iPod woes, playing Platinum, wardrobe changes, etc

So for some time I've been having issues with my iPod, primarily an issue where the sound only plays out of one side when I listen to music on it through headphones. I kept buying new headphones and the same thing kept happening. Finally, after searching for help online, I took it into the Genius Bar at the Apple Store and they couldn't do anything because I was 130 days out of warranty. I am a little annoyed, first of all at myself for not realizing earlier this year that I was still under warranty, since this has been happening for a while, and secondly at Apple, since according to my Google searching for answers on this, I'm not the only one having headphone problems with my iPod touch. So I sent a message via a contact form to a 3rd-party place semi-nearby that does iPod repairs to see if they can do anything. I haven't heard back yet.

I was trying to upgrade iTunes yet again today by downloading it and Quicktime separately (as a friend of mine on a forum suggested). That didn't work, btw. But anyway, when I went to try to get the old version back that I'd had, I went initially to iTunes's Wikipedia article, and from there made my way to an article on iTunes version history and an article on the iPod touch. Turns out they released a new iPod touch later last year than when I bought mine, and it appears that that model as well as the new one (the one they just released) are the ones for which iTunes 9 and up are the "minimum" device-compatible software. The "minimum" device-compatible software for my iPod, a 2nd generation iPod touch, is iTunes 8. This might explain why I have had problems upgrading iTunes ever since version 9 came out. It did seem odd that it would seem to install fine on my computer but then not open. Yet, it wouldn't open even if my iPod wasn't plugged into my computer, so then again maybe the iPod's not the issue. Hard to say. I'd have the Apple people at the store look at it, but as I have a PC I don't know what exactly they could do about it.

Lately, I have been playing Pokémon Platinum so I can have options for the Pokémon tournament at Animé Los Angeles, the convention I'm going to next January, if all goes well. (I still have to make the hotel reservation, among other things -- things have been going slowly due to being busy with school and also due to money being tight with my TuitionPay payments). I got past the part with Giratina and the Distortion World finally. I got totally stuck in the Distortion World puzzle and had to watch Marriland's walkthrough video to figure out what to do. The first time I fought Giratina, I almost could've caught it, but since I had poisoned it with Toxic, it fainted from the poison when it was at super low HP and I wasn't able to catch it. I reset the game from my save point (before the fight), and not really wanting to fight Giratina again (or maybe because I was a scaredy-cat), I just used my Master Ball on it.

Oh and if you are stuck getting to Spear Pillar (the place you get to the Distortion World from), check out this walkthrough on GameFAQs. It not only got me where I needed to go, but even helped me find a bunch of hidden items using the Dowsing Machine app on the Pokétch!

After this, you go talk to Rowan and he tells you that the three lake Pokémon have returned and also encourages you to get the eighth badge in Sunyshore City. I decided to go after the lake Pokémon first, and since I was in Sandgem Town, I decided to go for Mesprit first since it was closest. It, of course, flies away when you first encounter it (though a picture of it is shown, which I guess makes it be "seen" in your Pokédex). Then Rowan shows up and talks to you about Mesprit and about how dang good of a trainer you are and all this stuff and then leaves. Then I flew to Veilstone and made my way to Lake Valor and Azelf. Azelf was quite fast and kept taking down my Pokémon with Uproar. I managed to somehow stay in the battle and eventually I got lucky with a Dusk Ball and caught it, after I'd used up all my Timer Balls and I think most of my Ultra Balls. Then I flew to Snowpoint and made my way to Lake Acuity and Uxie. I lost on the first try because, once again, Uxie got poisoned (either from me using Toxic or my Roserade's Poison Point ability, I can't remember) and fainted before I could catch it. I reset, went back to Snowpoint to buy more Pokéballs (since I'd used several against Uxie) and tried again, eventually getting lucky again with a Dusk Ball.

Then I started doing a ton of backtracking on foot to try to chase around Mesprit. The tough thing is that they made it so you can't just fly to its location, and it changes routes whenever you change routes, which makes it tough to track even with the Marking Map app on the Pokétch. I did actually encounter it twice so far, and the first time I stupidly tried using a Quick Ball, which didn't work. Then the second time I actually did a tiny bit of damage to it before it fled.

Finally I gave up tracking Mesprit for the time being and headed to Sunyshore City. I'm there now. I haven't fought the gym yet. My team is:

Pen-Pen (Empoleon) level 52
Sleipnir (Rapidash) level 51
Fleur (Roserade) level 50
Alisa (Staraptor) level 51
Ampere (Luxray) level 51
Rocky (Geodude) level 7

I have a level 7 Geodude with me, btw, as a sort of "HM slave" (a Pokémon you only use to learn HMs).

My main concern is that I have nothing that is going to be super-effective against Volkner as I did not raise a Ground-type this time like I did in Pearl. Plus two of my Pokémon, Ampere and Alisa, won't work against him all too well, as Ampere is itself electric-type and Alisa, as a part flying-type, is extremely weak to electric. Actually Pen-Pen is weak to electric too, as it is part water-type. Oh dear what to do?

Last week when I was waiting to get picked up from work and was still stuck trying to get to Spear Pillar, I actually lucked out and encountered an Absol on the summit of Mt. Coronet. I tried to catch it but I think it fainted before I could catch it. I was pretty bummed about that.

I have decided to make some changes in my wardrobe. I need to buy new jeans anyway, as one pair I have is too big and the other (the pair I prefer to wear) is getting major holes in it, so I decided tonight to go through my dresser and closet to see what I have and determine what I don't have. Meanwhile, I am doing the huge amount of laundry I had to do. Once the laundry's done and put away, I'll have a better idea of what I have and what I need. So far, I've determined that I need new bras, new jeans, and maybe a new dress or two (since I only own two dresses, and I'm not sure they both fit me...I know one of them doesn't). I also need white socks since I don't have a lot of those -- though I have several pairs of black socks, which is probably because I need them for work. I have several good pairs of underwear, so that's good. They mostly just need to be laundered. I do need a slip though (the one I had didn't fit), maybe some pantyhose too. I need shorts because I only have one pair that fits, and some skirts for sure (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find good skirts in my size...I found a great one a while back, only to be informed by my mother that it was not a skirt but a dress, like a strapless one, you see. Awkward!).

I'm thinking right now how in her diary, Anne Frank writes this one entry listing all the clothes and such that she'd buy if she and her family escaped to Switzerland. Most of it's things like stockings and stuff, but also separate pairs of shoes for summer and for winter (odd).

I do like the clothes Emily Henderson, the winner of HGTV Design Star this season, wore on the show, like this housedress she wore for the finale and this outfit. I'm following her blog now, and I believe she says on there that she wears those things because that's her style. I don't know what my style is exactly, though I know it's not modern and definitely not couture; I usually just throw on jeans and a T-shirt if I'm not at work or going to and from work. Stacy and Clinton (from TLC's What Not to Wear) would not approve. (Gah, I hope I never get nominated for that show. Stacy and Clinton would chew me out, I'd hate the shopping because I don't like shopping for clothes -- just persuading myself to go through my dresser and try things on took some time -- and I'd be really awkward with Nick Arrojo and Carmindy, because Nick would want to bob my hair -- he ALWAYS cuts people's hair short -- and I'd have to embarrassingly explain to Carmindy that I haven't worn makeup consistently since I was like 14). I guess I'm kinda bohemian, whatever that means. I'm certainly traditional, and if I could I would wear skirts and dresses more often -- it's just that I don't own any skirts or any casual dresses. Plus having to wear pantyhose whenever I wear a skirt or a dress (so that my legs don't rub together) is really aggravating.

Emily's proposed design show idea was to take what people wear and transport that into the design of their space. It would be cool if she could do that for me. I watched her do her "Style Diagnostic" on the special post-Design Star special featuring her (called Secrets from a Stylist and meant to be a taste of her show; the show of that name has now been picked up for 26 episodes -- congrats Emily!) with her friend the co-creator of Glee and it looked pretty cool.

I think my living space would be some mix of traditional, bohemian, and eco-friendly. I would probably have wood furniture, maybe some vintage or international pieces, and soft, green fabrics. I'd have energy-efficient appliances (including maybe one of those cool loft-style refrigerators they have on Income Property all the time) and maybe some poufs someplace because poufs are bohemian and they are also just plain awesome. That and/or those Moroccan drum tables I keep seeing in HGTV spaces or in catalogs (like Pottery Barn) that look so cool. I would paint with low or no-VOC paint mainly because of my allergy/asthma issues (aside from the fact it's eco-friendly also); I have noticed in the past that I am somewhat bothered by paint fumes. I would like a cool bed, maybe even an Asian-style platform bed, low to the ground. And storage would be a must.

I've decided that I would want either Emily or maybe Candice Olsen (of HGTV's Divine Design and also the one judge I like on Design Star) to design my space if I could, and if I was doing an income property, I would want Scott McGillvray (of HGTV's Income Property) to help me.

Well it's late so I'm going to sign off as I have to be at work early tomorrow/today. Bye!

 

A bit overwhelmed

Ok, so good news -- I was able to go in and change the amount I owe on my tutition payment plan to what I currently owe. I made the first payment on Friday (it's not due till Sept. 1st, but Friday was my last payday before then so I wanted to get it dealt with early); it just hasn't been posted to my bank account yet (it might not till tomorrow, since it's the weekend right now). It will be $180 a month in payments, which is doable but still tough. But it sure beats $630 a month. It's a little less stress.

