Happy New Year everyone!! I’m sure you are all sick of hearing that by now. We have all waved goodbye to 2009 and hopefully we will welcome 2010 with open arms. I’m just happy because now I can say the year twenty ten (you know that sounds cool!). I have been busy looking through my old blog archives to compile a list of good times from last year. It’s amazing how many things I have forgotten, thanks for saving me archives!  So here is my list of all the good things that happened in 2009 (including links to blog posts!): 

 

• I went to New York with people from my old college.
• I went on my first little get away with Chris to Castleton.
• I transferred Kihugs.com to its new host.
• I had my 18th Birthday and became officially an adult.
• I bought my Nintendo Wii and became even more of a gaming addict.
• I stated watching the anime Shugo Chara.
• I had my final college exams and I passed them all.
• I applied to study English Language at university and I got in!
• I started my driving lessons (not far off my test now!).
• It was mine and Chris’s three year anniversary and we went to see Beauty & the Beast at the theatre.
• I bought my new pink phone, the Samsung Genio touch and even did a video review.

 

2009 seems like it was a busy year for me and I hope that 2010 is going to be just as good and hopefully even better. I don’t usually make resolutions as I never seem to be able to stick to them or I forget them (my memory is terrible). This year I want to study hard for university to make the most out of it and I also want to cut back on the sweets I eat (this one is going to be tough!). So what are you new years resolutions and do you think you’re going to stick to them?

Oh and just before I go I would like to say:


Happy Birthday Chris!

 

It’s my boyfriend’s 19th birthday today! I’m going to go to his house later and give him his presents/cards. :)

So once more I’m going to say Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good 2009 and I hope this year is even better for you all.

xxx

PS. My new Emu boots came today. I will post pictures in my next blog!

Labels: 2010, chris, internet, kihugs, new year, personal, university

“Larissa has disappeared off the face of the Blogosphere”.

Hello readers! Remember me? (insert tumbleweed here)

Well as I mentioned in a previous post (and on several other occasions) I have been busy with revising for exams, which are approaching fast. I have three weeks left until everything is finished and by that I mean all of my exams and university preparations will be done.

I am looking forward to being free from work and stress. I can then concentrate on other things I want to do, such as learning how to drive, getting a part time job, spending time with Chris and blogging. I feel like because of exams everything I want to do has to be put on hold, even though I know it will all pay off in the end when (if!) I get good results. Don’t worry I will be sure to inform you all of my results when I get them, so wish me luck. :)

I will also apologise for my neglect to return comments/visit blogs as often as I should. I only manage comment when I am on a break or have 5 minutes to spare.

Moving on, the title of my post is “Come back to the Blogosphere” simply because I hate it when bloggers disappear for months and don’t post to explain if they’re coming back or the reason why they’re away. I check their blogs because I’m subscribed and I like reading them. I find it disappointing when I visit a website which is literally dead.

Can you relate to this? Share any experiences you have had in the comment box below.

Bye for now. xx

[edit] For those of you who are wondering, my final exam is on the 18th of June and finishes at 15:30 (GMT). I will be officially free after that time. :) [/edit]

Labels: college, internet, personal

Just thought I'd share with you one of my favourite episodes off UltraKawaii.com. :)

Labels: internet

While surfing around on the internet I noticed a cute little meme on splitbrain.org. It was a silly meme called Draw a bunny.

The idea of the meme is to spread smiles by drawing bunnies and then tagging your online friends to do the same.

I've decided to spread a little bit of happiness today with my very own bunny, "Fluffy". Here she is in all her Microsoft Paint glory:

xxx

Labels: internet, meme

I thought today I'd share with you one of my favourite episodes from Yu-Gi-Oh: The abridged series.

I think the voices are done brilliantly, they sound more or less the same as the actual TV show. It's one of my favourite internet parodys.

You can watch the first episode here.

Labels: humour, internet

Chris came to my house today. It was good because I've not been feeling to well lately and he cheered me up. It's shame when he has to go home because we can literally talk for hours! The picture represents me when I have to say goodbye to Chris. :)

This is a short blog because I just thought I'd promote the forum I use. It's called Snark and it was made by Jacky of Dubious.nu.

