…SURPRISE! Mt is back. I’m making a new layout RIGHT NOW¹ and I’ve got some new plans I’ll be implementing to kick off 2009!

First! I have a New Years present for you. It’s my winter playlist! Straight from spooky (my iPod) to your heart~♥

「冬のうた」 tracklist, 221 MB .zip, split into three parts
  @ MEDIAFIRE   part 1   part 2   part 3
All songs are in mp3 format, VBR, with English ID3v1 tags and Japanese ID3v2 tags.

And this isn’t just a one-time thing. I’m bringing back music downloads². They’ll be posted on the front page, right alongside random news articles. I had a long internal debate over it, and decided that it was something I really wanted to do³. I listen to a lot of music, and put together playlists that I don’t have to switch songs much on⁴ and figured if I enjoy it, I might as well share it. That’s the point of having a website, right? Sharing/posting what you like.

Down to business, some planned changes: What’s bugging me about my web sites is the lack of completeness, regular updating, and a common theme.

So, first thing in order is to re-do fan.mt.com. That means a new layout for the collective, even if it is just another 10 minute slap-together deal, and a collective-wide new set of layouts for the actual fanlistings. The boxy, cookie-cutter thing I’ve got going on is so…lazy-looking. Also, the lack of multiple codes on most of my fanlistings and lack of different code sizes on all of my fanlistings is bothering me. My biggest concern with my fanlistings, however, is the scripts I’m using. On the Ed Hardy perfume fanlisting, I’m using BellaBuffs, and on the rest, PHPFanlist. PHPFanlist is now officially extinct/defunct/no-one’s taking care of it⁵. So I MUST switch the fanlistings (all save one) to a new script. I’m considering switching back to Enth 3 or using BellaBuffs for all of them. Only problem is, I want a BellaBuffs revamp *cough* before I go ahead and use it for every single fanlisting I own. So maybe I’ll just use Enth 3. It’s popular, and that means there’s more support and documentation available. Also, I liked the features a lot when I used it in back in 2007.

Second thing… Okay, so it’s not terribly obvious⁶ but this is my network domain. See any content? A layout? No. Just a “coming soon” sign. I HAVE GOT TO GET SOMETHING UP THERE. Even if it’s just a page with links and short explanations using a pre-made template from somewhere, I just need to slap together a site, something to start with.

Third thing: Mt’s old posts are starting to tick me off. When I go through and read over drama posts and the utterly STUPID, MORONIC, IDIOTIC, POINTLESS POINTLESS POINTLESS things I used to write, I start wishing I had knees that bent forwards so I could kick myself in the head and kick myself in the butt. So I’m toying with the idea of moving all my old posts over to a subdirectory like old.hakuu.net/mt. I was thinking of archive.mt.com, but then that might get a little too confusing with my archives page for my current posts being mt.com/archives/. It would make more sense to have a best-of page and stuff if my pre-2009 posts were all over at another site, too.

The final thing - the layout at Mt differs WIDELY from the layout at r&s, and most likely won’t look anything like what will be up at 白雨. Once I get things in semi-working order, I’ll be trying to get some sense of uniformity and connectedness worked in there.

By the way, interesting tidbit, 4:59 am on 31 December 2008 EST is technically the first New Year’s countdown because that’s right before Kiritimati celebrates the new year (…what?⁷ ).

I think this post wins for most pointless, spazzy footnotes EVER.

1. or maybe after a nap. XDDD It’s chilly and I just want to curl up on the couch with my fuzzy blanket…BUT DAMNED IF IT WILL NOT BE UP BEFORE 11:59 pm on January 1^st LIES!! …but I am working on it. Promise!
2. I used to post music downloads at the now-defunct http://misstuned.com/rajio/
3. It went something like “This is illegal, you moron…” “But I really wanna~! *whine*” “…oh, whatever, just STFU” …yes, I tell myself to STFU when I’m arguing with myself in my head. XDD I’m insane.
4. because I’m seriously anal about my iTunes/iPod
5. 3.1.1 was released in 2007. It’s 2009 now. I consider any script that hasn’t been updated in over a year (and has had security issues before) too old to be running on my server.
6. My ownership of collective domains never has been obvious
7. Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, is in the world’s furthest forward time zone - UTC+14, so they celebrate the new year first out of anyone on the planet