School starts tomorrow officially, for me on Tuesday. It's going to be tough semester, I can feel it. But somehow, by the grace of God, I'll get through.

I got an e-mail today giving the meeting times for the CWCW (creative writing club); I don't know if I'll be able to make them this semester though with my night classes and all. That stinks.

Lately, I feel like I just haven't been at my best. I think I've been overwhelmed in the last month with this financial stress, as well as not getting much sleep with all these early working shifts. On top of this, I'm thinking of going to that anime con and the idea of cosplay scares me. I got some suggestions from the forums at Cosplay.com (which I was finally able to join):

~Fuu from Magic Knight Rayearth



~Sheena from Tales of Symphonia



~and these three other characters I've never heard of:

Jihl Sabaat from Final Fantasy XIII




Marianne from Code Geass



and Cornelia, also from Code Geass



I'm leaning towards Fuu, especially since there's going to be a CLAMP cosplay gathering at Animé Los Angeles so I would be able to meet some people with similar interests. But I am afraid I would have to make the blazer and skirt, and I have no faith whatsoever in my sewing abilities. Plus, how the heck would I make the sword? I found a tutorial where someone made Fuu's sword, but it involved a lot of woodcutting I don't know how to do.

I also considered, if I did do Fuu, going as Fuu from the Rayearth OVA, where she wears a different outfit and headband and is distinguished as a Knight only by an Exsphere-like orb on the back of her hand. Here is a picture to give you an idea (you can't see the orbs here though).



So, in short, I am totally lost and overwhelmed on this. I'm not even familiar with three of those suggestions, as I said. I've never seen Code Geass and I haven't played Final Fantasy XIII, or most of the FF games for that matter, though I confess I like the look of Jihl. She kind of reminds me of Relena Peacecraft from Gundam Wing (another person I could potentially cosplay, though I never was too much into that show). I looked her up; she's the antagonist of that game apparently.

Just looked up Cornelia and Marianne; they're the Second Princess and Empress of the Holy Britannia Empire respectively. Funny, I pictured Cornelia as more of just a general. The royal (or at least noble) thing for Marianne I deduced from the picture.

Speaking of Relena, another character that looks like her is Mitsuki Sanada from Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, a series by the director of Tenchi Muyo:



GAHHHHH! I need to stop this. Idea overload. This is what makes me overwhelmed; I get overstimulated sensually (via the senses, not in a sexual sense) and then my brain starts going at like lightning speed, and then the anxiety and worry kick in.

Maybe I just shouldn't cosplay. Save myself the misery of worrying about who to cosplay as and how I'm going to get the outfit together if I can't sew and don't have a lot of money and only about 4 1/2 months.

But if I go to an anime con sans cosplay I will look like not only a total newbie but also like an idiot. Even if I just go for a schoolgirl cosplay or a kimono (like this nice one in peppermint green that I saw in the CLAMP Mokona's Okimono Kimono book that I got at Comic-Con) I'm going to look weird. I won't fit in.

There are characters from the lesser-known series I know that I might be able to do, but no one would recognize me, and that's just as bad.

I wish I had the money to just commission a costume, but I don't, and plus I couldn't enter the masquerade at ALA with it I don't think. Not that I have to do the masquerade of course; that might be part of my stress too. They're having a non-competitive fashion show where you can show off your costume too.

*Sigh* I just don't know what to do, and I can't stop thinking about it. Hopefully, school will distract me, but probably not. As Scott McGillvray (of HGTV's Income Property) would say, I need help.

I suppose I could pray, but does God care about this sort of thing? With floods in Pakistan and poverty in Haiti (the Carlsbad campus of my church, which I go to, is supporting a missionary effort in Haiti right now), would he really care about my cosplay worries? It seems petty.

I suppose he does. I was just reading the passage in Luke where Jesus tells about a persistent widow who kept bothering a judge till he agreed to help, and he said our prayer should be persistent like that. And mine hasn't. But I suppose it's worth trying, though I feel like an idiot for doing it.

Dear Jesus, please help me right now. I would like to go to this convention in L.A., as you know, where it is typical for people to dress up in costume. But I don't know anything about dressing up in costumes - except for Halloween - or how to make them. It's got me really stressed out. Please, help me calm my worries so that I can approach this with a clear mind and have faith that I can make some reasonable decisions regarding this. My worries are clouding my ability to make decisions about this and also overwhelming my mind. Peter said to cast our cares on you, so in this case I'm going to do that. It might seem like a weird thing to pray for, but I'm totally lost. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Ok that was a very awkward prayer (I'm out of practice, I'm afraid) but I'm glad I did it.

I'm going to go eat lunch now. An empty stomach doesn't help one's judgment either.

Financial aid development, work, The Sky Crawlers, cosplay

Well I have had a development regarding my financial aid. I've been packaged, but only for a Pell Grant, meaning I still have to pay $722 out-of-pocket this semester. But I don't have $722 right this moment; it would take me quite some time to earn that. Don't know how it's going to work out. Best option right now appears to be keeping the Sallie Mae plan but changing the amount I owe (since according to their records, which date to before I was packaged, I owe the whole tuition/fee amount of $2,522), which would bring my monthly payments down to maybe $200 a month or something over 4 months. I'm going to call Financial Aid (or maybe go there tomorrow after work, since I need to buy a couple books anyway) and see what my options are and how soon I have to pay this amount. (Technically, I should've paid it already, but I got a fee deferment). So the stress isn't over yet.

Dang nabbit I just want to be solvent. It's like I finally got paid after being in the red, then I came near the red again because due to overdraft fees I had less money in my account than I thought I did. Then I got paid again but had to buy my books (the ones that were less online; there are a couple that aren't much different in price at the bookstore as they are online, and the third one I didn't order as it is optional so I'm going to wait and see if I really need it). Then this week I got paid, but I had to pay rent. Soon, I'm going to have to buy my bus pass again and pay rent again and have my automatic-withdrawal church tithe taken out again. I just need to get to a place where I can afford to transfer money to savings, which I can't really do right now. Not a lot anyway.

There. I just transferred $50 into my savings account. It's not a lot, but it gives me a cushion. If I transfer a little bit into there out of every check, I can maybe build up my savings again. That's what I did when I was saving up for a new laptop. Of course in that case I had $300 to start with thanks to the budget surplus checks. I'm going to try to bring my own lunch to school and work more often as well. That will cut down some on expenses, since I know from doing a chart of my expenses via Quicken Online that a majority of my money goes to food. I'll have to buy food to put in the lunches, but if I plan right hopefully that won't cost much. Don't know what I'll do for dinner on school nights (since I have night classes). Maybe I'll get popcorn or something that is filling, doesn't need refrigeration, and is easy to carry around. I'll try to limit the snacks I buy. It'll be hard, but it has to be done.

I was supposed to be off work today, but at 6:30 this morning one of the Key Carriers called my cell asking me to come in. So I went in for a few hours, actually staying a bit late to try to help bag for Petar, one of the checkers, who had a long line. Most of the time though was spent on the primary reason they called me in, to deal with the 25+ carts of cardboard in the back room that needed to be baled. This guy named Robert from produce helped me for a while, but eventually he got called off to work frozen so I was left on my own. I also got behind because at one point the receiver had to make a bale so I had to get out of the way. I pushed the empty shopping carts up front, took my break, and then had to help bag for the ridiculous rush we had. (The lines were so bad customers came up to me complaining. When customers start complaining, you know it's bad). It reminded me somewhat of this game I have on my iPod called Supermarket Mania. Basically it's like Cake Mania or Diner Dash in that it's a simulation of a typical supermarket and you basically have to keep everything stocked so that the customers stay happy. The less customers who get mad and leave, the more money the supermarket makes and the closer you come to progressing in the game. Oh and you also have to stop thieves from time to time and clean up after either angry customers who leave their groceries or rowdy teenagers who mess up stuff. You're probably wondering Why does she have a game about working in a supermarket on her iPod when she already works at one? Isn't that boring? Not really. The game is a lot easier to figure out than my work is. At some point though, I did get back there and managed to finish just in time. Then, as I said, I stayed a little late; I left after about a half hour over though because the lines had died down and I was afraid the manager would be starting to wonder why I was still there. He didn't seem too concerned though.

Gah it's so hot in my room! It's like summer finally caught up with us over here in SoCal.

I just watched an anime movie I got from the library. It's called The Sky Crawlers and it's directed by Mamoru Oshii, the director of Ghost in the Shell, a series I know very little about, other than that it involves robots. Basically, the film is about the Kildren, eternally young fighter pilots who are continuously going out into the sky to fight very realistic but seemingly pointless dogfights with planes from a rival arms company. There is no war going on; it's just that, as one character explains, mankind is so used to war that they can't live without it, hence the dogfights with the Kildren. The catch with the Kildren is that they cannot die unless they are killed in battle. People seem creeped out by their eternal youthfulness too. The main character is a Kildren named Yuichi who becomes curious about the previous owner of his plane but can't get sufficient answers from the people at his new base. He also ends up falling in love with his childlike commander Suito Kusanagi. It was overall a little hard to follow. Not exactly my kind of thing. The film was also odd in that during normal scenes, the characters spoke Japanese, but in battle they spoke English, with a few German words (like "zwei" for 2 and also "doppel") thrown in for good measure.

