MILES to GO || before I sleep

Dragonfayth, my site for Azureshipping (Seto Kaiba x Anzu Mazaki/Téa Gardner) fanfiction from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, has recently been inundated with spam. I've deleted it all, but as of right now, there's no solution for the problem as a whole.

The people behind the software aren't that numerous, and the package is pretty customized--after all, a fanfiction archive, while something hugely popular, isn't as mainstream as blogs. So it takes a while for updates to go through, patches and mods to be made, etc. And since the software is free, these people all have day jobs that take away more of their time.

I can't blame them, but I've reached the point where I'd rather pay to get a better solution, or use something else.

Since I don't really have the money or budget for hiring someone to make and teach me/maintain such a site for me, I'm stuck trying to find another solution. Finding software ready-made for fanfiction is harder than it sounds. Fanfiction.net and AO3's software is proprietary--not released to the public, not available for free. Same with FicWad, may it rest in peace. And don't even get me started on MediaMiner.org.

Most people who want their fanfiction archives use eFiction. It's been on version 3.5.3 for ages now; the supposed release of 4 hasn't happened yet, and I'm teetering on "lost hope" for it altogether.

Enter: WordPress.

I'm already using it for the new Seventh-Star Network (the main site, seventh-star.net, I'm building a What Doesn't Kill You site for my biggest fanficton project ever, and I've started making subsites for all my other sites for the various fandoms I've been involved in over the years. I've been using WordPress for ages, not just on GamingDead.com, but for sites that I've built for class projects, like Chixflix.

There are plenty of people who post their fics on WordPress.com, but making a fanfiction archive is a bit different.

I've already got a WordPress Multiuser installation setup for all my other sites; it wouldn't be a headache to set up another site with multiple authors (similar to GD) with open registration (still approved based on captcha codes to eliminate spam sign-ups), and utilize everything like making pages for fanfics, using tags for ratings and warnings, categories for...well, categories, and so on and so forth.

It's very, very tempting, but I don't know if I even want to try starting it as an experiment if it's not a good idea.

So, some questions for you:
1 - What does a good fanfiction archive REQUIRE? (For example, the ability to leave reviews)
2 - What separates an okay fanfiction archive from a GREAT one?
3 - If you have experience with WordPress, what do you think its limitations are for posting/sharing fanfiction?

I'm almost done with His Dark Materials, the trilogy by Philip Pullman including "The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass." I do think they read together better as an omnibus-- or at least 2 and 3 do, because the ending of 1 was "okay," while 2 just sort of... well, "cut off," pun not intended.

I've got a ton of other books to read at some point, many of them purchases from when I was in San Francisco, including Candace Bushnell's Lipstick Jungle, The Thirteenth Tale, the second In Death book, "Glory In Death," "The Historian," the rest of the "Book of the Dead," Susan Issac's "Long Time No See" (at Baba's recommendation), and "Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her," which I'm finding is a very fun, informative read on one of my favorite childhood heroines.

Today at Borders, I also picked up a bunch of manga (another one of those 5-for-4 sales), though I'm still holding off on Fullmetal Alchemist and its associated novels, since I want to wait for the whole series to be finished. Besides, I technically don't have enough bookshelf space for what I have... it's kind of embarrassing (but cool! Because who doesn't want to have their own personal library? Mine is killer! :D). I also picked up "Codebreaker," about -what else?- codes and ciphers and their history. That purchase was, of course, inspired by seeing "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." I actually love puzzles (logic puzzles are my favorite-- I'm not much one for crosswords, though I am a little good at Sudoku), and I think that's sort of come out in WDKY's Téa, because I've had her solve her father's riddles in order to unravel a family mystery (and save Seto on the side, of course). In thinking about the future of WDKY, I'm thinking, if Téa didn't become a dancer, what would she be? There could be any number of reasons why she might not dance, and I thought she might end up as a cryptanalyst or similar. It'd be a fun way of having her one-up Kaiba in many ways-- genius of one area vs. genius of... well, Kaiba's sort of an all-around guy, but hey! :D

Speaking of fanfiction, I've started revisions on an old Sailor Moon fic of mine, "Hogosha no Kokoro," or HnK for short. Originally, the title was SUPPOSED to translate to "Guardian of the Heart," but that was back before I fully understood Japanese and the function (and positioning) of noun modifiers. So technically, it translates to "Guardian's Heart," or "Heart of [the] Guardian," but I guess that's okay, too, even though the meaning is a bit different from what I intended. In any case, I explain the mixup in my Author's Notes, and add "Guardian of the Heart," as the story's subtitle. I figure I could change it to what it was meant to be (Kokoro no Hogosha), but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it, and besides, if I were to abbreviate it the way I do for my other fics (like WDKY), it would be GotH. o_o Yeah, I have a "Goth" story. Great.