There are nice people there who can help you with any problems you may have, be it personal or web-related. They are also really funny!

I hope I can see you there. 'Night!

xxx

Labels: chris, internet, personal

Do you ever find that you get carried away on forums?

I know I do.

I will say to myself that I will only spend an hour or so on a forum but I always end up finding a topic I'm interested in and start posting in it.

Also because I haven't been feeling to well lately I find that I spend more and more time on the internet. Yet, I'm not updating Kihugs like I'm supposed to. I tend to use Kihugs in the week as more of a boredom killer, especially when I feel like college is giving me a headache. Typing in my blog is quite soothing. The way the keyboard goes, tap tap tap. Ah.

Weekends are forum time in my opinion. A chance to catch up on the threads and topics I want to post messages in. This weekend I got a little too carried away (as you can probably tell).

So I thought I'd share another cute video with you.



I always do that when the fan comes out in the summer. Its so funny to talk into them, don't you think? Or is that just me being strange. ^_^;

My questions for today are:

1) Do you visit forums and if so, are you a regular poster?
2) Do ever talk into fans like the video?
3) What was the last film you watched and was it any good?
4) What is you favourite word/saying?


My answers:

1) Yeah, go to my links section to visit the forums I use.
2)Yep, its fun!
3) The last film I watched was "27 Dresses" on dvd with my mum. Its a real feel good kind of film and is really funny in some parts. Also James Marsden is in it, he was one of my favourite X-men.
4) My favourite saying of the moment is what has made Picture of the week this week. Brace yourself, here it is:

Labels: internet, personal, picture of the week, update

Do you like sending your website to be reviewed at a WPR site? Do you expect that the person in charge of that said site has at least some fairly good knowledge of the Internet and the various "ins and outs" of HTML/PHP/design, before they start reviewing your site?

My answer to both of those questions is, Yes.

Yes with a capital "Y".

I'm pretty sure you feel the same way too. Unless you have low standards and don't care about the quality of the review you receive; you're ok with that fact that some young 13 year old is churning out reviews, faster than you can click that "submit" button.

I love receiving reviews. They help me to improve my site, fix any errors or just generally give me some useful tips that I can take and learn from. Criticism is fine as long as its constructive and isn't just some person typing for the sake of it.

This is an example from a site that reviewed Georgina's site, Heartdrops (refer back to my blog on web design dos and don'ts). Georgina offers her own reviews on her site which are concise and well written. Why on earth she put her quality site in the hands of this inexperienced person I will never know.

This is the final summarising point that the "reviewer" gave about the site Heartdrops:


Ick. This whole review reeked of opinionated rubbish and spelling mistakes galore; similar to the example I gave above. There was nothing constructive with the above quote. I'm sure Georgina didn't want people to "obbessed" (I think you meant, obsessed) with her layout. She designed it to be aesthetically pleasing and to show her personality. This reviewer seems pretty close-mined.

This reviewer however did admit that their English wasn't that good, but celebrity layouts?! Doesn't this person realise that using and redistributing celebrity images is illegal; you don't need to be good at speaking English to know that. That is just plain ignorance.

The reviewer also complained about the layout at the beginning of her review, stating that one of her "scripts" should have been used. I then proceeded to click on the link to these so called scripts and to my surprise I found, wait for it, more stolen celebrity images!

I would have thought that "scripts" would have meant pre coded layouts but this above monstrosity just shows how stupidly hopeful I was being.

That site was just one example, but there are many other sites doing exactly the same thing.

When a reviewer like this shows that they are clearly not internet savvy (they didn't even declare a Doctype), would you honestly expect to receive a decent review from them. All you are doing is submitting your personal site to a lame WPR site that is going to stick your review on "coming soon" for about ten weeks, shove all peaceful reasoning in a blender and make a mockery of the English language.

Well, I'm sorry but I just can't do that to Kihugs and I hope you will be careful when picking who you want to review your site.

Ask yourself these questions:

How long has this said reviewer been "reviewing" sites: Are the experienced or have they just set up their ".co.nr" domain?

What is the quality of the reviews they give like: Are they clear and well spoken or would their spelling and grammar make your English teacher cry in the corner?

