MILES to GO || before I sleep

I'm so excited about this that I honestly just want to tell everyone, everywhere.
So I got myself a new phone, and for once, I just couldn't pick a case for it. So I designed my own. Using my fanlisting Blue Eyes and Apricot' layout as inspiration, I designed an image that's usable for my new case, but also stickers, journals, totebags, and more!

Here's the image I ended up using:


Plus, I'd love to do more stuff like this. I don't consider myself much of a digital artist, but I love Azureshipping and would love to see more fan merchandise out there that shares that love. If you've got some ideas for things for me to try or want to collaborate, let me know!

So check me out on RedBubble!

WHOO-HOO! Even though I'm totally screwing up my sleep schedule by being up this late, it's hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour when you're high from getting stuff done! (Well, and a can of Coke, maybe.) Last night and tonight (or more aptly, yesterday morning and this morning), I:

* Finished the new site design of Blue Eyes and Apricots. It's version 5, and I've nicknamed it "Weathered Rainbow."

* Updated the behind-the-scenes coding on all 3 of my fanlistings (BEA, Ace of Hearts, and The Firefly Room) as well as my Enthusiast 3 control panel and my collective (Azurelist).

* Changed around the content of BEA, with the focus on a brand-new HUGE media library, which includes links to great AMVs, lists of fanmixes/fansoundtracks and links to buy the individual tracks, and much, much more! I'm planning on doing a separate page for linked fanart a'la obabscribbler's Fanart Recs; that way there's no more concern over theft (at least, someone would knowingly have to go to someone's DeviantART, save the full-size image, and then neglect to save the artist's username or a notation saying "DA" or something, and then use it without permission). However, I won't host art on BEA anymore, with the exception of manipulations for icons, banners, etc. (I might consider it if I could set up a password system, though.)

* Added a blacklist to keep track of the thieves. Did you know someone actually stole banners from BEA and didn't even bother to mention the fanlisting? I mean, HELLO? We're here to bring people together,not be more divisive through theft! -_- I'm not sure what I find more offensive, that or the people that use images that were GIFTS TO ME (like my WDKY icons or ficart).

Because the page takes so long to load, I'll probably be splitting it up in the near future, after I've finished adding all the links for the various musical mixes and whatnot.

If you have anything you'd like to see on BEA, let me know!

So check out the new layout and tell me what you think!

Left to do:
* Find some more AMVs that don't use stolen artwork (recs welcome!)
* Use Angela Sabas' style switcher (hopefully) for the new Firefly Room (Secret Society Girl fanlisting) layout, which needs to be tested and made live
* Add more content to TFR!
* Ask the people at TFL if I can become the fanlisting for the SSG series now, rather than the first book (before I couldn't, because only two books were out at the time, and TFL considers a series three books or more)
* Open some more fanlistings??? (Potentially crazy and NEW idea, bad when I've got so much else on my plate. But lots of possibilities.)
* Add icons to BEA (with the permission of the artists from here on LJ, that is... any volunteers? It's totally up to you!)

So my new computer probably won't ship until the 30th at the earliest, and if they DO ship it that day, that's the day they charge my card. Coincidentally (har har!) it's the day my bill for my credit card is due, and I can't buy anything more until said payment is... paid. So basically I'm broke-ish until the laptop is paid for and I can get my rebate, which sucks.

I also restarted work on the "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Another Story" novelization project. I'm glad I managed to catch up to where I was (a little more than midway through Mercury's portion of Chapter 2 - In Search of the Stones) in less than two days, but running Dreamweaver at the same time as SNES9x is a pain, and it's hard to type and pause with my memory so low. So while I do plan on restarting/finishing that soon(ish), I'll wait until I get the new laptop, since that should make juggling the two programs easier.

Tomorrow I have my first day of JOUR 397B, aka the Daily Sundial, even though I've already been to the orientation and have been turning articles in. We're not meeting in the Sundial room afaik, so I'm not really sure what to expect.

After class, I'm supposed to go to a follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon back in Van Nuys, but a lot's happened in the past two weeks-- namely, Grandpa's gotten a LOT more forgetful and more spaced out. Of course I'm worried about him-- I don't really know what caused it or brought it on, and the family's got a lot of theories, ranging from overdosing on some medication to having a stroke and us just not knowing about it (is that really possible?). Either way, it's a bit sad to see him seem so listless and uninvolved in anything the way he used to be-- always reading his papers, checking his stocks, and watching his financial and political news programs. Now he just sort of sits there and channel surfs, and sometimes he doesn't even pay attention (Baba said he watched "Hannah Montana" for an hour today, which SCARES me).

