I also whipped up nine new sets of linking buttons! Though, I should have made one more just to make it an even ten… but I was excited about finishing the revamp!

And the deed is DONE! YAYY! Revamp over. *throws confetti*

Well, if you’re reading this (unlikely… ) I really do hope you like the new layout! After having the last layout up for over two years (yikes!…even though I was rather fond of it, that’s still way too long.) ANY change is good change. I’m not particularly happy with this layout, but it’ll stay up for at least a little while I think.

I still need to clear out my joined listings, but I’ll just have to do that gradually because it is going to take forever.

I added a few more sets than those, but I didn’t want to go all clutter-y and link all of them.

The Keep In Mind list has also been updated. I cleaned out all of the dead links, so if I removed you and you just changed domains or something, let me know and I’ll add you back!

My Wishlist has also been updated. Subjects were added/removed and I made shiny new top ten images! It looks much cleaner, I think. ^.^

I removed the “My Media” script because I just don’t have time to add all of my books and cds/dvds and review them, as much as I really would like to. *sigh* I have updated my book log, answered all the questions that were recently asked, and updated the girl and Top 5 pages.

I’ve gone through all the emails in my inbox and added/updated all the affiliated fanlisting links. Took me *forever*, but it’s my own fault for letting them lie stagnant for so long. -blush- I cleaned out my collective affiliates, so if I removed you and you just moved or something, let me know and I’ll add you back!

I still have some pages under “site” to update, new linking buttons to make, and a cleaning of my joined listings to do. After that I will be all done with the revamp! WOO! Then I can start revamping my fanlistings… which will probably take me forever.

In the next few days, I’ll begin streamlining and updating everything.

So far, I have updated Enthusiast and FanUpdate to the latest versions and made all new images for my list of current fanlistings.

I also put up an index.html page to hopefully keep people out while I’m messing with the layout.

I was approved for the Belle fanlisting and finished it. *excitement!* I really couldn’t believe my eyes, at first!

I have updated the wishlist and credit pages, and I have also added some new icons. Mostly Italy ones, but I added a few in the ‘Other’ and ‘Marie Antoinette’ categories.

That is all. Not much has happened so my lapse in updates is not quite as bad as I thought. ;) (But I’m probably forgetting something.)

When I was upgrading, I felt like such an idiot! I had customized the template a fair amount and I forgot to back that up, so that was lost. Then I looked in my “categories” section, where all of my fanlistings show up but I could not find “collective” in the list! I spent hours trying to figure out how I was supposed to customize the template for my collective, since the only editable templates that I could find were for my fanlistings. The answer was, of course, right in front of me the entire time. The generic template under “options” changes the display of the updates for my collective and all my fanlistings; the templates of just my fanlistings under “categories” are just overriding the main template. Oh, the joys of being me… *headdesk*

Anyway, I do really like the new version. The new features are very shiny and makes the script much more user-friendly. I went through all of my updates and titled them. The only ones that are unchanged are those that I absolutely could not think of a title for—maybe I can think of one later.

I recently revamped the Fantasy (Movie Genres) fanlisting. All of the coding had been redone, so it validates and hopefully works in all browsers. I added six new skins and re-did the Narnia skin since I still liked the blend. The beautiful Harry Potter skin was made by Jessica as one of my secret santa gifts. <3

I recently added a few more icons. I should be able to get around to doing some major work around here soon. I still need to work with MediaScript and update a lot of the pages. I’m planning on getting rid of quite a few pages, too.

In real life news, I recently got my scores back from the ACT and the SAT and I am really happy with them! I am especially happy with my ACT score, since I am in the 97^th percentile. (Meaning only 3% of those testing received a score better than mine.) Usually, getting back my standardized testing scores throws me into a long period of melancholy, but I am really, really happy with them this time! (And I am also very happy that I never have to take the ACT or SAT again—a major cause for celebration!)

I finally trudged through all of the emails stagnating in my inbox last week. Yes, what I say is true! Astonishing, I know. I also finished up my fanart of Cadvan and Maerad for the Pellinor series fanlisting, but I’m not sure if I’m actually going to use it. I’m not overly fond of it. Maerad is okay, but Cadvan looks a bit odd. My drawing of Edward from the Twilight series turned out quite a lot better. I’m really pleased with the way his shirt looks. Of course, his hair isn’t quite up to par. Human hair is my bane of existence. Fur I can handle, but, while I can make hair look shiny, I can never give it movement, which is mildly frustrating.

