MILES to GO || before I sleep

I haven't changed the layout of my Azureshipping fanlisting, "Blue Eyes and Apricots" since 2008 (!), and it's long past time I do so.

However, I'm stuck trying to come up with a theme. The previous themes and general color schemes/concepts have been as follows:

• Version 1: Fond Memories: khaki, brown, photographs
• Version 2: Dreamscape: Blue monochrome, cloud pattern
• Version 3: Celebrity Style: Black, purple, turquoise, lavender, silver, lights
• Version 4: Spring Icing: Pink, other pastel colors, flowers
• Version 5: Weathered Rainbow: Grunge-style, dark blue, pastel rainbow colors, stars

I hope once I come up with a theme, I can commission a talented artist to make an image I can use exclusively for the next layout!

So what do you think the next theme of BEA should be?

Some random ideas I've had:

• Anniversary (BEA's been around since 1/10/2004)
• Cosplay

The hope is to come up with a theme that can be used year-round, or else I'll have to commission multiple pieces of art per season or holiday! (Not that I'd MIND having more layouts, but it might get expensive and difficult to program.) @_@

I'm finally getting around to working on Indigo Ink, my portfolio website and online resume. I've been tinkering with it in various small ways for a while, but a recent decision to re-watch and actually DO the tutorials in a Lynda.com lesson, "Building an Online Portfolio with WordPress," got me actually working on the project.

The Lynda.com lesson uses an example chef to build the portfolio, making custom post types and taxonomies for recipes, photos, and videos. These post types make sense for a chef, but what about for me? My portfolio has three different types of content: writing (the biggie), graphic design, and website designs.

I made three custom post types to reflect this, but now I'm struggling with the taxonomies. Whereas regular blog posts have categories (hierarchical sorting) and tags (non-hierarchical), what would I use for my three new custom post types?

For the example chef in the Lynda.com lesson, the recipes, photos, and videos all have some common ways of organizing, such as meal type. Then it can be further sub-categorized--hint hint, this would be a hierarchical taxonomy, e.g. a CATEGORY--into things like breakfast, dinner, dessert, and so forth. And even those can be further sub-categorized, into things like meat, vegetable, and so on.

But what about my writing?

Well, I have articles--ones I've written for university publications, and ones I've written for GamingDead.com. I have essays. I have fiction. There might even be further ones. But are these categories? Can I break down the writing custom post type into a category of articles, and then further into specific KINDS of articles? Or would it be better to have something like a "purpose" category, which can span across multiple custom post types? That way, I could say, my reason for writing this article, or designing this website was "school assignment."

I'm trying to find example portfolios that have custom taxonomies that might provide an inspiration as to the architecture or structure of how I should organize my content, but so far, no luck. Any suggestions?

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.

Okay, so WikiFic's spam problem is a LOT worse than I initially thought it was. I implemented a captcha requirement for all new accounts (using ReCaptcha, no less, not just some lame funky image captcha, or numeric captcha!), but poseur accounts are still getting created.

The spam blacklist isn't helping with the fake pages (which relate to diet stuff or new jobs), and in trying to delete the fake pages after properly installing Bad Behavior 2 and the Bad Behavior 2 Extended extensions, I myself have gotten blocked!

( Fixed??? )

ETA: Fixed... sort of. Turns out the issue was with 2 lines of whitespace after the closing PHP tag, which has since been fixed. Bad Behavior is now working, along with the BB2 Extended Special: page, but I've got a truckload of spam pages in the Recent Changes history, which I'm stuck deleting individually, by hand.

The problem is, there are these lines for including a Database Functions file:

include_once( 'includes/DatabaseFunctions.php' );

that are repeated, and I think that's causing the cleanup.php script to fail with the above error. I don't want to render Bad Behavior (which has that line in it, in LocalSettings.php and in somewhere else...I thought the bad-behavior-mediawiki.php file, but maybe since I updated it to the latest version, not?

ETA: Actually, it's because one version of the line was formatted like so:

include_once( './includes/DatabaseFunctions.php' );

(notice the "./"), but when I changed it to:

include_once( 'includes/DatabaseFunctions.php' );

the script ran just fine.

However, I'm still stuck with a truckload of spam pages that have already been created, as well as pages caught by the cleanup script and blanked out.

Anyone know of another way to delete (not just blank-out, as I've been doing with the Spam Blacklist cleanup.php script) pages en masse? It seems like these are all on a specific date, and it'd be nice to have an extension that allows me to tick boxes of pages created on a specified date and delete all the pages I check off, or something like that. Anyone know of something like that, or similar?

Anybody on here watch "In Plain Sight" on USA? I just got approved for the show fanlisting, and I've already been approved for the Mary x Marshall pairing fanlisting. Eek! For some reason the hard part this time is coming up with a name.

For the show:
* Welcome to Albuquerque
* ?

For the pairing:
* Shot Through the Heart (too corny?)
* Memorandum of Understanding (or just M.O.U.) - refers to the giant wad of paper witnesses entering into Witness Protection sign. But Mary and Marshall both seem to "understand" each other without needing to talk "through" things, which makes them a very interesting duo, IMO.
* ?

I have layout ideas for WtA and M.O.U. already, but that doesn't mean they're good site title ideas. I'm not fond of changing site titles (I'm very, very tempted to with WikiFic), so I'd like some feedback from anybody that knows a bit about the show. Or heck, you can just head on over to the official site, read up on it, and tell me what you think about these potential site name ideas.

I also need to get myself some IPS icons. :(

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.

Ah, another Ed Hardy sale! The discounted prices at ideeli are actually quite reasonable, but it's for two things I'd never use/wear: purses and a scarf!

Of course, upon graduating I assume I'm going to have to alter my wardrobe a bit to fit in with the so-called "real world," and maybe then I'll get into things like accessorizing with scarves, but until then I'll just stare at the beautiful art that is the Ed Hardy line and imagine a day when something I'll actually use/wear will come out (without making me look like a total conformist!?).

(That said, I saw a clip of Zac Efron's "17 Again" with him dressed ENTIRELY in Ed Hardy, and telling his friend-playing-father that "Kevin Federline wore this!" as if that was supposed to make it "cool" to wear in a high school. But yeah, it's K-Fed... So now it makes me wince to think of someone showing off "too much" Ed Hardy.)

Keyword Manager for iPhoto (by Bullstorm) has finally been updated to 1.5! This means it's compatible with iPhoto '09. Huzzah! I already downloaded and installed mine; since I'd purchased a previous version, the upgrade was free (I think). Another way of getting organized: labeling all my pictures with metadata tags!

I added a few old entries (some of them Friends Locked, because let's be honest here: I was stupid not having protections on my old blog back in the day) from my old Blue Reflections blog, back when it was powered by Greymatter and on the rosedreams.org domain. I'm working my way through 2002, and it's sadly amusing, the kind of stuff I wrote. I've got a lot more to go before I'm all "caught up," though.

Finally signed up at Ping.fm (thanks to an article on helpful websites on GeekSugar). As I was going through the various websites/networks to add, I was surprised at a) how many I'm on and b) how many I'm not on. I guess there's something to be said for simplicity: I mean, what's the point of being on too many of the same site? (That sounds lame. I'm on every big name social networking site because of the fact that, the more places you are, the easier it is to find you--for better or for worse!)

