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Say What? NaNoWriMo again? (Austin)

2011-11-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

So as I'm sure most of you know, it's that time of the year again. That's right: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

But psh, who needs to write 50,000 words of a novel to celebrate? Novels require planning...and new characters...and not being on the RMI Author Cafe while you're writing so we don't distract you.

Instead of being boring and writing a novel, we at RMI are challenging YOU to write more posts in this month of November. Take this opportunity to improve your characterisation, lengthen your posts, and have an awesome month of intense writing with your favourite people ever. Moreover, if you DO choose to accept this challenge and succeed, your accomplishment will be forever recorded in our up-and-coming trophy hall.

What exactly are the rules of this challenge? Well, here we go:

To be eligible, Authors must save their posts in a word processing document that will count their words, and this document must be e-mailed to us (theheads at rmimagic dotcom) at the end of the month to confirm your wordcount.

For each student character you have at RMI, you must write 10,000 words this month to meet our challenge. If you have more than 5 characters, you still only have to write 50,000 words; we'll take pity on you.

All posts are eligible for consideration, but please don't spam one board with a gajillion posts just to meet word count. Threads are your friends!

By the same token, ORMIs will count towards your word count...but don't be lame and have all of your words come from ORMIs.

BUT - caveat - posts done for non-student characters (for example, a younger sibling or parent) will only count for HALF words.

Well what are you still doing here? Get posting...you only have thirty days to go!

Writing is like Cupcakes (Julia)

2011-10-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

No really, it is.

Let's talk about cupcakes.

Everyone likes cupcakes. There's two different components to a cupcake. There's the cake part itself, and there's the frosting. Most people like the frosting better, and even people who don't like cupcakes like to look at pretty or cute ones, because the frosting makes them look better. Most people also feel that making and frosting twenty four cupcakes is a lot more approachable than making and frosting a cake. People also feel like they can come up with an idea for a new flavor of cupcake easily, and it is possible to learn how to make a pretty tasty or a pretty, tasty cupcake. Also, most people won't stand for eating a cupcake with a bad base, bad frosting, or bad frosting job. (Pro tip: Practice is key, and younger siblings are usually willing food tasters, especially if your cupcakes keep getting better.)

Now, let's talk about writing, even though I'm sure most people wouldn't mind having RMI be a site about cupcakes.

Not everyone likes writing. Now why is that? To me, it seems fairly similar to cupcakes. There's two main components to writing: the ideas and the language you use to communicate those ideas to your reader. Sure, there's stuff like punctuation and independent and dependent clauses, but those are like sprinkles, other garnishes, or the different ingredients in your frosting. Also like frosting, when people are told they need to revise their writing, they prefer to focus on their language instead of how their ideas work together or are laid out in their writing. (In our extended metaphor, this would be like figuring out a new garnish for a cupcake where there's something wrong with the batter recipe.) And sometimes, all they need to do is work on their frosting. It's a lot less intimidating than re-working an entire paper. Just like a good cupcake, a good piece of writing starts with a solid idea. A pumpkin cranberry cupcake may sound good, but with a little tweaking, that recipe will become a batch of spiced pumpkin chocolate cupcakes that will barely make it out of the kitchen before being devoured. So too, an essay about the Age of Exploration may take off when you find that you can talk about all the different foods that traveled across the Atlantic and how they impacted the cuisines of Europe and of the Americas instead of “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...”

And like learning how to bake, it is possible to learn how to write. However, people are much more likely to tolerate a bad piece of writing than they are a bad cupcake. Why is that? It might be that they are still in the process of learning how to write, a process which takes a lot longer than learning how to make cupcakes, so they think that what they can do is the best. They might think that writing is an ability that you are born with, which is a load of bosh. If we were born knowing how to write, we'd have pencils and pens for fingers and I'd be spending all of this blog post focusing on cupcakes instead of the writing center. It could even be that there aren't any Institutes of Writing that are well known in the public sphere like many culinary schools.

However, while there isn't Literature Polyverbal Institute, there is such a thing as a Writing Center. Many colleges have one. Austin works at her college's, the author of Marissa Toladaeri is also a writing tutor, and the culinary school I attend has a writing center at which I can and do work. These writing centers are extremely helpful, mostly because having someone else look at your writing helps to catch things that you didn't see, things that you won't see because you know what it's supposed to say and it makes sense to you. As a tutor, I am not a Legilimens. I can't read your mind. The only way I have to understand your ideas is by what you have written down on that piece of paper. If something doesn't make sense to me, I can ask my tutee during the tutoring session what it means, and usually their verbal explanation will make more sense than what they have written down. This is most of what I do as a writing tutor: ask questions and make suggestions.

However, most people don't have the luxury of being able to sit down with the writer and ask them what this phrasing means or what they're trying to say or where the writer is going with this idea. That means you, as the writer, need to make sure your writing is ace, as Austin is fond of saying, for the reader's sake. As writers, unless we're writing in a private journal, we write for someone. That someone has to be able to understand our ideas as we understand them. For essays, this means that all your ideas are clearly communicated. For RMI, this means that you have realistic characters and understandable language. And that's where the writing center comes in, to help you gain (or regain) your sea legs.

The RMI Writing Center has resources to help with the technical side of writing, with character development, and with an already-completed piece of writing. Coming soon are more grammar guides and writing worksheets, as well as resources to make sure your character is realistic. If you're stuck on a post because your character's voice gave out halfway through, if you're posting a lot but no one's responding to you, if you're not posting because you can't think of anything to post, we have ways to help you! We can even look at non-RMI-related writing such as essays for school and college applications. We're also taking suggestions for other helpful things you guys would like to see on the Writing Center.

The goal of the Writing Center is to help you develop into better writers, just like the goal of a baking class is to teach you how to make better cupcakes. And the Writing Center doesn't even have to rely cake mix.

Pax,

Julia

Medical Plots 101 (Marina)

2011-10-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

You know what I love?

If your answer was “white hot chocolate”, you’re right, but that’s not really what I was getting at. I was going to say “medical plots”.

I’ve never actually checked, but I think I have the highest ratio of long-term medical plots to characters of any existing author. One-third of my six RMI characters have had ongoing medical issues; both characters are graduated now, but Tripp Lemont had acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Keith Blackburn has Type I Diabetes. Lia Harper hasn’t had ongoing medical issues, but she was in a car accident once and I had to invent magical medical stuff for that. I also wrote the medic for a few terms at another RPG site.

