[sticky entry] Sticky: Puzzles!

May. 15th, 2025 02:38 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: puzzle (puzzleicon)
I love puzzles! And other DW users do, too. Here are some that have been suggested and/or recommended (in no order):

1. Exit game puzzle

2. Jigsaw puzzles

Physical puzzle brands: Re-marks, Cavallini, Galison with art by Michael Storrings, White Mountain and Ravensburger
Online jigsaw puzzles: https://thejigsawpuzzles.com/

3. Sudoku

Variant sudoku and rat maze sudoku as described on the Cracking the Cryptic Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CrackingTheCryptic

jigsaw sudokus (with tricky shapes)

3doku

4. The Simon Tatham collection of puzzles, 40 different puzzle games, including a nonogram game
[nonogram=picture logic puzzles in which cells in a grid must be colored or left blank according to numbers at the edges of the grid to reveal a hidden picture]called "Pattern", which contains randomly-generated nonogram puzzles from any size that the player wants.

5. Yeardle for history buffs.

6. Waffle, a word game

7. kenken= an arthimatic and logic puzzle where the objective is to fill a grid with digits so that no digit appears more than once in any row or any column. KenKen grids are divided into heavily outlined groups of cells –– often called “cages” –– and the numbers in the cells of each cage must produce a certain “target” number when combined using a specified mathematical operation (one of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division).

8. Logic puzzles at Griddlers net: https://www.griddlers.net/home

9. Quordle

10. Squaredle

11. Quad nerdle

12. Connections, which is part of the NYTimes family of games: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords

13: the AARP also has a collection of games: https://www.aarp.org/games/category/all-games/

14. Octordle
stonepicnicking_okapi: moon (moon)
Sadly, Spook Me is not happening this year. But I love Halloween too much to not celebrate it.

I am going to make a list of 31 prompts. I know many of you also love this season so if you have ideas, please send me (via DW message or down in the comments or via my email if you have it) prompts for Halloween/Hallowe'en. I tend to prefer spooky to sweet, but a mix is good.

I'm going to collect:

1. words (especially strange/rare/archaic words)

2. images/art

3. videos/gifs

4. songs (I especially like ones without lyrics)

5. quotes (I love quotes!)

6. recs for fic, books, films, recipes, etc.

7. poems

8. personal anecdotes of hauntings/ghosts/eerie stuff

9. links to articles or interesting tibits

I will try to get a list ready by the middle of September so I can let it brew. Maybe a theme will suggest itself.
stonepicnicking_okapi: leaves (leaves)
Happy September!

1. The only thing noteworthy today is that I took Minor to the doctor to get some evaluation of his knee pain and now I have prescription for 6 sessions of physical therapy for him.

2. Also, I went to the dentist and puzzled over the hygienist complimenting my saliva. :/

That's about it. Tomorrow I have Back to School Night at Minisculus' school. Lots of mom-ing going on.

[helps if you hit the post button. duh.]
stonepicnicking_okapi: okapi (Default)
Gosh. What a month. Of things happening, not happening, unhappening. 

I would like to be better at reflection. Looking back. Learning from mistakes, from the past, from anything. 

The happening.

The best thing that happened was hosting [personal profile] bethctg and going to the BTS concert with her. A highlight of the year and, really, of the past five years. 

I don't take photos of myself except for administrative purposes (IDs, mandatory profile photos, etc). There are no photos of me and boys, for example, or their father after Minor was born, but I felt so good about myself with her and with what we were doing that I did take a selfie on the way home from the concert. This is a very big deal. I even took a photo with her. And let her take a photo of me (which I deleted later, but still). A former coworker texted me about the concert and I actually sent her the selfie. This is something I have never done in my life. I will take it as a sign of healing. 

And [personal profile] bethctg got to chat about things and I talked about things I've never talked about, and it was really nice. 

The unhappening and not happening.

And then, gosh, the Chris Brown incident and I just dropped it all. Like 48 hours after having the time of my life. And I haven't gone back. I still listen to agust D's music, but I haven't listened to any BTS music since the incident and have blocked them 99% from my algorithm. I was in Target and rolled by a sign and stopped and went back. V is spokesmodel for Champion athleticwear. It was like seeing an ex at the mall. I just went 'huh. and went on my way. I don't really understand my own reaction. I suppose everything really does have a season. Maybe I will be back one day? Probably not. 

