Category: Life

Categories
Admin Stuff busy Future Life OOC Positivity

Explanation & Hopeful Expectation

It’s kind of crazy to realize that I’ve been on HNZ for seven years… and an admin for six of those.
Seven years is about a third of my life, it’s almost all of my adolescence and my adult life.
In that time, I’ve changed a lot – and the site has too. I joined the site entering secondary school, fairly quickly became an admin, and remained on the site through my undergraduate degree into my current schooling.
HNZ has been an insane blessing in my life. Being on the site provided me rich opportunities to hone skills that would have remained in their infancy were it not for being thrust into a position like I had on HNZ. Where many users have seen the site improve their English language skills, I received the gifts of learning how to work with CSS, JavaScript, mySQL, PHP and my HTML improved drastically. Where creative writing was the focus of many, my ability to communicate with others well was where most of my growth occurred (which is not to say my creative writing didn’t also improve… because it most certainly did… seriously). All of this just to say, my experience on HNZ has been somewhat unique to most people’s. HNZ has been a pretty different thing for me. Like you, HNZ for me has certainly been an exercise in creativity, but often not on the scale of my character(s) – where I never really succeeded in maintaining any – but instead on what could most benefit the site and its growth, and how best to implement such changes. It’s also been an exercise in commitment, and frustration, and realizing that sometimes I really mess up. I’ve been caused to grow in a myriad of ways because of my role on HNZ over these six years, it’s been the only HNZ I’ve really ever known, and I’ve loved every moment of it.

But my life continues to change – I find myself juggling school, an internship, a social life, continued online commitments, family, reading, and some things have dropped… admittedly, HNZ has been one of those things. I’ve been on the receiving end of an admin’s life taking over (the mantra of HNZ from time immemorial being “real life comes first”) and it’s not great to have a dead weight admin around. Knowing this, I’ve had countless conversations with Cyndi over the past year about what my stepping down from being an admin on the site looks like, and over the last semester the necessity of those conversations became even more apparent to me.

Remaining on the site apart from being an admin has never really been something I’ve considered because I can imagine trying to be an active part of the community on the board and just being an awful member… telling staff how to do their jobs, backseat moderating, not applying for the things I’d need to apply for. It wouldn’t be a smooth transition, it’d be pretty rough; I think I’d be banned in a week flat. So I came to realize that I just need to wrap up my character and take a clean move away from the board. My series of blog posts a few months ago were my way of sorting through what HNZ is and has been to me, and I hope the trio of them meant something to you, too. As I’ve made this slow conscious move away from the board, I’ve also remained cognizant that there are certain things for which I’ll need to be available for Cyndi and Donna. If something goes awfully awry: the hosting is still on my shared host, I still own the domains, and I still care about HNZ enough that I’m more than happy to help and fix problems at a moment’s notice (they have my mobile number) and even help make some larger projects a reality (need to keep my skills up to snuff!).

I also have a number of people from HNZ on Skype, and so I know that not checking into the board very regularly or having an official role on the board does not mean that I won’t still talk to the people who I’ve come to know, respect, and enjoy the company of over the last many years. I expect many a harassing Skype messages, saucey emails, drunken rants – I look forward to it. I also continue to volunteer as the support administrator for ZetaBoards & zIFBoards, and will be a continued presence on the Support Board where I’m always a PM or a support ticket away.

I also look forward to what I know is in HNZ’s future with Donna & Cyndi at the helm, free of my imposition. Cyndi having been the indomitable force behind renewing Quidditch on the site (unquestionably the highlight of the last couple of years on the board) and often having had a handful of long-term plans she’d like to see happen (if only the site would get behind them enough to make them happen! *cough*Ministry Elections*cough*) I know that the site is in amazing hands and there will be a wealth of really exciting roleplaying opportunities to come (after all, HNZ is a roleplaying site first and foremost – which is something I confess to forgetting perhaps once too often). Likewise, Donna has a great love for roleplaying and HNZ and even as she continues to learn a lot of the admin-ing basics I know that in very short time she’ll be an incredible force propelling the site forward, too. These ladies, with all the Global Moderators supporting them and the rest of the site participating and enjoying themselves, really do have me wordlessly excited for popping in and hearing what’s been going on, and seeing a place that I’ve known as my home in cyberspace for so many seasons of my life continue to grow and flourish beyond what I could have imagined.

