Today, after months of getting irritating and completely incomprehensible spam comments by anons, I finally disabled commenting for everyone and enabled commenting for registered users only! I really hate doing that, but having to delete more than 15 spam comments per day really got on my nerves. This change will only be temporary though. After 2 weeks I will try enable comments for everyone again. Hopefully all those darn spam anons will have lost interest by then.

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Also for all anime fans on my f-list, I found a nice site where you can watch a lot of animes online without the trouble of downloading each episode. The site is called ani-watch. Go, check it out! :)

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On a different note, it would be great if you could vote in the SPN newsletter poll, vol.2 if you haven't already. So far, 11 people took the poll! I want to have a few more votes before I analyze the results.

On the same matter, I want to announce that the asylum spn_newsletter was handed over to me by dea_liberty on June 19th, 2008. That will spare me the effort of creating a new asylum! :)

A while ago, on February 19th to be exact, I created a poll to gather information on how people feel about a SPN newsletter on IJ. Due to a family bereavement at the beginning of March, I haven't had the energy to work on this project. I apologize for the hiatus!

However, now I'm very much in the mood to get this baby going.

Before we get to the results, I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time and effort to vote in the last poll! &hearts

What did we learn from the last poll?
( Observe )

Tl;dr:
+ There will be a newsletter on IJ.
+ The newsletter will cover SPN content on IJ and JF.
+ We still need people who provide links, especially on JF (link hunters).
+ We also need one or two more editors.

More thoughts...
( ... to chew on. )

I think it's wise to create another poll to determine how people think about those subjects.

Poll: Vol.2
( Please take it... )

I'd appreciate it if you could spread the word about this project! Thanks for reading and taking the poll!! &hearts &hearts &hearts

For a while now I've been contemplating the idea of creating a separate graphics journal. But however I look at it, I always come to the same conclusion: I really don't need another journal. It would be too big a hassle, to tell you the truth, simply because I would have to create one on Insanejournal as well as on Livejournal. Besides I'd rather have all my fanish stuff in one journal.

However I've noticed that it might be a bit difficult to browse my journal for graphics. Of course, I organize everything by tags, but some people who are viewing my journal don't see a tag list in the sidebar due to their own layout settings (I can't live without a sidebar and a tag list in my layouts, so I always have them both visible). For this reason I've decided to make this post where I list all the graphic related tags for easier browsing. It can be considered as a little archive! :)

( To the archive )

I just applied for an icon maker at the new icon aslyum seraphim_icons and I got accepted! I'm so happy about that! So, if you want to apply, it's highly appreciated! Just go over there! :)

Whoohoo I finally finished working on my new Grimmjow themed layout! Har har. This time I used basic codes by minty_peach. In other words I took this particular layout and modified it to my wishes.

The biggest problem I had to work out, was how to get some of my backgrounds transparent. I tried it with opacity, but it didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. That was where the LJ community s2flexisquares came in handy. I searched through it and found a helpful entry.

How to reach transparency on entry backgrounds:
Basically you can reach transparency by creating a color filled image in PS, setting it to 80% opacity and then lay it on top of a transparent background. Merge the layers, save it and upload it to an image hosting site and then use that image as a background. That's it. Really simple, ne?!

I only tested the layout in Firefox, my sister told me it looked fine in Opera too. I don't know what it looks like in other browsers though. That's why I'm asking you, if you use a different browser, could you please tell me if the layout looks like this or somehow wonky? That would be absolutely lovely of you!

Oh and I also made my very first wallpaper/background. I always wanted a Grimmjow layout and I loved that sexy silhouette!Grimm image ever since I first saw it, so I thought why not make a background from it.

I like to share:

( Grimm-baby background )

If you happen to visit my journal right now, you may find it all wonky and messed up, that's because I'm currently working on it!

Please ignore this. It's merely there for some testing.

Italic text looks like this

This is a bold text.

Hi! I'm a blockquote!

---

I'm written with a border above and atop of me.

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Oh hell, I'm bored out of my mind. Actually, there are a few things that need to be done, but as it always goes with such things I don't want to deal with them right now. Procrastinating much? Y/N?

I noticed I haven't updated since February 29th. That's because I was at home from March, 5th till March 31st. My father passed away and I had to hurry home much earlier as I had originally planned. These past 4 weeks were really hard for me and I still can't wrap my mind around the thought that he's gone, forever. It's hard! It's shocking! It's sad! And so very unfair! He was only 49 and he died way too young. His life hasn't been happy and fulfilled either. If it were in my power I wish I could have made his life better. I hope wherever he is now, that it's nice there.