SoI might not go to the oral surgeon tomorrow if Baba's taking Grandpa to the doctor's, but I think I feel fine-- I haven't had any residual soreness, tightness of the jaw, bleeding, or noticeable signs of infection. I still don't want to get slammed with a cancellation fee if I don't go, and even if I do go, again, there's the whole payment thing... urgh, can't wait until my next paycheck. I think with all the hours I've been pulling lately it'll be a bit better than my last one, but I hate how I only get paid once a month.

I am worried about Grandpa, of course... I mean, part of the reason why I'm here is to try and take care of them, though as I've mentioned in the past, I never want to baby them. Neither of them are "rest home" type of people, so Grandpa being "incapacitated" like he is seems hard enough on all of us. I don't like facing the very real possibility that his time is coming... but I should, just because this isn't like with Michelle (an accident, out of nowhere, unpredictable. Grandpa's old; he's led a great and full life and been a wonderful inspiration, help, and part of my life. He's been my ONLY Grandpa, because my mom's father died before I really got to know him (I was only a baby, I think). It sucks feeling like I'll have the responsibility of doing so much more for Baba if Grandpa does pass-- moreso than I did or even COULD have done for Mom back when Michelle died. But I do have to be there for her --for Grandpa as well, for as long as he is here-- because I guess part of me is still adamantly hanging onto what little "youth" I feel like I have left. I lost a big chunk of it when Michelle died, because I was 10 and suddenly had to act like an adult back then. Now I'm 22, and I have to act it and beyond, because it's not just Mom this time, it's Baba and all the kids (my aunts and uncles).

I want to think positive though, if just to provide a contrast to Baba's pessimism. I am scared though --and I hate to think it, but selfish. What'll happen to me if Grandpa DOES pass before I graduate? Can I help out with all the bill payments? Will I need to? Grandpa's not working anymore; I don't know where they get money from, or where it all goes to.

Dad is still coming up next weekend for Labor Day, and Shawn (who was supposed to come over today, but I think I gave him my post-surgery cold) and I will be going to Jill's on the 1st for a BBQ/Pool Party. I'm hoping Shawn makes a good impression on both sides of the family, either way. :P I mean, not like it's THAT serious or anything, but it's always nice to get that out of the way first. This isn't some "Meet the Fockers" redux or anything, you know?

Speaking of Dad, he's adamant that when Shawn gets better, he and I go to a bike shop to take the bike that's been sitting in the garage rafters to get totally overhauled. I've thought about it a lot, since bicycling is great exercise, and both my parents can shockingly AGREE on its benefits. I don't have the first clue how to ride though, so the first step would really be getting this bike shaped for ME. And maybe painted purple! :D Dad even says he'll pay for it, which rocks.

Hopefully things will stay... "good-ish" for the next few weeks at the least; Baba and Grandpa are supposed to go to Seattle for Rosh Hashanah, and Shawn should be staying over that week. It'll also be a Mokie-free week (huzzah!) because Baba wants to leave the poodle over at Debbie's, the groomer's we've been taking the fuzzball to. That'll be nice-- not to have to deal with Mokie's yapping and such. That's one reason why I like cats more-- even if they meow, they don't meow so loudly that it attracts attention from outside, or scares postmen.

What else? I woke up today remembering some of the 42 prompts I'd partially done, and how a) I never finished them and b) they were mysteriously not in my Memories. So I found and added them, and maybe when I finish WDKY25 (I surprised myself by seeing how long I've been complaining about that chapter since I finished with WDKY24 last year) I'll work on a few more of those "blurbs." I don't know if/when/where I'll post them, though.

For my next two Sundial articles, I have to contact the Westfield Topanga mall (did it by email, since I didn't find another contact person/PR number to call) and some astronomy teachers at CSUN... unfortunately, the Physics and Astronomy Dept. page at CSUN doesn't organize the professors by their subject, so I might just need to call the department office and find names of professors (preferably full-time; the prof. I had and emailed -who hasn't gotten back to me yet- is part-time) who are in astronomy and might have some insight on the upcoming meteor shower. BTW, every time I type that, I want to say "VENUS METEOR SHOWER!!!!!" I think it sounds a lot cooler than "Crescent Beam shower!" I mean, why would crescent beams shower? Or shower down, as it were? (I remember getting a Sailor Moon Collectible Card from Toys 'R' Us ages ago, and it had a "new" attack for Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter on there. Back in the day, before the rest of the series got dubbed/subbed, those kind of things got me downright GIDDY. It was like NEWS in the Sailor Moon universe!)