Let's see, my networks are: Twitter, Facebook, AIM, GTalk, MySpace, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, LJ (duh), Delicious, Friendster, and Yahoo 360. Hey, that's actually not that many! And some of them (e.g. Facebook and LiveJournal; FriendFeed and... well, everything) are already connected, which gives me the mental image of playing cat's cradle with something very sticky.

Finally had my appointment at the Klotz Student Health Center dental clinic-- they kept having to reschedule my appointment! I got worked on by a student intern today, but everything looks/feels fine; I'm just hoping the numbness on the entire lower right-hand side of my face goes away soon.

As I was leaving the Health Center, they were showing "Armageddon" on DVD. I thought it actually looked cool, and, shockingly enough, I've never seen it. So that's to be added to my list of movies to see (both on DVD and in theatres). I also want to see "17 Again" and still "Fast & Furious" as well as "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and probably "The Soloist" (even if Jamie Foxx is a touch-and-go kind of guy; sometimes I think he's a great actor, other times I think he's a bizarre, if downright rude man).

I also decided to shift gears on my as-yet-unwritten submission for sm_fanswap. I was originally going to do this dark, political piece, but I think I'm going to shift that to the back burner and work on an older idea that still fits the requirements for the swap. Of course, I can't say more.... :X

DeviantART finally has gotten its act together-- or at least part of it. I don't know if there have been any HUGE changes in policy or significant changes in management (such as firing the douches that make dA look like it was being run by a bunch of bigoted idiots), but there is a new category for doll edits, which are one of my primary forms of fanart submissions. It's nice to be recognized! I still disagree with their policy that they should be "Scraps," because they say that they're prepackaged and there's no effort involved. Uh, excuse me, the dolls are a collaborative effort! On top of that, a lot of the ones I post are heavily modified in Photoshop, and I think the hours spent count as EFFORT. That said, I have put most of the dolls into the new category, but some of them won't go in, supposedly because the only filetype allowed is GIF. WTF, dA!? Since when are PNGs a bad file type for dolls? Not every dollmaker uses GIF files, and on top of that, if we DO "tool" the dolls ourselves, we should be able to save the resulting file however we like! GRR!

Do any Mac users have a recommendation for a good time-tracking utility? Specifically, I'd like something that integrates with iCal so I can keep track of how much I should make from the hours I spend at work. If I ever did freelancing or consultation stuff (for web design or just general tech support), it'd be nice if this tool had an invoicing feature, too. I've heard of several, but I want to know if anyone on this FL actually HAS one and used it, and of course, liked it.

Ah, so much to do, so little time.

You know, I was pretty upset earlier, but I have to put things in perspective: always look at things in balance. For everything you think makes your day awful, there are probably 5 or 10 more that should make it okay, if not better or even great. A simple change in perspective can drastically alter your mood. You have to be willing to look.

So I found out earlier that, due to the CSU budget cuts, I won't be getting my job back at the IT Help Desk at CSUN this coming semester. They just don't have the money to rehire, even though people are going to be leaving. That... REALLY sucks. I was counting on the job. Of course, my former boss did say that I'd be the first to know if anything changed, or if anything else in the department opened up. So I hope something does change, because to be honest, I need the money. But I also LIKE the job a lot, like helping people, like most of my co-workers, and don't want to be twiddling my thumbs at home when I could be helping folks out.

There's always the possibility of freelance tutoring though, so if, come January 20, I don't have a job back for sure, then I'll look into that.

Also balancing out the suck of being ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY BROKE AND JOBLESS is the fact that I just accomplished something! Getting the mojo to work on something and actually completing that goal can do wonders for one's self-esteem and mood. A user from Dragonfayth emailed me, saying she's been having problems getting her initial password for the site. I asked her to give me more detail, but I decided to look into it myself by checking the settings of the SMTP host, trying to send an email from the Contact Us form, and checking the Action Log.

Turns out something on 12/10 changed where the existing SMTP settings stopped working, so passwords weren't being sent out, and I wasn't getting Contact Us emails indicating there was a problem. I investigated on the eFiction forums and found a number of possible errors; I tried to check them out, posted a new topic there, and put up a support ticket to get an SPF record for my domain so other email services don't mark the domain as spam/spoof. And then, after all that... I figured it out. Well, maybe. Turns out the port for the SMTP host name wasn't right. My host, Surpass Hosting (♥ ♥ ♥) uses port 26 for SMTP rather than 25 (the default), so I changed it... and it worked! I sent an email to one of my GMail accounts and received it just fine!

I also redid all the passwords for the users who signed up/lost their password between 12/10 and today, so hopefully those users got those and can now log-in, delete any extra accounts, and start reading/reviewing, etc.

I have to put all my other projects on hold until I'm 100% finished with school though-- I have a few more quizzes and a single final exam (also a quiz, just a longer one) today and tomorrow. So, until then... I shouldn't be distracting myself with posting on LJ. :P

But I did want to just vent a bit, and put my hope out there in the open, that the more good we do (big or small) and the more good we feel, the more good comes back to us. At least, I hope it will for me.

So I remembered hearing about this eatery that specializes in breakfast at the end of one of the metro lines here in San Francisco. I want to check them out online, find out exactly where they are, what their hours are, etc., so I go to their site.

...Which is probably the sparsest website I've seen in a VERY long time. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for simplicity. Not everyone (or every business) requires a Flash-heavy, Java-rich, super-interactive explosion of complicated code and database handlers (that aside, I do want to learn PHP/Flash/Java at some point in the not-so-distant future). But still... to have a SCAN of the menu that doesn't even fit on a 1440 x 900 resolution screen (you need to scroll)? To not list an email for contacting the web designer/maintainer? To not show the restaurants' (there are two locations in S.F.) hours of operation? To not tell MORE about the restaurant's history?

Seriously, folks.

Mom and Dad both say I'm too critical, but Dad says that I can put that to good use being a consultant. This is the second or third example of a business that I think I could help become so much better than it is just by revamping their existing material. Before it was the bookstore that Baba and I went to, and also kind of this Thai place that Mom and Gary like. A few simple (likely inexpensive, in the long run) changes, and BAM! Better exposure, better business. Better business PRACTICES!

So it'd be a bit awkward to contact these people and say "Your site sucks" or "Your menu sucks" or "Your bookstore sucks" and then proceed to say how, if they pay me, I can make it better. It's not like I have any experience in this-- it's just an idea, just a thought. A very optimistic thought. I can't guarantee that me revamping a website or a menu or a bookstore's practices will truly bring in more business or be more "efficient." I wouldn't necessarily know how to measure that last one, anyway.

But I kind of want to try for the "editing" experience at all (and in a way, it's also journalism/interview experience, because I'd have to "consult" with the business owners to find out their needs and wants, limitations and hopes for the future). So, how does one approach this?

I've already considered setting up an e-business of sorts to offer my editing/computer services-- a freelance site, if you will, where the offers come to me instead of me trying to hunt down the offers. Admittedly, without my name previously out there, it might not actually happen, but I'd be looking to edit people who don't look in the "usual" places-- help college students with their papers or projects, tutor people in web design or computer programs, etc. I'd be a lot more inclined to doing THAT than, say, writing a 500-word article for a freelance article site. I signed up for those, but I could never get around to writing the articles because I didn't feel they were original enough compared to what was already there, even if I did have a niche to write in.

