I need a bit of advice on a layout I'm making at the moment. I'm struggling with the background, so my main question is: background or no background? And if no background, do I have the right colour or would something else be better? (I'm shit at colour schemes.)

( Screencaps of both options )

Holy shit, I finally finished upgrading Enthusiast and fuck me was it a pain in the arse. I must admit that the upgrade itself was painless and there were no problems (long may it stay that way). Changing the $path bit on every fanlisting though? My eyes are tired. BUT I DID IT!! *dances*

Other than conquering Enth, life is going pretty well. I probably will talk about my job in a bit more detail at some point but to summarise: I'm happy. It's not the most glamorous or interesting job, and I definitely need another one so I don't get evicted next month, but it's good. The pay is good, the conditions are good. The people are great. I actually have a social life now. Which is only helped by the fact that over the past week or two I've bought tickets to see Colin Murphy, Howling Bells, 65daysofstatic and Bell X1. I've also booked to fly home for a weekend for my cousin's 21st AND there's still rugby. Frankly, and not to jinx it, I'm feeling pretty good at the moment. It's an alien feeling but I love it!

Things what must be done in the next day or two:

• Sort out Paypal
  
• Finish cleaning bathroom
  
• Work out finances
  
• Ring Clydebank people back
  
• Buy thank you present for people in Boots
  
• Wash towels
  
• Rearrange books in bedroom so as to allow display of action figures
  
• New layout for InsanitySandwich.com
  
• Upgrade Enthusiast
  
• ?Food shopping
  
• Book flight home
  
• Job search
  
• Update L.J. Smith Fanlisting
  
• ?Get drunk
  
• Post package
  
• Submit closed forms for unadopted FLs
  
• Burn DVDs for Ian (buy DVDs)

I basically spent the weekend drinking and watching various sporting events, which was nice, but I did end up spending more money than I should have. Good beer is sadly expensive *le sigh*

I also got my phone and wallet back which is great, but then I promptly spilled beer on the phone somehow and the display's gone all wonky. And at some point I acquired an enormous bruise on my arm. Such is the way of drinking, I suppose.

Let's see... news... Yeah, I don't really have any. I finished the Gambit fanlisting at last. You can take a looksee at Past Sins. I'm pretty happy with the end result, but now it's quietly taunting me with its lack of extras. Damn. Still working on the Jamie Madrox and LJS fanlistings.

I know I've become a bit of a posting machine over the last few days, and I put it down to good old 'avoiding work syndrome', so apologies.

Just been over to check the post list and I had a lovely package from Amazon (does anyone remember when Amazon used to send you free post-its and stuff with your orders? I miss that. Now all they do is send excess packaging and ads for stuff you don't want) which included the new Vampire Diaries 2-in-1. It's just as sexy as the preview images suggested. However, it is American, and not British as I'd previously thought. I've uploaded it, along with a preview for the next 2-in-1 to The L.J. Smith Cover Resource. But I'm going to share the sexy here too. The first one can be clicked for a much larger version, but the second is just a thumbnail.



I'm not too sure about the cover for the second volume. It doesn't quite live up to the first, but at least they've managed to stay away from goth!Elena ;) The book is the newly popular oversized paperback, by the way, unlike every other LJS book ever which is going to play havoc with my shelving system.

And should anyone be interested, my other Amazon purchases were:
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb
Fluffy - Simone Lia
Looking for Alaska - John Green

I was hoping that some movies I'd ordered would arrive today, but they didn't. So I channelled my I'm-ignoring-work-as-usual energy into two LJS projects that I've been neglecting.

First up, Solitude - the Nick Armstrong fanlisting. I've finally given this a new layout! I'd had the old one for, literally, years - ever since alas_caitlin adopted it out to me, in fact. And I hadn't even used new graphics, I just reused hers :/ I've started from scratch this time and have come up with something I'm pretty happy with. Nick is hot and he deserves and vaguely hot layout. There are also new codes, so feel free to swing by and pick up a new one to replace your crappy old one.

Next, The LJ Smith Cover Resource. It's actually over a year since I've updated this - oops. Anyway, I've added five higher resolution scans (HoV, DV1, TFG1-3 - all North American, 1994), and the five brand-spanking new UK TVD covers. I've also added a plea, by way of aethyrkitten, for textless versions of the covers. Have you spent hours removing text from any of the covers when making LJS covers? Well, don't delete the damn file when you're done. Send it to me!

