definitely be back 😁 but that's not all, as we do have something planned for you for the beginning of 2024 - so keep an eye on the blog in January when we'll reveal our surprise...

[titobeauvi]

I HAVE A MEETING WITH MY BOSS' BOSS IN 25 MINUTES EVERYONE PRAY FOR ME THANKS