updates

The old updates, to be exact. Not much worth reading, but whatever...

07.09.07

This appears to be a new layout, but it's not. I made this for another site I had planned but never opened (thank god) and since I was so sick of the last layout, I thought it would be nice for this one to see the light of day even though there's nothing really special about it. Except the fabulous picture of Mr. Fattykins, that is.

What? Mr. Fattykins is his real name. He's one of my pet pufferfish. ♥

02.03.07

New layout. I wanted something a little simpler this time. As for faceless, everyone is faceless on the internet. We only get to see what other people allow us to see, and nothing more; in essence, we are all faceless though we put on faces for each other.

12.13.06

Witness, please, a small piece of video game history. That would be the opening of Angelique Special, a remake of one of the very first dating sim type games for girls. Well, rather, a small still from it and the corresponding animation cel.

Did I mention that I OWN THE CEL? XD
larger image (watermarked, grr!) here!

That's all, I had nothing of real substance to say, I just wanted to brag a little. =p

11.29.06

Another new layout! This one features the main characters of Final Fantasy III for DS. I've shown the SD characters in the job classes I chose for them while playing the game. Luneth's a black mage, Arc is a red mage, Refia is a ranger, and Ingus is a dragoon. ^_^ And, of course, a nice slice of a group shot from the FMV.

Techinically speaking, this layout is crap. >.> I wanted to make the menu image align to the bottom so the menu would be infinitely expandable, but I was too lazy to make it work right. Gave up after about ten minutes. Lucky for me, my menu on this domain is really short so I could get away with a crappy centered div with just one main image and a fixed menu.

So, not my best work by far, but the colors make me happy, as do the characters, so nyah.

09.05.06

New layout, yay! Does anyone even look at this page, though?

I was going to use this for Trading Academy but it's not very practical as a TCG layout. And I come first sometimes. So there.

09.01.06

Finally, it's open!

After several years of "we should really open our own store website", Marfisa and I were finally given a very strong kick in the butt thanks to eBay's recent store fee increases. (Like, more than double. Ridiculous.) So we've been busting our backsides to get OUR store up and running, and finally, there's enough products listed and all the systems are working, so we can say...

Grand opening time!
The Rare Romance online shop is open! ^_^ There's about a thousand items listed already. Most are trading cards but there's a healthy dose of shitajiki, clearfiles, doujinshi stationery, and other flat, lightweight items.

Did I mention that our shipping is a FLAT RATE of $3 within the US and $5 internationally? And that Marfisa does custom doujinshi translations at reasonable prices (much better than the $1+ per page most people charge)? Give us a look!

Even you're NOT interested in buying anything, please take a look. We're proud of what we've managed to do so far, and it can only get better. Comments and suggestions are welcome, both from customers and casual browsers!

08.13.06

Okay, it's been three months since the last update. >.< One of those months was spent visiting my parents so it's really only been two months in my eyes. Still a really long time. Let's see...

I need a new layout. Desperately. This one is still using some cheesy javascript positioning script instead of proper div nesting to make it show up correctly, which is VERY lame. Plus I'm tired of red/pink/Angelique. But it'll be a while before anything gets done with that since layouts are like writing for me... if I'm not in the mood and don't have a flash of inspiration, nothing works.

A bunch of my fanlistings could use new layouts, too, Mff. And the Rare Romance layout is terrible. I NEED something more professional up there.

I've decided to keep clavis-sama.com, mainly because a couple of people have expressed interest in buying the domain (or having me host them for free? I couldn't tell) and that's just not cool. It's mine, bitches. Now, to keep karma from kicking my ass for being a bitch, I'm using the domain to offer free webhosting for anime/manga/game sites in need. Or TCG collectives. Whatever. XD

I'd eventually like to add a big ol' shrine to Lament of Innocence as well... combine it up with the fanlisting and all. But that's a project for another day. I also need to get my online shop up and running. ZenCart looks MUCH easier to use than Miva Merchant but I've still got a lot to learn. And a million products to add. >.<

05.18.06

I couldn't resist... armster.org is a reality! <3 I've already moved most of my Castlevania sites over to the new domain; only fanlistings are staying at neo-romance.net. There's nothing NEW there yet, but I have plans for a Lament-y sort of thing in mind. Definitely need to finish up the Angelique site first, though.

