Do you remember when LiveJournal used to be cool? You had to get an invite to even get a journal there. It was not only exclusive, it was run well. It just seemed to work. You didn't have this big complicated install, where you had to understand CGI or PHP or any of that stuff. You just went to the website, logged in, and wrote. You could get comments if you wanted, attach different moods and icons to each post to express yourself. You could organize things into Memories, and later, add tags. You could customize the look of your own journal, get friends, join communities.

You can still do all of that, and more (Scrapbook! Games!) but it's bloated now. I think everything went downhill the minute the site got sold to SixApart. They didn't know what the hell they were doing, and when SixApart sold it to whatever Russian company owns it now, it got even worse.

The amount of spam I get on my various posts throughout my LiveJournal history has increased nearly exponentially over the past few years. Communities are the one and only thing that LiveJournal and similar sites (like Dreamwidth, bless its heart) have over better, spam-free, more customizable blogging software--like WordPress, which I am now using for pretty much all of my websites.

I remember trying to deal with some of the spam over the past few days while my computer was "recovering" from an Erase and Install of the OS. I was busy installing updates and such, so I couldn't do it on there. I tried accessing the LiveJournal mobile site on my iPad, and I couldn't even tap on the login boxes, because every time I did, it thought I was tapping on the LiveJournal logo, so it just took me back to the homepage. It's because the mobile site wasn't properly optimized, and the full site must have used some Java that caused the login box to move around on the main banner. The mobile site--if one can even log into it--sucks, and that's becoming an increasingly dangerous thing in this day and age. Something that's BUILT to be accessible and responsive should be a priority for websites of any kind in this day and age. It's definitely something I'm aspiring to for my sites.

It's no longer a case of LiveJournal working; it's a matter of "if" and "when" -- it's also getting hit more and more frequently with DDoS attacks or other various outages that are never fully explained. LiveJournal doesn't have any sort of reliable presence to notify us of such outages AS they happen, so people are left in the dark. Sure, LiveJournal isn't exactly a crucial service, but it's still a pain in the butt when you're trying to access something specific--or perhaps writing something important--and all of a sudden you can't access it. If you've paid for any portion of the service--which a lot of people had, including me, way back in the day when I thought a Permanent Account might be a good idea--then you're essentially losing money for every moment of downtime, which is why LiveJournal is probably bleeding out its coffers trying to pay back users for all their lost time.

I'll miss it, but honestly? Bring back the blogroll. I can import my LiveJournal into WordPress now, maybe even figure out a way to crosspost it here to Dreamwidth (because I like Dreamwidth and at least want to support its continued development via communities I run), then I can just do everything I want from one single place. That'd be nice.

Did you know that 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 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! :)

Apparently none of my Tweets from Anime Expo weekend made it to my journals because LoudTwitter crashed and may not be coming back. That sucks. I wonder if there's another way to import Tweets to LJ and DW? But hey, they are all on Twitter and probably on Facebook via FriendFeed, too (as if anyone cared)! :P

Also, RSS feed for my LJ Friends Page still not working. I used a different one that IS working, but I don't think it's grabbing protected entries (even when I append '&auth=digest' to the end of the URL), and I don't like that. Also, I'm so behind on LJ, reading only the last 50 entries does nothing for me. Trés annoying.

I have yet to make any of the AX recap posts I wanted to, because I tend to be super-exhausted ;ately. My sleep schedule is hell right now and it being summer, I'm not too inclined to fix it. But I do have tons of stuff to do, so I might as well try, tired or not.

Work-wise, I've started on a handbook for the other Student Assistants here at work. My idea is to have the different sections have a portion of their page margin colored, so that someone can easily see all the pages that are in a particular section. Does that make sense? I have no idea how to do it though, and if I should be using Publisher instead of Word or something. Damn Microsoft.

I'm also learning a bit more about PHP and mySQL. I've been trying to get PHPMyAdmin 2.11 installed on the NSLS account so I can manage its databases for Wordpress. It was looking to be too damn impossible thanks to these dumb instance errors and junk, but right now, it looks like it COULD work, if I could just get PHPMyAdmin to install. Is there an "Installing PHPMyAdmin In Plain English" guide somewhere? The documentation sucks.

