azurite | Entries tagged with websites

Ah, okay. Having a good sleep, not having classes (or packing, or grades, or papers, or money) to worry about (so much) is good. Plus I got to talk to Scott, and I think he's my good luck charm, because shortly after I talked to him, I decided to give my search for the lost bus tickets one last try, AND I FOUND THEM! In the big trash bag, thank goodness. I didn't pack them away into a tiny crevice or crumple them up and throw them somewhere nasty, like with the compost. Good thing the tickets are PINK, too, else I wouldn't have spotted them.

I also finished (I think) work on Dragonfayth's Site Map. It's not officially live on the site yet (that is, I have yet to alter the skins so that it appears in the menus), but as far as I can tell, it includes all the relevant links. Can a few people check out the Map and tell me if they think anything important's missing? I want to make sure people have a "one stop resource" for finding things on the site, regardless of which skin they like best.

I've also updated the Rules and the FAQs to reflect some new issues: inappropriate "tags" in summaries, and how to include a profile image. Also, how to upload images for your stories! (Yes, that means you can include fanart, "promos" and other similar things-- as long as they relate directly to your fic, aren't explicit or otherwise inappropriate, and don't take up 75%+ of the screen space.)

I've also been submitting a few discussion topics to WikiMoon. I admit, when I first saw their list of acceptable common character names, I was a bit surprised-- I wasn't aware Sailor Moon was so rife with controversy over nomenclature. But I can understand where it comes from, and the topic makes me all the more eager to get Epiphany up and running so I can start ranting fandom-style and including interesting articles from my point of view. (If you want to know my personal opinion on certain names, I think that Naoko may have intentionally picked the foreign/loan-words for certain things/names-- i.e. Diamante for Diamond, Seiren for Siren, and so on. But what it boils down to is that THE WORD MEANS THE SAME THING. It would only be tacky if you had one standout character-- that is, Prince Diamante, but Emerald, Rubeus, and Sapphire. That would look strange. Naoko intentionally chose her names in sets: that goes for the Shitennou, the Black Moon Family, the Amazon Quartet, and so on. But if fic writers choose to "translate" those terms to actual English, or to more "commonly accepted" terms, I think that's fine, and nothing to whine about. To be honest, I see more "Prince Demando" (the Japanese pronunciation in the anime) and "Prince Diamond" (dub-verse) than I do "Prince Diamante" or "Prince Demand".)

I think I should close up shop here and head downstairs-- I'm supposed to go bowling with my tutors and Kevin today. Kevin owes me ¥1300 for the bike license and using my 'Net when he's never paid me before (grr), but at least I don't have to worry about that money being used for things where I previously had money/savings, like my bus passes. I think I'm getting a bit better with this budgeting thing, since I've figured out how much to set aside for the next NTT bill, but the next two Yahoo! bills still need working out.

Ja!

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

First, I updated WDKY on Dragonfayth to the latest chapter. I guess because some chapters were longer than others and contained those 'ye old alphanumeric character codes' I had to c&p the HTML from Dreamweaver into the story text box (with the TinyMCE checkbox turned off). I know at least some of the slow, "unresponsive" script errors were because of the world "curl" in my stories, but I wonder if the script mangling the alphanumeric codes is something fixable...

I'm also considering including my logs and things up at Dragonfayth too, making it a fully-fledged series with notes and such. If not Dragonfayth, then definitely at Epiphany. But I think the Review Replies will stay here on LJ, just to make things easier (that's subject to change...) Speaking of RRs, I still have to post them for Chapters 23-24 of WDKY, so look for those soon-ish.

I say "ish" because I DID pack two of my bags today, leaving only one left, but I still have to cram a lot of clothes (the rest until Tuesday) and some other random things in there. I'm honestly hoping that crappy United will let me get away with my carry-on (backpack), my personal item (purse) and a shopping bag with just my blanket and Toro-kun (the stuffed cat). And yes, crappy United. Would you believe that for my ONE extra bag, it's $167 USD!? Because of that wholly unexpected amount (which is about 75% of my paycheck), I had to ask Mom for money *AGAIN*. I felt rotten doing it, but she was quick and okay with it. And as it turns out, I owe her less than I thought-- I found a copy of my super-expensive T-Mobile bill (luckily I printed it out; apparently T-Mobile only keeps your last 2 bill statements online) and calculated out what she paid and what I'd paid, and what I owe her for that is less than I thought. So that plus another $400... it's still a lot of money, but I have to do it.

What's left to pack:
-toiletries (stuff I use in the bathroom, though I might decide to leave the Dove Body Soap behind, much as I love the stuff... plus lotion, anti-bacterial, meds, brush)
-clothes
-some papers
-cat mug, cat plate, yellow bowl, striped glass (?), deco plate, forks, chopsticks, knife, spoon
-leftover oatmeal, cream of wheat, cocoa (make cookies with everything else)

? - Wish I could take my plastic cat trash can, but I don't know if it would fit... 'sides, it's smaller than my Purple one back in the states, so maybe I should just give it to my roommates? I'm doing that with many hangers and such. Should I even bother trying to take my lighter? I bought it for my incense, but my incense is almost gone... and short of the common kitchen downstairs, no one has a gas range here, which is the only thing I can think of using it for (since no one else is an incense queen like I am. Holly said it smelled like hippies in my room!). But I don't want everything in my bag catching on fire, either!

Scott was telling me that parents still want to feel needed and help out whenever they can, but I feel selfish for asking so much of my mom. This trip -for me, at least- was supposed to prove how I could survive being independent and on my own, even for just a little while (and still with perks-- a well-paying job and no rent, basically). It's not that I'm not going to pay my mom back in full, but I guess I shouldn't feel so guilty over it (and I do, to an extreme degree. I don't even wanna talk about it anymore).

But in the end, I can't go to the sleepover/party thing tomorrow, anyway. And I guess I don't really care, because that'll save me more money for mailing things back home, doing my hair (possibly) on Saturday at the Access Moon salon in Akatsuka, going food shopping, etc. And on Friday I'm supposed to go bowling with my tutors, so I want to save up a bit for that, too. I want to finish packing bit by bit though, as each day goes by, so I don't feel stressed the day before I leave. I still feel like I have so much stuff to pack, even though earlier today I was relieved that I'd have the money for my 3rd suitcase-- the biggest one, too. Now it feels like I'm back to not being able to decide what to keep and what to ditch, or how to pack, because it seems almost full and I still have so much to pack IMHO. But my backpack and purse still aren't so filled up yet, so maybe that'll help ease it up somewhat.

I'm still confused about where I put some of my CDs/DVDs though, if I put them anywhere... I thought I had NANA anime eps. 20-25 (that would be 2 CDs), but I couldn't find them amongst the box I intended to send (too expensive, so I crammed them into my 2nd suitcase), and they weren't in my CD case. I wonder if I deleted all those files to save HD space? I'd hate it if I did, but unless they're in the box that I've already taped up, I have no idea if I even burned them to CD. In any case, they're not on my HD anymore... though I do have the latest episode (33) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Toei), eps 16-18. Yay for TV-Nihon getting down to the grind on that!

I should go to bed soon... we don't have class, really (well, I do for 3rd and 5th), but we do have a feedback session during 2nd period, from 10:30 to 11:30, and I have to wake up early enough to call the SF Office of JTB travel to get them to add my United Mileage Plus number to my account... and maybe then I can officially switch my seat on the plane. Kekekeke.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: 宇多田ヒカル ★ Wait & See ~Risk~ (Baton Girl Mix) (Wait & See -Risk- (Single))

It's funny how my memory is so Swiss-Cheesed that I can't remember saying or doing certain things that, to others, are clear indicators of my behavior or attitudes (towards things, people, etc). So I figure that by journaling, I can always have a written retrospective, in my own voice, of the things that are going on in my life day-to-day. Alas, I can't always update, but when I can, it's just as much for me (to vent, announce things, ask questions, whatever) as it is for others (who might be interested for whatever reason). I hate how I forget things so easily... I wonder if there really is something wrong with my brain, or if I'm just not smart, or not eating enough prunes or something...

I almost had a fit today because I had to upgrade my eFiction installs for both Dragonfayth and Epiphany. Usually it's not that big of a deal, but when eFic upgraded from 2.0.7 to 3.0, it took a lot of work, and it really stressed me out. The patch update (3.0.1) wasn't so bad, but I don't like the idea of replacing ALL the files, over and over again, when I have made edits to the skins or variables files (and so on). Anyway, I'd come up with this decent skin organization structure, which works like so:
efic3-drfa+epiphany (folder in which all the eFic files are)
--skins (the skins folder normally has EACH skins individual folders in here, i.e. CSS Zen, elegance, Zenlike. But since I have 2 different eFic sites and I DO NOT want to waste HD space by having them in two separate folders, I changed the layout of the skins folder to look like the following...)
---drfa (the skin folders I plan to use for drfa go in here. However, it's ONLY the files that are modified, i.e. the images folder and the style.css)
---epiphany (works the same way as the drfa folder)
---efic general skins (all the files that are used in skins but are NOT modified for each individual site. These are the files that are normally in /skinname/ in the uploaded site's skins folder.)

So I downloaded 3.0.2 and prepared to replace everything. I figured since I had those 3 special sub-folders in the skins folder (instead of the default skin names, which are CSS Zen, elegance, Zenlike, and SurpriseMe), it would just add the new skins to the skins/ folder, and leave MY modified structure alone. Apparently not! I don't know if it's something up with Finder/OSX or something else, but it replaced all my folders, even though MY folders didn't exist in the 3.0.2 update! It makes no sense...

Anyway, it stressed me out because I had to think of a way to get all my changes back without having to do them again, so I basically DOWNLOADED the images folders for each skin, the style.css for each skin (I hope no changes were made to the skins' style.css for the 3.0.2 update), and did my structure again. And when I uploaded the new files to Dragonfayth (and I will for Epiphany when the DRFA upload completes), I had to do it in pieces, or else risk messing up the file structure again. It's a pain in the ass and totally gave me a headache, but I'm trying to avoid MORE of a headache by having to do things over and over.

~~Once the second half of the Dragonfayth upload finishes, I'll see how everything worked out... hopefully nothing will be mangled, and I can just repeat the process for Epiphany.~~

Well, that didn't work. First I got a 404 for not uploading the install folder (I thought the install and skin folders were the two things you DON'T upload with every upgrade, major or minor!? I only uploaded the latest skin folders -minus the images and style.css- because Tammy said she makes fixes on those default skins on occasion). When I uploaded it, I got a header sent/session cache limiter error-- fatal, which means NO ONE can access the site. Ugh.

I'm off to a great start, don't you think?
Broke
Stressed
Forgetful
Lonely
Hungry
Procrastinating
Uncreative
Messy
Sad
Frustrated
Fucked

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: Sarah Brightman ★ Deliver Me (Diva: The Singles Collection [Bonus Tracks])

I'm sorry, but "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"...? What kind of title is that? I know JKR said she was juggling between two really GOOD titles, but this title... er, well... it's just not as catchy. Not as interesting. What the heck is a "deathly hallow" anyway?

I actually bothered to check out the JKR site last night (in both my browsers), but all the tricks I kept reading about -you know, stirring the teacup, or picking up these potion ingredients- I couldn't do them. I thought maybe it was my browser, since my Flash is up to date, but even when I had Safari imitate IE 6.0, it didn't work. Maybe the tricks are limited? But if that's so, why keep the same things (the teacup, the pen you can break, the picture of the lightning bolt that Peeves reveals when he blows through) in the room, if you can't do anything with them? That bums me out. I hate IE-only compliant pages, even if that wasn't the case.

Anyway, I *JUST* got back from the Intl. Center, where I spent the last SEVERAL hours making Nengajou, or New Year's Cards. I had to make 7 for my tutors and roommates, plus one for the Umegaoka Elementary school. Writing all that kanji, designing the card drawings, painting everything... it took a while. And earlier today, I ended up choosing between "shower" or "breakfast" (bad idea; I'd rather go to class smelly than starving), so now I'm hungry as hell, having not eaten anything today except some cookies Misato (one of my tutors) made and a small Hershey's cookies and cream thing Christine gave me.

So I'm going to try making a quick lunch, starting a load of laundry (including my current pair of pants...), and then head out to the post office to mail things. Then at Mito Eki, I'm going to buy the Disney Passports for Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea for

baine and I... AND THEN when I get back I will pack, and finish planning the rest of the Tokyo time (figuring out how much I need for where, and so on).

Busy, busy, busy...

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

I'm not sure there's anything quite as funny as someone responding to "Wassup?" with "I'm not gay!" and a bright morning smile. Seriously, the Japanese can be so funny, without even trying. We have a few gems of people here at the dorms; one of them just said that to me and Holly as we were walking back from class.

Also, I clonked myself in the face yesterday with my Mac Book. I had so many windows open in Firefox, I didn't want to close it, so I went into the Apple menu and put the computer to sleep. It did that, but when I wanted to check something, I hit the space bar (which normally would bring the computer OUT of sleep), but I saw the "dimmed screen" again. That means the Sleep mode failed or something, and I have to cold-reboot... so I did. I wasn't sure if it turned back on when I hit the button though (i.e restart rather than shut down), so I picked up the computer to listen for the sound of the fan. I didn't hear anything, so I raised my head, and BAM! K.O'd by my own laptop. The corner of my right eye is a bit puffy and sore at the moment.

And yeah, I know I'm a klutz. Shaddup.

I updated the Elegance skin over at Dragonfayth. Check it out and tell me what you think, and if you find any sections with illegible text (too dark text, too dark background, etc.), then please let me know. I'm still working on getting the staircasing effect of the category columns worked out. I could also use some other ideas for color schemes, since Dragonfayth seems very... BLUE. Not that there's anything WRONG with blue, it's just there's a lot of it. Both CSS Zen and Elegance now use schemes of blue. I didn't like the old Elegance skin because it was this kind of pukey green to me; if you have suggestions for NICER color combinations, please send them my way.

