Geocities is closing before the end of this month, and it's really been making me nostalgic. When it closes, a huge part of web-culture history will be wiped out. While some of us will be sure to back up our files, all the old, well-loved, abandoned sites will disappear.

I am especially sad about the Kraider sites. Does anyone else remember them? They were a group of cousins who created Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon shrines, one for each of the senshi except for Sailormoon and Sailorchibimoon. They were active between 1996 and 2000. Their shrines had a big impact on the Sailormoon community: they were among the first to include in depth character analyses, and they help start the move towards information-based shrines.

I bring this up because Jov's shrine to Sailorjupiter, Dark Echo Grounds of Thunder Senshi, was a major influence for my own Sailorjupiter shrine. Her shrine gave me the idea of organizing information based on persona, and my early designs were inspired by ones I saw there. Even now, almost ten years later, I still draw inspiration from her site. By today's standards it is not perfect: there are a few factual mistakes, the design does not work with all browsers, the designs lack the flair that many modern shrines have. For its time, though, it was the best of its kind. It remains one of my very favorite shrines, and I am deeply sad that it will be deleted soon.

The other Kraider shrines were just as impressive: Beam of the Love Senshi, Fire Senshi's Realm, Turbulence: The Second Impact, Time Senshi of the Crystal Gateways. Unfortunately, Silent Walls of Destruction, Embrace of Turbulent Tides, and Ice Senshi's Lake of Illusions have already been deleted (the last, though, can be viewed via the Internet Web Archive.

Nothing lasts.

There is a new, more aesthetically pleasing layout up at Paper Cranes. I kept the whole everything-on-the-main-page thing (except for links), and I really like the way it came out. I've tried working with this image several times, and I've never been able to get it to work how I like. Until now. :)

I cleaned up the links page a little bit, but I still need to go through and add a lot more. If you want to exchange links, email me, or leave a comment here.

Well, sort of. All that really means is that I've posted a list of my sites at ko.fated.nu. The most skeletal of outlines, but at least it's something. I just can't seem to create a layout that I like. Something more aesthetically pleasing will come later. I promise.

I reuploaded the last layout to Emerald Star. I really like the layout Juhi made for me (thanks, again!), but it's getting into fall, and it's time for a change. Besides, the current layout was only up for a few days before the marathon started.

ES will be ten years old in April. Yes, that's still about nine months away, but it's really got me thinking. I can't believe I've been a part of the shrine community for this long. I wonder what the 13-year-old Kotono would do if I time-traveled back and showed her what the little three-page Sailorjupiter site turned into. Weird. I've been flirting with the idea of doing a "specials" section, and I really want to do something for the ten-year anniversary. Maybe a kind of then-and-now thing? It might be cool, right? I figure I'm the only one who really remembers what the shrine was like way back when, so it might be neat to show my visitors.

My shrine favoritism is painfully obvious, huh?

First, regarding my last entry, I was able to dig up an older draft of said article, so all is not completely lost. One section is completely gone, but the outline is still in tact.

Second, I have made a layout for Paper Cranes, but I am still working out the coding. So maybe soon, maybe not-so-soon.

Third, most of my sites will be going into semi-archive mode. This is to accommodate for the immense amount of work I will encounter as I begin my first year of a research-based master's program. Expect consolidation and organization, but not a lot in the way of new things.

I just accidentally deleted a whole article I was writing for Ace of Hearts! :'( It was almost finished. I hate myself.

I've been meaning to make a post about this stuff for a while now, but I kept getting distracted.

- Emerald Star was rec'ed at arainymonday. Really, really flattering because I love all their choices, and they really put thought into their recs. July was a big month for ES.

- No motivation to finish my project for the one-page shrine marathon at amassment. I decided not to do my original idea because I'd rather devote the time to turning it into a full shrine. I have a few other ideas for one-pagers, but none of them really inspires me to plug away. That and I really need a higher quality scan for a layout, but if I tell you the image it will give the content away. I'm really in love with the title I picked out for it, though.

