I have no idea how many or if any of you may be old school music hounds when it comes to pioneering & influential hip-hop, but one of the best of the best ever - De La Soul - are giving away their entire catalogue for download - free - until 11 am EST Saturday.

Some of this material has been almost impossible to get until now, unless in bootleg versions with technical & legal issues.

(Yes, I am a major fan and enthusiast. When you listen to this music, you will hear some of the smartest beginnings and syntheses of lyrics, hooks, melodies, beats, grooves and dynamics that you'll recognise in so much that came before and later.)

Here's the article about them & their offer, and here's their website for download.

how are you spending your tax return

so, between february and april is a much detested pastime in the US: tax season!

we switched our deductibles around and got the student loan credit thingie, so our tax return was beautiful this year. we filed last thursday; both state and federal deposited today. huzzah!

i went and paid off my car first thing this morning, whatta GREAT feeling

ryan's gonna change my brake pads because he's handy like that and it's about 600 bucks cheaper if he does it himself as opposed to taking it to a mechanic

then i took my boys out today and we went shopping for some birthday gifts and a pillow and mama went to sephora because she tried this amazing dry bamboo hair oil that works wonders on your hair and needed to get more

i also got a pair of black heeled suede fringe boots at h&m for ten frickin' dollars

ooh ooh ooh and i preordered frozen from the disney store and got free frozen valentine's cards omg :')

i took m'boys out to a great vegetarian place called the gypsy den for lunch (if you follow me on snapchat, you got treated to the beauty of my goat cheese/spinach/red pepper/kalamata olive flatbread melt)

and i treated myself to a dozen sea salt caramel macarons from this little french bakery i found. no, i didn't eat all twelve; some for my mama, some for me to eat all week long

the rest we're just socking away for that rainy day people keep talking about

so, US campers- 

how are you spending your tax returns? 

alternately, HOW MUCH DOES PAYING SUCK FFFUUUUUUUU

non-US campers: do you guys pay income tax? is it terrible? 

let's talk about what you do when you're a couple grand richer, eh?

hpy VD 2 u from me fyt:

LOOK WHAT UPDATED TODAY! 

Faithfully by LailaB

Last update was on September 7th, 2011. 

Didn't expect to ever read another chapter of this story and I have to say, I am shocked and thrilled to see that she posted chapter 32.  No author's notes accompanied the post,  so we don't really know if this is a fluke or if she is going to finally finish it, but either way I am rarely floored by anything these days and this was one fic I expected to remain forever unfinished.  So, considering my husband thought Valentine's Day was tomorrow and didn't even get me a card (yes, I'm sure the selection will be awesome at midnight when he actually makes it to the store), I'd say this little update was my Valentine this year.

So, is there anything unexpectedly pleasant that has happened to you recently?  Anyone win the Lotto?  Inherit a million dollars?  Receive a Valentine from someone you've been pining over for months?  Did a long-lost writer surprise you with an update on a fic you thought was dead?  I would love to hear your happy tale on this...

Happy Valentine's Day!

So I'm a couple of days late for the helpdesk campfire but since its freeforall weekend I figured I'd light up a new campfire. I do hope no one minds. My request is about the prolific fanfic author Staceleo. I've been in this fandom for years now and read so much fanfic, so I have come across her name and work before but never actually read anything of hers. I decided to check her out today because of a new fic she's started but as it's only one chapter in, I thought I'd read one of her complete works first. The problem is there are so many!

Author has written 39 stories for Twilight.

Wow. Way to go right? But also where to start?

So please could any Staceleo fans tell me what you think her best work is? Best one-shot or best multi-chaptered fic? Does she have a particular style? Does she stick to canon traits or push the boat out? Is she all about the HEA or the heart fail? I also noticed a few unfinished stories and that she has a few wips going at the moment - should I stick to her complete works or does she always finish stories in the end? 

Basically any and all nuggets of information would help me out... SPOIL ME ABOUT THIS AUTHOR PLEASE!

To make this campfire really interactive, please share authors whose work you haven't read yet who you just want to know more about. We often spoil each other when it comes to individual stories in the Forest but let's look at authors with a larger body of work. I often get my best recs in the forest (I don't know why but that sounded really dirty in my head btw!) so lets point some campers to an author's best stories so they get the best introduction to their work.

