Empty Cage

So, wonderful internet, I bet you’re a bit confused now given that I now have two domains: EMPTY-CAGE.NET and MADHATTERY.NET as my Godaddy CP loudly states. And you must be thinking: ‘Gee Kae, you really needed two domains to ignore that badly did you?’ I will of course then scoff at you, and probably very secretly hate you forever. No, not really, but as usual there is method in my madness.

For the past, say, six or seven months I’ve been at a bit of a web crossroads. I’ve been fairly self concious about my websites, my blogging style and all that. All the little projects I throw together and then ignore, fanlistings coming to mind, and basically all the experimental little things that clog Empty Cage. I’m an ideas person and when a good one comes along I jump on top of it and have been known to find the follow through difficult.

Any ways, recently I agreed to do some contract work with my friend’s website company since we being fellow philosophers like to complain about things like real jobs when he asked if there was any of my stuff that he could see, and I realized I was a bit bashful to show him anything since it’s all pitched together in thirty minutes for shits and giggles. It’s kind of gone down hill since Europe, hee hee. And so that’s when I decided it was time to divorce these two parts of my brain.

What will the split entail? Well, MadHattery is going to be taking my blog insofar as I am not talking about updating websites or learning strange new things about Enth3. It’ll have more ‘polished’ writing than EC ever suffered. I’m using polished here in a loose sense, it is still going to be my usual tongue-in-cheek self. It’ll also look really nice and be sort of a ‘resume type thing’ Basically Hattery is taking all my eloquence.

In return EC gets all of my fun, it’ll be what it’s always been. A bunch of hack-job websites that I update sporadically but love to pieces when I do. All old blogs will stay here and I plan on keeping this place pretty frequently updated with all the strangeness that grows on my brain. I’m actually looking forward to this split.

Basically, if you’ve never read one of my updates in the “internet” category and you actually have me bookmarked for that rare yet comical interlude I’m going to urge you to change your bookmarks to MadHattery. If you’re really here to see me build a character fansite that flops a few hours later stick around, more of that to come.

So this is not goodbye or anything like that, in fact, if anything I suspect this place is going to pick up.

Most people who know me know of my unhealthy love of all things Alice in Wonderland. A fandom that is generally a ragtag bunch that has never made much of a splash on the internet. But, whatever, right, I can sit and fangirl over pretty much anything I like. Of course, now that Tim Burton has turned his sights on Alice everyone else is paying attention again.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to make of this film. On one hand, I’m a secret Tim Burton fan (secret because I have this phobia of being one of those gloomy emo kids). Yes, I USED to come pretty close to that classification in the good old day (though, for the record I was pretty sure I was a goth and never wore skinny jeans), but I like to think I’ve cheered up a bit. Inversely, his dark-artistic-goodness never fails to please the part of me that still wears black boots that lace up to my knees. And I know I know, ‘all his movies are the same thing’ its so full of ‘dark side gimmicks’ it makes you a bit ill, but damnit, I like Alice and I like darkness so why am I not allowed to enjoy the hell out of this film?

I’ve been saving watching the trailer of this movie for quite awhile now. I wanted it to be at the perfect time. I still haven’t seen it, but I’m starting to think that waiting is going to build it up as something more than a clip reel of the only scenes worth watching. I will fucking cry if this movie sucks, just a warning. Like actually cry, in the open. And I know, Tim Burton, don’t get hopes up… but really. I want for it to be good so badly.

Unfortunately I don’t know many people who are as excited about all things Alice as I am. But one of them has been plotting an Alice website with me for awhile, and I think now would be the time to make it if ever we are going to.

Oh, what shall I do if this movie is crap?

