So after a few weeks of planning, I actually got to work on my new website at the weekend. Everything was on hold because of Uni exams etc. This one is a private family website which will basically revolve around a forum so that people can interact rather than just have a static website. I started on Friday just setting up the basics, deciding on a name, and then spent most of yesterday modifying it.

We are all so very bad at keeping in touch with each other that I thought (since I semm to spend half my life online) we should give keeping in touch online a try. So I have emailed everyone in the family that I know has an email address, and hopefully they will email their contacts in turn, and maybe I will actually get to meet some of my scattered family, even if its only online at first. I get so sick of everyone missing birthdays or not realising some big event is coming up or just not bothering to tell people they are going on holiday or moving etc. So I thought we could at least try and keep in touch this way.

I started work on a family tree a couple of years back and that was quite difficult and I came to a bit of a dead end, so I am hoping that having more immediate contact with more family members might help solve some of the mysteries in the tree too. I have many uncles, aunts and cousins that I have never met. Some of that is due to me travelling and living in other countries but also because of weird family disputes way back so far that no one can even remember what they were about in the first place. And some of it is just down to the fact that people in this country just don’t travel very much! So you get a card at Christmas and maybe meet at a funeral or something! (Speaking of funerals, the last one I was at, I had to keep asking someone who was not related to tell me who everyone was as I had never met half of them before)

I have set it up under clans since all of them are Scottish originally, so when you go to register on the site, you get to select your family crest and family name group and the country you are in so you get a little flag. I had a lot of fun with that bit and creating all the crest badges. lol I am such a sad case. All extended family are included too, so for example my brother’s wifes family, my cousins in-laws etc. I think it’s going to be really cool and a good way to let kids safely use a site on the internet and get some great experience and meet their relations. It has a ‘myspace without the idiots’ feel to it with extended profiles, friends lists, wishlists, comments, and also chat, gallery, and arcade and shop like my other sites. Depending on how it goes we might open it to ‘family friends’ too for those really-close-they-are-almost-related friends. I am visualizing arcade battles and family secret santas, family gatherings and never missing another birthday again lol. In reality I will probably have a bunch of people who are not familiar with computers, the internet, message boards, or have the ability to type, all asking me the same questions over and over again. Some of the older generations may have some problems but there are plenty of younger people to help them out. So long as we can get past that stage and no one gives up then I think we have the makings of a real live family tree.

On Friday I got in touch with one of my Uncles on my dad’s side. It was really exciting. I havent seen him for over 10 years and he lives about 2 hours away, and I don’t really know him at all. I don’t know any of his kids, though I found out on Friday that two of them are in the US and one of them is a teacher in California somewhere. I had no idea since I didnt even know what their names were! On my mum’s side I only know one Uncle, as they all went into the armed forces when they left school and then scattered all over the world, so I have never met any of them. I even have an uncle in the Mounties! I am hoping somehow to track them all down and make it easier for us all to stay connected – assuming they want to of course lol

So today I am almost at the stage where I can direct everyone to go register. It did take me most of the day yesterday due to the amount of modifying and I found myself wishing I got paid by the hour for that kind of work. That could be quite lucratrive if anyone was willing to pay for that stuff lol. I enjoyed doing it but it can be quite tiring as you have to really concentrate and not screw anything up and no two installations ever work out the same way.

I think I may even have been dreaming about this last night hahaha

Other news is that the Empire of the Cat is coming up on its second birthday in a couple of weeks. We have started a countdown and a birthday postathon and will be having other celebrations, competitions and prizes etc as we get closer to the actual anniversary day. Doing all this work over the weekend has seriously put me behind in the postathon, so I have some major catching up to do!

• Library Tags:clans, empire of the cat, family, family tree, family website, postathon
• Whereabouts:beside myself

Ok so I was going to call it the summer of creativity, or the summer of writing, or even the summer of love, no scratch that, but then I get way too ambitious and come August look back and discover I have done none of the things I promised I would do in June.

So let’s stick to one thing at a time El, it’s really tough for me as I tend to multi-task my brains out, but I am dedicating myself to the summer of writing!  *gasp*

Two major reasons for this are NANOWRIMO in November and the writing of my sequel (and no I have not finished / finished editing last year’s book so I really need to get on that or the sequel won’t make much sense) and the fact that Uni starts in September and this part of my course is Creative Writing!  Yes you heard it heard first, it was that or 19thC fiction, but then I can always do that later and Creative Writing will be much more beneficial to me now.  Plus, after that finishes and I sit my exams next June (<— forward planning and thinking ahead) I will have some kind of Diploma in Creative Writing and Literature which is pretty cool to get something while you are in the middle of a second degree, like some kind of halfway reward or something.

One minor reason for the summer of writing is that, God-damn-it, I have so many ideas that pop into my head and then pop out again before I get time to write them down (on account of being way too busy with a million other things) or I get them at weird times when I can’t write them down, like being in the bath reading someone else’s book!  So I am emptying my head for the summer and letting the creativity flow.

So if you see me doing something else and absolutely no evidence of writing, then feel free to poke me – often.

All I need now is “Cheese, George, Cheese”

*goes off to walk the kitties*

• Library Tags:diploma, nanowrimo, summer, uni, writing
• Whereabouts:still in the garden
• Current Feeling:creative
• Currently Playing:with the kitties

Ok Big Brother started last week and I said I wasn’t gonna watch it because it numbs my brain and it really is the most God-awful program and needs to die now.

However, one of my friends has forced me to watch it with them a few times and yes my head is numb.

This time around they filled the house with women. Yes, 11 of them, all competing with each other, all bitching about each other, all superficial and brainless.

Then they throw a MAN into the mix, the bitchiness and competitiveness goes through the roof. The poor guy doesnt know what’s hit him as he stands there truly bewildered asking ‘why are you all being so bitchy to each other?’ Aww poor guy, he obviously has never seen a group of women like that, all locked up together and they all look like they are about to eat him alive. It also doesn’t help that there aren’t enough beds and he has to choose to sleep with someone. Turn up the bitchy/competition switch why don’t you.

But anyway, as if that’s not bad enough, as if we didnt have enough a few months ago with Celebrity (and I use the term loosely) Big Brother and all the accusations of racism, we have it again!!!

One of the vacant blondes, I don’t keep up with the names, (probably some kind of perfume) called one of the others ‘the n word’. The girl in question said she wasnt offended, then used the same word, as did the other girl next to her. Then the injured party declared it should be kept quiet to avoid any trouble and then promptly went around and told everyone in the house! Chaos ensued, the blonde was removed from the house in the middle of the night in her nightie while she complained that she wasn’t wearing any underwear and didnt want to leave the house like that at 3am. Oh yeah and that btw she was sorry and isnt a racist and didnt mean it but everyone uses that word.

To liven things up a bit they have thrown in two other men to the wolves, lions, girls, but this time they’re Gay.

* Yes, yes I know, not all women are bitchy, not all blondes are vacant, but these ones are!

• Library Tags:big brother, bitchiness, racism
• Whereabouts:somewhere else
• Current Feeling:annoyed
• Currently Playing:Kane Live