Personally, medical plots are my favorite. It’s definitely a break from family/relationship drama that constitutes usual character plots, and it doesn’t have to rely on other people unless you want it to- so your whole storyline doesn’t get messed up if an author vanishes. It also means that you have to do research, which can get really interesting and be useful. Thanks to Keith, I already knew a lot about endocrinology when I studied it in high school; thanks to Tripp, I knew a lot about the immune system.

The high number of medical issues in my characters makes a lot of sense when you consider that I’m a neuroscience major on a pre-med track. (In fact, Keith and I are- completely coincidentally, I assure you- studying the same thing.) It also means that with Julia writing the medic, Austin having a spectacular knowledge of chemistry, and myself having a good idea of physiology, we form a semi-authoritative trio on the limits of magical medicine.

Illnesses

Wizards have a cure for the common cold. It’s called Pepperup Potion and it makes steam come out of your ears. Students at RMI can probably just get it from the medic, if not buy it themselves.
Bacteria: This is pretty much the same as in the Muggle world. Potions (instead of drugs) can kill bacteria, unless the bacteria is in the brain/spinal cord (as it is with diseases like bacterial meningitis).
Viruses: see Bacteria above.
Disease prevention: Wizards probably have something a little less invasive than immunization shots. More likely, they’re going to be potions.
Magical illnesses totally exist! You’re probably going to have to make up some of the symptoms/diseases/treatments, but that’s totally encouraged as long as you have a reason and don’t make it some random jungle virus. Just remember that if you’re going to send your character to the medic about it, hop on the Chatzy and let Julia know what you’re trying to do. Writing the medic really sucks if you don’t know what’s supposed to be wrong with the person you’re trying to treat.

Common Injuries

Broken bones. Healers have a number of ways of dealing with these. Students are unlikely to know these spells until 5th year or so.

Episkey sets and Heals minor broken bones.
Resarcio heals cracks/fractures in bones.
Skele-Gro grows bone that is missing (hence the name). I’ve also used it in the past as a means of mending bones that have been set properly. It is not instantaneous and is quite uncomfortable, so a regular Healer would not use it unless s/he had to.

Bleeding. Students probably will not be able to perform these spells until third year or so.

Amplio heals minor cuts/scrapes/bruises. If your character cuts himself while shaving or scraps her knee on the floor of the Rec Center, this is the kind of spell that’ll fix it.
Tergeo siphons up liquids. Like blood. Don’t let your character’s nosebleed ruin his/her favorite shirt!

Burns. Students will probably be able to pull off these spells around their fourth year.

First-degree: the spell Redintegro Exuro.
Second-degree: Redintegro Exuro or a burn-healing salve.
Third-degree: Redintegro Exuro will help the skin heal over, but healing the burn will require some kind of potion or salve.

What about scars?
Unlikely. Dittany prevents scarring (see Half-Blood Prince, when Harry uses Sectumsempra on Draco), so the only reason you’re going to have a scar is if the wound was magical in nature (e.g. from a werewolf or, y’know, the Killing Curse). Magical wounds are also unlikely to happen, but I’ll give you an out- a chemical burn from a potion, which is more likely than random werewolf attacks, might cause scarring if it’s not treated properly/immediately, depending on what kind of potion it was.

What about uncommon injuries?
I can’t go through every unlikely event like your character accidentally swallowing a toothbrush! Wizards are pretty good at speeding up the healing process if there’s internal organ damage, though.

Cancer & Tumors
I think I’m the first person to use blood cancer as an issue for a wizard [citation needed], but I know that Kat Eagle’s author had a character with a brain tumor once. The general consensus we came to (since her character was not an invalid) was that magical medicine rocks at removing (noncancerous) tumors but is not so great at treating cancerous cells. Magical medicine is very good at managing the symptoms, but not the cancer itself. I’m pretty sure this makes sense in-character, because it would be kind of a jerk move for the entire wizarding world to not share “ability to destroy cancer” with Muggles. I’ve established that currently, the wizarding world is working on magical treatments for cancer, and that the best option for a wizard for the time being is Muggle medicine in conjunction with some of the experimental magical treatments.

Surgery?
Kind of. They do surgery and sometimes need to make incisions to access internal injuries/tumors/whatever, but it’s a little different than it is for Muggles. What they do once they’re in there is anyone’s guess- my thought is that it probably involves extremely complicated charms- but here are the things I can think of.

Incision: Incidere creates an incision; renovo heals it.
Anesthesia?: Yes. Facio torpeo is a spell for local anesthesia and torpeo is for general anesthesia.
Transplants?: There’s a spell for that. Integro helps the body receive transplants.
Recovery time: Since magic can Heal incisions (without even leaving scars), recovery time is a lot faster than it is for Muggles.

Eyesight
This isn’t really a huge medical issue, but I’ve noticed that there’s a dearth of people with glasses/contacts at RMI. However, if you’ll recall from the title character of the book having to wear glasses, wizards in Harry Potter apparently can’t do a thing to fix myopia (near-sightedness). It seems to me that if they could do something about it, Harry (the savior of the wizarding world) would be a good candidate for some magical laser-eye surgery. So it looks like there’s nothing wizards can do about that.

That said, other eye problems (like glaucoma) can be treated with spell/potion combinations. Invent these at your leisure, but remember that only a professional would be able to perform them.

Teeth
Teeth gross me out so I’m not spending a lot of time here. Wizards use magic instead of braces. See Goblet of Fire, Hermione’s teeth, for further explanation. My guess is that wisdom teeth removal would also be fairly easy for wizards. Root canals? I don’t know; this is the part where I start to get goosebumps. Let’s move on to something I know stuff about. Like...

Brain/Nerve Injuries
If I’ve learned anything so far as a neuroscience student, it’s “don’t get your brain all messed up, because that can kind of make catastrophes”. As far as has been established, magical medicine can’t do very much for brain injuries that time and Muggle remedies can’t do.

Strokes.

There are two kinds of stroke: hemorrhagic and ischemic. Hemorrhagic is when a blood vessel bursts and blood gets all over your brain. Ischemic is when a blood clot or vessel detachment prevents oxygen from getting to a part of your brain.
Brain damage is really hard to fix, but we basically have established that magical medicine can help restore pre-damage physical functioning (speech and motion).
Wizards can quickly treat the immediate cause of a stroke (by bursting the clot or repairing the damaged vessel), but any underlying cause of the stroke would need further treatment.
For more information, ask Austin, who writes Rob Jacobs- a badass stroke victim who has the only wheelchair and the only dog in the school.