Anyway, I'm not sure why I picked this one over any of my other SM fics-- heck knows they all need revising, but HnK has great possibilities as an AR Silver Millennium Fic. No, I'm not going to try and make it fit with the current theme of sm_monthly (which I've almost consistently had ideas for, but never gotten around to actually writing/posting).

( Read more... )

It sucks when you get into a new pairing (this is the second in so many months) and you might find ONE or TWO fics that have a decent plot and spelling and grammar that doesn't make you cringe. Maybe the copy-editor in me has set standards too high, because I went through ALL of the M-rated fics in a C2 community devoted to Albel x Nel from Star Ocean 3 (TTEOT) and I was lucky to find anything halfway readable. Nothing worth reviewing, though, and thus, nothing to "write home about."

Why is it I keep seeing the same carelessness in fics? Whatever happened to showing your love of canon, your pride regarding your pairing (crack or not), and basic rules for clarity? I mean, even if you write just to get a plotbunny out of your head, you're still posting for the public- everyone knows there's the potential for reviews, or why else post it online in the first place, especially at a place like FFnet? Why else say things like "R&R" or "No flames!"? (And frankly, I find the last one stupid. Unless you've written something you know will "warrant" flames, why say it? You're basically asking for it when you say "Don't flame me!" because it really translates to: "Don't say anything if it's not mindless praise and useless drivel! I can't take constructive criticism and will tell you of all my illnesses and tragedies if you accuse me of forgetting to spell-check!")

It bugs me to no end when I see not just some simple, scattered spelling and grammar errors, but constant, repeated things within the first few paragraphs. In what I've seen lately with AlNel fics, it's stuff that's not specific to the fandom in any way, and could affect anyone, any time:

* Tense shifts. It's really, really jarring. I honestly think a simple proofread would solve this. Why don't people ever re-read their fics before they post? I do that many times over with my fics; it's how I catch most of my errors before I send the chapter off to a beta!

* Wrong word, wrong spelling, bad grammar. I saw "hallowed" instead of "hollowed." Yes, I know it's just a letter of difference, and from context, I understood the proper meaning, but still, since it's so easily FIXABLE, why not? A spell-checker won't catch it; you need to be diligent as a writer or have a beta who knows English! Why? Because something with an empty inside is much different from something that is considered sacred and respected. And of course, mixed up words like your, you're, their, they're, there always piss me off. GET THEM RIGHT! I also hate seeing it's or its used improperly. I'm just glad I have yet to see anyone use its'. And people who mix up words that should just LOOK wrong automatically like in this phrase: "They where sitting down next to the grapebind tree." What's wrong with that phrase? If you can't tell me, you fail. (And no, it's not the "grapebind," part, that's actually the name of a variety of tree in SO3. This is obviously something grammatical.)

* OOC. It bugs me when people say "yeah, they're a little OOC," and then they apologize, bitch about it, or say "fuck off" to the readers in some form or fashion. With most pairings, OOC means they're not the characters we're reading FOR anymore. Albel Nox and Nel Zelpher have such distinct personalities, to make them OOC in the slightest detracts from any quality the story may have had in its plot, writing style, etc. It's like cheapening a fine wine with seltzer water.

For those unfamiliar with the pairing, Albel Nox is the captain of a military power's infantry branch, known as the Black Brigade. He's a feared, ruthless killer with an incredible prowess with the katana and an ego that matches his reputation. But he's got a dark past and a thirst for bloodshed that are his weaknesses.

Nel Zelpher works for the country on the other side of the war, a country called Aquaria. She's a loyal woman, hard-working and strong, but she can occasionally come off as cold. She's also got a biting attitude sometimes. Her father died (technically without her knowing), so she, too, has a bit of a sad past. Unlike Albel, she's not missing any limbs or anything, but her ego's not as huge, even though she is well known as a spy and as the fierce edge of the renowned "Crimson Blade."