I already have a possible domain name, and maybe even a site design picked out, but no business structure, no plan-- so I'm not letting out too many details just yet. But what I have let out, does it sound plausible? Interesting? Useful to you or anyone you may know?

( A possible new structure for Seventh-Star.Net )

I've started using Apple Mail to read my Friends' page as an RSS feed. Problem? I don't think it can get protected entries. When I added the "&checkcookies=1" to the URL, it didn't get ANYTHING. I removed it and got 50 entries... which I'm missing more of. I haven't read my FL in a while. I don't even know if Apple Mail uses cookies for RSS. Help?

Also, I'm probably going to nix my ProCare subscription next year. To be honest, I don't think I get much value out of it, even when I do use it to make near-instantaneous reservations for a Genius Bar spot at an Apple Store. It was pretty freakin' awesome that they rushed my keyboard repair to under an hour (when it was supposed to take 48), but I think I'd get more out of the One-to-One, if I did end up replacing the ProCare. I did think it was stupid when they separated the two, and I barely had the chance to use them when they were together (because I was in Japan).

That said, I renewed my MobileMe/.Mac subscription today, because I do feel THAT is worth $99, even with all the stupid problems MobileMe's been having. Actually my subscription was due up in September, but all the issues got me a 90-day extension. I forgot about it until they sent me an email today asking for an updated credit card. -_- I'm still broke. I shouldn't be spending $99 on anything, let alone something intangible and replaceable like an email address with calendar and address book sync capabilities. Sure, I've also got web hosting from them, but I pay MUCH less than $99/year for my usual hosting and I like Surpass plenty (not necessarily MORE than Apple, because their products aren't really comparable, but you get the idea). But the switching thing would be a pain in the ass.

But I'm disliking what I have tried to use on MobileMe's site end-- I tried out iWeb for shits and giggles, but the movie I have embedded on my photo gallery slideshow page NEVER loads, and because I can't inspect the code or the site structure in iWeb, I don't know why. Is it because it's large? Is the file in the wrong place? What? Plus, I deleted the files of my old Japan blog off the .Mac server, but it keeps trying to find that site whenever someone goes to the main index of my MobileMe site. VERY ANNOYING.

Also annoying? Playing my old SNES games with my PS2 controller using the new SNES9x 1.5 or what-have-you (the latest version of SNES for Mac OS X). Suddenly Sailor Moon's Fuwa Fuwa Panic feels like SUPER BALLOON POP MAYHEM ON SPEED! I'm getting my ass whooped in this game (it shames me to admit it), because I swear to DOG, it was never this fast before. On the bright side, I do still kick ass at the Sailor Moon puzzle game (where you flip over hearts, zap daimons, and try to collect the 3 Talismans before your opponent). Also, I've been replaying Super Mario World (I think I mentioned that before, actually). I started out playing it using a Super Mario All-Stars + World ROM, but none of the cheats for SMW worked (but I got all the way through the Forest of Illusion, anyway!)-- so I got a new ROM (hey, I own the cartridge!) and BAM! Crazy-Invincible-Green-Face Mario! That doesn't mean everything's easy, mind you, but it sure is fun to change Mario colors and walk right through Big Boo! (Figuring out just which cheats work and which don't is a pain.)

( Meaningless Memes )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I blame it on obabscribbler yet again-- this time not for any kind of plotbunny, but for getting me into watching Fandom!Secrets. The latest's 102 mentions the necessity of Caruso shades when reading OHSHC. I LOL'd.

The anime/manga store in the Metreon (which no longer has its AMC sign outside, even though it's still AMC-affiliated INSIDE, right down to those butt-ugly polo shirts and too-high navy blue pants... shit, at least the people at the Metreon have a variety of food to choose from! At the 1000, I had to choose between sandwiches or concession crap... ANYWAY!) "Kamikaze Pop" went out of business changed locations with no current ETA at their next location, wherever it may be. So I managed to grab a bunch of Arina Tanemura manga for only $39 (8 volumes-- not bad!). I realized that I like the Full Moon anime better than the manga (the manga seems very stilted, and I have a hard time with any manga that has a auditory medium as its focal point-- it's hard to imagine a singer through manga). I also like Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne better than Full Moon, even though KKJ was tragically shorter. And I won't read Gentleman's Alliance+, because... well, the plot just didn't grab me. I'm glad Tanemura-sensei's art's improved so much over the years, but I like her older stuff much more than her newer titles, even if it is FMoS that got me into her works in the first place.

CURRENT PROJECTS
* New layout for "The Firefly Room," the Secret Society Girl fanlisting. I need to get more content, keep it up to date, and whore it out over on the author's blog. Maybe I can get the ladies over at TFL to make it the fanlisting for the whole series (which is what I intended in the first place, when I made it back before the third book came out; the fourth book is coming out next summer). I've got the layout made and everything, but my problem is that I've never skinned a website before and the tutorial I read (over at Tutorialtastic) confused the heck out of me. I posted on the CodeGrrl forums where Tutorialtastic help is, but there's been no reply yet. Maybe because my own post was so addled.... Basically I need to figure out how to get the style-switcher to work. Places like Sailor Music make it look so easy. ;_;

* The Star Ocean 3/Till The End of Time shrine. I'm still working my way through the two biggest parts, the Gemity page and the Dictionary. I need to fiddle with the table CSS so I can use them for maps and grids rather than make images in Photoshop, which takes much longer and causes the page to load slower.

* Website design and layout for my GWS 350OL (Intersections of Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality) class. Everyone in my group has pretty much unanimously voted on a website instead of a blog, claiming that a website will be "more organized." Well, sure, maybe, but it's more work for me! Ugh, I just want this project to be so fantabulous (like any other project I've taken on where I build some sort of site) so it makes up for the fact that I couldn't turn in an Autoethnography paper. Problem is, we need to figure out how to organize the site (it's not automatic, folks!)-- and I need to figure out a suitable design. Helpz? Our topic is "Gay Rights," and we're covering a lot of ground with issues on the California Supreme Court decision, Prop 8, etc. (I don't want to be horribly stereotypical and do a RAINBOW, even though there are tasteful ways of incorporating multiple colors into a site design... something like the iTunes posters wouldn't be bad, but I don't know if it's "serious" enough. Same goes for pink triangles.)

* Organization of my FFX, FFX-2 playlist in iTunes. Turns out I was missing a bunch of songs from the 4-disc original soundtrack (the Tokyopop one I bought ages ago is called the "Official Soundtrack," and hardly has any of the good songs), so I imported them. Now to make sure they all have the right titles (I'm aiming for the English-translated ones, not romanized or literal titles, e.g. not "Warping to a Different Dimension," but "The Sending"), the right artist/composers, and that I've noted which ones are equivalent to which tracks on the Official Soundtrack, because I'm anal retentive like that. :P

* Need new icons. Lots of fandoms. Also: more LULz.

* The usual: studying for quizzes, homework, taking notes, watching CSI: Season 1 (srsly, whoever heard of a DVD boxed set coming with a) no subtitles/closed captions and b) no scene selections!? I'm pissed, CBS! Even though it was a great value, this is just stupid) , attempting to work on WDKY26 but getting sidetracked by other ideas and such

COMPLETED PROJECTS WHATEVER
* Got my copy of "Star Ocean: First Departure" for the PSP! I don't own a PSP (yet)! Whoo-hoo!