Apparently a lot of popular LJs are getting hacked. Someone takes control of a moderator's account and pretends the journal is closing, making a post indicating that, and links out to other sites with Cyrillic encoding that have keylogger viruses embedded in them.

Whether this has any particular connection to random Cyrillic users (apparently they're bots, which LJ knows about and refuses to do anything about) friending you, I don't know, but I don't friend them back, and I don't recommend you do, either. Why give someone you don't know access they don't deserve? (Hell, why assign a bot a pronoun IT doesn't deserve?)

For more details, check out this post by acari here, along with this post by upstart_crow. I especially recommend downloading one of the Backup options offered in acari's post, because if this happens to you or your journal, it'll be a while before you can get access back, and most likely your LJ entries will be gone.

I use xJournal for regular blogging on Mac OS X, but it doesn't back up as many things as some of the other options do. The Python script is easy to use if you've got an Admin account; I just ran it from Terminal and it's chugging away. LJBook looks cool, but I imagine large journals would be the size of encyclopedias and, should you choose to print them, would cost a pretty penny. Heck, they'd probably be very hefty in MB or GB, too.

I'd also recommend copying your Tag Cloud and Memories List down, so if you DO end up needing to rebuild, at least it'll be easier than trying to remember from nothing.

Other people have already been hacked and lost close to everything, and these bots/hackers/whoever seem to be targeting large and/or popular communities. Know that in ANY of the communities I own or maintain, or any of my journals (all 3 of them), I would NEVER EVER EVER delete my entries or leave LJ without a very lengthy explanation post-- a public one. If it had to include links, it would be links to a site on my OWN domain, not a Cyrillic one.

And seriously? Don't let yourself become vulnerable to these kind of things in the first place. Make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date and running and that you have spyware/malware protection. Verify that both programs (because most "suites" of anti-virus and anti-spyware are too bloated and don't catch everything anyway; better to just get a basic "anti-virus" and a basic "anti-spyware") are legit-- not some random thing on your screen that popped up saying "YOU MAY HAVE SPYWARE11!!eleventy!!"

A short while ago, I posted an entry basically venting about how a get-together with my friend Rochelle hadn't gone as I intended, and, a few days after the fact, Rochelle called me and basically "put me in my place," as it were. I had acted immaturely, but hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, let alone apologize to all the people I was with (that had been so generous and, for the most part, courteous to me).

After being "lectured," I was so upset that I just got off the phone with Rochelle and went right to my laptop to write. I didn't hop on LJ with the intention of "smack-talking" one of my friends, because I'm not the sort of person that does that. I went on LJ with the same intent I always do (when it comes to posting on my own personal journal): venting, expressing MYSELF, and putting my thoughts into coherent sentences. As a writer, I often find it easier to think as I'm typing, because when I try to just think, or when I try to think and talk (and I don't mean always, just in difficult situations), the words come out wrong. At least with typing, I can go back and edit, go back and look later, or simply find a new way of saying something that wasn't "right" in my head.

What I hope happened was that Rochelle and her friends happened to be at a mutual friend (of Rochelle's and mine)'s house, went on her computer, and said mutual friend happened to be logged onto LJ. I don't know if the page was open already or what, but long-story short, Rochelle saw my Friends-Locked entry that had included me "venting" about all this. Said entry is going to STAY friends-locked, not because I want to exclude people, but because that's how it was meant to be originally, and that's how it's going to stay. Suffice it to say, I was both complaining about the situation and being self-deprecating, which I hate. I don't like knocking down my own self-esteem, but I do it, especially after a friend puts me in my place. I also don't like apologizing for things I don't genuinely feel sorry for, but sometimes it does take a good verbal smack-down before someone can realize they did something stupid to be sorry for. That was the case with Rochelle, so when I realized how much I'd upset her and her friends (and mom), I genuinely was sorry.

What I was not sorry for (at the time) was posting the entry after I got off the phone, because I've always felt that my LJ is my space-- a place where I can write about whatever I want (and WHOever), whenever I want. I don't write "for an audience," because this isn't a blog out to make money or become famous. It's just my personal journal. I don't always lock every entry or make every entry private because I do welcome feedback, whether it's advice, complaints, compliments, or whatever. It's another way of staying in contact with friends, too.