To take any of that away from them is to lose what makes them unique, tough characters, and then what's the point of writing fanfiction about them (or people with their names, at least) at all?

* "Guide to my writing." I used to do this when I was younger. But seriously, why the hell do people feel the need to mention that speech will be in "double quotes," thoughts will be 'italicized and in single quotes,' and things like lyrics, other languages, text messages, etc. will be bold/enclosed in brackets/marked off with asterisks, etc.? Ninety percent of the time, it's understood from context! I don't need someone instructing me on basic writing/English! (And for the record, I've written and even enjoy some songfics, but nowadays I'm seeing very little need to include lyrics --or at least huge chunks of them-- in fics. It's much easier to say "This fic was inspired by/has a scene inspired by XYZ by Artist A." Plus, you're not breaking copyright infringement by reprinting lyrics, then. And as an added bonus, there are no extra parts to bold/italicize/whatever to mark them off as lyrics (assuming your reader was too dumb to figure it out otherwise).

* High School fics/Movie or TV-based fics - I really wish this would end. When you take characters from a sword-and-sorcery-based world and try and dump them into a modern high school, modern hospital, or any other "modern" situation, it just ruins their characters. Albel Nox IS WHO HE IS because of WHERE HE WAS BORN, HOW HE WAS RAISED, AND WHAT HE HAS GONE THROUGH. You can't call him "Albel the Wicked" if he's pretending to be House, M.D. Nel wouldn't be who she is if she were years younger and some floozy at Aquios High. Parodies, yes, I can understand that, but... a real fic? It's one thing to dump the characters in a universe that the characters can still somewhat be fit into, but for a game like SO3, it's just not possible with these. Yet I've seen House, M.D., Cast Away, high school fics... ugh.

* Earth-based... - Okay, there's off-worlders like Fayt, Cliff, et. al. in SO3, but that doesn't mean that they're going to introduce a holiday like Valentine's Day/Christmas/etc. to Elicoor. And even if they did introduce it to Nel, Albel, or a city/a country, there's no telling if it would take, or if there wasn't already some sort of similar holiday in place! Consider the circumstances under which holidays developed on Earth. Without the same meaning on Elicoor, what's the point? Why would anyone place any significance to them, or care? Why would anyone ACT on them? It's stupid. It's MUCH easier, if you must have an excuse to write seasonal romance or whatnot, to invent a brand-new holiday. You can take elements of Valentine's Day, for example, and modify it to make something brand new. Even around the world, holidays aren't the same. So why not start with bits and pieces of one holiday and how it's celebrated around the world, and mush them all together? Or take multiple holiday traditions and mush them together? What if people on Elicoor celebrate a day of love in their coldest month, and partake of a chocolate treat after lighting candles on a tree? And what if it's called Eyun, or Rashul Day? It doesn't have to be "Valentine's" or "Christmas," or anything like that. (BTW, remember that Earth in SO3 is several centuries ahead of "modern time" anyway, so who's to say that holidays like those are even celebrated anymore, or if they are, that they're celebrated in even the remotely same way? Christmas now isn't celebrated like it was originally, that's for damn sure.)

* "Bad at summary's. Read." Er, no, I'll pass. Seriously, all a summary is: a single sentence briefly describing the plot of your story. And you know what? It can come in different forms. I know one summary that was a line from the story, but it was so unusual, it drew me in. It can be one of those standard "questions," where you put a character in a situation and then ask if they can get out of it somehow. BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE: a string of pairing names, emoticons, ellipses, references to friends/inside jokes, re-hashed information from canon, song lyrics, or a single word/short phrase having nothing to do with your story (again, such as the pairing name). Same goes for the title, too. MAKE IT RELEVANT. It's not hard.

Summaries also don't need to include irrelevant details (unless it's what makes your story unique, and frankly I DOUBT IT) like whose POV the story is written in, what there are spoilers for (seriously, that's what author notes are for), why it's rated the way it is, etc. It CAN include things like the fact that a chapter is new or revised, if the story is on hiatus or will never be finished, and so on. But it should basically give the reader a reason to read, a reason why your story should be picked out of the trash that is FFnet these days.

There are a ton of other things, too, like eLiTE caps, Random Capitals in the Middle of a Phrase or sentence!, misspellings of canonical things (Airyglyph, not Airigliph, Airygliph, etc.; Fayt, not Fate, Elicoor, not Elicloor, etc.), lack of/bad punctuation (thats, well for we'll, etc.), too much punctuation (*!*!*!xxStoryTitlexx*!*!*!)