It’s a new year, HNZ – and a new season for us all.
I’ll miss all the bi-weekly madness, spam silliness, shouty shouting, countless Kaitlyn characters, sorting confusion, April fools jokes, Werewolf incredulity, and of course all the creativity and laughter and love that the site has to offer.
In short, I’ll miss you.
I trust that I’ll always be a welcome visitor and, should it ever be reasonable or possible, find a home with HNZ on the Internet again.

As ever: all the best,

Nick

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Categories
Changes HNZ Life OOC Rants

Starting a New Era: College Life

Not many know that I’m actually going to college now. Not much of a surprise but whatever. After two years of trying to find a permanent home to settle down and start college, somehow I got in last year and went to classes online. This year is different. I fought to get In-State Tuition because I feel like this is my home now. I’ve never lived in this part of the county, but Cohutta is amazing on so many levels. Small, quiet, but lots of bugs out in the country. Can’t expect more in the south though. Anyway I am going to classes in 16 days. I’m counting down in my head because I’m excited. My classes are as followed:

  • Calculus and Analytical Geometry I
  • Principles of Programming I
  • English I
  • Fundamentals of Speech
  • American Government

I am a Sophomore and it is hilarious that according to this college, I’ve taken English II before English I. I needed English I for my major. Anyway, that is what I have, and I go to school all weekdays. I begged for five classes, and that was what I wanted. What can I say, I really wanted it. This will bring about some changes to my life though. One thing, never been in a campus classroom before so that will be an exciting change.

Changes for HNZ though? I might not be on for like 24 hours a day. Probably a similar schedule for what I had when I was working a full time job, or a part-time one. All of the pages of Accio! that I do will be closing earlier, which was why it was in the BWU several times. Bringing out a new set of pages so keep a look out on that! But with that in mind, anyone that is not pictured at all, won’t be. Not even the seventh years. I used to spend a good two to three hours looking for pictures and the full name for those that did not post pictures. Not anymore. I just wish that some people would take like a couple minutes out of their lives to post a picture for their student and answer to the PM if there was one. It makes the pages really worth while! It makes them bigger and fuller! But I guess it isn’t that big, which is why there isn’t going to be IC Superlatives for a while. That itself takes sooo long to do. It isn’t worth counting the votes if only 4 OOC people voted.

I might not be able to do lessons for my students anymore, especially my third years. Less to grade I suppose but eh. I liked it. I want to focus on school, but I am going to have fun in the meantime. It might take some time, I’m sure that this will be easy to balance out after a couple of weeks. I am superb at time management. When I want to be that is.

Sigh. I’ll just wrap this up then.
~ Kaitlyn

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busy Changes Future Life OOC Plans

The Great Move

I am starting to get more and more nervous now. Why is that? Well, most of the people that have known me has the girl from Georgia (Oh yeah, from the same place our Kait aka Kiera Potter, small world?) Though after I started working at Wal-Mart, I quickly learned that it is a physical job, but love it none the less, and people actually talked to me. It was nice, yes. I originally got the job to start saving up for Michigan, and helping out mom because she is being garnished for a surgery I went through three years ago. While helping her out and earning so little money, saving up was just not going to be happening within the next two years. However I figured, hey, get the garnishment stopped, I’d be able to save easier, right? But, then something came along to where I may not have to worry about it.

Mom got laid off, thus being offered a job in another state. Where? New York, one hour away from Canada, in a big city named Rochester. At first, I thought that it wasn’t going to happen, and whatnot, but now I am sitting in the living room, looking at boxes and I have been told to pack my room. It was like a smack to the face. The worst part, I am scared. Utterly scared that we will end up losing everything again, and then ending up in a worse mess than before, though things seemed legit with the forms and mom’s drug test. There was another option, where I could find rides to Walmart, on crazy hours, and fight like hell to maintain a living on my own. However that is almost impossible too. I don’t have a car of my own, thus I would end up losing the job with winter coming. So, I have to go to New York before I can go to Michigan. I would end up losing my job, yes, but in a big city, mom’s work is wanting to hire me too in something. It would be cool working like 12 dollars an hour where she is making almost double than what she was making here, before the garnishment.

On an added note, I talked mom into helping me save up, because she helped Christian and Sarah get a place of their own, why not me too? So, after we get settled, I start college and have a job, with mom’s extra funds, she is going to help me find my goal. Though first, get a car of my own. Once my credit is up a bit, maybe a lease for one but I don’t want to wait a year. So, Used is my best option. I am New York Bound soon, and then later, who knows how much later but it will happen, I will be in Michigan.

