azurite: (disney - ariel ooh shiny!)
Did you know that [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses has been around for over FIVE years? I'm so proud. Anniversaries for things like that are the sort of thing I don't remember, so I don't make a big fuss about it. :P

For those of you that don't know, 30kisses is the fanfiction & fanart challenge community that I run on LiveJournal. It's also got counterparts on Dreamwidth and AO3. People pick a fandom, a pairing (couple of characters), and a Theme Set List with 30 themes, and then try to write to each of those themes, along with a central "core" theme. For example, 30 "kisses," where a "kiss" has to appear in each story/piece of art, along with 30 individual themes. Submissions can use more than one theme at a time, or have one theme spanning multiple chapters, be Alternate Universe/Reality/Timeline/What-have-you, whatever! So it's a great challenge and it's been very popular over the years. I created it in response to the absolute SLOWNESS of the original [livejournal.com profile] 30_kisses community, and I haven't looked back since. Apparently, people like it enough, because FIVE YEARS...!

It's amazing! And we've had some fantastically supportive, active members, one of whom has been churning out great fics for all sorts of fandoms, using various Theme Set Lists, including the most difficult one we've got, List Zeta/memory. As a thank-you and reward, we've given her a 1-Year Paid LJ Account and for completing the list, a 140 userpic Add-On over at LJ. It's not much, considering the community itself isn't paid and doesn't have a fancy layout, but I really wanted to thank people that seriously stick with the community, contribute to fandom, and of course, make my life easier by following all the rules... :D

I'd really like to bring 30kisses over to Dreamwidth, and I've already got the community token used, but I'd rather not have to create a dummy mod account just for the sake of managing the community. If a community can ACT like a regular user, posting entries and whatnot, that would be great. Or maybe you can already do that, and I don't know about it? Can anyone with some DW community experience share?

I'm working on overhauling the Hall of Fame for 30kisses; it's pretty plain looking, but at least the coding is valid, and it's easy to find everyone's entries. Still, I think most people read directly on LJ, because you know what order to read in, exactly what themes go to what number, and so on. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to do that for a Hall of Fame (on LJ or off), considering the SIZE of the HoF. I don't like the idea of breaking it up onto multiple LJ pages. :(

I also want to change up the way the banners look. Five years is enough time using the same narrow, vaguely-cutesy banner with a "kiss/lipstick" logo, right? If you've seen any awesome banners used for awards and the like online, let me know--I need ideas!

I'm very happy about this--among other things--right now. It's a good day, and I've accomplished many things, with the support and belief of others. Thank you, everyone! :)
azurite: (believe in subtext)
So I just joined [livejournal.com profile] caperland and am now officially a member of Team Burned! What's all this about?

Well...


apply for a team | about caperland


If you know about [livejournal.com profile] whedonland, it's virtually the same premise, although instead of Whedon-shows, it's caper shows: White Collar, Leverage, and Burn Notice. You can know one, two, or all of the fandoms, and you can participate by joining a "team" and racking up points for said team by participating in challenges.

If you're like me and you like all three shows, even if you're on a specific team, you can still make icons/banners, write fics, etc. for whichever of the shows strikes your fancy--you'll still get points for YOUR team.

So far there has been a graphic challenge, a game (a "spot the difference" with pictures), an icon challenge, a 6-word fic challenge (harder than it sounds), and I'm sure there's more cool stuff to come.

Enjoy caper shows? Then come join us!
azurite: (cupcake sombrero!)
I joined Archive of Our Own (which I was strangely calling AoOW for some reason) recently and put the [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses lists up there as a Collection for people to post to. Given the difference in format between LJ and AO3, I had to adapt some of the rules, but so far I think it's a great option. I've offered to "bang on the code" for the coders and test what I can, but I have yet to hear back from the Volunteer & Recruiting Team, which I just emailed earlier today.

I think I finally started reading a [livejournal.com profile] metafandom post that had me reading about how [livejournal.com profile] yuletide moved to AO3 and that got some people's knickers in a twist. I've never participated in Yuletide or really known all that much about it, so I wanted to read more. Some users felt shafted by mods freezing or deleting threads/posts asking about just why Yuletide's move to AO3 made other users unhappy, but the mods basically said: it's off-topic, it's debate, and we just don't want it here.

So users could host debates or explanations or whatnot elsewhere, but yeah, the community's for Yuletide, leave it at that, even in the comment threads of mod posts discussing the move.

But I am still curious: why do some people dislike AO3 so much?
azurite: (xmas - hanging pink & green ornaments)
Ah, I miss Usenet.
What a crazy thing to say, huh? But in the search for some Sailor Moon images, for some reason, the first thing that popped in my head was NOT to do a Google Image search or go to The Oracle or whatnot, but to see if alt.binaries.sailor-moon was still around (assuming I got that name right).

Alas, the vast majority of ISPs these days have discontinued their NNTP/Usenet access service (probably because they never made much of an effort to advertise that it even existed, meaning new users didn't even KNOW about it), and that includes the ones in use (or formerly used) by my grandparents and Mom/Gary. For many alt.fan or rec. groups, access is still available for free from places like Google Groups, but it's not quite the same... plus, there's still the overwhelming problem of SPAM, and in Google Groups' web-based interface, there's diddly-squat you can do about it.