Anyway, as you know, whenever I am home I don't have a connection to the internet. That's good, in a way, because this way I'm forced to take a break from the online life, but, what can I say, I missed my journals. When I came back here I noticed that InsaneJournal has been updated and there are a lot of improvements! I really approve!

Also, I wanted to let everyone know who participated in the SPN Newsletter for InsaneJournal-poll that I'm working on it! I'm sorry for the delay, but as you see, RL intervened and consumed most of my time so I haven't had the chance to work on that project. But I will, I'm not neglecting it!

Well, that's it for now.

I have a few things on my mind right now and I'm thinking about writing some meta about yaoi manga (Hey, I saw you rolling your eyes there. :D) or Snarry or fanfics in general.

Aw hell, I'm still bored.

telesilla is running a testimonial meme over on her personal IJ and it's fun. Basically, what you have to do is leave your username there in a comment, then go through the other comments and when you find a username you know write down something nice you want to say to that particular user. Sounds great? Well, it is and it makes you happy, so go over there! :) Btw, find me here.

Yesterday I followed a link from the recent issue of meta_roundup to a post by morgandawn in which she raises the question whether there is "any interest in a supernatural newsletter that will cover not only LJ but also JF and IJ supernatural fic and art".

On reading this, I felt compelled to put in my two cents' worth. There already exists a community that covers fannish content here on IJ called spn_newsletter, created on 2007-08-08. Currently it has 53 members and 96 watchers, and unfortunately it hasn't been updated since the day it was created. Meaning except for two introductory posts there has never been an actual newsletter to begin with. And as far as I can tell the two maintainers seemed to have abandoned IJ.

It's really sad in my opinion. I love the SPN newsletter on LJ, it comes in handy if you want to keep track of all the lovely fanart, fanfics and so on posted around there. I know SPN fandom on IJ is not as big and active as on LJ, but at least it's not dead. It's here, it's living and it needs more attention.

To be honest, I've entertained the idea of creating a newsletter community for IJ some time ago when I noticed that spn_newsletter still hadn't updated and fandom around here had grown more active. I know SPN fandom here is not comparable to SPN fandom on LJ, but I think a SPN newsletter on a weekly (or maybe bi-weekly) basis would be great.

I'm also aware of how much effort it is to hunt for appropriate links, as well as editing and all the lovely stuff that comes with it for the actual newsletter. But, oh well, I'm crazy enough happy to volunteer to be an editor. But I don't want to do this all alone. I need at least 2 or 3 people who are willing to help.

( So that's why I ask you to fill out the poll. I know you want to anyway. :) )

And it would be great if you could pimp this out! I'd like to know your thoughts on this matter. *is very interested*

Ah finally I finished working on this layout. Took me 2 days! The basic codes are by the talented passing_girl @ LJ.

I applied the layout to my LJ at first, then, because I quickly fell in love with it, I wanted to have it here at my IJ as well. Only problem was that passing_girl wrote this layout for Smooth Sailing. Here I use Flexible Squares, which I grew really quite fond of.

And I didn't want to switch my IJ back to Smooth Sailing either, because Smooth Sailing tends to mess up the comment page whenever a thread gets rather long. Some time ago I found a great code for Flexi Squares to pretend this on s2flexisquares @ LJ. I'd rather not miss out on these codes.

Well, as it was, I had to re-write passing_girl's codes so that they would work for my Flexi Squares layout.

What a strain but it was worth it! Now I have a new and very shiny layout which fits so perfectly to my Sam and Dean header. Awww and the sidebar. I love it. I never had a layout like this before. Whoot!


But enough with the incomprehensible babble, on to more important things.


Today I want to wish two of my friends a very happy birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear mllesatine and pkabyssinian!!

Hope you have a wonderful day! Party hard, guys! :)

This is the 100th post! Congrats to - er - myself. To celebrate that meaningful event I bring some icons for presents. :)

I don't know why, but somehow I've been in a tiger-mood when I made these icons, that's why most of them are actually tiger icons.

But on to the goodies.

[01-12] Stock icons: animals (mostly big cats and one wolf)

Teaser:

We've	come	to tease.

