thesadchicken

okapi's February LOVE-FEST

I am going to challenge myself with a set of 28 prompts. Fills might be anything ficlet, song, craft, poetry, quotes, etc. Please join in if you feel inclined.

prompts:

1. first love
2. friendship
3. love of nature
4. passion
5. soulmates
6. unrequited love
7. lust
8. love of the game
9. devotion
10. love of food
11. polyamory
12. long distance love
13. lovesickness
14. romantic love
15. love of place
16. marriage
17. love of order and method
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

Question of the Day: Who or what was your first love?

In the comments, share anything you feel comfortable sharing about your first love. It could be a person or it could be a thing or a place or anything.

I did have a boy in kindergarten give me chocolates for Valentine's Day. My first boyfriend relationship in high school was not a good experience and I spent a long time getting over it and undoing the damage.

But my first true love is probably detective fiction, and I remember reading Encyclopedia Brown and Nate the Great books and enjoying them very much.

Day 1: FIRST LOVE

Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) pre-retirement/Sussex era
Length: 200
Rating: Gen
Summary: Holmes reflecting on his violin on the journey from London to Sussex.

( Read more... )

Happy February!

What is going on in February? Black History Month, Groundhog Day (early spring, please!), Valentine's Day, Lunar New Year, Snow Moon, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday and Lent, and in our household, the boys' father's birthday.

And I am going to attempt a February LOVE-FEST of prompts.

For

allbingo this month, there's a Valentine's challenge, for which I'm using the romantic prompts.

Dancing	Taking It Slow
Dinner for Two	Love at first sight

dreamersdare has issued a challenge for February, to take part in Stuff I Love, which can be as vague as anyone wishes. Their particular challenge is a Top Ten version with a different theme each week. Further details here

The first week is for Standalones in whatever media appeals.

So, my list, in no particular order:

1. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake I've seen it twice and both times have been sucked in, both by the drama, the humour, and the tragedy. And I've written fanfic with the Prince, who has such great possibilities for his story.

2. Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker Which is such a brilliant take on the story. I've seen it once on stage and also watched the televised version.

3. Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell A much smaller production, with only ten characters. Based on the books by Patrick Hamilton, each character has so much potential, and I'm currently using them for drabbles for

small_fandoms drabblethon. I've seen it twice, both times at Cheltenham, the first time was the premiere in 2021, and then again last summer, when the new production opened. And when I got to speak to Sir Matthew Bourne - just to say how much I enjoyed it.

4. Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty Another new take on a classic story, but again really imaginatively retold. I love the characters and use them in various fanfics, introducing them into other fandoms (just because I can)

5. Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet Moved to the Verona Institute, the staging and the music (Prokofiev) really add to the dance. I've seen it twice - both times it's been a real gut punch.

6. Matthew Bourne's The Car Man Reworking of Bizet's Carmen, based in Harmony, a small town in central USA, which doesn't live up to its name. Still very hot and sultry. Seen it twice, the second time in a limited run in the Royal Albert Hall in London. It's touring this summer, but I'm not currently planning on seeing it again this time. (On the other hand, Cinderella will be next winter/spring's production...)

And yes, these are all standalones, in the same way that a director can direct different films, or an author write different books.

7. Casablanca because it's the best film of all time. Certain scenes always give me shivers.

8. Winnie-the-Pooh/The House at Pooh Corner Okay, two books, but two doesn't make a series. The original books by A A Milne, with the characters he created. The different toys and their own characteristics and yet, somehow or other, they all live together in the Hundred Acre Woods.

9. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Such a great book, which I've only recently read and wondered why I hadn't read it sooner. It's a short book, being correspondence between a young American woman and an older English bookseller, it's also a great picture of England and the States in the 1950s.

10. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. Another book I had had recommended and finally got around to reading, and only then because there was a copy available in the library. Published in 1938 is a wonderful look at one day in the life of a down at heel governess who has the chance to life differently for a day, and not in the Cinderella sense. If you've ever thought 'I must read this one day', then do so!