I hate to say it, but it's not that much better on most private archives I found. That makes me sad that either writers of this pairing are so lazy, the good writers are so few and far between, and/or the moderators of outside archives aren't stringent. This is why I have an approval queue for Dragonfayth, and why I beta things that are on the verge of being good, but just need some (hopefully minor) changes. Sometimes I'm too nice and I really overhaul a story rather than rejecting it-- I've done it multiple times now with an author who apparently doesn't read the explanations I make an effort to include in my rejection letters.

I'm thinking that contribution to fandom is multi-fold:
* How-To articles on what makes the best fanfiction for X pairing or Y fandom-- just the basics, like what I mentioned above, not things like "The plot must be Z!" or "Character A should act exactly like THIS, all the time!"

* Contribution of your own work.

* Recognition and recommendation of others' work, because it can't be all that bad.

All of the above makes me want to get Epiphany up that much faster, because all of that can be in place with Epiphany. If only I didn't feel so damn tired and busy all the time. Playing SO3 lately has been my only relief, even though I know I tend to procrastinate when I play (e.g. sorting B&G's bills, working on my J371 project which is due next week, etc.)

*SIGH!* This entry has too many asterisks in it.

lin_ko and guardian_kysra, I'm thinking of creating some new holiday skins for Dragonfayth, and I'm wondering if I could use your fanart for some of the imagery (e.g. the header banner). Let me know if you're okay with this, or if you want to know more, etc.

Anyone else interested in contributing fanart or manips for Dragonfayth, I have a BUNCH of holidays that need translation into graphical form. Of course, there's no written rule that they have to have Seto x Anzu or even Yu-Gi-Oh characters in them, but I'd especially love it if they could. So what follows is a list of the holidays I'm thinking of doing... ( Any holiday is an excuse for presents! )

Speaking of Samhain/All Hallow's Eve, I'm going as a witch (again). And yes, I'm well-aware of the irony. I wanted to go as Snow White, but I just didn't have time to get to a costume shop in time. 'Sides, I'm about broke, anyway, so I might as well make use of what I have. So I'll be wearing an all-black skirt and top combo with my purple-spiderweb witch hat and some garish makeup (that is, purple lip gloss and super-heavy eyeliner). Chances are I'll have to take my hat off in class, but other than that... <|:D

I wish I could go to a Halloween party, though... :P

Though I spent today at home (gotta love my stomach-- it likes to stage mutinies), there is ONE good thing about it all-- I'm like... 99.9% done with WDKY25. No, seriously. I'm just unhappy with some "tell instead of show" in the end scene, but I think I can fix that. I'm breaking out the writing kits and other tools I have, perhaps in time for NaNoWriMo. Actually, I've never successfully participated in NaNoWriMo, and I'm not sure if this month will be any different, what with all the various projects I have on my plate. But if I can finish more of WDKY in November, that'll be enough to keep me satisfied.

I wonder if tomorrow will signal finally seeing my vanishing-act boyfriend (rdrr) again. This top-sekrit video game project of his means I haven't seen him online, heard from him via phone, let alone seen him in person. It's been something like 7 weeks... o_o Baba thinks I ought to forget about him.

Speaking of the B&G, Grandpa tripped on his walk with Mokie (that would be the mini poodle we have, in case you didn't know) and got his face all scraped up-- he's okay now, but earlier he looked a bit like the mummy with his face bandaged up in so many places. He'll have more bruises than ever (and he's already got a lot because he takes blood thinners), but at least he's okay and in decent spirits. But when I came out of the house earlier when Baba called me (he'd been lying in the street and a driver walked him back to the house. If Mokie hadn't sat in the street right next to Grandpa, the driver might not have noticed Grandpa. So for once, I actually appreciate the fuzzbutt), I was pretty freaked out-- he was pretty bloody (but laughing about it!). I guess I'm just glad it wasn't worse. Though my dad knows about it and he didn't go off on a tirade about getting them into a home or getting a personal nurse, it does have me worried about all the What Ifs: what if I hadn't been there, what if Baba wasn't outside to see him, etc.? I'm here to take care of them, but there's only so much I can do, and I rely on them, too! /.\

Ugh, it's a constant to-do list with me! Every time I think of one thing I have to do, another five spring up. Just typing them here might get me more stressed out, and though I spent most of today in bed (because moving HURT), I do have to get to sleep... I figure putting on all that makeup will take a while, so I might as well get enough sleep to wake up early and get all gussied up. :P

Okay, so most people on here know I own and maintain Dragonfayth, the only (as far as I know) archive for Seto x Anzu (Azureshipping) fic on the web. I honestly wish more people would host there stuff on there (namely some certain someones here on LJ! you know who you are, right?), but that's not the rant for today.