I updated most of the pages in the Me section and added a link to Media Shelf, which is still very empty, but I’m working on adding more. I also uploaded the cleaned-up header and footer to Long Ago, finally. I know I’m probably the only one that can tell the difference, but it still makes me feel better. ^^

I read Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer a few weeks ago, and I am growing quite obsessed. I’m in love with Edward and I wan’t to move to Forks, but really, who doesn’t? Every time I’m driving behind a black Mercedes my reaction is: “*gasp* Carlise!! Alice?” Yeah…

Before Twilight, my favorite book was a three-way tie between The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Eyre, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Now, my mother thinks I am insane. “But Jane Eyre is your favorite book!” “Um yeah, Mom. About that…” I never thought that I would even like Twilight. My friend wanted me to read it. We swapped books. End of story, or so I thought. Stephenie Meyer is now my favorite author. She really has one of the coolest websites (for an author) that I’ve stumbled across. Her idea of having playlists for each of the books is very interesting. Thanks to that, I am now hooked on Muse and Coldplay. The previously musically oblivious me is slowly being replaced by a musically ignorant me, which is infinitely better.

I want an I Love Edward Cullen tee shirt. And I want it to be summer.

I meant to post an update on January first but alas, I am a slacker. *hangs head in shame* Almost two months late! I think that’s a new record for me. It seems like I’ve just had so much to do lately! My to-do list is ten miles long and yet I still manage to find things to do that are not on my list (and that are far less important than what is on my list—surfing Amazon.com or playing Sudoku, for example). I am quite behind on the fanlisting affiliate requests sitting in my inbox. Hopefully, I can get through some of those later today. The oldest ones are from October, yikes! On that note, I have a few new affiliates for Long Ago since my last update, all of which are very awesome: Bruna, Ellie, Jessica, and Nathalie.

I was approved and finished the fanlisting for the wonderous Pellinor series by Alison Croggon. I am quite ashamed of the ghastly layout, and am currently drawing up some fanart to use in a new one. Hopefully it will be done soon. The layout is so terrible, I didn’t even promote the fanlisting at the TFL Message Board. I must change it, and quickly!

I updated the KIM List and the Rejected page. I also redid my wishlist and added pretty pictures of my top ten wishes.

I have spruced up the wording on quite a few of the more bland pages around here, so maybe they are *slightly* more entertaining. I also made a book log to keep track of my reading progress. I am going to try to read 100 books this year, but as it now stands, I believe my chances of success are quite slim indeed. I’m also trying to write in a paper journal every day this year, and so far, I still haven’t missed a day! Hopefully I will be able to sustain my determination.

I installed MediaShelf, which is a very nifty script! It took me an eternity to customise it to successfully fit into this layout, but it was well worth it! I’m not going to post the link until I’ve added and reviewed about ten books or movies. When I finish, I will remove the list of DVDs that I own, as it would be rather redundant to keep it.

In the near future, I will begin to check my joined fanlistings to make sure that they are still listed at TFL and then convert their buttons to 75×50. After I finish, I will begin combing through TFL and joining more listings. Hopefully, this time I will be able to make it through all the categories in a timely manner. I will also be converting my affiliates sections (both here and on my fanlistings, eventually) to the more widely used 50×50, mainly because I have begun to dislike the look of 100×50 codes, and also because I just don’t have the time to spend making codes like I used to.

I also plan on redoing the navigation and making it expandable instead of each link taking the visitor to another list of links. I have cleaned up the header and footer of this layout, so I also plan on uploading those and changing around some colors here and there. I’m also considering putting a little top affiliates section in the sidebar, or if I change my mind and convert my affiliates to 75×50 buttons, I will add a random affiliate section.

I have quite a lot of fanlisting re-vamping to do. The first on my list is the Fantasy movie genre fanlisting. I plan on redoing the skins that I currently have up and adding a few more. Next I’ll be skinning the Peter Pevensie fanlisting, so there will be skins from the movie, book, and television series to choose from. The Pellinor series, the Shire, Castles, Ella Enchanted, The Saga Begins, and the Elizabethan era fanlistings are also in dire need of face lifts!