Next up on the discussion block: the state of the American education system is inherently responsible for badfic. No, really. ( One of the best of the best Fanfic rants )

I also had a cheesy idea that's probably been done before: The Twelve Days of Christmas, Fandom Style!

For example:
"On the first day of Christmas, (character name) gave to me (something from fandom)!
On the second day of Christmas, ..." etc. etc.

The 12 Days of Fandom Meme
1. Choose a fandom you're involved in.
2. Choose up to 12 characters from that fandom (the song works better if you stick with one character, but then again, no one said you actually had to SING this).
3. If Christmas were celebrated in that fandom, and you were there to receive gifts from the above-mentioned characters, what would you get, and from whom?

Yu-Gi-Oh
On the first day of Christmas, Yuugi Mutou gave to me a Millennium Puzzle piece!
On the second day of Christmas, Seto Kaiba gave to me two Kaiba Corp. card keys!
One the third day of Christmas, Mokuba Kaiba gave to me three parfaits!
On the fourth day of Christmas, Jounouchi gave to me four REBDragon figurines!
On the fifth day of Christmas, Anzu gave to me five DDR games!
On the sixth day of Christmas, Pegasus gave to me six Funny Bunnies!
On the seventh day of Christmas, Otogi gave to me seven Dungeon Dice Monsters!
On the eighth day of Christmas, Sugoroku gave to me eight ancient games!
On the ninth day of Christmas, Mai Kujaku gave to me nine bottles of perfume!
On the tenth day of Christmas, Isis Ishtar gave to me ten prophetic visions!
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Malik Ishtar gave to me eleven slimey slimers!
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Hiroto Honda gave to me twelve Cyber C.'s!

So this one's not really sing-able, unless you take out the names of the people that gave the presents on the day before, and some of the syllables for the longer gifts (i.e. the "REBDragon" part of the four figurines line). But it's fun anyway, ne? Give it a try!

Lastly, I need icons...
* Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter
* NANA
* Your recommendations
Come on, point me at the pretties!

Current Mood: creative

Okay, so on my platter of loverliness:

(1) Get help with the new install of eFiction 3.0 over at Dragonfayth (and soon Epiphany as well; Epiphany's still running the beta version), because the categories menu has gone to hell, the featured story and random author blocks aren't showing up (even though the right variables are in place), and there's only a beta version for the featured author block until someone updates it. Le sigh.

(2) Figure out wtf is up with my funky Surpass server, because apparently it won't accept a particular PHP command that Enthusiast 3 (the fanlisting management script I'm using) throws at it. I need it to work, because the whole beauty of Enth3 is that you can have a collective website (showing what you've joined/are a member of, what you own, and who you're affiliated with), a fanlisting (or more), and the admin panel, all neatly organized. And BEA and the admin panel are working just fine, except the collective listing is supposed to call a particular page from the enth3 admin folder, but it can't seem to do it properly. And the people at Surpass basically told me "We don't support 3rd party scripts; tell us what you're missing, and we'll see if we can help." So I'm bouncing between forums trying to get all this PHP mess figured out.

(3) Do a slightly (?) backdated issue of

weekly_ygo, because no one else is doing it. Maybe if I read enough YGO fandom news, I will start writing WDKY again. :( In any case, if anyone can help me out EVEN A LITTLE, I would really appreciate it. Even if the fandom's not so active anymore, I have to catch up on all entries from November 21st 5:17pm GMT onward. So it's a little over 2 weeks due at this point, and with entries from PTDC (the most active community) *AND* all the other comms, it might be more than I can handle in one night or even "soon," just because of my workload here.

...Scott said he'd call me when I got back from EC (I told him it was an hour and a half, and it's already been over that), and I haven't heard a peep. Not an email, not an IM... *sigh* I'm already really looking forward to going home and seeing him again, but maybe I'm being too "clingy" again, even from 3000+ miles away. :P

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: Nana no Kako ★ Hasegawa Tomoki ★ NANA 707 soundtracks

You Are 80% Ready for Marriage

You are almost ready for marriage, and you could be ready to be engaged.
You're still figuring out the details of your ideal relationship!

Are You Ready for Marriage?

I was in the middle of downloading a huge (600+ MB) file with Down Them All! (the extension for Firefox which lets you resume downloads), and by clicking on the Windows/DTA submenu, it looked almost done to me, and then it reset to 0% again! It restarted and is now back up to 12%, but I don't know why it did that in the first place, and it's pissing me off! Why is it every time I want to download a big file, Firefox either crashes or DTA! is acting weird!?

Okay, eFiction 3.0 stable is now out. I've been testing it on "Epiphany" (fresh install), and everything's fine, so I decided the stable release was good news to upgrade Dragonfayth. But alas, there's some sort of error in the upgrade script. I got as far as Step 18 before it died on me, and I just posted to the support forums a few minutes ago. However, everything has been backed up, so no one's stories, etc. have been lost. And I still have all the old 2.0.7 files, so if I need to go back in re-install that, I can (although I would need to recreate all the tables using an SQL dump, which is no fun).

So for those of you that read my LJ, please be aware of this down-time for Dragonfayth until I get the issue resolved... I will also post to azurite_updates so people are aware.
*sigh*

Oh, and I've been plotbunnied by a Nana fic idea, even though I've only seen the first movie, seen up to episode 29 of the anime (but more isn't out yet, afaik), and read the first two or three volumes of the manga plus some random chapters (58 and 59) on the side. Plus it's not even over yet, so who knows how it will end!? But I want to write the bunny anyway. :( Damn you Nana, for running off with my muse!

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: Nana no Kako ★ Hasegawa Tomoki ★ NANA 707 soundtracks

Okay, so I went to the post office right after Japanese class to try and pay for the rest of my HK trip. The postal savings ATM wouldn't let me withdraw 63,000 yen; it said "You have exceeded your credit limit." I freaked out, because I didn't know whether that meant that
a) The Postal Savings ATM only lets you make X number of withdrawals, or withdrawals up to X yen (if you're a visitor to Japan/using a foriegn bank card).
b) I had much less money than I thought (or the exchange rate made what I thought was enough money "less")
or c) WaMu put a limit on the amount of withdrawals I was allowed to make from abroad

Turns out it was the latter, as I vaguely remembered someone from WaMu telling me I had a limit of $500/day to withdraw. Now, at the time, I obviously thought "Why would I want to have $500 on me IN CASH, anyway?" Well, so I couldn't do it, but I did withdraw 32,000 yen successfully. I said bye to Holly, who was inside the post office mailing packages (turned out we'd been on the same bus on the way there), and headed toward Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank a few blocks down. It was actually a lot closer than I thought, so I don't think I'll take the bus the next time I have to go there from the post office (and I would have to go to the post office, because I already know the bank can't make withdrawals from my bank account... there's no CIRRUS symbol on the back!)

I decided I would try and remember the order/process of making a deposit (o-furikomi), but I kept encountering all these options and I had NO idea what they were or what they meant. The security guard tried to help, but he couldn't translate anything into English. One lady DID help me read the correct branch name in kanji, and eventually one of the clerks helped me through the whole process. She also helped me get a card that will expedite the process (I don't have to enter all the account information again) for the next time I go on, probably on Monday.

And I emailed Fumi, the IACE Travel representative, and she'll probably get back to me and tell me everything's fine with the transfer today, and that'll be it! As for the phone bill, I called Dad and he said I was going to get a SIZABLE Hanukkah present of cash deposited into my bank account TOMORROW. *YAY.* This will probably negate the need for me to deposit any of my future paychecks into my U.S. account, which will save money (because those kind of transfers always cost money. I didn't try to do it today at the bank, though WaMu has some sort of hook-up with Wells Fargo and Tokyo-Mitsubishi. I wonder if transferring through a bank is cheaper than through the post office? I know Golloyds or whatever is supposed to be the cheapest remittance, but I don't think I can use it or something.) So I'll be able to pay my phone bill on time, save my next two paychecks for HK and Tokyo (I need SOME money for the hostels, and of course, transportation and food in HK).

...So now I just need to build up the courage to eat FISH.

Because apparently if you don't eat pork here in Japan, or in Hong Kong, you MUST eat fish. I wonder what the percentage of vegetarians or vegans is in Asia... Probably extremely low.

I refuse to eat grasshoppers (or horse meat, or other varieties of bug), though. I don't care how delicious Kawashima-sensei says they are when they're covered in chocolate.

Also on the bright side, I might just be able to swing getting some presents for people online. I found this site that has a ton of coupon codes for all sorts of stores and websites (i.e. Amazon.com, Best Buy, etc.), but I don't want to get all excited over it until I look through it some more. So if you see another post on it soon, it's because I've approved of it and it's cool enough for me to want to tell everyone and their dog (or cat) about! So far it's looking good, what with coupons for 1-800 Flowers (which I use often) and even some CLOTHING stores, which might help for presents for a Certain Someone Who Shall Not Be Named. I still have to mail out packages and things like that, but generally I think I'm good. Mom'll be sending me macaroni and hot chocolate, and I'm hoarding my Kasumi discount cards and buying the cheap stuff late at night to save money. Yay for 9pm Late Night Sales! Now if only I could get a Suica card to save me time and money when buying train tickets. Maybe when I get paid this Friday, I'll buy a JR Seishun 18 Kippu so on the days

baine and I are in Asakusa, I can get around easily. Unlimited travel on 5 days (doesn't need to be consecutive) during the travel period on all JR lines (shinkansen and super-express excepted), for only 11,500 yen! Not too bad, I'd say, especially considering you can spend 1/10 of that just on ONE-WAY to Tokyo from Mito (on the slow train).

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: Call on Me (Original Mix) ★ Eric Prydz vs. Steve Windwood

Okay, so Epiphany's my eFic 3 test, and so far everything's going so well. I haven't gotten tinyMCE working just yet, but almost all the other bugs I found recently were solved in one fell-swoop, and using the test beta is actually good for when the stable release DOES come out-- I'll be used to everything, rather than surprised by how different it is.

One thing that IS significantly different is how there is a single classification system, where you can add types of your own choosing. One type is Genres (mystery, romance, drama, action/adventure... you get the idea), Warnings (character death, drug use, sexual content, language, etc.), and Story Types. The latter is where I'm having some difficulties.

Now, eFic 3 has advanced search capabilities. You can include specific genres, warnings, or types, or exclude specific genres, warnings, or types. You can sort through fics based on ratings, category (all anime, all movies, anime, manga, and movies... etc.), sub-categories (specific titles), characters, and the status of the story (complete or not). You can even specify a "greater than" word count. So with all these functions, I didn't want to clutter up the site with Story Types I didn't need.

For example, let's say I want to read some smut. :} So I search for fics for the category and sub-category I want (or multiples thereof, if I'm into that kind of thing), specify a MA (NC-17) rating, the characters I want to see, the genres I want and don't want, and the warnings I want and don't want. Let's say I also would like a semi-long story of at least 1000 words, and completed, too. But what about Story Type? Should I include things like PWP ("plot, what plot?" or "porn without plot") in the Story Type list? If I include PWP, should I also include Lemon, Lemonade, Lime, or those other euphemisms we tend to use for the various kinds of smutfic?

And what about shortfics? You have 100-word drabbles (but you can search for fics of 100 words "or more" with the Advanced Search, and specify "completed"), you can have double-drabbles, or even those

1sentence kind of fics. Or you can have a oneshot with no particular word count. Matter of fact, is "shortfic" even a good word, or is "ficlet" better? I think the former is more sensible, but the latter is more common. I don't think I should use both as separate Story Types, though. So what do I put for Story Types? People might want to read oneshots and not give a rat's ass about the word count, but there might be people who have a five-minute break and want a 100 word fic EXACTLY.

The current version of Dragonfayth only serves ONE fandom and ONE pairing, so it's much easier to use Main Categories divided up by the seasons/arcs of Yu-Gi-Oh. There are also Continuations (fanfics that take place after Vol. 38 of the manga or episode 238 of the anime) and Alternate Universes (that don't take place within Yu-Gi-Oh canon at all, and so can't be considered "divergent" fics, or ARs). I'm wondering if I should make AUs and Continuations Story Types rather than sub-categories within EACH fandom, though. It's much easier to make it a Story Type, but somehow it doesn't make sense. If I did divide up each fandom by its seasons/arcs (where applicable), wouldn't it be weird if someone went to look for a story that's NOT part of any particular season/arc? And what about all those fics that ARE included... aren't they ALL technically divergence/AR fics? Why have a Story Type for them? But some fics really DO change a bigger premise (i.e. what if Anzu had the Millennium Puzzle rather than Yuugi?) as opposed to something smaller (i.e. what if there was a bigger context to Scene X in episode Y than we thought!?), so having the AR tag would be helpful, for the fics that really are VERY divergent as opposed to merely exploratory.

The same goes for Continuations. But if I *DO* consider them a sub-category (or a sub-sub-category, as it would really be), should I make them 2 separate ones, or lump them together as "Other"?

When you search for a fic, what are ALL the possible criteria you would want to use? I know when I search for a fic, I USUALLY go by the following (in this order):
-Fandom (obviously)
-Pairing (characters)
-Genre (some Story Types can fit into this, i.e an MST would be a specific kind of Humor/Comedy fic. So would a Parody.)
-Rating
-Completed Status
-Length/Word Count (some Story Types fit into this, i.e. oneshots, drabbles, ficlets, etc.)
-Warnings

Here are the Story Types I'm using so far: ( so many types to choose from! )

If anyone else has any ideas, comments, or suggestions, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I really need help with this. :P

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Current Music: Classical WGBH 89.7 - HD2

I forgot to mention that yesterday at Kasumi, a young girl (maybe about 7 or 8) came up to Holly and I while we were shopping and desperately tried to speak English to us. She did a very good job, considering her age (most kids don't even learn English until junior high), and after a few minutes, her mom (who looked like her older sister, and we thought as much until she corrected us when we asked) joined her and helped her out with her English. We got interrogated in broken English about where we were from and what we were doing, and while it took 15 good minutes, it was downright adorable and highly memorable.