This is being posted mainly to let everyone know, I am going to be in the process of moving across the freaking country, and might not have internet for a while. I have a feeling, this would be a great trip, and a better life for mom and me both. Just some thoughts running through my head right now.

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Categories
Admin Stuff Applications HNZ Life OOC

Applications: What the heck is up and how are they processed?

Introduction
Applications are a very important part of HNZ. They moderate who can say their character is/does what, and helps keep the board from becoming rampant with Mary Sue type characters which would surely annoy most people on HNZ. They have become ingrained in the culture of the site, I believe, and when they cannot be processed as quickly as I would like, or you would like, it becomes a frustrating matter.

Yes, me.
What’s this? Processed as quickly as I would like? Yes, me. I like applications to move quickly as well. I don’t like holding on to them for ages – they clutter things. 😉 Having them around for too long makes me go a little bit crazy.

So what’s the hold up?
Right now, as many have noted, applications seem at a bit of a stand still. This is as frustrating to me as it is to you all, but likely even moreso to me. Why, you ask? Well, you’re waiting on one or two applications. I see all twenty or so currently in queue. The hold up? As you should know, Livvy has been dealing with some large real-life problems and (as says what has effectively become the ancient statement of HNZ) ‘Real life comes first’.

Real Life Comes First
I think it’s humorous that when members are going away and leaving behind work for the Global Moderators or Administrators to catch up, for the sake of the site, we still say ‘Real life comes first’. However, when it is an Admin who needs the time off, nobody seems to be able to have patience. At all. The song of ‘real life comes first’ fades away to a mob of angry villagers, pitchforks in hand, ready to go find the monster.

Trying to Catch Up
Nearly every application, however, does have a response from me. Some are even mid-discussion between Livvy and I. Unfortunately, it seems Livvy’s life has taken her for another whirl and HNZ time has had to be cut. Livvy doesn’t like to hold things up, but she loves administrating HNZ and definitely wants to be a part of the approval process. So, I trust she will catch up in a timely manner. If she knows she won’t be able to catch back up in a timely manner, then she will ask me to process applications until she can catch back up. As much as ‘real life comes first’, there are still ways we can adhere to that without ensuring applications drown.

Mid-Discussion? Wait, so how do applications work – exactly?
I have a feeling, based on some of the results from the recent site poll that not everybody is aware of how applications are processed on HNZ. What we look at for them, and why it is that applications get denied – even when hard work has obviously been put in to them.

Every form that is sent in is given a topic in a hidden forum. There are plenty of these forums for every type of application, with approved and denied archives as well for future referencing. It’s all very helpful, actually. When a new application comes in, Livvy and I read the topic then post our initial reactions. We discuss the application with each other if applicable, and either: Approve it, suggests tweaks to it and approve it when the tweaks are ironed out, or deny it.

So what is it, exactly, that we look for in applications? Here are some of the basic things:

  1. Is it canon?
    If an application, in any way, breaks with our knowledge of the canon Harry Potter universe – it is denied.
  2. Does it make sense?
    We look over applications to ensure that what they say makes sense. If a person applies to be a Death Eater, for instance, but comes from a loving household, doesn’t believe in any sort of blood supremacy, and has no reason to be a Death Eater – then such applications are denied. It may be funny, but if something doesn’t make sense then it could really screw other things up. Making sense is very crucial.
  3. What would the repercussions of this be?
    For many applications, especially plot requests, things effect characters outside of the plot, too. Usually this is in minor ways, but sometimes it can be major. Take, for instance, a plot request where an unspeakable has found a cure for werewolves. It doesn’t go against canon – nothing says there can’t be a cure. It might make perfect sense, too. But the plot would effect everybody on the site and the future of the site as a whole. It would likely negatively influence many other character’s developments as well. If that is the case, that the repercussions of a request would be largely negative and widespread – it is denied.
  4. How common should it be?
    For special ability applications especially this is considered. We only truly meet one metamorphmagi in the Harry Potter novels, through all seven books. This indicates how truly rare the ability is. We receive plenty of requests for this gift, however. So we must consider how common it should be and, if enough have already been approved for the time being, no more are accepted (even if they’re all pretty good) unless the application just blows our minds.
  5. How many other special things does this roleplayer have?
    This is something that must be considered in conjunction with How common should it be?. We don’t want two roleplayers having a character with every possible special ability and nobody else on the site being able to have anything. We want to spread the wealth a little, so this must be considered. Has the person had many applications recently? How many special things does this person already have? Could we approve this for somebody else who does not have as many special approvals?
  6. Is this user in good standing?
    This is also something we must consider. Members who constantly break board rules, are rude to anybody and everybody, etc. shouldn’t be given special allowances. It is a reward, almost, to have special plots approved, have characters with special abilities, etc. So why should a user who doesn’t care about site rules be given plenty of extra awesome things while rule-abiding members might not? It’s just one of the many prices of rule breaking.
  7. Plenty More
    There are several more considerations that are given to applications in that time that Livvy and I review them. It’s not just a quick read and a rash response, thought is given to applications, and the most appropriate response given – even if it’s not something the applicant wants to hear.