Just a quick one so I can wrap my head around this I need to do both online and offline:

• Get my hands on a guitar tuner — they’re only like $10 so procrastinating is not really worth it
• Call, or get mum to call the guy about my summer job
• Revamps on the following websites in the following order:
  • Finish off the last little bits of the Tim Fanlisting (Codes, About, fix mistakes)
  • Do the ShadowRO website
  • Do Empty Cage, new layout, put the focus on the blog aspect
• Move mum’s domain from Network Solutions to be hosted on my hosting plan, as well as make a new layout for her site
• Study for Math
• Get money order for room next year

It’s a new semester, and I’ve decided my three semester goals are going to be to eat healthy, go for a walk every day and have both a hard copy and a digital copy of all of my school notes.

For me, the tactile act of actually writing my notes out makes me way more likely to remember what I’m writing, whereas typing means I might actually be able to read them again one day. I have yet to find a Linux app to take notes the way I want to though, so, my quest continues. I’ve tried a few different things, like Tomboy Notes, and am playing with NoteCase, so we’ll see what happens.

The problem I’ve been having with good old Linux is there are lots of apps, and they all seem to do little bits of what I want, but none of them do exactly what I want them to. I ran into this same problem with music players, and even now I’m not settled on one, rather I’m using Rhythmbox until Songbird supports my music player — though I’ve been going to war with Banshee it’s just not going to do what I want.

All of my webprojects seem to have grinded to a halt for whatever reason. No creativity left in my brain to speak of. I’m hoping to finish turning the Regulus Black Fanlisting into a character fansite within the week. I plan on doing this to all of my fanlistings, because I figure it would be nice to start a trend of having Fanlistings that actually have a purpose. I have two on deck right now, Felix the Cat and Timothy McGee (NCIS), but I’m feeling design challenged right now.

Thanks to Amber and Crystal for the comments, sometimes being mean feels fun. =)

I mentioned to Amber that this blog was coming, and let’s face it, it’s long overdue.

An internet craze which seems to have yet to die, despite being around for several years is the Fanlistings, and their insane (but charming) sibling the Anime Fanlistings. (And all of their bastard children, like the Hatelistings, Physical Fanlistings, Taboolistings, and others too numerous and cumbersome to mention). Unless you are a webdesigner living under a proverbial rock you have probably at least heard of a fanlistings, and may indeed own one. (I personally own several).

A fanlisting is basically what it sounds like, an internet list of fans listed in one of the aforementioned directories. They are predated by the internet clique which went out of fashion, then the way of the dinosaurs after the fanlistings really took off. To normal and sane people this doesn’t sound to exciting, I mean, it’s a great way to show people you love a topic, it’s a great way to get a few superficial hits. And if you join a few you can put some shiny banners on your site. A fanlisting owner that doesn’t update their listing risks having it kicked out of the network, so a “bigger fan” can have it. It’s all good fun. Or so it would seem.

The thing is, The Fanlistings put in a rule, a seemingly innocent rule, but a rule that turns sweet innocent Fanlisting building and maintaining into a nightmare. Only one person can own an ‘official’ and ‘listed’ Fanlisting at a time. I’m sure we can all see where this is going.

Suddenly Fanlistings are serious business and people get ultra-competitive to own the really big ones (Like the obvious Harry Potter, for the cute Baby Goths The Nightmare Before Christmas, and whatever Anime is #1 at the moment of writing). Every day people threaten to Quit The Internet™ if they don’t get the coveted listing. And to be perfectly honest it really pisses me off. As one of those webmistresses who plays ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ on the internet, I only get approved for Fanlistings that no one else wants (also because I take a hell of a long time in the design phase). If I Quit The Internet™ every time I was rejected, I might actually do something useful.