With things more or less set for me to go to Animé Los Angeles in January - it looks very likely I will get the days off, but I still have to register and get a hotel room - I am trying to decide whether or not I am going to cosplay, and if so, as what character. At most anime cons these days, it seems like cosplay is almost expected. I already am bandying about cosplaying as Princess Pluto (the Princess version of Sailor Pluto from Sailor Moon), Pokémon Ranger Solana, and Maya or Mia Fey (from the Phoenix Wright game series). Today as I was baling cardboard I considered cosplaying as a Code Lyoko character, probably Aelita since I like her the best and also because it would be pretty easy (I think) to find a short pink wig around Halloween. I would probably cosplay as her in her casual clothes from seasons 2-most of 4, which consist of a purplish jumper, a pink long-sleeved shirt with a hoodie-esque collar, dark pink knee-high boots with white tops. She also has pink eyebrows and little pom pom things that hang down from her collar. Though I guess her Lyoko outfit is also doable and probably more recognizable. Just now I Googled "Aelita cosplay" and all the pics were of her Lyoko outfit. The pic on CosplayLab claimed the outfit was made in 5 hours. But it looked like it was a kid who was wearing it. But somebody on Cosplay.com did it who looked more like my age. Basically I'm considering doing something simple and then pairing the wig with a simple kimono or yukata (a lighter sort of kimono made of cotton) for Sunday, since that day's theme is "New Year's Festival" and I want to look the part. Plus I have a few different fans I could use with that sort of thing, including a real Japanese fan my uncle bought me (well, it's from a shop in Narita Airport, but that counts, right?). I also have an Asian-looking sunshade/parasol I bought at a booth at the beach last year. I found a yukata set just now for $79.99. That sounds like a lot, but it comes with a yukata, an obi (ribbon belt), and geta (traditional sandals worn with a kimono or yukata). Still I imagine I can do that for cheaper. I saw geta on sale at Comic-Con for like $10 a pair. I almost bought them too.

Hmm this site has plus-size yukatas. Promising. They give you a fan for free if you order both a yukata and a geta/obi set (which comes with a pair of geta, an obi, and a waist belt called a koshihimo that holds the yukata in place under the obi). Nice. They have some nice tabi socks (socks you usually wear with geta) too.

Hmm there are several sites selling yukatas, but they're all super expensive. Why is cosplay so expensive dangit? I suppose I could get something similar around Halloween if I buy a mass-produced geisha costume, but it might not be as nice. And they might not have my size.

I tried to join the forums at Cosplay.com in hopes of getting some suggestions (everyone's favoring the Princess Pluto one over at Miss Dream, and I'm still unsure whether I'll do that one) but for some reason didn't get the activation e-mail. Grr.

I think I'm going to take a walk. I need fresh air. Bye for now.

Cosplay, cons, websites, school

I'm trying to determine whether I can get time off for a con I got a flyer for at Comic-Con. It's called Animé Los Angeles, and it happens from January 7-9 of next year. The timing is good because I won't be in school then, so I won't have to waste my allotted vacation time for the year by taking a whole week off. It's close enough for me to not have to fly. Plus for $40 registration (for the whole weekend!) plus a special deal of $109/night for the con hotel (the LAX Marriott), it's a steal. But my fear is that this weekend falls within the blacked-out holiday week for New Year's. If it does, I can't request the time off.

Anyway, according to the flyer, there are several cosplay-related things going on (including the usual masquerade). So this has gotten me thinking about cosplay. I have never cosplayed before. I don't think I have the time (or money, for that matter) to commission a costume from one of the many online cosplay costume makers. I wish there was still that costume shop in Vista that I rented costumes from a few times; it closed down though. I might be able to get some pieces cheap when Halloween comes along, I guess. Like a wig. I was reading this "Beginner's Guide to Cosplay" by the girl who runs the Team Rocket fansite Trsrockin.com and she gets pieces from thrift stores and stuff. I think they warned against this in the discussion of cosplay on the Miss Dream podcast (#9 I think). But I would rather not spend a ton of money, especially because of my recent money scare.

I have long considered cosplaying as Sailor Jupiter, since I somewhat physically resemble her. But she's not my favorite Sailor Senshi or anything. Other possibilities I've thought of are Angel Lily (my favorite character from Wedding Peach) and a Pokémon Ranger. The last of these appeals to me most, though I'm not quite sure how to pull it off. I could carry my plush Piplup with me (since Piplup is a possible Partner Pokémon as of Shadows of Almia) and I wouldn't need Pokéballs since Rangers don't carry them. The hair would be problematic; both female player characters in the first two Ranger games (I don't know about the current one) have those spiky ponytails on top of their heads, kinda like Misty does (except Misty only has one, and these girls have two). I guess it could be done with ponytail holders (of which I have plenty, since I have to put my hair up for work) along with LOTS of pomade or some bobby pins to keep them up. Probably pomade (or spiking gel in this case). They have a "cosplay emergency station" at this con, so in the event my hair gets messed up, I can go there to get someone much more skilled in hairdressing than I to fix it. I might need to carry around whatever reference picture I use for my costume (if, hypothetically, I were to wear this costume) just in case so I can show whoever's fixing my hair/wig what I need to be looking like.

I am very glad they will have free snacks and drinks at this con. It will save me money at least. I wonder what the dealers' room will be like.

Gah I shouldn't be thinking this right now! I don't even know if for sure I am going yet!

Money is another issue. I will probably be able to afford to go provided I don't have a money crisis between now and then and I don't have to pay payments on this stupid tuition plan I signed up for to buy me time till I get packaged for my financial aid. (I'm still waiting for confirmation that said packaging has occurred). But I will definitely have to watch my spending and make sure I have money in savings just in case since my bank charges high overdraft fees. (To anyone just starting to have your own bank account: if your bank offers overdraft protection and you even think for a minute that you might need it, TAKE IT. It comes in handy).

On the website front, things are going slow. I was late on both Song of the Week and the site updates roundup this week for Myu Corner, for example. I did work on my clip list for Liquid Mercury, my old Sailor Mercury fansite I'm going to revive. I also transferred some old Mercury pictures (including a ton of scans) from a CD I had with a copy of an old folder on it to my laptop. Other than this, nothing. I think my fervor is not what it once was. Then again, I've been working really early shifts for the last month. So I'm probably really tired.

I hope my hours change soon because school starts on the 30th, and I have to take night classes this semester to get the classes I need. Plus Mum has made it clear that she doesn't want to have to take me to work early after having to pick me up from school the night before. So I'll have to work on that.

That's all I can think of to write about. Goodbye for now!

-- Posted from BlogPress

Financial aid, web stuff, Comic-Con freebies, etc

I am fed up right now with my school's Financial Aid department. I filled out my FAFSA by the priority filing date and turned in all the required paperwork before the first fees due date. Yet I already got dropped from my classes once and had to re-enroll (because my financial aid paperwork, which I turned in a couple days before the fees due date, hadn't finished processing yet) and when I called them today to find out what was going on, since I'd been receiving incessant e-mail reminders of the upcoming second fees due date (on the 5th), they said I didn't have a fee deferment on record and they couldn't tell me whether my stuff had processed. Darn FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) I guess. (Not that the guy I talked to gave that as the reason, but it makes sense). Worst case scenario is that I will have to get a loan, which even if it's only for one year of college will probably still take me years to pay off. The Financial Aid guy recommended Sallie Mae, but I already know from my mother's bad experience with Sallie Mae over her student loans that I don't want to get a loan through them. My mother says there are other options for loans though. But as I said, that's the worst case scenario -- hopefully, I'll get the same grants as before and be covered for the school year. Plus if I get grants until I (hopefully) graduate next spring, I'll graduate college without owing a dime for my schooling (since you don't have to pay back grants). Granted (ha ha no pun intended), I won't be done with my web design certificate (since I just started that last spring and can only really take 2 classes at a time on top of my CSUSM workload). But I suppose I can work at Stater Bros. for a little longer till I finish that. If I'm still working there by the time I graduate college, I'll have worked there almost 4 1/2 years. (Wow).

I've been working a lot on websites this summer, mostly on Myu Corner since I post updates for it weekly -- a Song of the Week update on Thursdays (which apparently some people doubt will work in the long-term, according to some comments that never saw the light of day because Akismet marked them as spam; to be honest I have no idea how many myu songs there are and I would very much not like to try counting them all, so I don't know how long that feature will be able to go for) and a Moonkitty.net-inspired site updates roundup on Sundays. I also made a personal site/domain hub that I liked when I made it but then disliked soon after. I like the idea of a personal site but I also recall the thing I read about the personal site being dead. Most people's personal sites now are their blogs (and in fact, I listed this blog as my personal site for a long time). I just can't figure out how to make one work. I want to use my personal domain as a hub for more minor sites that don't need their own domain though, like the LAR Productions website (though if LAR ever goes pro or at least gets big, I'm going to get the site its own domain). I am starting to think something along the lines of Frozen Wings or the "Tour Guide's Sites" page on Bunny's Tour Through the Silver Millennium would be better.