Now, I realize not everyone is computer-inclined, and assuming that LJ by itself is a good way of keeping in touch with my friends (venting on LJ the way I would vent to my friends, if I were still up in San Francisco) is not good. I plan on changing that, and if I have a problem with someone (friend or otherwise), I'm going to try and bring it up with them FIRST, before going on LJ about it. I'm going to try and call my friends more often, because if I can't see them in person, hearing their voice (intonations) is a heck of a lot better than trying to figure something out from someone's "current mood" or smiley faces.

I can't change the fact that I posted the entry, that I neglected to tell Rochelle these things right after she called me, days later, or even a week later. Fact was, I had no reason to think she'd see it-- I had LOCKED it, after all. I know she doesn't have an LJ, isn't on Facebook, and rarely uses the computer to begin with. My preferred mode of communication is not hers, but we've managed to ay friends otherwise. What I didn't realize was, we had mutual friends, who would, of course, have reason to be concerned about some of the things I had said in there, and want to get Rochelle's side. That's perfectly reasonable.

Part of me is having a hard time reconciling the fact that I have a Friends List for a reason. To paraphrase Yuna from Final Fantasy X, "I have only as many friends as people I can trust." I've always thought I could trust the people I genuinely call my friends, whether I know them just online or online and in "real life." Trust, for me, means not taking something I put up in a clearly-locked post and showing it to someone not on the friend's list, whether they're mentioned in said LJ post or not. The thing is, I don't know if that's what happened at all, and it's entirely possible that Rochelle and Co. just stumbled on the post by accident. I'd love to believe that, but while the possibility still exists of it being the other way, I feel like there are people I have called friends that I can't trust.

While I'm guilty of not going to Rochelle and Co. about how I felt, this person is guilty of not coming to me directly and voicing their concerns. Instead, it feels like this person went behind my back (all cloak and dagger-like? BTW, despite the whole anonymity, it didn't take me too long to figure out who it is. If you care to comment on this entry, feel free, or get ahold of me another way) and turned me into the villain of this whole scenario. There is no villain in this. Everyone messed up somehow, and everyone's a victim. I'm not trying to shunt the blame for the Stupid Thing I did, though, I'm just saying I didn't do anything with malicious intent, feel bad for what I did do that, now in retrospect, was pretty stupid, and want to move past it, and not keep dragging it out. I like to treat every experience as a chance to learn, and I'd say I've had a pretty hard lesson rammed into my head here.

I would sincerely hope that nothing like this ever happens again, with Rochelle and her friends or with any of my other friends. But if I have to vent and for whatever reason, I don't confront said person right then and there, or directly, I may elect to "vent" here on LJ. But none of you will see it. I'm resolving to take those kind of issues and make them Private entries. That way, I myself can go back and look at them a few days later, figure out if there's something more I can or should do, and do them. Then, after the fact, I can unlock the post, maybe get some feedback if others feel it's warranted, and move on with my life.

I honestly thought that THIS issue was over with, because I felt Rochelle had rightly put me in my place and, after the call, I would have to "grow up" and move on. I'm a reactive sort though, so of course it took a few days, but eventually I DID heed her advice and try and move on, while trying to be more aware of how I act around others, friends or otherwise. I had no way of knowing that I'd somehow "fouled up" by posting an entry to my LJ, let alone that she would see it and be upset and expecting a call from me. I try and move on with issues in my life silently-- it's my "how to deal" strategy. Maybe it's not the best one, but it is the easiest for me, because it's not relying on others.

Trust is a major issue with me, and I hate thinking that I'm being hypocritical when I say I expected better of my friends. Rochelle waited out of politeness for a few days, but she had no problem with telling me "to my face" (so to speak) how I'd fucked up. But then the situation got more convoluted with my locked-post getting out to people who are not on my LJ friends list (even if they are "real life" friends and are involved in said posting), and then me hearing from other mutual friends that Rochelle had heard about it-- but not from them, because she was the one that TOLD THEM! Quite the tangled web.