Nerve Damage.

Based on the assumption that wizards are not Dr. Frankenstein and cannot reanimate dead neurons, ability to Heal nerve damage is similar to that of Muggles.
After long periods of time, Muggles can regain functions of damaged nerves. Potions can probably speed this recovery process but cannot entirely Heal nerves.

Genetic Disorders
This is especially a concern if you have purebloods, because of the whole inbreeding thing.

Disorders that involve inheritance like hemophilia would be a likely result of inbreeding.
Disorders that involve chromosome deletion/abnormality like Angelman Syndrome have the same likelihood as they do in the Muggle world.
Therapies (physical or mental) in the wizarding world are likely on or above par with those of the Muggle world in terms of coping mechanisms and management by drug treatments.
Magic does not get rid of chronic genetic disorders. Ever. Period. It can treat them or treat the symptoms, but every chromosome in the body doesn’t get magically fixed.

Pregnancy (please do not use this as a plot. This is just for background information. Teenage pregnancy is not rated PG and if you try to use this as a plot you’re not even allowed to post about it on the main site, which just plain sucks.)
I’ve assumed the existence of contraceptive charms and potions, as far as magical birth control goes. As far as detection, I generally assume that there’s a charm form of pregnancy test. I don’t think wizards have ultrasounds, but my assumption would be that there’s a charm that can detect the baby’s gender earlier than an ultrasound could.

According to Austin’s epic chemistry knowledge, due to the compounds involved, there aren’t a lot of painkillers a pregnant woman can take, magic or not.

Age
This isn’t 100% medical, but we don’t really know the lifespan of wizards (mostly because everyone who died in canon died of war-related injuries. We do know that Dumbledore lived to be over 150 years old. Since he was not a wrinkly, withered senior, we can also assume that wizards age more slowly than Muggles. They’re also presumably more likely to live longer and healthier lives, and only die due to accident or illness (i.e. Draco Malfoy’s grandfather died of dragonpox).

Diabetes
Okay, this is my favorite, so I just had to say something about it.

Type I

Type I Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin.
Diabetes isn’t especially common in wizards, so the research is limited.
A few attempts at a potion substitute for insulin shots have been made, but encounter the same problems that orally-administered insulin faces in the Muggle world.
For more on this, talk to me. I think I may have cornered the market on wizarding Type I Diabetes [citation needed].

Type II

Type II Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to absorb/process insulin.
Because Type II diabetics are not insulin-dependent, wizards can manage Type II with a bi-yearly potion that enables their body to more easily process insulin.
For more on this, talk to Milo Sarkes’ author, who writes a character with Type II Diabetes.

That just about wraps up the major categories that I came up with. If you have more questions, feel free to ask me in Chatzy or use our spiffy Contact the Heads! form, and maybe I’ll do another blog post to cover it.

Cheers!
Marina

Writing a Challenge (Ryan)

2011-10-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

There should come a time in every RMI-ers time here that they realize they need or want to push themselves as an author. Mine came when I began to want to add a third character. I had my first character Jonas Finn, he was a reliable, well mannered boy. I also had Anders Bradbury,a surfer boy who defied the rules of what a pureblood was. Of course, I had my staff character, who was none other then Gaston Munro, who was a young, fun loving, retired Quidditch star.

I loved my group of guys but I began to realize something was missing; I had no girl characters. Even the ones I would write for Rosie Finn, and Carla Hudson were half women, caricatures
of women I loved and adored in my real life. So randomly in the Chatzy I asked, “Should I write a girl character?” Of course Bossman responded, with a wild “YES” fairly quickly and so I began to think of my character.

There was one thing that I had really wanted since coming to RMI and that was a special character. One with special abilities like a Vela, or a werewolf. So I began to ask the Bossman how I would go about this. I wanted the yet to be named girl to stand out from her fellow classmates. There was one thing I had yet to see written and that was a Parselmouth. So I researched and came up with the LeBeau clan.

Finding out where she was from helped me developed her character. I was so excited! I submitted Roxanne and she was accepted. I counted down the days till orientation was too start, ready to break out my new special girl! The day finally came I read the Orientation thread through, giddy. I had word opened to a fresh new page, I had headphones on to block out the TV. I was ready to write!

Yet, nothing came, I just watched the cursor flash again and again. Waiting for me to type something, anything. After a while it seemed like the thing was mocking me so I typed in Roxy’s name. Nothing came! I got annoyed. I knew nothing about being an eleven year old girl! I could fake a Parselmouth easily enough. There was google for that. They talked to snakes how cool was that. So I was stuck.

I decide to walk away from the computer, after all I couldn't google what an eleven year old girl was! So I took an hour to myself. During that time I thought about Roxy who she was and began to ask people, “hey do you think an eleven year old girl would do this/think this/wear this?” After a while I sat back down at my computer and wrote the first Roxy LeBeau post. It wasn’t very good but it was okay for my first try.

How have I been able to write a girl? I talk to girls. I talk to a lot of moms with girls that age. My buddies tell me stories of what their daughters do or did growing up. I research silly things that girls seem to like, sadly for me most of these things make me groan. One time I even had my sister play Justin Bieber for me. I watched Twilight with Layla. As creepy as it may seem I look at girls’ clothes and I ask myself ‘would Roxy wear that?”

Besides that I make Roxy realistic by watching how children act in movies and TV shows. Sure, sometimes they aren’t the best examples but it helps me write Roxy. In the end it comes down to how I think an eleven year old girl acts. Yes, it’s mostly me hoping that’s how my daughter is when she’s older.

Even now three terms into writing Roxy the Parselmouth, I have trouble writing her. She’s my favorite to write because it is such a challenge for me. Not only do I have to make her realistic in girl form, but also in Parselmouth form. When I sit down to write a post with Roxy, I struggle, get angry, get annoyed but every time I post her I feel that much stronger about my feelings for her.

Sure, Jonas is a nice guy, but I can’t stand him he bores me. Anders and I are buddies. Gaston and I are so much a like its scary but it’s Roxy I love to write and it’s because she’s a challenge. So I decided to challenge myself in little ways with each new character. Jonas’ younger brother Riley Finn is coming this term, and he’s a bit out there if you haven’t read his posts. I hope he becomes one of my favorites too. So my challenge to each of you is push yourself with each new character. Change up their genders, their sexual orientation, their background, the way they act etc etc. I am sure you will learn to adore those characters more then the ones it takes ten minutes to write a post for.

