• About
• Archives
• Contact

31 Aug 2008 mellow_bunny

Then there was rest.

Yeah I was completely gutted. I announced a project, I was pumped! Kyouki is something i’m quite motivated to do. It’s something I want to complete. However, circumstances dictate that I now have to put it back into the standby status.

Those of you who have spoken to me will know the reasons for this and in short it comes down to not having time. Never fear, I still will potter away at the code in preparation for launch and heck.. who knows someone might be able to run it for me. Read more…

08 Aug 2008 mellow_bunny

Kyouki: It’s going to be madness.

It’s about time I make a proper announcement and get this project well on it’s way. After a few months of intense workload I now have time to complete and launch one of three projects I have in development. If you hadn’t guessed already I have a personal goal in improving our blogosphere and creating new experiences for us all to enjoy.

So in line with trying to achieve this goal I have created a competition that aims at trying to get you out of your writing comfort zone. Not only is it meant to stretch your capabilities but it is meant to help you grow as a writer and to have fun with it. We shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things, we can only improve from what we learn.

Why is it called Kyouki?

Pretty simply it comes down to me playing with a Japanese -> English dictionary. I was looking for something that represented ‘crazy’ or ‘extreme’. I came across kyouki which much like kichigai, kyouran and hakkyou can have the meaning of ‘madness’. I kinda grabbed onto the ‘madness’ and ran with it. Kyouki can also mean ‘dangerous weapon’, which I think kind of suits this competition. When you think about it, words can be more powerful (sometimes more treacherous) then a physical weapon.

So although it was somewhat of a whim I think the naming of this project actually suits. Why is it Japanese? Well why not? I do have a fascination with the culture bordering on weeabooness. It only makes sense. Plus it means I can use sweet characters in the banner.

What’s in it for me?

Quite simply, prizes and prestige (aka e-pen0r). Not to mention that although your article will appear on the e-zine site, your blog or website will be linked to. Nothing beats easy web traffic. A mini profile of yourself will be on the site and we will have information about you placed on the right hand side of your article.

You will also experience a lovely warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you are one of the chosen few who get the chance to show their stuff off to an eager public. You will also feel a warm glow from knowing you have made a little bunny called mellow very happy :D!

You got me at prizes! How’s it gonna work?

As I stated before this is a project of mine. I have received valuable advice and input from a few bloggers such as yourself. Those who helped me out with forming a plan have first dibs on helping to  run it too. Because this is just a project, I am unable to fund prizes for all 12 months that i’d like it to run. Hence the first month that we run this competition will be a sort of pilot month. Based on what happens with the first month I will go to potential sponsors asking for some support.

When it comes to participants we are looking to have twelve different writers each month create feature articles. The idea is that instead of just writing something up and submitting it to us, we will work with you to create an article that reaches a certain level so to speak. This project is about creating something real, something of excellent quality and something that will bring our blogosphere to the fore.

Each of the first eleven months will feature a different topic. The topic will be quite broad to allow as many views as possible to be expressed. What will the topics be? This has yet to be decided and most likely we will put our feelers out to the chosen twelve authors of that month to give us ideas.

How do you get to be a writer? Once our staff has been assembled we will launch an application page. All that will be required on the entry form is your name, email address and a link to an example of your writing. It will basically work in a first in first served basis. Writers will be given a few weeks before their deadline is due. I don’t as of yet have a timetable for this but our staff will work with you to ensure your article is ready on time. We do not have plans to allow extensions for writers who are late. We have to stick to a firm schedule to make this work.

Writers will have a set of guidelines for the content that they write. This is to not only protect themselves and all those involved when it comes to legalities but will help keep a certain level of writing. I will explain more on this when we launch the Kyouki site.

So how does a writer win the prizes on offer for the month? Well the main purpose of this competition is to exhibit the writings. So the whole choosing who wins it is a simple process and almost a by product. Basically anyone can sign up with the site and vote on each article. They can vote on some or just one article, it’s entirely up to them. The voting is done on a star scale and whomever gets the highest votes wins.

You said staff, what are they for… and can I be one?

The staff are there to help run this event over the (hopefully) year. They do not have to commit to the whole year but it would be nice =x! Positions that are currently available include the following.

Moderators

These guys will be in charge of looking after comments on the articles and filtering out the spam and trolls. Their duties will also include proof-reading the articles and the odd other duty.