Speaking of which, feel free to take a peek at angelique.neo-romance.net to see our progress! It's going to be the combination of all my Angelique sites from clavis-sama.com and all of Marfisa's information and translations from her site. We got the domain over two years ago, intending to make this massive fansite, and it's finally getting done! Yay for neo-romance games. ^_^

That said, clavis-sama.com and obsessedfangirl.com will be allowed to expire when the time comes. Lose two, gain one... it's still a net loss so no one can be too irked with me for being a domain whore. *grin* So I'll end up with four - one personal, one business, one combo with Marfisa, and one fangirlish vanity one to take the place of clavis-sama.com. And now they're all finally a bit organized, which makes it easier to update everything. Maybe.

And the spoiled puffers got a new fishtank. Now we have five.
- 36G for Mr. Fattykins
- 55G (new!) for Chunkypuff and Mishe Mishe
- 10G for Ittypuff and Bittypuff
- 8G for three dwarf puffers that are coming soon (so cute, must have!)
- 5G snack tank for snails and ghost shrimp

It's puffer madness!

05.13.06

Been a while since I updated here. Still don't like Texas but I'll just hang in there. Maybe I can visit home sometime soon. Sucks that I won't be able to see my mom on Mother's Day.

Recently opened my newest time-sucking project, Moonlight Legend, a Sailor Moon TCG. It's going well so far, so I'm pleased with everything, especially the wise decision to hire staff. New layout for Loved By the Night after well over a year, and I'm very happy with that as well.

We got lots of work done on the real neo-romance.net as well, which means I'll probably be letting clavis-sama.com expire when its time comes. I wanted to get rid of it last year, actually, but it was on auto-renew. Whoops. Also thinking of not renewing obsessedfangirl.com, but if I'm serious about that, I'd better talk to everyone who's hosted on there.

And yes, it's because I selfishly want another domain. So there.

04.03.06

Whee, I now have a photo gallery on my site so my mom can stop nagging me for pictures. Okay, so I haven't uploaded any of the pictures she wants to see just yet, but still. No other updates of note, though I am working on a new site. After the way things have been going recently, though, I don't know if I'll go through with it or not. Oh, yes, added a section for affiliates over there on the left. Great sites, awesome content, go check them out.

Tired of fighting, want to go home. Looking through the old pictures made me miss my apartment. Moving here was a terrible mistake. I haven't managed to save any money because naturally all the extra money I have from NOT paying rent gets wasted on useless crap. (Or on necessary garbage like transferring the car registration, an increase(!) in my car insurance - which really pissed me off, I thought NJ was the worst with that crap!) At least when I'm under pressure, I'm efficient. I wonder how I'm going to pay the $1000+ I owe on my taxes...

Of course, I'm not allowed to be disappointed. Especially not in myself. I'm the one everyone comes to when there's a problem, so I have to be tough. Great.

I wonder when it's going to be warm enough back home for me to go visit. (Because, you know, this place where I am now is NOT home, nor will it ever be.) I really miss my mom. And everyone else, too, but my mom most of all. And I'd like to see Katie again too, just to kick the shit like we used to.

03.22.06

My pets are cooler than yours.

Meet Mr. Fattykins, green spotted pufferfish. His hobbies are eating rocks, eating fingers, and eating shrimp. An entire shrimp. Considering that he's a wee bitty fish (well, kind of), this is pretty special. By special, I mean scary.

And before some dolt rushes over to e-mail me about pet abuse, you should know that he only eats twice a week and his normal shape isn't too much different from his distended, omfg I ate too much shape.

See?

PS - Oblivion is hot.
PPS - I bet you're jealous because YOUR fish doesn't have lips.

03.18.06

Um, yeah, just kidding. I changed this from an overly complex frame/iframe/div layout to a simpler centered div layout. I didn't like having to leave empty space under the iframe just in case someone's browser window was shorter than mine. It looked like a bunch of wasted space and it was ticking me off.

So here we have new layout, version 1.01 or some crap like that. It doesn't all fit on one screen like before, but I think it's a lot easier to read since the text has more space now. Scrolling is good for you, damnit.

