About
ContactIf for any reason, you need to contact me - whether for questions, comments, or submissions - then there a few things you can do.
E-Mail: katana(at)randomthunk(dot)net. Just replace the words with symbals.
AIM: Otakunumber6
MSN: katana066(at)hotmail(dot)com
The Webmistress
Real Name: n/a (It's not easy to figure out anyways :3)Nickname: Katana
Other Nicknames: Kat, K-chan, K-lady, Otakun (long story)
Birthdate: August 2nd, 1991
Zodiac: Goat/Ram/Sheep
Astrological: Leo (I can eat myself! o.o)
Preferred Element: Water
Assigned Elements: Fire, Metal, and Yang
Location: Illinois
Real Location: Across the road from a soybean field
Hair/Eye Color: Brown/Blue (with gold around the pupils ^^;; )
Heritage: Irish, German, Swiss, diluted Spanish (as in, Spain)
Languages: English, German, bits of Spanish and Japanese
Favorite School Subjects: Honors English, Band
Hated School Subjects: Algebra, Chemistry
Average Grade: A-
Current Anime Interests: Eureka 7. Naruto. Bleach. Trinity Blood.
Current Manga Interests: Ouran High School Host Club. D.Gray-man. Fruits Basket.
Eternal Anime/Manga: Azumanga Daioh. Full Metal Alchemist. Cowboy Bebop. Yotsubato!
Webcomics: MegaTokyo. VG Cats. Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Likes: Drawing, writing, friends, anime/manga, ramen, music, my oboe, technology, Photoshop, tennis, basketball, swimming, chopsticks, animals, photography, when people from the website e-mail me.
Despises: Ignorant people, Apple products, corn beef hash, when my wireless card goes dead, yaoi/yuri/hentai (it's all the same people!), finals, mid-terms, writer's block, artists's block, webmistress's block.
Favorite Person: You.
Favorite Website: Anything I have made, no matter how much I regret it later on.
Favorite Quote: "Rumiko Takashi must wake up everyday, see a poster of 'Inuyasha', and scream, 'YOU RUINED MY LIFE!'"
The History: Pfft, yeah, right, like this place has HISTORY. Yeah. >_>
Well, believe it or not, I've actually had some people ask me questions about this place's past, and also comments on how NU seems to be just a bit different from other AzuDai fansites. Interesting. Let's just dive in, shall we?
The concept for Numbnuts Unite! came during the summer of 2004 when I was twelve years old. That was my summer between seventh and eighth grade, and also a time when a lot of my friends were borrowing my manga. ^^;; I had picked up Azumanga Daioh volume 1 during the spring of the school year, and got my friends terribly hooked on the series. The genius in our group even got yelled at by our science teacher 'cause she was reading it during class. ><;;
At that point in time, I had very little experince in websites. All I (barely) had was my anime music site, Nocturne Mix, and even that went basically nowhere. That had been coded after extensive hours of learning to make HTML webistes. But, really, in the end, I was pretty bad at publicity, which is the downfall for any of my previous sites. I just get this bad feeling about harassing people to look at my two-bit website and asking if they would at least mention me. :3 Blegh.
So why did I decide to make a fansite to Azumanga Daioh, when I obviously had no web skills? I dunno. It just clicked that I should make a fansite, and I was determined to do so this time around. AzuDai was the first series that I felt confident enough to make a true website for. Also at around this time, the DVDs were being released by ADV Films, fueling the fanbase.
I made a fairly cool banner, but nothing more, as my site seemed to be just a tiny step-up from normal junk pages. With seven horizontal links and no style, the site "officially" launched on November 3rd, 2004 - over two months too late to be Version 1: Back to School . But it was there.
The layout changed, only in background and banner, to be Version 2: Chibified. At this time, I had the idea to put up ADV's translator notes that had come with the first set of DVDs. It worked, and the translator notes are one of the most popular reasons people visit. They were especially helpful for people that had bought the box set, "Class Album", whose DVDs hadn't come with them, or had just simply lost the booklet.
Version 2.5: White Christmas went up. By this point, I was getting serious about the site, or at least the look, and invested lots of time in learning divided layers, more table stuff, and CSS. I also made a top image on the school's Photoshop program, so the graphics became better. Version 3: Go With Enthusiasm! went up, and the site looked sharp.
