stonepicnicking_okapi | Entries tagged with meme answers

Thanks everyone for playing along. I enjoyed these. This is the last.

debriswoman asked: abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with?

I do have a wedding ring and an engagement ring but I don't wear them because my fingers got too fat :(

I have some of my mother's jewelry but much less since I did my Marie Kondo cleaning haul last year. I only kept the ones that sparked joy, which were very very few. I don't wear them (fat fingers, again, also my wrists are very fat so normal bracelets won't fit, but I like bracelets, in theory) but I have a couple of rings.

I have a string of pearls (necklace) of my mother's for going to church or funerals.

If I have to go to boys' school (parent-teacher meeting) I wear a pair of earrings of my mothers. They are a series of little gold balls in a semi circle hoop. Or if I can't find them, I wear pearl studs (also of hers). Or if something's more formal, I wear one of two pairs of earrings I got from the boys' father as 'push presents' (for pushing out two kids, even though they were actually cut out, not pushed out). I had a third (pretty ones) but I lost one of them a couple of years ago.

I don't wear anything but a watch (a running watch with timer and step counter) most of the time.

unavee asked ivy ⇢ what are your ‘tells’ for your emotions and moods? how can someone tell you’re happy, annoyed, upset or tired?

As far as negative moods, I'd say the state of housework is a good indicator. If I'm in a bad mood, I'm not going to sweep or clean the toilet or wipe the sink out. Also, I eat a lot more junk, and I'm not inclined to cook, so we get pizza or Chinese. Tone of voice, too. My voice gets sharper, the more irritated I get. If I have to ask the boys' to do something, by the third time asking (and being ignored), I'm probably inching toward 'shouting.'

As far as good moods, I let the boys play Nintendo or watch movies more. Or do whatever it is they want to do. I'm more likely to take care of things like vacuuming the cars out or getting gas. I don't know anything else. I'm not often in a 'good' mood, really. The opposite of upset is calm, not happy.

smallhobbit asked chamomile ⇢ what kind of things do you like receiving as gifts?

A few of my favourite things:

1. jigsaw puzzles
2. chocolate in interesting and/or fun and festive wrappers (for use in #3)
3. collage materials: stickers, washi tape, interesting postcards, colourful paper
4. books (sometimes, and I am usually a bit prescriptive, like I just sent my sister 5 Inspector Rebus titles as possibilities for Christmas gifts, Golden Age of Crime is always a safe bet)
5. I have recently got into sheet masks (facial masks).
6. anything scented eucalyptus and/or mint

Here's the original ask list.

friendofthejabberwock asked for: orchid ⇢ what’s a song you consider to be perfect?

What a tough question. I'll talk about some songs from different genres (in no order).

1. Purple Rain by Prince. You could argue Red Corvette or Raspberry Beret, and I wouldn't fight you on it, but Purple Rain is my pick.

2. 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton. I love songs with ambient noises (the typewriter) and as a working woman's anthem, I don't think you could do better. I'm also a fan of Hard Candy Christmas.

3. You Never Even Called Me By My Name by David Allen Coe. I was raised in part by my grandmother and the country and western radio station went on at 5 am and went off at bedtime, so country music was (for better or worse) a formative part of my life. This is a classic from that era (originally published the year I was born). Note: this guy is Very Redneck. I had to search for a version without any guitars painted with Confederate flags. The song itself isn't racist, but you know, be aware. It's the only song of his I know.

Watch on YouTube

4. Dis-ease by BTS. Of BTS songs, this is my favourite because it's a Total Package. All seven of the members are Doing Their Thing, and it has an interesting message and it's a bop. 133440 would be my second vote for their ouvre.

5. Rambling Man by the Allman Brothers Band in the Southern rock category.

6. Wild Boys by Duran Duran. Maybe New Moon on Monday or Save a Prayer.

So it's 70's/80's stuff and BTS. That tells you a lot about me.