The only other alternative --for general Usenet access to binary groups AND for NNTP access in news programs (Apple Mail doesn't even support NNTP, which had me temporarily thinking I might switch back to Thunderbird... then I wised up and realized that an extra piece of software isn't ALWAYS a pain in the ass, especially with my lack of an NNTP server in the first place)-- is to buy it. Giganews seems to be the one of choice, but I don't have the dough to shell out for Usenet access when it's something that's more of a whim to me.

But I do miss those good ol' days when I could hop on Usenet and find image floods of fanart, or character-specific art, or art themed around a certain event/holiday. It'd be pretty helpful for me now, in my search for Sailor Moon Christmas images. (I know, I know, The Oracle has a whole gallery devoted to it, but it's only 58 images! I *know* there's more than that out there!)

Speaking of SM, I did sign up to be a Sekkret Stalker on Aria's Ink this year. Participation seems fairly low so far for this point in December, but there are still FOUR MORE DAYS TO SIGN UP! Why not?

Plus, [livejournal.com profile] guardian_kysra and I want to do a holiday challenge or something this year, so why not throw your hat in and volunteer too? We'll probably do something that covers different fandoms-- maybe a Secret Santa or Fic Exchange where all you do is specify a list of fandoms you'll write for, genres/ratings/pairings/warnings you prefer, and up to 3 "plot prompts." How does that sound?

Also, I got an invite from someone named Loki to join [livejournal.com profile] the_circlet and its sub-communities, [livejournal.com profile] silver_circle and [livejournal.com profile] gold_circle, along with a few related comms. It all sounds/looks fairly interesting, but I think I still need a bit more clarification on exactly what is DONE there. [livejournal.com profile] baine, care to comment? I'm confused!

Also, I haven't written SM fic in AGES and going back to Aria's Ink (Loki also reviewed "24" there, which is probably one of my better SM fics to date) and checking out these comms... it's all made me very nostalgic! Hey, maybe we can revive the [livejournal.com profile] smrff in time for the holidays!? That'd be so awesome.

I'm only up now because (as usual) my sleeping schedule's off. I went downtown tod-- er, yesterday to get a December Fast Pass and eat some delicious Tex-Mex. I got "approached" by a very enthusiastic girl from Greenpeace who kept me from getting to Chevy's that much sooner. I'm all for saving the planet, so:

DO NOT BUY KIMBERLY-CLARK PRODUCTS. These are the makers of Kleenex, Cottonelle, Scott tissue, and many other products. Why? Because they're clear-cutting (meaning cutting without care to the re-growth of future trees) thousands of ancient Canadian trees. The CEO has reportedly even said that his consumers "don't care about environmental issues." Show that pig he's wrong! Also, find out if your job/school has a contract with KC. Then get them to CANCEL it. There are more environmentally-friendly companies out there.

Accion Y Reaccion )
azurite: (sailormoon - pluto P)
The reason why WikiFic's been practically dead the past... oh, very long time is because I'm always the one stuck on the backend trying to do everything. And let's be honest, a 22-year-old girl who is NOT majoring in Computer Science is probably not going to be helped as quickly as some major entity like Wikipedia on the MediaWiki-l mailing list when it comes to tech support issues and basic understanding of syntax.

Long story short, I'd love to make other people SysOps, but maintaining WikiFic goes beyond that; I'm not really sure how much my server can do, and I'm frankly not willing to shell out the amount for a dedicated server that probably CAN do all the bitchin' things that Wikipedia and/or Wikia can do. I wanted my own space so that I could control it how I wanted, and not be subject to the ads, multiple regulations, and freak cleanup squads that other Wikis have.

WikiFic has proven to be a great resource, but not too many people seem to be keen on helping out with it. Thankfully, it hasn't been vandalized recently, and there are people still adding articles, but not a whole lot of people who adhere to the rules. Wikis are monstrous projects, requiring TEAMS, not individuals.

There's always a million things on my plate when it comes to WikiFic; right now, I can't get styles working the way I want (likely because I don't understand Wiki syntax), templates love to kick my ass-- I'm missing a bunch of them-- and SVG images aren't rendering properly and I know it's not a browser issue, because Wikipedia's and such images display just fine. I don't really know how SVG images are supposed to work anyway, and while I know I have the GD library enabled, I don't know where to go from there. There should seriously be a "Wiki for Dummies" website or something...

Anyone who wants to help or can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, WikiFic will probably just sort of fester in the corner collecting dust until I check it again someday... truthfully, getting Epiphany up is my #1 priority, followed by maintaining my FLs, Dragonfayth, and my LJ communities. I'm still working on the damn [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses purge, and I don't know whether the other mods are alive, dead, busy, or working.

