MILES to GO || before I sleep

I should have worked on the Cho yo, Hana yo (Butterflies, Flowers) fanlisting layout WEEKS ago, but mojo has been particularly hard to locate. That and my favorite Lipton Pureleaf Green Tea with Honey (not Diet, not Citrus)!

Baww.

Anyway, what font is best for the layout, now that I have a site name? Or should I use both of them (and if so, which font where?)



They're supposed to look like noodles. The site name's a pun--it's a romcom manga that's a little adult, but still thoroughly shojo. The main character's father owns a soba (noodle) shop, and she's trying to "get close" to her former servant-now boss.

So...yeah. Thoughts on noodley fonts?

So rather than wail about all the Post-Its I have lying around with things to do, my near-empty Listography book, and the things I wish were working out, instead, a list of things I've accomplished today, big and small:

* Read a lot of emails and deleted the ones I don't need (have several thousand to go, but boo hoo)

* Heard back from both Adobe and JourneyEd regarding CS5: I have to spend $449 if I want it, because I don't qualify for the post-announce free upgrade, and there's no discount for an "upgrade" version of Design Premium from CS4 to CS5. So that, plus a camera are now on my Wish List.

* Got approved for the "In Plain Sight" - Mary x Marshall fanlisting - now I just need a name for it! YAY!?

* May be on the waiting list for a focus group and put my name out there for another one; they pay well and don't take long, so why not?

* Put the dishes away

* Registered for the NSCS Region 5 Summit in Seattle, WA on July 6th and 7th. It's my last conference as an NLC member (well, a "retiring" NLC member)!

* Am researching travel options for getting up to Seattle, esp. so soon after cousin Erin's wedding in Los Angeles on the 4th. Virgin America and Southwest are looking the cheapest, since the Amtrak Coast Starlight just doesn't mesh with my needed arrival and departure times. (Also: Anime Expo from July 1-4! So 1-3 = Anime Expo, 4 = Wedding + Fireworks, 5 = ? 6-7 = Seattle! Talk about a packed schedule for one week!)

* Also researching potential post-graduation travel options. Should I go down to San Diego after my orthodontist's appointment, and then head back up with Aunt Joyce in time for the bridal shower, or hang out in North Hills with cousin Jill and fam for a few days and meet up with Joyce on the day of the shower? Train ticket to S.D. would cost me $30-32, but it's more like "What the heck would I do down there?" and "Would I be intruding?" I suppose I should ask at least, so I have the option open, right?

* Got a huge scene done in the revision of Only 16, Chapter 2: A Look Back, which starts the flashbacks that reveal more about Serenity and Endymion's past. I'm contemplating deleting those from Endymion's point of view altogether, since Only 16 really is Serena's story, and even if Darien DOES remember his past completely and is just hiding it from Serena, why give him THAT much screen time? Isn't it more suspenseful having you wonder how things are really going from his end? I've only gone into his POV a few times in the revision so far, and never very deeply. But re-reading Lilac Summers' "First Truths" has made it a lot easier to 'ship them again (*shock!*).

* Updated WikiFic to 1.15.3, and added the much-debated lyrics of "Ahead of the Game." Mass consensus agrees that the garbled lyrics in the second verse are "My liquidity, giant balance sheet. All my secrets, Hey! I'll even cheat." Though how "I'll even cheat" makes sense when Kaiba (whose image song this is) is bragging about how much smarter, more creative, etc. he is than his opponent, isn't cheating making him look worse, not better? I personally think he should have said "I won't even cheat," as if he's restraining himself from cheating just to get a horrible duel over with. What do you think?

* Got started on my graduation announcements--the paper ones. A few family members left to get addresses for and send out, and then...have to figure out the rest. *bats eyelashes* Can YOU come?

MOAR LEFT:
* Dabble in revisions and/or additions to the following fics: Aftermath of Angels (FF8 x YGO), You and Me (body-swap YGO Azureship fic; thanks a lot for reminding me, mischiefmagnet!)
* Story-So-Far comparison of the book Paprika to the movie
* Revisions to previous chapters of WDKY + uploading to all the usual suspect sites -- someone on AnimeXX.de asked me if they could do a German translation of the fic! I can't read German to save my life, so should I say yes and just pray they do a decent job, or say no because I'd never be able to understand it?