By the way, the layout features the characters from Neo-Angelique, the first Angelique game that doesn't suck. Yes, I'm an Angelique fan, but it's about time Koei got a clue and made the Angelique series as good as Haruka. And for once the heroine isn't a clueless twit. Well, she is, but she KNOWS she's a clueless twit and that makes it all better. Or a lot better, at any rate.

Two days until Oblivion! Hopefully my computer won't die when I try to install it. It meets the minimum requirments. Barely. XD I need more memory...

If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to playing video games now.
*fires up the Genesis emulator*

*hugs Marfisa* Thanks for making this work right in IE.

03.17.06 (again)

New layout. Finally. Not much else to say, my brain is about to explode from all the coding and crap. Hopefully it works okay for whoever's reading this pointless text. Definitely needs 1024x768 resolution to avoid squashing the iframe.

This crazy thing uses frames, iframes, and centered div layers. My head hurts.

03.17.06

Not much to say... let's see what I've managed to accomplish recently.

+ added two new chapters to Blood Bond
+ created one new fanlisting
+ currently working on the new neo-romance.net
+ and wrestling with getting a real online store set up
+ oh, and got the interest rate on my credit card reduced by 4%!

So. Things are going pretty well. I think I might actually be losing some weight, too, my back looks a bit better and my tummy seems a bit flatter. Even if it's all in my head, it's encouraging. Now if I could only learn to stop eating late night snacks... mmm...

And I need a new layout, like, yesterday. I'm getting a bit tired of the teeny font on all my sites. No wonder I'm going blind. *rifles through hard drive in search of a suitable image* Cute boy, cute boy... I need a cute boy... *eyes up Joachim*

Nah. It's bad enough he's on my mind all the time, I don't need to SEE him every time I open Firefox. It would be like the eternal guilt trip.

Joachim: Why aren't you writing about me?
me: Because you're a pain in the ass to write for? *kick*

I need something bright and happy and spring, and I don't think Miss Kojima's art is going to cut it this time, no matter how much I love it. *stares at cute Angelique boys* Hmm.

02.13.06

Got my Valentine's chocolate from my mom today. Yes, this is special because I didn't think she'd be sending me anything, since I live in Texas now and she's all the way back in lovely New Jersey. And under two feet of snow right now, hahahaha. Okay, so I like the weather in Texas, but that's about all.

Haven't done much in the way of updating lately. Oh, but I did a nice gallery update for vampire killer about a week ago, and I just redid my TCG collections page. I've quit every TCG except for Loved By the Night in the interest of saving time and sanity. I need to focus on real world things, not pixelated trading cards. Except I do like those Castlevania ones, so I'll keep playing there.

So. Got the one credit card paid off, finally... just $3000 left on the other one. *sigh* And I still owe Belinda's parents $800 in moving expenses. Well, I guess I'd better get back to work, then...

I just applied for another fanlisting. Someone break my fingers so they'll stop getting me into so much trouble. No, wait, I didn't mean it...

01.18.06

Happy new year and stuff. Since I enjoy public embarrassment, here are my resolutions and goals for the new year.

+ pay back Marfisa's parents (only $800 to go!)
+ pay off credit card DONE!
+ pay off OTHER credit card (only $3007.96 to go! XD)
+ pay off car (I don't WANT to know how much I still owe... x.x)
+ be a size eight again (currently a twelve *sigh*)
+ organize websites (already started!)
+ create the real neo-romance.net (~10% done ^_^)
+ finish part two of Blood Bond (~10-15% done)
+ write more often in general (mmm, blog!)
+ preserve what remains of my sanity (good luck)

Pretty damn ambitious, innit? Amazingly, I've already made progress toward all of these goals (well, the first three are basically the same thing, so I consider making progress on the first a step toward the other two), and I'm damn proud of myself. I've been exercising almost every day, eating better than I have in years, learning more about webdesign and organization, working on neo-romance.net, writing and revising Blood Bond, blogging more often, and avoiding my #1 cause of stress.

I look forward to crossing items off this list.
Ah, success, I can almost TASTE you.

12.30.05

Holy crap, it's been a while. Was kind of busy, though, hauling my sorry ass (and everything I own) over 1600 miles from NJ to TX. Let me tell you, this 70 degree weather at the end of December is pretty freaky when you're used to piles of snow. I had a barbeque for Christmas. XD Still need to unpack LOADS of junk, but I've gotten lazy about it. Eh, whatever.