As for other sites, I have been ignoring my writing site improvement (which isn't officially live yet), though I am collecting feedback from some people on it which I intend to try implementing ASAP. I closed Pctroupe.net, my PotterCast Acting Troupe fansite, because I was grasping at straws trying to get news to post there (even after the live show with the Acting Troupe). I haven't started working on my planned sites, like Sparkle Moon, yet. I hoped to get that done in the summer, but work has interfered a lot, I think.

I went to Comic-Con a couple weeks ago. It was pretty fun, though I admit going even three of the four days was somewhat exhausting, even though due to my reliance on public transit, I was only able to stay for like five hours each day. Plus I spent WAY too much money, resulting in me being nearly broke last week and this week, since I didn't get paid last Friday because I took Comic-Con week as vacation. I did like going more than one day though; it feels like you get more out of it in a way. I have already begun planning for next year, since I was vastly underprepared this year. I'm going to try to get a four-day pass again, get a hotel (probably in North County near a train station since the convention hotels are super expensive) so I can stay later than the bus schedule for the bus by my house allows, and budget my time and money more wisely. One way I know I can budget my time is to explore beyond the exhibit hall. Let me tell you: one day in the exhibit hall is really enough, unless you know someone you want to see is not going to be there all four days. Not much changes from day to day, other than that you might see booths you didn't see the day before (this happened to me on the second day because I'd been in such huge crowds the first day I didn't see much). I am going to try to hit the panels, the film festival, and the anime showings more next year -- since, aside from being a nice escape from the crowd (unless you're in a really crowded panel) are all free to go to as long as you have a convention badge.

While I did spend a ton of money at the con (and frankly didn't buy that much), I did end up with 149 freebies (I counted), most of which I picked up on Saturday, my last day and the day I was trying desperately not to spend more money. I swear, there are people just dying to push a freebie in your hand at this con. I got things like temp tattoos (and a rather icky but semi-intriguing comic called Penny for Your Soul about a Las Vegas casino hotel run by demons) that I didn't even want. One of my freebies is even worth something now: my free sampler of Eragon, obtained from the Random House booth, which now bears the illustrious autograph of Eragon's author, Christopher Paolini (if I'd known beforehand he was going to be doing a signing, I would've brought my real Eragon books, but I didn't know, so I had him sign the sampler instead). I went through my freebies today to decide which ones I wanted to save and which ones I didn't -- and there were a lot of ones I didn't, probably ones I grabbed on a whim but didn't really look at. I didn't even keep any of the magazines I got for free, including the collector's cover edition of TV Guide with the Big Bang Theory cover. I did read through them before tossing them. I didn't get much from the special TV Guide (not like TV Guide is deeply intellectual reading anyway), though from it I was able to get an idea for the extremely complex plots of The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, shows I do not watch and don't have much interest in watching. I did tear a few pages out of the others that I found interesting.

The one freebie that did pique my interest perhaps more than the others was a flyer for Animé Los Angeles, a con happening next January. (Their use of the accent above the "e" in "anime" reminds me of the early days of anime fandom in the US, when everyone was doing that). I was not aware this con existed; I figured there were no anime cons in LA other than Anime Expo. From the FAQ-style info on the back, I was rather intrigued. It actually sounds like a con I would want to go to. It's only for a weekend, and it's right after New Year's, so I wouldn't have to work around school (because I'd be on semester break) and thus wouldn't have to waste my available vacation time. It's at the LAX Marriott, which is convenient should I decide to fly to LA rather than take the train (my other option). You can get a deal on the hotel and the price for the actual con is really reasonable ($40 for the weekend, or $35 for students or military until September 30; they also provide a limited-time code to use to get 10% off). I'll have to think about it.

Oh and among the interesting things Animé Los Angeles has to offer is something really out there: Cosplay Chess. Basically real cosplayers are the pieces in this chess game and they actually put on an act when they are "captured." Even if I didn't participate, I'd want to watch.

Oh and Gina Biggs is the Artist Guest of Honor because of her webcomic "Red String." But guess what else she's known for? The long-lived Sailor Moon fansite Bunny's Tour Through the Silver Millennium! It would be cool to meet her.

I am considering starting a blog about my experiences as a female gamer. I was thinking also of maybe having a similar one about reading, but then decided there are blogs enough about that. Someone on the writers' forum I'm a part of mentioned how the gaming community is mostly unreached for Jesus (as part of a post regarding Westboro Baptist Church people picketing outside of Comic-Con with signs that say "God Hates Nerds"...gah, when will these people stop?), and that gave me a different spin on it. I don't know if I could make it work as a ministry though. That's one of those things I'd have to seek God about.

Speaking of blogs, I got an e-mail today granting me full writer privileges over at Family of Moonlight, a Sailor Moon fan blog that I sent Comic-Con pictures to and wrote a Comic-Con 2010 overview for. Sweet! This just goes to prove what I read a while back in an article about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) where they mentioned that one way to get yourself out there is to do things for people. That's what got me my staff position at Miss Dream; I offered on their forum (where I am an active member) to scan and translate the French Sailor V manga, since I own it. I also offered to translate their lyrics translations into French. The manga thing was originally just going to be a joint Myu Corner-Miss Dream project, and the lyrics thing a sort of freelance affair, so I was quite surprised when the head of Miss Dream deemed me worthy to join their staff. I am happy that both of these sites have given me these honors. (Gah, there's no way to say that without it sounding arrogant. Oh well).

I have been thinking about cosplay too, mainly because of Comic-Con and also because I just added a cosplay-item-selling site to my links at Myu Corner. I don't know who I'd cosplay as if I went to an anime convention. I suppose you don't have to cosplay (I've never cosplayed even at Comic-Con), not to mention that the amount of characters I could pull off is limited, but it's fun to do. If I did Sailor Moon, I'm thinking maybe Sailor Pluto, one of my favorite senshi, or Sailor Jupiter, who I somewhat physically resemble. Technically, Mercury is my favorite senshi overall (Pluto being #2) but I've never really considered cosplaying as her. I guess it could work. Pluto and Jupiter work because I am tall and have long hair like them. Plus they are selling a really nice Garnet Rod at the aforesaid cosplay site, a lot nicer than my idea for a homemade one (making the key sides and the top with the orb in it and sticking them on a long broom handle). Other than that, I'm a little stuck for ideas; most of the female characters I can think of with my figure (5'8", 200+ lbs, with a chest) dress rather scantily, and I'm very uncomfortable about showing more skin than is necessary. The only option I can think of is Chun-Li from Street Fighter (I certainly have the thighs for it). Any suggestions are welcome.

Other than web stuff, I've been playing some video games. It's taking me forever to beat the second battle on Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. I finally figured out how to beat the main battle, but I keep losing to the extremely powerful boss Kokuryu, who pilots the dragon-like robot Kusakage. I've played the battle 6 times. Maybe I'll get lucky sometime.

Okay I can't think of anything else to write. My parents will probably leave soon for their home Bible study, and when they do, I'm going to try to watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief downstairs where there's a DVD player (I can watch DVD's on my laptop, but I've found I enjoy watching DVDs on a TV screen I can sit far from more than watching them on the computer). Goodbye for now!

Back from Camping

My parents and I went camping this weekend at Onion Valley, a campground 9,200 feet up into the Inyo National Forest. My parents had been there before but I had never been. It's really pretty - there are mountains all around, lots of trees, and even three waterfalls - two of which we could see from our campsite (though only at certain angles - the trees hid them from some spots). Granted, such a rustic campsite was lacking in amenities, like showers and even running water (they had faucets to get water from, but even that water you were supposed to boil before using). It had toilets, but they did not flush. But that's a sacrifice one can make for a weekend. I do regret not being able to make it all the way on the hike we did yesterday on the Robinson Lake Trail - but even my parents admitted it was very strenuous, and they're experienced hikers (they hiked Mount Whitney, for goodness sake). The trail was flat at first, but for the most part, it's a VERY steep path straight up the mountain. I could not catch my breath for more than a minute. Just goes to show how out of shape I am!

Most of the time I read a book I was trying to finish - Negotiating Religious Faith in the Composition Classroom, edited by Elizabeth Vander Lei and Bonnie Lenore Kyburz. This was a book the WeRead app on Facebook recommended to me because I put in that I was reading the books I was reading for my Theory and Practice of K-12 Writing Instruction class. It is not light reading, and definitely will not make sense unless you are either a composition teacher or if you're like me and have taken both a class in writing instruction and a class in modern literary theory, in which case some of the theories and theorists they invoke will sound familiar. I did find the book interesting with its relatively balanced view on the subject of how to deal as a composition teacher with students whose religious faith affects the way they write. To be honest, I do not usually mention my faith in my school writing; the only essay I have done that in for university is the final essay I had to write for my Sacred Texts class, and that was comparing Islam and Christianity so it was inherently religious; however, I quoted both the Koran and the Bible to support my points. It was still interesting to see how the various authors of the different chapters had dealt with students of faith.