( Hear them roaring. )

I created my journal here on IJ two months ago. I made myself a shiny layout and now I feel at home. I think it's high time to find some new people to squee with etc. Therefore I decided to make a Supernatural friending meme, because I'm pretty obsessed with that show at the moment, and seeing that season 3 will be aired in a week, this is pretty much the right moment for a friending meme, so here it goes.

Everyone is welcome to participate. I hope you will find some interesting people here! :)

Pimping and spreading the word is appreciated!

<b>Your name/username:</b> <b>Nick:</b> <b>Age:</b> <b>Location:</b> <b>Dean or Sam girl?:</b> <b>Jensen or Jared?:</b> <b>Wincest, yay or nah?:</b> <b>How about Padackles?:</b> <b>Favorite episode and why:</b> <b>Not so favorite episode and why:</b> <b>Any other fandoms?:</b> <b>What's your journal about?:</b> <b>Tell us something about yourself:</b> <b>Anything else? Random stuff?:</b>

Okay, so I've changed my layout. Again. Yeah, I know this is some odd habit of mine, but now I'm pretty pleased with it. It's lighter than the one I had before. I think I will add a background pattern and some fancy stuff, like link-decorations, but in penny numbers, I don't want to overdo it.

Here on IJ I modify my layout with a theme layer. Yay, now that I have a permanent account, I can do this. Over on LJ I only ever have had a free account. Oh dear, I actually wanted to upgrade to a paid account shortly before LJ went mad and all. Thank god I did resist!

Anyway, before I got myself my first journal ever on LJ one year and a half ago, I hadn't known one tiny bit about CSS, coding, html and the like. Then I got my account and started messing around with my layout pretty soon after that. It's just that I must have a shiny layout or else I won't feel "at home". *lol* So, I actually googled like a lunatic, went here and there, did this and that, made a whole lot of mistakes, and somehow, after some time, I got the hang of CSS, at least so much so that I won't stare like forever on a stylesheet without knowing what's it about. Go me.

Then only_gremo and mllesatine gave me this permanent account as a birthday present two months or so ago, (Oh dears, I can't thank you both enough for that! &hearts &hearts), wich opened a whole new world of coding to me: the theme layer. Yep. And even though you can put a CSS sequence in it; which I, as I said, am quite familiar with; there's also that other stuff I don't even know how it's called. I guess it's html coding, but I'm not sure. Anyway, my point is, I have yet to get the hang of it. It looks (and I think it certainly is) a lot more complicated than simple CSS. I hope it won't take me too long to understand.

Anyway, my current layout is also modified with that complicated coding stuff. It's mostly because I found this great LJ community called s2flexisquares where you can find codes for all sorts of things you wish to adjust, change or whatsoever.

However, I don't even know why this post got so long in the end. I just wanted to inform you about my new layout. I'm not even sure whether you guys read this in the first place... erm yeah, whatever...

I'm also entertaining the idea of posting more of these tutorials/how-to/helpful stuff guides. I really enjoy writing these and I hope they will help others in some way or another. Maybe I should make my first random poll about that?! ---Yes, I should do this...

So here it comes, my first very simple and very random poll:


Poll #394 Tutorials
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Do you want to see more tutorials/helpful stuff/how-to guides?

Hah, I made the first vote! I know I know, how crappy is that, voting in my own poll. Don't judge me! It's my very first poll and I was curious. I voted for yes, because I enjoy writing these tutorials, so...

This tutorial will show you how to change the mini icons (like that crazy Tweakface or the chicken ) to something more fancy and nice.


( WHERE TO FIND MINI ICONS: )

( YOU NEED: )

( INSTALLATION: )

#1 Go to your Layers. Scroll down to the bottom where it reads "Create Layer".

#2 Create layout-specific layer. For TYPE choose Theme and for LAYOUT choose whatever layout you wish. Hit the Create button.

#3 On the same site look for "Child of [layout you just created a theme layer for]".

#4 Click on the Edit button of the theme layer called "none".

#5 A new window appears, the "Edit Layer Source Box". There are already two lines there:

layerinfo "type" = "theme";
layerinfo "name" = "your name";

Leave the first line as it is. Rename "your name" to your liking.

#6 Now insert the code to modify your layout after this sequence:

layerinfo "type" = "theme";
layerinfo "name" = "your name";

#7 Hit the Save & Compile button.


&hearts You found this helpful? Please let me know! &hearts