Back from the Utada concert! Actually, have been a while, but have been gleefully catching up on LJ entries using NewsFire. I wanted to use NetNewsWire, since it lets me open links in-app, but it displays all the subject lines all mangled and wrong. :(

So: I got there later than I wanted, but I still managed to score my favorite delicious strawberry & banana w/ whip cream crepe and Peach Snapple from Sophie's across the street, and I didn't mind waiting outside--all the way around the corner from the theatre, past the KFC--because it didn't start raining until we just about got inside.

One of the guys working for the Fillmore told me the place was like a giant dance floor, and he wasn't kidding. Thank god for restrooms, but boo to the lack of merchandise being sold! I guess it's because it's been a while since Utada did a tour and she's only going 8 U.S. cities? But I, for one, would totally buy Utada merchandise if it were on sale at a concert. The only things I have of hers otherwise are the physical CDs and a poster I got for Heart Station! (I think Kuma keychains would be awesome.)

Anyway, being short sucks. Even in heels, even standing at the back center of the dance floor, the place quickly got flooded with tall people. Worse, tall people with spiky hair. Sometimes wearing heels themselves! I ended up migrating over to the left of the stage, where many short people congregated. I still had an "iffy" view because of this one couple that kept bobbing their heads in my way, and another guy with ridiculously spiky hair, but I still got to see her! Whee, Utada!

Her (brown) hair's longer than expected, but not as long as she used to have back in the Automatic or Deep River days. She had a kind of punk rocker thing going on with a Susan Sontag black skull & crossbones (with lipstick) tee, a bit of a ruffled/lacy black skirt, and BRIGHT purple tights (yay, purple!), plus a metal-studded bracelet.

I thought the thing was supposed to start at 8, as it said on the ticket. The deejay (lamesauce Mike Rizzo from New York, kept calling the city "Frisco," I wanted to smack him) kept saying "in 30 minutes, in 30 minutes" and 30 minutes later, it was another 30 minutes! The guy either can't tell time or folks can't be honest about a showtime's true start. I don't know if it was really delayed for some reason or not. It ended up starting at 8:40-8:50ish.

Awesome: she had a HUGE variety of songs from all her albums, including the Japanese ones, although she opened with "On and On" from her newest English album, "This Is The One." I got to hear "Automatic," a "Passion/Sanctuary" blend (technically the same song, but she went from Japanese to English), "First Love," and "Kremlin Dusk," some of my favorite songs of hers. It only could have been better if she'd done "Beautiful World" or "Prisoner of Love" instead of "Stay Gold," but it's still a good song. And if she'd done "Take 5," it would have been downright eerie (if you know the lyrics of the song, you'll understand why I think that)!

Out of all of them, there was just ONE song I didn't recognize, but the music was playing so loud, I hardly heard the lyrics, anyway. I know they were in English, but I don't remember it as being off of either of her recent albums (Exodus or This Is The One), and I doubt it was from her Cubic U days. The lyrics sounded something like "See you on the better side?" Anyone? (It didn't sound like the collab she did with Timbaland and Kiley Dean, "By Your Side," though.)

I ended up tweeting throughout the whole concert, when I could find a signal. I couldn't resist! Maybe because I didn't have anyone to squee with, although I did see Theo at the beginning and end. :P

Lastly, but never leastly, I may just be going crazy: I've signed up to do the "Hi My Sweetheart" fanlisting. :P Yes, I'm crazy about this show; it's so awesome. This'll be my...what, fourth fanlisting? (Blue Eyes and Apricots, Ace of Hearts, Firefly Room...yup, fourth) It'll also be my first TV show/drama FL. The others are anime/manga couples and one literature fanlisting.

Keep your eyes peeled.

I'm trying to understand this concept of block-elements in HTML vs. inline-elements. Someone made a clever analogy that block-elements are like boxes, rigid and structured, and inline-elements are like squishy things.

