Seeing as this LJ is fairly new and likely to be found by folks who don't know me, here's the buzz, and here's what you're most likely to find in the content of this LJ.
1) I'm British, and the wrong side of 40. I therefore adore anything (movies, music, TV) related to the 1980s.
2) I'm involved in two slightly related areas of fandom: Silmarillion (a geeky spinoff from LOTR) and RPS (mainly relating to the LOTR actors). I write and read slash. The index to my fanfic archives is here
3) Despite what the OTW thinks it wants to believe about fandom, fandom is not entirely 100% composed of straight white women. I'll admit to being white, but the other two do not apply. I am bisexual and transgendered FTM (born physically female, identify as male, non-transitioning). I look male, I act male, I feel male and I hang around mainly with men.
4) I have an obsession with certain actors, of whom the one at the top of my list is Karl Urban, closely followed by Viggo Mortensen and Hugh Jackman. I'll watch anything those three are in, no matter how bad it is.
5) I have a 19-year-old daughter who also writes slash, and is educating me well in anime fandom (in particular, Saiyuki and Gundam Wing).
6) I work in a callcentre, in a sales position. Sounds horrible? Not at all. I love it.
7) I'm active on the local folk-music scene, as an amateur singer. I can play guitar a little too but I don't play in the folk clubs because I apparently cannot move my fingers and my mouth at the same time. Folk music also goes hand in hand with real ale, which is my other favourite hobby.
8) The name "Downtide" comes from the nickname of an ancestor of mine who was a Norfolk fisherman and a lifeboatman. "Tidings" is kind of a pun, on "words/news" and because the LJ name Tidings was taken, I used Downtide instead.