* Finished Astrology, Blood Types, and Yu-Gi-Oh! I don't like it as much as the others, because even though I raised issues dealing with the character, it didn't seem as indepth. Is that because he's not as major a character as the others I've covered so far? Also, I feel like I put it out there on a crutch, even though lots of people said it was indepth and good and everything. But I felt like without my proper research book and software for generating natal charts, it just wasn't as good. :(

Okay, so FFnet has decided that, along with hyphen/dash-based scene separators, they're also going to eat e-acutes, quotation marks (single and double), among other things, I'm sure.

I have to edit every single chapter of WDKY to date for changes to the display/characters that FFnet
a) did NOT say they were going to remove support for
b) that were properly encoded in the first place, in the original HTML
c) has not made easy to fix, because I have to go to the original story, export each chapter, go into Live Edit, go into HTML preview, and then paste the original HTML. Then and only then does it show up right in the Live Preview and HOPEFULLY on the reader's end, as well.

ARGH!

( Oh wait, it gets better. I wrote to Support. AND THEY WROTE BACK! )

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 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.

I'm almost done with His Dark Materials, the trilogy by Philip Pullman including "The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass." I do think they read together better as an omnibus-- or at least 2 and 3 do, because the ending of 1 was "okay," while 2 just sort of... well, "cut off," pun not intended.

I've got a ton of other books to read at some point, many of them purchases from when I was in San Francisco, including Candace Bushnell's Lipstick Jungle, The Thirteenth Tale, the second In Death book, "Glory In Death," "The Historian," the rest of the "Book of the Dead," Susan Issac's "Long Time No See" (at Baba's recommendation), and "Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her," which I'm finding is a very fun, informative read on one of my favorite childhood heroines.

Today at Borders, I also picked up a bunch of manga (another one of those 5-for-4 sales), though I'm still holding off on Fullmetal Alchemist and its associated novels, since I want to wait for the whole series to be finished. Besides, I technically don't have enough bookshelf space for what I have... it's kind of embarrassing (but cool! Because who doesn't want to have their own personal library? Mine is killer! :D). I also picked up "Codebreaker," about -what else?- codes and ciphers and their history. That purchase was, of course, inspired by seeing "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." I actually love puzzles (logic puzzles are my favorite-- I'm not much one for crosswords, though I am a little good at Sudoku), and I think that's sort of come out in WDKY's Téa, because I've had her solve her father's riddles in order to unravel a family mystery (and save Seto on the side, of course). In thinking about the future of WDKY, I'm thinking, if Téa didn't become a dancer, what would she be? There could be any number of reasons why she might not dance, and I thought she might end up as a cryptanalyst or similar. It'd be a fun way of having her one-up Kaiba in many ways-- genius of one area vs. genius of... well, Kaiba's sort of an all-around guy, but hey! :D

Speaking of fanfiction, I've started revisions on an old Sailor Moon fic of mine, "Hogosha no Kokoro," or HnK for short. Originally, the title was SUPPOSED to translate to "Guardian of the Heart," but that was back before I fully understood Japanese and the function (and positioning) of noun modifiers. So technically, it translates to "Guardian's Heart," or "Heart of [the] Guardian," but I guess that's okay, too, even though the meaning is a bit different from what I intended. In any case, I explain the mixup in my Author's Notes, and add "Guardian of the Heart," as the story's subtitle. I figure I could change it to what it was meant to be (Kokoro no Hogosha), but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it, and besides, if I were to abbreviate it the way I do for my other fics (like WDKY), it would be GotH. o_o Yeah, I have a "Goth" story. Great.

Anyway, I'm not sure why I picked this one over any of my other SM fics-- heck knows they all need revising, but HnK has great possibilities as an AR Silver Millennium Fic. No, I'm not going to try and make it fit with the current theme of sm_monthly (which I've almost consistently had ideas for, but never gotten around to actually writing/posting).

( Read more... )

The "Grissom's Gone" marathon on Spike was pretty damn good. Everything I'd heard about Keppler on the 'Net made him out to be some sort of nerdy-but-badass guy that had some sort of chemistry with Catherine... and while it's not on the level of Cath/Warrick, I DID see something there. Sucks that the way he had to go was... well, bloody.

Still haven't heard back from Chase, which can be a good or a bad thing. Good if I do, because Yay! that would mean I could go to Washington, D.C. and score this possibly-really-cool internship. Bad because, well, a loan is money you have to pay back, and that sucks no matter WHAT it's for. Also bad because I neglected to use the URL for Student Advantage cardholders, which means I might have gotten a better rate or different plan options. I wonder if I hear from them again, can I mention that after the fact?

Anyway, if I don't, I've set the deadline of the 21st. If I hear from them by then, huzzah, I can go. If I don't, tough nuggets; I let the people at the WII know and I stay here and stick to my nice job, wonderful honor societies and friends, and the schedule and courses I've already picked out. It would suck if all that planning and running around (and paperwork: egads, PAPERWORK!) was for nothing but at least not for want of TRYING. And unlike Yoda, I do think the effort counts for something. Every experience is a chance to learn, and that includes those experiences where you don't succeed or get exactly what you wanted.

My aunt Sally and uncle Dan think that I ought to write the CA Congress representatives and senators (or at least the ones in my "district," which could be either Los Angeles or San Francisco, I suppose) and see if I can get them to give me any money-- do you think I ought to write an old fashioned letter (more formal, seems more appropriate) or an email (assuming I can find one for the people in question; it stands to reason they probably get a lot of junk mail, yeah?)? I *am* on a deadline; if I go, I have to be in Washington by January 16th, which doesn't leave a lot of time for actually GETTING the money, paying WII, and of course, getting plane tickets to get out there-- which will be ridiculously expensive not just this time of year, but at such short notice.

So while I've gotten a bit more accepting of the possibility that WII won't work out, and ISLP won't happen this summer, it's not like I'm HAPPY about these great possibilities just passing me by for lame reasons. So then I get this email from someone in the Tokyo American Center-- a part of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. They want to know if I'm interested in being a summer intern during the period for the G8 summit.

There's always a catch, ladies and gents: I have to respond by Tuesday, Japan time. Well, I responded already expressing my interest, and my question about housing if I come earlier than the expected start date (since apparently the G8 affects housing, so if I came "on time," which equals early July, then I'd be SOL for housing)... but I doubt this means they still have ACCEPTED me. It's more like they're pressed for time finding appropriate candidates and are weeding them down. It's great to be considered for something like that (and huzzah for Washington these days; someone out there must like me), but of course, money is an issue. Is it a paid internship? You can't really survive in Japan on a stipend. Hell, how would I get money for the plane ticket out there and back? It's not cheap!

So... we'll see who says what and what happens.

In the meantime, I've been busy with crafts (need more Fimo), fanfics (strange urge to read Nick/Sara, write "Speed of You," that Initial D/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover I thought up ages ago), reading (started on "His Dark Materials," which I got for cheap in a humungo paperback from Costco), and cleaning (finally got the rec room looking semi-passable, though there's still a huge pile of ancient bills to sort through). Also paid off my bills, which is always a refreshing feeling. It's better to get that stuff out of the way as soon as you get it, I think, so that you can always consider the amount of money you have "what you've got to work with," rather than an amount that is going to dwindle BECAUSE of bills.