It's frustrating both having to rely on others and to be stuck doing something yourself, and I can't seem to tap into the effective middle ground. Thus, I think I'm just going to take my leftover Chinese food and watch Sailor Moon for the rest of the evening. Ciao.
azurite: (roses are red)
New desktop. Oh yeah. )

Man, I wish I were in S.F. right now. I read the Macworld Expo update, and... gawd, I am so stoked for 2008. Not like I'm going to dash out and buy an iPhone (not until it's no longer attached to AT&T without hacks involved) or a MacBook Air (...this laptop is new enough for me. Until it breaks, I'm using it. Plus, I happen to like having an optical drive and a huge hard drive...), but DAMN. Apple just... kicks ass. Have I mentioned lately? You really oughta switch.

I personally think if I could have gotten a single measly day there and been back here... it would have been worth it, just for Steve Jobs' keynote speech. Sure, he flubbed a few times, but it sounded SO fun. And a play-by-play just isn't quite the same as being there, in the flesh. (Yes, the play-by-play had to suffice; it made me jealous) So I have a goal for 2009 (besides graduating in the Spring, that is): Go to Macworld Expo 2009. Network, network! (Who knows, maybe I could impress someone important and get a job at Macworld? Tee-hee.)

What else I'm excited about: the Time Capsule, the companion hardware to Leopard's Time Machine. It basically acts as the AirPort Base Station I spent $179 on, but it comes with a hard drive, supports 802.11n Gigabit Ethernet. A 500 GB (the smallest version available) is $299. I think I paid $250 for my 120 GB MyBook Pro external hard drive, so in terms of pennies per GB, it's very much worth it, in my mind. For die-hard downloaders, there's a 1 TB (!!!!!) version for $200 more. It ships out in February... around the same time as the new student-licensed version of Office 2008:mac, which I've been wanting, because Office 2004 on the Mac is kind of a bitch. Plus, I want more templates than Pages can offer. I didn't realize until today, when I had to make a flyer, that Word is really better than Pages for that. I hate still being Microsoft's bitch in any respect... but with all the years gone by, they have made a powerhouse of a word processor.

What I'm dreaming of: it would kick ass if more companies (including the ones that make $9.99 cheap games for Best Buy, Target, and the like) got on board with Cider to make games Mac-compatible. With Cider, there's only one source tree to manage (from what I read), so it's not like there's a whole overhaul involved. Basically, you take your game and wrap it in something that's friendly to Macs. Nothing changes about the game, the interface, etc. Of course, Cider has its limitations, and since it's not for end-users, it's not like I can just download something and all of a sudden be playing Doom again (*sigh* I miss killing Imps! And NO, I don't want Doom 3! >_< I like my pixellated pigs, thank-you-very-much). But I'd love to be able to play Riddle of the Sphinx, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and similar Egypt-puzzle games (my favorite) again without going into Parallels. In reality, Parallels has felt like a waste of money to me, because... well, what the hell was I using Windows for? I hardly ever go into it. Blah. I hope there's an update that gets my games working again (in the meantime).

What I should be doing: the [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses update. I've already got the T-Z stuff from [livejournal.com profile] a_white_rain, though I have to sort through it all to put it in the right order-- by fandom. Today's the first day when my sleep schedule's semi-normal (and my computer hasn't been overheated), so I'm going to get it done-- especially since I said I would do it by yesterday. I'll also have to combine that with Phase Five of the Claims List Purge-- but as for the actual completion of the Tags Removal and putting the dead claims into the Memories, I'll need help. Mod Squad, you still around?

What I'm testing the waters with: Scrivener, a... humungo writing program JUST FOR MACS (eat that, Windows biznatches!). [livejournal.com profile] dqbunny, you might like this one. If you try it too, we can compare notes. :D I'd also like to try MarsEdit2, a blog publisher. I use xJournal now, and have Phoenix as a backup, but frankly, one of them is always lacking SOMETHING. I wonder if MarsEdit would make a difference. I already know it's compatible with LJ; the question is if it supports all those tiny little features that aren't necessarily blog-platform-cross-compatible (e.g. stuff you'll only see on LJ and its off-shoots, not other blogging platforms like Blogger, etc.) For some reason, I'd get my panties in a wad if I couldn't change security settings or screen comments by default. I'm still kind of PO'd that xJournal doesn't support Location (okay, my location hasn't changed in the past two weeks, but still).

Anywho, to work, to work!

Dilemma!

Jan. 6th, 2008 10:44 pm
azurite: (gundam senshi!)
What Meredith Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.
You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.
You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.



You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.
You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.
You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.


DILEMMA!
So, in overhauling [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses (and we're almost done! Hip-hip-hurrah!), I've come across a predicament. What to do about fandoms that are set in the same universe?

For example, Final Fantasy X and X-2. Same universe, many of the same characters. But there are characters in each game that DO NOT appear in FFX-2 (or they're only referenced, at best). I consider them a "grouped" fandom, meaning they'd appear together on the Claims List. Also, someone requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX wouldn't have to worry about someone ELSE requesting Tidus x Yuna from FFX-2. They're the same characters, even if technically, they're from "different" fandoms. I consider them the same fandom if:
(a) they have shared characters
(b) they take place in the same location (in this case, Spira)

But then look at Star Ocean. It's not quite as huge as the Final Fantasy series (where it makes sense to split up each game, with the exception of FFX and FFX-2, and possibly those games in the FFVII series), but still, it spans HUNDREDS of years. Technically, the only character that's ever been in two games is Ronixis, and he wasn't even a playable character in Star Ocean 2.