But, while not mentioning any names (and changing all of the listings she mentions– I’ve bolded my changes, the rest are as-is) you stumble across blogs like this:

21 December 2008. – I got 1 low blow and a high five, both in the same day. I got rejected, yes, fucking rejected (I’m very very sorry, but I’ve passed from depressed to angry) for *****, yes *****. The one fanlisting Joeblow said “If they don’t give it to you my faith in manking would totally be lost” the one fanlisting I longed to own since I can remember, the one I was so desperate to have an answer for, yes, Some Actor. So I’m quiting anime fanlistings. I have not decided yet what to do with An Anime Series, I’ll probably keep it but I’m not sure and I’m definitly keeping An Anime Episode, because that fanlisting means a lot to me, it was my first fanlisting so yeah. I don’t know what to do with “Another Series!” I don’t want to close it but I don’t want to keep it but I lost the stupid members list so bah. That’s it. If I don’t get T… that book I’m waiting the response of, I’ll die. But anyway, I was trying not to die alive when I recived the most sacred email ever, Someone’s response over the adoption of Another Actor, yes, the one who used to be in my top wishlist and now is on my other wishlist, yes, my Actor, my love <3 I’m adopting him!. So, thank you so much Someone, you helped me a lot today.

I mean you’ll have to excuse my insensitivity, as this truly is the end of the entire universe.

The first thing that popped into my mind is my favourite “I’m quitting forever, you guys suck! Except, you know, I’m not” which is such a common thing on the internet. It goes back to my attention whoring, which I rant about ad nauseum. It’s just too freaking CRAZY for me.

I mean, I’m sure the girl who wrote that is perfectly sane and rational. In fact, I’ll bet she’s a perfectly sweet person. But you read that and immediately think she is out of her mind and way too dramatic for her own good. This rilled up about a website to list fans…

I’ve been part of the world internet community for a number of years now… six or seven at least. I’ve been a part of various groups and sects. From arbitrary fandoms to deep technical and philosophical groups I’ve been a participant a contributor and a creator, it comes with many years integrating yourself into a global culture. Something I have always been painfully aware of though is Internet Snobbery. That is, everyone on the internet looking down their nose at everyone else on the internet. And I’ve done it too.

I mean, let’s look at a few of the billion examples. Microsoft users and Apple users are really looked down upon by Linux users (not that Microsoft and Apple users really care, they are too busy looking down at each other). Lately I’ve been thinking of making my system a dual-boot, Ubuntu or Fedora and Microsoft Windows Vista (don’t get me going on the XP snobs, many of whom don’t even really know why they hate Vista) and almost all of the guides speak in such a pretentious way often adding in notes about how one should just ‘trash Microshit all together’

I’m sorry, I thought I googled ‘tutorial’ not ‘your incredibly immature and biassed opinion on why you hate Microsoft because they are successful’.

But that’s just one example, us webdesigners are the absolute worst for drawing lines in the sand and daring others to cross them, it’s like we’re trying to create some sort of artistic objective rather than the ideal where art is subjective, coding makes it really easy to quantify art, coupled with the fact that you can be totally unknown online makes people seem bolder and more able to say things that they would never dream of saying to someone’s face.

Like, I was swimming the internet and stumbled upon a group of tutorial comments meant for people who had any questions on the material, and someone asked a pretty standard (albiet a little dumb) question about the tutorial and the tutorial writer swooped down in a fit of rage and railed on the newbie for asking such a stupid question and several others rallied with the tutorial owner, until the website’s moderator stepped in… the best part of this story… the moderator was accused of ‘trying to start a flame war’ I mean… really. Maybe they were just done with people making someone new feel uncomfortable.

And I remember that feeling well from when I started web design. People with domains were on a high plateau of existence than those of who did not, and those who were hosted on someone else’s domain were at least higher than us Geocities kids. And how much HTML you knew versus page builder, and your graphics skills, your hit counter, your affiliates. And it was all but impossible to convince old websiters to affiliate with newbies and help given was often condescending and sarcastic. Everyone wants you to get better but no one would even dream of helping you.

It seems like everywhere you go online nothing is really good enough for everyone else.

I love review sites that do ‘unrequested reviews’ too. You know what I call that? Flaming. Plain and simple, you write a whole page detailing why someone else has a crappy page that no one asked for you are a flamer. And these are the people who whine when anyone sends them a one liner that says ‘your site sucks’.

Or maybe I’m just really tired and there is no spoon.