While it's great to have submissions at all, I notice a lot of them are leaving a lot to be desired. And I thought the Submission Rules I had were enough, but apparently not. People are making BASIC mistakes and submitting... well, trash. I'm not FFnet; I don't intend to post things that are riddled with spelling and grammar errors, bad formatting, etc. Even OOC comes into play, though I suppose to a degree, that's subjective.

But mine IS a private archive. I don't HAVE to accept every damn thing that comes my way. I am willing to post someone's fanfiction in an archive EXCLUSIVE for that sort of fic (as opposed to FFnet, where one good fic is buried under tons of horseshit), if people are just willing to respect the rules.

So where do I draw the line? I don't want to feel guilty about rejecting stuff, but I don't want to have to rip someone's story apart fixing every last error, inconsistency, or frankly, lousy scrap of writing there is. I can only beta-edit for simple spelling and grammar fixes when I have time. Which is not often, if you get my drift.

So I was thinking of developing some "Standards of Quality" for Dragonfayth that are much more explicit than just the general submission rules. These would go beyond just saying "no spelling, grammar, and formatting errors," because even with a spellchecker and a beta-reader, I still catch misuses of words. I can correct those, no big deal. I don't get mad about those.

But when people:
a) don't bother to accent Téa's name (and YES, this pisses me off ROYALLY. It's NOT hard to do, NOT hard to look up and learn if you don't know how, and I DO NOT accept excuses)/mix and match/mangle names (also pisses me off royally. DO NOT DO IT!)
b) Have "conversations" with their "Yami" or with Seto and Anzu at some point before/during/after the fic
c) Have non-summaries that don't tell me anything about what the story is about
d) Have fics that aren't really "stories" at all, but more like blurbs (and I don't mean oneshots/shortfics; I've seen plenty of those that are prolific enough in 100 words or less. I mean stuff like "So and so hated so and so. So and so got into a fight! They kissed! The end." YES, I have seen those on Dragonfayth!)
e) Have grossly OOC characters (and I mean Seto waxing eloquent and poetic, usually)
f) Can't remember to format dialogue like so: "I thought you said we'd have macaroni," Téa cried. and instead use periods before the quote, or no punctuation at all, or capitalize the attribution (if it's not a name) after the dialogue
g) Use fangirl Japanese that has a PERFECTLY ENGLISH EQUIVALENT WORD (such as "Hello?" and "Mother" as the most recent examples I came across)

It just drives me BATTY!

I can't just whip up rules and apply them to fics sitting in the queue (as they have been for months). That's not fair. But honestly... I don't think these fics are good enough, and going into acute detail in the rejection letter seems ridiculous.

Maybe I need a co-mod for the Submissions Queue so I can easily say "This isn't good enough. This is meant to be a QUALITY archive, and this fic just doesn't hold up." That's why I built Dragonfayth in the first place-- to be something DIFFERENT from the C2s on FFnet, and to have better fics than just ONE author's favorites list, or ONE attempt at searching for "Seto x Anzu" in FFnet's search engine.

There is some DAMN good Azureshipping fic out there-- by atlantian_magic, praiseofshadows, wickeddawn, guardian_kysra, rhapsody_dragon, svelterose, geniusgirl, akavertigo and countless others. I just wish more of that "DAMN GOOD STUFF" would make its way off LJ/FFnet and onto Dragonfayth, where it can bask in all-Azureshippy-glory! Because all this frankly badfic makes Mer sad. ;_;

I dunno, any suggestions guys?
* Is having "Standards of Quality" going too far?
* If not, what would be good expectations to have of fics PRIOR to them being submitted to the queue?
* Does anyone wanna help co-mod the queue anyway, just so I don't end up angsting over all these decisions on my own?

