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Entries from category: Site
Notices and Shameless Plugging.Filed under: Life, Plugs, Site
I. So-Patiently.net went offline for good on July 17th - the name expired and as I mentioned several times before, I have no intention to renew it. Therefore, please update your links to point at the new domain, if you haven't done so yet. 
II. On the fanlisting front, when I opened Midnight Lullaby, I only moved three of them to the new domain - the three that had been converted to Enthusiast and had had a layout change. The plan was to convert and revamp my other fanlistings before moving them... but I got lazy, and then I was busy, and in the end, I didn't do that before the old domain went offline. Last week, I rushed to move all those fanlistings to Midnight Lullaby and make them available again. That's done now, but the conversion and new layouts will have to wait a little while longer - possibly until I go back to school.
III. I went to an anime convention called Otakuthon this past weekend with a group of my friends (we all dressed up as Final Fantasy characters). Those of you who are on my LiveJournal friends list can see pictures of the events; I made two posts: one with a convention report and pictures my friends took, and a second one with links to pictures others took of us and posted online. 
IV. I've started translating some of my Harry Potter fanfiction from English to French - French speakers can find them on my FanFiction.net account, as well as in my fic journal. 
And that's it for now. I hope you guys are having a great summer. As always, if you're looking to keep up with what's happening with me, friend my LiveJournal 
Honouring the Departed.
Filed under: Life, Site, Thoughts
Today is the sixth-year anniversary of my paternal grandfather's death. Losing him was really hard as he's always been a great presence in my life, picking me up from school, taking care of me, helping me with homework, buying me most of the books I read as a child, taking me to the public sometimes two to three times a week so I could have something new to read (or reread). Now that I think about it, my grandfather might have been a second father for me. I was fourteen when he died, and I think even at that age I didn't fully grasp the concept. Now that I'm older, however, I do, and it makes me feel terrible. I can't help but think of my grandmother, lonely in her house even though there's always someone over. I can't help but think of all the things he's missed - my cousins and I graduating (from high school, from cegep, from university), my cousin and I getting our driver's licenses after several tries, my cousin's two sons being born, and just... all of us growing up and finding our places in life.
I miss him, I really do. I guess I never appreciated all the things he's done for me until he wasn't there to do them anymore. He'd always been there, so I guess I took them for granted. He did a lot, though. He's always encouraged me in what I wanted to do, and he especially encouraged my love for reading, which in turn encouraged my desire to write my own stories. I know he can see me now, though, and I hope he's proud of me. Of who I've become.
I miss you, grandpa. And I love you. So, so much. Even though I didn't tell you much when you were still alive. I might visit you soon. I know I haven't gone in over five years, but I will. 
I also lost someone else earlier this week. My high school music teacher died last Sunday. They found a tumor in his brain when I was in the seventh grade, but he went into remission after an operation and several months of treatment. Unfortunately, it came back, and despite undergoing several operations and weeks after weeks of treatment, his health kept deteriorating. He was 48, and he has two little girls, aged 6 and 8, who do not yet understand what is happening. We got the news on Wednesday, and a few of my friends and I, all former students of his, went to the funeral on Thursday night. That was kind of a hard moment - I ran into him at a restaurant in February, and he looked just fine. But then we talked to another music teacher at the funeral, and he told us how much he suffered at the end. But he never stopped fighting. He was a fighter. He was an incredible man, a good husband, friend, father, teacher. We spoke to his mother-in-law, who had nothing but good things to say about him, and she told us how teaching had been his dream since he was nine-years-old.
This man is one of the reasons why I like music so much. I'm not talking here about popular music - I'm talking about instrumental music, and movie scores, and the like. He's the reason why I still want to play the clarinet even though I stopped playing years ago, and the reason why I'm learning the guitar (or at least, trying to). He taught us how to appreciate music, how to play music, how to differentiate the various instruments in a song. He was a wonderful teacher, showing extreme patience even when the trumpets were acting up and everyone wanted to strangle them for ruining practice by throwing eraser bits around the classroom. His passion for music and teaching showed, and it was contagious. I learned a lot from him. He was one of my favorite teachers. Everyone knew he was sick, but nobody wanted to believe he would succumb to his sickness one day. I'm still having trouble processing it. The thought that he will never lead students through their end-of-year concerts, that he will never see one of the bands at school win gold in a competition... it's hard to believe.
The Jazz-Pop students dedicated him their show at the Jazz Festival, and I, in turn, dedicate this tribute to him. Thank you, Mr. Cloutier, for everything you've done for us. We will never forget it, and we will never forget you, or your impersonation of our Spanish teacher, or the way your pencil always flew across the classroom every time you tried to set the pace on your lectern. May you rest in peace.
I'm aware that the few posts I've made are somewhat depressing - I'll try to have something more cheerful to talk about next time. Also, please take note that my previous domain name, So-Patiently.net, will be expiring on July 17th and will not be renewed. Some of my fanlistings, as well as the website I co-own with my friend Frost, will be moved to Midnight-Lullaby.net within the next week and a half. Please update your links if you haven't done so yet.
Welcome!
Filed under: Site
Hi! So, finally, welcome to my new home! I've been working on it for so long, I hope you'll enjoy yourself over here! I've made a lot of changes, so I would really appreciate your feedback. 
So, what's new?
Well, obviously, there are the new domain name, and the new layout. I deleted a lot of the content from So-Patiently.net and for all the sections on this site, the content is all organized on one page, aside from a few exceptions, namely in the 'Girl' section. As far as subdomains go, my collectives (the websites collective received a major, much needed makeover, by the way!) and joined fanlistings subsite are still there. I deleted the portfolio, because I didn't think it was necessary. I might bring it back some day, but for now, it's gone. Also, the F.A.Q. section, which used to be in a subdirectory, now has its own subdomain, and I updated the layout.
As I mentioned on So-Patiently.net, the fanlistings I own that haven't been converted to Enthusiast yet are still on the old domain and will stay there until they are converted.
If you go to the Recommendations Vidéo link, which leads to the site I co-own with a friend, you will find that it redirects to the old domain - that is because my friend and I are considering closing it and I won't move it unless we decide to keep it open. The same thing goes for the private forum I set up so my real life friends and I can keep it touch and have a place to chat, although there is also the fact that I can't seem to be able to import the data from the old server to the new - if someone knows what they're doing with phpBB and would like to give me a hand with that, it would be really appreciated!
Another change here is the blog. When I started blogging, it focused a lot on my real life. Then I started using LiveJournal more and more. Now, all my real life related entries on my LiveJournal are locked and I had stopped using names on the So-Patiently.net blog. Anyway, I decided that the blog here will be a kind of opinions blog, where I can express my views on various subjects as inspiration comes to me. Of course, visitors will be welcome to share their own opinions in the comments. There will be the odd entry discussing major updates to the site, but you will notice the spiffy text box at the top of the page which informs visitors of the latest updates.
So, that's it for now. Have a look around and let me know what you think!
Marie. Chounette. MC. Tinkerbell. 19. Nov 26. Quebec. Canada. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. 5' 2". Translation student at the University of Montreal, class of '10. Single. Speaks Français et English. 
Phelps Anonymous: Chounette 
since March 5th, 2008