The main website and forums are finally back online! There's a new, uh, thing I have installed on the forum that should help keep spammers out. At least some. Now I'd better update the main site's content and get to bed. O_o

"Where are the forums?" you may be asking, and "what have you been doing for the past week, Jon you bum?"

Well, I've been redoing how I work on website maintenance so that I'll be able to more efficiently deal with things in the future. I have the basic setup just about done, and hopefully tomorrow sometime I'll be able to nerf the entire site and do some needed minor-version upgrades. Well, /maybe/ tomorrow, if I'm /lucky/. I'm stopped just before that point, y'see, investigating a software package called BadBehavior that will hopefully help keep spammers out of the forums. And, of course, I have to do all this in fits and starts, working around work and other time commitments.

I am amused by how much this sounds like a Fred Gallagher rant.

And that is the state of the website. Over and out.

At the last Anime Screening on the 23rd we had an impromptu first meeting of the Writer's and Artist's group. Mostly it consisted of introductions and me prattling on about a couple of my oft-neglected writing projects.

At this next screening on the 8th, I'd like to have a slightly more formal meeting. Right after intermission and the raffle, we'll make an announcement and head over to the couches by the SAO office to meet. (Hopefully I'll be back from getting pizza by then. XD )

Some things to think about:

• What do you want out of a Writer's and Artist's Group? To discuss and/or critique our projects? Working on a project, maybe a print or web comic, together? (The club can provice webspace) Just some informal time to talk with fellow artists?
• How often would you like to meet? If more frequently than just at screenings, it would be helpful to have at least one organizer other than myself, as my job often requires I do work during the week. Pesky thing.

Also if you want, bring something you've been working on to discuss. Actual writing is preferable (bring a few copies to pass around), but notes on ideas you're developing are ok too.

Hello all. The forums are closed for maintenance and cleaning. I've taken all the data home, and am busily scrubbing out all the spam user accounts. Between that and work, I'll try to have them back up in the next day or two. The main site Tiki is also due for some cleaning, so that'll be going down later in the week.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

-- Jon

Our annual Halloween cosplay contest is coming up in a month and a half! Come dressed as your favorite anime or manga character. Everyone will get to vote on the best costume. It's free to enter and there'll be prizes for the winners. Good luck!

There are only a couple of rules. See the link above for more information.

Wow. Lots of announcements today. o_O

To celebrate (the horror of? XD ) the premiere of AMV Hell 4 on the 21st, we'll be doing, uh... something special at the screening on September 29th. We'll probably show some of the thing itself, if we can get it by then.

We'd also like to put together our own "Anime Hell" sort of event. If you have any hilarious, crazy or messed-up video clips--or especially if you've made your own!--bring them to the meeting on the 15th so that the staff can go through them and put together an intermission that you will plead with the gods to allow you to forget. ^_^_v

We'll accept submissions as video DVDs, or any sort of video file that VLC or The CCCP will play. AVI, Quicktime MOV, or MKV preferred. We can also play stuff saved off of Youtube, if you can pry the video files from their cold, dead fingers (there are ways!). Burn files on CD-R or DVD+/-R, or bring 'em on a memory stick so we can make copies.

There aren't any prizes for the event, just the satisfaction of an evil deed well-committed.

Schedules have been posted on the main page for what we're screening in September and October, as well as dates for screenings through January. Note that like always, the holidays have put us off our regular schedule: we'll be meeting on the first and third Saturdays of each month from October through January.

Due to an unforeseen Jazz Festival occupying the Lower Waterman, we have no space in which to hold Anime tonight. How did this happen? The facts as they appear at the moment are thus: we scheduled the space in May before the Student Activities Office closed for the summer, and either the Jazz Festival wasn't on the schedule yet or the SAO forgot to check for scheduling conflicts. Sometime afterward they replaced us on the schedule and we weren't contacted about it. We didn't find out until Keith went to set up for anime tonight. So we can't use the Lower Waterman, nor can we get another space on such short notice.

Our apologies,

-- Jon, OtakuAnime webmaster

At the first screening in July, 7/14/2007, we'll be showing one or more Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films. Stop by the forums and tell us which ones you want to see: http://otakuanime.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=732

Are you interested in meeting during screenings to discuss art and/or creative writing projects that you're working on with your peers? Stop in to the forums and give us your thoughts:

http://otakuanime.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=642

You'll have to register for a forum account to vote, if you don't have one already.