As I mentioned in my last post, I've been approved for two of my biggest wishes: Ray LaMontagne (Albums, due August 31) and Washington, D.C. (Places, due August 22). I haven't started on the Ray listing yet, but I know that I'm going to make my first attempt to use random quotation generation code (utilizing the excellent and very simple Fan to Fan tutorial :)) so that I can put his beautiful lyrics all around the site. I'm currently picking some of my favorites and just basking in the squee of that; any excuse to go through his words is a good one. :)

For the Washington, D.C. layout, I seem to be struggling a bit with PSP to get it to do exactly what I want, but it's getting there! I'm using my own photographs for it, so it feels very personal – I get to create a fanlisting for a place that I love using pictures of the individual sites that mean so much to me. I'm thinking that one will be finished first, assuming I can get PSP to work with me a little better.

I am debating whether to apply for the Acoustic Music fanlisting, which the amazing Raine has put up for adoption. I would really love to, but I also know I pretty much stand no chance due to my having completely insufficient skills compared to everyone else, so I'm not sure if it's worth the time to write up something when I could instead use that time to work on some other things. Still...the temptation is there. Very much so. :x

I did go ahead and submit an application for a fanlisting that I have been toying with for at least 16 months or so, but have always put off for some reason or another. It's not something that anyone else would probably apply for, so I haven't had that sense of urgency, but that's still no good excuse. I'm hoping that I will be approved, of course :), but beyond that, I'm also hoping that any approval would come before the semester starts again so that I can really give it the time it deserves. It's one of those "big" things, like The Bahamas or Existentialism or Etymology, where my love for the subject is so great that I would really want to put some thought into it and make it outstanding, at least by my standards. But we shall see! :)

I have pretty much decided that I'm not going to completely rehaul this place as a joined fanlisting collective, and instead will make it a simple personal site. I will then probably put my joined listings over at The Other Place, which is still a work in progress. It seems a lot simpler that way...but we all know I'll probably change my mind on this yet again, so who knows. :)

I'm doing my two-month checks a little early this cycle so that I can get back on a nice, easy-to-remember date – the first of the month! Hopefully, I will also be able to do another big sweep by the end of this month, which could potentially put me in good shape to not have to do checks again until after midterms. Of course, I do check my listings almost daily as it is, but I hate having that pressure during the most stressful parts of each semester.

I was very lucky to be approved for two of my biggest wishes – Ray LaMontagne and Washington, D.C. I am going to use some of my own photographs for the D.C. layout, but I'm having trouble picking exactly which ones to use since I have so many of them. :) I really want to capture all of the city and not just the political side of it, so hopefully it'll turn out nicely. And having Ray's listing is just a dream, so I'm still not quite sure what I'll do with it, but I expect it to be pretty simple, just like him.

I'm disappointed that my move is taking a lot longer than I'd expected, but I'm still aiming to have it all done by the start of the semester. I really, really want it all done no later than September 1, so I'm still hard at work on it. I also have a Literature troubles check to finish over the next few days, hopefully tomorrow, but then things should be a lot easier after that. :) And I have one pending adoption application, so fingers crossed there. :)