Word Count: 15,425

Writing: All but 1800 words of this was my soap opera. I am going to try to focus on giving myself credit for what I did do instead of berating myself for what I didn't do. It is not easy to come back to a WIP after a 4-month hiatus, and I did it. So, something had to give and I didn't so as many fills for my usual ficlet prompt comms.

I am creating a list of all-purpose love prompts for February. We'll see how that goes. I have decided to write a poem for the dedication for Miniculus in his yearbook (he is in his last year of elementary school, my baby isn't a baby anymore, sniff) and I did a kind of exquisite corpse variation and asked his brother and father and him to submit words describing him so I am going to put them together in some kind of 50 words or less dedication.

Reading: Believe it or not, I consumed 14 books this month. 10 of them were audiobooks of Andy Carpenter mysteries by David Rosenfelt. I just had them on in the background most of the month. A curmudgeon defense lawyer who also runs a dog shelter and his zany entourage take on cases and a lot of organized crime. Now, unfortunately, I have listened to most of the ones I was keen on (I am not keen on his early years pre-marriage and kid). They are narrated by Grover Gardner and about 7 hours each.

I am getting to the end of the Inspector Rebus series. I have a set of CDs which I usually play in the car (yes, my car and I are old) but because of the snow, I have been driving the Black Panther (the new car) which doesn't have a CD player (and I don't want to be distracted anyway because it's so dangerous out there). So I have just started the last book but I read the next to last book in hard copy. James McPherson narrates the audiobooks and he is plenty Scottish enough for me.

In the interest of finding substitutes for above, I listened to a Peter Diamond mystery by Peter Lovesey (narrated by Simon Prebble) and enjoyed it. It is a police procedural set in and around Bath (UK).

I listened to The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durant for the January book club on DW here: https://bookclub-dw.dreamwidth.org/
It was a cosy fantasy about an anxious librarian who flees unrest in the capital to save magic books from being burned; she flees to her childhood home island and opens a jam shop while hiding her secret. Not anything I would pick for myself, and unfortunately the main character's voice grated. But there are 2 talking plants which I enjoyed. And mer-horses.

Crafting: I finished a cross stitch and I my Indian lady client bullied me into getting another cross stitch project so I'll be doing that in February (mostly in front of her so she stops nagging me about my next project). I made candles with the boys. I did four collage spreads/cards and 1 jigsaw puzzle. Writing it down is important because my first impression was that I didn't do much crafting but I DID!

For Feb, I am going to build a pinball machine Minisculus got for Xmas (with him, from a kit) and I spontaneously decided to do some Valentines.

Health & Fitness: 17 days of yoga and today I did the Yoga with Adriene live stream. It's the first time I've done a live stream with her and I really enjoyed it. Very important, 5 minutes of morning stretching has become the norm, even on work days. This is good. Consistency.

Thanks to Snowflake Challenge recs, I have new avenues to explore re: strength training. Running is going to be more a challenge because of the snow not melting. I will have to rely on the YMCA more. And treadmill which is different.

Personal: I got BTS tickets! I survived getting stuck in the snow!

Early Friday morning, leaving for work, I slipped putting my bag in the car and slid halfway under the car so it's still dangerous out there. There are plenty of icy patches. We've had temperatures in the 10's F (so -7 to -12 C) all week so the 8 inches of snow we go is going NOWHERE. The boys have been home ALL WEEK doing nothing but gaming and eating me out of house and home as far as I can tell.

I survived the vacillations of my work schedule. I have to become more flexible and resilient.

On y va to February, our short month!

Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Challenge #15

How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

In the interest of completeness, I'll do this. It was good! Lots of interesting things to read. Made a couple of new friends. Prompts were good, mix of old and new. Much appreciation for the mods who kept things running and organized.

January has got off to a good start, with 14,800 words, which surprises me.