Welcome to the Sixties - or Term 12

2011-10-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

And thusly does T12 begin. Just a few announcements:

As some or all of you may know, the author of the Taylors, de Lenfents, and Ashtyn Tryphena-Phale has been deployed to Afghanistan for a year. She decided to pull her students instead of leaving them inactive, but intends to return to RMI as soon as she can with a fresh group of characters.
On a similar note, we are now accepting applications for the position of Foretelling Arts.
Although we have enough students to start term, we could still use more; although we don’t have anything left to bribe you with apart from virtual cookies and our eternal love, we’d really like it if you’d do some spreading of the RMI word for us.
This year, we are piloting a pre-Auror programme. Watch out for more information later on in the year!
If you haven’t yet filled out an Orientation Survey (for firsties) or a regular survey (for everyone else), it would make us smile if you do! Plus we give 10 points to the House of your choice.

Among cool looking boards (thanks to Julia), with appropriate links (Marina) and lots of new firsties, there’s something else new at RMI this year: the official RMI Writing Center.

The Writing Center is a place where our authors can find tools to help them improve their characterization and grammar, or submit posts for editing before they are posted. We invite you to request pages that you think would be helpful using the Contact Us form, and we absolutely encourage you to check out what we have! Our characterization sheets in particular have been exceptionally popular among a number of authors and come highly recommended.

As some of you may have noticed, our homepage indicates that we have instated a Writer of the Month. Each month, the Administrative Team will decide on one author who has demonstrated a significant dedication to the improvement of his or her work through the use of the Writing Center. Although Admin Team members are not eligible for this reward, staff members are, and we encourage each and every writer at RMI to take this chance to not only improve their work, but also be publically recognised for their commitment.

This month, we’d like to congratulate the author of Cara Carter as our Writer of the Month. Although Cara’s author has been writing here on and off since the very beginning, I have never seen her as much hard work and dedication into her characters as she has recently. This particular author was our ‘guinea pig’ for the character development sheets that are now available to everyone on RMI and has taken some really impressive leaps in her understanding of writing and characterization in the past half-term. After working with her and being able to see the change in her understanding of her characters and writing, I can honestly say that I’ve never been more impressed by the steps forward taken by an author. She is a truly deserving recipient of RMI’s first Writer of the Month award.

Avoiding Viruses 101 (Austin)

2011-09-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

There are some things I hate in life. Fixing your computers is one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I know enough about software to help you guys out and I don’t mind doing it. I grew up with my dad, who was programming way back when you had to use punchcards. Plus, my beloved boyfriend of two and a half years is such a computer science guy that sometimes I think he’s actually a cyborg. Combine that with my own mastery of the basics in programming and computer science – I’m fluent in Java, HTML, and CSS for those of you who don’t know – and I can get around pretty well. Sometimes I have to consult the experts when you guys throw me a problem I’m a little iffy on, but usually it all works out in the end.

What I hate is having to deal with perfectly preventable problems. To that end, I have compiled this quick list of things all RMI authors should do in order to prevent them from completely wrecking their computers as they skip merrily around the Internet. It can also save you hundreds of dollars in computer repair, massive headaches, and the loss of your entire virtual life. Or for some of us, virtually our entire lives.

That’s right. If you don’t follow these suggestions, you could lose everything you ever put on your computer. Baby pictures. The multi-page essay you were working on before your computer crashed. Posts. Character pictures. Any saved videogames you have. Everything. Ever. And you might not be able to get it back.

Listening yet? Good. Here’s what you should do.

1. Step away from Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer is the browser most commonly used to surf the ‘net. Do you know what that means? If you’re an evil hacker sitting alone in your mother’s basement and planning to make small childrens’ lives miserable, you are going to design a virus that targets Internet Explorer and you’re probably going to use those fun, singing pop-up ads to do it. Since I’m assuming you don’t want this hacker to destroy your computer and make your life stressful, you should download Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Yes, both of them. And then you should expunge Internet Explorer from your system. Don’t just delete the shortcut on your browser, right-click on it and click ‘uninstall’.

Download Google Chrome here. Download Mozilla Firefox here.

2. Ix-nay on the Ads
If you like to watch cute singing kittens, go to YouTube. If you actually believe that “hot Russian singles” want you, you are very sadly mistaken. And if you think these ads are doing anything good for your computer, I have a bridge I want to sell you. I know ads help pay for free sites to run and blah-di-blah, but until I can trust that my computer isn’t being invaded by hordes of Sith Lord Cyber Worms thanks to that ad with the singing kittens, I really don’t care. If the owners of the free site have any sort of discretion (pro tip: the free site hosting our boards doesn’t) they’ll monitor the content of the ads that go up. And until then, you need to install AdBlock on the Chrome and Firefox browsers that you just downloaded and are using to view the rest of this post. AdBlock is pretty straightforward. It blocks ads, which means that it doesn’t even give the rampaging Sith Lord Cyber Worms the opportunity to know your computer exists.

Download AdBlock for Chrome here. Download AdBlock for Firefox here.

3. Realise your Anti-Virus sucks
I’m making the assumption here that all of you are smart enough to have an Anti-Virus software installed and functioning on your computer because you are using the internet. If not, please take a moment to bask in shame. For reference on how best to do this, watch this tutorial.

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s take a quick look at the top three universally acclaimed worst free anti-virus softwares out there right now: AVG, McAfee, and Norton Anti-Virus. As it happens, they’re also some of the most common anti-virus softwares. Did you know that McAfee and Norton can’t effectively remove most viruses from your computer? They can only tell you that you have one. And did you know that AVG can’t even manage that sometimes? Scary thought, right?

The best thing to do to save yourself from the trauma of computer death-by-virus in this case is twofold. Firstly, you must click the link we will provide you in a moment. Secondly, you must go to the anti-virus that was installed on your computer and uninstall it. Don’t just delete the shortcut; you must right-click and uninstall it. As Julia put it recently, “you can't have two anti-viruses on your computer at the same time. It's like computer AIDS. They spend all their time thinking the other one is a virus and ignore the real viruses.” Okay good. Now download Avast, the RMI Anti-Virus of choice.

