update struggles

What is going on? No updates this year, no posts written for almost five months!

I guess I’m growing up (slowly, Oh Viktoria ♫ … *cough*) since all I seem to do is work, or go off to play after work. (Bats Day at Disneyland was fun! ^_^) My websites are sadly near-abandoned.

In fact, I just found out a little while ago about Twitter’s new API thingamabobber, and finally installed a new Twitter feed plugin. (Had to register a Twitter app for that. :x )

It now means that I don’t have an automatic backup of my tweets or favorites. Considering going manual, but I haven’t done it yet. Found a couple Twitter backup/archive plugins (Ozh’ and HL) but Ozh doesn’t work for me and HL creates its own archive which I don’t want to deal with.

Other news… I migrated my websites to a new host! No more sold-to-by-previous-host … host! Kind of sad to leave them (Fluid Hosting), they were really good, kept me informed of server news and other maintenance. They also let me know about the WordPress botnet attack! But I felt guilty using the old host’s package, as if I should have moved over to one of their package offerings, but I couldn’t afford $100 a year, not for hobby sites that don’t even get updated once a season! So I had to move. Messed up a few things in the move, lost a few files without realizing it, because my backup hard drive wasn’t up to date. Ugh.

I also managed to mess up my portfolio website’s WordPress install over the weekend when I installed the Limit Login Attempts plugin! Don’t know how that happened. The only two files I edited were the wp-config file and .htaccess, and somehow that made any WordPress-related pages show up as blank.

When I uploaded other config files to the site, those blogs would show up fine, so I thought it was the config file, but I compared it to a working config file and the only difference was the database name. Ended up deleting/reinstalling WordPress files and deleting/reuploading the database tables. That might not even have been the problem, but my blog came back up. Managed to get the LLA plugin installed on all my blogs.

So… yeah. I have to say, catching up on web development is not fun. I coded a page the other day for work and I struggled, constantly referencing the W3 wiki. Blah. Still don’t know the difference (in usage or implementation) between HTML and XHTML. Still haven’t learned HTML 5 (or even a lot of the eXtensibility of XHTML), just relying on general HTML knowledge.

Not doing much else beyond keeping up with social media sites and watching tv. Oh, I’m trying to pull together a Miwako Sakurada cosplay for Anime Expo in five weeks. Still need to figure out a few bits.

… Okay, maybe things haven’t changed that much. :)

Christmas

A computer-less weekend! Oh my!

Let’s start on Saturday. Mum wanted me to help her make the cookies, so I did that. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (or chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?) with some coconut thrown in ’cause Mum likes that, and “holiday nuggets.” I dunno what they are. ._. They’ve got lots of shortening and butter and sifted powdered sugar and chopped nuts, and they’re covered in powdered sugar. Very good. heehee.

Since Mum was doing other stuff (I forget what), and my elbows are I am so frickin weak, we got Mickey to hold the bowl for me while I stirred everything into dough. ehehe. And since Mickey was sacrificing his time, I thought we should put on some Christmas videos so he wouldn’t be so bored.

We watched Timmy’s Gift (Precious Moments), then It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (saw the first and last Christmas specials on TV last week), then Care Bear’s Nutcracker Suite, I Love Lucy Christmas special, Madeline’s Christmas (that tape’s going bad ;.;), then Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (and an added short that’s on the DVD), then Mickey’s Christmas Carol, then Brand Spanking New Doug Christmas special.

Grandpa’s birthday was the Monday (or Tuesday?) before, so he and Grandma came over for Chinese take-out to celebrate. My great aunt had them over for dinner earlier that week, too. Uncle R couldn’t come Saturday ’cause he had to work. XD So we had good eats. Then Little Women, the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn, was on, so we watched that. Grandma could name practically all the actors. o.o But then again, I just remembered that she asked me only once where Hidek was. Hmm. It was Grandpa who asked about a dozen times during the movie, “Is that Katherine Hepburn?” *blink*

They left a little while before the movie ended, to pick up Uncle R? So Mickey popped in another tape and he, Mum, Daddy and I watched the Hey Arnold and old Doug and Edith Ann Christmas specials.

