Tuesday 26 April 2011

Ruse revealed

Well lets start with what I said about keeping quiet till after the staff meeting weekend gone. I kind of lied about having new ideas to share with the team this weekend, it was all a ruse. I had organised with Tuomas around 3 weeks prior to come onto the chat room to meet the team etc, so I wanted to keep it a surprise. We had a lovely night, he joined us for around 2 hours and steadily getting more and more tipsy. He made us laugh a lot, taking his "boss" role seriously and ordering people to misbehave...something I will wind him up about at a later date. He really enjoyed it and thought it was a really cool experience, and he did really well for a chat room first timer. I'll get him back on in the future.

I went for the job interview today- it was ok but I don't think I'll get the job. By the way they described the role I don't think I have enough experience for it. Also the fact they have 32 people going for the job. So we will see hopefully next week. But I may have another thing coming up soon so time will tell.

Should have some nice website updates soon, have something with Tuomas' mother in the pipeline so we will see if we can sort something out. I'm also working on some new promotion ideas, nothing concrete to share yet but as soon as I do and I speak to the boss; I'll share.

When I thought I would do another blog update, I expected to write more.. but now that I have started it seems I don't have a much to say as I originally thought.

Oh well- until next time

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Job interview goodness and other random stuff

Well normal service is now resumed after my bit of venting in my last update.
Beginning of last week was a bit crappy. Had some suspicions confirmed over things concerning a team member working on the site, and it took a while to get proof and sort it out. Things got better towards the end of the week and into the weekend though. I dealt with the issue and employed a new staff member to replace the recently departed. I wasn't going to replace, but Liz is already on good terms we the rest of the team and she's just as crazy as us all too. She also bothers to come on IRC.. so that's a good start :)
So we have some good things happening with the site, but I'm not going to write about it yet- You will have to wait till after the staff meeting on Saturday :) It's all exciting stuff...and I like to tease :))

Another good thing that happened was the disappearance of that 'hate' blog I mentioned last time. It was updated 2 more times until it was taken offline. It was funny at first, but towards the end it was just becoming annoying. I have suspicions who was behind it, but as long as nothing else surfaces I'll leave it alone.

I hopefully will be having a TH team member come visit me for a few days back end of next week, our resident loony Cyntia. It should be a good laugh, although there is not a huge amount to do around here. I'm sure we will find something to do, although I will have to make sure she doesn't drool too much on Tuomas' hat while she is here :)
Speaking of Tuomas, I had a good chat with him a week and a half ago. First time that I remember he was sending emails in real time so didn't have to wait the usual week or two for a reply. Again more plotting and more ideas, but have to wait till June for that when he goes home ...again more teasing :)

I applied for a great job recently and I've been waiting to hear from it, I got a phone call today that I have an interview which is a big relief. The job isn't perfect, I mean it's working in a petrol station. However the hours and pay would be perfect, as well as practically on my doorstep.

So at present I'm enjoying my time at home with my toddler as hopefully I'll get a job soon. If I want to have the chance to be able to book and afford Kitee at the end of the year followed quickly by the Nightwish tour, I'm going to have to start and put some money away.

So until next time :)

Sunday 10 April 2011

Open "letter" to the critics

Okay I thought about this for a bit, and recently events I wont go into made me decide to write this as a blog people can read.

Well lot of people I know are aware we get some great site support, but there are people on the internet still spreading false rumours about me and even a "hate" blog. (For the record this blog actually made me laugh more than offend.)

To the critics etc
Yes I do read all your emails, and yes I do not answer them for a reason. I see no need to take precious time out of my day to reply, hence this blog post.
First of all lets address the "fangirl" and "only doing this site to get close to the band/get things" comments.
  Number 1: I had the idea for some kind of dedication site etc, long before I knew who Tuomas truly was. I really only knew his musical creations should have more support. This was around 2000-2002
  Number 2: When I first created the site it was never intended to seek official status or get "close" to a band member or gain access to any perks that would of came with the position.
  Number 3: Do you really think I would of been given this opportunity if Tuomas/Ewo even slightly suspected me as a "fangirl" etc.
  Number 4: I do not demand Tuomas does things or gives things to the site. Anything he has done for us has been from his own wishes or out of casual discussion of ideas.

I won't go into some of the stupid rumours people are talking on the net, but seriously.. how old are you guys? Spreading false rumour why? Jealousy? Immaturity? You really need to just grow up a bit and just be happy that there is a dedicated team supporting Tuomas and doing promotion for him.
To those criticising me supporting various Nightwish sites.. why? I heard that it was stupid for me to support sites/communities that speak languages etc I don't speak. I fail to see the issue here. I have the TH site in other languages, and if other communities are doing a good job or aiming for a goal I think is a benefit to fans, of course I will promote this to the best of my ability. End of the day, yes I run the TH site but I also try my best to provide support to Nightwish fans across the net; no language/country restrictions.

To those who still think that I am some obsessed fan, come talk to me. We have a chat room on the site and I am regularly online. I'm an open person to any questions and I have had people come to me as sceptics who now are regulars online and support the website themselves in various ways.
Also to those people who 1) keep telling me to prove Tuomas supports us by getting him to email/write/call 2) those who ask for his contact details endlessly over and over... Please don't waste your time with these requests. To contact Tuomas write to his management in letter form, all emails I get are appreciated and are lovely and I do tell Tuomas this, but please understand I cannot forward 50+ emails to him a day and I will never share any of his contact details.

I hope this has cleared some things up for some people.

Normal service to the blog will resume next post

Carol

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Plotting, back-pain and others

Well since my "Pillow" kindly reminded me my blog needed updating, guess what I'm doing?

Last few weeks have been a mixture of good and bad. The development of a bad back and now flu like symptoms make me think yet again I'm burning the candle at both ends, coupled with some misunderstandings; things got pretty low recently.

Things quickly picked back up after everything was cleared up, my staff gave me a whipping. Also Plamen's DVD of Tuomas playing the sax helped too, nice of him to send it for us to put on the website.
Also some good proactive plotting with Tuomas always makes me smile, but I was also involved in getting a Brazilian Nightwish forum online.

We were talking about the idea for this forum for a while for various reasons I won't go into except Brazil had no official forum. A chat to Ewo got the status sorted and then we got it all together. Of course my non existant multi-lingual skills means I'll promote only for Luis and Cyntia, but if it helps.. great. http://nightwishforum.com.br/ is the address you need to check it out. 70 members in 2 days though, amazing!

Another cool thing that happened was Alex from The Islanders visit to Durham. He came down here and hung out at my place, tried on Tuomas' hat hehe and next day I showed him around the city and we sat in the hotel a few hours planning the fanclub. Made some good progress and ideas, including getting contact with Troy Donockley.

Bit of a mess this blog but while typing this I also have 8 open conversations going on hehe. Will have some cool reports in a few weeks, so until then...Ciao