I know some of you may complain that it takes too long to download or that your computer is too old to handle Avast, but please take a moment to think about how much it will suck when (and I do say when) you get a virus that renders your system completely unusable for days. Or weeks. Or ever. And trust me, your computer isn’t too old – when the harddrive on my HP Pavilion fried in February of 2011, I reverted to using my original laptop until I got a new one. My original laptop is a Gateway that was purchased in 1995. It needs a special attachment to even connect to the internet. No excuses.

Download Avast here and make your life infinitely better.

4. Use your new Anti-Virus
It doesn’t work if it’s not turned on. Make sure that you schedule a scan to run each day. You should also adjust your settings so that Avast scans all downloads automatically.

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That’s all for now, folks! I’ve remained virus-free for six years over four computers by following these basic rules, and you can too. If you run into other problems I’ll be glad to help…but only if you’ve already followed these directions!

Hurricane Update

2011-08-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

From our post last week, you guys know that a good many of our authors were in the general pathway of Hurricane Irene. Several were evacuated and others just battened down the hatches at home, but we're happy to let all of you know that we have heard from most of the authors who were evacuated or in the hurricane's path and everyone we've heard from is a-okay.

As far as the Admin Team goes, Julia evacuated inland to stay with a friend and got through the storm with nothing more major than a power outage that's projected to last another 3-4 days. Because she's incredibly pro, this didn't stop her from MacGyvering a griddle out of nothing more than tea candles and cooking sheets in order to make a post-storm pancake breakfast.

Marina was evacuated from her university campus and stayed safely in the area with a family friend. She didn't lose power but did lose her Internet connection. Other residents in her area are without power and she might still be affected by power/Internet outages in the next week or so.

Ryan was not evacuated, but like the cool Army dude he is he was working overtime this weekend to make sure things in his area were a-okay. He is doing fine and had both power and Internet the last we heard from him.

I, Austin, was not evacuated and basically just got a lot of rain from the "hurricane". We didn't lose power at home, but I've since re-located to campus and some buildings are out of power. Mine has both power and Internet at the moment, but since my school enjoys breaking things while they're fixing other things, this could change.

If you were in the hurricane's path, please leave a comment below to let everyone know what's up on in your town!

Quidditch Talk (Ryan)

2011-08-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's your resident go-to guy Ryan here! As you all should know, I write the once-upon-a-time Captain and Seeker of the US National Quidditch team and your current Quidditch Coach, Mr. Gaston Munro! He is a pretty exciting guy to write and I love running the Quidditch Program here at RMI. You guys seriously make it so much fun to be the Coach, but I'm sure some of you want to know just exactly how the Quidditch Program is run. That’s what I am here to tell you!

We will start at the beginning with the first lessons. As you all know, first years have to take both Flying lessons and Quidditch lessons before being allowed to try out for the team. Flying lessons give you a taste of how to describe how your kids feel on a broom and what it's like for them in the air. Quidditch lessons were added to the program to let us see how you react in a game setting. It also lets us stop any godmodding that might happen before the game. Therefore, these are mandatory to first years interested in Quidditch, and second and third years are encouraged to join in.

Next comes the try-outs, which are run by the Captains of the House teams. They can choose any way of running try-outs. When it comes to actually choosing the team some Captains choose to do so by themselves while others talk to their assistant captains and then choose the list. Choosing teams is something Captains think about both IC and OOC. For example, if you have a character on the House team already another character of yours who tries out probably won’t get on so that we can give lots of authors a chance to write Quidditch.

Now we finally get to what everyone has waited for: the game. Games are written by me; I choose the weather and all those little details that make a Quidditch game, write it, then post it. Games always run for two weeks with me normally closing the game at midnight on Friday, although sometimes I'm away and don't close it until later on Friday.

At that time I sit down with a nice cup of coffee and start reading the posts starting with Gaston's. From there I read the game in order giving each post a point total of 1 through 5. Points are given on the length of the post, the action going on, and how well you've followed the guide I've given you about the day. Saying it was rainy when I clearly stated in the first post it was sunny will cost you points, ladies and gentlemen. Even though one team might have posted 15 times while the other only posted 13 times, sometimes those 13 posts can win a game.

After reading all the posts I total up the points and submit them to our points tally before sending out the Seeker e-mail. From there I close the game and allow the Seeker to write a post before actually announcing who won the game.

I hope this clears things up guys, since the final is coming up very soon! I would love to see more stands action during the games and let's see if we can go one game without someone falling off their brooms! Plus don’t forget that stand posts can get House points for your House even if it isn’t playing!

Hasta Lugeo

Ryan

Dispatch from the Profiles Department (Julia)

2011-08-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Wow.

I can't believe that I've officially been an admin for a little over a week now. It's still too new. My admin badge is still shiny. There isn't a speck of lint on my Chatzy Admin hat. (Flour, yes, because I'm a baker and I have very little that has not gotten stray bench flour on it at some point.)

This isn't something that I expected to happen when I first began writing at RMI three years ago. I blame Marina for getting me into this. Marina is my sister's best friend and a good friend in her own right. So it was pretty hard to turn down her invitation to join the site, which took place in the hallway of our high school after lunch one day and went something like this:

Marina: Hey, y'know that website [Sister] and I write for? We need students in the artistic house. Wanna write someone who plays the cello, since you actually do?”

Me (unsuspecting): Okay, sure.

Little did I know what I was getting into... (Cue creepy organ music.)

In all honesty, though, if I had known in advance what writing at RMI is like, I would have still said yes. Why? Despite the hours of lost sleep from staying up reading up reading, writing, and brainstorming, and the headaches and frustrations from writer's block and characters that won't shut up even when they know you can't post them (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Celia Hier.), I have made friends with some fantastic people, both OOC and IC; gotten to go to a school like Hogwarts wtihout needing a passport, student visa, Gringotts account, or having to leave the comfort of the spinny chair in front of the computer; and learned a lot about writing, characterization, myself, and life in general. Not to mention that I now have enough alter egos that becoming a spy or someone in the Witness Protection Program won't be a problem. Worth it? Without a doubt.