Tomorrow I've got to finish cleaning and packing (and hopefully go to JoAnn's to get more Fimo and possibly to exchange my Amaco flattening machine, because the turn handle and table clamp are too loose and keep falling out), since I leave for S.F. on Tuesday afternoon, have yet to get my shuttle (I'm thinking from now on, it's better to leave by LAX, because the Van Nuys Flyaway is always cheaper to get to than the damn Super Shuttle), and when I come back, fountainthe is swinging by! squee!

I'm also working on clearing up 30kisses (apparently I need to hire a huge mod squad, because honestly? Keeping just one person on Claims List maintenance could probably considered a modern form of Internet torture... I'm so sorry, svelterose!).

And then there's my End-of-the-Year resolution: get Epiphany UP AND RUNNING by New Year's Day. That would be Super-Speshul-Awesome.

Actually, there are a lot of things that would be Super-Speshul-Awesome, but I can only handle so much good karma at once. I just hope it doesn't fail me anytime soon.

Hey, dqbunny and guardian_kysra? Keep your eyes on your mailboxes, ladies. ^_~ And I don't mean the virtual ones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It sucks when you get into a new pairing (this is the second in so many months) and you might find ONE or TWO fics that have a decent plot and spelling and grammar that doesn't make you cringe. Maybe the copy-editor in me has set standards too high, because I went through ALL of the M-rated fics in a C2 community devoted to Albel x Nel from Star Ocean 3 (TTEOT) and I was lucky to find anything halfway readable. Nothing worth reviewing, though, and thus, nothing to "write home about."

Why is it I keep seeing the same carelessness in fics? Whatever happened to showing your love of canon, your pride regarding your pairing (crack or not), and basic rules for clarity? I mean, even if you write just to get a plotbunny out of your head, you're still posting for the public- everyone knows there's the potential for reviews, or why else post it online in the first place, especially at a place like FFnet? Why else say things like "R&R" or "No flames!"? (And frankly, I find the last one stupid. Unless you've written something you know will "warrant" flames, why say it? You're basically asking for it when you say "Don't flame me!" because it really translates to: "Don't say anything if it's not mindless praise and useless drivel! I can't take constructive criticism and will tell you of all my illnesses and tragedies if you accuse me of forgetting to spell-check!")

It bugs me to no end when I see not just some simple, scattered spelling and grammar errors, but constant, repeated things within the first few paragraphs. In what I've seen lately with AlNel fics, it's stuff that's not specific to the fandom in any way, and could affect anyone, any time:

* Tense shifts. It's really, really jarring. I honestly think a simple proofread would solve this. Why don't people ever re-read their fics before they post? I do that many times over with my fics; it's how I catch most of my errors before I send the chapter off to a beta!

* Wrong word, wrong spelling, bad grammar. I saw "hallowed" instead of "hollowed." Yes, I know it's just a letter of difference, and from context, I understood the proper meaning, but still, since it's so easily FIXABLE, why not? A spell-checker won't catch it; you need to be diligent as a writer or have a beta who knows English! Why? Because something with an empty inside is much different from something that is considered sacred and respected. And of course, mixed up words like your, you're, their, they're, there always piss me off. GET THEM RIGHT! I also hate seeing it's or its used improperly. I'm just glad I have yet to see anyone use its'. And people who mix up words that should just LOOK wrong automatically like in this phrase: "They where sitting down next to the grapebind tree." What's wrong with that phrase? If you can't tell me, you fail. (And no, it's not the "grapebind," part, that's actually the name of a variety of tree in SO3. This is obviously something grammatical.)

* OOC. It bugs me when people say "yeah, they're a little OOC," and then they apologize, bitch about it, or say "fuck off" to the readers in some form or fashion. With most pairings, OOC means they're not the characters we're reading FOR anymore. Albel Nox and Nel Zelpher have such distinct personalities, to make them OOC in the slightest detracts from any quality the story may have had in its plot, writing style, etc. It's like cheapening a fine wine with seltzer water.

For those unfamiliar with the pairing, Albel Nox is the captain of a military power's infantry branch, known as the Black Brigade. He's a feared, ruthless killer with an incredible prowess with the katana and an ego that matches his reputation. But he's got a dark past and a thirst for bloodshed that are his weaknesses.

Nel Zelpher works for the country on the other side of the war, a country called Aquaria. She's a loyal woman, hard-working and strong, but she can occasionally come off as cold. She's also got a biting attitude sometimes. Her father died (technically without her knowing), so she, too, has a bit of a sad past. Unlike Albel, she's not missing any limbs or anything, but her ego's not as huge, even though she is well known as a spy and as the fierce edge of the renowned "Crimson Blade."

To take any of that away from them is to lose what makes them unique, tough characters, and then what's the point of writing fanfiction about them (or people with their names, at least) at all?

* "Guide to my writing." I used to do this when I was younger. But seriously, why the hell do people feel the need to mention that speech will be in "double quotes," thoughts will be 'italicized and in single quotes,' and things like lyrics, other languages, text messages, etc. will be bold/enclosed in brackets/marked off with asterisks, etc.? Ninety percent of the time, it's understood from context! I don't need someone instructing me on basic writing/English! (And for the record, I've written and even enjoy some songfics, but nowadays I'm seeing very little need to include lyrics --or at least huge chunks of them-- in fics. It's much easier to say "This fic was inspired by/has a scene inspired by XYZ by Artist A." Plus, you're not breaking copyright infringement by reprinting lyrics, then. And as an added bonus, there are no extra parts to bold/italicize/whatever to mark them off as lyrics (assuming your reader was too dumb to figure it out otherwise).

* High School fics/Movie or TV-based fics - I really wish this would end. When you take characters from a sword-and-sorcery-based world and try and dump them into a modern high school, modern hospital, or any other "modern" situation, it just ruins their characters. Albel Nox IS WHO HE IS because of WHERE HE WAS BORN, HOW HE WAS RAISED, AND WHAT HE HAS GONE THROUGH. You can't call him "Albel the Wicked" if he's pretending to be House, M.D. Nel wouldn't be who she is if she were years younger and some floozy at Aquios High. Parodies, yes, I can understand that, but... a real fic? It's one thing to dump the characters in a universe that the characters can still somewhat be fit into, but for a game like SO3, it's just not possible with these. Yet I've seen House, M.D., Cast Away, high school fics... ugh.

* Earth-based... - Okay, there's off-worlders like Fayt, Cliff, et. al. in SO3, but that doesn't mean that they're going to introduce a holiday like Valentine's Day/Christmas/etc. to Elicoor. And even if they did introduce it to Nel, Albel, or a city/a country, there's no telling if it would take, or if there wasn't already some sort of similar holiday in place! Consider the circumstances under which holidays developed on Earth. Without the same meaning on Elicoor, what's the point? Why would anyone place any significance to them, or care? Why would anyone ACT on them? It's stupid. It's MUCH easier, if you must have an excuse to write seasonal romance or whatnot, to invent a brand-new holiday. You can take elements of Valentine's Day, for example, and modify it to make something brand new. Even around the world, holidays aren't the same. So why not start with bits and pieces of one holiday and how it's celebrated around the world, and mush them all together? Or take multiple holiday traditions and mush them together? What if people on Elicoor celebrate a day of love in their coldest month, and partake of a chocolate treat after lighting candles on a tree? And what if it's called Eyun, or Rashul Day? It doesn't have to be "Valentine's" or "Christmas," or anything like that. (BTW, remember that Earth in SO3 is several centuries ahead of "modern time" anyway, so who's to say that holidays like those are even celebrated anymore, or if they are, that they're celebrated in even the remotely same way? Christmas now isn't celebrated like it was originally, that's for damn sure.)