I got approved for the Magical Mystery Tour Fanlisting

And to Amber, you just need to take a leap of faith. If you fail go home, but no one will ever criticize you for trying. Or if they do I’ll chase them down with a beating stick, you are incredibly smart and creative, you did better than I ever did in school. Plus, just for shits and giggles I looked up how much a freelance webdesigner makes in New York and have decided you will be a millionaire. <333

But Andrew came over and I had to fix Cathy Goldberg’s computer! How was I supposed to update, huh? By magic? Eh? Eh?!

I love hardware repairs way more than software ones, with hardware at the end you can say ‘Yes. This is fixed. There is a taste of minor triumph.’ With software… well, now you’re dealing with the ‘ghosts in the machine.’ Which I think would be a pretty cool thing to haunt to be honest. Typing cryptic messages every few days, causing myself to implode. Other nefarious misdemeanors… I’d be worse than Y2K! (Which was a bit of a let down with regards to the collapse of the universe)

Will I update tonight? Maybe.

It’s my broski’s birthday, and I should probably be nice to him as I can’t really afford to get him anything. Oh, my dear bother… that was a typo, I did indeed mean brother. He’ll be seventeen, which I find kind of scary, he’s getting so big and grown up and totally can and will push me around at random.

I still need to pick my courses for school, but I need to call the university because according to their website all of the compulsory classes I need to take are full. Hmn. My old manager Al said he’d help hook me up with a job at Staples Ottawa, so that takes care of the fact that I have no money at all. My residence is amazing, I can hardly wait to move in with my… double bed and cable TV. BWAAHAHAHAHAH! I don’t even have that in my room at home.

I have a new chapter to upload for Whitechapel, which I will get to soon, I’ve just been so preoccupied with work and life, and have started a new (hopefully) short story about a rockstar. (It sucks less than in sounds like it should I promise) So I’ve been actively writing, a lot of my usual philosophic rants in my paper journal mostly.

In the merry land of websites, obviously my priority is fixing this place up to a serviceable level again, I finished the Sakaki Haruto Fanlisting though (and already it needs a new layout), and totally GOT APPROVED FOR THE CHESHIRE CAT FANLIST!! yey. Book and Movie Characters, not animation, which strikes me as odd that they are two separate but whatever. The small webshrine I was going to be making for the Cheshire Cat receives new furvor, in fact, I may apply for American McGee’s Alice — The Cheshire Cat too just because I am that addicted. No word on the Magical Mystery Tour yet. Albums said they would update this week though, so we’ll see. Loyalties will be getting fixed up soon. My other websites — Ruins is going to be born as I need something Angel Sanctuary, and I’m going to upload all my info on Umbreon for Enigma like I should have done months ago. Cursed also has an update coming in the near future as I prepare to get it fully up to date, as, for those who are yet unaware, the Inuyasha series has finally finished. Loyalties is also looking for an update, and Bloodlust is teetering but may be turned into a Shougo Kawada shrine before the day is out (despite my Sugimura love Shougo would be much more interesting to write about I think)

For OTHER people’s websites, Justin if you still exist, and even read my blog anymore I can make Twilight RO a new layout, last I checked your domain was down, but if you ever read it, I can redo. Blue Heron Books is going to be made less ugly and updated to use Word Press. And finally, Shards will be finished hopefully before CN Anime….

I forgot to update but Felicity (Fee) Worthington of the Gemma Doyle trilogy has a new (readable) layout, as well as codes, and some other small spiffy updates that make it look less like I threw it together in my sleep. I’ll even rewrite the content once I reread the books. Go look at it now, even if you don’t know what the heck I’m on about.

Job still blows.

Orientation yesterday actually reminded me exactly how jet lagged I was, because between taxes and accommodation almost everyone had the dazed ‘jet-lagged’ sort of face on — except one Aussie guy and an American girl who seemed particularly loud, though likely only because the rest of us were so tired. Fortunately they both already had jobs so they left us in peace after the first half of orientation. We all sat there in stunned silence as we all half realised what we had gotten ourselves into. Work, that is, lots and lots of work. A booked another two nights at my hostel… I like to only do it in small increments incase I get too ‘comfortable’ and make no moves to get a place to live. Hostels are not comfortable, but knowing I might not get a room puts some fire to my feet.