I did get some writing done as well for my novel, but not as much as I would've liked. Mostly that was because on the way up I did not have much room in the car so I couldn't do much. Even trying to play my DS (yes, I took my DS camping) was difficult. On the way back I had more room. I did quite a bit of writing then; in fact, it was the primary thing I did on the way back, other than talk with my parents, play a little Solitaire on my iPod, and read some of Kerry Nietz's book The Superlative Stream (the sequel to A Star Curiously Singing) via Kindle for iPhone while eating the snack I got at the gas station at Pearsonville, the one stop we made. I also did a fair amount of writing while at the campsite waiting for my parents to come back from hiking; this was after doing some reading and trying to complete the Charizard challenge in Pokémon Ranger (in my rush, I had to go and grab the harder Ranger game, the one I'm really stuck at!). I probably should've stuck to my other, easier game, Imagine: Interior Designer, which I played for the first time this weekend. That game is actually pretty fun; basically like all of the Imagine games, it's a simulation of an actual job. But unlike more general sim games like, well, The Sims, the Imagine series games are specifically targeted towards girls. Plus this game has much more of a plot than The Sims (I played the GBA version of The Sims: Bustin' Out, and half the time I didn't know what to do with myself, especially when my scooter somehow got stuck in some inaccessible place on the map). Basically, clients come to you asking for certain things. If you do them, you succeed and win various rewards, like unlocking different patterns or elements or the ability to decorate your display window. Actually, it's pretty easy to succeed since when you're doing a client's order, the game won't let you proceed if what you have doesn't match what the client wants. Plus, when a client asks for a painting, it doesn't have to be some big artistic masterpiece. (Often they just ask for a personalized painting, sometimes with certain stickers, so you're more or less free to do whatever). There is also a free workshop mode where you can create things either to display in your display window, share with friends via wi-fi, or use to decorate your own room when that option is unlocked. The workshops are Painting, Pottery (which lets you create vases and lamps), Frame (which lets you frame photos or paintings, including paintings you made in the Painting workshop; this is required if you want to put paintings in your display window or room), Furniture, Curtains, Surfaces (which lets you choose flooring, rugs, baseboards, crown molding, and colors for walls and ceilings), and Room Layout (which lets you arrange things in a room). At any rate, it was a nice switch from My World, My Way, which is taking forever to beat. I did sort of spoil myself on who the ultimate boss is and some other stuff from browsing a walkthrough. Oh well. Apparently, you have to have the darn adventurer guy reject you three times before you get to the end of the game, which means defeating three big baddies before you finally get to the last area. Almost makes you feel for this selfish brat of a princess you are playing as. Right now I am in the Snow Land, at Ice Field I think.

I am still having issues with my websites as far as displaying site updates goes. I decided to create site updates blogs for them using Wordpress, but I am having trouble figuring out how to get the recent posts to display. I tried using the code in this article to do it, but it didn't work the way it was supposed to, as you can see if you go to Myu Corner and then compare it to what is shown in that article. It seems like the only way to do it is through PHP, and perhaps because my site is not coded in PHP it won't work. I don't know for sure. I can possibly make it work for my writing site using a script called Livejournal Magpie, which is a script for displaying recent LiveJournal posts that was created by the same person who created Enthusiast (the popular fanlisting management script). I found out about this script from The Oracle, a popular Sailor Moon site, since it is used there for site updates. But for the others I don't know. You'd think Wordpress would've made a plugin for this or something. Maybe they have, I don't know. I couldn't find one.

In related news, I made a fan page for Myu Corner on Facebook soon after making the updates blog. After making the fan page and playing with it, I sent a message to Elly of Miss Dream to tell her and she fanned it (and friended me as well; I had found her name in the comments on the Miss Dream Facebook page to send the message). I also invited my friends who liked Sailor Moon to fan it (such as Amy-chan and Reilia-chan, my fellow LAR "bandmates," as well as a few others). I added a couple apps to it: Extended Info (which I found useful on my writing Facebook; it lets you add more info than the default categories Facebook gives you) and NetworkedBlogs so I could publish my blog posts to the page. I also added a widget to the updates blog that lets you translate the blog into as many languages as you specify, using Google Translate. Since the Sailor Moon fan community is rather international, I figured this would be a good idea. I specified the following languages:

-Arabic
-Catalan
-Chinese Simplified
-Chinese Traditional
-Danish
-Dutch
-Filipino
-Finnish
-French
-German
-Greek
-Hebrew
-Hindi
-Hungarian
-Indonesian
-Italian
-Japanese
-Korean
-Norwegian
-Portuguese
-Russian
-Swedish
-Thai

Basically, I tried to think of languages in which Sailor Moon aired, based on the "Sailor Moon multilanguage" videos I've seen on YouTube. I realize now that Danish and Hindi are probably unnecessary, maybe Hebrew also. The major European languages (French, German, Spanish, and Italian) were no-brainers since I know there are Sailor Moon fans who read in those languages. (Sailor Moon is particularly popular in Germany, even to this day, and they just recently got a right to redub it in Italy). Arabic is also a major language, so I included it; I don't know if there are Sailor Moon fans in Arab-speaking countries though. I put in Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish mainly because some company recently got redub rights to redub Sailor Moon in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Plus there was a Swedish dub back in the day. I believe there are Moonies (SM fans) in Russia too, or at least anime fans since I have seen several Russian anime sites. The major Asian languages - Japanese, Korean, Chinese (in both forms; Simplified is used in China proper and Traditional in Taiwan I believe), Indonesian, Filipino, and Thai - also made sense. (The Sailor Stars photo album I have was even made in Korea). Dutch was kind of an afterthought (there was a Dutch dub though) and probably Greek and Hungarian too. Catalan is a dialect of Castilian Spanish (the kind of Spanish they speak in Spain), but there was a Catalan dub of Sailor Moon so I included it. Portuguese is also a big one; its dub is often criticized on YouTube however in "multilanguage" clips. I actually accidentially offended someone the other day with my negative comments on the Portuguese dub and had to make that right. Anyway, I played around with this widget after I added it and it was actually kind of fun. Sometimes the Facebook "like" button under the posts (part of the Facebook widget I have on the blog, which is also how I display my "like box" for the Facebook page) doesn't show up, and in Hebrew (which is written right-to-left) the writing looks really different (this is also true for Arabic, for the same reason).

Well I feel kind of tired, probably because I got up early as I always do when I am camping. Maybe I'll work on my websites tomorrow, since when I called my work to get my schedule they said I was off the next two days. (Yay!) I do want to go to the San Diego County Fair before it's over, but I can't go tomorrow because they are closed. Maybe on Tuesday. You can get a $1.75 discount off admission if you take public transit and show a valid transit pass, which my Compass Card should count as although it's not explicitly stated on the fair's website. The best way I guess will be to take the Sprinter to Escondido and catch the shuttle from there. That won't take too long. I haven't been to the Fair the last couple years so I am eager to go this year. I've never been by myself either so that will be interesting. (I usually go with my parents because my dad works for a local radio station and can get tickets sometimes). If anything, I want to see the Flower and Garden Show, since that is always interesting; the Student Showcase at the Plaza de Mexico, which showcases school newspapers and yearbooks and stuff; and the Star Trek exhibit/performance thing they are having on the Sparkletts Infield. The website says you can bring your own food in, which I might do because the fair food is both expensive and fatty (stuff like funnel cake and every fried food you can think of). I also want to go on the rides since I have not gotten a chance to ever do so. You have to buy ride tickets for those though.

Ok I'm tired. I think I may have a light dinner and then go to bed (since I took a shower earlier, because I needed one after not having taken one Friday or Saturday night). Maybe there is something wholesome I can watch after watching Sailor Moon Abridged and some of Tamao108's dubbing, both of which I always feel a little bad about watching since they're noticeably dirty. Good night.

Oh P.S. I meant to say this last post but I forgot. You probably noticed I changed my blog theme! After 6 years, I did away with the old theme at last. This theme is called "Storyteller." I like it a lot!

P.P.S. [Post-Postscript] The day before we left for Onion Valley I got off work at 1pm since I switched shifts with my coworker Kim because she had school, and I missed the 1:30 bus so to pass the hour till the next one I went and looked at GameStop. And what should I find, preowned for $19.99 and in excellent condition, but: SAKURA WARS ~SO LONG, MY LOVE~! Sweet~! I bought it, naturally, even getting a couple bucks off by using my Edge card (which they told me expires next month...I guess I can't renew it without also renewing my "subscription" to Game Informer magazine, which is a pity since I don't really care for the magazine but do want the benefits of the card, like 10% off used games). So while I wasn't able to get the special artbook you were supposed to get if you preordered it from this site (since I tried three times but couldn't get the order to actually process any of those times), I have the game now.

Fame

I think deep down I have a desperate desire to be famous. Or maybe not that. I guess it's more a desire to be noticed and/or accepted. I used not to care as much, I think. Sure, I wanted friends and all as a kid, but I just sort of accepted that I wasn't popular and hung around mostly with the same people, like my best friend Amy and my other friends like Que and Nichelle. It's sort of like with my weight. I didn't worry about it until high school when Que bluntly pointed out that I needed to lose weight (probably because she was on Slim-Fast herself because of the muscle weight she had; but as a member of the tennis team she got a lot more exercise than me).

Even as far as fads go, I didn't care what other people thought about me not pursuing them. The only fad I fell for was Sanrio (aka Hello Kitty), which was popular when I was in fifth grade, aka the 1995-1996 school year. That was back when they had those cool pencil boxes with the things that would pop out the side (like pencil sharpeners). Sadly, I don't think Sanrio has those anymore.

