06-08-03 @ 11:09 am EDT

:D {user:sumi} got me my first merit badge, for Skew!

http://www.writing.com/main/badges.php?action=my_badges&user_id=tehuti_88

Thank you Sumi! Now here is the story: Way back when I first came online, in early 2000, one of the very first communities I joined was a question-and-answer community (they are getting much harder and harder to find nowadays, sadly enough). Sumi was a member there (under a different name, of course), but we did not know each other very well during most of the site's existence. Toward the end of it, I think, she sent me some comments on the first few parts of Manitou Island (as this website was one of the very first places I posted it publicly, and was where {user:poetnb} started reading it). Now when I first read some of the comments, I felt stung. But later on they made much sense. I have yet to figure out the conundrum that is visualizing red hair in a sepia-tinted photograph. :) And yes, "You're always such a snit" sounds a lot better than "You always have such a snitty attitude." *aak* The site started falling apart due to lack of funding and LOTS of infighting (I would love to just gab about that for pages in this journal--some of it was really quite interesting--but have refrained so far because some of the people involved might see it and take issue) and I hung out there less. I started Skew in July of 2001, and you can see from one of the very first entries that the community died shortly after, leaving everybody stranded. Yes, people eventually moved on to other similar communities, but so far none have been as successful or have had quite the same feeling that site did in its earlier days. I would kindly link you to the better one I've been to (well...I've honestly never BEEN to the competitor), but there is lots of current infighting THERE too, so I will spare you that injustice. :)

Anyway...what the hell was I talking about? Oh yes. I lost touch with Sumi because I had no idea where everybody was. Eventually most of us showed up on the new site, though things were never the same. I was never very close to her to begin with so even though I did wonder where she had gone off to and what she was up to, I never asked because hello, how weird is it to ask after somebody who barely knows you? At least that was what I felt. ^_^;

Remember some of my entries from a while back whining about me not being able to gain access to a private message board. Well, I got in there and what do you know, Sumi was a member! Under a different name, of course, which begins with a T. It was good to know she was still around. I never even knew that she wrote fiction herself, when I saw her mention a couple of her projects.

Around the same time, a new user here, Sumi, had started e-mailing me friendly comments on my journal entries. I thought it was nice, though I wondered why this person was interested in me. Heh...it was only when I looked at her port and thought that the names of her stories looked familiar that I put two and two together. Duhhrrrr! Sumi and T. were the same person! I know she felt a little bad about confusing me like that, but really, I should have picked up on it sooner. It's not like she was trying to trick me or something, gah. ^_^;;; So this is the story of how inattentive I am, and of how we know each other, and of why I'm pointing out my first merit badge. Thank you again Sumi! :)

Hope she didn't mind all that...heh. ^_^ Now I want to direct your attention to this link...don't click on it if you're homophobic or prudish or what have you.

http://www.geocities.com/ameni_chronicles/disclaimer.html

I finally settled on a brown layout that seems to work for the Chronicles site. It took a lot of tweaking. I just could not stand that purple one; there was just something...not right about it. Likewise with a teal combination, though a grayish-blue one came close. The brown one just seems closest to what the story is about and where it's set. (Desert, papyrus, ancient times, furry creatures, etc. etc. bla bla.) I redid only two pages, that one and the Site Explanation (AKA the contents) page. Please don't visit the other links in the dropdown menus unless you want to encounter old crappy layout and pages that don't exist yet, okies? I would have done some more but just typing up the excessively long Explanation wore me out. I put a notice and a redirect to the Writing.com version of the story on the splash page and disabled the link to the rest of the site itself, so nobody else can go browsing around from the main page unless they like have the disclaimer page bookmarked or something. Which they could very well do from looking at this entry here, duhrr, but I like to think you are all decent enough to believe me when I say I'M STILL WORKING ON IT. Hum? :)

I got an "Ewwwwww" comment on one of my "animal-oriented" dreams at Dreamjournal. Anonymous, of course. Bawk-bawk-bawk! Like I have those dreams on purpose? I practically chewed my lips off posting the stupid thing in the first place, because it's such a touchy subject. I sit here and agonize over why this disturbing theme keeps popping up, and bother to take a risk asking for help, and of course get some judgemental coward whining "Ewwwwww." I gave a warning, moron. If you can't read that then you shouldn't be reading the rest of it period.

Oddly enough, out of all the dreams around that time period, THAT one seems to have the MOST hits! So how "Ewwwwww"y can it be? You don't like taboo subjects, yet keep coming back for more? Typical. Mleehh. >:P

I have about 1300 more words of Part 6 to do. Still have yet to start Part 1...6? Is it 16? I'm losing track...too many series... O_o;

I have to go to the bathroom now. This has not been proofread. ENJOY TYPOS!