Should I consider Star Ocean 1, 2 (but not Blue Sphere), and 3 as separate fandoms, even though they take place in the same "universe"? I really wouldn't consider someone doing an Ashton x Fayt fic a "Crossover," because it is the same universe.

What I might consider a crucial factor in determining if you separate the fandoms is if they have different characters in each --characters that DON'T appear in both shows. For example, "Angel the Series" had Doyle, Fred, Gunn, et. al.; "Buffy" had Glory, Riley, Dawn, etc. But the main cast of characters (Buffy, Angel, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Spike, Oz, Faith, Giles) all knew each other, and many of them crossed shows. I'd consider them the same universe, even though you can't say that a Fred x Gunn pairing takes place in the Buffy universe; technically, it's the Angel universe. So do I group them or not?

And, like Star Ocean, there's massive universes that span lots of time, like Star Trek or Star Wars. It seems silly to split Star Wars up by episode (or by the "Expanded Universe" novels) when they're in THE SAME UNIVERSE. Same goes for Star Trek, though it seems a little unwieldy to have Spock x Kirk listed alongside Harry x Seven of Nine.

What to do? When is it reasonable to break up a fandom-- e.g. Yu-Gi-Oh! vs. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? Is it a matter of a whole new cast of characters, with no one from the original series in a recurring (main or supporting) role?

HELP!!!

Snagged from Kysra )

WHOOSH!

Jan. 5th, 2008 06:44 pm
azurite: (sailormoon - double trouble minako & usa)
Wow. What an amazing five days of the New Year it's been. Despite occasionally feeling bored, that's only been a rare occasion (when I get bored of what I'm DOING, not because I'm lacking anything "to do"), and generally I'd say I've been pretty productive.

[livejournal.com profile] 30kisses is getting a complete overhaul, thanks to the help of fellow mods [livejournal.com profile] svelterose, [livejournal.com profile] a_white_rain, and [livejournal.com profile] dqbunny. We might need more mods for the coming year, since this purge is just proving how busy we tend to get, and how easy it is to fall behind. And here I thought 30k wasn't all that active!

So that's been keeping me pretty busy the past five days, but at the moment, I'm taking a break to catch up on my Friends List. Yesterday, I was getting "computer butt," so I played some DDR; I might do that again tonight after I've digested my evening snack (yogurt cheese, pickles, raisins, and Wheat Thins, plus pulp-free orange juice-- yum! and who's to say THAT'S not healthy!? HAHAH!).

Since the WGA strike is still on, there's not much in the way of new TV-- and that's fine with me, as I've been craving oldies-- Lois & Clark S4, and Sailor Moon S and SuperS. :P I kinda wish I had the SM movies on DVD; I have the SMR and SMS ones on VHS (ugh...), and of those, I have both of them in sub ("UNCUT!!!!") and dub (edited mercilessly; massacred) formats. But no SuperS movie. And... I like Peruru!

...And you know what I just realized that's kind of creepy? Over the course of the whole series, Chibiusa had more love interests (people SHE liked) than Usagi. No, srsly:

Usagi: Umino (one-sided from him), Motoki (one-sided from her), Mamoru, Demando (one-sided from him), Seiya (one-sided from him). (So technically, we don't even count 3 of them, because they were one-sided from HIM, meaning they weren't HER love interests), Haruka (okay, she crushed on "him," but then stopped as soon as she found out it was a she... in the anime. In the manga, Haruka had no problem flirting with/kissing Usagi, even as a female, and Usagi was aware, but I don't know if that qualifies as a "love interest")

TOTAL: 2-ish

Chibiusa: Pegasus/Elios, Mamoru (one-sided from her and sick, but hey, it's canon), Perle (or whatever the fairy-boy in SuperS was called), Anshar (video-game canon, but STILL, it was the sweetest pairing, and much angstier than Elios!), that boy from Super who made a clay sculpture of the Holy Grail, that friend of her friend Momoko (manga-canon only?), ANYONE ELSE???

TOTAL: 5

Why is it okay for the heroine to be "reserved" and have only one true love (which, as I get older, I find more and more ridiculous-- I can't believe Usagi and Mamoru would have a happy marriage if neither of them never dated other people. And what's unfair about it all is, Mamoru probably HAS dated other people before he got with Usagi-- and hell, technically dated Rei!), but her trouble-making daughter (who supposedly takes after Usagi in plenty of ways, and Mamoru in... uh, very few) is allowed to be... well, the "li'l tramp"? Okay, she's not exactly putting herself out there, but she claims to fall in love a LOT, making her seem like she's more of Minako's daughter than... ohshit plot bunny!

Ho-hum. Nothing else has been happening lately. Back to my FL.

ganked from [livejournal.com profile] guardian_kysra
1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your current favorite song, your favorite kind of sandwich, or maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.


squee Indy 4 5/22 must see drool Indy!
azurite: (change browsers/religions)
Does this work in-journal? Because it wasn't working on my User Info page... test, test... the below is meant to be an iTunes Widget for displaying my recent iTunes purchases. Seems kind of interesting...