As far as websites, added three new fanlistings. Or was it four? All Castlevania related, at any rate. More or less.
+ Servants of Darkness (Hector & Isaac)
+ Innocent (Hector)
+ Devil (Isaac)
+ Dark Fantasy (Kojima Ayami)

Also added a new chapter to The Story (though I swear I'll name it soon... Blood Bond, I think), and another one is already in the works. I went nuts while moving... couldn't write anything substantial!

PS - After replaying Curse of Darkness so a friend could see the story, I've realized that Lament of Innocence is STILL king in my mind. CoD was great on the first playthrough only because the story was good - up until the end, that is. But playing again, I KNEW that I was slogging through a mediocre game in pursuit of a cheese-laden ending that makes no sense.

In short, I hate Julia, but I'm still in love with Joachim. <3

11.23.05

Hmm, what have I done lately? Finished the Lament of Innocence FL, got approved for the Kojima Ayami FL (bwah!), applied for, um, four CoD related FLs... Really need to update vampire killer though, it's been a week. The sad, sad neglect. I swear if I don't update that site three times a week, I feel like an evil stepmother or something... Oh, and a new layout for Trading Academy because the old new one made me want to puke. x.x

More important, I finished a new chapter of le story. A NEW one this time, not some crappy revision of doom. (Though the next revised chapter is going to be HOT, so I shouldn't complain!) And I have to say, it's pretty damn good, especially the part about the pearls, so READ IT.

11.11.05

Can someone please tell my cockatiel that it's NOT spring? XD

11.05.05

I've been skipping along in happy Castlevania fangirl squeeland these last few days. Got the Dawn of Sorrow FL finished, just got approved for the Lament of Innocence FL - I can't believe that one was removed and went unclaimed for several months! I feel so lucky! *^_^*

But nothing beats the true Z-O-M-G power of Curse of Darkness. I've been slobbering for that game since it was first announced and it's more than lived up to my exalted fangirl expectations. The real thing totally blows away those crap quality preview videos, and the cutscenes, the voice acting, the story! And the blasted final boss. At least, I think it's the final boss...

Anyway, ignore the stupid online reviews. If you liked Lament, you'll adore this game. If you didn't, well... *dangles Trevor Belmont* You know you love him.

But me? I love Isaac. <3
Just kidding. He may be gorgeous after all, but he's STILL creepy.

10.13.05

You're looking at it. New layout, finally, and something dark like I've wanted for a while. It's getting dark and gloomy outside, so I'm feeling those wintery blues, at least for now. Once I move, I'll never have to see hateful snow again, but until then... frozen winter. I know dark isn't what most people think of when they imagine winter, but it's what I see, so I'm enjoying this cozy dark layout.

You know, for someone who hates orange, I sure use a lot of it...

10.08.05

*does the screaming happy dance of joy*
Guess who just got approved for the Dawn of Sorrow fanlisting!!!
Not a Castlevania fangirl. I'm not. I SWEAR!!! XD

Didn't get the Symphony of the Night one (damn!) but I really wasn't expecting to be first on that anyway. ^_^ DoS, though, I would have been disappointed, since I applied the split second it was "legal" to do so. *grin*

Regular updates continue at vampire killer. Redid a few layouts recently (Walter FL & Loved By the Night dark skin) with my mad blend skillz. Just kidding. I'm still learning but I'm having fun messing with images. I'm finally starting to understand how to make PSP do what I want!

Now if only I could make a new layout for THIS page. *gak*

09.18.05

Not much going on recently. Got the rest of the Dawn of Sorrow translation up on vampire killer, so I've been able to break away from the DS. Finally. Made a good deal of progress on The Story, with the first two chapters of part two cranked out in the span of three days (though I had the first half of chapter one done for a long time... but still).

My Joachim doll arrived yesterday, no thanks to the idiot post office with their drop-and-run without ringing the doorbell tactics. But he's here, and that's what counts! *plays with his elf ears* So CUTE!

09.05.05

It's been a Castlevania-licious weekend, with the following updates...

Added tons of translation stuff to vampire killer (thanx, Marfisa <3)

Lots of updates to Loved By the Night (more cards!)
New layout for my online TCG collection (Soma and blood splats!)

