Every since PAX last fall, when my laptop was stolen, I've had a hard time keeping up with the "behind the scenes" faceplate stuff. I did manage to get a new article up on Faceplate Addict about the Deathsmiles launch in about a week. I'll give it a week before I put up another article about the new 360 and what I think it means to collectors.
But when my laptop was stolen, a whole folder full of faceplate that needed to be added to the database went with it, and it's not like I can just go scour the internet for those missing plates. I have no idea which ones they were or where I found them. I can only just keep my eyes peeled for additional plates, try not to make duplicate entries, and fix the ones that are wrong. Since then, I've lost a little bit of enthusiasm because I knew it was "complete" before and now I know it won't ever be. Getting stuff stolen takes the wind out of your sails, believe me.
I've made a crapload of plates in the last four months, as have a number of you guys, plus there have been a few plates released in Japan. All of these need to be added. Right now, I have a folder called "NEW FACEPLATES TO ADD" that has, I kid you not, 365 images in it. Now, not all of those = "NEW PLATES." Many are, but many are additional shots of those same plates or additional shots of plates already in the database, or simply plates that somehow made it into this folder but have already been added. That means that unless I know off the top of my head that a plate is new, I have to look up every plate before I add it so I'm not going back deleting duplicates.
Kamshaft asked me to just add a few at a time because I was apparently causing Death By Tweets when I added 25 plates at once. However, when I can only add five or so at a time, it's not hardly worth it to carve out that small amount of time to add plates. So as an alternative, I asked Kam to turn off Tweet updates just for the database. You should still have gotten one for the most recent FPA article on Deathsmiles.
Keep in mind that I just got back from E3. I have articles I haven't written, pictures I haven't posted, links I haven't shared and emails I haven't written to follow up with people I met. I'm working through it, but I get back and it's like, oh, your daughter has a dance recital on Friday, your gf is coming over Saturday, nobody is around Sunday, Monday you have to mail stuff, Tuesday you have to drive back to LA and won't be back until Wednesday... and on and on. I am trying to get Anime Expo July 1-4 taken care of, as well as PAX West Sept. 3-6, which is actually Sept. 1-8 because I'm going up on the PAX West Coast Train Trip again. Not to mention that I'm taking three classes at CSUB this summer that run 6-10 in the evening, four nights a week, plus I got a summons for Jury Duty on July 6.
I feel really bad that I came back with as little info as I did for E3. I registered as Faceplate Addict Media so you can understand why I wasn't real high on publishers' lists to get appointments. But I did so much faceplate stuff, it would have been worse had I gone as Xbox Addict or GamerType and then not returned with the info.
Speaking of faceplates (weird, huh?) I got some plates in that were made for Canadian Online Gamers. I get to keep a few and will be deciding what to do with them. They just arrived today so I can't really do anything until I ship them out to COG and they do their "thing" first, whatever that may be. An unspoken part of any deal like this is that I won't step on their toes.
OK, so there you go. Over the next couple of weeks, before school starts again, I hope to get all of this stuff behind me, with the most time sensitive stuff (like E3) taken care of first, Then you should see another burst of activity in the database. Out of those 365 images, I think there are probably at least 200 unique plates, and some pretty freakin' cool stuff if I might say so and I might. :)
Thanks for hanging in there.
