Public Apology Time!

[justira]

So, I dropped off the internet for about... half a month, I guess. I figured, since I've made a bit of a public nuisance of myself, in the sense of modding comms and starting projects and generally having responsibilities/duties towards people other than myself, I should first and foremost apologize, and then explain why for any who care to listen.

So, first and foremost: I apologize for dropping internet-dead without warning. Work and personal life got very crazy for a while, and I had to drop fandom and other internet activities until I got that straightened out. I'm back now.

Explanation, for the curious: This is mostly addressed to those of you I know online. You weird people I've ACTUALLY MET, I see you rarely enough that you probably haven't noticed my absence.

What's been going on is this: at work, I have had a string of stiff deadlines on two different major projects that kept me at work 3 hours later than usual for almost two weeks straight. I also switched contracts at work and went through the hiring process again, except this time for a full-time (instead of 40-hr-a-week part time) position, which meant I had to go to orientation, set up all my benefits, and basically get a lot of settling in done.

Meanwhile, in personal news, my fiancé is moving here (Washington D.C. metro area) from Oregon. That's aaaaallll the way across the country, oh yeah. With all three of our cats. We have been trying to find a subletter for our apartment. I visited him for a week during Thanksgiving holiday (second time I've seen him since MAY), and had no internet access during that period. Since then we've been frantically long-distance organizing the move, what to do with the flat until we return, how to get him and our cats here safely, and his job situation when he does get down here.

I was also sick before all this with tonsillitis for over a month, which exhausted me nicely just in time for all that to kick in. But hey, all better now!

Just to add a bit more spice, I've been trying to sign up for high-level evening math classes at a local prominent university and also I have a private web design contract due and another I'm just starting.

Given all that, internet anything, and fandom specifically, dipped rather low on my list of priorities.

Some of these things I could have known in advance, some not. I wish I could have warned everyone anyway. I didn't, and I apologize.

Things that will now no longer be dead, like me:

grand_line_vine is back in business, finally and for real. I REALLY WANT MORE STAFF. Please? I'm especially and specifcially looking for backup editors, who will collect the news when I can't, so that the newsletter doesn't collapse utterly when my life does. I specifically don't want the newlsetter to be 100% dependent on me, so I'm very anxious to find people who can help with that. You wouldn't even have to do all of it -- if someone is willing to just be an LJ backup editor, or an Arlong park backup editor or a FF.net backup editor, that would be lovely.

ffarchive is getting its butt back in gear as well. Browsing and Searching post is being worked on right now, and should be up shortly.

picks_n_paeans will also rise from the dead as soon as I've discharged less personal responsibilities. Since the rec journal is not something others depend on me for, it's lower on my list of priorities.

Communties I mod, expect to see me back and commenting/posting away again. ff_100, avatar_flashfic, and atlaforgrownups, I'm looking at you.

Oh, and once I've discharged those more public duties, I fully intend to get some drawing and writing done. I actually went over my list of completed and in-progress stories and have done a lot of work on most of the stories there, so expect to see more soon =)

So, that's that. I was away, I apologize, I'm back.

Comments

[regann]

...you were gone? ;)

Just joking, welcome back! And yay on your fiancé's move, although I don't even want to think about moving cats across country, yikes!

[justira.livejournal.com]

Thanks =)

Apparently, all three cats are actually being very good boys and are mostly sleeping or staring out the window. I hear they've gotten over their initial OMG VET NOOOOOOOOO panic.

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

I vanished for some time too, and missed your pretty icons and art. Glad to see you're feeling a little netlike again!

I know what it's like to drop off net unexpectedly, yep yep.

[justira.livejournal.com]

Hey, long time no see! I'm very glad to see you around here again!

How is your art going? I was very impressed with that one Auron/Lulu piece I critiqued a while ago -- have you tried for any more? I'd be interested in seeing it, if you have!

[kaizoku-shinobi.livejournal.com]

Yay! You're back! *glomp* I'm glad you're feeling better.

[justira.livejournal.com]

Thank you! =D

[muggy-mountain.livejournal.com]

In progress FFX...so much Auron!

*Plops down at your feet like a kindergartner.*

[justira.livejournal.com]

Well, I do like Auron rather a lot ^^;

I hope you enjoy the stories when I do finish another one! Sorry I'm so slow >.>

[dance4lyfe.livejournal.com]

Who's your fiance? Someone from Reed??

[justira.livejournal.com]

Yes, someone I met at Reed. His name is Travis =)

[dance4lyfe.livejournal.com]

How long have you been dating/engaged?

[justira.livejournal.com]

Dating since... hm, I'm bad at dates. March of 2005, I think. Yes. Engaged by mutual agreement, more or less (i.e., no one asked anybody, it as just gareed upon), since.. um. late September or something? Early October. Hell, I don't know. I don't really get hung up about things like that =P

[aciel.livejournal.com]

Do we get to meet Travis finally?