But nowadays I think I am becoming more concerned about what people think of me. I don't know what triggered it. I guess it must be part of that awkward identity crisis that usually hits you in adolescence that waited till after high school to hit me. (My dad says we're both late bloomers). The birth order experts say firstborns are perfectionists, and that I definitely am. I think perfectionism might also be a trait of Scorpio (my zodiac sign) or of my Asperger Syndrome. So that trait is very dominant. I think my mom's kind of a perfectionist too, so maybe I get it from her (although generally I take after my dad).

Nowadays also I find myself going after things other people do to become known, on the net mainly. You would be surprised how many articles I've been reading on writing, SEO, web design, and Twitter lately. I've also tried to become popular on YouTube, without much success (except for one video that got over 18k views). Unfortunately, I've figured out there are only three ways to get popular on YouTube: vlogging, to already have a big online presence outside YouTube (which the big companies, people like Marriland and groups like the PotterCasters have), or upload clips of anime - either full episodes or short clips. Sailor Moon transformation and attack clips, either official or fan-made, are particularly popular (my 18k-view video was of the PGSM transformations and attacks with the audio from the English anime dub). But my lack of a video camera or webcam makes vlogging impossible, I don't have a big online presence (and haven't figured out how to get one), and YouTube's copyright things make the last difficult (and I've had four accounts get suspended due to unintentional copyright infringement, so I know the risks).

Yet all of that shouldn't matter, right? There are more important things to worry about in life. Yet I find myself vying for popularity online and daydreaming about being on Jeopardy and American Idol, even though my chances of getting on either are slim - for AI I'd more likely wait for 14 hours to sing in front of producers for 30 seconds, like what happened to my former coworker Alex at the San Diego auditions a couple years ago. I could possibly do Jeopardy though, or Wheel of Fortune.

Maybe Dr. Feder was right. Maybe I do need cognitive behavior therapy. Because if I am going to beat this, I'm going to have to change how I think, and that's very hard to do.

I'm going to go now and blow off some steam playing my DS before work.

Finished at 12:25 pm iPod time

-- Posted from BlogPress

Period & frustration

Finished at 11:22 am 6/18/10

My period started today. I always hate when it starts on a work day because I would much rather stay at home, since on my first day I feel very restless. Since I don't get debilitating cramps like some people -- just discomfort which a single ibuprofen can usually deal with -- I can't call in sick, and I am not one of those people who calls in sick when I'm not sick. Even if my allergies are bad and I'm all sneezy and sniffly, I go to work if I am scheduled. The only times I call in sick are if I have a fever or the stomach flu or something like that. (I do get the stomach flu sometimes, though very randomly. The last time it was really bad...but I'll spare you that story).

I have been feeling very restless lately. All I've wanted to do is use my laptop in mindless zombie mode (where I do nothing but mindlessly watch YouTube clips or scroll through forum posts without posting anything myself) or play my DS. I did get some writing done, and on my days off (Monday and Tuesday) I managed to go places -- to The Wave (a local waterpark) on Monday and to Balboa Park (a park in San Diego where they have lots of museums, gardens, and a zoo known worldwide for its pandas) on Tuesday. But the energy I had to work on my websites last week has gone bye-bye. All my workdays for the past two weeks I've come home tired but with somehow enough energy to stay up till midnight. I did manage to go to bed at 10 the night before last, but I was still tired. Where has my energy gone?

I also have decided to try learning to draw manga. I bought a sketchbook from work and got a couple books on drawing manga from the library to supplement the two I already have. I had an idea to do a story called "Enchanted Supermarket" about a supermarket whose employees all have magic powers. I was going to set it in Japan because it was manga and their supermarkets aren't that different from ours, but Elly from Miss Dream (who knows about the manga because I posted asking for help about what "enchanted" would be in Japanese) said she wouldn't mind seeing a American manga set in America that didn't try to be Japanese. That made me think that maybe I would set it in America after all. After all, I think Tomo (a Christian manga) is set in San Francisco. And the manga I got an omnibus of from Comic-Con last year, Amazing Agent Luna, was Western-set too (and by a Western author). I suppose I could look into some of the Rising Stars of Manga winners' work, like Peach Fuzz and Sorcerers and Secretaries.

I hope I can get over this malaise. It's driving me crazy. Maybe I need to exercise-- play Wii Fit, take a walk, or go swim in the neighborhood pool. I felt good after going to The Wave and to Balboa Park, and one involved swimming and the other a lot of walking. It might help.

Well bye for now. I'm going to read A Wizard of Earthsea, continue the adventures of Elise in my DS game My World, My Way, or talk to my coworker Adam while I wait for the bus to work.


-- Posted from BlogPress

Releasing nervous energy

I'm having another of those days where I have a lot of nervous energy that needs to be channeled in some way. I tried playing the seemingly endless game My World, My Way (whose initial storyline is 10 gameplay hours long -- the rest is basically a repeat of the initial storyline). I tried to work on my novel but drew a blank. I read more of Suite Scarlett, one of the books I got from the library. But it's not holding my interest, maybe because it reminds me a lot of The Devil Wears Prada, a book (and movie) that I didn't care that much for.

But then I haven't started work yet. Maybe once I do I'll calm down. I didn't really have time to chill this morning like I have had these last two weeks where I've had 1-6 shifts, because today was election day for the state primaries, so I got up early to go vote before work. Then, since it was still early, I went to school to pick up the books I requested over the Circuit (a library borrowing system that links the major local university libraries as well as the county library system in one big network, allowing you to request books from any of the libraries in the network). Then I sat down for a few moments and checked my e-mail and stuff on my iPod. Then I went to the computer lab to search the catalog for books on drawing, a skill I've decided to improve. This ended with me going to the San Marcos Library (one train stop away) and picking up two books on drawing manga, even though I actually own two books on this already.

Why do I want to learn to draw all the sudden? Probably to blow off steam about my disastrous Graphic Design class (where, despite the teacher thinking my final project seemed "half-done," I somehow managed to get a B). More likely, it's just because I'm bored. Since I'm not taking classes this summer, all I'm doing is working pretty much. And honestly, that gets boring after a while, even if I am only working 5-hour shifts right now. These 1-6 shifts aren't ideal, since that's right about the time whatever energy I had in the morning is ebbing away.

I had planned to work on my websites this summer, but I'm not as motivated to do that as I was. Maybe that's because I've been pretty tired lately.

I did put in to get the last weekend in June off to go camping with my family. Hopefully I'll get it and get a break, since my vacation (which I also put in for yesterday) isn't till the end of July. Plus I found out I get two weeks of vacation this year so I need to figure out what to do with the second week. Plus I'd like to get a hotel at least for the Comic-Con days, but it might be too late, and I can't afford the official ones. But it would be easier than taking the train up each day and having to get a ride back.

Ok I'm going to go. I've got to clock in in 15 minutes.

(finished at 12:45pm)

-- Posted from BlogPress

Thinking about websites and stuff

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

I made it a sort-of goal to work on my websites this summer. I started with my writing site, which I "improved" for my final project for my Internet Presence for the Small and Medium Business class. Unfortunately, while writing the content was no problem and actually quite fun, doing the layout was a pain. With having that to do on top of my even more frustrating Graphic Design project, I ended up scrapping my first layout attempt and starting from scratch, which meant I had only the day the thing was due to redo the whole layout, and I had to work that day. So I worked on it before work and then after work too, and didn't even finish on time (11pm). Since I primarily utilized elements from the CSS lesson layout my teacher gave us (since I'm not terribly skilled in CSS yet -- and they just released a new version too, which doesn't help matters), I shouldn't have had so much trouble, but I did.

Basically what the issue was was this: the teacher had managed to make a CSS layout with DIVs but without an iframe by basically making every page be a carbon copy of the home page except for the content, and I thought I would try this myself because I had been trying to figure out how to avoid having to use an iframe in a CSS/DIV layout. So before I could make the other pages, I had to get the home page layout figured out, because the rest of the pages were going to have essentially the same layout. I tweaked the teacher's thing by doing a horizontal navigation bar rather than a vertical sidebar like he had done, doing a full banner versus a logo and header, and not including a wrapper (since I couldn't figure out how to make it work). It took me a while to figure out how to make the non-navigation bar links be formatted differently (which I figured out by peeking at the CSS for Myu Corner). Then I had to adjust the dimensions of the main content DIV on the non-homepage pages so that all the content on them would fit. But, strangely, the "publications" and "unpublished work" pages would not format correctly, though they had the same background element coding and were linked to the same CSS. So I had to leave them out. I will add them back if I can figure out what went wrong with them before. Plus, I'm going to probably utilize some "store" software (like Cafepress) rather than the "product" and "order" pages on it. So, as I said, the layout was a PAIN. I hope I haven't bit off more than I chew with that. Learning more CSS -- and learning PHP -- will probably help a lot.

I got rid of the Sailor Stars Fandub site I made for nalyd1996 because it didn't seem to be going anywhere. I wrote to him on YouTube to ask if he wanted to keep the site up, but he never responded, so I figured it was up to me to decide. This leaves the LAR Productions site as my only subdomain of bibliogirl.net at the moment. I actually installed Joomla on that site to try to make it look a little nicer, but when I logged into my dashboard for it, I couldn't figure out how to use it. So I'm not sure what to do there. I want to keep it up, of course, but I also don't want it to look amateurish (as it does in its HTML version, or so it looks to me).