I didn't know any of that then, but I agreed to anyway, and after some thought, I came up with Celia Hier. My original formula for her was something like this:

Celia = [plays cello] + [looks like friend instead of me for added separation of author and character] + [has the same sense of humor that I do] + [has a name that looks like the word “cello”]

A few days later, I was persuaded to to write the Librarian, on the grounds that someone needed to do it and that position didn't require a lot of posting, so a new author could handle it. And thus began my career at RMI. I've added a few more characters since then, and now this term, I'm writing a new staff member that has actual responsibilities: Kristina de los Santos, RMI's new medic.

And then, because Austin thinks I'm qualified, he asked me to join the Admin team. I didn't exactly leap at the opportunity, despite how much I love the site and the community. It was because I love the site and the community that I didn't leap at it right away. I wanted to make sure that it would be something that I wouldn't end up neglecting. Because if I took on a Responsibility that I couldn't manage along with school and work, I would be letting everyone at the site down. (Austin asked me right after I pulled a 55-hour work week.) And I don't want to do that to RMI.

So now I am RMI's odd-job woman, graphics designer for the site upgrade, and Profile Queen. My to-do list, depending on how specific I make it, has either tripled or increased at least fifty-fold.

I don't have a problem with that. I get to make pretty things, which I haven't gotten to do in quite some time, for the new boards, and I actually find doing profiles soothing, despite what Austin thinks. Although they usually don't involve a lot of brainpower, courtesy of all the authors who are awesome enough to do things like editing and checking spelling before submitting, they are time-consuming. (I should be charging Austin for doing them :P.) They are the same thing over and over with minor changes, but I work at a bakery. I'm used to that sort of work. Plus, coding makes me feel like such a computer pro when I know nothing beyond the most basic HTML tags and how to use most already-created software.

Profiles also have the advantage of being unintentionally amusing or ironic. The template I have is based off one character's profile, complete with all of the information intact so that I know where to put things. This character is a second-year Pureblood girl. So while I'm copying and pasting things in and formatting, I end up with things like all the rough-and-tumble Aquila boys disliking being dirty; rebellious Yevetya Alkaeva's greatest ambition to please her family; and any number of awkward or downright inappropriate betrothals, like Cash Taylor being betrothed to Kat Eagle for the amount of time it took me to type that she was his “Greatest Annoyance.” My favorite was definitely the five-second betrothal between Andersson Leppit and Milo Sarkes. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish them much happiness in their life together.

Ciao,

Julia

Why the Changes?

2011-08-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

As many of you have noticed, there have been a lot of changes around RMI lately. And yes, we do mean a lot. There's a new Headmaster (or as Milo Sarkes put it, a 'tradition-ruining bouncing fool') skipping merrily about campus, a new set of classes, a new site design, a new Admin on our team - what's going on? What prompted all of this? And Merlin DAMN it, where did the Classes page go?!

...I'm working on the Classes page.

As for the rest of it, there's a pretty simple answer: I got burned out.

On 29 December, RMI will turn five years old. On 28 December, I (Austin) will turn twenty. And a vague month-or-so before that, I will have my fifth roleplaying anniversary.

It's been kind of a long haul. When I first started RMI, it was with my best friend, Sherri. We were co-Heads, that first year, and freshmen in high school. We had a rough first term, a rough second term, and a rough third term. Somewhere in the middle of that, Sherri left RMI because Real Life got too busy. Talitha Cumni stepped in for a few terms as DH, but her Real Life got in the way too, and it was then that Garen Tennant became a permanent fixture as RMI's Deputy Head. Somewhere along the way, we acquired a Quidditch programme and a Drama Club. Somewhere along the way, I acquired a disturbing number of characters.

Stavros Ploukratia, Allegra Ruisi, Scott Kendrick, Mia Nealson, Hank Macrae. I adopted Kaseem Bakhum, who had been Sherri's, in that first graduating class too. Monica Jiminez was in the second graduating class. One free term, then Alissa Kendrick. Then Phoebe and Dylan Maddox. Megan Macrae, Rob Jacobs. Trevor Jacobs and Edmund Tarry. Elise Jacobs. The Lander-Guidos, the Headmaster. Briefly, the caretaker. Briefly, the Quidditch Coach.

...needless to say, when I impose per-term character limits, I do it with the knowledge that having five characters in one year seriously sucks.

But in the midst of all that, I was getting busier with Real Life too. I graduated high school with both a high school diploma and the International Baccalaureate diploma in 2010, then spent the last year as a freshman in Chemical Engineering. RMI had become a stressful obligation instead of a fun hobby, and by the end of my freshman year, I was done.

Yes, I wanted to quit. I handed the site over to Garen Tennant and Gaston Munro for about a half-term, planning to hand it off to them. But between time concerns and the question of who would pay for the site, and the awkward reality that I'm the only one on the Admin who knew how the site was coded at the time...we realised that it just wasn't realistic to hand RMI off to Garen and Gaston.

And then came that awkward point in time where I considered closing RMI. What else was I going to do with something that frustrated me and burned me out when I had so much else going on?

But the great thing about RMI is that we aren't just a roleplaying site. When I tried to make RMI into a place that was open, safe, and welcoming for everyone, regardless of their writing ability or anything else, I accidentally created the best support system ever for not only myself, but for you guys. Because when I suggested closing RMI to the few who knew about it at the time, all hell did break loose. It was only a day or two later, when Garen texted me, that I really got it.

"I think I can do it [take control of the site]. And I think it would be letting people down not to [. . . .] All I can think is that Rebecca Brandon is getting so good and I love seeing Milo Sarkes be a freak, and how [Gwen] told me she thinks the RMI authors were a literal godsend b/c we've made her life so much better and I couldn't give it up."

This is the RMI that I wanted it to be. Somewhere where people could improve their writing, be creative, and have a safe place where they wouldn't be judged. It's not perfect, but realising that I have a responsibility to you guys helped me snap back into gear. It helped me see how much I would miss those things too, if RMI closed, and how I owed it to Garen, to Rebecca, to Milo, to Gwen, to me to keep it going.

So we got a new site design, a new Headmaster, and I sadly-but-necessarily abandoned a handful of characters. I gave everyone else that chance too, because if I felt overwhelmed, who was to say that nobody else did? Consequently, we have both the fewest number of characters and the most active number of characters we have had on RMI in a long time. I think it worked - and I'm less stressed because Kristina de los Santos has taken over profile duty. And although there may be disagreements in Chatzy sometimes and tempers can flare, and although the new site isn't perfect (eep, yes, getting on that ><; ), I hope you can see the RMI Garen helped me to see again through those cracks.