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Currently...
-uploading the 2.0.3 fix and patches (1/6) for Dragonfayth Trying to re-mod everything after the patches; it looks like crap right now... and I need to sleep.
-hoping someone on the CodeGrrl.com forums will get back to me about my sudden and rather unexpected inability to add members to Blue Eyes and Apricots
-wishing there was a way I could recover all the "duplicate" PSDs that I just deleted, that I thought were copies (but were not) and either did not end up in my recycle bin, or did and got deleted/made invisible anyway

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Okay, so I'm done watching Arabian Nights--always a good read. Lots of transcribing to be done. At least I filled up many pages of my journal with notes! And it occurred to me while I was watching that it doesn't just fit for an AUish sort of Sailormoon story (Lunar Nights), but also an AE-period continuation/revelation story.

( Imagine this, if you will, your majesties... )

Also, the Arabian Nights made-for-TV movie only included 5 stories:
* Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
* The Murder of Jester Bakpak
* Aladdin
* A Pharaoh's Joke
* The Three Brothers
There are supposed to be several more (1001 total, I think). Some of the ones I've found:
* The Fisherman and the Genie
* The Old Man and the Hind
* The Old Man and the Black Dogs
* The Fisherman
* The Greek King
* The Husband and the Parrot
* The Vizier Who Was Punished...
etc. Anyone else remember some more? Of all the 1001 Arabian Nights, most are hero stories, but there are beautiful princesses, clever slave girls, and wicked queens, too. Any good Fairy Tales you'd like to recommend?

CONTEST!
Since I'm trying to get people to submit header images for Dragonfayth, I figure I might as well make a contest out of it. I'm looking for a colorful Seto x Anzu header image with the site name (Dragonfayth) and slogan (The Premiere Seto Kaiba x Anzu Mazaki Fanfiction Archive) on it. It should be around 600px wide at least.
I'm aiming for the header image to be used in a site like this one: http://www.pgsm-fanfiction.net/ (default skin is silhouette).
The winner will get to choose from one of the following:
* A commissioned piece of Seto x Anzu art from me (color)
* A commissioned fanfic (oneshot) of any het pairing or gen persuasion from the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom
* 15MB+ webspace on the seventh-star.net domain
* One volume of any Yu-Gi-Oh manga, English or Japanese (from the original series. Yu-Gi-Oh! R and the Gospel of Truth are incredibly hard to find, though).

GO FOR IT! (Oh, and do tell me if you're planning on entering. The winner will be determined by... originality, creativity, and extra special consideration will be given to people that request the CSS from me and alter the CSS to suit the image.)

Oh, yay for good news-- Dad finally called and it looks like that whenever I want to come back here (home) after Christmas, Dad and I (and possibly Kathleen, though I'm surprised he's still with her) are going to go to Palomar, where they have this GIANT astronomical observatory. ^^ It's been a while since I've done anything with Dad, and it sounds fun! And if Eva wants to go back before Dad does, Dad is willing to meet me down here, since he has to come and see Baba and Grandpa anyway.

Tagged by schmollieollie:
Five weird things about me
* I'm nocturnal. As in, I sleep in the afternoon, wake up in the evening, and go to sleep again in the morning.
* Accomplishing something really confusing gives me an incredible happy high. Think coding.
* I still sleep with my teddy bears on occasion. It's nice to have something to hug when it's cold and lonely. :)
* I just finished dueling a bunch of... well, probably pre-tweens, and I pwned them all. I only lost when the game froze during a turn. Does playing a game that seems to appeal more to kids than people my age (let alone my GENDER) make me weird?
* I don't pluck my eyebrows if I can avoid it.

More Dragonfayth news...
This is also on the main page of the site, but short of posting to azurite_updates too often, here it is: I just added a new item to the main menu- 'Characters.' Now you can access some short biographies and pictures of all the Yu-Gi-Oh characters featured (or that can be featured) in fanfics hosted at Dragonfayth. I'm always open to adding more characters, so let me know who needs to go on there! (I will tell you right now that we're missing characters from the AE arc, and I haven't yet differentiated between the Dark halves and/or previous incarnations. I need some input before I do that.)

What other pages should I add? Tammy of eFiction actually made the adding-a-link-to-the-main-menu process VERY easy. I could link to BEA/other seventh-star.net sites, obviously, but that's more of a single links thing (Links.php). What else do people want to see?