Then there is bibliogirl.net, my supposed personal site. Right now, it's basically in limbo. I turned it into a Wordpress site but wasn't pleased with the outcome. I think it will be basically a personal site/domain hub, which basically means it will have some personal info and links to my subdomains. I just need to work it out more.

I also have Myu Corner, my website about the SeraMyu musicals. I was encouraged regarding it by Lilly-chan of BSSMLA (who is now a member of the Miss Dream forums and who is working on a myu site herself), who told me that its existence was worthwhile, since there aren't many myu sites out there. Elly-san from Miss Dream said before that it would be a good site for myu newbies. The layout is ok, although I realized the reviews page is missing (oops). Actually, Myu Corner is the one fully-coded-by-me site that I can say I'm happy with, mainly because of the cool site name image I made and the adaptation I made of my Internet Presence teacher's logo/header bar combo. It does need content though, and I realized when posting about it on Miss Dream just how much content can be added. There are lots of omake guides I can add for omake segments I have seen, since I've seen more of those than musicals. I think the play-by-play format of the omake guides is ok after all; I wasn't sure about that at first, but it works. Also, even though that site has an iframe, most of the main pages are short enough not to scroll, so things look pretty seamless. The only ones that scroll are the subpages of the main pages, which is fine. The main thorn in my side with that site has been my battle getting FanUpdate, the PHP script I was going to use to have site updates (and which Miss Dream used to use for that purpose; they use Drupal now), to work. I tried getting help from a couple people at Miss Dream, but to no avail.

Oh look. They updated FanUpdate! Wonder if it will work now. Just downloaded version 3.

My last site is Pctroupe.net, my site about the PotterCast Acting Troupe. This is the one blog-style site I currently have up, and for the site's purpose, this works well. It's Wordpress, so I can update it from my iPod too, which is awesome. However, the banner needs work and content to add is hard to come by now that the first Acting Troupe production is over. Attempts to get answers from Leaky have only produced an e-mail from Chloe the Witchy Helper promising to look into my request. My request to affiliate with Leaky has also not been answered. One good thing is that I installed Akismet, an anti-spam Wordpress plugin, which should help cut down on the spam comments. However, I have some new info thanks to the live PotterCast with the Acting Troupe being released, and one of the cast members joined my Acting Troupe fan group on Facebook so maybe I can connect with her to get some info or even interviews of my own. I also can promote the site via my fan group and Leaky's own community MyLeaky and their forum The Leaky Lounge. So if I can do those things and fix the banner (the overall theme's ok, but I replaced the banner with my own banner made with GIMP, and the banner just doesn't look good).  Also, I would like to be able to remove the timestamps from my static pages, if that's possible.

As for future sites, I have two in the works. One is a PGSM site called Sparkle Moon. It will probably be the first site I agree to make mostly white, since that sounds right to me given the amount of content the site will contain. Lots of content suggests a clean layout to go with it. I want to learn more about layout before I do that one though.

The other is tentatively titled WindKnightFuu's Anime and Manga Guides. It's a continuation of my seemingly endless pursuit to make a site containing all my fujoshi (the female version of an otaku) madness, which started about ten years ago when I got interested both in anime and web design. Basically, this site would consist of guides for various anime and manga series. I decided to start with the ones I have seen/read then go from there. I made a list of which ones would be included, excluding ones where I've only seen one or two episodes. The anime part would consist of episode guides, concise enough to communicate plot but not spoil the episodes. I have already started a few of these guides -- one for xxxHolic, one for Cardcaptor Sakura (which I'm in the midst of watching), and one for Prétear (which I watched not too long ago). My notes also say that info on movies for the series and seiyuu would also be included. For the manga side my notes say "guides, writers" which means they would have guides and info on the writers. I don't know if I was thinking of chapter guides or just guides to the mangas themselves. I might just do little one-page guides to the mangas themselves, kind of like what they do at the manga publisher sites like Tokyopop, and then writer bios. It would be kinda hard to do guides on chapters of manga without giving too much away. Episodes of anime you can be more concise on. Each anime main page will feature a brief overview of the series, however, with as few spoilers as possible, like this one I wrote for Prétear (the Prétear guide was the first one I wrote after deciding to do the site):

"Prétear tells the story of Himeno Awayuki, a sixteen-year-old girl whose father, a washed-up romance author, has just married the wealthiest woman in town. Because she comes from a lower status than her new stepfamily, she is alienated both by her stepmother and stepsisters and by people at school. At the height of this, she is approached by the seven Leafe Knights, whose job it is to protect Leafe, the lifeforce of everything, which is being threatened by Fenrir, the Princess of Disaster, and her demon larvae. While each of the Knights can somewhat combat this using his respective elemental power, their power alone is not enough. They need the help of a girl called the Prétear, who fuses souls with the Knights to become various elemental forms that can defeat the larvae. Himeno is the one they’re looking for. She’s reluctant to join them at first, but eventually agrees and spends the rest of the 13-episode series fighting alongside the Knights against Fenrir."

Again, I'd like to learn more about layout before I do this site. I'd also like to figure out how to make both sites more community-oriented, through forums or chatrooms or some other options. The anime/manga guide one would be well suited for user-generated content. I've never even been a forum moderator, though, so I don't know how well I'd do being a forum admin. A forum might be better than a chatroom because chatrooms are harder to control. (I know this from being in a few). If I go the forum route, I will probably go either with phpBB (the most popular forum software) or Proboards (which I think allows self-hosting, which would save me from having to pay the extra hosting cost of phpBB).

I also am considering resurrecting three of my older sites that were good while they lasted - Ayeka's Palace, Liquid Mercury, and Generator Power. Ayeka's Palace was one of my first sites - back when I was using Angelfire for hosting - and was devoted to Ayeka, my favorite character from Tenchi Muyo! Back then (and still, by the looks of it), the only other Ayeka fansite was The Ayeka Fan Club. Ayeka's Palace was pretty simple; it contained info, some pictures, and a couple AyekaxTenchi fanfics of mine titled "Ayeka's Choice" and "Ayeka's Choice II," which, in retrospect, were a lot better than the other fanfiction I was writing back then. I wish I still had them.

Liquid Mercury was a Sailor Mercury shrine I once had. It was the first (and I think only) site I hosted on GeoCities (a popular service once but which is now sadly defunct). It had a blue color scheme and a really cool logo which Amy made for me using Photoshop, where the letters looked like water and had different pictures of Mercury inside them. I also thought the name was pretty clever (since Sailor Mercury is the senshi of water and also because the element mercury is one of only two liquid-form elements on the periodic table). The site had info on Sailor Mercury as well as info on Mercury the planet, the god, and the element. I liked doing the research for it. While I probably can't recreate the logo, maybe I can recreate the site, even though I originally created it during the heyday of "character shrines" (as sites dedicated to a single character in a series are called), which has LONG since past.

Generator Power is a site I had up devoted to Generator Gawl, a really obscure anime. When I started it back in 2000, it was one of only four Generator Gawl sites on the web (that I knew of). Now, there are none; a Google search for "Generator Gawl" only brings up links to reviews, sites like Amazon and imdB, and so on. Even the community for it on LiveJournal (which I stumbled upon one day) has had no major activity since 2007 (though I just checked and there was a post from this month, so maybe it will see some activity). I had it up for eight years, though I really didn't do much with it in that time period. People do seem to be showing some interest in the series on YouTube though so maybe I can use that to spark an interest in my site, if I resurrect it. Really the only good thing about it was that it was up for so long.

Aside from those, I did have some fanlistings for a short time and I may resurrect those once I learn how to use Enthusiast or some similar fanlisting script. I'm not sure about resurrecting the PGSM-related ones I had -- one about Kusaka Hina and another about Hina and Mamoru's relationship -- especially because I can just as easily incorporate that info into Sparkle Moon. But the one I had to another obscure anime, Fancy Lala, I enjoyed doing. I probably won't resurrect the Generator Gawl one I had since I might resurrect Generator Power.

Ok I'm going to eat a late lunch (I had a late breakfast, and we had our BBQ yesterday) and try to keep watching the Redbox movies I have piled up -- probably a shorter one like Astro Boy or The Princess and the Frog, since with my typical late-afternoon lethargy I probably wouldn't last through the supposedly 3-hour-long Avatar. Then I'll probably resume my fight to make iTunes recognize the presence of my iPod. It's been an annoying process - first QuickTime stopped working, then upgrading iTunes wouldn't work (big surprise there, since it never really worked when I tried it). So I downgraded and had to spend about a week re-importing my CD's because iTunes 8 couldn't open my library file. Now iTunes will open but won't recognize my iPod touch when I plug it in, though the computer does, but it thinks my iPod is a digital camera. I know it's not my iPod that's the problem because I tried plugging my iPod into my mom's computer and it worked fine (though I stopped it from syncing to my mom's computer so as not to get her library on my iPod). It's quite a bother.

Well goodbye for now!

Finals week

It's that week that some people dread and other people wait for with anticipation...finals week.

