365 Photos - 1/365 (Water theme)

[byslantedlight]

Thank you fiorenza_a who suggested the theme of water for the first week of my 365 project (which is where I post at least one picture a day, for 365 days... *g*) Trouble is - it rained today, and I was going to go out, but actually... So not a very exciting first photo, but it is a photo! It's a start! In other news:

Reading - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (for book group next Thursday.) I wasn't sure at first, but 100 pages in I'm happy to keep going and find out what happens. *g* It's set in the Congo, which makes me think maybe I should find one of those travel-the-world reading challenges, this year!

Fanfic
Meg Lewtan's Bird in a Gilded Cage beside my bed, but I've remembered what happens in general, and sort of stalled. Read the first story in O. Yardley's Septet zine last night (technically very early this morning!) - nice enough - and I may read the next one tonight, which is a sequel to Two Lovers. Except that I wasn't keen on Two Lovers, it sounded more like O. Yardley than our lads, imnsho, so I might skip it to the next story in the zine... We'll see. *g*

Writing
Erk - a bit of helpful research this morning, does that count?

Telly
Missed the beginning of Dickensian cos I was making fudge, but the rest was still good. Sherlock was a bit more good - anyone else watch?! If I'd thought about expecting something, that wouldn't have been it... *g*

How're you doing, this first day of 2016 (well, second I expect, by the time I hit post and you read this...)?

Comments

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year! It's still the 1st here! :)
The sun is just going down, and the temperature is dropping. It's been very cold at night, but not a cloud in the sky, so no snow.
Ever since we had our roof replaced, it hasn't rained a drop! *g*
Today, a neighbor came to ask if we could recommend the roofers, and we had to tell him to ask again after the next extended rain.

We are taking it easy today, eating birthday cake and enjoying a fire in the wood stove.
Only three more days, before school starts again.

We will watch Sherlock tonight!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

You have sun! We've still got rain - it's tapping on the windows, and there was wind gusting around again earlier too - brrr! I'm making a hot water bottle as I type! Not sure if I should wish rain to test your new roof out or not! Snow would be pretty though... I wish we'd have some down here, but I seem to have landed in another unsnowy part of the UK...

Oh, and happy birthday! I saw a birthday post for you and realised - hope you've had a lovely day! Relaxing with cake and a fire sounds pretty good, anyway. *g*

I can't believe there's only two more days here before work starts again - waaaah! I must write my Dialj story! Although I'm off to see Star Wars on Sunday, so looking forward to that... *g*

Oooh - Sherlock! *vbg* You'll have to let me know what you think!

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

We watched Star Wars yesterday! I won't say anything, since you haven't seen it.

I'm not a big fan of this version of Sherlock. The way it's filmed, with fast cuts and such, seems to trigger my migraines. 8)
But our daughter has been looking forward to the next episode for ages.
I'm prepared to look away, when needed. *g*
What did you think of it? I love spoilers, so no problem there!

I hope, your Dialj story will flow easily, and the weather will improve. At least, the days are already getting longer, though it sure doesn't seem like it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ooh - you've seen Star Wars! *g* I've managed not to be spoiled so far, so thank you!

Rats about Sherlock triggering your migraines though - it can be quite flash-y, but I never thought of it as violent enough to affect vision/heads, that's no good... I liked this ep! It wasn't what I was expecting (a full-blown pure period story) but I suspect i shouldn't really have been expecting that, cos what BC said in interviews about not thinking it was a good idea to make a Victorian version, but seeing the script and going ohhhhh - yes! made him change his mind... *g* I don't think there's alot of flashing-bits in it, though perhaps some... if I'm thinking of the kind you mean...

I was thinking just this morning that the days were getting longer! I noticed that sunset was a minute later today than yesterday, and thought how that meant we'd have 7 minutes more daylight by the end of the week, and half an hour more by the end of the month... though sunrise is still oddly at the same time every day this week! But they're slo-o-o-wly beginning to stretch!

And now I think my hot water bottle is ready for tucking into my bed - alongside me, and perhaps five minutes of fic!

Happy birthday! Happy New Year! Happy everything in general! *g*

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and Happy First Night!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Happy First Night to you too!


(Sorry, couldn't resist... *vbg*)

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you couldn't resist! :)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Interesting picture. It'll be fun to see what direction you take with this particular subject.

I've never been able to really get into O. Yardley's stories. Somehow, they never quite sound like the Lads to me.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, I was hoping for prettier pictures in general, but I guess with 365 days they're not all going to be like that! If it stops raining I might find the energy to get out and find some prettier water... *g*

I do agree about O.Yardley's stories - there was always a touch of her voice, and the lads were just a bit too posh, but it wasn't quite enough to make me stop reading. Her more recent fics have just pushed slightly too far away for me to cope with - Two Lovers (the canal zine) and A Lovesome Thing (older lads). If the writing's solid to start with, and the lads are mostly right, even if just a bit off, then I'm okay - but if more specific things strike me and keep striking me, then I'm lost... which is a shame, cos I've liked alot of O.Yardley's older stories, and I wouldn't at all mind more like that... *g*

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Well it's certainly wet!

Don't you find 1/365 just a bit daunting?

I haven't seen Star Wars yet (RL taking a nasty turn) or Shirley. So I'm doing my best Likely Lads impression trying to avoid spoilers - so I only skimmed the other comments.

And in my book research definitely counts as writing!