I was going to start another soap opera but that's not happening. So, among the unhappening, is the ficcery.

Word Count for August: 1864 (I guess it's better than July which was ZERO!). I need 60k to reach my GYWO goal. Spook Me/Halloween, Kinktober, NaNoWriMo (maybe if I think of an idea) and/or Xmas.  

More happenings

I stood up for myself on Wednesday with my client the Hoarder and told her I had reached my limit (for the shift). I was proud of myself for setting a boundary even though she tried to cross it after I set it. 

And I have been doing this weight loss program for 6 months and haven't lost any weight yet. So I took a deep breath and submitted a request for help in the helpline. It was really difficult but I did it. 

So I am getting better at setting boundaries, better at asking for help instead of just suffering in silence, better at letting go of things that no longer serves me, and a teeny tiny bit more comfortable in my own skin. 

Gosh. 

We'll see what September brings. 




stonepicnicking_okapi: journal (journal)
Veering into scrapbook territory more than I usually do. I had a cancelled shift on Tuesday, so I collaged with the map of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that I saved from my day trip to NYC at the beginning of August.

Word: Hod

Aug. 26th, 2026 07:01 am
stonepicnicking_okapi: letters (letters)
I failed to mark it and now I can't find it, but today's word comes from I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle, which is the DW bookclub book for August and it's the verb form of... ...

hod

to bob up and down on horseback, as an inexperienced rider may do; to jog.

It's tagged 'intransitive, Scottish, and obsolete.'

That sounds about right. I distinctly remember it was a verb form. More info from Wkitionary:

Probably an alteration of hot (“(Northern England, Scotland) large basket for carrying earth, etc.”), from Middle English hott, hote, hotte (“large basket or pannier for carrying earth, etc.; unit of measure for grain; hut or shed (perhaps originally of wattlework); lump of dirt (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Old French hote, hotte (“large basket carried on the back”) (modern French hotte (“carrying basket”)), from Frankish *hotta (“basket”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”) (see further at etymology 1), ultimately an onomatopoeia of the swaying movement of such a basket (compare Middle Dutch hotten (“to jolt; shake”)).

This is a hod (noun) carried over the shoulder.

hod
stonepicnicking_okapi: ChopSuey (chopsuey)
1. The boys are back in school. Minisculus is less than enamored with middle school but that's to be expected.
 

2. For the first time, I might be in danger of not meeting my 150k GYWO word count goal. I am hoping Hallowe'en and Xmas will help. I am just not interested or inspired. I finished my soap opera in mid June and did a ficlet for Watson's birthday, but that's about it.

3. Minor got blackmailed by someone on a messaging app wanting $50 to not spread doctored photos to his friends. What a world. I didn't even know the app he is using. But he handled it himself. Apparently the app administrator(s) located the blackmailer account in Iran!

4. I signed Minisculus up for art (meaning drawing, painting, etc) without realizing it was a 1 quarter course, not a full year course (chorus for Minor had been a year-long so I thought all fine arts courses were) so they filled in the rest of the quarters with other things. Now he has Theatre (!!! If there is a child in the universe less inclined toward performance it is my second born). And then there is what we used to call Home Economics and now they call Family and Consumer Science and then General Music. We'll see how it goes.

5. So there is a gap left by my dropping of the BTS fandom, and I am filling it with some online puzzles which I found via @snowynight's post: https://snowynight.dreamwidth.org/323738.html  

The one I like best is called Squardle which is a word search. https://squaredle.app/

I also play Quordle (solving 4 wordles at once): https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/quordle/#/

And clues by Sam, which is a logic puzzle: https://cluesbysam.com/

[sorry for the formatting. DW is being weird today or I forgot how to do stuff or both]

Also filling the gap is this woman who takes care of a pair of capybaras named Cheesecake and Pumpkin (among other animals) in Florida (warning: pun/dad joke)
stonepicnicking_okapi: journal (journal)
More fun with my Friday client Crafty Lady. I like the first one.
stonepicnicking_okapi: otherwords (otherwords)
Because I woke up to the sound of rain