Conclusion
In summary: Stop complaining. Don’t be hypocritical. We take necessary time and thought for applications.

That is all. ^_^

~Nicolas

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Categories
Admin Stuff Life Livvy

My Greatest Disappearing Act Evar!

Okay, so maybe not. xD If I were a magician, I would have been fired already. Or my pet rabbits and doves would’ve revolted and become meat eaters. All that’d be left of me would be my silk handkerchief and my spiffy black and white shoes. No repeat performances. haha!

The truth in a nutshell is that life has gotten out of hand for me as of late. I’m a newly single parent to a wonderful boy, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Which basically just means he has a harder time socializing with his peers and conducting strong communication. He’s very smart, always ahead of his class academically. lol. He just has to have speech and occupational therapy. As it’s approaching summertime, I’ve had to take a lot of time getting him into not only a summer school style program (through my new job thank the Lord!) but also securing him a spot in a new therapy place not far from home. So that he won’t regress. He’s made a lot of progress just in a year’s time, which means that everyday I have to put my time/energy forward too, to make sure I’m setting him up for success and not for failure. Our goal is that by the time he’s 10 years old, no one will ever know that he has Asperger’s. 🙂 Which means that he will be able to function in society appropriately and live an awesome life full of adventures. 🙂

Another thing that’s taken my time from HNZ is my new job. I love my new job. The hours are great, I love what I do and it’s a lot of fun. Not only that, my little boy gets to come with me and be in a wonderful woman’s class this summer. So I’ll know exactly how he’s doing every single day. ^^

We moved back in February and our new place was closed up for quite a while. It’s beside family, which is wonderful. But it needs a lot, and I do mean a lot, of TLC. I’ve thus far got to paint my living room and the bathroom. The other 3 rooms that need painted have to have the wall paper taken down, walls sanded, some fixed, then primed and painted. No way am I doing all that! So thus begins my search for reliable, affordable painters in my area. haha.

I was supposed to start school the 18th, but am unable to until the fall now. It’s just one of those things, a lot was happening with my son so I chose to hold it off until his routine was more stable and he and I could cope with everything that’s happening.

I’ve been playing catch up on HNZ. If I’ve not responded to your PM, please be patient as I will get to you this week. 🙂 Also with applications. I apologize for the length of time it’s taken me to respond to them. Please do not get snarky with Nick or blame him, as he has had to wait on me too. Sales receipts will be caught up by this week as well. Any RPs I am participating will be replied to asap too. ^_^

I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know what was going on and to ask for your patience, prayers and understanding. There’s a lot I didn’t/couldn’t type out as it’s too personal that’s going on as well.

Thank you again,
Your friendly neighborhood Admin,
~Livvy

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Categories
busy HNZ Life school

Warning: This is a Typical Abby Post

I don’t mean to steal the thunder from Linda’s very first blog post ever, (as an avid blogger who once wrote an article titled “To Those About to Blog, I Salute You” for a high school newspaper, I salute you Linda 😉 ) but I figured it was about time for a post from me. I’d been pretty much AWOL around HNZ for a long while, something which still upsets me, and it was always for different reasons each time; and I apologize for never really posting an absence post, I mostly only tell the staff that I’ll be missing for a while. The most recent reason was that it was now March and I still had no idea what I was going to do for school exactly. Those of you who know me well/personally, know that school is really important to me and I’m very bitter about the subject of college, or university, as they call it in other places. But for all I know, I’m just a “grass is greener on the other side” type of person who just longs to be in school, but once I actually attend, I’d hate it just as much as most of my friends do.

Anyway, I had an emotional breakdown after having a conversation with my younger sister about her future plans and saw that hers actually seemed to be in motion, or at least seemed like they were tangible. Now I love my sister to death, but school and rules and the like have never been her strong point, ever. And since she had a baby last year I expected her to be even further behind on getting her life together as I assume lots of teen moms are, (no offense to any out there! :x). So when afterward I sat there crying, asking myself what I was doing with myself and why I was letting myself waste time, this wasn’t like me at all. If I wanted something I worked hard for it until I got it (such a Slytherin 😉 ). I had applied to St. John’s a while earlier, but because the acceptance process was so long, the deadline for Housing had past, and since I wasn’t an admitted student yet, I wasn’t allowed to pay any deposits, just in case I was rejected it wouldn’t be money down the drain. Since I live in Texas, living on campus was the absolute most important thing to me, since even the cheapest apartment in New York is completely out of my family’s price range; so since I had missed the deadline for Housing, I considered the option of St. John’s gone, thus creating more hysteria about what I was to do.

After getting myself together, I started writing the essay for an application to another school, and before I knew it, I had submitted my application even though the deadline had long passed. I don’t know why I still decided to submit my application even though the deadline had passed, but I just decided “Oh well, at least they’ll have my application on file,” and literally the next week I got a call from the school. That’s never happened before, a school taking an interest in me personally! We talked on the phone about what else I needed to submit before being officially accepted and I asked about my priority, Housing, and said it was nowhere near close to deadline. This was music to my ears, I cried, out of joy this time, because I felt that I was finally making progress. The only downside was that it wasn’t in New York, and it wasn’t St. John’s, my dream school. Oh well, I could live with that. At least it was anywhere but Texas! (And Ohio isn’t that far from New York). I’d go there for one year and transfer to St. John’s the next, this was just getting my foot in the door, I could live with that! I soon began getting really excited at the fact that I might be going to school again, and the thought of it being in a small town in Ohio (a place I’ve always wanted to visit for some reason) was making me giddy! I had convinced myself that this school was going to be awesome and St. John’s could suck it for not taking an interest in me personally and thought “That’s their loss!”

Then came the mass emails from St. John’s. I had officially been accepted so now they were just going through their routine mass emails to newly accepted students – Come visit the campus! – -Don’t forget to register at our website! – – Want to study abroad? You can with STJ! – the usual. This was my fourth time being accepted to St. John’s so I knew the routine. I was going to delete the emails, I had too many of the same ones from previous times anyway; it felt like a bad break up where I was trying to get rid of old love letters or something. But even with old love letters, I can’t help but open them and read them, which is always a bad idea because old feelings come flooding back and then the waterworks start, or at least that’s the way it is with me. I learned though that the longer it had been between a break up, the less it hurt and the easier it got to throwing away the love letters (or deleting in this modern age). It wasn’t like that with St. John’s; I couldn’t bring myself to delete the emails, and there I was, reading every single email and then going a step further with my pain by visiting their website and I couldn’t take it. I reminded myself what I thought earlier “This is my FOURTH time being accepted to St. John’s”, was I really going to reject them for a fourth time?! Granted they weren’t as invested into the relationship as I was, but really? Four times? That got me into thinking why I kept putting off St. John’s and then it hit me. I had always refrained from admitting it but the reason I kept putting if off was because I was scared of the heartache. I was scared of getting so attached to St. John’s the way I had that very first time I was supposed to go, 2 years ago, that I distanced myself and I called things off before they could, to save me the pain.

So St. John’s was officially back in the running. Even though I had no idea if I could still live on campus or if it was too late for me to accept my place, enough was enough, no more putting it off and living in fear; no more wondering “What if?” I chose St. John’s. Even though Ohio was the safest choice for me, it never stood a chance against my dream school. I paid all my deposits the very next morning even though the Housing deadline had passed, and this time things were different, I started getting new emails from them that I’d never read before. It was the new post-acceptance emails, and this time it felt real. The emails were more personal (still mass-sent emails) but more towards students who had made the commitment to St. John’s rather than the old “You’re accepted, now confirm you wanna come here!” emails.