And a whole lot of nothing else. ^_^ Been writing some rather unwholesome (but fun and tasty, like candy) stuff lately, but I had a nice lazy weekend where I accomplished nothing but gathering lots of souls in Dawn of Sorrow. Fantastic game, by the way. For once, I wasn't angry with myself for wasting time. I think it's an improvement.

I should print out some labels and pack up the weekend's eBay sales now. You know, I'm really enjoying my unemployed life. ^_^ Couldn't be happier unless I was completely out of debt. At least it's not an impossible dream anymore.

Okay, I caved in. I now have a blog. ^_^;;

08.28.05

Um... yeah. New site, and it's not even one of the two I was considering last time I typed up a stupid update. Nope. I just have to keep making MORE work for myself. I mean, I had it in mind for a while but I wasn't planning on just up and spending an entire Saturday on it. But I did.

Thus, I present:
vampire killer : a Castlevania fansite

*sheepish* Sure, the world didn't need another one, but my scans are huge and pretty and those translations will be awesome once we post a few.

Um, I really need to organize some of this crap... what should the next project be? Answer: the layout for my fanlisting collective so I can finally take all those FL links off of this page! And I fixed up neo-romance.net too, while I was at it...

08.14.05

Okay, I swore I wasn't going to create any more projects for myself, but this is the last one! Or two, or maybe none at all depending on what happens! Gah!

*halo* I don't need any more fanlistings but I just noticed that you can apply for relationships in the games category. Naturally, I couldn't resist applying for Walter and Joachim. <3 Hey, I like their official relationship too! I just happen to like the one I made up more. ^_^ So, I've got my fingers crossed on that one.

And call me a psycho, but I'm thinking of making another TCG. >.< I've been good about them lately, though! I updated LBtN on time this week, and just made three new decks for Academy. I can handle the responsibility mom, pleeeeeeeeease???

PS - Kyo Kara Maoh is the bestest anime EVAR. <3

08.10.05

Whee! Just finished the Ys Series Fanlisting, sort of on time, so now all of my fanlistings are complete. I can't think of anything else I love enough to want a FL for, so I think that'll be all. For now, at least...

Dude, check out this monstrous cucumber.

OMGWTF, indeed.
Delicious, by the way.

07.26.05

Wowie. Thanks to the PHPFanbase -> Enthusiast3 converter, I've finally converted all of my current FLs to Enth3! Ah, freedom, now automatic updating will be possible. *kisses script* Now I need to get to work on the Adol and Ys FLs... *runs to Marfisa to get some images*

And, yeah, some of those old sites could really use a new layout. o.o

Bwahaha! The Adol Christin FL is complete! I'm rather proud of how it turned out, I really think this is the nicest site I've ever made. I'm feeling all sorts of inspired to redo, oh... just about every other site I own. Must resist, as it's after 2am now!

07.25.05

Bwahahaha! I've finally forced my brain to understand how Enthusiast works, so I've converted my three smallest fanlistings. *proud* I've marked them with a little asterisk below so I can keep track of my progress. Three more to go! And two to create... maybe I can get to making some new layouts, too. *shifty eyes* Or not.

Okay, four down, two to go. My brain's going to melt if I do any more work on that tonight, though. Besides, I'm getting depressed looking at how hideous some of those old sites are. Argh. o.o

My life continues to get better and better. Must be because I'm quitting my job. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I've had such a great year so far, I'm so happy to have been given the chance to work hard and make changes. I've accomplished a lot of my goals this year, let's hope I can keep it up!

07.19.05

I am now officially a fangirl. I just preordered the Japanese version of Castlevania DS (mind you, I do not OWN a DS - I'm buying one just to play this game, damnit!), and while I was at it, grabbed the special edition of Lament of Innocence. Which, for some ungodly reason, comes with different bonuses than the limited edition. So I basically just paid $70 for a pretty slipcover and a small illustration booklet. *urk* Someone please take my credit card away, kthx. And did I mention the pile of Japanese game guides I ordered just because one of them has a "new" illustration of Mathias? Not obsessed. I'm not, I tell you!

At least I got the story back under control. *cracks whip at it* The first 13 chapters will expand to 15, and that'll be it. No epilogue, I'll just dive straight into part two! Of course, now I have the joy of writing the two missing chapters and revising the whole mess. *tickles Joachim's ears until he cries - ah, revenge!*