I am working on Heliopolis updates - which I'm not really complaining about, because I love the site, but sometimes it is so overwhelming. I am editing the files that don't have word counts, because I added them directly to the database, instead of one at a time (which means I have to go through this process of clicking buttons and editing each chapter to update word counts, and make sure the category info and stuff is correct.

Helio2 and Helio:Atlantis went quickly, but I was working on Helio - which I can do about 10 files at a time, but I knew there was a lot, so I checked my database... there are over 2800 files that need to be edited... OMG!!!!

Anyway... am working my butt off on getting it sorted and adding new stuff. Check out the announcements at the site, if you are interested.

So, a bunch of the jewelry stuff that I ordered arrived today. It is very pretty. I am just waiting on the crystal beads to arrive, but they are coming from overseas and will have to clear customs, so I figure another week or so for them. In the meantime, I am planning supply orders as money comes in, and setting goals.

The biggest one that I have is to save enough to pay for my summer tuition. If I don't I won't be able to attend, as my husband works at the college (but not for it) and likely will be laid off all summer, again. That means I need to raise $1800, because there are classes in my degree program that are only offered in the summer session, such as Parasitology.

As I mentioned, my eBay and jewelry stuff will be going to that goal. I am not going to count what I have spent so far, but everything I make or spend from now on will go toward my goal. (And I made a nice little visual to keep myself on track.)



I have about $200 worth of supplies that I want to order as soon as I get the money, and I have to replace my dremel, unfortunately, but I have some nice pieces planned/started. It is helping with my current level of depression to make things and accomplish things. I like that.


______________

Also, Spring Break is a few weeks away, which means some of my classes will be ending for the semester. That means more hours at work (which is good), and also that it's that time of year to do a major overhaul on Heliopolis - mainly installing the new skins and hunting down all of the missing/fragmented stories.... A lot of work, but I am looking forward to doing it.


That's all for now :)

The fics are up and the voting form is finally working. All of the stories are listed under the author "Challenge_Admin" to be anonymous until voting is over. Please don't share the identity of the authors.

SG-1 stories, Holiday & Rewrite Challenges

Atlantis stories, All Challenges

The link to the voting form can be found at the end of any of the stories. please read them all before voting, and only vote once. Also, please make sure that you are logged in to vote.

I am also working on adding some new stuff to the site if things start acting weird, so please be patient.

Is there anyone around who is familiar with PHP (and possibly eFiction) that can help me with the contact page. I have been working for hours on Helio trying to get it to do something, that I thought it was doing, and then duplicating it to make a voting form. It shows up almost correctly on the site, but isn't emailing me the correct information.

If you can look it over in email or YIM, PLEASE, PLEASE drop me a message so that I can get this up ASAP. My eyes are starting to cross from the code.

The Helio Fic Challenge Contest is now open for submissions. Real prizes, including DVD's, gift certificates, personalized graphics, and more, will be awarded to the winners.



There has been very little response to this idea so far, but I hope you will all join in the fun and participate. Happy Holidays, everyone!



And because it amused me:

Beginning 01 December 2007, I will be running a fanfic challenge and contest for Heliopolis. There will be a selection of challenges, and prizes for winning stories in several categories, as chosen by visitors to the site. Prizes will include DVDs, gift certificates to Amazon.com, paid livejournal time, and more.

If you would like to suggest a challenge and/or sponsor a prize for the contest, feel free to do so in comments to this livejournal entry. Anonymous entries are allowed, if you include your e-mail address. Comments will be screened to allow this, so that your information will be private and challenges will be a surprise. I hope to have many categories, entires and prizes, so, I hope that everyone will participate.

I have been seeing wishlists go up for my friends over the last week or so, and I have been thinking about what I could do and getting my own together to post. Well, I am completely shocked and stunned at the moment, because I just received two boxes in the mail from a regular visitor to Heliopolis.