Thus:
* Boxes can hold boxes; one shoebox can fit into a larger shoebox
* Squishy things can hold squishy things; you can fit gumdrops into those weird Jello molds
* Boxes can also hold squishy things; in order to carry that weird Jello mold cake to your Aunt Sara's, you really ought to put it in a container instead of trying to balance it on your head the whole way there.
* You CAN'T put a box into a squishy thing: the box will lose its shape.

Please, correct me if I've got all this wrong and have bent the analogy out of shape.

Now, my Sailor V x Kaitou Ace fanlisting got put on the TAFL Troubles List due to it being all out of whack in IE7 (in all honesty, I don't give a shit and wish all the folks using IE7 would just see the light and switch to Firefox or Opera, but I know not everyone HAS that luxury). So I decided to try validating it, thinking that the problem might be there.

I found all these errors based on this concept of boxes and squishy things, so I remedied them... but now my navigation isn't working.

See, originally, my navigation was like this:
(box)
(squishy)(box)(hidden squishy)Word(/hidden squishy)(/box)(/squishy)
(/box)

and while it was invalid and BAD coding, it worked. I had certain parts of the code defined in CSS, so that the box itself had a particular positioning, and the first squishy defined the link.

Now that I've fixed it:

(box)
(squishy)(squishy)(hidden squishy)Word(/hidden squishy)(/squishy)(/squishy)
(/box)

It doesn't work. For some reason, the hidden squishy is hiding the ENTIRE DAMN THING, and it shouldn't. The box displays just fine in my preview, but the links themselves aren't there. It's like trying to catch a Maraschino cherry at the bottom of a Shirley Temple with a straw-- nigh impossible, and I DO NOT KNOW WHY!

Some bunny help. :'(
I don't want to lose my fanlisting... I not only need to get the navigation working again, but I need to pray it works in IE7, because I can't test it myself-- I don't have IE7, or access to it-- even at school!

What a weekend! Part of me doesn't think it should end yet. It wasn't exactly exciting, but there was certainly a lot going on. For starters, I finally got inducted into the NSCS (National Society of Collegiate Scholars) after about two years of actually being a member, and nearly a semester of being an officer... I'm really happy! Not only have I made friends and expanded my network, but I've gotten the opportunity to travel, meet new people, and be challenged in lots of ways. Even the little projects I undertake (like my current one, creating a postcard for the upcoming Hunger Banquet on 11/27) teach me a lot about preparedness and reading the fine print!

I was especially thrilled that Mom and Jill came out to the induction... yes, MOM from San Francisco. Dad didn't come, and there was all that drama revolving around that, but as per usual, when he called tonight, he didn't mention the ceremony at all (other than "so what's up with you lately?") and didn't mention his not coming. I'm a bit disappointed, but working is a good reason not to be able to go to places 500 miles away even if it is a once-in-a-lifetime event for your only daughter and all that jazz.

After the induction, I hung out at Jill's and had a delicious dinner of pasta and carrot cake, played "Cooking Mama" for the first time with some of my second cousins (my god, Wii games are tough... you really have to have arm strength for some of those!), and played around with their soon-to-be-fixed puppy, a Chihuahua mix named Rocky.

The next morning, Jill dropped Mom off at the house and we (along with Baba and Grandpa, of course) went to brunch at Abe's. We tried to go to Brent's, but it was a 30-45 minute wait for just 4 people, and it was already after 11 a.m. by then. :( Though the service at Abe's left a lot to be desired, the food was pretty good. Mom got the grand tour of the house when we got back, and then we headed back to Jill's so she could get ready to take the Van Nuys Flyaway bus back to LAX.

I'm thinking of trying to do that for my flight from LAX to SEA-TAC, since it's so much cheaper than a shuttle, but I'll need a way of getting from here to the Flyaway. Maybe I can ask Jill to drop me off? A taxi would be too much money, and the bus would force me to transfer (not fun with luggage) and wake up soooo early... X_X

So there's that to do, along with trying to help Baba & Grandpa figure out a way to get from here to the Westin LAX, where they'll be staying (courtesy of Mom) before their flight to SEA-TAC.