I'm updating Dragonfayth right now... for those interested, here's what I've done so far (in regards to all my sites lately):
* Deleted the old Animanga Collision/Epiphany eFic install. I'll create a separate database and start up Epiphany anew, using the eFic 3 beta. However, it won't be bridged to WikiFic (assuming one CAN bridge eFic 3 when it comes out with MediaWiki); if I can do that, it'll be bridged with Dragonfayth, since I'm leaving those two on the same database, and I'd rather not have too many scripts running on one database. I know it's a bit weird for WikiFic (which is general-Yu-Gi-Oh) to be bridged with a specific pairing fanfic archive, especially when BEA (Seto x Anzu's official fanlisting) is on an entirely separate database, but Wiki is one of those things that I'm TERRIFIED of moving. I can't upgrade it either, since my server uses PHP 4.4.4 and they don't want to upgrade (yet) to PHP 5, which the latest MediaWiki requires :P

* Deleted the old Betasquad forums. The website is still there, but that's just as useless. Matter of fact, the LJ community is pretty dead, too. It's sad.

* Added the old Featured Author, Poll, and Featured Story polls. Added new Action Log, IP Logging and Challenge Spam Prevention mods. Will soon add the Story Type and Submission Queue Mods. I'm considering adding a mandatory Disclaimer field, so people don't have to remember to type their disclaimer in the Author's Notes.

* Have been adding a bunch of stories by

praiseofshadows! YAY! Her work is a very good example of the difference between SERIES and CHAPTERED STORIES on the site, so I added a new FAQ mentioning the difference. If anyone has suggestions for FAQs/Help questions, please let me know!

* Updated the Terms of Service. Even if it's long and has a bit of legalese, if you're an old Dragonfayth member, please read it just so I don't get in any legal trouble. :)

Thanks to the Skype forums, Stephanie, and a little bit of know-how, I think I have Skype working again. YAY, that means Scott can call me without running up a million dollar phone bill (he called me this morning on his brother's phone; I told him that I couldn't talk long --bill AND class in 10 minutes-- so we switched to Skype, but he got the fast busy signal. Then he called back twice, and we arranged to chat for a bit while I ate breakfast. But since he wouldn't be back by the time I got back from class an hour and a half later, we've agreed to meet on Google Talk later on. Then I can tell him he *CAN* call me. ^_^)

Oh, atlantian_magic and nekokilala, have you gotten my postcard/letters yet? I can't remember if you said you did. :P I still have a few more to send out to various people... and presents/such, too. I'm just glad I have internet, or else I'd be screwed! :D

Current Mood: accomplished

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I'm cleaning out Dragonfayth. Yesterday I just finished implementing a new IP-logging spam prevention measure, and I've already put in a block against Anonymous reviews altogether, and Challenge spam. I've deleted all the spam from the database that I could find (challenges, reviews, etc.) and I sincerely apologize to any members who were inundated with emails from "me" (my email address acts like the Dragonfayth bot that sends out notifications; if you have a spam filter on your email, it may have started blocking my address based on the spam reviews that kept coming in from my address) that had all that spam in it. If ANYONE ever receives ANY kind of spam at Dragonfayth, please let me know immediately so I can take care of it.

On the list for updates to finish:
* Update the character page (more images needed; if someone could check out the Characters page and tell me if I'm MISSING any character profiles at all, that would be much appreciated)
* Update the Help page with Dragonfayth-specific problems
* Update the Submission rules page
* Update the Story Types mod
* Re-add the Poll mod
* Re-add the Featured Author/Story mod(s)
* Re-add the LJ and FFnet Profile Links mod(s)

If anyone can think of any others, from skins to mods available from the eFiction site, let me know.

betasquad has been SO dead afaik, so I will be killing the phpBB forums for that. There's no sense in having a disorganized database, after all. Next up for cleaning up the database would be giving WikiFic its own database, and doing the same for any other PHP/database scripts I have running (like Enth3 for BEA). I'll see what I can do without making an utter mess of my domain(s). Also, since I have regular 'Net, I should update the main layout and such soon.

That's all I can think of at the moment... I need to post one more (completely OT to this and bordering on fangirly) thing, and then I think I'll take a nap.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: International Exchange Hall, Tokiwa University, Mito, Japan

ETA (2/18/07): This post was formerly a paid post sponsored by PayPerPost. However, because such posts are against LiveJournal's TOS, I've removed the "ppp" tag, any sponsorship notices, and the link which I was paid to include. However, because the words and opinion in this entry are still my own, I'm keeping this entry up. I am still a member of the mailing list on the "Productivity 501" website, and I find it very interesting and helpful, so I recommend you Google it if you find this entry interesting.

I remember a few years ago, I started to believe that there was an anime for any subject. Go to OtakuWorld and you'll see anime listed under the most strange of "genres," like Flowers, Mega-Conglomerates, or Cooking. So it probably shouldn't be too surprising that there's a website for practically everything, too. But part of me is still a bit skeptical that people would take time to purchase, design, and maintain a website for something that doesn't bring them any money. But then, here I have my own domain that never generates a cent for me, my own LiveJournal, and plenty of other such places. I guess personal satisfaction is a big drive for many people-- and that's a very good thing, because if you truly want to be PROUD of something you present to the public, then you will do your best to make it visually appealing, and have content that's useful.

So go figure, I find one such site... about productivity. It's kind of strange saying it, but that's what the site's about-- being productive, becoming MORE productive, and HELPING you to increase your productivity. (I used to have a folder on my computer with all my Microsoft Office programs called "Productivity." For some reason, the more I say it, the more I grin. I wonder why?)

I browsed through the site, and right off the bat, I found something interesting: The Two Types of Technology Users. It's funny, because in my time working in "tech support," I've recognized that there are different types of people that use technology, but I've never thought to try and class them before. Now that I've read this, the two classes of tech users actually make sense.

( What kind of tech user are YOU? )

Oh, and this made me giggle: The Sacred To-Do List. I always felt kind of silly making endless To-Do Lists. In fact, my obsession with little pieces of paper led to me writing all number of fanfics, sketching all sorts of things when I was supposed to be paying attention to class/work... but still, I thought of myself as productive, because I didn't attempt to REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER! Having something written down and where I can see/find it ('find' being the keyword when you're disorganized like I am. Productivity and organization DO go hand in hand) was the best. At least now I'm getting better at actually crossing out the things I've done, and throwing the list out when EVERYTHING is done, so I don't have millions of scrap papers lying about my room. Am I really silly for putting such emphasis on a list of random things I think of? After reading this, I don't think so anymore. :)

Current Mood: productive
Current Location: International Exchange Hall, Tokiwa University, Mito, Japan
Current Music: Tomoe Shinohara - Ultra Relax (Ultra Relax)

Well, fuck. I went to Dragonfayth to finally post the Winter challenge I mentioned here in my LJ a while back, and I noticed there were over 1000 challenge PAGES. Not individual challenges, but CHALLENGE PAGES. Of course all but 2 were spam, and I'm stuck deleting them in batches of 30 in phpMyAdmin. This will take a while. I've since patched eFic 2.0 to not allow anonymous challenges. I will eventually add my winter challenge, and I hope anyone else who has made prompts, fanmixes, or anything else will consider joining DRFA (if they haven't already) and including their challenges.

I'm also contemplating doing a complete overhaul of the databases on my domain, because
a) no one uses the Betasquad forums, to my knowledge, and it's not worth the extra space to have it there.
b) they're disorganized as it is, with the old Epiphany eFic tables located in the same database as Dragonfayth's, WikiFic, and phpBB. But I don't know if/how I can move those sites that I still intend to keep active (i.e. WikiFic, Dragonfayth, eventually Epiphany) to their own databases. Can anyone help?

Oh, and one more thing...

SCOTT IS COMING HOME!
I probably shouldn't be so thrilled that it didn't work out for him in Turkmenistan, and truthfully, it *WAS* unexpected (for him to say he was going back to the U.S), but for some reason, I'm happy that I'll get to see him MUCH sooner than either of us thought.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Delerium (DJ Skribble) - Silence (DJ Tiesto Remix) (Essential Spring Break 2001)

Over the past few days, I've been getting mysterious emails from HTMLGear's guestbook notification service, saying I have new guestbook notices on a site that I used to have (that has been defunct for years; when you try to search for it via Yahoo! *OR* Google, you won't come up with anything).

I couldn't remember my login for the site (which is affiliated with Tripod and Angelfire, neither of which I ever maintained a site with-- for long), and I was trying every possible combination. Lycos doesn't have a password reminder service, so I was stuck trying every username and password combination I could think of.

AT LAST I got it and I checked the settings... and they pointed to a site that does not exist. I wondered how the messages could be posted without a site (after all, no site means no "Sign my Guestbook" link), so I checked the notices... and of course, they're from bots.

What a waste of time! I liked the GuestGear service when I used it, but since I have my own domain, I guess there's no point anymore. I shouldn't have to put up with their limited capabilities and adverts when I can just create my own Guestbook, or use a customizable script from somewhere. I'd really like to get rid of ALL of my old services, but to trash my old Yahoo! services would mean the end of those emails... and I don't know whether I'm really up to changing EVERY SINGLE place I receive email from to my new email address (even though GMail can handle the flux of messages).

Anyway, I've found out how to delete entire GuestGears (by going into the Gear Manager), and so I'm going through all these old links, just for nostalgia's sake. ( Some of the old sites that used to be my favs... )

Ah, nostalgia. One Gear down, several more to go. Maybe I ought to just take the high-road and start getting rid of these old things.

( Azurite's Favorite Fanfiction... from WAAAAAAY back in the day )

( Ranma 1/2, Peach Girl, and then some... )

Okay, done... I only have 4 Gears left, 3 of which are guestbooks which I need to review and finally delete, and the other is a poll on my old Digital Horizons site (remember,

staplerx?) about Reverse Racism.

Wow, talk about a trip through memory lane. Today was like that in general. For Christine's last EC group, she had clips of old TV shows that we both watched in America; since my group was also in Lavazza cafe, I ended up watching a few-- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, JEM, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons... ah, those were the days.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: Mitsuko Horie - Golden Queen Galaxia (Sailor Moon Memorial

Okay, so BBTV was a bust-- you need a TV or another device that accepts video input for it to work... stupid me thought that you used your BBTV connection to view TV on your computer, kind of like how my roommate does. So I have this massive BBTV box which I cannot do anything with. Thankfully, my roommates said they'd call Yahoo tomorrow and find out what they could do.

Second is, someone on SMRFF suggested I try and get the SM episodes I'm missing via this website... which uses Sendspace, rather than their own domain/bandwidth, so of course, there aren't enough slots for me to download one episode, let alone 60 or more. I noticed they had an IRC server, so I made to get myself an IRC client for the Mac, but even the most simplistic one (made to look like iChat) doesn't seem to want to connect to irc.rizon.net (the server with a bazillion and a half channels) via ethernet OR wireless. So I don't know what to do. Maybe LimeWire, or Torrents, if I can find them. I'm pretty sure Sailormoon is no longer licensed in the U.S., but I don't know if that means VKLL's old subs will suddenly reappear or what. (If anyone knows where I can snag some, let me know!)

Also, if you think Japan is "land of the anime," you're not too far from the truth-- every grocery store, clothing store, etc. has anime in it-- well, sort of. Pretty Cure, Toei's latest magical girl series, is everywhere in some form or another, and the boys' equivalent ranges from Dragonball Z (most of the time) to the occasional One Piece. I have yet to see Yu-Gi-Oh *ANYWHERE* in great abundance. What I find baffling about Pretty Cure is that the new season is a spinoff-- called Pretty Cure Splash Star, and though the girls look and almost act exactly the same as their predecessors, they are a) from another universe, b) have different titles, powers, and mascots, and c) have no discernable relation to the original Pretty Cure seen in the first two seasons of the show. COLOR ME CONFUSED. Why not make the "new" Pretty Cure look different, rather than long-haired versions of the old Pretty Cure? And what HAPPENED to the old Pretty Cure, anyway?
I don't know anything about the series and have never watched it-- that's just what I've learned from looking at products. :P

In other news, WDKY25 is coming along-- I've got 2-3 scenes done already, with something like 3-4 left to go, if that. I think I'm having way too much fun with Bakura in this fic. If anyone is up for beta'ing (assuming I get it done this week), please let me know.

Blue Eyes and Apricots is back to functionality, I've noticed; before, for some strange reason, notification emails never made it to me about new members joining, and even when I checked the panel, it didn't list new members. I added several members manually, and since then, 3 members have joined and I've been notified. So we're nearly 450 members strong! The Fanart section is still gone though, because there doesn't seem to be a method I can think of for hosting the fanart short of doing a password-protected ML/email account or folder on the domain-- and even then, I know people will skim "the rules" and inevitably end up using the images in ways they shouldn't.

Today Holly and I went out toward Akatsuka; I ended up buying a new pair of hi-top Converse (even though what I *REALLY* need are new boots and ballet flats) that are so dorkalicious (dip-dyed rainbow colors!) that I'm a dweeb just for thinking about buying them (and worse for actually doing it). I also bought a new purple long-sleeved shirt (when can I resist?), the elusive Ginger for my Pumpkin Pie this week, and a few random things at the glory that is Daiso (the 100 yen store). But I'd say the best part of the day is how we went to this Italian restaurant called GROOVY.

I saw it, and Bruce Campbell's voice just came into my head. Over and over. It kept me grinning the whole time, even though I didn't understand the concept of "Set A plate" fully. I ended up getting chicken and tomato spaghetti, corn potage, and a salad with a rather funny-tasting dressing. I ate as much as I could, and felt no guilt about leaving leftovers. It was good, but the portions here are huge for me. Maybe moreso considering they don't do takeout!