At nine Meet Me in St. Louis was on, so Mum and I watched that until 11. ^^ One of my favorite movies, wheee!

Sunday I wrapped my presents to everybody (except Mickey and Hidek ’cause Mum did that for helping her with the cookies), then made the brownies. Mum watched The Homecoming while she made the yams. I like that movie all right, but I guess at my age it just moves too slowly for me. When I’m older I’ll probably enjoy it more. I didn’t watch the whole thing. I left around the time John Boy went to the church. Oh, I guess I went on the computer over the weekend. I talked to Adam, then went to bed at midnight.

Christmas day Mum woke me up at 8:30. I got dressed, opened my Santa present ($15), then we were actually on time and left at 9. *shock* The streets were so empty. XD One of my favorite parts of Christmas. L.A. is so dead! We got to Auntie G’s, unpacked, hung around for breakfast that Tadash and Noelle and Auntie made. Mickey and I washed the dishes and Mum dried and put things away. Then we watched Hidek beat my cousin’s husband at Texas hold’em and win $5. XD; Then we opened presents. Noelle liked her present from us. :D It was a $20-bill folded into a ring and it was in a ring box. XDD Noelle Tadash and SM00 gave me a Dooney & Bourke wristlet that SM00 picked out. I like it, it’s cute and not ugly like lots of purses out there nowadays, and it’s definitely classy.

Tadash got the Axis & Allies boardgame, so the boys and aforementioned cousin’s husband and Uncle G played that. I did the money. Muahahaha, that is my role in (boardgame) life. I finally learned how to play the game. o.o My brothers had played with my dad’s game since elementary school, then Tadash has been borrowing it lately, and we never really knew how to play. ahaha. It’s a role-playing game. o.O Gotta roll dice, always roll dice, more and more dice… I’m okay. I’ve just never seen so many dice in one place outside of a game store. I think they got through three rounds of turns.

Technically the Axis (cous’ hus and Uncle G) was winning when we had to clean up for dinner. Uncle G gained a lot of land, and he had a huge army. Mickey had land, but his resources were thin. Hidek had pretty much the same as at the beginning (oh, plus 6 tanks and no transport XD) and I think Tadash had about the same as well. He called me a Nazi ’cause I thought the Axis looked like it would win. booo.

Noelle’s family left after/during dinner (after theirs, during ours, hehe). Hidek had me and Mickey play Big 3 then Egyptian War during/after dinner. Afterwards, I read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. II some then had dessert and sat around listening to grownups talk while Hidek, Mickey, and second-oldest cousin did the dishes. We left soon after that, ’cause Mickey had to work today, and they were starting up The Devil Wears Prada. ;.; I missed it! I uh, also left my laptop and The Secret Garden there. *furtive glance* I was tired and just wanted to leave. ^^;; Mum picked them up from my second-oldest cousin’s husband today though.

Today I just watched my Monk season 3 DVDs (Mr. Monk and the Blackout, I couldn’t remember who the suspect was ¬.¬) and read volume 7 of Gokinjo Monogatari. Wahh, it’s over! But I really liked the extra chapter! Miwako!! XDDD Although I think I might like Mikako more than Miwako now. >.> Probably just because Mikako was the main character and you could go into her character more, as opposed to Miwako who was just a side character and didn’t get much development compared to Mikako or Yukari. :(

more blog news stuff

Yay, I have entry pages for entries 1 through 30. See how productive I was today? Haha.

Now I’m undecided. Do I sign up for an account at some journal site? Or do I not? If I do, then I have yet another journal account. @.@ And it wouldn’t be on my server. If I don’t, then I’m stuck with Greymatter, and I don’t want to keep racking up these entries that I have to carry around with me every time I change servers. But I’m gonna get hosting for fs.net in the next few months, what would I do with that journal account then? But if I don’t get a journal, I wouldn’t update my blog, ’cause I don’t wanna use Greymatter.

