I'm currently 150-ish pages into Sailing Alone by Richard J. King which is a deep dive into the memoirs/adventures of people who sailed across oceans on their own.
It's more about the reasons why someone would do that than a how-to, and each chapter or so focuses on a single sailor but ALSO compares their experiences to other sailors and how they're all intertwined-- including how they've influenced the author's life. It's really well-written; I love travel memoirs/travel histories in general, but this book takes pains to highlight people besides the big names (aka mostly rich white men), so I'm even more interested! And now I have a huge pile of books added to my TBR, too.
I also recently put down George Sand's A Winter in Majorca, which is a travel book about her time spent in Mallorca in the 1800s. Despite a decent first chapter I found it fairly boring (it's one of those ones where the traveler hates nearly everything about the country/people who live there), and the physical book is a pain to read because of the extremely tight binding, so I decided to give up on it for now. Maybe I'll come back to it as an ebook, or maybe I'll just read one of her other books instead.
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Admin Post: On current events (apologies for the mentions of politics)
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Feb. 18th, 2026 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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communal_creatorsRelease: March 20
Summary
Detectives Dulcie Collins and Eddie Redcliffe are in Darwin to investigate the death of Eddie’s former policing partner Bushy. However, their plans are soon diverted when a body part is discovered in a remote town called Barra Creek. With the Northern Territory police force focused on a large-scale search for two missing backpackers, Dulcie and a very reluctant Eddie are tasked with identifying the John Doe.Sticky, sweaty and juggling comprehensive thrush infections, the detectives find themselves embroiled in a world of crocodile-fuelled tourism, overstretched Indigenous rangers, cagey locals, and seven-metre prehistoric predators – all of whom call Barra Creek’s stretch of land, and water, their home. As the humidity builds, and Eddie and Dulcie dig deeper, more questions arise for our duo – not only about the case, but the many secrets that lie beneath the surface of this small town.
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Are you a developer who has submitted pull requests to the otwarchive GitHub repository? Want to help shape the future of the OTW in a flexible, collaborative role? Are you interested in following checklists to administer personnel related tasks? Would you like to wrangle AO3 tags? Can you read and translate from Portuguese to English? Can you read and translate from Chinese to English? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- Communications Social Media Moderator – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications
- Organizational Culture Roadmap Volunteer – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications
- Accessibility, Design, & Technology Software Developer – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC
- Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 125 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Portuguese) – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) – closing 25 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 45 applications
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Communications Social Media Moderator
Are you familiar with Instagram or Facebook? Do you want to help connect the public with the OTW?
The Communications committee is recruiting for Social Media Moderators to help us manage our Facebook and Instagram. Social Media Moderators will help the OTW maintain an active presence on their platform, creating or reblogging a range of posts of relevance and interest to the OTW’s userbase, and doing outreach to fan groups and individuals on the site. Moderators are also responsible for handling user questions and managing responses to the OTW’s news content. You will be working as part of a team, and you must be able to dedicate at least 3-4 hours each week to the OTW.
For this position, we are seeking people who are familiar with the conventions of one of these platforms and who ideally have experience moderating a social media page. We are also interested in hearing from those with customer service experience, especially in an online environment. We expect you to have an interest in fandom at large and an understanding of the concerns and activities of the OTW (although we will, of course, provide you with training once you start).
You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. If you’re a frequent Facebook or Instagram user who enjoys helping others, have wide-ranging interests across the fandom space, and are curious and willing to learn, we’d love to hear from you!
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 60 applications
Apply for Communications Social Media Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Organizational Culture Roadmap Volunteer
Want to help shape the future of the OTW in a flexible, collaborative role? Organizational Culture Roadmap (OCR) Volunteers support the implementation of OTW Organizational Culture Roadmap goals by assisting with planning, documentation, and team coordination. Whether you prefer jumping into projects, offering behind-the-scenes support, or helping teams stay on track, there’s space to contribute in a way that works for you.
This role is great for those with clear communication skills who enjoy collaborative work. Time commitment is 1-5 hours per week. As an OCR Volunteer, you’ll play a key role in ensuring smooth operations by:
- Writing and editing OCR project plans, goal documentation, statements, surveys, replies to public questions, policies, minutes, and reports
- Assisting in the research, development, management, and delivery of internal projects
- Working as part of a team to support specific goals to reaching completion
We’re looking for volunteers who are proactive, driven, and committed to the OTW’s long-term success.
You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. In addition to the initial application, you will be required to complete an assessment to help us understand how well you understand and can complete the committee’s tasks. This will be emailed to you after you complete the application form.
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 60 applications
Apply for Organizational Culture Roadmap Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Accessibility, Design, & Technology Software Developer
The Accessibility, Design, & Technology (AD&T) committee coordinates design and development of the software that powers the Archive of Our Own. It is currently seeking Ruby on Rails developers to enhance features, fix bugs, review code, and test new changes in line with the priorities established by AD&T committee chairs and senior developers.
Please note: applicants must have submitted a minimum of two pull requests – at least one for an issue with medium or higher difficulty – to the otwarchive GitHub repository that have been deployed to production prior to applying for the software developer position.
If you don’t have the time to commit to formally volunteering for the OTW, we gratefully accept bug fixes from anyone on GitHub! Please check out our contributing guidelines before submitting a pull request.
Applications are due 25 February 2026
Apply for Accessibility, Design, & Technology Software Developer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer
Are you great at admin and enjoy the satisfaction of completing short tasks and ticking them off to-do lists? Or do you have experience in CRM or database software, data privacy, managing software access, or other related areas? Volunteers & Recruiting is looking for additional volunteers to help our busy team!
Volunteers & Recruiting supports the Organization for Transformative Works as a volunteer-driven organization by ensuring that volunteers are in the right roles, at the right time, with the right tools.
We recruit and manage incoming volunteers, handle exiting volunteers, and handle all committee setup as well as chair and board turnover. We help answer volunteers’ questions about the OTW or the tools we use, or direct volunteers to the right places. We set up tools for committees and subcommittees, mentor volunteers in their work, and track the service of each and every volunteer throughout their time with the organization. We ensure that every volunteer in the organization has the resources they need to complete their work efficiently and effectively.
This recruitment round we’d especially love hearing from applicants who are interested in regularly helping with our day-to-day work! This includes following checklists to answer tickets related to personnel changes, software access, recruitment setup, and general queries. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a live text-based chat interview.
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 30 applications
Apply for Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are in need.
Wranglers need to be fluent in English, but we welcome applicants who are also fluent in other languages, especially Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Čeština (Czech), Español (Spanish), isiZulu (Zulu), Italiano (Italian), Polski (Polish), Suomi (Finnish), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), Türkçe (Turkish), Українська (Ukrainian), ไทย (Thai), Русский (Russian), беларуская (Belarusian) and 한국어 (Korean) — but help with other languages would be much appreciated!
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 125 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Portuguese)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy Tag Wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role we’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both English and Portuguese. We welcome all Portuguese dialects! The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Portuguese into English.
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 30 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Portuguese) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy Tag Wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role we’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both English and Chinese. We welcome all Chinese dialects! The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Chinese into English.
Applications will close 25 February 2026 or after 45 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
What I'm Reading: The Whole Truth (2011) + And Nothing But the Truth (2012) by Kit Pearson
Feb. 17th, 2026 11:41 pmdelphikingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: Figures Without Facial Features on the Cover✓
kingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: Set at a School/UniversityThe Whole Truth by Kit Pearson and its sequel And Nothing but the Truth are a pair of middle grade historical novels set in British Columbia in the 1930s.
The main character is Polly Brown, who begins the story age ten, relocating from Winnipeg to the Gulf Islands to live with her grandmother following the death of her father—an event that's the subject of secrecy between her and her older sister Maud. Shortly after arriving at their grandmother's, Maud leaves for boarding school on the mainland, leaving Polly to adjust alone to her new life on a small island and deal with the carrying the secret by herself. The second book picks up a couple of years later, when Polly also needs to leave the island for secondary schooling and struggles to adjust to being away while more big changes come to her family.
I read a few of Kit Pearson's books as a kid, and when she came up in conversation recently with a friend, I decided to check out some of her more recent novels. I don't know how her older books would hold up to a re-read for me, but I ended up having a mixed reaction to these two.
They were largely pleasant reads. They're well-written, and if spending time in upper middle-class circles in 1930s western Canada appeals, there are a lot of detailed descriptions of clothes, food, and rural seaside life to enjoy. As someone with an interest in that part of the world but who doesn't have family history there, I appreciated this look into the period.
These books feel like they're in the tradition of Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, A Little Princess, Heidi, etc.—stories I associate with girls changing the world around them, whether through action or because of their positivity. But that's not really the deal with Polly, who's a very passive character and doesn't seem to bring anything unexpected to her new community. It's also not a Secret Garden or Goodnight, Mr. Tom situation where it felt like Polly herself was changed by her new home, aside from benefiting from more money and opportunities. Things just kind of work out for her while the least dramatic version of eventful situations unfold around her.
I think what particularly didn't land for me was this sense of complacency with regard to the arc of the moral universe. Polly is shown recognizing injustice and then just...never does anything about it. Her grandmother racially discriminates against a neighbour, and Polly disagrees but then lets it lie. We don't see her ever interacting with the neighbour, or even with the neighbour's son, who's a schoolmate. She has the instinct to give money to a homeless man, but then stops when her teacher scolds her and doesn't help anyone again. She never takes a stand or makes any sacrifice, aside from the one time when it's strongly self-serving, but other characters praise her for seeing the world clearly with her artist's eye, in a way that implies that just seeing is enough and that things will work themselves out over time (at least for those who happen to be the loved one of someone with money and property).
While I was reading, I often found myself thinking how glad I was that the author was avoiding the most predictable conflicts I kept thinking were coming, but by the end of the second book, I looked back and felt like something critical was missing. I don't need big culminating moments in historical coming-of-age novels—I absolutely love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and could write a whole essay on how it shares a sliver of the same flaw but how all of its positives outweigh that for me—but I needed just a little something more to care about these characters and their fortunes.
( An Excerpt )
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. We were driving north on Ashland Avenue when the word came over the radio. I gasped, and did that "Nooo!" thing that's so cliche, but proof that cliches have their roots in truth.
I knew he was old; I knew he had progressive supranuclear palsy; I knew he could no longer walk or speak, this man whose oratory raised the hopes, dreams and resistance of so many black, brown, and marginalized people. I knew he was going to die. But I didn't want it to happen.
I knew he was a complex man. I knew he was vain. I knew he was a little apt to enlarge himself in many instances. I knew he'd made antisemitic comments years ago; I knew he felt sidelined by Barack Obama's presidential campaign, after doing the hard work of paving the way for a black president with his own two surprisingly successful campaigns in 1984 and 1988. I knew he'd had a child out of wedlock.
But he didn't let his vanity outpace his love for others. He relearned humility and other lessons after each misstep. I knew he acknowledged and supported his natural daughter. I knew he was a gifted organizer as well as an orator, I knew he visited Cook County jail every Christmas when others might have - indeed had - forgotten those men. I knew he walked the walk as well as talked the talk. And there's another cliche that has its root in truth.
I met him three times. Once, on the street, heading for Grant Park, the night Obama won the presidency in 2008. He took my questions, brief as they were, and answered me in as thoughtful a way as one can in about 30 seconds. I met him a second time when he spoke to students at Niles West High School in Skokie, a significantly Jewish community. I met him a final time, at a Wilmette synagogue, where he spoke, his voice already being conquered by his illness. He would never have remembered me, but I remembered him.
I'm not black. I'm not really poor. I have privilege that he never had. But I remember his "I am Somebody." I remember. And I cry.
I'm not a Christian believer, not really, not for years. But I can hope that if the God he tried so hard to honor is there somewhere, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson reaches the seat of the Lord, that Lord will look to him and say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Here is what an excellent Chicago writer, Neil Steinberg has to say about Rev. Jackson, who was, and is, quintessentially Chicago. And here is a link to a local CBS News special on him.
It doesn't fill me with hope, especially not without a timetable. It's not that I have anything else going on so much as I'd like to know what little might be happening so I can at least figure out what kind of nothing I might be doing.