Well, I better get to sleep so I can finish up my homework in the morning, have a decent breakfast, and spend Monday running around like a chicken with its head cut off (as I always do). Hopefully I'll get inspired enough to finish WDKY25 in one sitting!

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Stranger In Paradise - Sarah Brightman

Happy Birthday Shadowesque13!

Ugh, you know, I decided to randomly try my hand at some Gunslinger duels tonight in the YGO Online World lobby, and I figured with my new powerful deck (Warrior-Spellcaster, with a few bitchy effect monsters thrown in), I might even stand a chance. True, I did last longer in my duels, but one duel ended for no reason (as in, opponent DID NOT surrender, time DID NOT run out, etc. etc.) and the other duel, my opponent of unknown nationality (I thought Japanese, but maybe not. Could have been Chinese or Korean, because the other languages use the English alphabet set, and this guy's text kept coming up as ????) was SO FREAKIN' IMPATIENT! I mean, he was winning already, I don't see what the rush is. Really pissed me off.

Anyway, I need "Widespread Ruin" and/or "Nightmare Wheel," both traps. These cards got used against me (the former in repeated duels), and I must say, they are a bitch for getting your opponent's LP down. And since Warrior decks seem to be pretty cookie-cutter, maybe I ought to try for a Spirit deck, like I told Malakite while we were mining. I played against a guy with a Gravekeeper deck, and I must say, that's one kick-ass deck theme. I find that playing YGO!O inspires me for the upcoming duel scenes in WDKY, so at least I won't be pulling combos and decks out of my ass... these will be decks that have pwned me IRL. :D

I just finished adding a bunch of pages to WikiFic, all in the Pairings section. I'm far from done, and plenty of people gave me links for Threesomes and other-somes that I haven't made a template for yet. There's also the matter of 'ships that aren't official yet, or 'ships whose history is unknown. And I also need art! And then there's the REST of the encyclopedia... this is such a big project, but I've been working on it diligently, getting help here and there from new users, and so far it's turning out pretty good. I'm somewhat afraid to get a Spell Checker for the Wiki, since I have so many Japanese words, but we'll see. Better safe than sorry, eh?

Also, surprisingly good Pegasus-centric fic by SilvorMoon. It came as a rec for the Pegasus/Cyndia pairing for WikiFic, and it really is quite good. It'll definitely make you rethink Duelist Kingdom! :D I also re-read some of Quickening's Spiritshipping (or Revolutionshipping, but Yugi's such an imp in her fics that I figure it's more of a 3-way) and I remember why I first fell in love with Yu-Gi-Oh as a fandom, and Anzu as a female protagonist. Yes, back in the day, I was a Revolutionshipper! :O

And then I read

geniusgirl's stuff and the rest is history. :P

In a few hours... the dream will end! Yu-Gi-Oh's final dub episode "Ceremonial Battle" conclusion airs on Kids WB at 11:30am!
5 years
7 incredible story arcs
8 amazing duelists and friends
7 memorable villains
But the time has come
For for this story
To end
June 10, 2006
Yu-Gi-Oh!

Watch It. Live It. Duel It.

Or something equally dorky. ("This isn't the end of my story. My story... is just beginning.") Even though I've seen it in the Japanese, I'm giddy with anticip.....ation!~

I think I'll catch up on Sailor Moon tomorrow, and do Episodes 13 and 14 in one shot. Now that I've fixed VLC player's settings for snapshots, if I do another flood, it won't take so long and need a recompiler. :)

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Home

Damn, I've got that DDR song stuck in my head. "Cafe, cafe, cafe cafe, cafe cafe cafe!" or something.

Okay, so a couple of new things:
(1) Seems I grossly misinterpreted what was going on with

god_101 in terms of someone dying or whatnot. Of course I'm still extremely worried about him, but everyone handles break ups (as the case truly was, not someone dying like I thought) differently. If he wants to be open to the help that his friends are willing to give, then my offer still stands. But I won't put mental strain on myself taking blame for something I honestly have no control over.

(2) Okay, I'm making one giant exception to my own rule that I posted for the contest on

weekly_ygo. In this week's issue (#20), I decided in lieu of an Editor's Choice, I'd hold two contests, one for a community layout/icons, and one for WikiFic. The deal is, whoever makes the community layout and icons will get a paid account (or extra time/userpics, whatever, if they already have a paid account) and whoever adds the most full-length, brand-new articles to WikiFic within the next week will get their very own unlimited subdomain on seventh-star.net (or, if they don't want a seventh-star.net subdomain, I will register a domain of their choice -that is currently available, of course- for two years and host a Yu-Gi-Oh fansite and related material). I thought this was a great idea, but no one commented on it AT ALL in the post. So this is the ONE place where I will pimp the contest, in the hopes that people simply spread it by word of mouth, comments in LJs, etc. I don't want anyone else MAKING POSTS about it, but everything else is fine, and I hope we get some participation. If you have any questions, see the latest issue or just ask me. :)

(3) Yuck, Jury Duty. And I can't get out of it, because it's the second time I've postponed it, and saying you're related to a lawyer, a socialist/communist, a student, too far away, don't have a car, don't have money to get there... none of it works. They see that I live a mere 9 miles away from the Van Nuys courthouse, and I get slammed with Jury Duty. Worse, one of my bosses said I can kiss Japan goodbye if I end up getting stuck in a trial that lasts months on end. I just hope I don't get called at all, but my Group number is *1* so what's the chance of that? *sigh* At least I'll be getting paid next week, and I found a decent, cheap bus schedule for getting there if I can't get a ride from Grandpa.

(4) Inspiration... for the wrong thing. I have ideas for almost all of my

30kisses, but getting them written out is another matter altogether. I've started most of the good ones, and unfortunately they have the potential to turn out to be long -sort of like how I didn't think about Prophecy Girl, Something to Somebody, and Death and Absolution would be multi-chapter whoppers, but THEY ARE! But if I do want this to be one of my

30kisses, I have to figure out how it could work for a theme that isn't taken, and not make it look like it's part of Prophcy Girl (because one particular scene -no dirty jokes involved, honest!- totally screams Prophecy Girl, and I don't want that). The only problem is, I only have 2 themes that don't have any ideas for them at all, and that's because they're the hardest themes for me: #17 - kilohertz, and #21: violence; pillage/plunder; extortion. This idea I *MIGHT* be able to make work for #21, but it would likely take a very different turn than I intended (and still be Prophecy Girl-esque because of it).

But the very beginning of the fic just makes me giddy because it's so evil. :> Well, in my mind, anyway.

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Work
Current Music: Really annoying ring tones

Ah, should I say yesterday was successful and happy or not? How about you help me decide (I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not sure...)
(1) Hot as hell. No wind, fans don't seem to do much. Yuck.

(2) Wasn't tempted to buy anything at Best Buy! Yay! (I'm broke anyway, not-so-yay)

(3) Called my cousin Jill and talked to her for awhile- we're supposed to get together later today. Yay!

(4) Watched Yu-Gi-Oh GX (Can totally see Anzu kicking Dmitri's ass for trying to "be" Yugi) and had a good laugh

(5) Missed Fullmetal Alchemist (even though it's supposed to suck compared to the manga!)

(6) Suddenly remembered this morning that there's a scrapbooking event I RSVPd for at school. I didn't pay for it, but it's at 4pm or so, and I'll probably be with Jill all day. Foo!

(7) Got to mine-duel and trade cards (more like get cards as a fabulous gift) from an edo_lister, Malakite. Not only got tons of good cards through several hours of mine sessions, but I laughed too. We both have a sense of humor regarding the censors on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online chat rooms. (Seriously, "goo" is a bad word!?)

(8) During said mine duels, I barely remembered which cards I got from my packs. I remembered some, but I hated how I kept forgetting the third one in the pack. Malakite told me this is because the third card almost always sucks, and he's right, but I hate not remembering stuff that I've seen TWO SECONDS BEFORE!

(9) Just remembered (right after I remembered the Scrapbooking thing) that I didn't critique anyone's papers for WWA. The week of finals, I was so stressed, depressed, and sick that I didn't remember one bit. I wonder if that'll lower my grade by much... *worry* HAH HAH, still got an A! (That's 3 As and 3 Bs. Or 2As and 3Bs, since the 102/C is technically one course, but they grade separately for the 102 class and the C(onversation) part of the class. That's a 3.4 GPA... not sure if that's perfectly accurate, and while it means no Dean's List this semester, it does mean YAY FOR MER! :D :D I MADE IT I MADE IT hard semester's over~ la la la la la la!

(10) Successfully canceled my Ancestry.com account. It was fun while it lasted, but it's way too freakin' expensive!

(11) Tweaked a bit of WDKY24 last night. It's annoying, but I've found that re-reading the whole chapter helps me focus on the scenes I have yet to write, and how I can better convey what I already have down.

(12) Haven't updated my YGO TCG sell list in 2 days. BAD MER!

Hm, good day or bad day?

All I know is, I want to go swimming.

Current Mood: hot
Current Location: Home

For anyone that was going to add to WikiFic since I've been pimping it the past week, I apologize- in my attempt to upgrade the software, I evidently screwed something up, and until I find out what that is, WikiFic is down. I hope the people at wiki or at the unofficial MediaWiki support forums can help out, because aside from a bad prefix, I have no idea what's wrong here, if I dropped too many tables, or what.

Once again, I'm sorry. :(

ETA: 7:30PM (after watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX for the first time) I got it working! I had to uninstall the entire directory (which means I need to get the images for everything again) and reinstall it twice (first because I used a bad prefix for the tables, then because I put them in the wrong database), but it's working! Anyone that was updating or has something to update, we're back in action!

I need a whole bunch of images now, so please help me out by uploading as many Yu-Gi-Oh images as you think are appropriate for entries (these include clear character portraits, Yu-Gi-Oh-related logos, episode screencaps... anything, really, so long as it's not watermarked or fanart).

YAY!

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Home

Ah, crazy ol' me has decided to sell all of my Yu-Gi-Oh TCG cards. Probably even the ones I thought I couldn't part with before, like my special promos and my Dragon Deck. I mean, aside from decoration in my Duel Disk when I cosplay Anzu, what's the use? I might keep a single deck's worth, but they'll only be for decoration.

Anyway, the reason why I haven't announced anything on

yu_gi_oh or similar comms/mailing lists yet is because I'm compiling a list of all the cards. That's a lot of cards-- 448 just for Normal Monsters, and I'm only about 1/3 through the Effect Monsters. Then come Ritual and Fusion Monsters, then Spells/Magic, and finally, Traps. So I have lots to sell. I'm going to buy a Beckett's or Pojo guide in the hopes of getting updated values for the cards, since I am essentially selling EVERYTHING, but I want to know what to package (either by theme/deck type or as "grab bag") and what to sell individually.

I don't know why this has got me so excited; I don't even know if/when I'll make any money off this. But I'd like to try. :) If anyone on my FL is interested in Yu-Gi-Oh TCG cards, drop me a line and I'll see if I can sell you something.

I've also decided that another one of my summer projects (aside from getting organized, as usual) is to participate in the June

sm_monthly. The theme is finally something I *WANT* to do-- namely "Starlights." I've had a few plot bunnies lying around that I want to tackle, so hopefully tomorrow's first theme will serve as inspirational. If I can't finish WDKY (lack of inspiration, really...) then at least I can focus my creativity somewhere. I'd like to finish my themed icon claims too, but yeesh, that'll take even longer and requires even more resources.

Finally, there's WikiFic, which I already mentioned I'm working on. So sign up, help out, and check what pages and images we need. There's tons of pages where I'm lacking information, and I still need to get Help and How To pages up. Even I'm still learning about all the possibilities of Wiki!

That said, I do need to get up early later this morning (eheh) and shower and go to Borders to get that price guide. So I'm going to try and sleep in this hot house of a bedroom now... (fan on, check! windows open, check! light blankets, check! Now let's just hope I don't have freaktacular dreams tonight.)

Current Mood: crazy
Current Location: Home

Updated WikiFic - You can click on the "Special Pages" link in the bottom toolbox and then see Wanted Pages and images. You can also upload JPG, GIF, or PNG format images to help flesh out our gallery, so we can include pictures of all characters and places. We're in need of contributors for ALL sorts of subjects! (This is my second big summer project, after finishing WDKY)

I added Shizuka, Honda, and Sugoroku's page, uploaded images for all of them plus Dark Malik and Noa Kaiba, and scanned an image of Kessoku - Unity for use on that TCG card's page.

_novemberx also kindly provided judge commentary on the cards, since they also appear in the Nightmare Troubadour game. I need more manga scans and people willing to sit down and write about all the characters and events!

Also, does anyone know which OCG card it was where Sugoroku appeared kind of shadowed (a'la his old school gamer silhouette, back when we wore a tuxedo everywhere, and smoked)? I think it was a trap card, but I can't remember what it was. HELP!

zOMG FMA - As you may or may not already know,

ceruleansan got me into the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, and now I'm up to Chapter 31. I'm very much Ed x Winry and Roy x Riza (er, Royai), but I have yet to write the fic I owe her and

geniusgirl. Sorry guys, please be patient! I'm liking all the mystery and suspense though, and all the ASS KICKING! Go Izumi!

Take surveys. Get stuff. - I don't know why I've mentioned this before, but I'm part of this group called HarrisPoll, where you take surveys about once or twice a month about all sorts of stuff and get points-- and the points add up to some seriously sweet stuff, like stereos, waffle irons, tents, massagers... all sorts of cool goodies. The surveys are all pretty easy, and most range from 10-30 minutes in length. There are no advertisements, no bombardments of spam emails, and they won't sell or rent your info to anyone else-- they just use group survey results for market research. So if this sounds interesting to you, comment with your email and I'll sign you up.