I think as of that last post, I may have solved the WDKY23 problem. And I don't know if you're keeping up with WDKY, ceruleansan, but there will be a minor tribute to you in that chapter. See if you can spot it. :}

Maaa, Hana Yori Dango j-drama never ceases to amaze me. Even though I know the story practically by heart, trying to cram 36 volumes of greatness into 9 episodes (I don't know why that's the expected total, but it's what everyone is saying) makes for some pretty damn dramatic hours. And you never know what the drama might change... of course, every episode has its requisite "Gah! I wanna strangle (insert character name here)!" Usually it's Tsukushi or Tsukasa, but for ep. 6, Rui totally deserved to be asphyxiated.

Oh, so someone recommended a bunch of gen fic over at ygo_goodfic, and one of them has inspired me for what might turn into my Christmas Challenge entry (for my own challenge, but hey, I'm allowed to do that). Sometime between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City is Christmas. Mokuba, child that he is, wants lots of games, and obviously, Kaiba, efficient guy that he is, decides (against his better judgment) to go to the Kame Game Shop. But rather than face his "mortal enemy" in Yuugi, it's Anzu who's mysteriously manning (or womanning?) the shop. Whereas in a genfic, such a coincidence would never occur and romance would most certainly never blossom, I'm an Azureshipper and I pull the strings, bwahaha!

What do you think? ^^

You know, I really haven't written as many Azureshipping stories as I thought. Ideas, lots. Posted, very few. Here's the lo-down (subtracting ones NOT posted on FFnet/my site; I still have to migrate gift fics and other LJ-exclusives to my site soon):
* What Doesn't Kill You
* Family
* Prophecy Girl (needs a revision)
* The Joke's On You (also needs a revision)
* Strains
* I Walk Alone/Something Completely Different
* Mash/Pop
* Letters
* Lover Alone
* In A Good Mood
* Cowboy
* A Touch of Victory
* Good Night and then Goodbye
* The Darkness Within
* Neko no Guukan
* The Rose Chronicles
* Eat Your Words, Beautiful
* I Know That You Know
* Reality is a Lie
* S'More
* This Is All Your Fault
* Unreasonable Demands
* Keep
* Death and Absolution
* Dragon Lore
* Something to Somebody
* TLC
* You and Me

Maybe it looks like a long list, but it's less than I thought. And I didn't include the ones that I've started on but either put on hiatus or got stuck on for one reason or another. There's "The Show Must Go On" (remember, atlantian_magic?), She, The Speed of You, Girls' Club... and those are just the ones that have chapter or planner files-- I'm not even starting on the ones in my Ideas planner! Yeesh.

But anyway, I'm slowly but surely posting what I have up at Dragonfayth. I hope everyone else will join in soon and make it a successful and popular archive for Azureshippers!

I've recently added a few more mods:
* Link to Fanfiction.net profile
* Link to LiveJournal

That's in addition to the existing ones that show Story Type, differentiate Completed Stories from Incomplete Ones, mark Challenge fics and Round Robins, and list people's screen names from AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ! Plus the site looks bitchin' if I do say so myself (and I do say so myself), so YAY!


You are the hivemind!

A highly sophisticated form of mob rule, you issue
edicts which must be obeyed and rule the
community with an iron fist.

Unfortunately your memos frequently go astray...


Which article of Fandom Wank culture are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Ehehe.

In any case, I have to do my Japanese listening comprehension now... mythology class never has homework, and I don't even have any Visual Communication class for later today (I would say tomorrow, but it's already Wednesday). And since I'm already getting an A in the class, there's no sense in me wasting time BSing an extra credit paper. That leaves a revised story due for WRP2 class, which should be easy... I have 6 hours between the end of mythology and the start of WRP2, and I have no intention of staying on campus for all that time. :P

That and I have to burn lots of CDs... I'm running low on disk space, what with all my active Torrents, and the DDR Project 4 and Lord of the Yen Trilogy take up a lot of space! :O Worse, I'm running low on CDs to burn, because I've been giving them to Scott! >:( Gggh! Time to duel go!

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!

So much for a great start to October.

If you didn't hear my voice post, here's my half-hearted attempt at making an entry with a fucked up hand. I cut my hand on the can of dog food over at Debbie's house Saturday night. I was stupid and tried to open it with a spoon when the can opener didn't work. I may have severed a tendon or a nerve (or two), as my right hand's ring finger and pinky won't bend at the top joint. I have 10+ stitches, it hurts, and I was on narcotics for a while.