At any rate, as a vain stab of hope I e-mailed most of the major London museums yesterday begging them to consider me. I plan to e-mail a few outside of London too. My vain hope continues! Though I also plan to apply at jobs I might actually get, like, office work and retail positions. Though bookstore-retail not Staples-retail. Nothing says bad six months like having the ESP ghost hovering dangerously around my shoulders. Speaking of Staples, I’m disappointed, the four dollar (no dollar sign on my keyboard anymore– haha.) calculator I bought there not more than a week ago had already broken. It is displaying sixes as eights, and eights as eights, so you kind of have to guess whether the number you’re looking at is £600, or £800… a huge difference, let me tell you. (Yes, I was budgeting last night)

I actually walked from my hostel to BUNAC, I didn’t get too lost, it took about an hour and 45 minutes, which is huge considering it’s only a few stops away on the tube, but I got to see the London University Campus, as well, I’m getting more of an idea where things are in this city. It’s amazing how old and new just blend together so easily here. You’ll see some buildings with really contemporary fronts have ancient tops to them. It’s quaint, in a fun kind of way. Londoners seem to be nothing but friendly too, being bitter on my first entry I never mentioned that I never had to carry my huge bag up or down huge flights of stairs, someone was always kind enough to offer. I’m really loving the atmosphere here. I have yet to have anyone comment on my accent, I keep hoping they will.

I’ve met a few people, as I said. Addy from the night before last, the french girl and the hungarian from my hostel, as well last night a woman from Hong Kong was in my room (Addy had left the morning before). Again, I got a chance to try one of my foriegn languages, and I spoke a bit of Japanese with my new Hong Kong friend. All I need is a chance to try my German! I met two people at orientation, Lydia, from the States whom I hung out with for lunch and got my phone with. And Kate, who I hung out with most of the evening, from the States as well. It was a very amusing experience to say the least, we wandered the streets of London for ages then headed out for dinner. I still haven’t gone anywhere too touristy.

Its so hard to remember what I have written here and what’s in my paper journal!

And I got the Mrs. Lovett fanlisting, thanks completely to insert name here, whom I love like no other and shall cling to as soon as I get my flat.

That’s all I really have for right now, apparently comments still aren’t working? I’ll tool around with them more today while I have more time. Love you all!

P.S. Happy Valentines Day — is it really the 14th already?

I’ve finally got through the whole packing process, in fact, I have finally managed to zip up my suitcase despite the obscene overpacking I have partaken in. My bulging suitcase is sitting on my floor and it seems oddly daunting… daring me to back down and say I’m not about to do what I am about to do.

The time stamp on this entry is GMT, or England time, Canada time it’s only about 8 o’clock. I’m hoping I’ll get to bed at a reasonable time, because trip insomnia is about to drive me completely nuts. I’m so excitedly nervous about going, then again, you’d be more surprised if I wasn’t. I’ve packed too many books — especially into my carry on. and tons of cables… speaking of which I need to charge my mp3 player tonight, or tomorrow will be a miserable day indeed!

My nerves are finally subsiding for excitement! I’m about to go on a huge adventure, meet new people, see new things and really challenge my anti-social nature. I’m really looking forward to all of this. I just need to get over the first early setbacks. I can do it, I’m too proud to come home before six months anyways!

People uninterested in my websites can skip the next paragraph or two, I finished Valour last night, at least, the fanlisting bit of it, I’d like to turn it into a proper shrine but need to finish rereading the Sweet Far Thing, to make sure I do the shrine justice. That and the Regulus fanlist needs some loving. I’m almost done with Enigma too, but I’ll post when I finish it off. The Official website for Twilight RO moved off my domain and onto its own, but I’ll still be doing design on it.

Okay, that’s the end of this entry, please comment, it makes me happy.