---

Praise the Rain by Joy Harjo

Praise the rain, the seagull dive
The curl of plant, the raven talk—
Praise the hurt, the house slack
The stand of trees, the dignity—
Praise the dark, the moon cradle
The sky fall, the bear sleep—
Praise the mist, the warrior name
The earth eclipse, the fired leap—
Praise the backwards, upward sky
The baby cry, the spirit food—
Praise canoe, the fish rush
The hole for frog, the upside-down—
Praise the day, the cloud cup
The mind flat, forget it all—

Praise crazy. Praise sad.
Praise the path on which we’re led.
Praise the roads on earth and water.
Praise the eater and the eaten.
Praise beginnings; praise the end.
Praise the song and praise the singer.

Praise the rain; it brings more rain.
Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

Reading

Aug. 19th, 2026 07:10 am
stonepicnicking_okapi: bookshelf (bookshelf)
My reserve for David Rosenfelt's new book on audiobook just came through and I think it will be a nice tonic for stressful times. This is the Andy Carpenter, defense attorney and dog shelter owner, series. The book is called Dead Men Don't Play Fetch. It's predictable, a case involving a dog somehow, everything gets resolved, a cast of weird lovable characters. And Grover Gardner narrating.

Also, I wasn't planning to participate this month because I couldn't find the book at the library in any form but I was browsing through Barnes & Noble yesterday after back-to-school clothes shopping with Minor ($$$!) and saw August's book there and thought, 'well, okay.' It's Peter S. Bealge's I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons.

Word: Torc

Aug. 19th, 2026 06:35 am
stonepicnicking_okapi: letters (letters)
Wednesday's word is...

...torc.

a collar, necklace, or similar ornament consisting of a twisted narrow band, usually of precious metal, worn especially by the ancient Gauls and Britons.

--

This came to me by way of an article in the latest edition of Archeology magazine which one of my clients (aka oil futures guy) reads. The article was entitled "A Change in Fashion" by Daniel Weiss (Hoards of lavish gold and silver neck rings buried on an English hill reflect dramatic social change.).

And here's an article from 10 years ago from the British Museum blog: How do you wear a torc?.

torc
stonepicnicking_okapi: ChopSuey (chopsuey)
1. My sons go back to school on Monday. I did back-to-school shopping for Minisculus (backpack, new shoes, an outfit for the first day) on Sunday. These days, I don't buy actual supplies like notebooks and pencils until the first week of school because middle and high school aren't like elementary school with a set list for the whole grade and every teacher is different.

Today I am going with Minor to do the same.

2. I've got a new client, an Italian lady, very nice. We had bad weather last Monday and her poor husband had to cling to a crepe myrtle to avoid getting blown away in a tornado.

3. Oh, gosh. I hate to even write about this but I hope anyone who reads it will be gentle. I am so, so, so grateful that [personal profile] bethctg and I went to the BTS concert when we did. We had a great time. I enjoyed myself without reservations or hindrance. I had no idea at the time how my feelings would change.

Read more... )
stonepicnicking_okapi: record player (recordplayer)
As I was doing the back-to-school shopping with Minisculus (new backpack, new shoes, new first day of school outift, new underpants and socks, go, mom), this song came on at Kohl's.

stonepicnicking_okapi: journal (journal)
I call the last client of the day on Fridays Craft Lady and this Friday there was time for her and I to collage at her craft desk. I am back to using my little art journal so these are smaller in size.

stonepicnicking_okapi: otherwords (otherwords)
Shamelessly stolen from [personal profile] thatjustwontbreak's journal.

---

THE MEN ARE WEEPING IN THE GYM by Andrew McMillan

the men are weeping in the gym
using the hand dryer to cover
their sobs their hearts have grown too big
for their chests their chests have grown too big
for their shirts they are dressed like kids
who have forgotten their games kit
they are crying in the toilet
and because they have built themselves
as statues this must mean that God
has entered them they are wringing
their faces like sweat towels
in the sink their veins are about
to burst their banks they are flooding
out of themselves onto the tiles
they have turned water into protein shakes
they have got too close to the mirrors
they have got too close to the glass
and now they are laying
in the broken pools of their own faces
the lines of them! at the decline press
the bicep curl waiting staring
straight ahead swearing that the wetness
on their cheeks is perspiration
that the words they mutter as they lift
are meaningless that they feel
nothing when the muscle tears itself
from itself that they don’t hear
the thousands of tiny fracturings
needed to build something stronger
stonepicnicking_okapi: bookshelf (bookshelf)
I feel like I'm behind on everything...life...so here's me catching up on a few things.