Here's the original ask list.

friendofthejabberwock asked for: edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you? [also one about the perfect song, for which I am still making lists and pondering]

Here's a post I did back in February 2021 about my name. In short, okapi comes from a Rwandan bus company which ran while I was living there, and it became a nickname for my vehicle, and everything else is a variation of that. I have a gmail okapi1895 because '1895' is a symbolic year for the Sherlock Holmes fandom because of the Vincent Starrett poem 'It's Always 1895.' On the Weverse (kpop platform) I'm tangerine_okapi because my bias SUGA likes tangerines. On here, I am stonepicnicking_okapi from the Alfred Hitchcock radio play "Spellbound" which included Benedict Cumberbatch, who my first fandom crush (at the ripe age of 40!) and I like the way he says 'stone picnic.' I'd never heard the phrase 'stone picnic' before, and I like it. I really do feel like okapi more than my wallet name much of the time. O is fine, too.

( post on the name 'okapi' )

kingstoken asked for cactus something you’re currently learning (about)?

The sad answer is nothing.

Earlier in the year, I was studying Korean but I quit. I had one of my New Year's resolutions to pick up a book on juggling I bought a long time ago and try it, but it's November and I haven't done that. I'd love to study something that would eventually lead to a paying JOB but I don't have any idea what that would be.

Sigh.

I'm a good student. Or I always have been. But at the moment...*crickets*...

misbegotten asked for: palm tree ⇢ do you have a fictional villain you shouldn’t like but love regardless?

Villains! Who doesn't love a good villain? Let's think about villains I like (in no order).

1. BBC Sherlock Moriarty (probably due to Andrew Scott's charisma, ACD Moriarty doesn't do much for me)

2. Rattigan from The Great Mouse Detective (voiced by Vincent Price, which makes ALL the difference)

3. The killer in And then there were none by Agatha Christie. I like 'clever' and luring 10 people to an island and bumping them off and not getting caught is Very Clever.

4. Smaug the dragon (eat those Hobbits! Except

small_hobbit, of course)

5. Carmilla from Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu

6. Jareth from Labyrinth

WHAT VILLAINS DO YOU LIKE?

From

potentiality_26

7. 17

7: Do you listen to music while you write/read?

Yes! Especially when I'm writing during the day and have to drowned out family noise. I listen to train ambient noises and I listen to instrumental music. In my 'classical music' tag I am writing about my experience going through the lists at the end of Classical Music for Dummies and getting more exposure to different composers, compositions, and styles, and learning what I like and don't like in classical music. I am intrigued by the notion that long fics used to come with playlists and I would love to put together play lists for some of my fic. I like instrumental versions of boss nova and jazz, too. I don't listen to music when I read. I do listen to music or audiobooks when I do chores.

17: What’s more draining: writing smut, fluff or angst?

I had to think about this one. I think angst. But I think the angst comes before the writing and the writing is a response. If I'm writing angst, it's because I'm depressed, despondent, and/or probably dwelling on death a bit more than is good for me. And writing about John Watson (or any other character, but it's usually John) grieving or suffering or contemplating suicide (either pre-canon or during the Hiatus or any other time) is a way I sometimes respond to those feelings. I don't say 'deal with' because I am not certain at all if ficcing reduces or prolongs these periods. Sometimes I think it helps and sometimes I think it's wallowing and doesn't.

I follow my moods with smut and fluff, too. But I can't really say I feel 'drained' after ficcing any genre. I mean, ficcing is my hobby. It's something I like to do. I feel drained after going out to buy my kids new shoes or after hoovering the flat, not ficcing!

Thanks for all the lovely questions! I enjoyed contemplating them!

From

mafief

14: Do you have a go-to AU?

I don’t just have one. I have many!

Genderswap would be the first. Omegaverse would be two. Werewolves/vampires would be three.

But I’ve done lizards, teapots, shapeshifting dragons, wolves & ravens, parrots, candle shop, ghosts, really, a lot of them.

22: Are you more likely to be the person who starts reading a 100k slow burn fic at midnight or the person who starts writing a drabble at 4 a.m.?

Definitely the 4 am drabble. I don’t usually read fics of more than 5k words unless there’s a very compelling reason (i.e., a good friend wrote it). But I did write one of my most popular fics (Nights are for sharing, Snow White/Seven Dwarves PWP) between 6 am and 9 am one Saturday morning.