I wouldn't call anyone my friend if I couldn't trust them to give me their honest opinion (and that includes "I honestly think you fucked up royally, Meredith"), but that doesn't mean someone does that AFTER they've essentially betrayed my trust by taking what's meant to be something for a private audience and making it public. I'd rather someone have told me "Hey Mer, maybe you should make this entry Private," or maybe "I think you should call Rochelle and tell her what you're feeling" instead of letting this shitstorm hit me full in the face. I didn't appreciate that one bit, and now I'm very wary of what I say on here, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, I hope I've cleared the air enough and haven't offended anyone further. To Rochelle, Ryan, Adrian, and Rose: again, I do apologize for my behavior. I further apologize for not saying how I felt that night, or for calling a few days after my post. I apologize that you guys had to find out what I thought the way you did, and I hope none of you think any less of me for it. I do hope we can still be friends.

I'm off to Las Vegas. Catch you on the flip side.

( Click here to see! )

Well, I up and joined FanLib. -_- They don't accept HTML submissions (right now). Considering I type ALL my fics in HTML, this is a big MINUS for them. I could copy and paste my text from Dreamweaver into their cute WYSIWYG box, but then I'd have to go through and re-do all the bolding, italicizing, and horizontal ruling. Very annoying. Now, if I could copy-paste the HTML and it would auto-convert, that'd kick ass. I refuse to have multiple copies of all my fics (e.g. one HTML and one RTF or whatever) on my computer just for one site, though. If all the other modern fic archives can accept HTML, why the hell can't FanLib? Grr.

I'm also... oh, maybe 75% done with WDKY26. I've been working on it off and on for a while now, and it's the start of the arc I've been itching to write for a while. But even though I've been itching to write it, translating the ideas I have (my outline-- I always make outlines for every chapter, my "planner") into halfway decent prose is hard.
What makes it even more difficult is, I'm recalling the advice I had for students today at Grover Cleveland High, where I tutor a 10th grade English class... sure, essays =/= fanfiction, but many of them asked me to look over their reflective essays/short stories/autobiographical narratives, which all have the element of a "voice" in it that could easily be a fictional person. Then there's my own sense of what makes a good fic and what doesn't-- my own recent complaints about a fic. It'd suck if my own complaints applied to MY fic, so I'm trying to see the weak spots and redo them somehow, before I get the temptation to just "do it [the scene] and get it over with!" and never look back.

That said, I'm thinking a beta/brainstorming session is in order. Anyone with some free time on their hands? (I don't know about you, but I have a three day weekend. I might be going to Fresno for my cousin Shaina's wedding shower, but I still plan on writing every spare moment I can. I have a LOT of writing to do, and WDKY acts as both practice and escapism from that.)

There's someone I know whose 'tude I can't stand
It seems like she's buried her head in the sand
Her brain's on the moon,
Or maybe in deep outer space
Whenever she says it, I make a weird face:
"Why should I vote?"
Well, it makes me upset
Because voting is a privilege we've worked so hard to get.

--Adapted from Shel Silverstein

REMINDER: Don't post on LJ on Friday, March 21st!

H'okay. Sho.

With the help of everything_lj (because with a name like that, do you expect any less?) I managed to get my lovely corkboard LJ layout (designed by stellastars) functioning and looking the way I want to. I decided to tinker with it just to try and add a site meter, to see more about how many visits I get. But because LJ is annoying with its restrictions on embedded media (e.g. Flash, JavaScript), I couldn't use the usual tools, like the Izea Toolkit. But Sitemeter offered a JavaScript and regular HTML tracking image, which suits me just fine. I replaced the syndicated module (that'd be the one with the RSS/Atom icons) and made sure my title images were displaying, and viola! Lovely layout. :) I kinda miss the days when I used Greymatter and could design my own layout (I still have my old one featuring Emily Strange), so I might end up starting another blog (hopefully something a bit more streamlined than this... LJ is just sort of my "dump" repository, where I post about everything) on seventh-star.net.