One of those boxes contained all of the seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis that I didn't have and had put on my Amazon.com Wishlist. This was completely unexpected and stunning. I am constantly amazed by the generosity of the people that I meet on-line and especially over the last few years at Helio.

I may still post my wishlist later, but for me, I have already received a huge gift that means so much more than any monetary value that it might have.

I think I will put together a screencap gallery for Heliopolis, to give a little something back to the community. I will add it to the list of improvements/fixes that I have planned for winter break.

Happy Holidays and best wishes to my Santa and to all of you.

Well, I can add Hastings (chain bookstore/viseo rental/coffee shop) to the places where I can get on-line. I don't have a CD or DVD writer on my laptop, but it does have a wireless card, and there's a free wireless network here. It's not quite as fast as the LAN network at the college, but since DH is not working, he can hang out and read while I work on the the website.

I have until Saturday morning to get Helio sorted, because last week, I posted a notice that I would be available all weekend via e-mail and Y!IM chat to help people get sorted with the new interface and general hand holding and debugging.

I'm posting a to-do list here to track my progress between now and Saturday morning.

1) Redownload all story files from server to C drive. (70% complete). 10 May 07 00:16
2) Recreate the ~1650 folders necessary to store new story files according to author # for the main archive. 10 May 07 00:49
3) Rename story files ~7000 (?) from their current naming structure to match the Story ID # from the database.
4) Strip out the html/php coding at beginning and end of stories and generally convert all php files to txt files.
5) Sort numbered, text, story files into author folders.
6) Upload the whole lot.
3-6b) Adult archive. 11 May 07 14:32
7) Find minions to help with #8. 11 May 07 15:18 - email's sent and DH roped into helping :)
8) Validate story files (with extra step for editing to match story with database info).
9) Begin releasing author accounts by verifying and updating e-mail info, and creating contact form.


Bonus tasks :
1) New skins, fix skins for Helio eFiction.
2) Three fest stories.
3) Belated birthday fic for softly_sweetly

DH has been watching a Buffy marathon since school is out and he is now layed off for the summer. The good news is that he qualified for unemployment, which will get us by, as long as we don't need, say food or gas for the car, you know, extras like like. We have found some extra ways to bring in money though - like ebay, etc, so it's not so bad.

Livejournal is annoying me, though. My stylesheet hasn't been showing up for like a week. I think it's because I use an external sheet. My domain is fine, the link is good, and it's not a hotlinking problem, because icons and my mood theme are all good, so it's a lj thing. I want to redesign it anyway, and post the new stylesheet in the custom stylesheet box in the customization thing, but I don't have time right now.

I am hard at work on Helio, with almost every waking moment working on renaming, moving, converting, uploading, or otherwise spindling files. I am going insane, but I have to be finished this week. This is taking too long, but it is a LOT of work.

I also have fest stories due the 12th, 14th and 20th, and I am having so much trouble writing. I keep editing, or doodling notes, or extraneous stuff. I can't focus. I think I really have two modes, and I am too focused on the logical right now (from all of the coding) to successfully be creative. I may post more about that later.

Oh, yeah, I need to code a new skin for Helio, too, and some images for the ones I do have. Also, my last Torchwood icons are due the 16th. I see very little sleep in my future.

As you may have noticed, there has been a marked lack of posting and commenting from me in the last few weeks. This is likely to continue for at least the immediate future. As I mentioned in my last post, we are in the process of moving. I've been spending a lot of time at the new house, which, until today, didn't even have electricity. Internet and/or phone service is still up in the air at this point. I need to decide by Friday whether I am going to continue with dial-up and an extra phone line, or take the plunge and get cable and cable internet. I need to decide if I really want the extra expense, since my husband may possibly be laid off for the summer (he works at the college). I'd really like the faster internet, as I currently do any major uploading/downloading at the college in town. Also, since we are down to just my laptop, computer-wise, cable might be a good investment for something to do around the house (hubby's computer and my old laptop both died within a few weeks of each other).

