Current Mood: Content

There’s a trick to the “graceful exit.” It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving up, rather than out.

- Ellen Goodman

I am afraid this is the end of Phoenix Tearz. I wish I had a better way to say it, some lengthy prose about my time spent here/etc., but really, this is all I can come up with:

I have been considering closing this site for awhile now for various reasons, but turned against the thought. It seemed too painful to consider, PT having been a part of my life for almost four years (to the best of my reckoning) but I cannot deny the truth any longer: I have not the heart (or time) to pour so much attention into this site as it received as of old, and I would rather it not sit and rot for five months before I touch it again, expecting things to be the same as they once were, to pick up where I long left off while a deep black void hangs inbetween the disconnection and the reconnection. I want to go out with a BANG! so to say, instead of a whisper of neglect.

Recently, too, I have realized something: the site has truly been gone for many months now. My lack of dedication to it beginning awhile ago should have been an acknowledged sign, but it wasn’t: from now on I am heeding all such signs instead of ignoring them. Phoenix Tearz is done and over with: I cannot drag it on any longer.

School has taken up most of my time as of late; four days a week of class, homework, and maintaining my B/B+ average is very time-consuming business, and my first priority. I love my affiliates, the experiences I’ve had with this site, and the knowledge (graphic- and coding-wise) I’ve acquired, but I believe there is an end for everything: PT has now reached its end.

However, before the protests and pleading starts, I will inform you of a bit of happier, exciting news: I plan to open a new site. I don’t know when this will be–PT will remain online until then. I first need to come up with a name, and make a layout, and buy a new hosting service–Yahoo!, my current host, doesn’t allow .htaccess files and therefore makes it impossible for me to take advantage of many recently-discovered (but incredibly useful) Wordpress features. I can’t say when I’ll get a new site; my class ends next week, and then I have only a short amount of time before my friend Hope visits from Maryland, but I’m going to have a month-long break before fall quarter starts, so hopefully I can work on any new site-business then.

Here are a few facts concerning this ‘new site’ I will open that I think need to be stated:

1. I will still accept affiliates, but I will be much more selective of whom I choose this time. I may not keep all of my old affiliates; I do not mean to offend anyone, but I really don’t have the time to leave comments to 20+ sites each week and get half as many replies, some in the form of one-liners. I have enjoyed having so many affiliates, but I just don’t have the time for the responsibility any more. Therefore, only my closest online friends will remain affiliates. (If they still want to: I will discuss it all when the time for the opening of my new site draws nearer.)
2. I will still have some free content, but only a few things I deem worthy of keeping. I want to offer more useful, well-written tutorials, mostly for Wordpress customization. I will not have brushes/gradients/color palettes/etc. any more; think more along the lines of WP themes, WP icons, RSS icons, tutorials, articles, etc.
3. Slightly reiterating what I’ve said above, my new site will be a personal/blog site only with a little visitor content; it will not under any circumstance be a ‘free graphic site’ or anything similar.
4. I’m hoping to kick it up a notch, so to speak, with this new site; I want to branch out in terms of design, Wordpress functionality, SEO, better validation, etc. I want to include jQuery. I want it to be the best site I’ve ever designed/coded by far.
5. It may take a while for the new site to open: know that it will eventually come. The delay might be not only because of my schedule, but also because of my inability to quickly come up with a new domain name! I am afraid I over-think everything and am terrible at making quick decisions; I am tiring of ‘Phoenix Tearz’ (and the pre-teen-ish ‘z’ tacked onto the end of the title,) and want to come up with a name I will, hopefully, never tire of; at least not in the near future. Bear with me!

That’s about it, I think; but before I end this post/notice, I want to say a big thank you to all my affiliates, site visitors, commentors, and the like: your support has kept PT going as long as it has, and nothing will ever, ever be forgotten. I take comments and kindness deeply to heart, and I will always fondly remember the years I spent updating and maintaining this site.

If I have anything else to report, I’ll post it here; I’m turning comments off for now, though. If you want to get in touch with me regarding this post and the changes coming, or anything else, please do so via my contact form because your message is guaranteed not to be considered SPAM, if sent in that way! Affiliates, if you know my email, you can also just send me a plain email; I have most of your email addresses in my address book, so your message won’t go into the SPAM folder!

Well, for now: farewell!