I have quite a few pretty fanlisting donations to add! Rebekah donated lots of pretty things for the Peter Pevensie and Shire fanlistings. Jessica, who was my secret santa for the TFL Board Secret Santa project, gave me lots of shiny icons and wallpapers to add to some of my fanlistings, as well as a Harry Potter skin for the Fantasy genre fanlisting! Thank you both so much! I will be adding all of those things very soon!

I paid for the early viewing period and got my ACT score back two days ago. I definitely wasted my money, as my score was very upsetting. It only went up one point, which makes me very sad. I would really like to have a 33, but I don’t think that’s going to happen! I will to have to start studying for the test instead of just taking it cold each time, like I have been doing. I’m contemplating taking the SAT to see if I could do better on it.

I finished the fanlisting for Lightsabers a few weeks ago. I like the Greivous skin and the codes alright, but I’m not happy with the way the Darth/Luke skin turned out. I also finished the the fanlisting for the amazing, mind-twisting movie, The Prestige, which I still can’t believe I was approved for! I’m pretty satisfied with three of the skins (I think the red Angier skin is my favorite), but I really can’t stand the fourth one with the pumpkin-yellow background. I also need to make some new codes, since the ones I made did not turn out very well.

Well, I suppose I will go back to watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I probably won’t do another update before Christmas, so I hope you all have a lovely holiday!

Wow, it’s been over a month since my last update, which is rather sad. It’s not that I’m not online, I just don’t update. I think I’ve finally realized that I just don’t like writing updates. I’ll be doing something and think to myself, “Man, I really need to update to say this or that. I’ll do it right when I finish what I’m doing!” Then, of course, when I finish what I’m doing, I start something else and the update doesn’t get done. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell you! *shakesfist* Silly updates, why can’t you write yourselves? It’s been so long since I’ve actually blogged that I think I’ve forgotten how. My latest updates are just that, updates. Maybe I’ll blog next time, but the chances are very slim. ;)

Now, I have a question for all you British people. I ordered the UK edition of The Crow by Alison Croggon because it is not released in the US yet. (And probably won’t be for year, at least; I was desperate! As a sidenote, The Crow is the third book in the very awesome Pellinor series and I recommend Croggon’s quartet to everyone who enjoys a good fantasy!) I was a bit confused by something on the back of the book. Let’s hope I can explain my confusion clearly. The summary on the back says:

In the darkness the Light shines more brightly. The earth is poisoned by a deep wrongness and the forces of the Nameless One grow ever stronger. The treesong—the key to restoring peace—is lost, and only Hem’s sister Maerad can unravel its mysteries. While she seeks answers in the frozen wastelands of the north, Hem is sent south to Turbank with his guardian Saliman. Troubled and unhappy, Hem is both haunted by his bitter past and uncertain of his future, as evil forces threaten to destroy the city. But his destiny may be linked to the Treesong more closely then he knows.

As I read the last sentence, my brain automatically flashed “Error! Error!” but the more I thought about it, I decided that it could be yet another difference between American English and actual English. It’s quite true that the common mistake of confusing “then” and “than” annoys me greatly, but I find it hard to believe that something that prominent could be overlooked. Is that a difference between English and American English? Not knowing is driving me quite batty! I certainly wish that American English were never created; true English makes so much more sense in the spellings and punctuation of everything!

I made a few new pages today. An Adopted Out/Closed page was finally added to the “fan” section, a page on the places that I would like to visit was added to the “me” section and a literary analysis guide was added to the “you” section. I also updated some things on the girl page, and added on new icon.

