Happy Singles Awareness Day!

[ermingarden]

...For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day,
When ev’ry fowl cometh to choose her mate...
- Chaucer, "Parlement of Foules"

My copy of vol. 2 of the official TGCF translation arrived a day ahead of schedule – a lovely Valentine's Day surprise! <3



It's hard to believe, but I think it might be even prettier than vol. 1!

When I started reading TGCF, I thought of myself as someone who didn't care much about romance narratives; by the time I finished it, I was crying about how much Hualian love each other. So it's basically my ideal book to re-read on Valentine's Day.

I'm single, so painting hearts on my nails last night and eating some chocolate while reading tropey romantic fic today are the only things I had planned this year. What about you? Anything special?

Comments

[independence1776]

I am probably going to curl up and play more of SWTOR even though I really should be working on my Big Bang.

[ermingarden]

Story update tomorrow! *\o/*

SWTOR is going to be wild tonight – there are a bunch of achievements that are going away after the update, so the cheevo-hunters are frantically trying to get them while they can.

[independence1776]

:D Next character I'm playing is likely going to be a Knight Shadow Infiltrator. I really like being able to sneak by enemies without having to fight all the time.

Then in that case, I will be not playing SWTOR. I'm at a good stopping point; I finished Taris and holy cow my reaction to the plague now is different than it would have been several years ago.

[ermingarden]

I'm extremely excited to be able to give Irrinath stealth with her secondary class – on balance I do think the range of sage is worth not having stealth, but why choose when you can have both?

I think people will mostly be doing operations, so I wouldn't expect it to have general impact if you do feel like playing tonight.

I totally feel you about Taris – I only started playing in earnest when the lockdown started, almost (good lord) two years ago now, and it definitely hit in a way it wouldn't have otherwise.

[independence1776]

:D Exactly!

I don't want to deal with the potential crowds. I don't know if this is a normal thing or not, but in the past few days, I've had random players run up, kill whatever I'm fighting, and then go on their way and it's a little irksome. And I really do need to get my butt in gear with my Big Bang, so I need to behave and finish that before I start Nar Shaddaa.

...Two years. It feels like forever.

[ermingarden]

That does happen not too rarely, unfortunately – sometimes because someone is trying to be helpful, more rarely because someone has to kill a certain number of a particular kind of enemy for a quest, is totally inconsiderate, and doesn't realize that if the thing's already in combat with someone else they won't get credit for the kill.

Given the excitement of the update, I'd anticipate even more folks on in the next few days, just fyi.

Now entering Year 3 of March 2020...

[ysilme]

Happy celebrating to you! Getting books etc. one waited for is always a treat - I hope you thoroughly enjoy yours!
Valentine doesn't have a tradition in Germany; the really important holiday in Feburary is Fasching, Carnival, for those who care about. *g* I don't, and I'm not interested in Valentine either, TBH - it appeared some day, like Halloween, but has mostly stayed a highly commercialised holiday so I particularly don't care about it as this is something I dislike. (Halloween, at least, is by now also somewhat established as a holiday in its own right.) But what I do enjoy about Valentine is that it created the origin of the fannish Tolkien exchange I consider as my main fannish exchange and have participated every year since 2014 with one exception, I think: My Slashy Valentine, with the reveals happening on the 14th. So earlier this evening I not only got my own lovely gift but also the masterlist to a larger than ever collection of terrific fanfic. Guess what I'll be doing for the rest of the night! ^^
About the relationship part: I'm married since nearly 25 years, but we're both not romantically inclined, so we don't even do much - or anything - on our wedding day. *g* I much prefer what he's doing for me at all time anyway. The Valentine industry would quite despair about us! *ggg*
No, really, I find having a pot of tea waiting for me when I get up, or him going grocery shopping when I can't deal with people much more romantic than anything that is generally considered as such.
Your nails look very pretty!

[ermingarden]

Thank you!

Oh, I forgot about My Slashy Valentine – I've never participated, but I will definitely be checking out the collection soon!

That is so very sweet! I can't say I know anything about truly long-term relationships beyond what I've seen in my (step)parents, but even that's enough to see that grand gestures can't make up for a lack of loving consideration in the ordinary course of life.

[chestnut_pod]

What cute nails!

I spent today enjoying the yearly deluge of funny and punny Valentine's cards! People are so clever and talented :)

[ermingarden]

Thank you! <3

Yes, that's one of my absolute favorite parts too – the corny cards! I'm very sad to see that the classic Comic Sans Valentine has become less common on Tumblr these days than it was a few years ago, but I do have some old favorites, including this great joke by @thoodleoo based on Catullus 2:



And this is my own contribution to the genre from eight (!!!) years back:



(As you can likely tell, I was in high school chemistry when I made that one.)

[chestnut_pod]

These are great additions to the canon :)

[elwendell]

I did nothing special. Where did you get your book and is the translation any good? I was interested in the TV series and they did finish filming, but with the current censorship situation in China it looks like it may never air, at least in a format that's recognisable.

[ermingarden]

I got it off Amazon, though I know it's also being sold in other places. The licensed translation is by Suika, the same person who did the TGCF fan translation; the quality isn't incredible, but she did benefit from an editor in the licensed version, and it's definitely readable and enjoyable even if I question some aspects of her approach. (I'm going to do a longer post about my thoughts on the translation at some point.) Suika is also doing the licensed MDZS translation, but in my opinion she's doing a better job with TGCF.

The first season of the donghua is out on Netflix and other places, and it's very good! As with MDZS, it seems to be less censored than the live action.

[elwendell]

Thanks! I've just ordered vol 1 for my kindle, to see if I like it.

[ermingarden]

I hope you enjoy it!

[shirebound]

Pippin and I celebrated ♥ Day with me wrapping her in a fleecy blanket after walkies in really really cold temps. In other words, our usual wintry day together!

Yum, chocolate.

[ermingarden]

Oh, that sounds adorable!

[rekishi]

Mine was dispatched but hasn't actually registered at DHL yet, which is a shame.

[ermingarden]

Fingers crossed it gets to you soon!

[atamascolily]

The red-shouldered hawks in my neighborhood are always extremely vocal at this time of year to impress their mates, and it's not uncommon for me to spot them mating on power lines on Valentine's Day (such exhibitionists, lol). Didn't see any there this year, but they made their presence known anyway with much squawking and to-do and circling overhead with aerial acrobatics.

[ermingarden]

How perfectly Chaucerian!