I've also got to buckle down on my project for 371. I bought two new books on video games today-- I mean serious research books. I'm just glad they were in-stock at Borders! I didn't want to have to wait to special order anything, and I already checked the school library's (pitiful) stock of books in that category...

Speaking of school, the University Student Union's website is lacking something critical: a map. Somehow last week I'd found one when I was working on the Hunger Banquet postcard, but it was a PDF file, and I deleted the original. I didn't properly optimize it for a high-res postcard though, so when I tried to find it again, every possible search came up nil. Even the maps I did find are hopelessly outdated. -_-; So I need to get the names of TWO measly rooms I don't remember off-hand, and then I can submit the postcard for printing.

I also noticed that the Golden Key (International Honour Society)'s website is also lacking-- despite many states being classified into "regions," I failed to find anything that indicated which states are in which regions. Finally, a UCLA site gave me a clue: CA is in Region 9, along with Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas. So I guess that means "Southwestern" states. I joined the new myGK, which is semi-social networking-- it's pretty easy to use. It'll be nice when both it and the new NSCS.org websites get up and running.

Speaking of NSCS again, my postcard that I worked on so laboriously is in the running for the official NSCS holiday postcard! I'm up against some pretty beautiful designs (the kind that make you go "Now why didn't I think of that!?"... I had another one of those moments today at Borders when I spotted their cute polar bear-and-fairy pair for their new ads... so cute!), but I was in the top 5 when I last checked! I told all the members at the induction to vote for me, so hopefully that'll swing some more votes my way. :)

I've also registered for my classes for next semester. They are:
* SCENE Magazine (FINALLY!)
* Women and Leisure (online!)
* Advanced Narrative Writing
* Pop Culture (not with the professor I wanted, but supposedly a really good one)
* Writing About Literature

I'm still hoping to get an internship (gotta get my rec letter back from Mel for the Washington Internship Institute, due by the 16th!), but it might end up being a summer internship, and depending on where it is and whom it's sponsored by, it might not count for Journalism credit. If that doesn't work out, I've applied to be a copy editor at the Sundial. It's only one unit, and copy editors don't have to meet in the early mornings twice a week like the other editors do. (I'm more of a correction-editor than an assignment-editor, anyway.) So we'll see how that works out. Even if it can't count for Journalism credit, part of me is hoping to get the Target internship, because it sounds fun, good experience, and of course, pays really well.

Lastly and not leastly, I've gotten addicted to a new semi-crack-worthy pairing-- this time from Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time. Anyone like some Albel Nox x Nel Zelpher? Because yeah, for some reason I really started to like them together, and now I've started reading fic for them and I joined their fanlisting. :P Gah, and I have yet to build the Sailor V x Kaitou Ace fanlisting! I gotta get on that...

I'm not really sure WHAT prompted it, but today I decided to join a bunch of fanlistings. I actually thought I already *was* a member on most of them, but it's possible that with sites moving, my own sites going defunct, and so forth, I'm no longer on the lists. That's all changed, since I'm taking advantage of Enthusiast 3's "owned/joined/affiliates" set up (at Azurelist), allowing me to easily add fanlistings I own (Blue Eyes & Apricots being the only one, currently) and ones I've joined. It skyrocketed from about six to over 20, I think. And I still think I'm forgetting more.

And to add to the insanity, there's a pairing that decidedly DOES NOT have its own FL (from what I've researched) and I so want to make it. Even though it's semi-weird, and you'd have to have at least 10 years of fandom memory to even know which I mean. *giggle* I don't want to tell, just yet... but see if you can guess, based perhaps on my icon of choice.

Anyway, finding all these FLs (for anime & manga, at least) is reminding me of all the fandoms I've ever loved, the characters that I've really liked, and the pairings that have melted my heart. And like I said-- there's more. There are even some I'm "hovering" on, like for fandoms I'm not fully into yet, like Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne x Sinbad.

So, anyone have any suggestions? Pairings or characters I've forgotten, ones I really ought to get into, etc.? Drop a line!