X-Men: The Last Stand ( Likes and dislikes )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Home

And everybody say WHEE! Blue Eyes and Apricots, the web's first, official, and ONLY (English) Azureshipping fanlisting now has -count 'em- 400 members! Congratulations to Rea-kun from Malta, who will probably not read this, but who is the kick-buttingest 400th member. I think I should do something special, but what, I do not know. (No, I will not change the layout. Dammit, that layout was hard enough to put together! :P If anything, I can change the colors and the picture but THAT IS IT!)

Spread the word, yo. We've been getting more members than EVER lately, and it makes me so happy! :D :D :D I have some new fanart to put up soon too (from... you guessed it, Rea-kun!) among other things, so at least there's always some new content to check out. I need some more recs and nominations for the Fanfics and Websites sections too, though, so drop me a line, ne?

This is my last week of school before finals. I have four finals, as far as I know:
* Japanese (duh)
* Women writers of Asia (identification... should be easy.)
* Geography (X_X)
* English (X_X;;;)

I finished my term paper for WWA, and I was quite pleased with it-- maybe because the intended length was 8-10 pages, and I ended up with 14. I had to shrink the font and change the font family to get it to fit. :P This is good news though, because I ended up cutting big chunks out, compared to my outline. This means when I actually get around to expanding it and editing it for my scholarship project (which is to write on contemporary writers of Japan, mainly female writers, and in contrast with male writers), I'll have lots of material to work with.

Today I just finished a paper for Geography on symbolic landscapes, and being the urbanite I am, I chose to write about a fourth landscape (this is in addition to D.W. Meinig's list if three from 1979: the New England village, the Middle-American Main street, and Californian Suburbia): the urban landscape. It was limited to 2 pages and a sketch map page, so I hope I did well on it. Prof. Davidson peered over to my paper while I was attempting to draw a lumpy model of San Francisco. :P

I have an idea for my editorial (that is, my second one, because damned if I can come up with another full-length feature piece in less than a day. Bad Mer, bad!) - California is behind the times. Hell, the whole United States is, but California is the worst off, especially here in So. Cal. Now, I haven't heard anyone vocally railing about it on *MY* FL, but that could be due to other reasons... but gas is at an all-time high here in CA. $3.37 is the cheapest you'll find here in Northridge; in San Diego, you were lucky if you saw below $3.54. I saw a $3.61 there, and Baba said she saw a $3.70-something. I realize gas prices as a whole are going up around the country, but CA's always had the higher prices, because we have so many damn people dependent on gas. We can get gas from the South and from Alaska, but somehow, that still doesn't help us. Then you look at countries like Japan, where their public transportation system is RELIABLE and EFFICIENT. I don't know a lot about their environmental policies (they still allow smoking in public restaurants, so...) or fuel usage, but Hummers wouldn't be popular there, and I saw more minivans than I did SUVs while I was there. It's sort of like telling someone they have to cut off their arm to save their life- people just don't want to do it, even if a part of them recognizes it's for the greater good. Are we stupid or just sick?

To do:
* See various departments about transferable credit from Tokiwa. Get them to sign the forms now so that when I come back, they can't double-cross me. I should do that tomorrow, since I need the course catalog.

* Finish up my online resume at meredithsweet.com :D (Go check it out. Tell me if I'm missing anything, if anything needs editing, etc. The front page only has a short intro right now, but so far, I like it.)

* FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICS. I'm already 2000+ words into

atlantian_magic's Sousuke x Kaname piece, which

mklutz, you will be pleased (I hope) to note that it's a continuation/sequel to the fic I did for you, "Counting." :) I never intended it to be so long, but... hey, it's just one of those universes. I've also got a good idea for the Ed x Winry piece

geniusgirl wanted, so I'll get started on that as soon as I'm done with SxK. Oh yeah, and WDKY24. I want it OUT! OUT, I SAY!

* She is the one named Sailor Moon! I was messing with my Thunderbird settings yesterday (remember folks: compact your Inbox often!) and decided to haunt alt.fan.sailor-moon for a bit, and found a HI-larious post on the possibility of yet another live action SM movie. With Jennifer Garner as the main villain. Hahaha, yeah right. But still, funny. And then someone posted a YouTube link to the elusive Episode 67, wherein Chibiusa BEFRIENDS A DINOSAUR. That was a cute episode, even if the animation style degenerated by about 2 seasons. But yeah, Sailormoon. So totally into it again. :D

* AX? Who here is going to AnimeExpo 2006? I mean the one in Anaheim. Because (I think I mentioned this before) someone requested I go, and there *IS* a brand-new Sheraton there. Mom thinks she can get me the StarHot or whatever it's called rate, which is TEH UBER CHEAP! So why not? I'd just pay for the pre-reg and the shuttle there (if Mom wanted to erase the rest of her debt by paying for THAT hotel room too. She paid for all of Fanime, which surprised the crap out of me) and whatever I saw and wanted that I didn't get at Fanime. And hell, I'll even cosplay Anzu. :D I just want to do a lot of things before I go to Japan.

>_> I hope I got a decent grade on my English paper/Kate Chopin's 'The Storm,' even if it was late.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Collaboratory, CSUN

Let's see...
* Upgraded Dragonfayth and the site-that-will-be-known-as-Epiphany to eFic 2.0.5 with patches from 4/27 and 4/29.
* Added Story Type and LJ Link mod; still need to add Featured Author, Poll, and others
* Screwed around with this new option in cPanel called ClickBe! Made a weird, semi-ugly version of a new layout, seen here. Has anyone used this ClickBe! thing before? I can't figure out how to change the masthead, add my site title, change the name of links, get information to show up on the main page, or get more than 2 links to show up in the links page.

I also talked to Scott for nearly an hour tonight-- turns out he's not so worried about his phone costs, because he accidentally already paid his May bill, and he even had credit leftover! Hah, funny how that works out. It's almost weird that we're talking so much ABOUT so much, because really, we go all over the map with our conversations. One of the big ones is us going up to San Francisco from 7/17 to 7/21 or 22, though, and I'm not sure how we're going to do it-- drive, plane, or train are all feasible activities, with plane just being slightly more expensive and ludicrous compared to the others. It's quicker, too. Anyway, he's still got to find the time off, and I have to get the money from working.

>_> Dr. Lopez hasn't gotten back to me yet about Tokiwa's credit transferring, or whether the courses I plan to take are upper-division or unit equivalent. Prof. Hirota might be able to help, but she won't be here or available until next Thursday! ARGH!

Still need to:
* clean room
* write papers
* play FFX and FFX-2 (I WILL BEAT YOU, VIA INFINITIO!)
* scrapbook
* figure out website crap
* watch Indiana Jones
* stop staying up so damn late when I WAS tired before!

Meeeeeeeeeeh. Lately I just don't have much to say. It doesn't come out right, anyway.

Current Mood: apathetic
Current Location: Home

Baba says I'm supposed to have a "five-check day" (meaning the best day the horoscope doles out) today, and be inspired. The school horoscope told me to watch my finances and consider more education. The horoscope.com horoscope told me that I'll get a romantic proposition that I just can turn down.

I think I'm placing too much stock in horoscopes. I love them to death, but yeesh! Is it bad when I wake up in the morning feeling like I'm going to be busy, stressed, and generally batty, and my horoscopes are BETTER than what I'm expecting?

( Also, a rant. )

The whole FFX universe still confuses me. When I first joined

fanthropology, I posted what I thought was the history of the FFX universe. It didn't really belong there, but Fanthropology is a mixed-bag sort of fan community. In any case, no one really corrected me on much, and now I find out new things all the time.

new_spira was advertising today, and I went to their journal and the Wikipedia entry on Yevon, and I was like... wha? I think I need to replay FFX (well, actually, BEAT it. I never did, even though I know what happens at the end) and finish FFX-2 again.

I feel kind of stupid for thinking that Yevon was affiliated with Bevelle originally, not Zanarkand. But I'm pretty sure I'm right in that Bevelle and Zanarkand didn't have their final standoff in the Calm Lands; that was Sin and the Summoners.

Other stuff. Why is it that I can feel tired, tell myself "I'll go to bed soon" and then five minutes turn into two hours, and I'm still awake at 2am? It's bad, bad, bad I say! I never did watch my new purchase (the Indiana Jones trilogy) yesterday; I spent most of the night finishing up my translations of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles new songs, "IT'S" by Kinya, and "Kazemachi Jet" by Maaya Sakamoto. I transliterated AND translated the lyrics, listened to the songs OVER AND OVER to pull the kanji pronunciations from the lyrics... and I finally got it done. They're up for review at AnimeLyrics.com, and will hopefully be used by #yugioh! for their subs of the series.

People are visiting-- actually Dan (uncle) visited yesterday, and my aunt Joyce is here with her husband today; hopefully they're going to settle the ongoing dispute with their insurance company re: the San Diego fires that destroyed their home a few years back. I don't mind Joyce and her husband so much; I don't even mind the annoyance that is their dog, Mokie. But Dan kind of got on my nerves when he insisted that Grandpa didn't need a laptop, that he WOULDN'T carry it around from room to room, and that
a) laptops break more often (not true)
b) they're more expensive (true)
c) there isn't really a necessity for it (not true... necessarily)

Regardless of what, I'm planning on getting a laptop before I leave for Japan. Grandpa can get the computer I'm on refurbished with a new monitor or whatever, or he can get a new computer altogether. Whatever he wants. All I know is, I need enough time to clear my stuff off, because I refuse to be away from my email/fanfics/websites for 6 months. :P

Ooh, and guess what? I came up with a new name for my multi-fandom archive. I can start working on it tomorrow (or tonight, if we miraculously get out early and I don't haul myself to bed early like I should). The name... pure irony, right there.

Epiphany. Hee!

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Collaboratory, CSUN

I had to turn off my router's firewall in order to access the CSUN's Virtual Private Network (VPN) client successfully, so I could access my virtual remote hard drive, called the U-drive here in the tech support biz. Alas, it turns out that having the firewall down leaves me susceptible to elusive Adware. Nothing really malicious, it seems, because I don't get system errors or pop-ups, but both AdAware SE and Spybot S&D found plenty of things when I did full scans of them earlier this afternoon. Amazingly, Spybot S&D managed to do a fix for my corrupted Windows Security Center, which I rarely use, because it conflicts with so many of the third-party BETTER PROTECTION programs, such as Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus. But I was able to access it after the fix, and it said that I was protected with everything -firewall from ZoneAlarm (I'm pretty sure the Windows Firewall is turned off), Auto Updates, and Anti-Virus (Symantec Corporate).

I was worried last night (with the whole DVD fiasco, which remains unsolved; I'll have to ask Zack about DVD decoders and the like) about the amount of disk space I'd have available, hence my temptation to buy a new HD at Target, or a 2GB flash drive. It doesn't look like I'll need to, though, even with the Sims 2 install; mysteriously, I have 1.56 GB free, which is enough to burn more CDs, free up more space, and then install Nightlife. :D

I've already created Domino and Téa Gardner's family (obviously, I'm following the WDKY-verse. It was weird having to create Sims based off my OCs like Eric and Elizabeth Gardner, but it'll be fun to finally have "bios" and "illustrations" for them. The only difference is that Téa is a Leo, as she is in the series, rather than the Saggitarius she is in WDKY). Later on: Kaiba and Mokuba (of course), Yugi, Yami, Bakura, Ryou, Jounouchi, plus Mai and Tristan if I can find decent hair styles for them. I might even throw in a Malik and Isis if I can find better hair for them (Malik more than Isis, since Isis' hair is just straight).

( Finally, I got tagged! )

I'm going to really have to get my sites in shape this summer. No, srsly. I want to get Dreamweaver on the comps here at work, so I can work on it (since all I do is mostly websurfing anyway... I do my actual work-work fairly fast, even when there are customers!) when I'm not at home. Staff and faculty members are supposed to be able to download it-- I'm a semi-staff member (well "password administrator"), because I work here on campus, but I can't download it, nor can I install it w/o Admin privileges. ;_;

Anyway, the big projects are:
* A new "Animanga Collision" (needs a new name)
* Specifically, Darkness Rising (my YGO fansite), which will include Yu-Gi-Oh sims downloads for LJ users that need the space and don't want to use YSI or whatnot, and templates for custom Yu-Gi-Oh cards-- not the Matrix/Emigre font though, since I paid for that.
* Also Dragonfayth and AMC's own eFiction archive, so I can finally have a singular archive for ALL of my fanfics-- save the SxA ones, since those'll be on DF.
* Souten Scans- I really want to get scanning the Gospel of Truth started, but what happened to all the enthusiasm from everyone before?
Augh, for some reason, I feel frustrated...

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: Work

For all the greatness I've got in getting into Tokiwa, I think I'm lacking in the creativity and/or motivational departments at the moment. I seriously need a new layout for my LiveJournal. I hate using some rehashed one ganked from some site- every time I've found one that I liked (rare) and managed to get it up, something's gone wrong. Too wide, too narrow, this not showing up, that not showing up...

...I wonder if I could commission someone? Maybe for about $10? (I'm flexible, but I'm thinking base price, here. If I come up with colors and graphics...) Any takers? (Mer <-- LAZY!?)

GRR! I like the Smooth Sailing Layout and want to customize it to my liking. I've been rummaging through the few tutorials on

s2smoothsailing and found myself at

the_lj_reboot, but even with resources, there's not much help there for me to "reboot" my LJ into anything spectacular. I don't even have any ideas as to colors, artwork, fonts, etc. for the journal... I've tried about four or five things now, and nothing "hits" me. I've even gone through premade layouts on my comp and thought about adapting them.... but nothing.

Same goes for my websites, which an unusual amount of people have been asking about. I pay $6/mo for the service, I damn well better upgrade everything and make it functional and look good. I should add a counter to all the pages, too. I just wish I could buy bottled inspiration or something.