For More Joy Day I wrote The Absolute Limit a Sherlock Holmes ficlet for

sixbeforelunch and also for Snowflake for

brumeier A Werewolf in Scotland

For

whatif_au Fake Relationship Challenge Miss Marple's Nephew

And for

allbingo Public Domain Challenge Combatting the Enemy which is a Spooks (MI5) 1920s AU.

Those two turned out longer than my usual challenge works.

I've also been writing one or two three sentence fills for

threesentenceficathon every day, and I've prepared the first few drabbles for next months

small_fandoms drabblethon.

Today is National Puzzle Day!

Snow is my favorite weather for doing jigsaw puzzles so this is the one I did this weekend. It is cheekily named "Promises, Promises" (the big bottle is advertising 'love tonics' and the like) 500 pieces, Charles Wysocki, Buffalo Games.

And I like that I have started using puzzle pieces as ephemera in my collages.

Please check out the sticky post of my journal for all the recommendations I collected in last year's Snowflake Challenge for different kinds of puzzles: https://stonepicnicking-okapi.dreamwidth.org/606650.html

And since it's Thursday, have a poem about a jigsaw puzzle. "The Puzzle" by Howard Nemerov

puzzle poem

Challenge #14

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.

I wasn't going to do this one but in the interest of completeness, I am going to talk about BTS, the Korean pop group.

There are seven members (stage names RM, Jin, SUGA, jhope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook). They've all done solo albums and three have done solo tours. They've all done their compulsory military service (or public service in SUGA's case) BTS is definitely a product of the Korean system of creating pop groups but, in my opinion, they are now much larger than the system that created them. There were and are three major pop music companies in Korea. BTS was created by a different company, a very small company and that is part of their origin story, underdogs coming out on top, disrespected by the industry in the beginning and now worldwide stars. I like their songs and I like their performances. Their fans are called ARMY. I've been an ARMY since August 2021.

This is the video I used to learn who was who in the beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFlWlTqHZIo

I recommend the channel DKDK TV for videos explaining BTS songs in the context of Korean culture and music culture. (note you have to do some digging. They've done a lot of stuff and most of it isn't interesting if you look under Kpop playlist then find different BTS songs explained)

They did a very helpful video the history Kpop in 20 minutes to put BTS in context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPS4tCHT6SA

And this is their explanation of Arirang (which is the name of the new BTS album to be dropped 20 Mar and the global tour to start in April): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Tg7JwdepM

Doolset is the only Korean-English translator of their songs I trust 100%. Unfortunately, I don't think they're active anymore:
https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/

The YT commentators I trust for current news are HYBE boy: https://www.youtube.com/@HYBEBOY613 and Asian Entertainment and Culture: https://www.youtube.com/@AsianEntertainmentandCulture

This is the second video I ever watched of them and it's what got me interested. I was actually looking for something on the BBC and accidentally hit their cover of "Missing You" (also BBC radio 1) and then this one and then fell down the rabbit hole. This video is actually not a great representation of their entire body of work, but it was my entry point, nonetheless.

astrolabe

noun

[A-struh-layb]

a compact instrument used to observe and calculate the position of celestial bodies before the invention of the sextant

---

This was Webster's word of the day for 23 Jan and it came to my attention for the Chaucer quote:

“Thyn Astrolabie hath a ring to putten on the thombe of thi right hond in taking the height of thinges.” A Treatise on the Astrolabe by Geoffery Chaucer. I heard it in the voice Martin Jarvis uses to narrate Good Omens, especially the parts of Agnes Nutter's predictions.

I've done plenty of cross stitch this month, some started last month for early January birthdays, others only stitched this month.

( January crafts )

A good start to the year as I've read 9 books.

The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin by Georges Simenon
The first of this year's Maigret books. Set in Liège and written in 1931, an interesting plot, different from those I've read. Once again I enjoyed both the story and the sense of setting.