The point of my rambling is that I haven't had an internet connection, and am not likely to for the next while. I'll try to check in from time to time, and maybe try to kick this writer's block. Fortunately, I can do a lot of my coding and database work for Heliopolis off-line, and then upload everything in a few hours at the college. That's kind of my current goal. I hope to have it completely finished on my end by May 1st, and then sort out all of the author's stuff. It's coming along nicely.

Feel free to leave me a message, links, writing prompts, etc, and I'll answer them all as I can.

Happy Easter to those of that persuasion, and and a belated Oestara/Mabon to others...

Wish me luck. We can't really afford it, but we are driving to Memphis today to go to the VA. My diabetes is really out of control and now I have a really bad UTI, and the symptoms are only getting worse. I am hoping that I will be able to see someone and get some antibiotics, insulin, and birth control pills. The Women's clinic is pretty deserted on Fridays though, and the ER will probably refer me down there. They'll probably try to refer me for an appointment, but Friday is the only day that my husband doesn't work, and it can take months to get an appointment through normal channels. I just hope that someone will see me today and help me. I hate going there and getting screwed around, but I have been having bad symptoms for almost a month and I can't take it any more.


On a better note, I haven't been around livejournal much this week, because I've been working on Heliopolis. The database for Helio2 is almost complete, and I have minions people working on helping me get the last bits sorted and validated. It should be ready in a couple of day. Only the main archive is left. I'm about cross-eyed from looking at code and database information.

I am in desperate need of a new external hard drive and have been bemoaning that fact, because my other two are getting full.

One of them has four partitions - 1 with my games and SIMS files, 1 with all of my 3000+ mp3s, 1 with all of my graphics and media files, and 1 with all of my personal and website stuff, including Heliopolis and some commissioned work that I need to update. It refuses to turn on. I am so completely and totally screwed. It is kind of my back-up, but also all of my work is on it. I am hoping that it is as simple as needing a new AC adapter, but it was working before I left the house this morning, and the plug looks fine. I am going to try to buy one. I need these files, and desperately need access to this hard drive. I cannot lose it - I just can't.

I can't afford a new hard drive right now, and only have 4 more days that I can come to the college to download things to try and replace a small portion of my files. I am completely panicked. All of that work is gone ... months and months of work, in the case of Helio - all of my working files and databases.

I could really use a holiday miracle.

I haven't had a response from my hosting company re: the current problems, and my other e-mail addresses from my other accounts (such as my personal domain, panthermoon.com) were inaccessible for most of the day. I have come to the conclusion that I need to go ahead and change service providers. I think that I have chosen one, recomended to me by other fans. I have the option of prepaying for a year. I think I am going to take the leap and do that, and hope that it works out better than my last effort. It really is much cheaper in the long run, and I think that I can make changes to keep the site stable for at least that long. I have chosen a package with a larger bandwidth allowance and options similiar to those that I currently enjoy.

As usual, I can't make this move without help. I have some of the money required for the payment, but need about $300 more to prepay the account for the year. If I receive enough to do that, I will. If not, I will pay the set-up fee and the slightly larger month-by-month fee.

If you enjoy the site, and are able to donate, and wish to, I can still accept paypal donations, or you can e-mail me at rachel-c [at] sbcglobal [dot] net for my snail mail address.

There may be a slight delay in getting the site back up and running, but it is my intention to have it up and intact by Sunday, 16, July, 2006.

Here is a link to paypal donations:

Hey, guys, I need a favor, from those of you in the Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis fandoms. I need about $60 this week to make a renewal payment for Heliopolis.

If any of you can spare a few dollars via paypal, I would appreciate the help in keeping these sites up and running.

Gakked from geonncannon.

Gen. Hammond Congratulations! You scored 100!