Well, so Passover wasn't too much of a bomb. Dad and I sorta got along by the end of the week; no more explosive and/or embarrassing fights, but there's still a lot I can't agree with him on, and think he's utterly immature for. Scott really was my godsend; he even helped paint the rec room bathroom when the fumes got to be too much for me. There's still more fixing-up to do-- the air filter in the main hall needs to be replaced, and the mirrors and paintings in the rec room bathroom need to be hung up again. We also need new socket and switch plates, and I need new luggage (Target EMBARK series in Lilac, only $30!) Plus the kitchen's a right mess, and I'd like to move the computer upstairs to my room-- just to test it out. I need to put clothes away, organize my desk, blah blah...

I think I said 3 weeks ago that I'd be done with WDKY24, and it's not there yet. I feel rotten about it, too, but I'm still lacking in inspiration, even if I seriously want to get to the parts BEYOND 24 (AUGH, THE BEST PARTS!) and have the "outline" written for 99.9% of the chapter... of course it's the toughest parts that I keep skipping and not writing. But writers never make promises! :P (Except for implicit ones)

Ah, as for Tokiwa, I'm supposed to go from Mid-September to late-January. Missing Hanukkah/Christmas would be a big bummer to me, but since tuition/air fare/etc. is free, I might be able to swing a plane ride home and back... if I get financial aid. Why would they award me financial aid if a) I won't be at CSUN, and b) Tokiwa's tuition for me is free? Same goes for the Presidential Scholarship... what is the point of having the priority registration, the Matador Bookstore discount, etc. if I go to a school with FREE tuition? That's not to say I won't work on my project for the Scholarship-- better to try and do it IN JAPAN like I originally hoped; maybe some of my professors there can help me better understand female writers of their country. But financial aid is how I survive... even if I would get a stipend IN Japan for teaching conversational English, how would that measly amount help me for nearly 6 whole months? ;_;

Dad never got me a birthday present. :P So I treated myself at Border's, using 2 coupons: I got 15% off Carmen Electra's Vols 4 & 5 of her Aerobic Striptease (Lapdance and Hip Hop. Teh yey!) and 25% off the Back to the Future trilogy. I wanted to get Indiana Jones, but they didn't have it-- not in Action/Adventure, and not in the Boxed Sets area, even though the computer said they had it in stock, and I had the guy (who was a jerk) check the back room. :P

And now... it's Back to Back to the Future. I'm too bored to just keep sitting here. Maybe I'll eat some pie now.

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: Home

Okay, so I managed to kinda-sorta-not-really figure out what's going on with the images for Azurelist, my very boring (as of this moment)-looking collective. Eventually I'll get a spiffy layout up, and it'll essentially link to all my sites, all the fanlistings I own (all of ONE at the moment), all the affiliates I have for all my sites (can be broken down if they're affiliates of an FL of mine) and fanlistings I've joined. I'll have to go to all those FLs and notify them of the change of URL...

But the stupid thing is, even if I've got the images showing up in Azurelist, they're not showing up in e3, the admin panel for the whole Enthusiast 3 script. I cannot figure out why. If I change one root path to work one place, it doesn't work someplace else. Why can't the damn install file be a bit more explicit about what path goes where, and what the format should be? When should it be /home/username/public_html/... and when should it be http://www.something.net?

Here's the confusing bit:
(1) You can go to Settings in the admin panel and change the path for the installation path, the root path (Web), the root path (Absolute), the Affiliates Images Directory (collective), the Joined images directory, and the Owned images directory. I changed the latter 3 to just plain affiliates/, joined/, and owned/, but while they show up in Azurelist, they don't show up in the Management section of the install (e3).

(2) For individual fanlistings, you can go to Owned, Edit, Database, and head to the Affiliates section, and select the Move Directory radio button. It says this: Please don't forget the trailing slash; this folder (absolute path, i.e., /home/user/public_html/images/) must have proper permissions set (i.e., must be CHMODed to 777). Well, like I mentioned before, there are two places where there is the affiliates folder. In the individual fanlisting folder (bea/affiliates) and in the collective folder. But it's having the same problem as above. o_o I don't know what to change it to! It keeps on trying to pull the images from http://www.seventh-star.net/e3/owned/2_ceruleansan_88x31a.gif when the image is really at http://www.seventh-star.net/azurelist/owned/2_ceruleansan_88x31a.gif. But I don't know where that e3 root path is coming from, except for the 'Installation path' which is SUPPOSED to be at e3... I think. AUGH!

Does anyone know what I could do? (Aside from copy/pasting the folders... a temporary, and annoying solution)

Tagged by

seeshellirun( Memes to distract me from what I should be doing )

TAG!

atlantian_magic

guardian_kysra

rhapsody_dragon

schmollieollie

I'm looking forward to working more on WDKY, but I realize I should probably try and find some episodes online. I don't care if their dub or if some amazing person actually had the mojo and time to sub the original Japanese episodes... but I can't handle raws. Anyone know where I can go? GetItFido takes forever to load (if it loads at all).

I'm still confused about this whole metric system thing. I must have asked this a bazillion times, and I know I never would have left the chapter completely unconverted. I shouldn't be so much of a nitpicker, but I am. After all the conversions this silly sugar cookie recipe has been through, I doubt it could make a tasty batch after all. But that's what suspension of belief is for, right?

In any case, here's my main question:
What is used for DRY measure in the metric system? I've heard grams, I've heard mL and Liters, and I've heard metric tablespoons. Supposedly there's even a metric cup! I'm finding all this conflicting information though, so I would just like to know what metric folks have in their kitchens.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but grams is for weight, right? Ergo, if I had X amount of flour measured in grams, it would NOT be the same amount of brown sugar, right (in grams), because flour is lighter than brown sugar, yes? An equivalent WEIGHT of brown sugar would likely mean a SMALLER amount... if I've got this right.

So here's the recipe (sugar cookies):
1 1/2 cups sugar <--> 287.5 mL (should this be in grams?)
2/3 cup shortening or butter <--> 153 grams
2 eggs <--> SAME
2 tablespoons milk <--> about 30 mL
1 teaspoon vanilla extract <--> about 5 mL
3 1/4 cups flour <--> about 323 mL (should this be in grams?)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder <--> 11.5 grams
1/2 teaspoon salt <--> 2.47 mL or 3.04 grams (which should this be?)

Now, do my conversions (done at http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cookingconversions.asp, thanks

guardian_kysra!) make sense? Would someone in a "metric kitchen" have the spoons, dry measure cups/spoons, and liquid measure cups/spoons to measure things like this?

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: bLiNd - Starfox Meteorave OC ReMix

Okay, so my last three entries are What Doesn't Kill You Review Replies for chapters 19, 20, and 21 respectively. Chapter 22 is now up on FFnet and the old version of my site, though I'm still working on correcting past chapters before I put the story up to that point on Dragonfayth. MMorg is coming next.

Blue Eyes and Apricots will soon do an email check-- so if you joined with an email you're no longer using, please correct it now! I will be sending a mass email to everyone, and if it gets bounced, I will remove those members from the list. I already did that for one person tonight (

winterwing3000? Our "problem" is solved.) and I will do it for more. TAFL also notified me that they got my "Finished" form, so it's official-- we're official! However, I seem to be having a weird error with the script where people are joining but not showing up in the admin panel. I don't know what is causing this, as the site IS patched against security issues, and I haven't made any changes to the config.php file. Hopefully I'll get some sort of reply on the forums.

Dragonfayth may also be having errors-- has anyone besides

guardian_kysra had trouble uploading stories? If so, the problem might be a timeout error caused by Copy-Pasting the stories rather than uploading them from a file. Try saving the stories as TXT, DOC, or HTML files, and uploading them that way. If that still doesn't work, the script HAS updated to 2.0.3, and there have been 2 security patches that I wasn't aware of. I'm going to find out what I need to do to fix these and still maintain the mods we've made. Here's a tentative list of mods, just in case the site gets buggy in the next few days as I update:
* Fanfiction.Net Author Link
* LiveJournal Link
* Advanced TinyMCE editor with PHP Compressor (+ Security update)
* Featured Author block
* Poll block
* Story "Type" mod

I'm going to find out if I can make the patch updates to the files without overwriting the mods; since I have so many mods, I'm not sure which files I edited, and I don't want to have to do them over and over again. But if you experience any problems, let me know.

I'm going to be a little batty lately what with work today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, and also trying to juggle getting money for Study Abroad any way that I can. I'll still be working on site updates and WDKY23, but if I'm hard to reach, that's why.

Oh,

baine? I read those chapters you sent me, and I have this to say about that: YOU FREAK ME OUT, WOMAN! That's pretty much all I can think of, though.

Er, anything else? If so, you'll find out later. I have to get SOME sleep tonight.

Current Mood: aggravated

Okay, so I finally got around to updating the eFiction archive on Animanga Collision. I've decided to scrap the idea of separate sites, and just work everything together under the masthead of Animanga Collision. It's cute, it's old school, and it's going to have tons of stuff. So far, there aren't too many anime or manga listed, but that'll obviously change as I remember what I know about everything. I don't aim for AMC to be the end-all, be-all site for every anime or manga I've ever been in... and there will be games there as well, such as FFX, Star Ocean 2, and so forth.

It's planned to only be a one-person site; that is, I'll be the only author there. There's already wide-open archives out there, though I'm open to other people signing up and commenting/reviewing, or possibly in the future, submitting rants and essays. I'll be taking care of everything else, from character profiles and data to fanfics.

Right now, I have the following "Story Types" defined, and I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas on what I might write about a fandom:
* Essays (could include things like 'ship manifestos)
* Rants
* Fanfics, including:
   * Shortfics (Oneshots)
   * Crossover Fics
   * Alternate Reality Fics
   * Fusion Fics
   * Remixes
   * Songfics

The Genres would stay the same as for Dragonfayth, but they wouldn't apply for things like Essays and Rants. The latter two categories would be placed under their fandom and in their appropriate sub-category, but again, this is a whole hierarchy I haven't quite decided on yet.

It's still buggy, because I essentially copied all the files (inc. mods) from the Dragonfayth install, and not all the database/CHMOD changes have been made. I guess I'll have to discover them as I go along. So far:
* category changes error - Same with Dragonfayth. I can't rearrange the categories, and when I try to change the category description text, I get an error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: build_formjs() in /home/***/public_html/amc/admin/categories.php on line 156
* poll block initialization error: A fatal MySQL error was encountered. Error: (1050) Table 'amc_fanfiction_poll_votes' already exists

...And you know what? I don't like unreliable people. I know, I know, there's REAL LIFE. It sucks, it's horrible. That's why you don't make promises you can't keep. And I'm just one of those people that is very hard to please. I'm also a former nail-biter, teeth-grinder, and hair-chewer. I have this great chapter for WDKY all ready to be posted, and every single person that has said they will look it over or beta it has either forgotten about it/me or gotten so busy that they couldn't even drop me a line with a quick apology.

I'm very tempted to just post it as-is, but I'm also afraid of the backlash, because I know there are things I don't spot when I proofread my own story. So here is my desperate plea for attention, help, and a beta-reader (or two)! WDKY22 needs an editor. Any volunteers? (Link goes to

betasquad. Not a member? Join!)

Current Mood: cranky

Okay, I'm not sure who to blame for this one-- Vince for bringing me to Bob's party, Marc for playing against me first, Jimbo, or Christal. Regardless, I bought Katamari Damacy the day before I left for San Diego-- with my GameStop bucks, it was just a little over $12-- quite a sweet deal, if you ask me! But of course, I'm addicted.

And I'm still stuck on Make A Star 4, which is the same level I played to and got stuck on before. I've ranged from the low 50s to 99.8cm-- so blasted close! But alas, I just can't make it up to that 1m mark! ;_; How irritating! I did manage to work up a sort of stratagem: get the caramels, dice, and pins first, then the mah-johng tiles. Follow up with the batteries and then the erasers, and roll off the table to get the parsley, Lego blocks, round batteries, and mice. Get big enough to pick up Mandarin peels, shogi tiles, and the mini-Pylons. When all the small stuff from the living area is stuck, grab the books separating the main room from the porch, and grab the watermelons, the soda cans, and the flowers. Head around the side of the house underground; grab a few spiders, some rats and mice, and the little Jumbomen. Head up into the kitchen/bathroom area, and try to roll up to the counter to get the present. Move onto the boy's room and grab some toys, and then drop out the balcony to the garden. Grab the microphones and fireworks, and see if you can grab some potted plants and buckets. Try and roll up to street-level, and start grabbing balls, cats, briefcases... and then I always run out of time. Sometimes if I can manage, I wander around in the garden to grab cucumbers, rulers, birds, and more cats...

My policy at the moment is to spend 10 minutes (the time you're given to make the 1m Katamari) reviewing

fourhouseunion applications, WDKY22, and then go back to Katamari. o_o

Beat it! And I made Cygnus too, although I had too many ducks.

( Something that's been on my mind about Scott. )

It has occurred to me that anyone that could possibly tell Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa about their mother (Padmé Amidala) is dead. The list:
* The Jedi (massacred by the clones & Anakin)
* Obi-Wan ("died" at Darth Vader's hand)
* Yoda (died before he really told anything to Luke outside of his Jedi training)
* Bail Organa (died in the explosion of Alderaan)
* Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (duh.)
* The Emperor/Chancellor Palpatine (duh 2.0)

Who else was there that DIDN'T get killed in RotS? I would cite Jar-Jar, but who the heck knows where in the galaxy he might be? And even if there was someone else --such as the new Queen, or another Senator from Naboo-- how would said person know/seek out Luke and Leia, and why would the two of them believe whatever s/he/it had to say? How would the connection to Naboo even be made?

Fact is, I just started thinking of this out of the blue, because I think a "Luke and Leia find out about their mother" fic would be rockin'. But I'm terrified of looking into the Star Wars fandom for a fic that fits this profile, and I sure as hell won't start another fic. But hey, if there are fans out there, I'm open to recs.

Oh, and Blue Eyes and Apricots is up. I mentioned that in my mailing list, but I thought I'd give it a shout out here, too. All new content, new layout, new affiliates, and more. I'm still waiting on Garfour's response for the art, TAFL's response for the fanlisting's "official" status, and any new affiliates.