*sigh* I've been taking a lot of naps today, and I feel like I've hardly been productive, even if I did get work done on the BSSM:AS project.

On the plus side, I've been adding more fics to Dragonfayth, and Blue Eyes and Apricots is only 19 members away from having 500 members! So tell all your friends to join! :D More Azureshippers! WHOO! (We shall conquer the world!)

( Cut because there's always another... meme! )

I just finished sorting through all my Sailor Moon cards. I don't know what possessed me, really, but I think it was mentioning those odd attacks. The wrong one on a dub card was "Venus Electrobolts Slam!" Doesn't that sound more like one of Jupiter's attacks? But it got her "Thunderclap, Zap!" one right. Go figure. Doesn't someone also have a dub attack ending in "Slam!" though?

I also wanted to find the anime-only special cards of the "wedding" from Sailor Stars (they're not images from any real episode, though). Turns out I had most of them in my sticker album, so I'll have to scan them eventually. The collection is quite interesting, and I have a plethora of counterfeit cards based off ONE of the Mercury cards, using manga artwork instead of anime. It's funny how there are so many cards with just the very top of Mercury's head, someone else pictured, and "Sailor Mercury" at the bottom (sometimes not even fully visible). I wonder if the stuff I've got -some of which is in REALLY good condition, in sets, too!- can be sold or something. Not like I do anything with it. And once I scan it... well, I'm happy.

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!

Whee! That pesky mySQL (my Sequel? That's how the guys at ITR say it. I've always called it "my Es-Cue-El.") error that was essentially ruining Blue Eyes and Apricots has been solved. ;_; It was all my fault too, for trying to include the config.php unnecessarily. I also didn't check where the paths led, so I fixed them so they led to the right place in the Enthusiast admin panel. Hopefully everything will work smoothly from here on out. I removed the flags modification, too. :P

I've still got to figure out how the affiliates images directory works, but in the meantime, the BEA affiliates still show up on the side bar, which I can edit at any time, should someone/someplace else wish to affiliate.

And I was ( thinking about WDKY24+ )

I was feeling a bit generous earlier, and I think I might do something nice for some people, so long as they notice this... hopefully not JUST for this, but you know. I'll make a complete moodset with up to 5 extra "moods" (for the ones LJ doesn't have, like "evil" and such) for the first person who requests it, with a specific theme to it-- that is, Yuugi Mutou from Yu-Gi-Oh, or eLouai-style Ryou Bakura. Also helpful would be size specification, preference as to file type (can do JPG, GIF for animations, or PNG), and whether or not you want text on the moodset. Especially helpful is if you have preference toward anime or manga, mixed bag, etc. If you have a SOURCE of images you'd like to use, or particular images per theme, please include them.

Note: I would publicly share this moodset, but it would essentially be made per-request. You need to have a Paid or Permanent (or Early Adopter, but I don't think anyone who's an EA is on my FL!) account to use a custom mood theme. You can read the LJ FAQ to find out how to install it.

I will NOT:
-do an entirely animated set
-do moods that are over 100x100 in size
-do moods that contain graphic or explicit content (because anyone can see the moods, even if YOUR journal is FO)

I have already made one mood theme, the one in use by rhapsody_dragon, of Seto Kaiba. In turn, she made me my mood theme, of Anzu Mazaki. :)

First come, first serve. I'll do no more than 3 mood sets, assuming I can handle that much within the next week. But the first one will be the one I start and complete before I start the 2nd or 3rd ones.

Weirdness of the day
Today was a great day, in terms of work. I got to work for 2.5 hours at the online pickup room (which we're now calling the "peacock room" because of how one of the onliners pronounces "pick-up"; it's very cute) which I enjoy very much, because I'm alone, I can eat, drink, and surf LJ. :D I rarely have any problems whatsoever.