( Read more... )

Then today, Juana, her sister, some of her friends, and Melina and I all went to L.A. Family Housing in North Hollywood, where we worked on Valentine's Day cards The original plan was to make Valentine's mail boxes, but they ended up too small... I think the cards were a much better idea, in the end, as more kids came and the cards offered more possibility for creativity. We stayed longer than we thought and made a HUGE mess, but we cleaned it all up in the end and had some very pleased kids. I think today was the first time in several years that I got so artistic that I actually had ink (from markers and stuff) all over my hands again. I used to be covered in colors in elementary school, so it was rather nostalgic for me.

And now, for some random lists:
Like

* The huge variety of applications on Facebook; I'm always finding more that are cool

* Sarah Brightman's new album "Symphony," but most especially the track "Fleurs du Mal," which (oh you're gonna hate me for this) has helped inspire a new arc for "Eternal Dimension," the third and final installment in the "What Doesn't Kill You" series. FYI: it starts with WDKY (36 chapters), continues with "Circle of Seven" (not sure of the exact chapter length yet), and ends with "Eternal Dimension." And that's all tentative at the moment, because there may very well be a new Yu-Gi-Oh series coming out, called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 5D's, though I have no idea what the 5 D's are. -_-. But GX (though I haven't really seen more than a few episodes of it, due to the cringe-factor) is most likely going to have its role to play in the WDKY-verse, so why not this new series, assuming it's halfway good and gets picked up and dubbed like GX did?

guardian_kysra, it's all your fault, you know. I like SB so much now that I not only watched her on Martha Stewart's show the other day (she performed "Storia d'Amour"), but I actually sat through the crazy opening sequence of "Pasíon," the Spanish soap-opera that SB sang the opening theme for-- in a duet with a countertenor whose voice sounds... very feminine. Plus, I got the entire Charmed: Book of Shadows OST because it had "Free (Swiss American Federation Remix)," and then the Free EP, which includes the song I'm listening to... but I wonder, which version is the one SB performed in the music video on LAUNCH! Yahoo? Have I mentioned I love remixes?

* The 795 colors that Diana's going to be featuring in Sailor X v2.08. She's already done amazing work (and been updating like a fiend) with 2.07, having just added the skirt stripes and collar stripes again. The ideas are plentiful, the colors almost endless! It's an absolute joy to take every weird senshi idea I've ever had and plug it into Sailor X... while not every single option is available yet, they almost certainly will be soon. Going back into the nerdy realm of Sailor Moon (and Otaku Senshi) has never been so fun! BTW, if you haven't yet checked out the official Sailor Xv2 DeviantArt account (or mine, where I post some of my creations), then look-see: Sailor Xv2 - me!

Dislike
* Having to send invitations to ANY amount of friends just to see my results for a quiz on Facebook

* Crappily-written quizzes, e.g ones with predictable answers, a limited set of answers (e.g. only 3 or 5), or terrible spelling/grammar (this applies to any quiz, anywhere). Actually, this applies to everything. I don't "relate" to anyone who can't be bothered to capitalize properly, use complete words (FYI, "ur" is not a word, unless you're talking about the ancient Mesopotamian city), or put apostrophes where they belong.

* Having to still be updating 30kisses for the New Year's 2008 Purge. Even having another mod on the team doesn't seem to have helped... is everyone just always busy at the same time? I hate feeling like I'm doing everything on my own.

* Not feeling organized enough! Argh, too much paper! Too many files! Everything, too complicated! (I suppose I should consider it a blessing that I ran out of paper for my printer. At least... I think I did.)

* Still having not heard from anyone at RPGClassics about my application to make the Star Ocean 3 shrine there. Not even on the forums. Hmph.

* Figuring something out moments after you resigned yourself to having done the best job you could do and "to hell with it." I did that with my first homework assignment for RTM 330, my first online class. I missed the whole "APA requirements" for assignments (or is it only papers?). Oops! I wonder if the professor will cut some slack for the first assignment? Then again, she seemed to have mentioned somewhere that the discussion questions aren't even graded, but I can't find out what really is graded, besides projects (like a genealogy paper). It's harder than I thought, keeping up with WebCT... maybe I ought to set it as a homepage this semester?