I really, really need to redo my Ash Redfern site, but the content needs a complete overhaul which will take aaaaaaages, so meh. Ah, I have achieved today. Nothing academic, but that is not the point.

Oh, and are you people aware that there's currently no fanlisting for The Vampire Diaries?! It's starting to drive me insane, so someone apply damnit!

I unexpectedly got rather drunk last night and ended up wearing a post-it/nametag whilst playing drinking games until the wee hours, and then fell asleep while watching The Rugrats Movie. Which all meant that I woke up today with quite the hangover. Oh, dear. After forcing myself to have a shower, I wandered outside into the sunshine in search of coke and sat by the lake, trying not to move too suddenly. As I sat there and basked in the warmth, I watched various water fowl approach people in search of food, and sure enough, my turn came. Being that I was hungover and not in my normal state of mind, I was convinced that they were going to bite me. They didn't. I was relieved.

Interesting staring matches with ducks over, I returned to my humble abode and started working on a new layout for my domain. Of course, Dreamhost would choose today to start freaking out, cutting connections and generally lagging badly. Dreamhost is cheap and everything, but it really needs to sort itself out. Much gnashing of teeth and cursing later, the layout is done. And I quite like it. Go have a look and tell me what you think - InsanitySandwich.com. You know, the old Madrox-themed layout was up for almost thirteen months. I can't believe it's been up that long! It seems like only last week that I lost the stylesheets for that layout.

I haven't upgraded to Enthusiast 3.1.1 yet because I'm too scared. I never have any luck with the damn thing, so one thing at a time. Layout today. Upgrade... later. I do want to start using some of the new features I've heard about though, so I probably won't leave it for too much longer.

I really want some Irn Bru. And a bath. Maybe a bath of Irn Bru? No. That would be silly. And sticky.

Well, fuck you Dreamhost. Thanks to your repeated spazzing out, I've just lost the stylesheet I was working on. Stop sending me smug e-mails about how awesome you are and sort out your connection problems.

Also, housemate? Stop studying in the kitchen. I'm bloody starving!

Today is a day for curling up in bed. I don't want to do anything else. Because, you know, I really think my bed is underappreciated. I should be nicer to it, and the best way of this is to spend all day wrapped up in the duvet. Yes.

I spent much of the afternoon in this way whilst watching six episodes of Season Two of M*A*S*H - ah, so much goodness. Then with a sudden burst of energy, I added some affiliates to two of my fanlistings, and now I'm done again and bed is beckoning me.

Luckily, I had the foresight to have some ice-cream delivered with my shopping yesterday, but what shall I watch. What movie shall entertain me? I quite want to watch something with Alan Rickman, but a) I don't have that many of his movies and b) I've watched the ones that I do have quite recently.

Perhaps, Night Watch. But subtitles are effort when you are lying in bed, eating ice-cream. Maybe, Blade. I haven't watched that in ages and, well, Wesley Snipes + Stephen Dorff = awesome squared.

There is no rugby this weekend, which is perhaps why I've become so attached to bed. For without rugby, what is life?

I quite want to work on the redesign for my domain, but if reading subtitles is too much effort, then redesigning my website is certainly too much effort. I need to upgrade to the newest Enth too but - meep. I never have any luck with Enth so christ alone knows what'll happen when I attempt to upgrade. Before this intense lethargy set in, I did manage to get a new fanlisting up:

Humour & Hijinks - The M*A*S*H (Movie) Fanlisting

Yayness! Join if you're a fan. Go have a look and tell me what you think of the layout, because I quite like it, but perhaps everyone else thinks it's hideous and I should have my webspace taken away from me. Who knows.

I'm rambling, amn't I? At least I haven't started talking about my work experience (Friday's are hell, I swear to god). Be thankful for small mercies.

Soooooooooo, Gabriel Wolfe is once again mine! Well, his fanlisting at any rate. Kayleigh put it up for adoption and I almost fell of my chair in my eagerness to apply ;)

I've spent most of today working on it, and I'm rather pleased with the layout, although I'm still quite unsure about the model I've used. I've checked it in Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, and although the colours don't match in IE, it looks decent enough in all three. Best in Firefox, naturally.

Psychic Vampire - The Gabriel Wolfe Fanlisting

Please to be checking it out and letting me know what you think. And if you haven't already joined (I'm waiting on the members list to appear in my inbox) then what are you waiting for?!