I also deposited both my paycheck AND my financial aid check (which I got today!) in my checking account, so that should hit tomorrow. And for once, I don't have some insane urge to go out and buy something. I had enough money to buy a new Duel Pass since several days ago, but MEH! Why should I? I didn't feel like it. I won't go and buy a new PS2 and a mod chip with installation service; I'll wait until the PS3 comes out, and I'll buy THAT! (I wonder if the controllers are cross-compatible? I don't like the shape of the new controllers. Too N64-y.) I will be buying my textbooks, of course, but that's usual of me-- and I'll get a 10% discount! :D I should also buy Grandpa a CSUN hat and myself a nice kelly green CSUN tee (or hoodie? Which to pick!?) while I'm at it.

I do want some DVDs, though-- the Back to the Future trilogy, the Phantom of the Opera movie (2004)...

The weirdness started (of course) when I got online earlier tonight; cs_kasumi was reporting that slytherinjolie was plagiarizing slyfatale (not sure if that's an LJ name). And then, not hours later, cs_kasumi revealed that she WAS slytherinjolie! What the hell?! I don't get it. I really don't.

Oh, this isn't weird, but I have to share: The Greatest Story You've Never Read. I kid you not. It is for story writers and readers everywhere. ^^ Just go and read it.

Psueside? If it made it to fandom_wank (NEVAH FORGET!), it's genuine wank-gold! Apparently limeybean faked her own LJ death. This is what freaked me out about missandrony's post earlier; I wasn't sure whether it was real or not. I have a lousy sense of humor, see. I knew the whole cappuccino-machine-implant was ridiculous, but cute and funny... but I was never one to take jokes about death lightly. And I'm not even from one of those mass fandoms where I'm some sort of BNF and everyone knows my name! (Some people. Maybe. ^_~)

Anyway, I don't see the point. Pathetic cries for attention are just that-- pathetic. If you can't get attention where you want, seek it somewhere else where you're more likely to be received. Either that or get a personality makeover, because some things don't carry well no matter where you are. Sometimes it really "is not you, it's me" and by "me" I mean the speaker, which is you. (Did that make sense? In other words, don't be afraid of changing yourself. There are sometimes when you shouldn't have to, by any means, but honestly? No one can get along with everyone, so everyone has to adapt at some point.)

Apparently this is a pretty wide-spread thing, because there exists fake_lj_deaths. o_o You have to join to really get the funny going, but still!

I wonder what would be considered a more embarrassing incident-- getting railed and humiliated on fandom_wank (if you know, you'll go) or on LJDrama.org?

Change of topic...
Ugh, this is what I get for not paying attention to f_w for a while. Where did 'O RLY?' come from? (and the requisite children, 'YA RLY!' and 'CHO RLY?') And why does it always have to do with Hedwig (or grotesque versions of Hedwig with MULTIPLE SETS OF TEETH)!?

Oh, and Baba and Grandpa bought me "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Season 2" at Wal-Mart last week; I've been watching it on and off ever since. Now that I've been paid, I shall pay them back as promised. :D But teh yay for Lois x Clark! Makes me want to read nFic. Mmm, nFic.

Everyone is coming over tomorrow or Saturday (my dad being on Saturday) because of Baba's big birthday shebang-bang. Hopefully it'll be fun, without the usual drama-rama that family brings. The house has been totally cleaned up, minus the cleaning lady who was SUPPOSED to come to day, but she pulled a Houdini ('cept without the scantily clad assistant, the newspaper coverage, and such). I'm going to work from 12:00-6:30 tomorrow, my first "full" shift deserving of a lunch break tomorrow. Methinks I'll walk the block and a half to Papa John's and get myself Pizza, because I'm getting damned sick of pre-packaged tuna salad sandwiches and iced tea. :P

Yay! Okay, so today was splendid for several reasons:
(1) Training was short. I actually spent most of the time working on BEA and Dragonfayth, listing all the modifications I had made, need to make, etc. When it came to the "important stuff" I actually knew what I was talking about-- while some of the other people kept getting really easy questions wrong... ^^; I made my own lunch and ate it outside in the sun; the squirrels wouldn't stop bothering me though, and I had to keep giving them peanut M&Ms to get them to go away!

(2) I changed the script Blue Eyes and Apricots was running on to Enthusiast 3. If I ever decide to open up any other fanlistings (more like Taboolistings, because I'm fond of Love Triangles... though now that I think about it, I would totally run a shippers_club Fanlisting), I can do it easily. I can also manage Affiliates through Enth3, though right now I can't get the images to show up. So, for the time being, the BEA layout will stay the same. Once I get everything tweaked, I'll find something else to put in the current affiliates space. Any suggestions?