No particular reason, but picked an octopus for this week. This one is from the Tidal Treasures series by Aspenhearted.
This was a mixed week. Hanging out with Taylor at the beginning of the week was nice, and my recovery from surgery seems to be going really well. Buuuut, then I got sick, and that really sucks. I was very disappointed not to be able to go on the trip with Taylor and mom. Work has been stressful. I did get a little bit of writing done, but none of it was creative writing. I'm very frustrated at how little reading I've been able to do - the second half of the week was partially due to nyquil knocking me out in the evening, heh. Despite my disappointment in not getting to go on the hoped and planned for weekend trip, I was glad to be in town for Mark's memorial.
Goals for the week:
- I did visit Taylor on Monday
- I posted my February writing goals
- I did not finish reading Hell Bent, though I read more of it
- I did not work on my reading page
- I did go on more walks
- I did not work on my WIP outline
- I did not clean up my table
- I did go get fruit flies for the tiny frog
- We started cat (and other pet) sitting for mom and Taylor
- We went to Mark's memorial
Tracked habits:
- Work - 5/7
- Household Maintenance - 5/7
- Physical Activity - 5/7
- Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/7
- Non-fiction Writing - 2/7 - one day of over 1000 words, one day of over 500 words, plus an additional day of under 500 words
- Meta Work - 2/7
- Personal Writing - 5/7
- Other Creative Things - 0/7
- Reading - 7/7 - I did read some of Hell Bent as well as some of my ebook; Taylor and I read some of Gideon the Ninth, and Alex and I read some of The Luminous Dead
- Attention to Media - 7/7 - Sunday we watched the very end of the Superbowl; Monday we watched some Olympic downhill skiing and team figure skating; Tuesday watched news coverage; Wednesday watched more Olympic figure skating and some luge; Thursday I tried to watch figure skating but fell asleep very abruptly; Friday I don't remember; Saturday we went to Mark's memorial, and after listened to music for a bit at the club.
- Video Games - 0/7
- Social Interaction - 6/7
Total words written: 2047 on reviews
March Meta Matters Challenge 2026 Returning!
Feb. 17th, 2026 04:40 pmyourlibrarian posting in fanifesto
March 1 is just weeks away, so that means the kickoff to this year's March Meta Matters Challenge will be taking place soon! The challenge involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation, plus there will be some prompts for creating new meta.
Feel free to ask questions here about the challenge, locations, etc. Otherwise subscribe to
marchmetamatterschallenge and look for our opening post on March 1!For International Fanworks Day (IFD) 2026, we once again came together from all corners of the fandom cosmos, and celebrated an Alternate Universe-themed IFD! First, we ran our annual Feedback Fest, where we asked you all to recommend to each other fanworks around your favorite AUs. Fanlore hosted their annual IFD editing event from February 14-20, and we signal boosted several community events along with our own. Some of these are still on-going, so make sure to check out the post!
We also hosted chatrooms and games on our once-a-year IFD Discord server for 30 hours. Thanks to everyone who came by! You can check out the fruits of our collective labor–several fandom-themed poems, song lyrics, and stories–by visiting our collected IFD works on AO3.
We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our IFD activities and events, and give a huge shoutout to our OTW volunteers who modded chats and games! We hope to see you all again for IFD 2027!
Fandom: Miami Vice
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: G
Words: 290
Characters/Pairing: Sonny’s heart/Rico’s heart
Summary: No matter how much Sonny and Rico try to pretend they’re just friends, their hearts know different. It was always more.
Notes: Here’s a belated Valentine’s Day ficlet
“When You Say Nothing at All,” by Ronan Keating is ‘their’ song if ever there was one.
( When You Say Nothing At All )
Have you seen comics or video game adaptations you found well done? What about them worked for you? Or if they didn't, how did the shows fall short?
Her toolbag. I couldn't remember toolbag and tried to use the next best thing to describe the object in question.
It was a fairly remarkable moment on a number of levels, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be shaking my head over it for quite some time.
Three Sentence Ficathon Roundup, the Finale (Our Flag Means Death + Mother Panic)
Feb. 16th, 2026 04:22 pmdelphi