I updated my User Info page, by the way. I got rid of a lot of the useless banners... for the more active communities I actually care about (meaning I'm not the only one who ever holds it up, which seems like the case for a lot of the communities I own/run, which is sad), I might put together something for them later.

I noticed [livejournal.com profile] pro_anzu_fans and [livejournal.com profile] firefoxusers went away. Does anyone have any idea why that is? I doubt it's got anything to do with ST'07 version 1 or 2...

Cut so as not to break any pretty friends' lists... )

128 or so icons, and *5* of the 7 icons in the above Love strip are WDKY. Seriously, how does this thing work? Because it's skewed, I tell you. It's not like THAT many of my icons are WDKY. Hell, even if I had one for every chapter, it wouldn't be a significant enough fraction to warrant that colorbar!
azurite: (aries)
You Are A Green Girl

You feel most at home in a world of ideas.
You're curious and logical - and enjoy a good intellectual challenge.
You're super cool, calm, and collected. Very little tries your patience.
Your only fear? People not realizing how smart and able you are!


ETA: dragonfayth, dreams, food, mentality )


Which Egyptian God are you? Find out at [livejournal.com profile] egypt_stamping
Sorry, Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon are not valid Gods and will not be used in the results.
azurite: (shizuka snarks)
Baba and Grandpa wanted me to go Anonymous or use a sockpuppet account to defend myself or bash the wankers who bashed me, but I'm not going to waste the time or energy. I'm over it already.

GMail is acting funny. Searches take forever, and I'm getting timeout errors when I try to access my email with Thunderbird. Any other GMailers having issues? Maybe it's just my connection?

Scott shared something cool with me re: Pirates of the Caribbean. But I suppose there are some spoilers so here it is behind a cut. )

When updating [livejournal.com profile] weekly_ygo to the newest edition, I could only go 167 entries back on the Friends' page, no further. I tried going into the Customization options and changing the number of entries displayed to 100, but I guess it reverted to a default maximum of 50, and it wouldn't let me go past 167 even when I manually entered the number (?skip=180) in the URL. What the heck? Sorry if I miss any entries or anything, but I don't know what happened. :P Any ideas on how to fix it?

Uh... yup. I think I'm going to finally see Superman this weekend. But probably alone, unless Grandpa (and Baba???) want to come with me.

Dad's coming down in 2 weeks, and he's being nice to me again.

My room's still a mess though, and I need a better bookcase than this cardboard thing Debbie "sold" to me.

:) I love my friends.
azurite: (anzu & kaiba play the bondage game)
Damn, I've got that DDR song stuck in my head. "Cafe, cafe, cafe cafe, cafe cafe cafe!" or something.

Okay, so a couple of new things:
(1) Seems I grossly misinterpreted what was going on with [livejournal.com profile] god_101 in terms of someone dying or whatnot. Of course I'm still extremely worried about him, but everyone handles break ups (as the case truly was, not someone dying like I thought) differently. If he wants to be open to the help that his friends are willing to give, then my offer still stands. But I won't put mental strain on myself taking blame for something I honestly have no control over.

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

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

(4) Inspiration... for the wrong thing. I have ideas for almost all of my [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses, but getting them written out is another matter altogether. I've started most of the good ones, and unfortunately they have the potential to turn out to be long -sort of like how I didn't think about Prophecy Girl, Something to Somebody, and Death and Absolution would be multi-chapter whoppers, but THEY ARE! But if I do want this to be one of my [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses, I have to figure out how it could work for a theme that isn't taken, and not make it look like it's part of Prophcy Girl (because one particular scene -no dirty jokes involved, honest!- totally screams Prophecy Girl, and I don't want that). The only problem is, I only have 2 themes that don't have any ideas for them at all, and that's because they're the hardest themes for me: #17 - kilohertz, and #21: violence; pillage/plunder; extortion. This idea I *MIGHT* be able to make work for #21, but it would likely take a very different turn than I intended (and still be Prophecy Girl-esque because of it).

But the very beginning of the fic just makes me giddy because it's so evil. :> Well, in my mind, anyway.
azurite: (kitty catch)
* Black bikini top $17.99
* Black and white (with pattern) "boy-short" swimsuit bottoms $17.99
* C-size batteries for portable speakers $5.19
* Batman Begins Special Edition 2-disc DVD $22.99
* Cushioned bathmat with suction cups $9.99
* Kodak one-time use disposable underwater camera $9.99

Learning how to striptease and get fit with Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease... PRICELESS. (Actually, it was $18.36, and whose idea was it, anyway?)

WOW. I just worked out for an hour straight, and I didn't even think about it. Sure, there's hardly enough room here in the rec room, but I can remedy that by...
a) getting a wireless card for this hunk o' junk computer ($50)
b) moving the computer upstairs to my room (also gives me the excuse to clean off my desk)
c) moving this junk desk elsewhere... maybe the garage! (okay, it's not a junk desk, it just collects a TON of dust back here, holds very little with NO compartments on the side or top, and only one drawer thing that always gets stuck if you open it wrong)
d) moving the long couch and coffee table backward
e) practicing until my thighs don't look like bowling pins anymore

o_o One hour a day? That's like, nothing. I could fit that into EVERY DAY except Monday (because no, I will not do it at work and be caught on camera). It's fun (Carmen Electra is so... CUTE! X_X I can't believe I'd use that word to describe her, but IT DOES!), and I can actually feel it working! Plus, it's useful... ^^ I'm probably driving Scott crazy with all the hints I've been dropping about this since I finished my routine about 15 minutes ago (I'm TMing him all sorts of naughty clues, poor boy). There's a reason why they say on back of the box: "feel great and spice up your personal life."