And other thoughts that I can’t quite form in my brain and put in order here. Mm. *shrugs*

Well, either way, I’m trying to make a new layout. Except PSP 8 is so slooow. :| I dunno how it compares to PS, memory and space and whatever else wise, but it’s still slower than PS. Although it takes like half a second shorter to load up. XP And just now, when I hit “save” then went to another window, it said PSP did something or other and had to be closed, and bleh. So I dunno if it saved, Ha Ha Ha. Doesn’t matter, I’m not sure I like it all that much after all.

But still. PS never has to be closed. Well, except when I select the window to close it and then close it, but all the display windows are still struggling to show up, then Windows tells me it’s not responding, do I want to end it immediately? I just hit no and it closes on its own time. *shrugs* I think the only good PSP 8 does is give me more filters and stuff to mess with. :P

That reminds me … PS 8 came out recently, didn’t it? Hmmm … *dreams* I think it comes with Adobe Illustrator as well? I don’t really know what I’d do with that, I just want it. :b I dunno, I forget what I read. I forget where I got the link to the page that I read. o_O

No, what I really want at the moment is a computer that could handle PS and PSP 8 and … whatever else. Ooh. I would like a computer that I could play Rollercoaster Tycoon and Starcraft on without the graphics being all fuzzy. Yes, that would be nice. But it cannot be had. Maybe when I go to Cal Poly. No, definitely when I go to Cal Poly. ¬.¬ I’m not gonna take graphics classes with a laptop that has only 256 ram, and absolutely no space for more.

I’m being random. Oh well. To add to the randomness … my immediate wants are Paradise Kiss 5 and The Strokes’s album that isn’t Room on Fire (I keep forgetting the name of it). Yeah. And a nice red shirt. Or tank top. I have one old red shirt that’s faded and that the cats pulled a couple threads out of, so it looks ratty, and I have an almost brand new tank top from Forever 21, the Asian one with all the gold glitter on it, but it has glitter on it, and I don’t like wearing it around just anywhere.

I never mentioned that I found out over winter break that the mall now has a Charlotte Russe store. :D Verah cool. Great fun. Except it’s too expensive. :( Oh well. Need sleep badly now.

I’ll fight that

I watched Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door Thursday, with Noelle. ^__^ (And since then I’ve had two separate mentions of Halloween. O.o One from SM00, I forget what for, and one from my mom today, talking about doughnuts she bought with orange and black sprinkles. “What am I supposed to do, keep it for a month and a half? They wouldn’t be doughnuts anymore!”)

Wheee! More Spike and Faye-Faye and Ed XD goodness! Plus hearing the soundtrack that I’ve been listening to for about a year now without having ever seen the movie. ^_^;;; That was cool. “Ooh! This song! *hums along*” ^-^

We made a stop at Mitsuwa on the way home. Mommy and I shared a “pork-flavored ramen” from Tampopo. XD And it was better than the other, a bit … still really salty. Not that that’s bad, I’m just thinking about my system digesting it. ^_^;; I also got her to buy nori in the market. (wheee, nori!! :D)

Then we looked at that “book” (manga) store. There was this huuge thing with GLAY on it. $50. Hm. o_o (They’re like full of pictures, or something, I don’t know.) The Ayumi Hamasaki one from some 2001 tour is still there, $15. And I knew no one else there. (There was a book on the top shelf that was labeled Brad Pitt. :b) Couldn’t find Gokinjo Monogatari or Paradise Kiss or any other manga I knew and was interested in (Inu-Yasha :b). The Ring 2 video is still there. *shiver* Must watch some time. ^^

Looked through Trendy (really, it’s the store’s name). Not much. Inu-Yasha DVDs, three, for $60. All-region coding, too. And subtitles. But … I didn’t want to spend that much money at the moment. And there was this Totoro doll, too. One of the smaller ones. It was so round and cuute! ^__^ Me want. But didn’t buy. (*can imagine SM00 hiding him as well* D<)

Then after dinner Mommy, Hidek, and I went to Westside Pavilion. I wanted The Sandman: Season of Mists and maybe some shirts, and Hidek wanted an Element hat. What we got: Element hat (black and red, oooh), Element t-shirt, and Vans t-shirt, and two pairs of shorts (Dutch girl style, as Mommy said ^_^;) and a Nirvana book for Hidek; larger purse (ish cool ^_^) to fit my sunglasses, The F***-Up, For All Time, Sorceress, Born Blue, and lastly, The Sandman: Season of Mists, all for me. No manga this time. *gasp* (And the string of “teen” books, I’ve wanted them all for a long while. For All Time since 9th grade or whenever. o_o)