Things changed from then on. I had chats with Admissions workers and called them frequently for information (who cares if I kept getting transferred to 5 different departments within 10 seconds each time!) And then came the chat with all the Deans. After that chat session with the Deans of St. John’s, I can honestly (and very arrogantly) say I made quite an impression on them, I even got asked to please visit their office when I went to campus in the fall. 😀 And now the emails I get aren’t the mass-sent emails but the personal one-on-one emails regarding my enrollment status directly. The chat sessions aren’t private since students can just pop in whenever they want, so I know that these invitations and requests for my email address aren’t normal, seeing as they didn’t ask any other student who joined the chat. /boasting They not only helped me with the usual FAQ’s incoming freshman have, but they helped me decide what I should study. Journalism was always going to be my major, but lately I had become interested in Politics, which they gushed was excellent to study alongside Journalism, so I wasn’t sure whether to take that as well, or Business. In the end we decided on a double major in Journalism and Politics, with a minor in Business – and if that proves to be too much for me, then the Politics can just become a minor too. 🙂 BEST OF ALL? They pretty much guaranteed I’d have a dorm since I’m a freshman! You have NO idea how ecstatic I was when I heard that!

So it’s official, I’M GOING TO ST. JOHN’S!!! Registration for classes doesn’t start until June, and they won’t start sending out Housing notices until then either, so all I have left to do is wait. I got my financial aid and I still have to apply for a few loans and save up money to go, but I don’t care, I’M GOING TO ST. JOHN’S! I can’t believe it’s actually happening. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, this is my year, I can feel it! In a few months’ time, I’ll be living in the best place in the world, going to my dream school that is so utterly perfect for me. <3 And hopefully in a year’s time I’ll be getting ready to meet Pattycakes and Galinda for the first time too and we’ll all go see Wicked. 😀 And what this means for HNZ? Well as I said, all there’s left to do is wait until June, and now my sister’s out of high school so expect me to be on more often, finally! 😀

Finally, a happy update from me! 😀

~Elphaba

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Categories
busy Christmas crazies HNZ Life

Merry Christmas! :)

So first of all, Merry Christmas everyone!!! 😀 I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break and enjoy them!

If I thought my November was busy, that was hardly anything compared to my December! I have been working like CRAZY! I have never wanted to quit my job so badly than the past few days haha. I literally worked an entire week straight (and it would’ve continued all the way up to Christmas day if I hadn’t told them to reschedule me to at leave give me one day off for Christmas shopping!) but the season is finally over and I can now go back to having regular 12 hour work schedules and thus, I can FINALLY truly return to HNZ!

I sincerely apologize for everyone I’ve left hanging in the past few months!!! And I’m sorry for that really but I was soooo busy even on my days off and when I’d get home from work I was too exhausted to RP and stuff. :/

But starting tomorrow (the day after Christmas really) I will get back on HNZ regularly, and instead of trying to reply to suuuuuuuper old RPs, I will start fresh and new with everyone (and every character) that way the timelines not all messed up and stuff. :/ There are few exceptions I am willing to make so just PM me if you REALLY want me to continue an old thread and see if you’re that exception I’m talking about. 🙂

So thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding with me so far! And I will definitely pick up the pace & my slack around HNZ once more and be as active as I used to be! Once again have a wonderful holiday!!! 🙂

-Abby
————————
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Categories
crazies HNZ Life school

Brace Yourselves!

Hey guys, it’s Abby, I know I haven’t been around on HNZ much lately so I’m sorry for that, but I had to focus on a few other things (aka real life) for a while before I felt ready to get back on HNZ. Since November I’ve been rather busy! I visited New York for the second time in my life (and definitely not the last) and it was just amazing as always. I didn’t see Leighton Meester again (she was performing at Times Square on the day I was leaving! 🙁 ) and my grandma was a complete pain in the ass to travel with! She’s a terrible conversationalist, I couldn’t get a word in, and when I’m watching the news I like to have discussions about what’s on and everything she said was just complete ignorance and she was sooo close-minded! (She definitely made me appreciate my mom more, something I thought would never happen). It was horrible, and she could not stop complaining about everything, and when I’m at my favorite place in the world, I don’t want to hear none of that crap! haha, but it doesn’t matter because after a while I tuned her out and just enjoyed the trip. 🙂 I got to visit the school I’ve been dyyyyying to go to for the past two years, St. John’s University, and WOW, it is amazing! Actually seeing the campus and what it has to offer pretty much just confirmed the fact that it is absolutely, in-every-way PERFECT for me, no joke. I can’t wait to go!