Even better, I have songs already that are non-DVD (I like how you can change audio tracks on the DVD for the Runthrough portion of the Routines) that would actually FIT with the routines! I'm not kidding. Kelly Clarkson's "Miss Independent" has JUST the right beat for it!

...Yeah, I know I'm crazy, but at least I'll look hot in Hawaii... and on top of that, I'll give Scott and excuse to get his butt up here for Passover, even if family gatherings weird him out.

So let's see... I didn't manage to fix my layout problem. I must have changed my layout about 3 or 4 times today. For some reason, I was using an external style sheet for my tweaked Flexible Squares layout, and it was causing the text color to be wrong in my sidebar. When I changed it, all things went to hell, so I went and got a proper tutorial on adding a Header image to the FlexiSquares. That erased my color preferences, so I had to redo them. Now it's okay, but it's still IRRITATING. I'd like to use the new header image I'm about 1/4 done with, but I need to get that whole pattern thing (see my last post) figured out.

I ended up using three others...
(1) Grunge (which wasn't displaying my friends' page, so until someone gets back to me on that, I won't use it)
(2) Mellifluous (which is nice, but narrow, with no support for tags)
(3) Butterfly (from createblog.com, also no tags support. Not as narrow, but I don't like not seeing user icons)

I also like The Boxer and Tranquility II, so if I can figure out ways to really edit those and make them look original, I'd like to.

Anyway, I have to finish...
(1) planning Passover, because we have too many people and not enough places to sleep
(2) watching Batman Begins, because it is TEH shit and Christian Bale is TEH SHIT (and of course, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Liam Neeson)
(3) working on WDKY24, because even if I get the history right (still need to tweak some things), I screwed over this one scene I wrote by doing it out of order. I also got plotbunnied for a later chapter, which might change things...
(4) commenting everywhere, because the [livejournal.com profile] 30kisses tagging system has suddenly exploded on itself, after all the hard work of [livejournal.com profile] svelterose and others (myself included); on [livejournal.com profile] fanficrants, where troll-chan [livejournal.com profile] aguitarist has made a special guest wanker appearance; on [livejournal.com profile] playthedamncard, because I WANNA! And everywhere else it suits me. I'd also like to figure out this whole journal thing, but it's a slow process. In the meantime, I don't actually have to use the Styles. :P

*runs around* And I still have to teach some Education majors about Dreamweaver tomorrow morning at school (and not get paid! Why am I so nice!?) and write 3 query letters! WAUGH WAUGH WAUGH!

Snip-Snip.

Feb. 11th, 2006 07:10 pm
azurite: (kaiba smirk)
Happy Birthday SvelteRose!


^_^ Party hard.

Snip-snip! )

Oh, and here's a quick reminder of all the communities I own/help mod:
[livejournal.com profile] 30kisses - Everyone knows I created this as an alternative to [livejournal.com profile] 30_kisses. We have several alternative lists, rules that are different, and several kick-ass mods. I update this one the most frequently.
[livejournal.com profile] betasquad - The request-to-join community for anime, manga, and video game fanfic writers. I post all my un-beta'd WDKY chapters here, and I'd love it if more people signed up to join the comm. and the forum so I could have a regular supply of interested editors!
[livejournal.com profile] delishidoodle - My icon journal-gone-community. I've just recently updated with a few icons, and hopefully more coming soon.
[livejournal.com profile] smrff - The SailorMoon Romantic FanFiction Mailing List's official LJ community. If Aria's Ink can update regularly with fics, why can't we? I say we get WAFF vs. TAFF Day started early this year!
[livejournal.com profile] titans_go - Co-modded with [livejournal.com profile] baine. But we just haven't started it yet. Why can't I find a decent Teen Titans font!?
[livejournal.com profile] weekly_ygo - I'm just the editor. :} But I'm also in the news, every now and then... I hope that post I made about Joey the Passion free online duels makes it into this week's edition.
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_extend - I never got around to starting this comm anywhere, but it's meant to be a repository for those great oneshots that should be continued- if not by the original author, then fans with evil imaginations. It's also a challenge community for 1sentence and drabble fics to be fleshed out into something longer.
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_goodfic - I co-mod it. Why don't more people bounce their recs our way?
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_icontests - I own it-- it's meant to be sort of like [livejournal.com profile] weekly_ygo, but for icontests. Many of the icontest owners were impossible to get ahold of, though.
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_lyricwheel - I'm going to be restarting the next round soon, if anyone's interested. Any ideas for a theme?
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_mst - Meant to be the place where you can be inspired by and write MSTs of Yu-Gi-Oh fics. MSTs being "Mystery Science Theatre" style, which is pure satire and humor. MSTs aren't allowed on FFnet, but they're great learning/teaching tools and good for several laughs. Someone send badfic "recs" over here! We need fodder!
[livejournal.com profile] ygo_offtopicon - I'm starting up a new challenge this week, and I hope to keep it regular, this time. We never did finish Challenge #9, which is too bad, but I don't want to let this one die. I have a good idea!