Cheers,
Your friendly local Austin

A new site, a new beginning?

2011-08-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

Almost seven terms after beginning the "Blogging Heads" idea (and quickly abandoning it), I can guarantee you that some things have seriously changed. We have an almost completely new staff - although Juliet, Christian, and Garen have been fantastic enough to stick with us through this time - and a completely new look, but over the terms I can honestly say that our community has only become stronger and more diverse.

In order to keep you guys well-advised about what's going on at RMI, both IC and OOC, inside and out, I've decided to re-start this blog. My fellow admins will write posts on topics that they feel strongly about or just want to give you a heads up on. Feel free to request topics or submit questions that you'd like to see us address here.

That's it for now! Stay tuned for more from the RMI Admin Team, and don't feel shy about letting us know what you want to hear about!

Cheers,
Austin
Author of Headmaster Tobias "Tobi-wan" Morgan
Site founder

Well, that was interesting

2008-10-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

I know I abandoned y'all for about three weeks. I'm sorry. *hangs head* School happened, but two schedule changes, a time management plan, and a few cups of tea later I think I'm back in the game. Just in time for Term 5, right? Is everyone excited? This will be pretty epic, I promise! Before things start up, I have a little catching up to do for y'all, so here goes:

Plot: the magic is back! After a month RL time (probably about 2 months IC time), the 'specialty wizards' hired by the Magical Board of Ed (MBoE) have fixed the problem and all is back to normal, just in time for the third years to take their STOATs, which should be going up in the next couple of days. However, Deputy Headmistress McFarlan is sticking around for the ride. Next term will be verrry interesting....

ORMI: will seriously, for reals get posted and worked on in the next couple of days. Again, sorry for the delay. Real life can be a pain sometimes.

Applications for Next Term: Ah, this is the interesting section. Medic Connor is leaving us, which makes the medic position open, and Professor Dai has also plead an excess of RL work and begged off the DADA job. In other words, we are looking for a new medic and a new DADA professor; please apply using the staff form on the main page! We need about thirty student apps in the next three weeks, or else we won't be able to end and start term on time. We are no longer accepting transfer students above second year. How can you help with your student shortage? Here are a few ideas:

Tell your friends! Most of the successful applicants apply because their friends write for us. So use that positive peer pressure and tell everyone about RMI.
Facebook, facebook, facebook. Post a note or share RMI's link on Facebook.
Review! If you write at a site such as Fictionpress or Fanfiction.net, or some other creative writing site, review other peoples' stories and add a link to RMI in! Please use your good judgment though; if their FFN or FP writing doesn't meet RMI standards, chances are their app won't either.
Talk to teachers about it. If you are in high school, ask your English teacher or another teacher you know well to share the information with his or her class. Depending on district regulations they may or may not be able to do so, but they could recommend students who might be interested. Give it a shot!
Put fliers up! We have fliers you can use; just let me know and I'll email those to you. Try your local library, coffee shop, or school bulletin board.

Remember, the more people we have, the more fun RMI is. Plus, we can't start term without at least 40 applicants...so the more work you do, the happier we'll all be. Spread the word!

Again, major apologies for abandoning y'all, especially those I'm in threads with. But I'm back, fear not! Get those applications in! Let me know if you have any questions or comments or concerns!

Lots of love,
Your Friendly Local Austin
Slightly Crazed Headmaster
Rocky Mountain International
http://www.rmimagic.com

Again with the Internet

2008-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, a mixture of my school!schedule, the changing of the guard in the Deputy Head department, and my ill-timed lack of internet connection has delayed both my posting and the uploading of new and old profiles still left on the old server.

Everything should be up, although I have not yet had time to go through and catch and fix errors yet. My posting...should be caught up shortly. Thanks for your patience!

Chaos, as Promised

2008-08-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

What's this? The portraits aren't moving? The entrances to Houses are apparent for all to see? The Finer Diner is an ordinary room?

For those of you who have been around RMI in the past two days, I'm sure that you're wondering what exactly is going on. Well, I'm sure that you've figured out that it is, indeed, that elusive Plot (and many thanks to Juliet Audrey for helping me get it up). But here's the full story...it just requires a little ancient history.

Four years ago, the caretaker, Nic Clavell had to leave RMI. Struggling to find a replacement, the Board of Governors (BoG) ended up hiring Joseph Wagoner, a pop singer who was interested in doing the job for a short amount of time as a publicity stunt. He left at the end of the year, but without doing many crucial bits of maintanence that everyone assumed he had, indeed, done. One of these pieces of work was to renew the charms preventing RMI's magic from influencing the Muggle world above. Kim Kraft entered her new post assuming, as everyone else did, that the charms had been renewed as they have to be every five years.

Now eight years since the charms were supposed to be renewed, they have gone into overdrive, completely blanketing the school. No form of wand magic will work until they are fixed, save that done on the Quidditch Pitch. The Pitch is on a different schedule than the rest of the school as it was just finished being built. However, this is the only place that wand magic will work. Elf magic and naturally occurring magics (such as those found in plants, potions, and magical creatures) are still functioning, but this leaves the wizards and witches of the school at a great disadvantage.

On February 13th, the day before this magical outage occurred, Deputy Headmistress Mariette Lander-Guido went on maternity leave, expecting twins in April. Her replacement, Kathleen McFarlan, was hired by the BoG solely for the purpose of auditing the school and making sure that things are as they should be; complications in recent years have lead them to doubt Alessandro Guido's capacity to lead the school properly, and numerous parent complaints about malfunctions within the school only exacerbated this doubt.

The magical outage will remain in place until the specialist, an independent contractor that the BoG has specifically hired for this purpose, has set the school to rights. Until then, classes will occur on the Quidditch Pitch and RMI will cope as is necessary. The Quidditch programme will resume with the Draco vs. Aquila game as soon as a new coach is found.

...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is where I will leave you. Enjoy yourselves with the magical power outage! And in the next installment: the new ORMI.

At long last

2008-08-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

The server change...it hath begun!

Only 'begun' because it's fairly late on my personal, internal clock and I have to get some nasty school stuff done. I'm sure you all know the drill. Anyway, I was planning on wrapping up some things when, lo and behold, the server is finally ready to use! After travel, tech issues, and general bad circumstances, RMI is finally off the geocities server.