I-2: No sex/romance Platform Decay by Martha Wells. God bless, Murderbot! Gosh, I am never more on the ace spectrum than when I am reading this wonderful series.

O-4: Humour: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett. Audiobook verison on Youtube. Shamelessly copied from [personal profile] smallhobbit's bingo because I have no idea what's funny anymore. It was funny in small doses. And clever, which I favour. And I recognized the style from Good Omens. It was my first Discworld book. One of you recommended Guards! Guards! and the library just sent me a notice that it is ready for pick up. We'll see.

B-5: A Favorite Author Blurbed It: Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan. I really didn't think I could fill this square. But lo and behold, Ann Cleeves (whose Matthew Venn series I love and whose Shetland series I tolerate) called this book 'hugely enjoyable,' India's first female police detective with a high profile case in the years just after Indian independence.

---

I am going to try to read the first Morse for the School/university square and maybe borrow a James Bond from one of my clients for the TV/Film and I have plenty to choose from with the TBR square.

---

I DNF an audiobook version of Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, which is a shame because I got through about 75% of it. It is Native American vampires. I just got into a headspace where the violence and gore were more than I wanted to take.
stonepicnicking_okapi: ChopSuey (chopsuey)
[personal profile] bethctg and I had a great time at the BTS concert. Our seats were good. The lads put on a great show. It was hot (and the flames on stage made it even hotter) but it was worth it.

Many of the lads came down the runway closest to us so we got to see them at various times during the show.

So it was my first time meeting an online friend in person and first time wearing a specific outfit to a concert and the first bit of Girl Talk I've had in about 30 years. We met a lot of ARMYs. I gave out all my freebies but 2 photocards.

The only small snags were the boys' father getting lost trying to find us post-concert and thus getting us back to the hotel late and giving me about 4 hours of sleep before a 3-client day (including a new client and the Hoarder, who is a challenge).

So I am very tired. But it was worth the expense and the effort and I am grateful I got to share it with [personal profile] bethctg and she met Minor and Minisculus and the boys' father and I got to show off my little lake and my local library (and we survived a tornado warning!).

Good times. Now I am sort of irritated. I don't think it's concert drop, I think it's just lack of sleep and the busy logistics of the boys' back-to-school schedules creeping in.
stonepicnicking_okapi: okapi (okapi_sparkle)
This will be the last post about the concert (tomorrow night 8 pm) and probably the last post period until life returns to normal.

1. Here is my Agust D robe that I am going to wear to the concert. It had a lot of wrinkles from the shipping and I tried to iron it but everywhere I passed the iron (I kept it on level 2 so it wouldn't melt the fabric) there appeared tiny white streaks. So I stopped. I am not a fan of the white streaks but I am also not a fan of the wrinkles but I am not going to do anything about them now.

Agust D robe )

Here are cupcakes I picked up yesterday morning with edible photocards! The flavors are BTS inspired: Butter cream (purple); strawberry (for V and jhope and even Jin's uncle owns a strawberry farm); banana milk for Jungkook; malcha (Korean matcha); hotteok (this is the Korean street pancake, the same flavor as the BTS Oreos); dalgona (Korean coffee) and bungeoppang (Korean pastry filled with sweet red bean paste in the form of a fish).



And here is my new ARMY bomb which I pre-ordered and picked up downtown. The best part is the kind of clock pattern on the base.



And last but not last, the key chains and photocard that I am putting in my freebie bags.

freebie bag )

[profile] betchctg rolls into town in a couple of hours. Wish us good luck for tomorrow night. It's going to get up to 104F (40 C) today so let's hope she and BTS don't melt!

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stonepicnicking_okapi: okapi (Default)
stonepicnicking_okapi

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