Editors

I am looking for a team of Editors, these peeps will be the support for the writers and will oversee them. Each Editor will look after a given number of writers for the month. They will work with their writers to ensure a level of quality and make sure that they are within the writing guidelines.

There will be more positions i’m sure but at the moment the Editing is the big one. I know i’m asking a lot because at this point I cannot offer anything but e-pen0r. Please contact me on “mellow at mellowspace dot com” if you would like to apply for these positions.

You called this a project.. how does it end?

At this point the project is planned to run a total of twelve months. The first eleven months will consist of different writers making their individual entries with our Editors. The twelfth and final month will be a chance for all the articles written over the year to be re-featured and re-voted for. The prize pool will be extended for this month and will feature prizes from all of the year’s sponsors. There will be a collection of slightly smaller prizes distributed to an as of yet undetermined amount of winners.

The end of the final month will signal the end of this project. At that point we will look at the possibility of re-running the event for another year under perhaps revised guidelines. We will not make a firm decision on this until the end of this year though.

This is when the REALLY exciting stuff will happen. The editors and management staff will then work through the 132 articles and ready them for printing. That’s right printing. Unless we are unable to use the article because of legal reasons we will publish your article along with the others in a high quality glossy magazine format publication. This will be available to all the writers in a PDF format. There will be a limited run of the magazine for those who want to pay the cost.

It is my true hope that we can come away from this event with high regard for the written word and the topic we so passionately blog about.

mellow

06 Aug 2008 mellow_bunny

Status Update: New shows and fresh ideas.

So after delving into Extrange’s posts on Xam’d: Lost Memories I decided I should watch it. I was definitely not disapointed. The show has it all and yes it did remind me strongly of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Eureka 7. The characters were fun, the animation was most enjoyable and the story was full even in the first few episodes.

I also got a hold of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and watched the first four episodes. The story is lighthearted and fun and the characters are good. Also.. has anybody noticed strange animation speeds in this show? I liked Mika she was hilarious.

The interview with Extrange that I did went well. I’ll be doing a few more interviews with other bloggers. The interview netted 300 unique visits, 250 in one day. That’s quite a spike for mellowSPACE. We average around 40 unique visits a day normally.

In the interview I asked Extrange if there was something that he thought could be done to help improve our anime blogging community. His idea was brilliant and something i’d be keen to push for actually. RyanA thought so too and as a result i’m going to set something up so we can get a few more people to provide input on how they think the idea could come to fruition.

On the thought of new ideas, I know I have said a few times now that i’d announce something about Kyouki (blissmo this is what I was talking about) and I won’t disappoint. I will be making a proper full fledged announcement that most likely will be XBOX HUEG. I hope you all take the time to read it though as it could net you prizes if you get involved.

There is also a new project (started it today) coming which will hopefully be used by a lot of us bloggers and will be trialed on AB.net blogs. It’s going to be a hoot and i’ll let you know more once we have it a little further along. I’ll give you a hint it’s somewhat similar to spasm+traits :D.

For now I have to complete some real work and finish off a blog design. Thanks for dropping by!

mellow

04 Aug 2008 Pablo-kun

The status report

That's how it's really played

The Quick Word

In my constant battle against procrastination, I’ve been able to bring myself to finish this post which as a matter of fact, was scheduled for publishing 2 days ago but alas my laziness got the better of me. I’m also to blame my continuous meddling with Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Final Fantasy IV DS. For those of you who haven’t heard of/played these titles and own a DS handheld (or emulator) you might wanna take a quick look at them.

In regards to anime, While I’ve been watching some current season series such as World Destruction, Code Geass R2 and so on, I’ve also made efforts to watch some old series that for some unfortunate reason I didn’t watch when they were airing, I though I’d write about them. These are Mushishi and Inukami!

Read more…

03 Aug 2008 mellow_bunny

Interview: Extrange - Lolicon, Metrosexual, Manga Lord

I decided it’s high time we all learn a little more about the bloggers around us. All to often we dismiss the bloggers around us as nothing more then “entities” that exist only in our computers. So that we can all become acqauinted with one another i’ve decided to do a few interviews with fellow anime bloggers.

Today we hear from Extrange, I did my first blog post on Extrange’s old haunt XD! I’ve seen this dude progress in his writing and have been awed by his Manga knowledge and dedication. So here we go! Read more…