I had been accepted to the school for the upcoming Spring semester (which starts on Jan. 22) with a $10,000 scholarship, so I thought, ‘Great, I’m good to go!’ Well, after looking through things again, I realized that the scholarship money was for the entire year whereas I’d only be attending for a semester first, meaning that I wasn’t getting $10,000 but only $5,000. That, combined with my extremely unsatisfactory financial aid still left me with a little over $5,000 I still needed to pay. I tried convincing my mom for us to take out loans, but she was only in town for a week so she was too busy partying and then recovering from hangovers the next day to really pay attention and would just say no. :/

So, in conclusion, I have to put off going for yet another year. This time I’m not as bitter or upset or sad by it because I didn’t spend hundreds of dollars on non-refundable enrollment & housing fees and it didn’t just happen a few days before I was supposed to leave either and most importantly, I made the decision myself, instead of letting the situation leave me with no other option. And truthfully, deep down in my heart, I didn’t want to leave just yet because of my niece. My niece just turned 4 months today! 🙂 I take care of her almost all the time, but I really don’t mind it at all, I adore her and cannot stand to be away from her for so long. I hate when my sister takes her to her bf’s house and they spend the night there! lol So, I was really sad that I was going to be leaving her so soon, but now that I won’t be leaving until August, I know that I’ll at least have witnessed her first year (her birthday is August 12) and not missed her first word, crawl, steps, etc. 🙂 I want to cherish the first year I have with her before I leave to New York permanently and she grows up in the blink of an eye! Because I know that now that I have visited the campus, I am more determined than ever to go to school this coming August and I swear this better be the last time you all hear about me putting off school!

So after I came back from New York, my sleeping schedule was finally back on track, I actually slept at night and woke up mornings instead of the opposite! When I came back home I had to deal with my dad who just lost his mom, and my terror brothers off for Thanksgiving break among other things. My mom visited us for a week before she left to Iraq for an indefinite amount of time, all we know is that she’ll still be there during the summer. While she was here we had two Thanksgiving dinners because of her late arrival, I actually got to keep my sleeping pattern normal because she would take my brothers to school instead of me and when she actually paid her kids any attention instead of going out partying, she went crazy buying us anything we wanted and taking us out to eat places. My undeserving brother got a freaking Wii! Grr! Now you’d think that with her huge advancement check and the way she was spending her money like it grew on trees, she paid all the bills? Wrong. Literally the day after she left, we had three utility companies come to our house each day asking for payments! It was so annoying because we couldn’t even contact her to tell her off! (Something that I am extremely good at).

In addition to all that, I’ve been working like CRAZY, which is cool because I’m getting decent checks again, but it just makes me hate Christmas season lol, and I’m not getting lunch hours when I should be, and when I come home I’m soo exhausted I just fall asleep where ever I happen to be at without even getting into my pajamas, etc. I normally wouldn’t care that I fell asleep, but the whole reason I stayed up until 8 am in the first place was because I had to get my brother ready for school and take him, and when I fall asleep, I knock out and don’t wake up until after 7 am, and then he ends up late; that’s why it was better for me to just stay up until then. I keep trying and pushing myself to stay up so late after I come home from work, but my body can’t take it and I just crash. :/Thus, another reason why I haven’t been on HNZ lately.

Oh and today my dad finally told me he has a girlfriend. I should be happy for him, because out of both my parents, my dad definitely deserves to be the happier one, he deserves to have someone to love, he deserves to be better off than my mom, who said she was better off without my dad (which she is soooo not!) But even though I know my dad deserves to be happy by finding someone else, when he told me he wanted me to meet her eventually, all I could think was ‘No!’ It’s not like I want him back with my mom, nooo way, she doesn’t deserve him!, but I just don’t want to see him with someone else or something, idk, whatever. I used to think my parents divorce was the best thing to ever happen to my dad (he began taking English lessons, he got meggga fit, and began going to church, etc.), but now he’s stopped going to church and he parties just as much as my mom does. I think that’s why I don’t like this girl of his. :/ Ah well.

Oh! Also, it actually snowed TWICE in my city!! And the snow actually stuck for a like a day!!! It was so amazing! Of course the whole time I just kept thinking “Wow, I wonder what New York must look like!” Haha! I know, I seriously have an obsession problem but I just can’t help it, I’m in love with the place!

So that is definitely more than enough from me, I promise I’ll try never to update this long ever again, I just wanted to sorta explain my absence on HNZ.