Are they nice: This is a pretty broad question but basically, are they stingy with the marks they give? Are they constantly giving out low scores without any justification? Do they stink of "I'm only doing these reviews to promote my site" BO?

If the answers to these questions were all negative then run away from that site. Fast.


However not all reviews are bad and if you join sites such as Review me you will see how reviews can be done fairly based on a point system. Also there are many good sites that offer reviews as their owners invest time and effort into each review.

So don't let this article put you off reviews at all, just be more aware of what makes your site not worth "submitting" to the shame (pardon the pun) of a badly put together review site.


All opinions expressed in this article are my own. Thanks to Gerogina at Heartdrops for creating a great site. :)

Labels: articles, internet

Websites are easy to make. You just grab a previously made layout template, shove it down Freewebs throat (or worse you could get the thing hosted) and make it spew up a Teenybopper prodigy site right?

Wrong.

I've been browsing on the Internet long enough to know what makes a good website; an enjoyable one. After all isn't that the whole point of creating a visitor website. You want your visitors to enjoy the content and not run screaming from the monitor because they spot something like this:

Labels: articles, internet, tutorials

Hiya, I'm back! Sorry I took so long in posting again but this week has been quite hectic. I went to the university and had a good long chat about my courses for college. The man who was there was really friendly and helpful. He explained to me that even someone with loads of Ucas points doesn't always get accepted into the university. He says that if I just work hard, he sees no problem of me getting in the university! So now I know that I can achieve what I want. It seems I'm not the only person who college has let down. I was talking to one of my friends in English class and they were having the same problem with their courses being canceled due to funding problems.

Its just a huge relief that I have finally got things sorted out and I'm not feeling as stressed anymore. Shola, my best friend, helped me a lot during all of this. Just by being supportive and a shoulder to cry on.

My CardCaptor Sakura box set came yesterday! :3 I'm so happy because it has taken less than a week to arrive. I'm already watching it as I am typing this blog. ~Nya! ^^
I have put a picture up too, click on it to view a bigger picture.


I've gone and ordered the two CCS movies off eBay too! £9 for two movies is a good price and they are both on one disc. :)

My first day at college was okay, I'm quite pleased with my new timetable as I have only one early start and, seen as I'm only doing 2 A2's and an AS, I have less hours. I start college at half past 2 on a Monday! That means I get to sleep in! hehehe :3
My form class is pretty good too as most of my friends are in it and I more or less know everyone there.

The only thing that is annoying about going back is that there are so many new students starting out that the college is packed at dinner time. The queue was massive on Friday! T_T

I'm sure what to do today, maybe Chris will come round and we can watch a DVD or something.

Oh yeah, Kawaii Awards season one has ended so be sure to pick up your awards. :)

Well I'm off now. Ja ne!

xxxxx

Labels: college, internet, kihugs, personal, shopping, update

I've been quite busy today. I woke up at 9, which is very early for me, due to the fact that the postman was ringing the doorbell repeatedly. I finally managed to drag myself out of bed to accept a parcel from him that was way to big to fit through the door. I bashed it against the banister on the stairs and nearly fell over the stupid thing. I'm not a morning person and going back to college is defiantly going to make things worse.

I can just see it now, being bogged down with work and revision. Oh, joy. The only person that manages to keep me from going completely insane there is Shola. Seriously, if it wasn't for my friend I think I'd become even more of a hermit then I am now. Actually I should withdraw that comment, I don't want people thinking I have no life. Trust me though, college eats all your time up. Or should I say, High school for all you American readers. I'm confused. :s

I've felt a bit of empowerment with Kihugs today. I've deleted all of the dead link affiliates! God knows what happened to the rule that affiliates are supposed to keep in touch. They must think that once you have linked them then that's it, they don't have to mention you or talk to you. Why on earth then should I even be advertising their lazy asses?!

I've decided that now I'm just going to have links on the side that I like visiting (blog roll) and who comment me regulary (Top affiliates). I will also still link swap and advertise with people but I'm sorry to those affiliates who got deleted. Well actually I'm not, you got deleted because basically you were nothing to Kihugs. I get better comments from people who aren't even affiliates!