• 5. Bush having a pair of shoes wailed at him, and someone making a flash game out of it - Who wasn’t struck with envy of the man that threw his shoes at Curious George? Now we can all live out our wildest shoe-chucking fantasies here.
• 4. $4.00/gallon gas - Made us all start seriously thinking about buying hybrids. Yay environmentalism!!!!
• 3. WordPress 2.7 - FINALLY, WordPress is SMEXY, and we can change what’s displayed on each page of the dashboard.
• 2. President-elect Obama - America’s first elected African-American president. Yay~! And, yes, we still have to wait for the inauguration to start calling him President Obama…stupid tradition and “respect for the outgoing President”
• 1. プペガール (ADD ME, PLS?) - I’m waaaay too addicted to this site. I loved dress-up dolls as a girl, but pupe takes dress-up dolls to a whole new level, allowing you to see what kind of stuff people from all over the world buy, what brands people like, and how cute it looks to wear a tiara, a headdress, and 4 different hair sticks with that bright purple kimono.

What are your 5 best of ‘08?

From the web*citron graphics -> rules page:

漢字: 海外での再配布対策のため閲覧はパスワード式です。
かな: かいがいてのさいばいふのためえつらんはパスワードしきでし。
ロマ字: kaigaite no saibaifu no tame etsuran wa password shiki desu
English: As a counter-measure to offshore redistribution, the material is passworded.

漢字: お手数ですが、下記のIDとパス（クイズの回答）を入力してお入り下さい。
かな: おてがずですが、かきのＩＤとパス（ケイズのかいとう）をにゅうりょきしておいりください。
ロマ字: otegazu desu ga, kaki no ID to PASS (QUIZ no kaitou) wo nyuuryokishite oiri kudasai.
English:It may be bothersome, but please input the following ID and PASSWORD (the answer to the quiz) to enter.

original: 「けものへん」に「苗」という漢字の訓読みにゃー
漢字: 「獣偏」に「苗」という漢字の訓読みにゃー
かな: 「けものへん」に「なえ」というかんじのくんよみにゃー
ロマ字: kemonohen ni nae to iu kanji no kunyomi nya~a
English:The Japanese reading of a kanji that looks like 獣偏 and/or 苗, nya~a

As to why this offended me…

…discriminate much? SHEESH. Way to shut out non-Japanese… (；´Д｀) うぅっ。。 I just wanted to see what’s so awesome, since every other sozai site I’ve been to today links to web*citron. But apparently you think that I, a GAIJIN, an outsider, shouldn’t be allowed to see it… Whatever… (*´Д｀)=3ハァ･･ <sarcasm> Yeah, because being a gaijin, I automatically avidly work to steal sozai, you know, just because I’m white. (Did ANYONE, anywhere ever think that phrase would be used? Seriously. It sounds wrong even to me.) Apparently, you can’t trust me not to steal your entire site. There’s even a probability that I will fly to Japan to steal the server! All because I don’t get the pun?! The idiom, perhaps? </sarcasm> Honestly, I don’t know what I’m supposed to put as the password… (´；ω；`)ｳｯ

I translated your rules- the whole page, took me a half an hour - up to the point at which you utterly offended me- so that I could know that you just want a link back if I use your material. <sarcasm> Ooh, a link back. That’s certainly something you have to be able to speak fluent, native-level Japanese to figure out. No, really, being on the web for 8 years - enough to learn to read hiragana and katakana without ever taking a class - no, I wouldn’t have any experience in dealing with web sites, not a chance in the world that I would automatically know, from dealing with other material-offering web sites, not to steal your stuff, call it my own, and neglect to link you. I couldn’t possibly be familiar with the concept of LINKWARE. Yeah, because I’m that much of an idiot. </sarcasm>

<sarcasm> I’m just your standard American jerk, ready to come to your country, mispronounce the few things I know how to say in your language because I’ve had two weeks of Japanese class and that makes me an expert, expect you to speak perfect English and laugh when you don’t because how dare you have a different syllable system than I do, make fun of how food comes in smaller packages in your grocery stores because I’m a hungry fatso, gawk at your monochromatic hair and eye color spectrum because I’m a yokel, assault your grandmother while waiting for a train because I’m an ignorant person with anger issues, urinate on your Diet building because I’m a jingoistic prejudiced moron and America is #1!, attempt to haggle with shop owners in English because I’m a pompous self-important idiot like that, vehemently refuse bathe for weeks - then attempt to enter an onsen because it’s perfectly acceptable to make others observe your stench, and sexually abuse your livestock because I don’t understand how a country could be so seemingly open-minded considering all the pornographic comic books I’ve been exposed to from it - totally ignoring the fact that there are censorship organizations in your country as well. Or whatever it’s supposed to be that stereotypical Americans who don’t speak Japanese (and even some that do) do when they go to Japan. </sarcasm>

…I’m not that much of an idiot. 。゜゜(´□｀。)°゜。ワーン!! Seriously. I tend to be pretty stupid, in fact, I’m stupider than most really stupid people, but I can figure out to not be stupid with free stuff on the Internet.

。・゜・(/Д`)・゜・。うわぁぁぁぁん Thank you for utterly offending me. For NO reason. I follow rules. I credit. I link. I even get angry with myself if I don’t find a way to re-tag files that can remind me where I saved them from and who to credit.

What I want to know is: why try to keep out other cultures? Isn’t this the Internet? Isn’t the idea supposed to be breaking down barriers?

I know people tend to be really rude when you give them free stuff, but still..（。；_；。）

I think someone needs a multicultural group hug. Perhaps we should all go give ユヅさん a big hug?

Can you snap your fingers?

Can you do it with both hands?

Can you snap with your middle finger?

Can you snap with your ring finger?

Can you snap with the index finger of the hand you write with?

This is going to sound stupid, but neither my Dad nor myself can snap with the index finger of our right hands. We’re both right-handed, so I’m wondering, is it possible to snap with your index, middle, and ring fingers on both hands?

I’ve just been working on r&s a lot more. heh, whoops…

Last week, I emailed Comcast about their recent bandwidth capping, inquiring as to how I, as the loyal paying customer, was supposed to monitor my bandwidth usage. I was going to post their response, but apparently:

The response contained in this message is intended for the addressee
only and may vary from other responses depending on geography,
promotional campaigns or other factors. If you are not the intended
recipient of this response, please delete this message. Any unauthorized
use or dissemination of the information contained in this message is
prohibited.

So, basically, Comcast doesn’t want any sharing of their amazing response to my concern about my household’s bandwidth usage, based on the fact that there may be a different DTV-related promotion going on in my (Pittsburgh) service area than there is in, say, L.A. God forbid anyone show the public what they think of a customer’s honest concerns, and God forbid anyone have anything to say against their bass-ackwards way of dealing with their obvious bandwidth deficiencies.

“Here at Comcast, we feel free to answer your unlike-minded concerns with our standard patronizing email, then dare you to post it on the Internet.”

Ten bucks says I post it, and there would be nothing they can do about it, because it’s obviously a case of abusive EULA. Ten bucks says they’ll try to sue me for posting this.

I’ve been begging to switch back to DirecTV for months. I miss my Tivo. Comcast’s DVR service is pretty awful. Also, I really wish Comcast wasn’t the only high-speed Internet service available in my area. I keep begging to switch to a slower DSL option, but I’ll have to wait until Verizon gets FiOS out here. Come on Verizon! Get on the ball and get your service out to my area.

Every time I go to look up something about a Japanese album, or a particular band, I head straight for wikis. One of my FAVORITE wikis of all time is wiki.theppn.org.

BUT IT’S BEEN DOWN FOR ALMOST A MONTH!!!

This thread and this lj community were all I could find from the staff of wiki.theppn.

I’m starting to REALLY miss being able to have my favorite J-pop/K-pop information at my fingertips. And DramaWiki just doesn’t cover the full range of awesomeness that wiki.theppn did.

At least, according to the lj comm, the wiki will be back up eventually. I donated $10 to the cause, ‘coz ah miss mah japanesey moosik artkles!!! </stupid>

Did anyone else notice wiki.theppn was down? Did anyone else get antsy about it being back up?

Twentyfourcarat.net is having a contest, and one lucky person who follows the directions in this entry will win a MAC eyeshadow, and one lucky person who posts about it on their own blog will win a NYX lipstick.

I’m so shallow. Blame it on work. It’s turned me into a money-grubbing, makeup/shoe/perfume-loving wench.

By the by, work on the site is coming along, if very slowly. I upgraded some of my WordPress installs to 2.6.2¹ this weekend, and I’m installing some plugins and slowly getting my things together. Also, I got approved for the Christian Audigier: Ed Hardy fanlisting (whut?). Yay~! Maybe I’ll be back from hiatus before Halloween?!

1. And I had much less trouble than trying to upgrade to 2.6.1 -> when I tried installing 2.6.1 on Mt, the whole site was broken for a day…

Mt participated in Blog Action Day 2007, and donated all PPP¹ earnings for the day to the National Wildlife Federation.

This year, the theme of Blog Day 2008, poverty strikes a deep chord with me. Through 20 years of deep-rooted personal experience with the state of poverty in America², my character and ideas about the world have been shaped. Yet, I realize that there are still people in the world who are far poorer than most of the poor in America. While I may define poverty as getting utility shut-off notices in the mail³, there are people in developing countries who dismiss the notion of clean water, semi-livable houses, and even minimum-wage jobs like we have in America, as foolish, fantastical, unattainable dreams. Our “poor” is living considerably well-off to them. Living in the projects and working at the 7-11 would be viewed as having finally made it for these people.

So, this year, in addition to donating to the World Wildlife Foundation⁴, Susan G. Komen for the Cure⁵, now I have to decide whether I would rather donate directly to business owners in impoverished countries or whether to donate to the Global Fund through change.org.

Either way, I’m going to be donating about $150 or so to charity from my own paycheck⁶ in October.

1. Yes, I used to do PayPerPost, don’t anymore, hate the company and practice.
2. I would appreciate it if any possible trolls would refrain from insinuating that I’m some yuppie who lives on their parents money, and just happens to have taken enough socioeconomics classes to suddenly care. I’m not even close to “yuppie”. I would simply prefer not write a whole f@#%ing sob story about myself, thank you very much, because that’s selfish. I realize that there is a greater need to help those who are desperately poor, living without basic human amenities such as clean water, adequate housing, and remotely-decent-paying jobs, and theirs is the sad story, not mine.
3. Having utilities shut off teaches people fairly quickly on just how lucky we Americans are to always have these things as a granted.
4. I re-watched Planet Earth, and I was struck by the beauty of a Tibetan snow leopard. I love American wildlife, but that cat was the prettiest thing ever…
5. Misstuned is going Pink for October again next month!
6. Because Misstuned provides me with no money. I don’t advertise for profit, and I pay my hosting bills out of pocket.

…of a sort. Lemme ’splain. According to the Post-Gazette, 75% of prospective American college students score below par on the ACT. ¹

orly?

cudnt imagn y

I have taken the ACTs. I scored below college level in Algebra, and am taking a remedial course in Algebra starting in four hours. I know exactly why American high school students need to take remedial courses. High schools do not ensure that students retain their knowledge of algebra. It is possible to not take algebra for the last two years of high school. I will elaborate

I took Algebra 1 in 8th grade. It was not the “advanced” class that you would imagine. It was more of an uncoordinated attempt to teach regular pre-algebra to 20 students out of a class of 30, while simultaneously attempting to prepare the students who had A’s in the class for Algebra 2, which they would take in freshman year due to their grades. The setup for the “advanced class” was: 10 students go to the computer lab once in a while and do extra, “advanced” work using Powerpoint slideshows. It ended up being a lesson in how to cheat when working in a large group: you just sit back and listen to the smart kids solve the problems out loud and write the answers down.

I took Algebra 2 in 9th grade. It was not the ideal setting either. We never used our books, and I never did my homework. Of course, if I sat in class and listened to the teacher blather on, I would get the idea long enough to scrape by, which I did. Mostly I doodled, talked to my friend, and daydreamed. I got a lot of head-scratching and nail-cleaning done in that class. In the end, the teacher felt bad for me not getting to pass on to Geometry with the rest of the class², so they were very lenient grading my final, I ended up getting a C-minus, which they upgraded to a C mysteriously, and signed my course sheet so that I could pass on to Geometry.

I took Geometry in 10th grade. This class was actually rather nicely structured. The curriculum called for reinforcement every night in the form of a few homework problems, and the teacher was very competent, intent on ensuring that the students in my class went to college able calculate angles of any sort, and recite the equations for SINE, COSINE, and TANGENT in their sleep. However, by this point in high school, I no longer gave a flying f#@$, and used the class as a daily opportunity to doze a full stomach away, seeing as we met immediately after lunch. I barely passed with a D-minus, which I suspect was due to the unsurpassed kindness of this teacher. If I ever meet them again, I’ll remember not to be a jerk. I’m pretty sure they realized I had scratched every equation in my textbook into my calculator with a dry pen³ in the 5 minutes allowed to review quickly before the final, and simply decided to pass me out of pity.

Rather than attempt to weasel my way into, then fail Trigonometry, which was the prescribed 11th grade advanced math course, I did not even show my 10th Geometry teacher what I had picked for next year when it came time for them to sign off on the students’ ability to succeed in their desired courses. I headed straight for Accounting, which I did swimmingly in during my junior year. In fact, I’m so comfortable with Accounting math that I’m majoring in it in college. But, apparently, even community colleges require that students be proficient in algebra to an acceptable degree.

So, that is precisely how a high-school graduate can be unable to solve an algebra problem more difficult than y=_x+_

As for the latter part of the PG article which questions whether federal taxpayers⁴ should be required to fund my remedial college courses…do you want your accountant to be able to add without a calculator? The very idea that I should have to just jump into college-level algebra courses and fail, thus wasting more taxpayer dollars, because some fatcat PG writer⁵ thinks they’re useless, is absolutely absurd.

Degree completion is not affected by the need for remedial courses.

Degree completion at community college is affected by the student’s personal wishes. In community college, you have to earn the grades, you can’t just slide by like I did in high school. There are those of us who want jobs, be they first or better, there are those of us who plan to transfer to four-year colleges, and there are those of us who attend community college simply to take up space. Degree completion is based not on how perceived-ly “dumb” the student is, based on their ability to pass tests that do not reflect the possibility of having forgotten what was learned in high school⁶.

No, degree completion is based on whether the student really wants to be there or not. People that are going BACK to school while working, 90% of them want to be there. People who are going to transfer to another school or are looking for a degree to get a job from, about 60% of them want to be there. People that are just there so their parents’ health insurance doesn’t kick them off, just so their parents can say that they aren’t ambitionless bums who would rather sit around on the couch and watch daytime programming, well, take a guess at how many of them actually want to be at college, as opposed to their couch.

By the by, I fit into the “full-time job and full-time student” category. Only I’m not trying to advance in my field, I want to go to a different field.

1. The ACT is a series of computerized multiple-choice competency tests in Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic. It’s a very informal entrance exam used at community colleges and perhaps some universities.
2. AKA: the teacher did not want anything other than a 100% rate of students that passed on to the next “advanced” class
3. I still have the calculator in question. Right in front of the screen here. I’ll need to re-scratch in the equations again this year in college.
4. Might I instruct the honorable PG writer in the fact that not PA taxpayers, but federal taxpayers pay for most of the costs of community college. Need proof? I’m going to college on a Federal Pell Grant. I’m not getting a CENT from the state. Mostly because they squandered the money in ways a non-profit shouldn’t, and thus set the cut-off date for May 1. I applied for state aid on May 30.
5. I say fatcat because I can place a safe bet that he doesn’t know what a shutoff notice is.
6. as have most college students with full-time jobs. Most 30, 40, or even 50 year olds that go back to school certainly can’t pass algebra tests