- After I finish my one-page, site updates and livejournal activity will slow down pretty considerably. I'm about to start graduate school, so I'm planning on limiting my recreational web time to one day a week. This is partly because of the work load, but also because I want to try to be more involved in non-school, non-web things. Friends, it's time for Kotono to get a life. Sort of.

- Updated Emerald Star with the beautiful layout orthoflame made me for the Amassment Shrine Layout Swap! Thank you, Juhi! :)

- Also, Emerald Star has been named Site of the Month for July at Deep Submerge! Thank you, Icera! :)

- I think I've picked a topic for my entry at the Amassment One-page Shrine Marathon, but it will involve rewatching a series. At least it's a short one (and that's the only hint you get)!

Would someone mind looking at my code for Emerald Star to help me fix the alignment issue? I can't figure it out.

Emerald Star is back at http://ko.fated.nu/jupiter!!

It's about 80% where I want it to be, but I was going crazy keeping it on my harddrive!

A brief list of changes:
- One layout for the whole shrine. I'm trying it out in the interest of time and effort. I'm not married to the idea, so if you really feel that it detracts, please let me know! The one-layout-per-page deal was embedded in the shrine's identity, but hopefully now the content has been moved to the forefront.
- Complete rearrangement of sections. There are now four main sections, and subsections are more clearly listed.
- Separated articles into Information and Readables sections based on their truthfulness and aim.
- All articles have been spell-checked, and most have been rewritten.
- A few new articles, and new ideas for future articles.
- New media!
- Addition of link buttons from amassment!

So I've been promising my Sailorjupiter shrine for days now, but a sudden surge inspiration pushed me to my Eagle shrine instead. I plugged away for a few hours this afternoon and redesigned, recoded, and semi-rewrote the entire thing. So here you go!


HTTP://KO.FATED.NU/EAGLE/

I am so ready to get my collective back! I really plan on making a check-list and just hitting things off one-by-one.

Woohoo!

In a rare surge of productivity, I have coded most of my Sailorjupiter shrine with its new layout and stylesheet. What needs to be done now is rewriting. But it's almost here. Almost.

Gosh, I'm really sucking at this whole LJ thing. I haven't posted since before graduation, I've made a grand total of five icons for bssm_speedmix for April and May combined, I haven't written anything for sm_monthly, and I'm really behind on reading my flist.

The good news is no homework, so more time to waste on LJ and sites after work.

Anyway, I graduated with both degrees! It was a narrow escape because of a missing credit, but the curriculum committee pulled through for me just in time. I'm all set for grad school, too. My sister and I went apartment hunting a few days after graduation. So until move-in I'll be making bagels and watching obscene amounts of The O.C. and Roswell.

And working on sites. I have a layout for Emerald Star, but I can't seem to get the CSS just right. I'm finally finishing a few articles for Ace of Hearts, and when that's done I'll work on Crimson Mysteria. Then relaunching the entire collective. It will happen. It will.

I'm thinking about cutting bangs. It's been a while, so I've forgotten how much they drove me crazy. It might be time for another go. Really, I just want to look like Mischa Barton (but not quite so skinny). Maybe I'll post some hair pictures. Maybe.

So I figure I've been in the Dark Ages long enough. I really want to learn PHP. Does anyone know of a good tutorial?

Here are all the icons I made for the March 2009 challenge at bssm_speedmix. Icons that placed in the final voting are noted at the bottom. Please comment if you take one and link back to silkaura! I'd also appreciate it if you wouldn't alter them or direct link to them. Thanks!

( Theme: Provided Pairings )

There is now a placeholder page up at http://ko.fated.nu/, so if you'd like to go ahead and change your links, that would be great. It's spring break, so I plan on having everything up by the end of this week.

I need to kick the procrastination habit, and LJ is way too distracting. No posting or reading for the next week.

Here are all the icons I made for the February 2009 challenge at bssm_speedmix. Icons that place in the final voting are noted at the bottom. Please comment if you take one and link back to silkaura! I'd also appreciate it if you wouldn't alter them or direct link to them. Thanks!

( Theme: Dark Kingdom Arc )

What's a good FTP program? Free, as always, is preferred.