Finally, KYSRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scanner shipped today. :)

Current Mood: tired

Couldn't sleep last night. Tried to read bad Christmas romance novels (historicals); didn't work. The cheese ate my brain.
Decided to watch PGSM instead, all the way through Special Act. Bawled my eyes out.
Realized that even in its new form, Sailormoon will always appeal to me, have special meaning for me, and send out important messages to anyone who cares to listen.
Decided to smash together all my websites at long last and create an Animanga Collision eFiction archive for all of my fics save the Seto x Anzu ones, which will remain hosted at Dragonfayth. I'll still post at other places (FFnet, MMorg, Aria's Ink ...if I can ever figure out their whacked upload system... DeviantArt ...same thing... and ASMR), but at least now I'll have a place for my rants and essays, as well. It'll take some time to set up, though. For most of the animes/mangas/games I'm into, it'll also include information pages, character profiles, etc.
Dropped my iPod mini on the sidewalk as I was running across the street on my way home from school (to sell a book) today. It's dinked up to the point where it irritated me, so I bought a purple protective skin from DecalGirl.comhttp://www.decalgirl.com.
Finished a transfer of funds (gas money for/from cutieme4u --> Kysra) from PayPal; as I said before, we're almost at our goal and we only need a few more donations to get the scanner! It's doubtful I'll be able to ship it by Christmas unless I get funds from other people SOON!
Scored a job at the ITR University Help Desk... $8.05/hr for 20 hrs/wk., +/- 4 hours, if I want. Starts Jan. 9! Yahoo!
Mom might buy my laptop. :)
WILL MAKE IT TO JTAF! Keep your eyes peeled, gentlemen (and ladies-- er, hikaru_jan, you're ~~not~~ going...~~? ;_;~~! :D).
Need to check/download classes that I need to take; I register on the 19th, and if any of my planned classes are full, I need alternatives. I don't want to be sitting on SOLAR (Student On-Line Access Registration or something) for an hour searching classes. I'll bring the hard copy schedule with me just in case, but I want the course numbers ready to go, with my knowledge that I need the class, that I can take the class in accordance with my schedule, and that I'll like the professor.
Am tired now... despite needing to pack and such, my eyes are so sore from all that crying I did last night that I just need to sleep. If I can actually fall asleep, it'll be a good thing.

Current Mood: exhausted

Okay, so I'm breezing through HP4: Goblet of Fire so I'll be ready for any discussion over at

fourhouseunion and ready for the movie, too. Tickets just went on sale at Fandango, but Scott seems sure that we'll be able to get tickets for the midnight showing on the 18th. Frankly, I don't care whether I see it with him or not; I just wanna see it! /dork

Next up... CSS!? Geh, I hate cascading style sheets. I tried to modify the one for Dragonfayth's new main layout, "Romance" but for the life of me, I can't get the font to change to something a bit nicer than Times New Roman. Arial, Verdana, Geneva, even Tahoma would be nice, but for some reason all the text in the blocks is Times New Roman! Eeew! I need help figuring out what part of the style.css or the TPL files that I modify so that it changes that. I'll be posting on the eFiction forums later.

I've already posted about a categories error, which I think might be solved; I'll have to check later when I tinker around with the site a bit more. I just might make the category icons myself, just because I actually have some idea as to what I want them to look like. They'll have to be relatively small though, probably no more than 75 x 75.

On top of that, I've gotten a good response from Lazuli (not the same as our Laz, I don't think... if it is, color me shell-shocked), one of the developers, about implementing a mod for "fic types" like "Oneshots" and "Songfics" and the like, sort of like how there's already a special area for Challengefics (and their responses) and Round Robins.

After that, I need to tweak the alignment of all the boxes (namely, the news boxes) on the main page for each of the layouts, and mess around with the banners so that they actually say Dragonfayth or something. ^^ Heh. I have a lot of banners and old skins stashed away, and with some tweaking I can make them work for ver. 2.5 of DRFA.

Next up: Creative writing class. I finished all my analyses and my facilitation packet last night, so today should be a breeze, and I hope I get out early. I'll go home and muck around for a while (work on the end of WDKY22; 21 went up last night at FFnet, MMorg, and the azurite_updates ML) and then at 5:30, there's a CSUN Cat People meeting I found out about! Yay for cats on campus!

Current Mood: amused

Okay, so I finally upgraded Dragonfayth to eFiction 2.0. It looks good; it has several more skins that came with the package, and the whole admin access thing looks fantastic. I still need to do some tweaking in terms of the CSS (font is WAY too big for my taste), but that's easily remedied.

Right now, I'm plagued with the same problem that hit me last time, when I was contemplating between InkTank and eFiction. What kind of categories and genres should I use? Since this archive is fandom and pairing-specific, it's not like FFnet or MMorg in the way that you start out with a big, main category (e.x. Anime, TV Shows, Music) and then break it down into sub-categories (e.x. Yu-Gi-Oh, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Backstreet Boys). Each of the sub-categories has GENRES (Romance, Action/Adventure, Drama, etc.), and a story can fit into multiple genres. Some genres have SUB-genres (for example, Romance might have Hentai as a sub-genre).

How the heck should Dragonfayth try and categorize things? Last time, we had confusion because a fic can be:
* A Type A fic and a Type B fic, where Type A or B might be Songfic, Chaptered Fic, Continuation Fic, Alternate Universe, etc.
* A Type A fic and a Type B fic, where Type A or B might be a Romance, Drama, Action/Adventure, etc.

Some people at the eFiction archive suggested I have the main categories using TIME:
* Season 0 (Toei), or pre-Duelist Kingdom events (Vols. 1-7 of the manga)
* Season 1 (NAS), or Duelist Kingdom (Vols. 8-15 of the manga)
* Season 2, or Dungeon Dice Monsters, the VR World, Battle City, Noa's Virtual World, and Alcatraz (Vols. 15-31 of the manga)
* Season 3, or the Orichalchos arc
* Season 4, or the KC Grand Prix arc
* Season 5, or the Memory World/Ancient Egypt arc (Vols. 32-38 of the manga)
* Alternate Universes (fics that do NOT take place within canon)
* Continuation Fics (fics that take place AFTER the events of the Memory World saga)

That could work out great, but then I wonder-- what about fics based on Yu-Gi-Oh! R, the spin off manga which takes place between Battle City and the Memory World? Where would that go? Same thing applies to the Yu-Gi-Oh movie, which takes place directly after Battle City...

Hypothetically speaking, a fic would go in the time section where it STARTS to deviate... that is, WDKY would go under Season 2/Battle City, because that's pretty much where it starts. It makes references to past events (Dungeon Dice Monsters, Duelist Kingdom), and warps other events (Noa's VR World), and hints at events to come, but would be changed from canon (the movie, Orichalchos).

Well anyway, long story short, please help me out here. :P I'm stuck.

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Britney Spears - Stronger

I've posted Chapter 20 of WDKY to FFnet. It's going up on MMorg soon, and I'm also in the midst of updating Darkness Rising with its new layout. However, I need to re-organize the site a bit and make sure all the pages are linked properly. Once all that gets done, I'll make an announcement over at azurite_updates... but I still have some work to do, especially with getting all my fics organized.

Expect another oneshot fic from me within the next two days. The deadline for

ygo_lyricwheel is almost here! I got a hard song, though... ~_~

What's done over at Darkness Rising
* New index page with affiliates
* Characters page completed (Anzu, Mokuba, Honda, Jounouchi subpages completed)
* Anime page completed
* Manga page completed
* Fanfiction page MOSTLY completed (added new fics, including

30kisses)
* Links page MOSTLY completed (needs organization, link check)
* Card Equivalency List completed
* JAP<->ENG card info page completed

What's left
* [Duel] Monsters page
* Egypt Page
* Secret page (Millennium Items)
* Other stuff...?

Uhh... aside from more stuff and layouts for BEA/DRFA (eventually), WDKY21+, and a few random oneshots, I think that's it for the up-and-coming...

Oh yeah, check out my new LJ layout, courtesy of Lin Kuruzu and

ceruleansan! :D It's so pretty, and oh-so-Seto x Anzu!

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Jean - Step Up

Just to let everyone know Dragonfayth is not dead. But I was all ballistic and excited about getting InkTank to work, because it looked so sophisticated in theory. It's a pain in the ass to maintain, and I've only been trying to put MY story up there. Right now, I've got Dragonfayth in two places:

drfa.seventh-star.net
&
seventh-star.net/df

The first one is running InkTank 1.0, the second one is running a fresh install of eFiction 1.1. There's supposed to be an eFiction 1.5(!) coming out soon, and there's already mods on the new forum that I like, so maybe my faith in eFiction will be restored. Also, if I learn a bit more PHP, I might become more comfortable with eFiction.

Also, it just plain LOOKS better as a fic archive, compared to InkTank, where everything has to be submitted through an email form and nothing is automated.

The catch is that I didn't get a chance to backup any of the old stuff from Dragonfayth, and plenty of people still are not aware of my domain name change. I wish I could have given everybody more advance notice, but it was just as much of a surprise to me as it was to you! Anyway, I can use Google Cache or the Wayback Machine to try and find out which stories were posted, what categories we had, etc.

There is nothing hosted at either site. Still, you're free to check them both out, look at the system, and tell me what you think. I'm positive there are still bugs in each, and since I JUST installed eFiction on the new servers, that means even if everything LOOKS perfect, it's 100% far from being customized. It's as blank as you can get. On the bright side, I saved all the old skins, so reinstalling those that worked should be easy.

Anyway, I'm up when I shouldn't be (working on WDKY19 and "researching hentai" as it were) and my hair's all Snape-like, so I think I'll shower and head off to bed. I have a Japanese test tomorrow, a bunch of Creative Writing due, and I work for at least 5 hours. ;_; At least it's payday.

Current Mood: contemplative

Like Mamono, I'm a bit busy but somehow not feeling it. Now that I've resolved my computer issues (I can transfer things from one comp to the other easily; I bought a memory card by Kingston/1 GB), I'm better. Scott's also agreed to go with me to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) museum when he gets back from San Diego next weekend; there's a Star Wars costume exhibit there through December. I also have to get tickets for the King Tut exhibit, because I will hate myself forever if I don't go to that while it's here in LA, even if it is at LACMA.

Tonight was a pretty defining night though, because I have resolved once and for all to get my freakin' driver's license. Seriously, I can't depend on my grandparents for rides, but I hate worrying people (or worrying myself) when I claim that I can do what I did in San Francisco and WALK everywhere. Northridge doesn't have the transportation San Francisco does, which is the big pitfall of a suburban neighborhood like this; it's really a sub-town of LA, it's got its own area codes and zip codes, but it has none of the ease of getting around that a big city does. So I think I'll stick with DriversEdDirect.com and try and take lessons through them. Where I will get a car from is another matter entirely.

Also, a bit of a to-do list:
* More ideas/forums/layouts for the

betasquad forum (the forum directory will be locked on opening, so only people from the LJ community will have the PWD to access it. This will help prevent spam and indexing.)
* Open up the

betasquad LJ community to all fandoms, but lock the membership so people must apply
* WEBSITES!! zOMG, must update Blue Eyes and Apricots, Dragonfayth, and Darkness Rising.
* Get the hell started on

ygo_icontests, and keep track of all the icontests. Maybe enter a few more than I have been as of late...
* Work on my entries for

iconfiend100 and

7sinvirtueicons
* Work more on WDKY19 (

atlantian_magic? guardian_kysra? Actually Kysra, you just stay safe. I'd rather dump a bucketload of steamy SxA goodness on you as a THANK GOD YOU'RE OKAY present once you're all safe and sound again.)
* Work on CO7 (I've already finished Chapter 1, and I have a nummy idea for some of the "later early chapters"
* Read all my books (1 for Harper Teen, finish Genpei for myself, 3 ~~sappy~~ modern romances, and 1 new Shopaholic novel in paperback).
* zOMG Story #1 for WRP2, VComm homework + reading, Mythology assignment on Yahoo! Group (?)
* Clean closet/room

Current Mood: tired

^_^ *squee* Okay, admittedly, no one has gotten back to me about WDKY17 yet even though I posted the full version of it in TWO parts (stupid Semagic posting-limit) up at

betasquad. I'm hoping it's not such an eyesore that people click away before they comment and critique, because this is one of those chapters that I need help on. We're halfway through the story, people!

On top of that, I've had to deal with more schmucks joining BEA and not reading the rules. I mean people will type in whatever the heck they want in the URL field, even if it's complete BS-- spaces, commas, misspelled words (ture?) ... the whole nine yards. Two people joined with "seto and tea ture love.com" which obviously doesn't exist, as does NOT "seto and tea love.com" Er, sorry, no. So I updated BEA with some new rules on the Join and front page. I still don't know why the image Mamono made for me is NOT showing up on the index page though... and I have yet to fix the Members page. ^^;

As for reviews for the whole boatload of oneshots I posted a while back, I'm pleased to announce I have a new fan who actually likes the whole lengthy-review concrit thing! This pleases me to no end. Welcome, silent sinner, to the fold! But with a sky, there always comes clouds-- this one is named "Lily," and she likes to tell me to continue on all my oneshots, she forgets the name of the card (Kaibaman) that I clearly mentioned SEVERAL times in "It's All Your Fault," and... yeah. Plus more minors (ahem!) reading "The Joke's On You" and NOT GETTING THE JOKE. Look people, if you don't get the joke in TJOY, your mind is simply not dirty enough to be reading the story. I don't like explaining all my innuendos, so... yeah, just back off! Slowly... that way I won't get in trouble. ^_^ mkthx. (Oh, and someone just reviewed WDKY and said I have a question. Why do you use a Ashezue's Japanes name when you use the American names for everyone else? I want to burst out laughing. First off darling, it's "Ishizu" and second off, it's BAD DUBBING. It's not a Japanese name, it's Egyptian, and I refuse to spell it the dub way because THEY ARE WRONG. Her name is Isis, and that is IT. If I changed everyone else's names now, it'd be the biggest pain in the butt since hemmoroids.)