Note that I haven't updated the links yet, so if you go to BEA now, nothing will have changed. It's hosted in a new directory, so I have a few options:
* Create a redirect, so the new directory will stay the same, but anyone that tries to access the old directory will get booted there
* Rename the new directory to the old directory, AFTER I delete the old directory
-With this, I'd have to change some settings in Enth3, but I don't think it'd be too hard.

(3) I fixed the horrible layout error with Dragonfayth. Actually, Carissa from the eFiction boards fixed it; I just uploaded it. Until I get the other skins working smoothly, Romance will be the only skin offered at the site. I'm also trying to figure out why the Poll Block won't initialize; other than that, everything looks to be working okay on eFiction. Please try and upload your stories, just so I can make sure that the Copy/Paste 403 error was a security or timeout issue, rather than a script issue!

I still have to re-add some of the old mods. As always, here's a brief list:
* Character page (link on main menu)
* LiveJournal and FFnet profile links
* Advanced TinyMCE with Compressor (I have the compressor; I just need to upgrade it to Advanced. The security update was apparently part of the 2.0.3 upgrade)

The Poll and Featured Author blocks ARE installed; I just need to figure out what the initialization error is with the Poll and get an image for the Featured Author block title.

I think there might still be a bit of an error with the category sorting (that is, Pre-Duelist Kingdom doesn't want to go before Duelist Kingdom in the listings), but that's really an aesthetic thing. You guys don't really care what order the categories are in, do you?

Up and coming...
I've got to create and host a torrent for the Full Moon o Sagashite Anime soon; I realize it's just been picked up by licensors, but a) there's no telling when the first DVD will come out, b) there's no telling if it'll be hybrid. I'd love to trust Viz, but... c) who the hell knows what they'll do with the songs? Besides, I promised someone over on meroko. I also need to find torrents for a few random scanlations of the manga; I already own all 7 volumes in the Japanese, and I'm sure as hell not going to pay twice their worth to get the English translation from Viz. I'm only missing translations from a few chapters, anyway.

Icons, icons, icons. I have to get back into making icons.

Azurelist? Obviously, if I maintained more FLs, I would have more to show off at Azurelist, my new "site" for my fanlistings... that is, a collective. In the meantime, it's a very bland looking page, so I'm not giving access to anyone. :P Hey, what if I made a White Rose Society FL? You know, a fanlisting for The Big 10 Azureshippers? I'm talking about:
(1) guardian_kysra
(2) geniusgirl
(3) atlantian_magic (Atlantis2)
(4) rhapsody_dragon (Mamono)
(5) svelterose
(6) winterwing3000
(7) mmagnet_ff (MischiefMagnet)
(8) wickeddawn (Harlequine)
(9) AudibleHush (no LJ? Bummer.)
(10) the_sweet

I'd say the bunch of us are the ones that contribute to the pairing most often (be it fics, discussion, websites, communities, art...), the most dedicated (we've loved the pairing when it was CRACK!), and likely the most insane (who else do you know that warped an entire RPG to suit their love of azureshipping?). Some of us are MIA (Harlequine! COME BACK!!) or otherwise busy/uninspired, but I think the dedication still remains. And between the 10 of us, we probably have a shizload of adoring fans. ^^; <--ego!!

*grin* I hope to get working on the rest of WDKY23 soon-- to prove to people that I'm not just rehashing the movie. There will be some serious plot twists. I'll admit that the Ani-Manga for the movie is a helpful resource,  but obviously, there are things that change everything... for example:
* Malik's presence
* Duke's presence
* Pegasus "knowing" about Kaiba coming to Duelist Kingdom to get the BEUD and PoL ('But HOW!?' you ask?)
* Isis being concerned about the Anubis exhibit, and how it left Japan without her say-so
* Raphael, Alister, and Valon somehow being connected to the Anubis exhibit
* Bakura working behind the scenes, following everyone and preventing his host from coming out
* Chieko & Serenity's presence(s)

I wouldn't go this far and tell everyone about these things unless I thought no one was noticing them. And some people said they were seriously bored with WDKY as of late, as if it's becoming one big tirade. That makes me sad, because to me, I'm getting to the part that I've been itching to write forever!

I adore this icon I'm using right now, but I totally want more WDKY icons. *peers* Any volunteers? :D (I suck at manips, and while I do have fanart for WDKY, it's for chapters that aren't out yet, so... ^^;;)

Uh... yeah, that's all I can think of for now. Not much is going on.