I'm hoping to get a bit more done myself, but my woeful energy levels mean I'm often too wiped out to concentrate. I was re-reading a WIP Iast night, it's (obviously) not finished and could do with a polish, but I was surprised by its general coherence.

Must have been more switched on then.

Anyway, there are other things I want to finish first. Sometimes, with my readery head on, I re-read a WIP and get really frustrated that I don't how it ended. But I'm only going to know if my writery head gets a shift on and finishes it.

My head is full of compartments...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - no, 1/365 isn't daunting. I know I take lots of photos, and I know that's just one a day, so... it's okay. *g*

I'm completely avoiding Star Wars spoilers too - so far so good (and no one's spoiled it, so yeay). I quite often don't even skim comments when I know there's something I don't want to know about that they might be replying to, so I quite understand!

Shall cross my fingers for energy and WIP-getting-on-with, for both of us!

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Your water photo manages to take an ordinary scene and make it interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing your daily pictures.

Oh Sherlock - I saw it on the big screen at the theatre this morning. No spoilers here, but I have to say I did NOT see that coming! Managed to stay pretty-much spoiler-free in the leadup so it was one big surprise, the way it worked out. And I loved it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the pic's a bit interesting - despite the amounts of water around, I didn't think any of it was particularly inspiring yesterday, I'm afraid! I should have ventured out, but... sogginess. *g*

And wow, Sherlock on the big screen would be amazing! It was pretty fab, wasn't it - I must watch it again to catch all the bits that rushed a bit past me, mind... *g*

[dollidaydream.livejournal.com]

I love that photo - it looks like it's waiting for the door to open and a lad to step out. Probably Doyle in a scruffy, but well-turned cowboy boot!

It occurred to me, when you said that you were spending too much time online because of your photo a day the last time you did it - can you still take a photo a day and then post them in batches? Say a week's worth at a time? Or does that defeat the object? If you are going for a theme per week I think it would look really effective posting a week's worth at once. ('Scuse me while I arrange your life for you!!! :) )

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And oh, I do like the idea that Doyle's cowboy boot might just step into view from the doorway - good call! *g*

I think the problem with the photo-a-day last time wasn't that I was posting them online every day, it's that I had to set up a new venue to do it, and spend time working out the best ways of using it, and looking through various other photos that began to turn out to be more about the photog-club's friends and family than about photography. Little did I know that it wasn't really to do with the club I'd joined, and didn't have anything to do with doing photography with other people, which is what I'd been hoping for. So rather than spending more time doing photography, I was online again in that time instead - and not making new friends in the village i'd moved to! Posting pics to lj every day should be just fine though, cos lj's nice and easy to post to, and I know my way around it, and I'll hopefully get to talk to people I like instead of random strangers having chats that turn into family in-jokes that I was far from in on!

Oddly enough too, I think posting lots of photos in batches would be more time-consuming than just posting one at a time - being me, I fiddle with sizing and stuff, and... though I do agree it might look nice to post the theme pics all together... hmmn... *g* And please, arrange away - someone should... *vbg*

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Eh, water is water - it totally counts! :-)
I think Gilded Cage/Lewtan in general and O. Yardley are both fun in their ways, but somehow after a while neither of them usually seem all that lads-ish to me. The ways in which they diverge seem gradually to accumulate, building up until it's beyond critical mass until at some point - after being engrossed initially - I find I'm reading (albeit some great fun stories) about two blokes with their names. Not that I don't enjoy them, I do, but there's a purely OurLads-ish-ness spark I miss ... *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It was definitely water down there, too... *g*

I do agree about both Gilded Cage and O. Yardley... I'd actually wanted to read Murder on the Moor, but for the life of me coudn't find my print out - and I'd forgotten that GC was quite so ooc! To be fair, ML totally warns readers that it is... *g*

I always found O.Yardley's lads stretchable-to though, although they were always a bit posh-sounding, I thought, and sometimes a bit soppy for my liking, but the writing was solid enough and there was nothing specific enough that would throw me out of a story. Until I got to her later two zines, Two Lovers and A Lovesome Thing... I did buy the next anthology-zine of hers, Septet, which is the one that I'm reading now... some of the stories are a bit close to the edge again, but the two I've read so far have been readable... It's a good description - the divergences reached critical mass for me in those ones, and I just couldn't.... which is a shame...

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I read Bird in a Gilded Cage so very long ago... I have no desire to read it again, I do admit. *g*

Research counts!

I enjoyed Sherlock very much. To be honest, my expectations weren't high, as I hadn't enjoyed the third series. But this was fun, and with just enough emotional sincerity to it to make me happy. I liked the "explanation" for why it was happening very much--hadn't expected that. (Heh, and I love seeing how Sherlock both digs at and yet respects Mycroft.) So, yeah, I'm glad I watched it and may very well watch it again.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

To be fair, ML does warn readers that GC is ooc, and just for her fun! I'd forgotten how much though, I must admit!

I forgot that people didn't like the third series of Sherlock, because I loved it! Which of course meant that my expectations were pretty high - but this story met them pretty well, so that was good! I do want to watch it again though, to catch all the things that passed me by the first time - I've seen a few interesting comments about what one thing or another meant, that didn't strike me when watching... *g* I feel like even here I should be careful about saying too much and spoilering people who haven't watched it yet - but I do want to say ooh, what about..., and did you think...? and so on - always a good sign! *g*