* "Bad at summary's. Read." Er, no, I'll pass. Seriously, all a summary is: a single sentence briefly describing the plot of your story. And you know what? It can come in different forms. I know one summary that was a line from the story, but it was so unusual, it drew me in. It can be one of those standard "questions," where you put a character in a situation and then ask if they can get out of it somehow. BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE: a string of pairing names, emoticons, ellipses, references to friends/inside jokes, re-hashed information from canon, song lyrics, or a single word/short phrase having nothing to do with your story (again, such as the pairing name). Same goes for the title, too. MAKE IT RELEVANT. It's not hard.

Summaries also don't need to include irrelevant details (unless it's what makes your story unique, and frankly I DOUBT IT) like whose POV the story is written in, what there are spoilers for (seriously, that's what author notes are for), why it's rated the way it is, etc. It CAN include things like the fact that a chapter is new or revised, if the story is on hiatus or will never be finished, and so on. But it should basically give the reader a reason to read, a reason why your story should be picked out of the trash that is FFnet these days.

There are a ton of other things, too, like eLiTE caps, Random Capitals in the Middle of a Phrase or sentence!, misspellings of canonical things (Airyglyph, not Airigliph, Airygliph, etc.; Fayt, not Fate, Elicoor, not Elicloor, etc.), lack of/bad punctuation (thats, well for we'll, etc.), too much punctuation (*!*!*!xxStoryTitlexx*!*!*!)

I hate to say it, but it's not that much better on most private archives I found. That makes me sad that either writers of this pairing are so lazy, the good writers are so few and far between, and/or the moderators of outside archives aren't stringent. This is why I have an approval queue for Dragonfayth, and why I beta things that are on the verge of being good, but just need some (hopefully minor) changes. Sometimes I'm too nice and I really overhaul a story rather than rejecting it-- I've done it multiple times now with an author who apparently doesn't read the explanations I make an effort to include in my rejection letters.

I'm thinking that contribution to fandom is multi-fold:
* How-To articles on what makes the best fanfiction for X pairing or Y fandom-- just the basics, like what I mentioned above, not things like "The plot must be Z!" or "Character A should act exactly like THIS, all the time!"

* Contribution of your own work.

* Recognition and recommendation of others' work, because it can't be all that bad.

All of the above makes me want to get Epiphany up that much faster, because all of that can be in place with Epiphany. If only I didn't feel so damn tired and busy all the time. Playing SO3 lately has been my only relief, even though I know I tend to procrastinate when I play (e.g. sorting B&G's bills, working on my J371 project which is due next week, etc.)

*SIGH!* This entry has too many asterisks in it.

Ah, I love reviews. Even the "ow, you could have phrased that a bit differently" criticizing (and not always "constructive") reviews. It's nice to know people still know/care about WDKY, and it's always the review flow that keeps me writing. Thankfully, there's not much about WDKY26 that's a mystery to me; as per the usual, it's just a matter of translating my planner file into prose.

I shoulda-coulda-woulda been working on it practically this entire afternoon, after I got back from covering another honor society's induction ceremony for the Sundial, but I ended up playing Star Ocean 3 for hours. Literally, HOURS. I took the clock out of the rec room, so I had no idea what time it was until I briefly noticed Baba and Grandpa had gone to bed and it was eerily quiet-- and then the sprinklers outside started. I looked at my watch on the table and I had an "ohshit!" moment. It was 12:37 when I looked at my watch. O_O yeah, color me in shock.

Truth is, I don't like SO3 all that much, at least compared to SO2. Sure, plenty of things make "more sense," like having the Craftsmen's Guild instead of Skill Guilds, and Workshops rather than you being able to create anything anywhere. But so far I have yet to produce a single good thing-- the only things I've patented are rare items I've found, like the cider and the anti-poison amulet. And I've already shelled out tons of Fol to improve upon Paterny's Workshop, add Lines, and try and make things from scratch! Urgh, what a pain. I know about individual Talents; in my game (not sure if it randomizes), Nel's a good cook, Fayt's a great engineer and writer, and Cliff's a decent smithy and engineer. But despite not having patented anything in her name, Nel's still the top-ranked Inventor. Go figure.

Anyway, that system bugs me... so does the map system, mainly because it makes my eyes hurt and it's practically impossible to get 100% of a map even in two walkthroughs of an area (the first time you walk through and then the return trip, because it seems every journey is Point A to Point B and then back again). It's interesting to be able to either choose your enemies or dodge them... but then IN battle, the Killer Move system got replaced by this weird Short-Range/Long-Range thing along with Strong vs. Weak attacks. Apparently X is Weak attacks and O is Strong Attacks. And I DETEST the Fury concept, along with the idea of MP-Death. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every RPG's battle system should involve copious amounts of button-mashing, but supposedly easy battles in SO3 take me at least 5 minutes EACH because of all the running around, recharging of the Fury gauge and using of Blackberries and Blueberries. Players don't recharge very much (if at all) at the end of a battle for either HP or MP, and to make it even WORSE, Save Points don't recharge you! Only staying at an Inn or finding a Recovery point will, and you know how uncommon that is!?

Still, hours. And I guess despite the fact that it's frustrating and slow, part of me does want to see Fayt meet Sophia again. :}

Lastly but not leastly, I'm not going to keep it a secret until it's live, because I want to generate BUZZ:
I've just been approved for the TAFL-listed (sounds a bit redundant) fanlisting for Sailor V/Aino Minako x Kaitou Ace! Nothing quite beats the original angsty Sailor pairing. I'm going to be getting some manga fanart and putting together this FL shortly... and when I do, please spread the word and join! (I was honestly surprised this FL didn't exist before.)

While it was great to hear the other day that people actually enjoy using and adding to WikiFic, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that ever adds articles. I doubt it's because people don't have the knowledge, and it's not like WF's rules are so stringent that I'd delete ANYTHING. In fact, most people have added some pretty good quality info that I wouldn't have known about otherwise!

What pisses me off is that the Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia, which primarily focuses on the TCG/OCG as opposed to the fandom aspect of the series, is much larger- it's got over 13,000 articles, while we're teetering near 200. Most of those articles are for cards, of course, and all the subsequent data like trivia. It's not that it's larger and obviously has more people working for it-- it's that everything is made so easy for them because they're hosted on Wikia, a "make your own wiki" site. It takes all the work and learning out of it. If I'd known about Wikia years ago, before I started WikiFic, I might have put it there, but I didn't. I also don't like ad-supported anything, so I've done everything on my own domain.

That's part of the reason why anything is a long time coming with WikiFic-- it takes a LOT of trial and error, searching, uninstalling and reinstalling... I'm always having issues, and I don't have a website support team to back me up. I have to turn to the MediaWiki.org Discussion pages, the Mediawiki-l mailing list, and similar places. Even my own web host can't help out with MediaWiki beyond enabling things via SSH and the like. And I'm on a shared host, because I can't afford a private one, which means many of my editing options are limited.

