So I'm messing with my new Slicehost account with SPARTAAAAA... I mean Fedora 11. (After realizing it's getting... more and more unlikely I'll return to DR, it's easier for me to give up another $20/month.)

First thing I did was tighten up security some. I've not done everything I could, but it's definitely good enough for now. Messed with sshd, sudoers, iptables... etc. and so forth.

Next time: Install the AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) part of LAMP! I don't feel like complicating things by trying other web server / database combos just yet. :( Right now my focus is on getting a mirror of this drupal site installed on Slicehost, and see whether I can reduce the load times with various tweaks and accelerators. And if I can't THEN I will try more lightweight stuff to see if it'll make for a permanent solution.

Oh god and mail servers. Wait, can I even test that without a domain? I might have to buy another one. anthegenia.com, perhaps... :o

This week, I've been trying to rest more. I'm tentatively resuming Five Coils on Sept 13. I've been trying to kick the Academy into shape, though am unsure it's working. Wondering if I should try to get players from elsewhere, or just give up on the game and run something new when I'm more in the mood for it. (Soul Collectors 3.0, man, I still really want to run that game but am afraid I'll screw up or lose inspiration again. :/)

Outcastes is slow, but starting to reach the end of the current threads (FINALLY) so I am reserving some hope for it, particularly since I'm considering recruiting a couple more people (an Air Aspect and another Half-Blood). Not sure yet.

And there's other games I'm interested in running (no, not all at the same time):
- Celestial Exalts in the Threshold, aka 'vanilla Exalted' more or less.
- The Window RPG: I haven't forgotten this. Want to run it, considering a 'noir mystery' type game in a near-future urban fantasy setting.
- Emberdays: A revival? Is it worth it?
- FFRPG: Still definitely an adventure game. Not sure now whether I'd run Returners or the 2d6 system.
- Psyche Labyrinthine: My old D&D 4e idea, a solo game for Jon. :)

So Jon and I have our hotel reservation and will be away for a couple days (as mentioned in the announcement). :)

Today was an eventful day... even though I didn't get to spend much of it doing what I had hoped to do on Sat. Couldn't even finish RPoL posts I wanted to, but that is minor, really. Was taking care of more important things!

Actually I probably did more talking with people in the past couple days than I have in a while. Hermit Sally :(

But I did get to play PSU tonight. Actually, yesterday and today was pretty awesome for PSU, we spent a long time playing. Actually got two full Boost Road runs done, after several weeks of not really playing as much due to one or the other person being tired, unavailable, lack of working account, etc.

I was told just last night that Wardragon is dead - the game I played Archana in. I'm not surprised at all, but it is still saddening. I think of all the games I played on OpenRPG I had some of the best times with WD40K. However, I understand the reasons for it ending.

Archana will live on in some way, so it's not too bad. I intend to keep writing about her, possibly even find other game(s?) to play her in if that is possible. As mentioned before, one of the Anthegenia novels actually involves a story with her as the main character.

I just felt kinda bad about my site for a while because I couldn't get the server upgrade I wanted, so the migration nver actually happened. :( Apparently it isn't available yet, and someone else had misinformed me. Meh. I mean, I COULD get it if I went and moved my site to a new web host, but... I'm not keen on moving from where I've been a customer since 2001. It'd have to take some pretty bad service.

I may eventually consider it, though, but it'd have to be after a lot of research and with some free time for me to move things properly. I don't envision myself having much free time for months, if not years, so I am going to stick with what I've got unless slow website loading starts to bug me again. Eventually I should be able to get my upgrade!