So, my domain, amongst several other of my sites, is in desperate need of a new layout. Which is such a lot of effort I almost can't be arsed. Assuming that I can be arsed, let's play a game and see what types of images I should use (since I can't settle on something myself).

Poll #930904
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

What types of image should Lorraine use in her domain layout?

Please to be elaborating in the comments. Thank you kindly.

Can anyone see my affiliate buttons at http://chamber.insanitysandwich.com and/or http://xmen.insanitysandwich.com ? Because I can, but someone's just e-mailed me to tell me that they can't. *squints at screen* I swear, they're right there. Perhaps, the internet is being selective and only showing me the shiny buttons?

In case anyone should be interested, I've just finished the fanlisting for the SciFi programme Eureka (aka A Town Called Eureka) - Euripedes in a Bathtub. Go, look, join.

Also, someone suggest some music for me to listen to because I cannot settle on anything and I'm getting all agitated *grumble*

I will, at some point, catch up on all the posts I've missed over the last few days. Honest.

At long last I've started knocking things off my to-do list. I spent all of yesterday uninstalling and reinstalling Enthusiast (for what seems like the fiftieth time) and getting all my fanlistings back up. No matter what I did I couldn't get the affiliates to work, but that's a headache for another day, I think :/

This morning I spent ages working on a layout and some content for a fanlisting I'd adopted - No Choirboy, The Walter Skinner Fanlisting. Yes, that's Skinner from The X-Files. The header image is something very different from my usual layout graphics, so I'd love to get some feedback on it. Pretty please?

That done I fulfilled my trouble checker duties at TFL.org which took longer than I thought it would, especially since I was unsure of what categories some of the fls fell into. Still, the list is sent and hopefully it's workable. By the way, full credit to the Authors/Writers staffer for tracking me down even though my original application was under my old domain and e-mail address.

So now it's coming up to 6pm and I think I might abandon internet-type-things for the day and attempt to get a bit of a nap in before I go to work (only two weeks left - huzzah!). I have an absolute pile of stuff to do though *grumble*

And since I've been a bit all over the place lately, here's a list of some recent fanlistings of mine that you may not have realised I own:

Simplicity, Humour, Soul - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - Literature
Sly Charm & Reflection - Nick Hornby - Authors/Writers
As Bob as my Witless - Rugrats - Animation
Ridge of Noctana - Martouf (Stargate: SG-1) - Characters: TV
No Choirboy - A.D. Skinner (The X-Files) - Characters: TV

I'm in the middle of transferring InsanitySandwich.com over to Dreamhost, which is why all my sites look screwy. Hostees, all your files have been transferred, but I haven't set up new FTP accounts for any of you yet. The old Toastyhost ones still work, but are utterly useless. I'll get everything sorted out for you at the weekend ^_^

Work has moved to a level of sheer evil that I didn't believe could actually exist.

I finally finished the Nancy at St. Bride's series and my favourite has to be Nancy Calls the Tune, just for the proposal scenes, both of which made me laugh out loud =D

"Oh, that's all rot, of course! Chap's running a spot of temperature and has gone a bit dippy in consequence. You musn't listen to all he says. But, I say, Nancy, come in here, just for a minute. I've got a grand scheme, and I would like to discuss it with you."
"I must warn you, Angus, that I can scarcely undertake anythng else until the Christmas music is through and I've given that lecture on Mozart. After all, it was your own idea, in the first place, and I'm not engaging myself to anything else till that is safely over."
"I'm only asking you to take on one more job," he pleaded, and something in his eyes made Nancy drop her own with a feeling of panic.
"Is it - is it a big one?" she asked faintly.
"Well, rather! In fact, it's - it's pretty well an all-time one, but it won't require any rehearsals or practices beforehand. You see it's only - oh, hang it all! I'm no good art this sort of thing, but - look here, Nancy, darling, I'm trying to propose to you - must you wait till after the Mozart stunt before you can get engaged to me?"

Absolute comic genius! I hope that if some poor idiot ever attempts to propose to me it goes along those lines *swoons* As for "Is it a big one?" - ahahahahahaha! It's a good thing that the audience of the 1940s was more innocently minded ;)

LJS-types, I have a quick question for yoooouuuuuu. I've just finished updating The LJS Cover Resource for the first time in ages. There are some better quality scans (including the fantastically trippy 1989 NotS cover) and some new scans, and I've added a new section 'Miscellaneous Scans' which contains ads for the book, that magazine article from yonks ago and the cover of the TVD game.