It looks like the YGO Wikia has a LOT more extensions that either don't exist for the general MediaWiki public (which is also infuriating) or require some "heavy duty" editing, like adding *.pl files. I'd love to be able to take advantage of rotating templates for featured cards, JavaScript for displaying pages succinctly, timelines, and so on, but it's tough doing it on my own. Looking at the Wikia, sometimes it seems hopeless, even though I look at WikiFic and I realize I didn't create it for people looking to verify card info or get strategies-- it's for fic writers and readers that should know about the series they're involved with. You'll probably never see anything on how astrology and blood types tie into Yu-Gi-Oh at the Wikia, but those articles (mainly because they're mine :P) are at WikiFic. I'd like to think that can/does apply to a lot of other articles too, but we have SO FEW at this point...

*sigh* I just wish I had more involvement, I guess. I wish that for a lot of my sites. Maybe I'm more of a team-player than a lone wolf than I thought.

Haiku2 for the_sweet
available and every now and again i find it maybe
@ aboutmylife.netadvogato.orgblogger.comblogs.gnome.orgblogspot.comdeadjournal.comgreatestjournal.cominsanejournal.comlivejournal.commyspace.comspaces.msn.com
Created by Grahame

Hmm, some quick updates:

-Working steadfastly on WikiFic. Thanks to Platonides over at the wikimedia-l, I got the Infoboxes working, but I still need to grab a BOATLOAD of templates from Wikipedia to get everything looking nice-- for example, a lot of flag-related graphics and templates. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated-- it's really just a lot of C&Ping. You do need to have a WikiFic account though, but it takes all of 5 minutes to sign up and get started.

-Working on creating "Ultimate Armor" for my party in FFX, and I'm discovering few people think Break HP or MP limits are useful at all-- which means the armor I already created for Auron and I think Rikku is fairly useless. I've never gotten to the point where I actually fight SIN (I keep dying whenever I fight those Behemoth-type monsters inside Sin, as I recall from the last time I got this far, on my old memory card which is now lost to the ages), so I hope that by capturing more monsters and leveling up (to get the items I need for the Ultimate Armor), I'll be able to survive Sin.

-iWork and iLife have both been updated to '08! That better mean when I get my new laptop, those are installed... since I don't know what I'm going to do with my old laptop (this one), I'm not sure if I should get the family pack ($20 more) of either version yet. I know 5 Macs, but the question is, should I really give "free" iLife and iWorks '08 if I do spend the extra $40 on the two Family versions of the pack?
Here are the nominees:
(1) Mine
(2) Mine 2, possibly to be given to Grandpa, sold to Mom, or sold for parts
(3) Erin's
(4) the iMac at work in the Walk-In Center (which is a bit old)
(5) Shawn's

Speaking of the boyfriend, he's fabulous- complimentary, has a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't mind games (I got him to play both Bubble Bobble and Scrabble tonight-- hah!), and we both vented about work to each other without any awkwardness or hard feelings. He's also super-thoughtful, though I can't really say how. ^_~

I really ought to be getting to sleep now though... for one, my tooth has been hurting pretty bad since this morning or so (I somehow doubt it's mental, no matter how much I wish it were), and the Orajel I got at Rite Aid earlier is totally numbing the right side of my face. I also have to walk to school tomorrow since Baba & Grandpa have a doctor's appointment (I hope it's not too hot or too gloomy tomorrow morning). Two more weeks and three days till my first surgery... school starting, and who knows what other mayhem!

Okay, so I just had an insane idea. It might be a BAD insane idea, so please feel free to correct me if I'm bordering on certifiable insanity, here.

GameSpot announced that Star Ocean and Star Ocean 2 (The Second Story) will be re-released as "First Departure" and "Second Evolution" for the PSP. So far it's just a Japanese release, but still, remakes, additional characters, and a boatload of new scenarios has got me itching for the "disc-shooter" Playstation Portable. I really, really hope they do a version for the U.S.! (And for the record, I *LIKED* the voice actors in the NA release!)

So my crazy idea is... maybe Star Ocean (as a fandom) needs a Wiki. Sure, it's not as big as Sailor Moon (WikiMoon) or Yu-Gi-Oh (WikiFic... which is a bad name, I know, but I couldn't come up with anything else at the time, I felt the word "wiki" had to be in there, and it was primarily geared toward fanfiction writers lacking info about the series), but still! There's so much to talk about with 4 games (the original, SO2, Blue Sphere, and Till The End of Time), new re-releases, and both an anime and a manga series, the former of which including drama CDs!

I could so do it... :D :D But is it crazy? And what might I call it?

(1) Went to Jon's, the local marketplace that's a knockoff of Von's (which is the SoCal equivalent of Safeway). Grandpa and I bought so many fruits, it's amazing we don't make a salad. But I took a peach, a few strawberries, and some blueberries and put them in my Cream of Wheat. It tasted DELICIOUS! I think that's one of the few ways I ever get my daily serving of fruit.

(2) Created Mer's Ultimate Guide on How to Use LiveJournal. It covers the super-basics, so I probably wouldn't recommend it for anyone that's been around, but if you have friends that are thinking about joining LJ, or who already have and aren't very well acquainted, maybe point them in the direction of my guide? I'd like to know what people think!

(3) Throat's feeling a bit better. I've been guzzling a lot of water and milk today. And I bought chocolate chip and walnut cookie mix, so I'll make the cookies and drink MORE MILK! Bwahaha. (I love milk so much, so one of the most terrifying things for me would be me becoming lactose intolerant. It's one thing if you were BORN that way and just got used to it, but my palate tends to revolve heavily around dairy, and I like it that way. I guess that's why I'm not scared of the prospect of getting skin cancer... it's not on top of my list of "health scares." Haha!)

(4) Need CS3. Hope Erin gets back to me soon (she ordered it for me from UCLA). I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dreamweaver's errors lately are making me fed up. I hate how it's not rendering WDKY10 when I need to edit it, and how it pops up with these weird menu/Java errors every now and again. CS3 CS3 CS3... need CS3...

And now I think I'll start the cookies and finish off my Oversoul list in FFX-2. Huzzah!

Sometimes just for the hell of it, I combine two topics on my mind into one warped subject line.

I had my first final today; it was for my Editing class. It wasn't too bad, actually; liberal use of my AP Stylebook really helped, as did a proofreading after I printed the first draft. I think I did pretty well, all things considered; I even got an A on the two papers Witten turned back to me, which means I might be doing better in the class than I thought.

As for the toilet, last week sometime I noticed the rec room bathroom toilet had flooded AGAIN (Let's put it this way; I was busy playing FFX-2 and had to take a break. I take ONE step within the vicinity of the bathroom, and my socked foot goes SQUISH in a very yucky way. I realize the extent of the damage, and holler for Grandpa). This time the damage was so bad (by the time we noticed it) that Baba just got fed up and said she wanted the carpet torn out. Because it happened on a Friday (I believe), we had to wait over the weekend for everything to clear up. And that meant the carpet stayed wet (despite us having the fan on and the windows open whenever we were home), and started getting mold and mildew. No good for someone with allergies, like me. So Baba kicked me out of the rec room fairly quickly whenever I was in there watching TV or playing video games.