I still haven't heard from Dave of PSX-Tech.com -_- Okay, I know my email account is a bit picky with what is considered Bulk/Junk, but all his other emails have (eventually) gotten through to me... so what's with the wait this time? It's been nearly four months since I placed my order, but I told him I was okay with waiting till he was sure he had a perfectly good working chip... but sheesh, with all this waiting, can't he at least get back to me, tell me when he'll ship it, and maybe waive the stupid $5 shipping and handling because I've been so patient? I'm worried it won't even be worth it anymore, because every time I play FFIX on my PS2, the fan is always BUZZING. Oh, and YAY! I finally got past Gizamaluke! @_@ I don't know how I didn't before, but TEH YAY! I just run away from every battle with the Lumias creature, though.

Hm, but in Burmecia, there's this walkway that falls when I try to cross it. There's a treasure chest with some decent boots in it (supposedly) on the other side, but try as I might, there doesn't seem to be any way to access it. I've read walkthroughs and tips, but all of them are so vague I don't know what to do. Any ideas?

I also had this fabulous idea which will probably end up sucking up what little of my brain juice is left. But I was thinking, since there are so many Yu-Gi-Oh icontest communities out there, why don't we centralize and have one place that keeps track of all the new icontests, deadlines, submission/voting pages, and who's doing banners/new challenges? I know it sounds daunting, but what it would really be is an "updates" community, with a bunch of links in every entry so people could keep up with their icontest communities. I speak from experience that having a filter on your friends list doesn't always help. I wanted to ask people here first, see if it's a good idea, and then maybe I can pitch it to the other Yu-Gi-Oh icontest mods.

In other news-- successful burns of Inuyasha (almost done with it so I can give it back to Roro when I go to SF) and I finally got 18-20 of PGSM... still waiting on 21-25, and then 26-49 is like, 92.6% done! YAY!

Yesterday at work-- finally, direct deposit has started going through... but since my hours have been cut, the paychecks are lousy. Since Brenda, the GM that hired me, has gone to work at a franchise location, "A" is now in charge... which totally doesn't please me, but there's nothing I can do about it but get along. They also are a week late with tips... so they might just end up combining LAST week's tips with this upcoming week's tips on Wednesday. Hopefully that'll put a decent amount in my pocket. ^^;

I close tonight and tomorrow, and on Sunday, I'm there from 9:30am-3:00pm... ah, another morning with very little sleep. Well, I don't mind too much. If I get at least 6 hours and a good breakfast, it's okay. But at 9:00am, Western Bagel is going to be PACKED. *wails* I wish I had priority ordering there or something. ;_;

Current Mood: okay

I know I said I wouldn't post updates about Blue Reflections in here, but all I'm saying is that I have fixed the error with the comment form, have added tons more people to my friends' blogs section, and have added a bunch of entries in the past week or so. I'll be adding more too, as is per usual with my end of the week hiatus, plus I have some songs itching to get posted.

AMC: I've been working steadfastly on getting Seven South up with its new layout; I still have to get all the sub-pages up and running, along with the synopses for the episodes. I just rented the 3rd OVA, so I'll be able to write about the complete series up till November, when Eikoden comes out! Yay!
I have tons of other pages to add, and I'm drawing a blank for a layout for "Learning Software," my Chobits page. I really don't want to use someone else's layout, and at this point, looking for templates and ideas is becoming frustrating. LS may be a while in the making due to this. I'm also skipping around watching the episodes... I watched through 17 yesterday, but still haven't seen 12-14. I'll post episode summaries and MP3s as I get ahold of them.

In case you didn't know before, I have added the once-separate Maboroshi Tsuki to the AMC Network. Since I put it off for so long, it's one of my priorities to get up and running, mostly with fanfiction and synopses.

MS: It's in desperate need of a new, fall-layout, so look for that soon. I have tons of potential ideas, and since it's Sailormoon, I'm in no need of images! I'm still looking to simplify a lot of the sections so navigating to find what you want isn't such a pain, but I want to keep the comprehensiveness I have had for the past several years. I most definitely want to get up MSRARR up and running, not to mention the Webstuff collection. Viva Forever is now integrated within MS, so finding Site Features should be a snap... once I get them uploaded. It'll take time, between school (haha) and my "social events" every Thursday and Friday, but I know I can do it! ^^ Also, feel free to send in your favorite links, submissions for art or fiction, reviews, rants... whatever!

BLA: Blacklight Arcade is the newest addition to the azurite.rosedreams.org domain (which needs a name, by the way, even if it is just a turnpike to all my other pages... any ideas?) I plan on putting my "______ for beginners" game guides there, along with links to walkthroughs, cheats, and other great resources that took me forever to find and helped me out a lot. Of course, I'll also be posting fanfiction, and quite possibly fanart there, once I start posting it! My DDR fic ("Goodbye, Hello, Who Are You?"), already posted on fanfiction.net, will be posted there.

Okay, that's it for now... hopefully be back soon with the Photojournal, Guides, and more REAL updates...

2009 ETA: It's worth mentioning that the majority of the sites mentioned/linked above are now defunct, but will be reappearing somewhere on my current domain, Seventh-Star.net someday in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: San Francisco, CA

Well, the past few days have been HELL. Where to begin? Well, I have a nasty sore throat and cough-- it keeps me awake at night, and it makes eating/drinking anything rather difficult. And I thought it was bad when I just didn't EAT anything, now, if I *want* to eat, I can't!

On a lighter note, it's going away-- I've been taking so much acetaminophen and cough drops (cough sweets in England, my friend tells me) that I've either lost feeling in my throat, or I can't remember what it feels like... to have feeling.

I hope this goes away before school starts, since I'm supposed to be in choir. I mean, it's still about 3 weeks away, but...

I got my senior proofs, too. @_@ My hair looks so FRIZZY! And of course, with the stupid blue background, you can totally tell-- and what's worse, in most of the pictures, you can see how one of my front teeth sticks out more than the other. I know I need braces, but finances are so tight in my family that I've been able to go without them. I've never taken incredible care of my teeth to begin with, but these pictures -the most important ones of my high school career, my mom tells me-just seem to highlight my flaws! what's worse, I don't know how much retouching will cost... and if I don't pick soon, then they'll send an even uglier picture of me to be used by the school in the yearbook!

But of course, there's icing on this cake. The most frustrating thing of the past few days is a simple file. A zip file called 003.zip. It's in my layouts folder, and since I was on a Sailormoon website layouts downloading spree, I imagine that it's a SM layout. Sadly, wherever I got it from seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. I've tried unzipping the file, but it's password protected... and even though I have a record of the files inside, I can't access them to find out what they're of!

So now I have left.html, b1.jpg, b2.jpg, b3.jpg, blank.html, bottom.html, c1.jpg , c1_blank.jpg, index.html, a1.jpg, main.html, right.html and top.html... but I can't do anything with them. As you can see, the filenames are VERY generic, and doing a google search or whatnot doesn't help.

I've tried rummaging through all of my favorites and finding out which sites have frames anime layouts, but for the life of me, I can't figure out which one it is! Between emptying my over-stuffed mailboxes and redesigning an ML's webpage, I can't sort all my favorites!! AUGH! HELP!!

ETA:I'm adding to this because someone left a rather snotty note to me that had nothing to do with what I said in here. I'm sorry if I come across as self-absorbed or conceited in this, but I was really buggered when I wrote this. It was hard to think because it felt like someone poured kerosene down my throat and lit it on fire. What's more, my computer's been giving me such a hassle as of late that I just wanted to sort through everything and start to get organized.

So don't judge me by one entry if you haven't read the rest-- this journal is up here for ME, not for someone else's reading entertainment. I like getting advice and feedback every now and then, but I don't need it. I just vent here. And I'm venting now. I'm not, as this reader put it, a "d!ck sucking" person, or any of that $#!t. So I close once more by saying, if you don't have anything nice to say, click the f*c& off. =)

Current Mood: frustrated

I love the ability to be able to listen to whatever I want online here at school. There's this place called live365.com that has online radios that can play anything you want-- and I know it sounds like I'm advertising for them, but it's the truth!

Here are my favorite anime songs-- some are J-Pop too, in no particular order.

1. Romance by Penicillin (Sugoi yo! Masaru-san)
2. My Will by Dream (Inuyasha, Season 1 OP)
3. Tangerine Dream by Do As Infinity (Inuyasha)
4. Automatic Johnny Vicious Remix by Utada Hikaru
5. Ai no Senshi (Sailormoon R/S)
6. Galaxy Bang! Bang! (Galaxy Angel OP)
7. OP Song from "The Jungle Was Peaceful... and then there was Guu)
8. I Want to Change the World by V6 (Inuyasha)
9. Twinkle Magic (Rune Soldier Louie OP)
10. Route Venus by Rika Fukami (Sailormoon)
11. Coppellia's Coffin by Ali Project (NOIR)
12. White Destiny (Shin Shirayuki Hime Denetsu Pretear)
13. I Don't Need Promises by Maaya Sakamoto (Escaflowne)
14. Yubiwa by Maaya Sakamoto (Escaflowne movie)
15. Vector by Maaya Sakamoto (Escaflowne)
16. (Yoko Kanno)
17. Nee, Nande by Rie Yoshizawa(Trouble Chocolate)

Mwah... there's more, so I mine as well just upload my playlists of everything I have.
I am totally addicted to the Buffy Musical, "Once More With Feeling." I have the MP3s, but they aren't in great shape... really soft. But you can find all the info on those great songs, and the ep on musical.chosenone.net ... I think.

Heh, that's all for now... Ja!

Current Mood: pleased

I'm in a better mood ^^

I like listening to dance/techo music, and that's just what I'm doing now. I have to leave for my sixth period soon, so I'll type ASAP-

Engrish.com-- it just gets funnier every time I visit. I have this notebook from Korea that I got in a mall here in CA. It has a parody of the Wonder Year's song "Stand by Me" and this weird quite-- "born free and life is worth living but only worth living if you're born free." There's also "Tennis Sky" who thinks it's a "funny sport". She likes "Beayutful flower." ^^;

Fontgarden.com-- This site has both great fonts and great quotes! One of those quotes made me think about RO-- this point I always make. There are two ways to be yelled at in ROTC-- by doing something the right way, or by achieving the right result. There's no compromise, no both, it's either or. You get yelled at for whatever you didn't do-- and the quote is "Teamwork means never having to take all the blame by yourself." Heh-- RO emphasizes teamwork and all that... so next time I have an assignment or whatever, I'll work with two other people to share the wonderful world of blame.

Oh yes, and I might not have to go back to ROTC this spring semester! My mom thinks it's stressing me out, and making my more important academic classes suffer. I don't know whether to be excited or not. So all I've got to say for now is-- eh.

Laugh.

Current Mood: amused

I hope bitch isn't a "bad, taboo" word on FreeOpenDiary, I really don't. After all, I'm talking about myself... ^^;

I went shopping the other day and found a wonderful assortment of pins, shirts, etc. that fit me like a silk glove ^_^.

Power Hungry Bitch
Princess In Training
I'm Evil, That's Why
There Is No Sin Except Stupidity
Jesus Is Coming: Look Busy
Suburbia: Where They Tear Our Trees And Name Streets After Them
That's QUEEN Bitch To You!
Hello, My Name Is: Queen of the F$^*ing World
I Barely Survived Yesterday And It's Already Today!?
I Bitch Because It Works
I May Be A Nasty Bitch, But I'm Good At It
Love Your Enemies, It Really Confuses Them
Touched By A Demon
A Very Wise Man Once Said: "I dunno, go ask a woman."
Let's put the FUN back in dysfunctional!
Reincarnation: Been There, Done That
Nothing Is Illegal Until You Get Caught
Queen of F&*%ing Everything
Admit It, You Want Me
Pissing Off the World, One Person At A Time =)
Happy People Are Hiding Something

Just Thought I'd share those with the world... I know there's plenty of weird things out there with weird sayings, things that totally make you crack up or think really hard. Speaking of, if you wanna "kill two bird with one stone" have some laughs and get some new fonts: http://www.fontgarden.com

They really should pay me for all this advertising I'm doing...

Oh yes, and WHAT BREED OF DOG ARE YOU? Tell me please, after you've taken http://www.emode.com's test(s). I'd love to add you to my friend's list, or read your diary. Drop me a line... PLEASE! ^_^

Present Tense Note: Emode became Tickle, and it's never been quite the same. They charge for "full length readings" now, same as other iVillage and similar sites (like Astrology.com). But you can probably find similar, free quizzes at other places on the Web if you're so inclined.

Current Mood: amused

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January 2016

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Page Summary

Just breathe.
Stuffin' muffins
New Year's Stress
What the hell?
Wassup? I'm not Gay!
Fuhokteguawd
Updates and the like
The No-Longer-Anxious Update
Working on Epiphany...
Interrogated by the kidlings
Overhaul
If you can think of a word, there's probably a website for it
Winter cleaning
Whar?
Screwed!
*growl* at Gunslinger!
Cafe, cafe, cafe, cafe!
Mine? Mine Mine Mine!
Oops.
Why I'm still awake and what I've been working on
The post of random
ONE. MORE. WEEK.
Oh, the insanity
Kweh?
Where did all the GB come from?
Inept.
It's a long, long getaway...
Whew!
...And such.
Katamari Damacy~! <3
Blurbs.
Voldemort is wearing a tasteful red bikini
Categories, genres, and sub(marines)
Random announcements
On the fayth of a Dragon
Shine, bright morning light
So this leprechaun, a hag, and a witch all walk into a bar...
(no subject)
Aaaarrrrgh! Frustration imminent!
"Easy" Listening
Laugh a Little
Skinny Little Bitch (And Proud of It, Too!)

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