Today I had my French final. It was probably one of the easiest tests I have ever taken, primarily because it was not cumulative. I don't think any of my French finals at this school have been cumulative. Anyway, the test was two pages long and took me like 15 minutes to do, including the time I took checking over my answers. Basically, there was the typical vocab section, which is fill-in-the-blank using a given list of vocab words, and then 4 structure parts. The first structure part was on the passé composé, or past participle, which I basically sais par coeur (know by heart) and involved a girl talking about her vacation. I think it was an adaptation of some previous worksheet exercise because the sentences looked awfully familiar. The other three structure parts were on relative pronouns - qui, que, lequel, and dont. The first one involved picking which relative pronoun would fit between the two parts of a sentence by matching numbers to different pronouns. The second one gave sentences with the relative pronoun missing, and you had to mark the right one in a list of choices below each sentence. The third one was a text - the story of "Tristan et Yseult" (Tristram and Iseult) - with fill-in-the-blanks for the appropriate pronouns. This was followed by a little true-or-false bit of facts from the story. (I had to fix my answers on this bit because I put "T" for true like I usually do instead of "V" for vrai, the French word for "true").

I also had my take-home final for History done already, so I dropped it off by my teacher's office on the way to my French final. That's taken care of at least.

After this, I went to Kinko's (a.k.a. FedEx Office) to make copies of the chapbook I'm making for my Creative Writing class final (which is on Thursday). It took some help from the employees to get me started, but eventually I got it down and about an hour later I was done copying (even though I had to make 5 more copies because I was short). That cost almost $60, after they took off my 82 bad copies. Then I took my copies across the room to another counter and got things set up to have the books folded and stapled. This cost 25 cents a booklet, or $10.88 for folding and binding them all. I arranged to pick them up tomorrow, since there were people in line behind me. So I'm going to do that after work tomorrow and take them home to hand-number them in the colophon, an idea I got from the sample chapbooks my teacher had us look at. Basically this involved putting a bit in the colophon (a publishing term for a bit in a publication to put info about the publication, like the fonts used and such) that says "Selected Tales of Walden was printed in an edition of 40. This is number __." I thought it would be a nice touch.

I did have some mistakes even in the version I finally decided to accept, so I had to fix these with a pen. They're kinda obvious in the copies. Oh well. I couldn't figure out how to not have any words cut off on the right-hand margin on the stories. Darn inDesign.

So I'm going to have to read something from that on Thursday. I'm not sure what I'll read. I'll have to think of something.

I also have my final projects for my two MiraCosta classes to do still.

Not much else to say. Oh I finally watched last week's American Idol results show today (fast-forwarding through the Lady Gaga performance, since I don't really care for her) and was surprised to see Aaron eliminated, but secretly glad cause he's not my favorite. I thought for sure Casey would be eliminated though.

Watching this week's American Idol performance show right now. I'm gonna go.

A little stressed

Well, as the title says, I'm a little stressed. I'm mainly having issues enrolling in classes for fall because at first I couldn't enroll period, even though I should've been able to, and now that I can enroll, classes I thought were being offered are disappearing off the list online. What the heck is going on?!

Fortunately, my homework is mostly winding down as the semester is. I have projects to do as finals for three of my classes - my Creative Writing Workshop class and my two MiraCosta classes. For French I have a written final, for History it's a take-home essay final. So my French class is the only one where I have to actually show up to take a test.

So far so good...But I just realized today that the CWCW poetry slam is this Thursday (as in two days from today) and I've more or less told the girl organizing it that I would come, but I haven't told my parents because I didn't realize it was so soon, and in order for me to go they'd have to pick me up afterwards. I also found out the induction ceremony for Sigma Tau Delta is on Friday, and I'm not sure I'll be able to make it due to my work schedule. Just checked. I get off at 7, and the thing starts at 7. The e-mail that was forwarded to me today said everyone HAS to be there. Crud. I wish I'd gotten this information sooner. What am I going to do? The only way I can go is if I get there late, which I hate to do. I can't really change shifts on such short notice. I wish they'd had a more definite date sooner so I would've known. This is yet another example of how my life would be better if I had a car and could drive myself places. I so need to work on that. It's getting ridiculous. And what the heck am I going to wear to the ceremony? I thought I had more time to decide that. Whatever I wear, I'm going to have to bring it to work with me if I go.

I haven't done any work on the websites, though I did go through my various bookmarked articles and sites on writing and stuff to narrow it down to just what I need. I also took notes today from a book (albeit a 10-year-old book) on web usability. I also got some advice from someone on the writers' forum I'm a part of. Hopefully I can do something with that.

I feel like a ball of nervous energy. Maybe that can of Coke I drank had too much caffeine in it. But I also feel a little malaise, like I don't want to do much. I could work on my projects, but I don't feel like it. Or I guess I could just relax, but I don't want to be lazy. I think this enrollment thing is driving me crazy. Not to mention the two big events I just realized are happening this week. I basically need to chill. God willing, this will all work out. Hopefully, I can get through the next couple weeks and then it will be summer break.

I think I may go get my Sunset  magazine and read for a bit. I need some time away from the computer screen anyway.

Website thoughts, Idol Gives Back, reading to preschoolers

I am thinking a lot about my websites lately, mainly because I have to start my final project for my Internet Presence class this week, which will involve revising my writing site. My Graphic Design class assignment that was assigned this week is about Poster or, alternatively, web page design. So I have it on the brain.

With summer coming up, I will have time to really work on my sites since I'm not planning on taking any classes (most of my web design classes aren't being offered, and the only one I feel comfortable taking over summer that is being offered is only being offered at night). I hope I can buckle down, learn some more code via the W3 Schools site (which is a great site btw), and make my sites more appealing.

These thoughts also came on because during history class the other day I was double-tasking as usual, taking notes on my laptop and surfing the web at the same time (I know, I shouldn't do that, but sometimes there's not much to take notes on), and I had my GoDaddy account with my writing site open because I had just uploaded something to the file manager. So I decided to check my site analytics - something I paid to get and which can be quite useful. I found out some things. First, people are coming to my writing site and not staying very long. The "depth of visit" stats were rather indicative of this. 29 of the 31 site visitors my writing site has had just in the last week spent only 1 minute on the site. Ouch. Second, I need to write my site content in more international-friendly English, because people are somehow finding my site via search engines from Russia and China. (Plus a lot of other ones I found last time, like Google Slovenia and Google Finland). Third, my site's just not getting a ton of hits (although oddly my hits spiked way up on April 18th and 19th, maybe because I had to post a thing about my site on the discussion board for my Internet Presence class on April 17th).

I also need to improve my sites in other ways. I need to WooRank my sites again because I lost the reports. I also tested several of my sites on ReadyMobi to see how they'd do on mobile devices, and they all scored abysmally low. I personally use my iPod to surf the web a lot, so I can see the benefit of creating a mobile-friendly site (fortunately .mobi domains are on sale right now at GoDaddy. I should get one; if you buy one from there, it comes with a mobilizer that helps you make the site mobile-friendly).

Ugh, I'm tired, more on this tomorrow.

Last night was Idol Gives Back 2010. There were a lot of musical performances, which I mostly ignored because I was doing homework. I did notice Josh Groban was shown saying a few words (the guy who does "Primetime in No Time" on Yahoo called Josh Groban "one of the Jonases - I don't know which one" -- and I'm like, is he serious? How can he not know who Josh Groban is?!). George Lopez judging the judges and Wanda Sykes's bit were funny. The Black Eyed Peas performed with a crazy stage setup as usual, with the usual fare - Fergie wearing something ridiculously revealing and really strange backup dancers. Every time I have seen the Black Eyed Peas perform live on TV there are those two elements - Fergie will show a lot of skin and there will be very strange backup dancers. This is practically a given with them. Sir Elton John's song was cool. Annie Lennox was also there - no surprise there, I think she's done Idol Gives Back before. They played numerous videos of kids in Africa suffering from malaria, lack of education, HIV/AIDS, or something like that, asking for your help (this is a charity drive, after all), as well as clips of Ellen DeGeneres visiting a Los Angeles food bank with David Arquette, Ryan Seacrest interviewing Bill and Melinda Gates about their contribution to the drive, and Simon Cowell visiting a traveling pediatrician's setup in Arizona that was started using previous Idol Gives Back donations. The usual stuff. Then after running majorly over its timeslot, the results finally came out and "Telfon Tim" Urban was eliminated.

I had to go read to preschoolers today as part of the volunteering requirement Sigma Tau Delta has. One other girl also showed up today. It was actually quite fun. The other girl and I took turns reading. She read a book called Bunny Race, then I read a book called Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie, then the other girl read a book called Are You a Butterfly? (which sounded rather complicated for a preschool-age book), and then we each read a special-request book that two different boys picked out - I read Goodnight Goon (a parody of Goodnight Moon) and the other girl read The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!, which was an absolutely hilarious book about a pigeon who just wants to eat this hot dog he's found but can't because he's getting pestered by a very curious duckling (who he eventually ends up sharing the hot dog with). Overall, it was a good experience and I'm glad I did it. And it was cool to see that my school has an actual full-on preschool on-site. I thought it was just a childcare place - I knew there were childcare services of some kind because I pay for them every semester through my student fees, though I never use them - but I was wrong. I guess it makes sense since Education is a big major at my school (it's always been known as a good school for teachers).

Ok, I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight!