After a few inconveniences, we’re back to normal operations! As you can tell, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted real updates, and that I’m totally behind on many (for the 9,000th time). Getting older, I’ve found more time to do other things that benefit my well being…and to support my habits. There’s also the recent issue of the blog being offline for a week…

Over the past month and a half or so, I’ve found work in producing content to help pay for the little bills, such as for the hosting and a domain for another year, adding having to have food at and away from cons. You could say that I finally haz a job–sort of. Though it pays enough for a DVD or CD or two until I can find a real job–or find an energy drink that literally gives me wings. But it’s better than nothing, right? ^_^

Billing Fail

As for the downtime, there was an unfortunate billing issue with the web host. The usual amount of “$9.95″ was billed the other day for the services. However, the account was suspended because $60 was owed. It’s because I misunderstood the billing terms: instead of looking for an “up-front” payment text, I selected the yearly billing plan ($120) without realizing the fact, and that there was a separate monthly billing plan a dollar more than what I’m “paying”…

It wasn’t until Friday (the 25th) that I could afford it. I’m a little upset about it, but there’s a silver lining to this: I don’t have to pay until the end of the year, and I have $60 to spend ($10 saved monthly) until then! How was it possible that I got away with the first six months of service if the $120 was needed up-front?!

To be honest, I’ve wanted a web host that allowed payments every, let’s say, three months. But yearly is the only option I know of right now with the leading companies. I also had trouble understanding the “language” such as this of web hosts, which was what I was afraid of–of this event happening, that is: if “yearly” meant as a contract to keep the hosting for that long without a penalty, as if I was paying a cell phone bill. Oh, well….

Convention Reports and a Makeover

In other news, there are a few con reports to work on as part of the content backlog: Anime Weekend Atlanta 17, Anime Blast Chattanooga, ConNooga, MomoCon (finally went after years of trying!), and MTAC Omega (which is now readable). And of course, more interviews. My plan is to focus on these before getting back to our regularly scheduled programming. I might throw in a post or two as a self-reward between catchups.

Lastly, there will be more changes around here. I’m not happy with the current layout. I wanted to work on it some more, until the blog suffered a minor setback from a code injection, thanks to an exploit in ZenPhoto for the now-temporarily scrapped gallery. Since content is a priority at this time, I’m going to use a pre-created theme until I find the time to fully customize my own.

As part of the changes coming up, I will be posting a reader survey soon. It will be the first in the 5 years of running the blog! Stay tuned and thank you for sticking around through these troubled times! ^_^