There are guys from "American Craftsman Restoration" (their mascot is a guy that looks a bit like Captain America, RIP!) tearing out the carpet downstairs-- or half of it, anyway. Turns out there's concrete underneath. And the walls of the rec room are wood panels, and they go to the floor, so the ones near the bathroom were wet, too. So those might be getting torn out as well. Baba wants to replace the flooring with hardwood, like the kitchen, which won't be so bad; it'll be easier to move furniture in there, and sweeping will be easier than vacuuming around all that furniture. But the room's already the coldest in the house, and a hardwood floor won't make it any warmer. Not that anyone ever likes sleeping in that room (anymore) anyway.

I do hope AAA pays for the damage, because it's crazy how much we keep paying for this kind of thing to get fixed, and it just happens again, no helping it.

Anywho, I've got a bit of a to-do list for the rest of the day:
* Take the bookcase pieces and put them in their box again, before it starts raining and the box outside gets damaged beyond usability
* Work on a "character development" planner for WDKY, so I don't lose track of characterization and what is "OOC" in that universe or not (this is surprisingly important for WDKY25, as I'm coming to learn)
* Study for my graphics and Media Law exams tomorrow, which involve reading, reading, and more reading
* Assemble my books that I want to sell back to the bookstore
* Clean up my room a bit (!?)
* Try writing/planning a bit more of my scholarship book
* Read what I bought yesterday of Death Note (up to Vol. 12; is that the last one, or is there a 13? I can't remember...), and Ceres: Celestial Legend (missing volume 1 and 13, but oh well... special order!)
* Work on WikiFic

I was also thinking of a rant/poll of sorts to post here later, about what frustrates me about shoujo "heroines" and their romances. I tend to like the romances where there's a very explicit (as in "clear" not as in "sex sex and more sex") reason why two characters love each other and get together. In re-reading some of Ceres: Celestial Legend, I got a bit frustrated with Aya's obsession with Touya; I remember volume 1, when they first met, and all the subsequent volumes... I really don't think it's very justified why she falls for him when she's got Yuuhi, who loves her and cares for her very much, and doesn't bother with all the "I don't know" and mysterious amnesia/implanted memories stuff. I do get WHAT Touya is and what he represents, but... I don't like fickle or weak heroines. I still like the series, though.

And that, in turn, got me thinking about other series that I really like-- Sailor Moon was the first, and like so many other Moonies, I was a big Usagi x Mamoru fan. But why? It was well-established in canon, and it's not like there was ever a really good rival for Mamoru (let's be honest, Umino never stood a chance, Motoki had a girlfriend, Demando was evil, Haruka was gay, and Seiya was an alien AND appeared when Mamoru was gone and couldn't really "fend" for himself). I'm sure there's more to say and couples this can and cannot apply to, so I'll save that for later.

I think I must have slept something like 14+ hours last night. I got home from work shortly after 7:15pm, and because my shoulder (and stomach) were hurting, the first thing I did was take my Darvocet and Levsin. I sat in front of the computer doing a few more backdated entries for 2002 (oh, the nostalgia) and then decided to read my latest Newsweek. About 75% through the issue, I couldn't focus anymore, so I turned off my light and decided to "take a nap." I put that in quotes because, while I had every intention of waking up again at 10:15pm to have a late dinner and maybe get some other stuff done, instead I ignored said alarm clock and went right back to sleep.

I woke up again around 1am to go to the bathroom, and it occurred to me that while I'd taken my night pills, I forgot to wash my face. :P Bad, bad idea. But I was just SO exhausted, I couldn't even imagine standing in place for five minutes to do that, so I collapsed when I went right back to bed. And now I'm up now at 7:40am. Not exactly perky-awake, and I'm still a bit sore, but at least I have my physical therapy appointment at the Klotz center later. Maybe after that (since the appointment is at 10:30am and I have no class again until 2pm), I can either head home or go to WaMu and talk to them about a bank credit card, to see what they offer.

That said, I had a weird dream that (as some dreams do) may inspire fanfiction. Let me preface this by saying I don't believe I've ever written Disney fanfic. Not for Little Mermaid, not for Beauty and the Beast, etc. But I had this weird pair of ideas revolving around the latter, and maybe someone can slap me upside the head and either tell me they're junk, they've been done before, or what the hell am I still doing in Yu-Gi-Oh, write those fics!

( Tale as old as... er, last night )

Yesterday when I was helping someone at work I saw an article on Yahoo! (as in, the main Yahoo page, not search results or another page) about internships, but when I tried to find it myself, I couldn't! And trying to do a internships site: yahoo.com search produced plenty of results, none of which I think were the article I'd seen. Does anyone have suggestions on how to find things like that?

I also heard from Scott via email-- if he's reading this, dude, are you fountain_the? I'm dying to know here, since the birthday matches, but there's no user info, there are no entries... I wanted to help him get started with an LJ (so he doesn't have to be clicking CC: to a million emails), but I don't want to pay for an LJ if it's NOT someone I know! So come forward, yo! Say some sort of secret phrase to confirm your identity or something. :P

All that said, I think I'll try and get back to sleep and hope the pain in my shoulder wears off... I've been careful not to wear my laptop-loaded purse on that side, but still, even an "evenly-balanced" backpack causes it to hurt. Just what I need, pinched nerves AND Sciatica. I think if I save up, I can get a monthly massage at the Student Health Center so I can avoid all this! (Maybe.)

I'm almost done with my 2002 FreeOpenDiary entries, and I'm going to poke into my old Greymatter ones soon too, so if you ever wanted to know what I wrote like back when I was an emo high schooler... *laughs* Well, it's all there. I'll do a recap entry of my favorites when I finish, but until then, happy hunting (should you be so inclined)!

Whoo-hoo, Giants beat the Padres 3-5! I wish we'd beat them 1-5, then I could have gone to the Levi's store at Union Square and gotten 10% or so off a purchase with a ticket stub, but alas... I suppose I don't need the new pants anyway (even though I really do, I think). But it was still nice having post-game bragging rights and text messaging Scott to tell him GIANTS WON HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA (among other things, which prompted the following reply: !...go Padres?)

So generally speaking, it's been a good Spring Break. I wish I'd gotten out more... hopefully if I get up at a semi-reasonable hour tomorrow (and Mom doesn't have me cleaning again *pray pray pray*) I can do some last-minute shopping at J-town and downtown, if I pack my other things in the morning. I hope the weather will be nice, because no matter what outfit I choose, it'll be a skirt. :P

Thankfully Dad wasn't PO'd at all when I called him earlier today to ask him about the plans for Friday... he still doesn't know if Kathleen is coming for Passover, though. o_O; And he refuses dead-on to come to S.F., so that means Mom'll be stuck shipping any leftover things of mine, rather than me taking it via car. :P Honestly, parents can be so immature at times...

But rather than rant and rail, I'm in a pretty good mood. I snagged YGO: Duelist #20 (yea for more errors by Viz so I can put them on WikiFic!) and The Prestige on DVD for only $19.99 (plus 30% off YGO!). And the game was pretty damn good, even if Bonds... well, he didn't do much. He caught one good hit somewhere in the last innings, but hitting-wise, he didn't do much. When he finally got to base, it was because he got a run. Everyone was booing. I think booing is tacky, but... whatever. It helped us score in the end, I think.

It's a shame I didn't get to see more of my friends and do more with my Mom, but that's the nature of Spring Break. I'll be back in summer, for sure.