Bit of Ivory

Until this semester is OVER! I’ll be so glad– because then I won’t feel guilty about all the homework I’ve turned in late or not done at all, all the classes I’ve skipped, etc. It will be over and done with, with no chance to change it. My grades won’t be spectacular this semester, I’m afraid. Oh, they won’t be bad– I’ll probably get a 3.3 or so. But not at all up to my usual standard. Oh, well. It’s my last year at school, there’s no scholarships to aim for, nothing really matters anymore.

As you can see, I’ve got a bad case of senioritis.

I’ve never had senioritis before. When I was a high school senior, I didn’t want to graduate– I did so kicking and screaming, practically. I never wanted high school to end. It’s different now.

Not that I don’t love school. And not that I’m not nervous about finding a real job and what’s going to happen to me once I graduate– I am.

But I’m just SO SICK of this semester. I’ve run myself ragged, and I still haven’t been able to keep up. In order to get all my big projects done, I’ve had to let little things slide.

I hate doing that.

But soon it will all be over, and I can breathe a huge sigh of relief that I made it.

Hooray.

Oh, and for all of you that are having browser compatibilty problems– I just don’t have time to mess with it right now, and neither does Ben. Besides, I don’t know HTML well enough to fix some of the issues, and I don’t want to bug Wolf in his last days of freedom. So I’m sorry.

So, do you like? Wolf helped me with the design, I did the colors on my own. I hope it’s compatible with everyone’s browsers. There’s still a few problems to work out, but overall, I’m pleased.

That’s what my dad would say. He’s probably right. I’m on a crusade– to singlehandedly tell the world, or at least Utah, about TLC’s auction drive. They just posted a press release (I requested that they make one, but I don’t know if it was my suggestion that did it or if Mellie already had the idea), and I just sent it to The Salt Lake Tribune, The Provo Daily Herald, and the BYU Daily Universe, as well as KSL-TV (NBC), KTVX-TV (ABC) and KSTU-TV(FOX), 3 of our 4 local TV stations (well, we actually have 5 if you count KUWB (WB)–their website won’t let you in without a password, apparently, so I won’t link to it– but they don’t have a news program, so what was the point?). The other local paper, The Deseret News, takes e-mail press releases if you know what editor you want to send it to, but I couldn’t decide which it applied to– and our other TV station, KUTV (CBS) only takes fax press releases. So I sent the .pdf to my dad and asked if he’ll fax them for me.

Yup, I’m over the top.

I added another banner to the top, ’cause it’s darn cool. But I like to old one still, too. So they’re both there.

Wolf is helping me with my template. But considering that I have an 8-10 page research paper due tomorrow and I haven’t even started writing it yet, I doubt it’ll get done before Friday.

I only have to survive until Monday. Then I can relax a little.

You’ll notice I figured out how to change the color. On Moveable Type, there is not just one template, there’s about 5 million. It took me awhile to figure out which one I needed to change the background color in. Anyway, I was trying for a yellowed ivory idea. Did I succeed?

I think I might have to take Wolf up on his offer, because my brother can’t figure out why a scroll bar does not appear in IE5, Mozilla 1.2, or even Netscape 4.7, but does in IE5.5 and IE6. He hasn’t used style sheets much.

I think I’d like to do a three-column thing again, but keep the cool calendar and search bar. Basically, I need a redesign. I don’t really have time for one, but I desperately need one.

So Wolf, do you want me to send you all my templates (zipped, of course)?

Every Harry Potter fan should click on the above banner. It links to The Leaky Cauldron, where they’ve set up a charity drive to buy this card, on which J.K. Rowling has written 93 words worth of clues to what’s in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. If we win, the words will be published on The Leaky Cauldron. If everyone who would love to see that card would just donate a dollar, think of how much money it would earn for a great cause– Book Aid International. All proceeds will go to Book Aid whether we win the auction or not, so it’s a great way to do a little good.

So go out there and donate, people! Spoilers ahoy!

To my new blog, Bit Of Ivory. Jane Austen once referred to her own work as a “little bit of ivory, two inches wide, on which I work with a brush so fine as to produce little effect after much labour.” That’s what this blog is– my own little bit of ivory.

It’s not much at this point. The template is just the default Moveable Type template, with my own links added in. But that will change. I’ll work on it in the coming weeks. I hope to import all my old entires from Virtual Parchment, for one thing, so it will have a bit more history. But that will have to wait until I have time.

I’m really excited about all this. I can now upload files (such as my fanfic, Look to Your Dreams, and pictures, etc., without having to host them elsewhere. All the comments are internal, so I don’t have to worry about YACCS going down. If you want, I can even add your e-mail to a list that will notify you whenever the site gets updated. There’s no limit to what I can do!

I especially like the absence of banner ads.

I’m sure I’ll be updating this blog just as much as my old one, so check back often, and leave lots of comments!

On my new blog. Let’s see if it works, shall we?

So, looks like I’m not only going to be abandoning my Blogspot site, I
will be abandoning Blogger as well.

Not that I don’t love Blogger. It’s been great. There have been a few
hangups, but for the most part, I’m pleased with it. The problem is
that it’s publishing method is FTP. My brother doesn’t want to install
FTP on his server, since it’s so insecure. Which means I needed to come
up with an alternative method of publishing my blog if I wanted to move
it.

The solution: Moveable Type.
Ben’s got it up and running on Garion (which is the name of his
server), and I’ve got my domain name registered. It will probably be a
couple of days before it’s actually moved over, though.
Moveable Type does have a few advantages. For one, I’ll be able to keep
this site up for awhile to redirect people to my new site. From all
I’ve seen on Blogger, if I were to move my site from Blogspot, this
would disappear almost immediately. I was concerned about this. Another
good thing is that the comments are internally hosted on Ben’s server,
which means I never have to worry about YACCS going down.
And for all of you who are wondering, I’m not going to tell you my
domain name yet. I want it to be a surprise. I’m rather proud of it,
actually. In fact, I’m very proud of it. But there’s absolutely nothing
there yet, so there’s no point in posting a link. And it’s not even
Harry Potter related. Imagine that!

While I still have to do my presentation on Cymbeline on
Monday, the paper itself isn’t due until a week from Monday, so that
helps. My other research paper isn’t actually due until Thursday, which
also helps. On the other hand, I haven’t yet decided what Shakespeare’s
central message is in Cymbeline (although I’m toying with the
idea of sin, repentance and redemption), which characters I’m going to
analyze (although I’m leaning toward Posthumus and Iachimo), and what
research I’m actually going to use. Since I haven’t done any research
yet.

However, I do have some good news. Since my brother and I are actually
going to be in the same house all weekend, we should be able to get my
blog moved over to his server on Friday. Now I really need to
pick a domain name.

I’m going to be on dial-up all weekend, though, so don’t expect to see
me around much.

Oh, Elizabeth, I was going to work on AP 10 & 11 this weekend as
well, but I forgot to transfer the files to my laptop. Could you e-mail
them to me again? That would be extremely helpful.

P.S. AtE 27 3/4 is amazing. Mellie is truly a genius. AtE 28 isn’t bad,
either.