Thanks to this article about Teen-bopperitis on Ubiquitous I have now seen where I have gone wrong in even wanting to be "affiliated" with sites like these. There are loads of these sites and I can see how annoying they can be for people to have to view. They are basically filled up with page fodder (like random facts *yawn*) and there is nothing worthwhile that I want to take back from a site like that.

Honestly, I don't care what your pets look like, whether they are dead or on holiday. People don't want to know 20 random facts about you, like the fact that you don't like broccoli.

I also agree that when people do this its just plain annoying:


The whole raping your eyes with underlining, italics and bolding is just aggravating. Saying random words to display interests is something these people love to do. I still can't really understand why.

You should head over to Crystals site and see what I mean about this.

The funny thing is, is that I used to look up to sites like these and want mine to be just like them, I soon changed my mind about that! When you get right down to it, all they offer is the same content. Stolen celebrity images seems to be their favourites. "Omgz I has liek these k0Ol blendz, no stealin!" Seriously?! X_x

xxxx

Labels: articles, college, daily, internet, personal

[Edit]
Ahh! I'm so smart. Sorry but I am. Haha. I though that I'd never be able to get Kihugs to work with the super big screen size 1152 x 864 but I have. I've fixed the coding on the pages so that the affie/advert/update links don't go zooming of to the left and that there isn''t a big white gap on the right when Kihugs is viewed in larger screens. I've also made it compatible for those annoying 800 x 600 resolutions (yes some people still use them!). I'm shattered! Night. xx
[/End Edit]

I got my first review back from Georgina @ Out The Window and after following some advice from her, plus some of my friends, I redesigned Kihugs. I quite like how this version turned out. Shola said to me that I should design something that I would be happy with, never mind what I think people want. So I didn't do a typical celebrity layout. Changing the topic a bit, I love that render of Sakura at the top! Credits for some the images used in this layout go to here and here. I've updated all my pages, you may need to refresh Kihugs to see the new layout ;) Tell me what you think!
Today has been quite good as I have been busy on Kihugs and just relaxing. You know when its just ones of those days where you want to sleep because its warm. Its such nice weather though, so I might go out tomorrow.
I saw the new batman film yesterday, the Dark Knight, it was awesome. If you're a Batman fan, then you will love that film. haha :3
Bye bye! xxx

Labels: internet, kihugs, personal, update

Hiya everyone, sorry I haven't updated for a couple of days. I have been quite ill. Been having migraines and feeling dizzy, but today I seem to have recovered quite a bit. Probably due to Shola's (my best friend) support. :) Tomorrow we are going out to have a laugh and just chillax (chill/relax). :D

Kihugs has a new affiliate, Afef from Strawberry Gashes! So please check out her site and blogs, they are really good. :)

No real major updates to discuss, other than Kawaii Awards seems to be doing well and the voting is set to start on the 1st of August so good luck to everyone who has nominated their site!
Feel free to join, also you can join Kihugs topsites too and apply for free advertising.

Well this is quite a late blog so I'm signing off for tonight!

Night Night xxxx <3

Labels: internet, kihugs, update

Got to feel proud of myself today as I have finally integrated a blogging service with Kihugs. I heard about being able to upload blogs via Blogger to your ftp server and I decided to give it a go. This service is great as now I don't have to manually edit my homepage and then input haloscan onto it to try and make it look like a blog. hehe :)

In case you're wondering how come I didn't just use cutenews, its because my host doesn't provide php. It's not that bad as I don't really have to edit all my pages when uploading something. I'm so happy now as I can blog from college when I go back! :3

Just a quick shout out here to my best friend Shola. She has been my inspiration to keep going and I'd just like to say thanks Shola; I look forward to when you're in the best sellers list. ;D

Today has been a pretty average day. My boyfriend Chris has gone away for a week with his family in Cornwall so I'm gonna miss him. Looks like I'll have the gamecube all to myself.

I'm really happy that so many people have entered over at my site, Kawaii Awards. I've already created the award templates and the voting is due to start at then end of this month. Good Luck everyone!



Hehe, I just had to put this video up. I love Lucky Star. <3

Labels: daily, internet, kihugs, personal, update