Normally, I would not be awake at this hour on a Saturday, save for what has become par for the course: another weird dream. ( What does this say about me? )

If you're wondering about the whole LiveJournal relation to the dream, LJ's parent company, SixApart, is doing a wonderfully CRAPPY job at keeping up its image and maintaining a site that used to be a great place to network, communicate with others about your shared interests, or just journal.

And now I'm really starting to regret paying for a Permanent Account (I don't think it will have achieved its value for another couple of years), because so many debacles in such a short period of time really speaks volumes about LJ, its staff, and its volunteers. Speaking of the volunteers, I don't know if anyone on my FL is one of them, and I'm sorry for this, but I really think SA should trash them. The volunteer-based Abuse team has such fragmentary points of view and double-standards that it makes LJ/6A look stupid whenever they respond to any sort of abuse request. They need to hire appropriate people to act as an Abuse team FROM WITHIN-- paid people that work with the rest of LJ in their offices in San Francisco. They need proper training, too, because so many of the people that do work for LJ-- whether real staffers or volunteer Abuse team members-- don't seem to have the tact or intelligence to be responding to issues the way they have been. coffeechica, I'm looking at you! (Even though I doubt s/he will read this)

a_white_rain knows what's recently gotten me angered-- the existence of proanorexia. Just one look at that community makes me sick to my stomach (but thankfully not in the ED way), and even though Abuse reports have been filed about it, it's been ignored, sidestepped, swept under the rug... you get the picture. It's really pathetic, especially LJ's "official" response to it.

How do they get so damn worked up over FICTIONAL children and the possible offense that a sexual situation with them may cause as opposed to a community of REAL people endangering their lives by starving themselves to "get skinny"? I mean, way to get your priorities misaligned, LJ! (For the record, I don't think smut fic or art involving characters -for example, any of the Harry Potter crew- can or should be labeled as offensive and/or without artistic merit SIMPLY because it features characters that CAN, or WERE, at some point in the original canon, minors. THEY'RE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!) (<-- This relates to the latest "Strikethrough 2.0" that resulted in two well-known HP slasher fic/artists getting their journals permanently removed because they featured fic and/or art with the HP characters in it in sexual situations. I don't know all the details, like whether the characters were aged-up in the fic/art --I do know that LJ doesn't abide by that idea anymore, which is downright RIDICULOUS-- or whether the posts were posted in inappropriate communities, or if they were friends-locked, if they were given a warning, etc.)

But that's a rant for another post, and possibly another day when my jaw isn't hurting so damn early.

...I shouldn't use this icon twice in a row, but it's SO APPROPRIATE, and that makes me sad.

So I called Amtrak today, and indeed, the North American Rail Pass (the one that's good for 30 days and has unlimited travel) is $899.10 student discounted (that's as low as it can get). The easiest way to buy it is over the phone, but you have to have AT LEAST the first segment of the trip planned. And for me, that means knowing I have the money available, places where I can stay (and reservations, if necessary), and so on. I've got a lot more planning to do, and I've got to see if I get that NSCS credit card-- if not, I might end up getting a WaMu one. I don't LIKE the idea of being in debt -I mean, moreso than I already am just for being a college student with loans- but I don't want to just shove this great idea aside. I can and I will make it possible-- somehow.

In the meantime, I got my ticket to Philadelphia with the rest of the NSCS; the unfortunate thing is that they didn't have enough Rewards Points to cover my hotel/convention registration. I'm hoping I win this Geico essay competition that will pay for it. Even those that are getting some portion reimbursed are only getting $50 out of the $314 round trip tickets. It's on Delta, which is "meh" in terms of airlines in my book, but we could have taken a cheaper flight if only everyone's schedules weren't so restrictive. Unlike a lot of other members, I'm not taking summer school, and my work's fairly flexible about taking time off.

...Still haven't heard from Apple one way or another, which frankly doesn't surprise me. It's kind of sad that it worked out that way, though...

Ooh, and Erin said she's getting my CS3 *today*! I hope I see her soon so I can get it. That would be cause for much yayness.

In the meantime, I've got enough to keep me occupied, so I'm glad for that.

( ETA: Just one teeny tiny software/journaling question )