I would appreciate any people interested in helping mod/update these communities. Comment if you can lend a hand at least once a week.

Snip again-- with a dictionary!? )

Coming up:
* Finish up my Freeman-ASIA scholarship form. Get the hardcopies sent in to IIE, and give the copies to Dr. Lopez in the Study Abroad office.

* Presidential Scholarship? Professor Hirota DID agree, and though it only needs an unofficial transcript from both CCSF and CSUN (I can print both from the web), it also requires Prof. Hirota's signature. -_-; Her office hours are only on Tuesday and Thursday before class, and the thing is due on MONDAY. Geeeeehhh... There goes a potential $5000 down the hole, all because I didn't prepare enough in advance. I could TRY and find her on Monday, but there's just no guarantee. And I refuse to forge.

* WDKY24 - I write more of it last night, and I only have bits and pieces to go, but this is looking to be another difficult chapter. I'd also like to get beta volunteers NOW, so that I don't have to worry about scrambling to find them once I'm actually finished. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

* WikiFic - The Ultimate Yu-Gi-Oh Encyclopedia is slowly but surely being updated. I managed to get through linking the Shipper's List F-M, but there are still tons of pages that need to be created. I'm also trying to get as many pictures as I can, but I'd like people to tell me which ones would be relevant for the pages in question. What information is necessary? I'm also translating pieces of the Gospel of Truth for WikiFic. More members!

* Get my Tokiwa application finished - I need to estimate some dates, or else ask Mom. Then I need to go to the photo place on campus and get a few photos taken, passport-size.

* Blah blah, websites. - I need a new name for what was formerly Animanga Collision. The site will be another eFiction archive, housing all my fics, rants, essays, etc. from every fandom EXCEPT the Azureshipping Yu-Gi-Oh stuff (which will remain on Dragonfayth, just for the sake of things). But what to call it?

* Can't win, will duel - Okay, so I'm no deck-construction maven or anything, but I still play JTP Online even though I can't seem to win any duels. o_o At least in this, I don't have a level to intimidate me into backing off completely, and for the most part, everyone still seems pretty polite even when I lose miserably. I've seen some great combos, and I want to write them down for future reference. A lot of great duelists post combos and strategies on [livejournal.com profile] yu_gi_oh; they could find a good home on WikiFic or elsewhere (with permission, of course). Few actual Yu-Gi-Oh fics actually make use of duels! I think maybe I should ask for more advice in constructing a deck that works... though from what I've seen a good Exodia deck is pretty damn good. Joey himself pounded me with one (HEY! He shouldn't have Exodia!) even when I had over 10,000 LP!

Er... yeah. I'm done for now. :)
azurite: Part of the "What Doesn't Kill You" series of fanfic icons. Original art by Mamono! (wdky15)
I mention the communities I'm either in or that I own/co-moderate, but now it's time for some serious pimpage. Get ready.

[livejournal.com profile] 4husorting
If you're a Harry Potter fan, you simply have to join. If you've ever wondered what "house" you belong in, but think you might have traits from more than one house, check us out! And it's not just simply a pretty community with a cool name (now that I think about it, we're "four house union" but we have six houses...) it's a place to interact with other people, get to know them... and in a sense, it's a personality-based rating community with an actual GOAL in mind, none of that superficial "rate me on my boob size!" crap. :P

We're just starting out, so the more the merrier! We're aiming to have contests, a quidditch pitch (think scavenger hunt and HP knowledge quizzes), and house competitions. How fun! If you decide to fill out an application, mention that you heard about it from me, [livejournal.com profile] the_sweet!

[livejournal.com profile] betasquad
A great community devoted to helping fanfiction writers improve their craft with people from the fandom of their choice-- be it anime, manga, or video game-based. Now we have a beautiful website, an active community, and a great forum! Come join us! (I'm posting all of my Yu-Gi-Oh stuff up there, so all my calls to betas should be directed there.)

[livejournal.com profile] ygo_offtopicon
Where the random resides! Do you ever tire of icontests that feature only one running theme-- like song lyrics, poetry verses, stills from the show, character-based themes... blah! How boring! Why not try something that's never the same, and always unpredictable! Learn to expect the unexpected with fun, frivolous, and stimulating themes ranging from Indiana Jones to Autumn!

[livejournal.com profile] 30kisses
"Bigger, faster, and better than ever!" That's what separates us from the original [livejournal.com profile] 30_kisses, and from all the other spinoff communities. We also have alternative lists created by our members, a shorter claims list with quicker filling time, and an extended system of archiving everyone's submissions! So come join us and test your mettle with 30kisses-- and then some!

[livejournal.com profile] ygo_goodfic
We all see enough Yu-Gi-Oh badfic out there-- enough to spork our eyes out with from here to the eight-millionth millennium. But what about GOOD fics? What makes the good ones so good, and what have those authors got that other authors don't? Make recommendations, postulate theories, or just lavish praise over your favorite authors.