I’ve been approved and rejected for a few fanlistings lately. I was rejected for Saphira, which was kind-of a bummer, but I know the person that was approved will do a lovely job. I can’t wait to see it! <3 A few weeks ago I was approved for Dreams, which has since been finished. I just love dreams, but then who doesn’t? Sometimes when I wake up from an especially good dream, I try to go back to sleep so that the dream can continue. It doesn’t usually work. It was so much fun building this fanlisting and I was very surprised that I was approved because many wonderful applicatns applied, I’m sure. I was also approved for lightsabers, which have been on my wishlist for quite some time! They are my favorite fictional weapon and I can’t wait to get started it! Lately, I also received one of my most shocking approvals. The recently release movie, The Prestige!! I fell in love with it when I saw it at the cinema; it is definately now one of my absolute favorite movies! I was completely stunned when I saw the approval sitting in my inbox and really couldn’t believe it; I had to stare at it for a few minutes. I’m so excited to be able to build this fanlisting!

I revamped the Arya fanlisting a couple of weeks ago. It has a book and a movie skin, along with some new codes. I’m not very happy with the way it turned out, but it is better than it used to be.

I have a few new affiliates: Elly, Sherry, and Ellie. Hoorah! They all have lovely sites and I was very happy to affiliate with them! <3

I do believe that is all for today, and a very long update it seemed! (Probably because I basically wrote it twice, but that’s okay!)

I installed a question & answer script today, so if there is anything you would like to ask me, feel free! I had another Q&A script installed a while back, but I eventually removed it because it never got any questions. I’m thinking of installing a guestbook script, also. Another thing I used to have way back when… I sound as if it was an age ago, but in reality my domain is only a bit over a year old, so it hasn’t been that long. ;)

A few new icons have been added recently and the categories were edited so that the icons are (hopefully!) better sorted.

I’m going to be changing a few things around here. I’ve redone the current layout so that it is less messy and the browns in the header stand out a bit more. The new header and footer should be uploaded soon. I’ve also made new images for the headings, since I really dislike the floral picture that I have placed there at the moment. I actually made three different images and have yet to decide on one. *sigh* Yes, indecisive me. I’m going to redo a lot of the colors used in the coding; mainly the ones used in the navigation boxes and the headings because I am thoroughly sick of the current colors.

I’ve edited the layout page to explain what the current layout means, in case you were curious. I had meant to explain it when I first put this layout up, but I forgot. Surprising, I know! ;)

Nai haryuvalyë melwa rë! (Elvish: May you have a lovely day.)

About a week ago, I was asked to become a staff member at TheFanlistings.Org. It was very unexpected and has completely made my month! I am now the Troubles staffer for the Animation category. Animation is one of my favorite categories, so that makes it all the more exciting!

Angria, the fanlisting for the amazing author, Charlotte Bront� was finished up yesterday, and Dauntless, the fanlisting for the Staff of TheFanlistings.Org was finished a couple of weeks ago.

I added a new affiliate today: Essi of Desiderata. Her website is spectacular; please visit!

I do belive that that is all for the day. Au revoir!

Recently I was approved for two fanlistings: Staff (thefanlistings.org) in the webmasters category and Charlotte Bront� in the Authors/Writers category. Whee! I am extememly excited about both and hope to get them up soon.

I’m working on two new things for Long Ago. They’re taking me quite a while to write, but I think it’s worth it. One is a list of places I’d like to visit with little summaries of each place and what I want to do there. The other is a literary analysis article, to help when analysing literature for English classes. Hopefully the first will be enjoyable and the second helpful!

In other news, I got a vox! Yay! Maybe this will prod me into finally finishing my LiveJournal…

Also, I did a repost for the fanlistings I’m adopting out, so if you are a fan, please apply! The new post is here!

I recently put a few fanlisting up for adoption, so please check them out and apply if you are a fan. Be sure to read the rules first, though! =)

The new layout for Food Network is all finished, but I haven’t had time to put it up yet. It’s coming soon, with new codes, too!

The wonderful, fabulous, glorious Daphne is letting me adopt the fanlisting for English Tea! My favorite drink! Eee, I’m so excited! *dance*

That’s all for today, I think. =D Ciao!

Only two days left until Pirates of the Caribbean 2! This is so exciting; I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen! I got a really cool poster of Will today, and just finished putting it up.

I’m getting sick of this new layout already, but I s’pose I shall leave it up for a bit, anyway. Today I got around to adding a few new icons, and I’m working a new layout for the Food Network fanlisting.

Today I also finished converting the advertising/tv channels and the albums categories to 75×50. Hoorah!