I'll tell you what you can do for me

Postspam ftw!

So about, oh, 10 minutes ago I finished my STA Travel 193 Karaoke entry. It's currently exporting from iMovie '08 (*cringe* I can explain!) into a format that everyone and their dog can view-- in other words, a format I can upload to the contest website before it closes/changes tomorrow night. It needs to be under 40 MB though... which is the hard part.

My whole plan was to use iMovie (I wanted to use iMovie HD, aka '06, but for some reason it wouldn't detect my built-in iSight. I have iChat AV, no other iSight programs were open-- and when I *DID* open things like Photo Booth or iMovie '08, they detected the camera just fine. WTF?) and record myself all gussied up as Songstress Yuna singing to, what else, Jade's version of real Emotion.

I slaved for a pretty long time just to make a passable karaoke version of Jade's real Emotion ~FFX-2 Mix~. Yes, I know there's the instrumental version of Koda Kumi's ~Original Mix~, but I didn't want to sing in Japanese (too cheesy for the contest, somewhat difficult), plus the ~Original Mix~ is nearly twice as long as the ~FFX-2 Mix~ of which there is NO karaoke or instrumental version. So I made one.

Well, lamesauce was poured all over when I recorded it- I had to play the music in iTunes and use my IR remote to play it, but then capturing the video from iSight meant a delay-- plus, I had to physically CLICK using the touchpad, which meant either the music would be off-sync or there'd be a weird amount of time where I was adjusting the video. I chose the latter, since re-syncing the music would be a pain in the ass. I could just cut the video of me leaning forward to the computer anyway.

But having it play in iTunes meant my voice over the USB mic was barely audible, and the setting for "playing audio while recording," didn't work the way I expected it to, so I ended up creating and trashing a few projects that HAD to "assemble" after I realized "Oh shit, this isn't working!" So that added time. Anyway, I read the manual and figured the tip on plugging headphones in for the audio so it wouldn't interfere with the voiceover (aka my singing) would work-- and it did, but now you can hardly hear the background music, which obviously doesn't make for good karaoke.

In any case, I've tried so many different things and all the iMovies are frustrating me to the point where I'm just happy with what I've got. It'll suck if I don't win, but come on-- it's not exactly a talent contest. I'll be happy if I do, but honestly? I don't have the energy to put forth the EFFORT to make something so satisfying even I would be impressed (were I a judge giving away a 9-day trip to Japan). That's kind of sad, really...

Anyway, Mom wants to know what I want for Christmas, and after this week's brou-ha-ha, I think I'll tell her I want the one-to-one training Apple offers. I really need to learn iMovie and GarageBand. I'd RATHER learn it from a friend or something (hint hint), so...? Anyone have any experience in this area? You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours-- I'm a woman of many talents...

You know you wanna

Okay, for anyone that's ever wanted to see me sincerely try something and quite possibly make a complete asshat of myself, here's your chance. This is my STA Travel 193 Karaoke Contest submission-- to Jade (of Sweetbox)'s "real Emotion ~FFX-2~ Mix."

As I already said before, it was a pain both creating the karaoke version of the track AND recording it, not to mention UPLOADING it, but it finally works. So check it out, laugh your butt off, admire my Yuna costume (but not my Yuna-moves, those are bad), and then click on those five happy thumbs-up icons in the corner.

You know you wanna.

I suck at it

Organization. That and Math are my weak points. But somehow, whenever I need to find something (most of the time anyway), I can find it. Giving directions to my grandparents when I forget something and need them to bring it to me... well, then it makes me feel like I have the organization of a rock-thrower wrasse.

Anyway, I want to get Epiphany up soon, hopefully before Christmas and the New Year, It really frustrates me that all my fics aren't consolidated in one place, and that I've had an online presence for over a decade, but I've yet to get really organized.

For the uninformed, Epiphany is my eFiction archive for my fanfiction-- just mine, no one else's (as of this moment). As most of you know, I write a ton of things: rants, essays, articles, fanfiction... I also write for tons of fandoms: anime, manga, movies, books, television shows...

I have no idea how to organize it all! I can't do it "FFnet style" with Anime/Manga, Books, Movies, etc., because many of the fandoms I'm in have MULTIPLE versions-- anime AND manga, video games AND anime, Books AND movies... and so forth. I know some FFnet categories have a classification called "world" that lets you specify whether you're writing for the (fandom) anime/manga/video game/movie/book/musical/whatever, but that system operates on the assumption that fans know the original form of the fandom, and let's face it-- most people don't.

I want to avoid "crossposting," so I don't want to separate Anime and Manga. After all, someone might want to read a fanfic that's from an anime-based fandom, and then move onto one based in the manga. Or they might just want to read ALL fics of a given fandom, not caring what KIND of canon the fandom is. Plus, I have lots of fics that are almost fusions of anime and manga, among other things-- for example, Sailor Moon, Star Ocean, Yu-Gi-Oh.... Like, where would "What Doesn't Kill You" be posted? It could easily go into Anime AND Manga, but I don't want my stories to be posted in multiple places. It should just be organized in an easy-to-understand, quick-to-find way, PERIOD.

I thought about organizing it by "type" of posting, like Rants, Fanfiction, etc., but that wouldn't make much sense, either-- that's more of a "type" classification, and besides, what would I use for subcategories if I used those for main categories? I'd have to spend a ton of time reposting all the fandoms as subcategories if I did that.

So I need some ideas. It's clear to me now that my classifications should be as follows:
Type: rant, fanfiction, essay, etc.
Subtype: ship manifesto, shortfic, songfic, doujinfic, etc.
Genre: romance, general, adventure, drama, etc.
Warnings: sexual content, violence, crude language, etc.
Fandom: Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, etc.
World: movie, book, anime, manga, video game, musical, etc.

But so what should the MAIN categories be? And what should the SUBCATEGORIES be? I'm really lost... /.\

Plus, some fandoms might have further organization, like how Yu-Gi-Oh can be organized by Season or Arc, the same way Sailor Moon can (and was, on my Mare Serenitatis site, back in the day). I can use a practically infinite amount of subcategories, by the way. (Of course, if I want fandom-specific organization, I might need to make fandoms subcategories somehow.)

I guess what I want to do is develop a sort of "site hierarchy" or "tree" that makes sense and only has lines going up and down, not side-to-side, diagonally, in zig-zags, etc.