In the (en)coding mood...

So last night I ended up making 2 more Hikaru no Go VCDs, so I have up to episode 41. And then tonight I've been encoding episodes 43 and 44 (I already had 42 encoded), in order to make another VCD. (This is totally addicting.) Not to mention, I also encoded the two Weiß Kreuz Glühen episodes I have, in order to make that into a VCD too!

Besides that, I created a Yahoo!Group for updates to my fansub distro/trade site, called [NTP updates]. I used to have one for my auctions when I was selling Sailor Moon trading cards back on Yahoo!Auctions (before everyone switched over to ebay. But then, I had the mailing list with ListBot, but they're no longer in service.

So anyway, I made this mailing list for Nereid Trading Post Updates, and hopefully some of my regular requesters will join. I don't have all of their emails (to invite them), so I decided to make a pop-up window on my site, in the hopes that they'd see it and join. That's the bit of coding I was doing today. If you're nosy ::cough:: interested, you can go to http://ntp.koyasunomiko.com to see the pop-up. But here's an example of the subscription box:

Subscribe to [NTP updates]

Type in email and press return.

It's just another thing to do to keep life interesting. ^_~

Web hosting and domain names.

The other thing I've been doing is trying to figure out if I should transfer my webhosting and domain name away from Yahoo!Geocities. It's sort of expensive, but at the time it was the perfect solution for me because I didn't have to move any of my site since it was already on the free Yahoo! site. But at $11.95/month, I'm looking for a bit more than just 50mb of storage and 20gb of data transfer!

I came across a place on Lycos, called aplus.net, which offers 200mb of storge and unlimited data transfer for $9.95/month, the soloXR plan. With the Yahoo! plan, they automatically re-registered my domain name (koyasunomiko.com) when it expires, but with aplus.net, it would be an additional fee of $7.95/year, which isn't bad at all.

I think the only reason I'm hesitating is because I've never transferred my domain before, and I'm sort of nervous that something is going to happen to it. Also, I'm sort of confused as to their policy about the domain transfer; my domain was just re-registered as of December 17th, so what happens to the remainder of my registered time through Yahoo!? It's supposed to expire on December 17, 2003, but if I transfer it to aplus.net, will I still retain that time? Will I have to buy an additional year through aplus.net, so that it would potentially expire in 2004? Or would I have to pay that $7.95 for it to expire one year from when I actually transferred the domain?

If anyone has any suggestions, or comments like, "Sara, you're being silly, just transfer your webhosting and domain -- it'll be a lot cheaper for more space, and you'll be a lot happier," I would gladly welcome them!

Yay! New shoes!

A bit over a week ago, I placed an order at hottopic.com for two pairs of sneakers, a hooded sweatshirt, and another pair of sneakers for Liz. They came today while I was at work, and so I tried them on when I got home. They're look really cute, and they fit, so I'm definitely keeping them. All the shoes are by Volatile, which is my favorite brand of shoes -- they're really my style. Unfortunately, they don't have the velcro sneakers that I have now, but one has to take what one can get. The first pair is black with a silver and blue flame on the sides, in a size 11. I normally wear a size 9, but Volatile shoes run small and so I usually take a size 10, but Hot Topic didn't have any 10s left, so I just got an 11. Luckily, it really isn't too big, maybe about half an inch. Like the velcro version that I have now, they're going to take a while to break in. The second pair is black suede with gray piping, in a size 10. They fit perfectly and are really comfortable, which is a complete, but pleasant, surprise. Liz got the same black/gray sneakers as I did, but in a size 9 for herself. The hooded sweatshirt I got is by Dickies (whose double-knee work pants I adore). It's one size too large, but it doesn't look bad, so I'm keeping that too.

And now I really have no money.