Love you all! ♥
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HNZ Life school weekly updates

My Life Today (with a side of HNZ)

So after missing two days of school, and being off of school for five days – I think it’s safe to say that I was out of practise in various subjects and very ill prepared for the day that awaited me today.
I knew I’d missed two tests last week, and was prepared to write them today. Biology went by quickly (we never do much there) and soon enough I was on my way to literature – when I learned that I had another test! I was entirely unaware of a third test for the day. Fortunately my teacher was kind enough and allowed me the period to study before I came back to class and wrote the test, which was fill-in-the-blank on the most minute details of Heart of Darkness. Any questions I didn’t know the answer to I simply put the stupidest answer I could think of for (that’s always the best way to go – humour).
Then I had law, where we learned (via a group’s presentation) about Socrates and the Socratic method. In a few days I’ll have to present on Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Then Chemistry came, where I was supposed to have my first test – and the teacher was away, so it looks like that test will be pushed back to tomorrow.
At lunch I had to sign up for grad photos (this year is going by so0o0o0o quickly =( ) then after lunch I had a math test – which was death. Given the last week for me, I was more than ill-prepared for that test and I simply hope I passed it. That would be nice. At this point my goal for math is to get the credit, then be done with the whole damned thing. >_<;
Following math comes English, where we watched some Hamlet, and Business Leadership where I didn’t do much.

Now for where HNZ comes in to the picture.
All of our site staff have been quite busy over the past week or two, we’ve been keeping things running on HNZ but the nice little things we try to do (like the weekly updates, for instance) haven’t been working out so well, and so easily.
The weekly update is actually quite time consuming. First we must compile a list of updates, changes, upcoming events. Next we try to write a paragraph (or thereabouts) for each topic and finally we need to code the whole thing to not just be a giant block of text. The most time consuming part of the coding always turns out to be the highlighted roleplays, which very few people like to contribute to, anyway. (By the way -> Shoot Livvy a PM to have your plot highlighted!)
With all that, doing it once a week has become near impossible, it seems. Even a bi-weekly update seems more amiable (with perhaps special updates in between) then the regular once a week. It’s less pressure on site staff, and gives us more time between updates.
Now, that’s just my thoughts, and I haven’t even discussed them with Livvy, or Linda, or Abby – because I’m not even sure we’ll all stay this busy forever. If doing it once a week is possible again in the near future I don’t want to change the system too many times, but at this point the future looks bleak for “Weekly” updates, I fear.

Aside from that Livvy and I have been inundated with applications for tonnes of things, so please bear with us. With my ever-more busy schedule and Livvy’s present sickness we’re sorting things as best we can. We try to reply to all applications within a week, if not much much sooner.

Anyhow, I think that another “Weekly Update” will be posted today, and that may well be where this blog is first linked to. Exciting? A little bit. =) So I better go work on that.

‘Til next blawg,

~Nick

P.S: What are your thoughts on the weekly updates? Comment on the blog post and share your input! ^_^
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HNZ Life Sick

My turn I suppose…

Pharyngitis. To most it’d be a sentence of staying home from school, missing work, being miserably sick. But not for me. Bahahaha! I got to spend over 3 hours at the hospital with a male nurse who looked just like L.L. Cool J. Then after they stuck cotton swabs down my throat and irrigated my ear where my sinuses leaked, they had me wait with all of these awesome soldiers who wouldn’t give up their seats at the pharmacy for me or my cranky 4 year old autistic child (who had just come home from school). Class acts, those guys.

But the fun part came when I got home! After wheezing my way up the stairs, head pounding, nose running, throat feeling like somebody had stuffed a barb wired pineapple down it, I got to chill out on my couch. And get up to get juice, then dinner, then a favorite crayon that fell behind the couch, then change DVDs, then get yelled at for not having a ready supply of suckers.

Finally I got the night to myself to Skype with some crazy broads and RP in a medicated stupor. Amazingly the RPs went well. Ha! Then came the morning after where my little guy jumped on the bus and I snuggled on my couch to watch X-Files, season 1. I’d forgotten how pretty David Duchovny (my adolescent love) was. *sigh* *cough*

Anyways, been hella sick, found out Rich won’t be home until January instead of before Christmas and that my kid is apparently one of the class bullies. Bummed about Rich…strangely proud of Logan for sticking up for himself. Show those kids who’s boss son.

HNZ wise, been very impressed with the changes and ideas happening lately. If you haven’t hugged your Nicktator lately, go do it. Now. I’ll just be sitting here, reading this newspaper. *sniff* Huh, Headmistress is a harlot apparently. Interesting. Oh, you’re still here? Why are you watching me? Go RP already! And submit some links to my PM box while you’re at it.

Cheers!
~Liv (Cecily Zhefarovich)

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