I don’t know how much I spent … hopefully no more than $50. ^^;;; Oh yeah! Westside Pavilion has a skate shop. I never knew. They also have a PacSun that’s more LA-style (read: more coool :b) than the one in Thousand Oaks (i.e. upper middle-class x_x). I was actually beginning to think that it might not be so bad after all. :b~ Ooh ooh, and and, there’s an anime cart right outside the PacSun! *dances* Although it’s not as fully stocked as the one by Noelle (two shelves of manga and one shelf of DVDs *sniff*), it has a website! :D I still have to check that out. ^^;; Will do tomorrow.

Parting words … new layout (BoA ^^) at [STF (link to layout archive)]. I still have to make a new layout for IAT. And make the wallpaper site. (Or maybe not.) And divide Elsewhere into writing and images (I’m gonna rename EW “Ever Elsewhere.” ^^)

we were swinging oh so nice

Hm, haven’t updated for a bit. ^^;; But, I got my Amazon stuff on Tuesday. XD Read the first page of the intro of Flower Drum Song and Chobits 7, but that’s it. ^^;;

Right now I’m in the middle of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (which I started reading on July 5th), so I’m trying to finish that before anything else … and I also got interested in Count of Monte Cristo, so I’m reading that too. ^.^; I’m on page 60 after a day or two of hesitant reading, and reading TMIAHM. >D It’s like the newest movie, only … better! ^__^

Earlier today, since Hidek was at his friend’s house, I hopped on our compi to scan this piccie of Miwako [“little bit blue Miwako”] (yaaay Miwako!! :D) and the back of my Emmerdale album, since I got approval to build the fanlisting a while ago. -.-;; So far today I made the layout (finally, a good frames layout o.O), and started working on the nav/style sheet, but then I stopped feeling like working on it, so I got on aim. ^^’ I was “a-little-bit-blue.”

I haven’t played The Sims for a while. I was gonna play today, but then decided I really didn’t want to play all that much. Hah! So very good of me. Yeah. Instead I cleaned out My Documents (got it from 882 megs to 880 ^^;;;) and my Favorites (got rid of 75 or so so far)

Anyway … tonight, after dinner, I read Chobits 7 and it made me more sad. :( Kinda felt like crying. ^^; But it’s so coool. :D I both want vol 8 really really badly and want it not to come out, because it’ll mean the end. And oh! There was an Angelic Layer reference. So cool. :)

Oh yeah. My You’re the Storm single. Hehehe … very good. ^_^ Although I like the song For What It’s Worth more. (“For what it’s worth, I love you. And what is worse, I really do.”) You’re the Storm is still cool. (“I like the sweet life and the silence. But it’s the storm that I believe in.”) And they kept in the war-sensitive stuff. :b Although I don’t know what the radio version’s like. ¬_¬ Stupid America keeping The Cardigans away. And the song that I really really wanted ever since I heard the “mini version,” Hold Me … ^-^ yay! I got it! But it’s a bit faster than I expected. :( Makes me sad. It’s not a slow depressing song. It’s more peppy. :b

[“Hold Me” lyrics removed]

I also found out about this other band … Death Cab for Cutie. It’s a pop band. ^^’ But indie pop. Good indie pop. :) Downloaded their song “For What Reason.” Good. Am debating whether I should buy their albums or not.

Which reminds me. Daughter Darling released their album finally. To very good reviews. Except for this one trip-hop website, which says they’re “not trip-hop.” o_O But anyway, what I wanted to say is … I don’t think I’d find their album in a store, and we just bought from Amazon. ARGH! I need CD! I need to know them before they’re big! I need to not look like a bandwagon fan!! :b

Actually, one of the guys (I forget who) said their stuff isn’t radio friendly, which is what they wanted, but they’re still gonna try to put at least one song on the radio. *shrugs* Oh well. Keep my head up for our next Amazon splurge. :D

I have no money anyway … >.>