...And then things went dead. I, being thirteen years old at that point, had no money, and therefore no means of buying more DVDs. The site was in a stand-still for at least two months.
But I had this lucky opportunity...one of my usual websites to visit, Golden Sun: Adepts Refuge, had some extra space that they were willing to offer to people. For a short while, they were offering free "premium" hosting, meaning a subdomain, to excellent sites. I submitted Numbnuts Unite!, and within a few days, got a heartpounding response - Yes.
Numbnuts Unite moved from it's Free-Webspace.biz account to Golden Sun: Adepts Refuge. Things were happy for a while...until the spring came. GSAR announced they would be closing, since the Golden Sun community was dwindling and there was no point in keeping the site open for that purpose. They were to become a general video game site, and the premium hostees would be lost in the move. Just before that, a new layout finally came - Version 4: Lazy Dazy Bonkura Summer.
I had to make a decision at that point - put content on a stand-still until I got a final date, or just keep going with my sword raised. When the month for the close-down came and went, I revived the site after a month hiatus and pushed forth with my head held high. The site didn't go down, and, in fact, the address is still active, more than a year after it was suppsed to dead.
A new school year started for me, and that was my freshman year of high school. I introduced the Audio Project in September, and made a new layout just for that - Version 5: Tribute to Rie Tanaka. Tanaka-san, Yomi's seiyuu, is a musician, so it fit perfectly. I also made the playing cards, which, at this point, are more like eye candy than function. ^^;; Then, Version 6: Go With The Beat! came, and is still one of my favorites. During that time, more and more visitors were coming, and the site celebrated both 2,000 hits and it's first anniversary.
During that winter break, the layout changed to Version 7: Let's Start The New Year Right, and things were running smoothly. Then, I was told the threat of the site really closing. After some searching and talking with my mother, I bit the bullet and finally decided to purchase hosting and a domain name. On Janurary 10th, 2006, Numbnuts Unite moved from GSAR to randomthunk(dot)net, where it currently resides, hopefully for a long time.
With freedom to do whatever I wanted to, and not fearing any shut-downs, NU really took off. More sections were constructed so that it felt like an expansive fansite, but still retaining that personal feel. Version 8: Yearbook came, and in the spring, Numbnuts Unite celebrated 5,000 hits.
Many things were impacting my life, whether school, family, friends, or hobbies. That showed especially in the following layout...Version 9: Tribute to the Seniors, the Senpais. At the end of the school year, I lost two of my dearest friends as they graduated high school and went off to college. I felt they deserved a gift, better than a random present, so the layout was made for them.
Visitors were pouring in, and still, I cannot put my figure on how or why. With a few months of hitting 5,000, Numbnuts Unite celebrated 10,000 hits. I've had many people contact me, and that always makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. ^^;; Any word of encouragment, any form of communication, I take and embrace. I'm just weird like that.
I'm now a sophomore, but things haven't changed much. As I was emptying out my locker, I came across my English notebook. Flipping thorough, I found an entry from October 3rd (2005). We had to write ideas and connect the quote.
"The man who believes he can and the man who believes he cannot are both probably right."
I am reminded of this with my website. I have around ten failed ones floating around the web, but this one actually worked. I keep telling myself that I can be one of the best ones if I add and do things people like. It takes time to get up there, but when I saw that I had 81 pageloads last Thursday, and that some person in Chile keeps returning for hours on end, I say to myself, "I can. Not just can, but will.
I'm amazed at the progress I've made, the journey that's occured, and the people that come. This is all because of you, my friend. It takes motivation to keep these things alive. My motivation comes in the form of all you visitors.
"Numbnuts Unite!" Ehhh...?: I was having a hard time thinking of names for this site. I really, really was. Finally, after much ploting 'n stuff, the title of Numbnuts Unite just hit me. Like a load of bricks...or something.
The title is due hugely in part to the manga, which dubbed the "Bonkuras" as "Numbnuts", as opposed to the anime, which calls 'em "Knuckleheads". (>.>) This is the groupment of Osaka, Tomo, and Kagura, and hereby lies my favorite quote:
Tomo: 31!
Kagura: 30!
Osaka: 42!
All: Alls total, that's 103!
Osaka: The numbnuts win!
Tomo: Don't call us numbnuts, Osaka!