The Man Who Didn't Burn by Ian Moore
Having read the Follett Valley series, which are humorous, I thought I would try reading the Juge Lombard stories, of which is the first. Also set in France, in the Loire Valley, this is a more standard mystery, convoluted and clever. I plan on reading the second in the series later this year.

Payment Deferred by C S Forrester
The runner-up for the Shedunnit category of books published 100 years ago (so 1926). More of a character study, not a whodunnit (that is known from when the murder happens), it's a well-written story of how events happen and the effect they have on the characters. It has a strong sense of the life of a lower middle-class clerk and his family at the time.

Still Waters by E C R Lorac
A new British Library Crime Classic publication sees Lorac's Chief Inspector MacDonald back in the Lake District. I always enjoy reading Lorac, and especially being back in the Lake District. An interesting plot, which has several layers.

A Vow of Chastity by Veronica Black
The first of the three Sister Joan mysteries I plan on reading this year, and the second in the series. Although the primary setting of a convent might seem like a cozy mystery, the crime itself is not cozy, although there is nothing graphic, which suits me. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

Sky High by Michael Gilbert
The newest British Library Crime Classic release, I have been a great fan of Michael Gilbert for many years. This definitely has thriller aspects to it, which I enjoy, and account for a few late nights reading.

An Extremely Unlikely Death by Hannah Hendy
The latest in the Dinner Lady Detectives series. I'm still enjoying this series, and have noted the two books due out later this year. Qualifies as cozy crime, but a well-constructed plot, with some subtle, but effective, red herrings.

The Misty Harbour by Georges Simenon
My second Maigret, this time set in Oisterham in Normandy. I've been there a few times, since it was one of the landing beaches on D-Day. The descriptions of the harbour area in 1931 are excellent, and although it has changed in the 95 years since the book was written, I can still imagine it. Another quite different plot.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
I had this book on my reading list for this year, and when I saw the latest Goodreads Challenge included it in one of the categories, I bumped it up the list - and was delighted when it turned out to be in three categories and so counted three times. It's an interesting book, the idea is that a few people are brought to the present (book present, some decades ahead of our present) by a time machine. Each of the 'survivors' are assigned a bridge, whose job it is to assimilate them into the modern world. As the book progresses, more details are discovered, which add to the drama. Worth reading, but to me suffers from the inherent contradictions of time travel.

And here's my book bingo card so far - January is always the easiest month, since all the categories are open.

( book bingo )

Today was a better day. I did 2 shifts. I accepted a new lady for next Tuesday evening and if it's a good fit, she could become a regular. School has been cancelled for the boys tomorrow, too. I wonder when they will go back.

Have Frog and Toad going camping.

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

I like the

get_knitted crafting comm on DW. There are a lot of very talented folks who always have a least one (if not a host) of projects going on. I like reading about their progress and how they overcome obstacles and sometimes seeing photos of really beautiful things.

In order to break up the Snowflake posts, I looked through my YT history for something fun. I like this short of a scene from an early episode of Criminal Minds. I think I remember watching this on TV back in the day.

The ladies discover Brad (a Real FBI agent) at a bar.

Challenge #12

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life.

1. My DW friends enhance my life. I like reading about your lives, what you're doing, the changes you face and how you deal with things, and I like the things you share, links, photos, etc. I don't know that most of you enhance my fandom life because most of us don't share a fandom. But you are nice people and interesting people and we find connection. This is my only social media-type account. I've never had a facebook or twitter or tumblr or anything else so this is it and it is enough for me.

2. This year and next year, I am planning to actually engage in fannish activities in RL with people with whom I share a fandom so that will be different. I hope those plans come to fruition and we have fun.

3. There are so many content creators, the gif makers and the vidders and the ficcers and the fan artists and the fan crafters, who enhance my life with their art (in the general sense of the word) on YT and tumblr and etsy and AO3 and DW and, once upon a time, LiveJournal. And the mods of comms and exchanges.

THANK YOU! The world is better with you (and your art) in it.