Now, mind you, I'm not completely done yet, but things are working enough that we have basic functions. The profiles are only about half done, and there are a few aesthetic things that I really want to fix up (varying picture sizes, for instance), but the main thing is that RMI works. So enjoy it! And while you're enjoying it, a big thanks to the reason we have this awesome server, my dad, would be outstanding. ;)

Sorry about the down time. It was rather unexpected, and due to me making the small mistake of deleting and having to rebuild the home page.

Anyway, things should be back to normal soon. In upcoming posts (tomorrow?), look out for RMI's New Deputy Head, the ever-elusive Plot Start, and the new and improved Outside of RMI.

Good night, my marvelous authors!
Austin

To My Most Awesome Staffies,

2008-07-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

I will be unavailable for about two weeks, as I have to be in Washington DC at the time, and wireless internet (or the time to use it) will be fairly sparse if it exists at all. So the site will be left in the hands of the most awesome staff members ever--ours! But before I go, I just wanted to appreciate their awesomeness. Without our RMI staff, Sherri and I would be slightly more crazed than we are now; they let us know when we overlook things, take care of minor things on their own, and most of all make us laugh when we need it. So thank you:

To Eliana, for stepping up and taking Care of Magical Creatures. It's a marvelous class, and you're doing a truly outstanding job teaching it. I'm glad you volunteered for that. :)

To Jodie, for lessons that make about half my characters cringe, the rest love you, and all of them take post-STOATs Charms classes. You also get the award for Most Original Use of a Cat at RMI, and gods know that Charms would be less fun without Parrot there.

To Sakura, for scaring the living daylights out of half my characters and putting the other half in total awe of your teaching. You certainly bring character to the staff, and we love you for it.

To Serilda, for stepping up at the last minute to my desperate pleas of 'we need an herbology teacher!' and for never making me regret that decision. Although you haven't been on staff since the very beginning, you came in when we needed you most and you've never failed to take on extra duties when Sherri and I needed you to.

To Zuma, who wins the 'most positions held at RMI' award. First as Head of Draco, then a Counselor, then a History of Magic teacher, we're so glad we have you. Your originality and family posts have certainly made my day more than once. The Little Zumas are amazing, and your history lessons are something that I'd want to attend!

To Elizabeth, for being uber supportive both IRL and on the site, for going along with my crazy schemes, and for taking on Lyra House. The computer lab was a stroke of brilliance that really helps make RMI what it is today!

To Juliet, for always having energy. Always. Even when it scares me. ;) Just kidding. The founder of the Secret Santa, and the staff member with the most "can I do this??" questions, I know you love RMI as much as Sherri and I do and your out-of-the-box ingenuity helps it thrive.

To Christian, for never failing to second guess me or Sherri. Or both, simultaneously, if needed. For the Advanced Transfigurations lessons and the Remedial Transfigurations lessons, and for all the other things you volunteer to do, despite your other responsibilities.

To Poppy, for RMI news and ever-enthusiastic posting.

To Bubbles, for becoming our third medic in four years, despite the apparent curse on the position. ;) I love your characters' personalities and your willingness to post avidly with students, even under difficult circumstances.

To Garen, for making the Admin Quarters more active than it's ever been in four terms at RMI and starting what we all thought may be impossible: an RPG musical. You also win the Most Copious Use of Random Metaphors award. Keep it up, my friend!

To Kim, for being willing to do 'just this one more thing'. You stepped up to take a staff position when we really needed it, and since then you have been willing to do pretty much anything, including write a myriad of other characters, even if you were only ever expecting to just write the caretaker. Thanks as well for the hugs, the teddy grahams and frosting, and the noise of little house-elf feet pitter-pattering through the halls of the school.

To Mariette, to Sherri, to my wonderful Deputy Headmistress. Couldn't do this without you, and I really wouldn't want to try. I mean, for one, I'd actually have to update profiles on a yearly basis! What madness that would be!

Thank you all for being completely awesome.

Love from your friendly local Austin! <3

Auegh! Wireless!

2008-07-11T20:21:00.001-07:00

After experiencing some Severe Wireless Deprivation over the past week, I'm glad to say that my lovely connection is back, and I should be catching up with posts ASAP.

In other news, ten days until Midterm. ;)

Looming on the Horizon

2008-06-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

That's right. It's here. Or at least threatening. This is now the time to cue the Jaws music.

Duhnuh. Duhnuh. Duuuuh...nuhnuhnuhnuhnuuuuh!

Plot. It's approaching. Are YOU ready? Do you have your canned food properly stacked? Your bottled water stored? Your gas mask at the ready?

Well, maybe it's not quite that drastic. But let me tell you, this plot is going to be so much fun, if you want to have it. Seriously, it's going to be fantastic. This has been in the works since T1, although it was put aside because we thought it would be better to wait until we have more people. Now it's T4 and we've got the people, and it's so ready to go!

Part Uno, if you haven't seen it: Draco, Lyra, Cetus, Aquila

Part Dos, if you haven't seen it: Rec Centre
(and continued, Finer Diner)

Can anybody guess what we're doing? No staffies from T1 are allowed to guess. ;) Let's see how quick you guys are on the pick up!

The Decline from Sanity

2008-06-27T08:22:00.001-07:00

Not that I need anything else to do or anything like that.

Heh. Well, this is Austin, your friendly local Headmaster from Rocky Mountain International. I write Alessandro Guido, do maintainance, and other such things that have to do with RMI. Real life happens sometimes too, but that's not too important. ;)

Just for a little bit of background on the site: RMI was founded on December 29, 2006 during a sleepover with my friend and darling Deputy Headmistress, Sherri. We're both into international stuff, so we decided to make the school international as well. We threw up some code, started advertising, and boom! Term one happened. There were some setbacks, of course, and we have (at current count) recoded the entire site three times (many thanks to the Head at Sonora for helping us). But thanks to you guys, we've kept it going and now we're almost halfway through our fourth term!

We're anticipating a server move sometime in the next month or so. By 'server move' I mean that we will no longer be hosted by geocities, but by our own domain! It's pretty exciting for us because geocities has some serious issues with failing at crucial times due to server overload from too many page views.

But yeah, I'm planning on using this blog to keep in touch with you guys. Feel free to make comments, ask questions, or whatever you want! I don't get to talk to all of you (and I wish I could), but hopefully this will make sure everyone knows what's going on with RMI now and in the future, even if you're one of the ones I don't get to talk to, for whatever reason.

Ciao!