I don't think I need a rec but just in case... here's three of my fav prolific fanfic authors - all three with updates this week- yea! I'm sure you are all familiar with these amazingly talented ladies...

TheFicChick

Rochelle Allison

Counselor

Long time no see..

Could someone tell me the pros - cons of "Kindle Fire hdx" vs "Kindle Paperwhite" ...which one is better for reading?or heck is there another version of kindle thats even better.... I've had a nook before..... is any of the kindles better than it?

O and happy Valentine's Day ... :)

Welcome to the

Feed Your E-Reader

weekly campfire

Valentine's Day edition

Please post all the fabulous deals you've found this week. And if you pick up a book from a comment inside, please let your fellow campers know you did. This CF is open to all genres and all book deals.

And don't forget to feed the trees, yeah?

If you made a mixtape for your sweetheart, what song (s) would be on it?

Share videos if you so choose

Happy Valentine's Day ADF!!

(stealing this post to say: freeforall!)

Hey Sassenachs, I have your valentine under my kilt.

I'm a Scottish plumber, aye?

Yes.  Yes he is. 

Valentine's Day  Adult  sex themed survey inside the comments.  If you dare care to share. 

I haven't done a campfire in about a billion years, so if I can't do this anymore, I'm guessing this will be taken down.....

I'm looking for Fridays at Noon and apparently it has been taken down. : (  If anyone could help me out with that, I'd really appreciate it!

I know that this is considered to be a sort of FF classic, so I'll recommend another one that's been around a while. This fic is soooooo good and totally made me want to read every Sportsward fic I could get my hands on.

First & Ten
By: Nolebucgrl
Bella Swan is an aspiring sports writer and her first big assignment is to interview the league's biggest, not to mention hottest, quarterback. Will Edward Cullen school her in the rules of the game or will she teach him a thing or two? Rated M. 

the other day i posted something about oneshots but i guess it got lost somewhere amongst the comments... so 

ONE SHOTS PLEASE  : I'LL APRECIATE IF THEY ARE BELLA/EDWARD OR JASPER/ALICE 

Hi Campers!  In honor of Valentine's Day, today we will be sharing pictures of

Please post pictures about Friendship, however you choose to interpret the word.  If you don't have any pictures, please feel free to share your words.

Or, feel free to shout out to a camper or fandom friend who brightens up your day. 

As always, everyone is welcome to join in.  Including lurkers.  Yes, You.  I'm talking about you.  Come chat with us. 

For next week:

We're going to share pictures of Body Art.  I know some campers shared their body art in a different CF a few weeks ago, please feel free to share again next week.  Or, share pics of what you'd like to have done in the future. 

Today is a free day, there's really no news for me to report in the comic world so I'm asking you guys: what do you want to hear more about? What would you like to discuss? Who's better for Superman - Wonder Woman or Lois Lane?

What are you reading?

Special assignment:

Share fanfics or novels written in a writing style(s) you love.

Maybe they're poetic, simplistic, direct, dialogue-filled, strongly-voiced, descriptive, etc.

Maybe you don't even know exactly why you love the style, you just do. 

Don't forget to link to fics.

Any fandom goes, not restricted to Twilight.

As always, feel free to ignore the special assignment and give us anything you want.  

We here at ADF are a friendly, helpful bunch!

If you have a request for a type of story or a book,
this is your spot.

If you are unsure about something that has to do with ADF,
ask here.

If you have amnesia about a fic,
this is the place to ask about it!

If you are unsure about something that DOES NOT have to do with ADF,
ask here as well!

Or comment on how Mercury retrograde is screwing with your life, even though you don't really believe in such things.

It's been a bit since we've talked beauty

Do you do a weekly exfoliation? 

Have a great design you insist on for your nails?

Are you using the best shampoo you've ever tried?

                     Are you like me and get intimidated trying to create the perfect Cat Eye?   

Come on in and talk tricks of the trade

Or ask questions-

Let's help each other-

**As usual, my Firthiest thanks to wtvoc for allowing me to post CF's