pshaw_raven: (Autumn Leaves)
([personal profile] pshaw_raven Aug. 14th, 2025 10:14 am)
I saw some "think piece" recently bemoaning the fact that people are starting to celebrate Halloween early, and why does fall have to creep into summer? The author was whining about how it's still August, it's still summer, I want my summer fun, waahhhhh. Look, people like me are doing "Summerween" and pulling out fall decorations because summer is the worst season, hands down. The only reason anyone likes summer is that the American public school system has conditioned us to equate summer with fun and freedom. I'm looking forward to going outside without my flesh vaporizing because the sun is 200 feet from my front door.

I get cabin fever in summer. I have to get my workouts done early in the morning and retreat home before the heat gets really bad. It feels like I "never" go outside.

Anyway, I haven't had much going on here to write about, aside from just training, keeping house, petting cats, and just existing. I've finally felt like doing creative things again and so picked up some of my fiction and started drawing again. I tried posting some fiction to Pillowfort but I don't seem to be getting traction there. So one of my projects is a longhand story-game that I'm building using various solo RPG tools. That's been fun because I know I don't have to make it make sense for a reading audience, so I can just go with whatever comes up in the game, and it's already yielded a mysterious Spanish-colonial plantation, an old wise woman who may or may not be a human, and a lady who makes dorodango. I have no idea how all this is going to weave together but the fun is in finding out.

I also found I own a copy of Trokia! which may lend itself well to my St. Felix stories, since it's both very weird and very light on rules. They have their own multiverse but I'm sure I can adapt it to mine.

My birthday is tomorrow. :D

I don't have much of anything else planned for the fall. We didn't manage to snag runDisney spots during Wine & Dine, so we're taking the opportunity to have a lower-stress trip in September to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival. We also can't go to Marathon Weekend because of an all hands on deck thing at Fox's work, so my race calendar is sparse. Which is actually cool, because I'm running a 10k in October to make time for Gate River Run, then I'll just be training for that 15k. I don't have to try to shoehorn speed or hill workouts into a schedule that's mostly dedicated to making it through a marathon.The 10k is being held on the old Army base in Green Cove Springs where the military museum is now, and the course goes through some interesting areas. They still have some old bunkers and things like that.
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)
([personal profile] althea_valara Aug. 13th, 2025 09:13 pm)

It all began with a stone, or so the legend says.


In ages past, a sentient jewel, enormous and beautiful, banished the darkness. Its many-colored light filled the world with life and brought forth mighty gods.


Bathed in that light, the world entered an age of bliss until, after a time, the gods fell into slumber. That world was called Vana'diel.


The legend goes on to say...


From the darkest depths of the earth the Warriors of the Crystal rose...



The Rise of the Zilart expansion tells the story of the Warriors of the Crystal, and of the ancient clash between two races, one of which was the Zilart - who have plans to bring about Vana'diel's destruction. Read on to find out just what the Zilart have planned.



(As before, the actual game script is located at my Neocities site, here: https://altheavalara.neocities.org/ffxi/rotz - what lies under the cut is my summary for those who don't want to read the long script.)

spoilers galore! )
althea_valara: A cropped image of Feo Ul as Titania from Final Fantasy XIV. Feo Ul is a fairy with fiery orange hair and large butterfly wings. (Titania)
([personal profile] althea_valara Aug. 4th, 2025 12:07 pm)
My pivot table tells me I crafted 16 hours 13 minutes in July, on seven different projects.

Two of those projects were tablet pillows. Like this phone pillow I previously made but a bit bigger:

A crocheted phone stand, made in nautical-colored yarn.
[Image Description: A crocheted phone stand, made in nautical-colored yarn.]

I am keeping the first tablet pillow for myself, and the second one is for my older sister, who requested one.

I did 2 hours on my crocheted cardigan. Not much, but I got frustrated with it because... well, I left the ends rather long, so long they tangled with one another AND the working yarn, and it's a pain to try to feed the working yarn through the knot. I need to deal with that this month.

I did 4 hours 38 minutes on a secret project. It's coming along! But I had rather expected to be done with it by now. I lost my momentum with it, and just lost my crafting mojo in general.

I started a gnome as a present for the kidlets, but dropped a stitch and got fed up so put that aside. I am probably going to give up on this plan, and make them snowflakes (if I make anything) instead.

I spent 1 hour 19 minutes making ICONS! It's rare I do image manipulation, so this definitely deserves to be counted. The icon on this post is one of them.

Finally, I spent 20 minutes working on a knit top. I don't recall why I dropped it (literally - the yarn is on the floor under my desk, sigh). Probably got frustrated for one reason or another.

I'm... a bit sad my output is slowing down. I mean, I still did craft quite a bit! But I definitely notice a difference in my oomph. Guess this is my new normal.
.

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