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.

Okay, so I'm almost (as in, 98%) done updating Blue Eyes and Apricots for its new spring layout. It's nice, it's acceptable, but it's a bit buggy. Here's where you come in.

I designed the entire site (as always) using Dreamweaver 8 and Photoshop CS ver. 8.0. The site is pretty much tabular PHP files, with the layout determined by header and footer files respectively, with some font and link tweaks provided by style.css. I decided to try my hand at DIV Layers to see how it would come out, because the left-hand menus were being stretched out WAY too far if they were just in table cells. So far, it looks good in Avant, except for one page-- the Affiliation page (looks the same in IE, too). I can't figure out what in the Dodo's Email Script overlaps with the DIV layering set by the header and the footer, so for some odd reason, the "Submit An Affiliation Request" button appears overlapping the text at the top of the page, instead of at the bottom, where it should be.

In Firefox, the DIV layers don't even seem to show up at all, which is sad-- I always like to make my pages Firefox-compliant. The text and everything is still there, but it just seems to ignore the DIV tags at the end and beginning (respectively) of the header and footer includes. Can anyone help me with this? I was thinking of taking the menu images and making them all into one image and linking them using a good ol' fashioned image map, to try and prevent the "stretching" in the center, main table cell. It's not a lot of work or changing to make, but if anyone has any better ideas, I'd like to hear them.

I've also emailed Oruha Kisaragi of Garfours to ask her (?) permission to use her (?) Seto x Anzu fanart-- though despite her (?) still loving the pairing, I don't think the art is hosted anymore, because so many people swiped it. In any case, I saved it and used it for my layout,  but I wanted to link back and check if it was okay before the layout went live. My Japanese isn't up to snuff, but I hope she (?) understood me anyway. If worse comes to worse and I can't use that art, guardian_kysra, do you think I could color one of yours and use that? ^^

For those of you who truly want to help me with BEA and not just look at the coding atrocities I'm so good at, check out the beta version of the site here.

I was thinking about using some PHP switch code so that the "pocky stick" at the top of every page would change to indicate that page's content (That is, a header graphic that says "News and Updates" on the main page, "Members List" on the Members page, etc.) Too fancy/unnecessary? The people at CodeGrrl.com already got back to me with the appropriate code; all I would have to do is make the images, upload them, and tweak the code in the necessary spots.

Even better, it looks like TheAnimeFanlistings.org no longer has a listing for Seto x Anzu under their Yuugiou Relationship category, so I applied BEA for the "official" listing. The turnaround time is supposed to be 2 weeks, so I want to get the site fully up and running by then. Hopefully all affiliates, Garfours, and other artists/authors will get back to me before then.

Lastly, I'm planning on adding my increasing collection of fanart, fanfic nominations, website nominations, the "Our Song" slideshow/AMV, Seto x Anzu songlists, and any other affiliates that come my way (I've already affiliated with Boxshipping, Sexy Bastard, CeruleanMIST, and of course, Dragonfayth. setoanzulove and setokisara's mods need to get back to me with buttons before I link to them.) Anything else you'd like to see included? Let me know.

I am now the proud owner of a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Whoo! rhapsody_dragon, get ready to duel! My dragon deck is getting an official overhaul now, and I'm gonna pwn you! And I can't wait till next month, when I get Exchange of the Spirits and I can make either an Isis deck or an Egypt deck!

And I've also gotten into the Christmas spirit at last-- I suppose it makes sense, given that things are going pretty good, it's freezing cold, and I want presents. :P So I want everyone to point me in the direction of Seto x Anzu Christmas fics so I can make a post on setoanzulove and at Blue Eyes and Apricots. So far, I know of two submitted on yuugiouxmasfic:
* From Socks to Shoelace-tan
* From Mickle to Socks
But the second one isn't all that Christmas-themed...

What else? I might not have done 100% as well on my Japanese test this morning, but I did get my letters of recommendation for both Waseda and Tokiwa; I have to get Blumenkrantz's letter for Tokiwa, finish up my essays, have Hirota-sensei check them out before Dec. 8th, and then have them turned in and ready by then! ^_^v I'm getting all excited!

I think I did well on my mythology exam today, even though I missed 2 classes within the past week or so. But I guess I'm just well-versed in mythology, so I'm not too worried about missing much on the exams. They're always so easy...

