mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
Mark Smith ([staff profile] mark) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2026-03-14 01:04 pm

Performing some traffic maintenance today

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

althea_valara: A screenshot of my main Final Fantasy XI character. It's a close up, and she's wearing the Teal Saio robe set which features a golden circlet. The character herself has black hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. (ffxi)
Althea Valara ([personal profile] althea_valara) wrote2026-03-06 07:20 pm
Entry tags:

no stream tonight

And maybe not tomorrow, either - I did a TON of knitting the past three days and my hands are OUCH, so I need to rest them. Gonna take a break and read tonight.

Worst case scenario, we'll get back to it next Friday with more FFXI: Wings of the Goddess.
althea_valara: Photo of my cat sniffing a vase of roses  (Default)
Althea Valara ([personal profile] althea_valara) wrote2026-03-01 01:39 pm

Crafting & Creative Update, February 2026, plus BOOKS!

I have no pics to share of finished objects this month, because I didn't finish anything. I touched three projects, with the vast majority being my FFXIV Fan Fest entry, which still isn't done. I have until the 6th, so hope springs eternal.


[Image Description: A pivot table showing I crafted over 30 hours in February 2026.]

I am pleased with the efforts this month. I definitely could have done MORE, but what I did was pretty impressive. Lots of trial and error to get things perfect. I like what I've accomplished thus far, and look forward to sharing the completed items with you.




[community profile] getyourwordsout isn't going too great. I'm supposed to be writing 10 days a month. I did not meet that goal in January so started February with a deficit, and only managed 2 days in February. And yes, I did count leaving Kiss Battle prompts as a writing day, because as I was leaving prompts, I was doing lots of "writing" in my head.

I suppose I could have counted a third day for the day I downloaded Scrivener and went through its tutorial, because
that's writing-adjacent, but I've already turned in my totals for February. Ah well.

As for the second day I wrote: man, why couldn't that count for multiple days? I wrote FOUR HOURS that day, getting into the state of Flow. The words just kept tumbling out! I'm very pleased that happened. I do need to return to that piece and finish it, but first comes the Fan Fest entry.




It is only March 1st, and I am halfway through my reading goal for the year! Huzzah! okay okay, a six book goal isn't that impressive, but when I set that goal, I really did think that would be a challenge.

In February, I finished a reread of Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is a delightful time travel mystery. Even knowing how it ends, it was still fun to reread because of the journey to the conclusion. A++++ book, would reread again in the future.

I also devoured TJ Alexander's A Gentleman's Gentleman in a few days. This book showed up on a list of "Top Romance Novels of the Century" and it sounded fun, so I bought it because it was a decent price at Bookshop.org, even though I hadn't read the author before. I quite enjoyed the book, though I do have some quibbles. I think the choice to write it from only one of the lovers' POV (Christopher) did work for this book, but it meant I had a lesser feel for who James was as a person individual from Christopher. And although I had no doubt the couple was happy together, I couldn't rightfully say I believed they were actually in love.

I do think the book was skillfully written. It's a historical romance, but it does a good job of fitting LGBTQIA characters into that timeframe. Never once did I feel like the characters didn't belong in that setting.

I definitely do not regret buying the book, and will probably reread in the future. I'd recommend it, especially if you're look for trans romances!