[aciel.livejournal.com]

...by we I mean I.

[justira.livejournal.com]

If you wish, sure. You'd have to ask him as well, though =P

[icefalcon.livejournal.com]

I'll volunteer for some grand_line_vine action - 'tis an awesome concept but I know a real life is not always conductive to updates. >.<

[justira.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you, that is very generous!

There are a nubmer of things you could do that would make my life so much easier. Would you like to be a backup editor, called upon rarely, or a full-time editor, with a task you do every day, such as checking links or collecting lj news?

[icefalcon.livejournal.com]

(Ouch! I'm really terribly sorry, for some reason I didn't get an lj comment notification, so I only noticed the response now.)

Full-time sounds good - I'm not going back to uni for a while, so I do have a large amount of spare time! XD

[justira.livejournal.com]

Ah! There you are! I had trouble finding your comment, too! Thanks, lj XD

Well, if you would like to do full-time, then I can think of a number of things that would make my life easier. I'll warn you, none of the tasks involved in putting the newsletter together are particularly thrilling, but for the most part they're pretty quick and easy. To do the full newsletter it takes me about 20-40 minutes, depending on the day, so any one of these tasks should only take 10-15 mintues a day. Let me know if any of the following sound okay:

• Checking the links on each issue to make sure they all work and lead where they say they do


• Collecting all the ff.net links and possibly tagging them. This just involves copy/pasting the title/url and author/url into a template I have. Tagging them is someone else's job right now, but I'm asking them if they would like to keep doing it. If they do, then that's great and they'll keep it, but if they'd rather not, I can offer that to you, too. This would involve looking at the summary and rating and skimming the story very quickly for a rough estimation of spoilers and characters/pairings if available.


• Collecting and tagging art. I have a list of art sites to check, so you just go to those links, copy/paste titles and artists with links into the template, and then tag each one (much easier for art)


• Collect and tag AMVs. I'd be delighted to have someone do this, since I haven't been able to keep up with YouTube because none of my connections will accept it. Again, copy/paste appropriate info, then skim the amv (fast-forward works fine) for spoilers and also add the song info if available

Those are the positions I'm most interested right now. If any of those sound viable, please do let me know. If more than one does, I'll die happy. If none sound very interesting, there's plenty of other work to do!

Please let me know, and thanks so much for offering to help!

[icefalcon.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to do the AMV collecting and tagging as well as link checking - and I can probably help if your FF.net net person falls through as well! My only real question/concern is if you'd need them by a specified point every day? I can have irregular hours, and I'm not sure how well Australian time translates. XD

[justira.livejournal.com]

Well,for collecting and tagging AMVs, I wouldn't be too picky about when, just as long as it's done once every day. Youtube is pretty weird with its servers anyway -- stuff uploaded that day sometimes doesn't show up till two days later, and sometimes it actually appears right away. So irregular hours and time zones shouldn't be a problem there.

Link checking, though, would have to be done before each issue is published, but if you take care of AMVs, and my spoiler-person (who says they'd like to stay) takes care spoiler-tagging, I can check links myself =)

To check AMVs, you go to a post where all the links we check are listed and click on the links under the AMV section. Then you just copy/paste the information on the AMV into a template that looks roughly like this:

» <a href="">[title]</a> by <a href="">[creator]</a> [tags]
   (song artist - song title)

To spoiler-tag, just fast-forward through the vid. It's pretty easy, but pretty tedious =P

Then you can post it in your journal, locked to the glv_watch editor account, or we can give you the password and you can log in as glv_watch and post it there, wichever you prefer. My new canon checker does it their journal, while my spoiler person does it in the editor account, and both ways have been working fine.

Still sound okay? Let me know if that's okay, and which way you's prefer, and we'll start you off whenever's convenient for you =)

[icefalcon.livejournal.com]

All sounds good - tedious or not, I'd probably be looking at some if not most of the stuff anyway! Also, probably for me logging in with the editor account would be easier, keeping things separate.

Time wise, I go back to normal non-Christmas (and thus not 12/14 hour working days - stupid new IR laws mean at our workplace we can't turn down shifts, even if they're given at the last minute, otherwise our manager will fire us - someone got fired yesterday for not showing up to two shifts. She had gastro, and had called in sick for both occasions!) shifts as of the 1st, so that's probably the best time for me to start. >.<

[glv-watch.livejournal.com]

Dear god, LJ fails.

Okay, I'd still love to have you on board. If you're still available, then let's get in touch via email, which, you know, I RESPOND TO IN A TIMELY FASHION, and maybe we can get you up and running this weekend?

Email at grand.line.vine@gmail.com -- I reply there within the hour, generally, instead of.... within the month. y apologies -_-