( I'm walkin' in a spider web... )

Another email exchange: smrffers might know about the people that dare to write sequels to the infamous Sexylyon's SEXY (of course) "Interlude" Usagi x Mamoru first season hentai. It was one of the best fics I've ever read (when I first read it), even if upon re-reading, some parts were purple enough to color my world. Nonetheless, even when people get permissions to write said sequels, taking the original author's so-called style and mocking it is enough to peeve me into next week. And when fangirl Japanese is thrown in? Ugh...

( The fic: Togewonuku. The author: Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku. As if that doesn't tell you everything right there. )

I have the opportunity to go to Egypt next summer... whether or not the whole Japan Study Abroad thing pans out. I think it'd be a great opportunity to get additional travel in, though it does cost $2747, which is likely the bulk of my financial aid check for either Spring 2006 or Fall 2006. But it's only a $95 reservation, and if I really wanted to pull that off, I could, especially with some sucking up to my mom (^^;) Alas, the cost DOES NOT include:
* $570 room supplement if 23 years of age or you turn 23 before or during the tour (huh?)
* non-cruise lunches, beverages, and tips (estimated at $125 per person)
* private bus fee (depending on the size of the group, up to $145)
* CSUN tuition and fees (paid for, no worries there)
* mandated travel insurance and books (only applies to students earning 6 units of credit).

Well, of course I would want to earn the 6 units of credit; 3 from the Independent Study unit in Spring (would bring my total up to 18 units, just under my cap of 15. I don't know what the course would count for-- maybe upper division something-or-other?) and 3 from the tour in Summer.

Anyway, I have to think about tomorrow... er, a dialogue for memorization for Lesson 9 (memorize in the morning, like always), and possibly a critique to do for Creative Writing (which I can do during the break up in collaboratory; I can bring my laptop to work on my PowerPoint and Study Abroad essays as well, since it's an hour and a half long break... if/when I need to print, I can just email it to myself or something, unless Scott gives me back my flashcard by tomorrow).

Finally, sometimes after the insanity dies down this week (likely Thursday or later), I'm planning on:
* Updating WikiFic with more of Viz's insane translation (and other) errors from the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist volumes, plus Millennium World Vol. 1
* Making a winter-themed layout for whatever I feel like (BEA or Dragonfayth)
* Posting Girl's Club (Seto x Anzu; #11: gardenia) for 30kisses, along with the tentatively titled Red/Like A Virgin (#19: red).
* Making some more edits to WDKY22 and seeing if luvinaoshi and any other beta volunteers have anything to say about it...

Attention all members of the Blue Eyes and Apricots fanlisting... including all Seto x Anzu fans, fanartists, etc...

I just wanted to let you know that there's a new site out there: http://www.anzuseto.moonfruit.com/. It's a very nicely-designed Flash site by Inuluver, one of the many SxA fans from the BEA fanlisting. However, it has come to my attention that she has posted some fanart, possibly without your permission. If you see your fanart on her site and it is not properly credited to you, feel free to contact her and let her know who you are/where your site is or whether you simply want the art taken off.

Spread the word, if you please!
Thanks!
~Az

Okay, so my genius has nothing to do with a damn Geek Squad cable, which I have every intent of returning as soon as possible.

All I had to do was type in \\my.ip.ad.dr.es.s into Windows Explorer and it worked! YAY! Of course, it's taking forever because of all the Podcasts (which I never listen to, and for some reason, I have a Reggae podcast I never subscribed for) and music, plus episode 1 of Trick (wanna download the rest of Season 1, but I forgot where to go!).

I also successfully installed iTunes on my laptop, but it never shows up on my screen when I click the icon. I've agreed to the License Agreement, but still, nothing happens. *blink* Whar? I'm a bit relieved to know I'm not the only one who had such difficulties with updating to iTunes 5, though-- it goes to show not even Apple is infallible.

I'm also going to work more on my icon claims for iconfiend100 and 7sinsvirtues, especially the latter since 14 icons would be a snap for me. ^^; Note that the icons WILL NOT overlap, so there will be over 114 SxA icons on the web, courtesy of yours truly. I think I ought to start up a gallery of them over at BEA!

I need a smaller size version of the banner I just posted over at betasquad. It needs to be about 200 x 150 or so, GIF format. Any takers?

zOMGHOLYFUCKINGBATMANS!

I just saw the newest Harry Potter trailer, and WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

October + November = THE SHIZNIT!

That is all.