Now what I'm wondering is this: several of the books have different/aditional pictures either on the back cover or on the inside of the front cover. For example, there's a great image of what looks like Elwyn wearing a colander on the back on the 1989 NotS. Should I scan the back covers of all the books, or just the ones with extra/vaguely interesting images? Where should I put these scans? In with the current cover scans, in a section all of their own, or as part of the miscellaneous section?

Advise me please =D

Also, Happy Canada Day (the Canadian Big Brother housemate just did a heart-warming version of the first three lines of the anthem). Not only is it Canada Day (like that wasn't enough!), it's International Northstar Day (or rather it was when I started typing this entry). Hurrah!!



I'll come up with something to celebrate this later.

I've been using a lot of brackets lately.

Everything with my domain has finally been sorted out. Turns out my IP address had been blocked which is what was screwing everything up. Thanks to everyone who let me know they could see the damned thing, and thanks for the nice comments about the layout some of you left =D

I seized upon a brief spurt of energy and updated The LJS Cover Resource There are now 103 archived covers which I'm most impressed with! veraxia sent in a bunch of covers that I didn't have - DV3 (UK), SC1&2 (US Original) and the NW 2-in-1 (UK). My eBay mission of domination let me add TSC2 (Germany) and TFG1-3 (Germany) as well as better scans of NW7 (Germany), NotS (US PB) & HoV (US HB). These updates are all on the site, but there's no harm in letting you know here :p

I'm expecting the UK hardback of Night of the Solstice to arrive any day, along with the original German Vampire Diaries series (veraxia, I'll send you my spare copy of the original Die Rache - Dark Reunion - when they arrive) and the German versions of Enchantress, Soulmate and The Power. After that I'll only need two more German versions to complete my collection - Dark Angel (which I've bid on) and Black Dawn. My bank account will be relieved when I have the complete set!

I have no news really. I worked another twelve hour shift on Friday (yay for overtime!) which ate up my Saturday completely. I lightened my hair in preparation for colouring it red, only to discover that I should have bought two packs instead of one. So now half of my head is a sandy brown-blonde colour and the rest is dark brown with red bits *rolls eyes*

Oh, and alas_caitlin, I realised that you need to add @insanitysandwich.com to your login name. Everything should work perfectly then =)

I think we can say that I drowned the shamrock with my usual diligent thoroughness *sways slightly*

Paddy's Day actually turned out to be pretty dull, despite the drinking. The most exciting point was probably getting accosted by violenviolette on AIM at about 4am. She always manages to catch me at my drunken best ;)

Yesterday was where the real fun was. Three rugby games in a row plus one pub equals happy Lorraine. The first game (Italy v Scotland) was really rather dull and there wasn't much of a crowd watching it, but the second game (Wales v France) was a different story altogether. The outcome of their game had an impact on our game, so there was a huge crowd. There was one Welsh guy wandering around and I'm sure he was surprised at the vociferous support Wales were getting *L* Alas, they lost, but it was still an exciting match. Then, most importantly, England v Ireland *insert dramatic music* Anyone who lives in the UK or Ireland will know who won, but I'll enlighten the rest of you. Ireland, of course! HURRAH! HUZZAH! CELEBRATIONS! I sang along to Ireland's Call for the first time in my life, such was the excitement ;) It's really a terrible, terrible song.

So yeah, we beat England which is always rewarding in and of itself, but it meant that we also won the Triple Crown - which required another drink, you understand. Sadly, because Wales lost to France, France won the overall championship on points difference (bastards), but there was further consolation to be had in the fact that Scotland came third overall, leaving England languishing in the bottom half for the first time in a while *points and laughs*

I was absolutely hammered by the end of the third match, even though the maths don't really add up. I had about two pints per game, plus one or two cumulatively in between and in breaks and whatnot, which adds up to 8, and I was really drunk come 7.30pm. I maybe had more to drink in the Ireland match, but I'm not sure. Whatever I had, I was drunk enough to have blocked an entire half an hour out of my mind - something which I've never done before. I don't have blackouts, as a rule O.o

I woke up at 5am today and couldn't get back to sleep, but I consoled myself with a chicken jalfrezi and an Indiana Jones movie until I was sleepy again,

In summary, Ireland = Winners, Shamrock = Drowned, Curry = Best Hangover Cure Ever.

(Oh, by the way, I finally redesigned InsanitySandwich.com with the Madrox layout I made ages ago.)