1. I believe the kids say FML at this moment. Yesterday we got about 7 inches of snow (which is a lot for our area). Yesterday the boys' father and the boys dug the cars out. This morning, the boys' father helped me clear even more. Okay. I left 45 minutes early and it was okay until jazz man's neighborhood. It hadn't been plowed! But STUPID OKAPI decided to drive forward and get stuck.

I panicked and ran to his house. Jazz man's daughter and son-in-law and I worked for AN HOUR trying to back my car out of that neighborhood. We went got to the main road, a plow driver stopped and he actually got in my car and maneuvered it onto the main road. The boys' father came, too, but by that time, we were close to the main road So, I didn't do my shift.

I called the office, no help. I called AAA, no help. I really thought I was stuck there.

When I saw it hadn't been plowed I should have turned and left the car on the main road or called the office or done anything but what I did, which was charge ahead. I have no experience driving in snow, and don't really know what to do when the tires are spinning.

I was driving to my Indian lady when the office called and they had cancelled that appointment when I first called them because I was stuck. So, that shift didn't happen either. So I turned the car around and went home.

NO MONIES!

I feel like such a loser. Nobody (jazz man or family) called the office to say the neighborhood hadn't been plowed. And I was in the new car, which I thought would be better. It probably was, but still. Regardless, I should have been smarter. I haven't felt this bad about myself in a while and I am seriously regretting throwing away my cutting stuff (but I'm not going out to get new stuff because, well, snow).

2. NO MONIES! I got another air force guy shift cancelled on Friday because he went in the hospital this weekend.

3. And I need monies because I got BTS tickets for me and

bethctg for when BTS comes to Baltimore in August. That was such a harrowing ordeal. Plan A on the laptop failed so I tried Hail Mary backup Plan B on my phone and boom, boom, boom, had tickets in a few minutes (I don't understand ticket nonsense). It might have been irresponsible given my Okapi Invasion holiday plans for the UK but BTS is coming right here, no hotel, no transport, it seemed crazy not to try. I hear the queue in Munich was 1 million+ ARMY. And this was just pre-sale for people with ARMY membership.

3. So today's fiasco, snowstorm, no monies, getting BTS tickets, maintenance still hasn't fixed our lights so we eat dinner and the boys shower in the dark, I am trying to catch up with snowflake, I don't know, aaarrrghhh!

Challenge 10

CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).

How about genderswapped Sherlock Holmes? Here is a collage (a scan of a physical collage with paper, stickers, and ephemera).

Here's a video of Bernedette Banner getting dressed as Lady Sherlock:

And here is "My Dearly Beloved Detective," a Russian genderswapped Holmes & Watson from 1986. It says it's not available for playback but I hit play and it played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldjhnGoZp4

Here is Yekaterina Vasilyeva as Shirley: shirley

--

I also like the BTS game In the Seom. I play it every day. Here is a collage about that. I have read that the first island in the game is inspired by the Korean island of Jeju.

Here's a moodboard I did two years ago.

This is the OST called "Our Island" and produced by SUGA.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favourite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

These are the communities I regularly participate in and completely enjoy:

fan_flashworks which provides a new challenge prompt three times a month, multi-fandom and multimedia. I've taken part for the last 11.5 years - some prompts really are a challenge, but great for being creative outside the standard boxes.

ushobwri is a great community, encouraging the reluctant writer and cheering the productive one. Run by

brumeier I would recommend checking over on their response for further details.

allbingo is a monthly bingo community, but very easy going and so ideal for me, as I generally go with a 2x2 card and write a chaptered fic.

ysabetwordsmith has written about it in their response

My other major enjoyment (I also take part in various drabble communities) is

no_true_pair which runs twice a year, once in March when there are 4 characters and once in September with 8 characters. To take part, you sign up with either 4 or 8 numbered characters, can be from the same fandom or different ones, and it includes original characters, and then prompts are issued for each date, so that every character meets every other one.

One day last week was National Polka Dot day.