But at least the nurses said I'm probably ready for Lamaze now. :P Not that I'm pregnant or anything, but it's good to know my pain tolerance has increased, ne?

Scott was a saint for staying with me (while he was STARVING, too!) for 6 hours at the Northridge Hospital ER. It was ridiculous how long I waited and how much it hurt while getting stitches, but... at least I can KIND OF use my hand now. Kind of, but not really. He had to fill out all my forms on one of them, and he filled out one (to stay with me in the ER) as "common law husband." Even if he was just doing it so he could stay with me while I hollered at the nurses, it made me feel all WAFFy inside. He put "friend" on a later form, but who cares? I know he still loves me. *stubborn mule*

I went to Kaiser today (Larry, Debbie's husband drove me) and I got my Keflex antibacterial, but no Vicodin-- I have generic Hydrocordone at home, super-strength, from grandpa, if the pain gets too bad. And Scott's hopefully staying with me until my grandparents get back on Wednesday. It's not as if I need the company, but it's nice having comfort and help when I need it. It sucks being "one-handed." My stitches make me look like Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

At least I got a box from Mom today. o_O She sent me a bunch of weird stuff. Aside from 2 things I asked for (my duffel bag and my photo albums), she also sent me a nightgown that didn't belong to me, two extra bags I will probably never use, my magazine racks filled with old coloring books and comics, #5 of Saint Tail, some Japanese manga I forgot I had (Hinata 120%!, Ranma vol. 32 - original edition, Prism Time #1 and #2), and two Beanie Babies-- both dogs. Oh, and a penguin stuffed animal, which did not make me feel better. >_> If you listen to the phone post, you'll know why.

BTW, phone posts are standard OGG vorbis format. Get yourself a compatible player, else you're behind the times. They're smaller, often clearer than MP3s, and license-free! :P

eFiction!Dragonfayth is coming along okay-- I still have a funky error on the authors.php page, but the site is "readable," although plain. More mods may come later, but for now:
(1) What categories should I use? The same old ones: AU, AR, Challengefics, Crossovers, etc. etc. or something different?
(2) Who wants to be a mod? Same as last time, if you have time, but also people to help the site administration when I can't (as in, disabled with just one hand) or aren't available.
(3) Where should I pimp the final version?

On the categories note, I can have SUB-CATEGORIES, so it might make more sense to put GENRES in the sub-categories, and use something else for "genres." My thought:
ACTION/ADVENTURE
FANTASY
SCI-FI
ROMANCE
-Hentai
  -Non-Con
  -Threesomes
  -Whatever kinky things you can think of
-WAFF
-Romantic Angst
-General

You get the idea? I was being sarcastic about the non-con and threesomes stuff, but they're just examples of the sub categories I can have. Then I can set the things like "type" of fic as "genres." I don't know I should probably look at some more sites running eFiction and see what they do.

It also occurred to me that Circle of Seven could have a sequel. I know it sounds crazy. But both WDKY and CO7 are going to have "endings" that actually leave you with some questions, and there could be a sequel, making the saga a trilogy. No idea what I would call it or what I would do in it (except for one possible big thing, but saying what that "thing" is would ruin the plot of both WDKY and CO7, so... ^_^ I'm shutting up). Let's just say I was inspired by "Flight Plan," which Eva, Scott, and I saw last night at the Fashion Center. Why did we see a movie? Because Scott pwned us both at Gin Rummy.

By the way, I finally "met" Lance. It's a cute car-- a white Lan EVO. Good on Eva. (I think Lance is gay. Bwaha!) Eva, you still owe me a game of Truth or Dare Jenga, though. *laughs* Did you know Jenga is actually rated for "adults!" HEH! Eva and I also discovered that my birthday falls during CSUN's Spring 2006 break. Halle-fucking-luliah. Where will I get drunk? I can go ANYWHERE! *mad giggling*

Oh, and the Clubs Conference wasn't too bad. I got free stuff, won the raffle (got a snappy red CSUN water bottle that pops its top!), and saw a teeny tiny kitten on a leash! =^.^= nyao! But this morning I read a sad story on the back of the Calendar section/Kid's Section about a (fictional) dog named Gumbo, who was abandoned (not by the owner's choice) in New Orleans. ;_; I cried, and Scott got all worried about me. I wanna know what happens to Gumbo, so I'm going to read tomorrow.

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