Congratulations! You have achieved a perfect score! You are obviously a huge fan of Stargate SG-1; you have earned the rank "Gen. Hammond". You are indeed a mighty warrior of the Tau'ri. Please don't forget to rate this test!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 95% on SGPoints

Link: The Stargate SG-1 Fan Test written by Burnt-Out on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

All back-logged changes (except a few to the old 1989-2004 archive) are now completed. If something isn't done, please e-mail me with the details.

A few issues that I encounter repeatedly during updates (FAQ's):

A story without a title/link occurs when neither a file nor a link were uploaded for a story, and as such, does not really exist in the archive. For off-site stories, I can add the link, if it is provided for me. For stories that were supposed to be archived, I delete the false entry, and allow you to upload them.

Do not upload multiple instances of a story, when there is a problem. You run the risk of having them ALL deleted when I am trying to fix the problem, and then you will only have to reload it again, anyway.

It is difficult for me to make changes to the archive, or delete files, if I don't have the title of the story, and the author, at least. For best and quickest results, copy the entire entry from the search pages and include it in your e-mail. If I don't have enough information to act on your request, I have to write you back and ask for it, and then can't make your changes until the NEXT update. Help us both out.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Yesterday was not so fun around here. My husband lost his job, and then I came home to find that Heliopolis had been hacked. There was a trojan on the site and large amounts of files had been overwritten. I was able to fix most of the problems with the site, but any stories that were uploaded between 10 Nov 05 and 23 Nov 05, had to be deleted, because I didn't have back-ups of them, and all of the story files had been truncated.

None of the pop-ups, links to other sites, etc were meant to be on this site, this includes the warez link that showed up in the news section. Whoever hacked this site, changed everything, and it took me hours to find all of the files that were affected. I am still working on uploading the corrected files to the main archive.

I advise everyone who has visited this site this week (since Sunday, 20 Nov 05) to run a virus scan on your computer, on the chance that you may have downloaded this trojan. I wouldn't want anyone to be affected by this.

For this holiday, I wanted to let everyone know that despite the roller coaster my life has seemed to been on since August, I am quite thankful for many things in my life, not the least of which are everyone that I have met on-line, who have kept me in your thoughts and prayers and those who have offerred their support. More than once, one of you have made my day brighter. My husband and I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving, whether you are in America or overseas.

Most of you who have known me for a while, know that I have terrible migraines. Well, I don't know who I pissed off, but lately, they are even worse than usual. Lately, it seems like I always have a headache. I am on some new meds and making the rounds with the drs (neuro, endo, gp, etc.), but aarggh, I forgot about the hang-over that comes from some of these meds. I slept all day on Thurs, and I can still feel the beginnings of another headache sneaking up on me.

This is all relevant, because for the last 6 weeks or so, I have been trying to upgrade Heliopolis. Do you have any idea how hard it is to look at html code with a migraine - or any kind of headache for that matter? People are clamouring for updates, and I don't blame them in the least, but - it is so hard.

Right now, I am putting together the old archive, which at last count had 8,500+ entires in it... and i am trying to get the upload feature working on the other three archives, but there is a bug in the quicksearch page that I cannot for the life of me find, and it is frustrating as hell.

I am determined to get through this weekend, with my sanity intact, and as much of that done as humanly possible. Wish me luck.

I have Stargate on the brain, which isn't surprising with the time I spend on Heliopolis lately. I've been reading a lot of fic too, though mostly J/D slash. I'm thinking of writing some.... just looking for a vicious plot bunny. If anyone has one that needs adopting, let me know.

As for the quiz.........


You are Samantha Carter. You are VERY intelligent. Although people can't understand your technical language very well, they appreciate your knowledge. Wormholes and calculations are your business and you're damn good at what you do.

Which Stargate SG-1 Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, wasn't expecting that one, though I guess maybe I should have.

Oh, and if you want to find some good Stargate fanfic, the 2004 award winners were just announced. Check them out!