the way back machine
I didn't like it when Yahoo announced that they were going to delete all of the Geocities pages last year. It felt like burning down a library: a library full of obnoxious tiled backgrounds, midis, and animated gifs, but a library none the less. Every page that sat on those servers represented the birth of the internet into the mainstream. It's not like we lost the tool with which to use the pages, everyone could still visit those pages using today's internet browsers. It's not like finding a 5 1/2 inch floppy and not having the Apple II on which to read it.
I thought it was terribly cold-hearted that they decided to erase all that history, even if it was abandoned. It made me sad.
But, it didn't make me annoyed until I randomly tried to find an old Fushigi Yuugi fanfic this weekend. It seemed to have vanished from the internet, it's disappearance no doubt assisted by the Geocities massacre. That is what people used back in '98 after all.
It made me very upset that I couldn't find it. I used to read fanfiction quite a bit, but nothing ever stuck with me the way this story did (besides random snippets of X-Files fanfiction my friend and I would read to each other when we were younger), which is kind of awful to say because it's totally a Mary Sue story written for one of the FY Big Name Fans. But, nevertheless, I had to find it.
I get obsessive about the oddest things. For whatever reason it became VITAL that I find it. I don't know why it was so important, maybe just the fact that I couldn't accept that the internet would fail me. But, it seemed like every link I came across was dead. This was before fanfiction.net really took off so it wasn't there. And even the old FY fic yahoo group had disappeared. I was beginning to lose hope and started grasping at straws by sending emails to what I knew were defunct emails (who uses juno anymore?). Until there was a breakthrough. I was just searching for the authors name and saw it mentioned in reference to another one of her fics. Mind you, I hadn't found any working links for ANYTHING by her so I didn't have much hope.
But, it was a link to an archived webpage. If you went to the site itself, it was gone, but there was still an archived version. It was an entire library of Fushigi Yuugi fics AND IT WAS THERE. I immediately saved it to my computer so I wouldn't have to go through that nonsense again.
Back to real life
I'm going to be painting my (tiny) kitchen and bedroom. I'm fairly certain I will be painting the (ridiculous small) kitchen the same apple green as the dining room. I love that color and I think it will look great against the dark wood and white cabinets in the (you won't believe how miniscule it is) kitchen. The question that remains is whether I'll paint all of the wall or just above or below the chair rail.
My bedroom is what I am really excited about. Recently I refinished a small dresser I found on craigslist and painted it canary yellow. It's so adorable. I kept meaning to do a post about it, but the pictures are just sitting on my camera at the moment. Having made that color choice, the rest of the room would have to work around it. I think I've decided on the color scheme of yellow, gray, and green. Have a look at some pictures (trolling design websites is my new hobby) to see just how pretty it is:
I want to paint my walls gray and find a new duvet cover for my comforter. Currently it is sage green, which is pretty, but I want a more vibrant green. What I really would like is a white fabric with a bright green print. But that is proving difficult to find. And besides, duvet covers are CRAZY expensive for what amount to two sheet sewn together and some buttonholes. So, I think I'm going to make my own. But that means I still have to find sheets. The closest I've come across are there, but they aren't quite right.
Sometimes I read:
I recently finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and really enjoyed it. I kind of adored Eon because she seemed like such a real girl, full of doubts, pride, and amazing inner strength. She may not be the nicest person, but her life never allowed for it. And the Asian-influenced world was pretty awesome. My only quibble is that the entire book was kind of a slow burn when it came to conflict. No highs or lows to speak of, but I am anticipating the second book. I can't wait to see what happens.
I also started Graceling which gives us another excellent heroine in Katsa. Only, where Eon was forced to be withdrawn by her circumstances Katsa is up to her eyeballs in hands-on everything. Plus, Po is a cutie.
I thought it was terribly cold-hearted that they decided to erase all that history, even if it was abandoned. It made me sad.
But, it didn't make me annoyed until I randomly tried to find an old Fushigi Yuugi fanfic this weekend. It seemed to have vanished from the internet, it's disappearance no doubt assisted by the Geocities massacre. That is what people used back in '98 after all.
It made me very upset that I couldn't find it. I used to read fanfiction quite a bit, but nothing ever stuck with me the way this story did (besides random snippets of X-Files fanfiction my friend and I would read to each other when we were younger), which is kind of awful to say because it's totally a Mary Sue story written for one of the FY Big Name Fans. But, nevertheless, I had to find it.
I get obsessive about the oddest things. For whatever reason it became VITAL that I find it. I don't know why it was so important, maybe just the fact that I couldn't accept that the internet would fail me. But, it seemed like every link I came across was dead. This was before fanfiction.net really took off so it wasn't there. And even the old FY fic yahoo group had disappeared. I was beginning to lose hope and started grasping at straws by sending emails to what I knew were defunct emails (who uses juno anymore?). Until there was a breakthrough. I was just searching for the authors name and saw it mentioned in reference to another one of her fics. Mind you, I hadn't found any working links for ANYTHING by her so I didn't have much hope.
But, it was a link to an archived webpage. If you went to the site itself, it was gone, but there was still an archived version. It was an entire library of Fushigi Yuugi fics AND IT WAS THERE. I immediately saved it to my computer so I wouldn't have to go through that nonsense again.
Back to real life
I'm going to be painting my (tiny) kitchen and bedroom. I'm fairly certain I will be painting the (ridiculous small) kitchen the same apple green as the dining room. I love that color and I think it will look great against the dark wood and white cabinets in the (you won't believe how miniscule it is) kitchen. The question that remains is whether I'll paint all of the wall or just above or below the chair rail.
My bedroom is what I am really excited about. Recently I refinished a small dresser I found on craigslist and painted it canary yellow. It's so adorable. I kept meaning to do a post about it, but the pictures are just sitting on my camera at the moment. Having made that color choice, the rest of the room would have to work around it. I think I've decided on the color scheme of yellow, gray, and green. Have a look at some pictures (trolling design websites is my new hobby) to see just how pretty it is:
I want to paint my walls gray and find a new duvet cover for my comforter. Currently it is sage green, which is pretty, but I want a more vibrant green. What I really would like is a white fabric with a bright green print. But that is proving difficult to find. And besides, duvet covers are CRAZY expensive for what amount to two sheet sewn together and some buttonholes. So, I think I'm going to make my own. But that means I still have to find sheets. The closest I've come across are there, but they aren't quite right.
Sometimes I read:
I recently finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and really enjoyed it. I kind of adored Eon because she seemed like such a real girl, full of doubts, pride, and amazing inner strength. She may not be the nicest person, but her life never allowed for it. And the Asian-influenced world was pretty awesome. My only quibble is that the entire book was kind of a slow burn when it came to conflict. No highs or lows to speak of, but I am anticipating the second book. I can't wait to see what happens.
I also started Graceling which gives us another excellent heroine in Katsa. Only, where Eon was forced to be withdrawn by her circumstances Katsa is up to her eyeballs in hands-on everything. Plus, Po is a cutie.