31: mythological creature AU or superhero AU?

Definitely mythological AU. I tried to look up on AO3 the old Sherlock series of about 12 fics where Sherlock is different mythological characters. I couldn’t find it. If was written by a BNF, I think. Maybe one of the old timers know which one I am thinking of. It was a big inspiration for me as far as writing horror/darker stuff and one of the series absolutely blew me away and was the first time I thought 'fic can be just as good (and even better) than traditional literature).'

Except for (very tangentially) Doctor Strange’s Cloak of Levitation and Wonder Woman, I don’t really follow the superhero fandoms.

From

luthienberen.

1, 18, 24

1: Do you/would you like to write professionally?

No. Per Virginia Woolf's edict, I have no money and no room of my own. My skin isn’t thick enough and my ideas aren’t original enough to write fiction professionally. I don't know what kind of work I'll do when/if I work again, but I suppose there may be writing in it. I don't know.

10: What’s your favorite trope?

I like Someone Gets a Puppy. I like Someone Playing His Violin When Someone Else Has Nightmares. I like Talking Someone Out of Suicide. I like Omegaverse and Sentinelverse and all those 'made for each other' Soulmate AUs.

24: fantasy or sci-fi?

I don’t read either. I am trying to force myself to read Tui Sutherland’s first book in the Wings of Fire series (about dragons) because Minor has read the first fifteen books in the series, and he got the first five in a set for Christmas from his aunt. In about six months, I’ve made it to Chapter 2. By comparison, I re-read The 7/12 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (in its entirety which is about 420 pages) over this past weekend.

Fic-wise, many of my AUs, however, are fantasy: lizards, wolves, werewolves, vampires, dragons, fairytales. I do have a space AU, too, but there isn’t much science in it. It’s a just a porny Star Trek knock-off.

So, final answer: fantasy!

From

misbegotten.

3, 12

3: Any guilty pleasures (books/fics)?

Book-wise, I like Miss Marple short stories by Agatha Christie, and as far as audiobooks, I like Complete Steel/The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird. I know them by heart, I’ve read/listened to them over and over.

Anglophilia. A British man in a nice suit is a weakness. I like some British accents. Tea, trains. I never go to the cinema, but I saw the first Kingsman movie and a few of the Bond movies in the cinema because of that weakness.

Mommy kink/Daddy kink shouldn’t be as intriguing as it is. Ditto for pet play. But c’est la vie!

12: Which trope would you absolutely abolish?

I’m not in the business of telling other people what they shouldn’t enjoy. I will say I saw something on

vulgarweed’s tumblr about a hundred years ago, a post about poly relationships, and it made me re-visit in my mind the whole jealousy trope. I still like it and I still write it, but I definitely tone it down and am careful how I portray it.

From

ancientreader.

4, 18, 20.

4: What’s better (or the least bad): character over plot or plot over character?

The least bad for me is plot over character. I read mysteries and detective stories, so plot is key. And I’m willing to overlook a entire cast of characters for whom I have no sympathy (e.g., The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which I am re-reading in book form right now) for a plot that is very, very clever. Also I am willing to put up with rather hidebound detectives (such as Inspector Littlejohn by George Bellairs, of which I just finished listening to the third audiobook last night) if the plot is sensible enough.

That said, I have been known to fling a book across the room because the characters were too ridiculous for words (Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs) and not care who was murdered because I’d like to murder them all.

Writing-wise, plotting is very difficult. And because I only write fanfic the character part is not as difficult as it is in original fiction.

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Here is the list.

From

smallhobbit.

6, 9 and 15.

6: What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to writing?

My pet peeves when it comes to the writing process are commonplace. There aren’t enough hours in the day for home life and proper ficcing. There isn’t a way for the perfect scene or bit of dialogue to be downloaded from my brain to the page at the moment I think it (which is usually in the car or in the shower). Occasionally I get hung up on a point of grammar so if anyone knows of a single solid reference book when it comes to that stuff (commas, sentence fragments, etc.), feel free to drop a note in the comments.

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