[livejournal.com profile] ygo_lyricwheel
A lyric wheel is a contest/challenge where people submit song lyrics to fit a particular theme. After everyone has submitted, the songs are randomized and re-distributed, and people write a fanfiction (of any length, style, or pairing) inspired by or using the lyrics from the song-- and the fic has to fit the original theme. It's quite a challenge: unpredictable and fun. You might just get a new favorite song, or be challenged to write for a musical genre that's not quite to your tastes! The second round will end on October 25th, with the third round starting shortly thereafter. Come join us!

And finally, a question... where does the "Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart" line come from (Evil Dead or something, right?) and why the heck do people always associate it with shooting people? I've seen icons using the line for Rufus Shinra (FFIV: AC) and Alice (I think... from Biohazard/Resident Evil). WTF?
azurite: (rhapsody_dragon - ctrl-z!)
Ugh, I'm an idiot. The official Idiot, the Captain of the Idiots, the Mascot... ugh. See, I got all excited and hyped up about two measly things this week: one, the possibility of spending more time with Scott by going to Disneyland/Magic Mountain on the opening day. That idea fizzled out pretty quickly, seeing as Scott not only said he wasn't much of a Disney person on July 4th, but the closer we got to the date in question, the less likely I'd be able to switch shifts with anyone who got the day off. So I let it go. This does NOT imply that I wanted to work more than I wanted to be with him... rather, I'd spend more time with Scott if I could and he WOULD try... but like I said before, I'm past the point where I want to make all the efforts.

The other thing was the Harry Potter party. I've never been-- it sounded fun, if a little geeky, but a chance to meet new people. I guess Scott, Baba, and my own inner nag's voices have all got through to me,  because more often than not, I feel pretty lonely without someone to talk to in person about stuff. And my co-workers have proven to be less than companionable, for the most part: J (most likely in jest, but still, it kinda hurt that he said it) said of my reasons for wanting to get off work early today and go to the HP Party (which I stupidly did NOT realize was last night...) -- "Wow! You're a freak!" Maybe it was just a painful reminder of my school (mandatory) years.

Well yeah, so I'm pretty bummed about missing the premiere party (I have good reason for thinking it was supposed to be tonight/last night, and not FRIDAY night; all the Borders emails and such I got indicated July 16-17, not *ANYTHING* about July 15), especially when I had this whole opportunity to dress up/cosplay and maybe even look decently LIKE a character. Instead I came home with HPB (now about 1/4 of the way done) and read for a bit, and promptly passed out after I got upstairs (to read in a "more comfortable" place). There are some biggies-- but not like OMG!!! JKR, HOW COULD YOU!!??!? Not yet, anyway. But the book review in the Daily News said "I haven't cried this much since Charlotte the spider (of Charlotte's Web) died." So I'm steeling myself for all the possibilities.

I've got some banners done for [livejournal.com profile] ygo_verse #15's winners, but I missed my own challenge at [livejournal.com profile] ygo_awards and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do the posting of the votes (I think I am, as I'm probably the only one who can see the screened comments, right?) or not. I've got to do some for [livejournal.com profile] ygo_offtopicon this week, just because I have some great ideas, and I refuse to come up with 2 fantastic ideas for challenges (last week was "Indiana Jones") and not participate.

Not sure how 'Net will be in SF, though-- 56K, if I'm lucky.

Anyway, I have work tomorrow (er, today) at 9:30, so I'm going to head off now.
azurite: (hales371 - Anzu kicks ass)
ATTENTION [livejournal.com profile] guardian_kysra! Hem-hem. Do you happen to know where that 20themes list you "gave" me for Christmas is? Because I thought I had it in my Memories, but I can't find it anywhere! ;_; And Mamono and I have decided you deserve pimping rights, and we want it posted on the official 20themes community, so people can give their 20answers to it and spread the Azureshippy love. (And by any chance have you browsed WDKY17 yet? *puppy eyes*)

I've joined a bunch of "number" communities as of late-- [livejournal.com profile] iconfiend100, [livejournal.com profile] 52_flavours, and a few others... it's going to be one very interesting, "creativity-packed" summer... I hope, anyway.

Hey, and where has Snapdragon-chan gone? [livejournal.com profile] luckisalady, that is... *sniffles* She was one of my betas for The Rose Chronicles... *wails*

Mamono and I are still conjuring up domain names. We have some interesting possibilities, and I downloaded this domain name checker thing-- it generates domain names from up to 10 keywords, mixes and matches them, uses hyphens, and then checks the availability of up to 15 of the domain names produced. The rest I can always check using register.com or something... most of them are hogwash, but I like a few. Who knows where this hunt will go?

Speaking of hunts, I'm also compiling all the fanfiction LJers here have posted-- on LJ. Not up on FFnet, or just beta... whatever. I want them in my Memories, even if they're not answers to Challenge fics. So please post your links! (Kysra, Mamono, Atlantis, Svelte-- this means YOU!)

Oh yeah-- hello to all the people on my FL who I don't know, never introduced themselves, and friended me for some weird reason!

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