1. Who are you anyway?
Time for some shameless self promotion. My DA name is =Arete-Eirene-Phile. My real name is Tina. I run the *disney-parkhoppers club and have a stock photography site, *Disney-Stock. I am a 32 year old American female and have been addicted to Disney since, well, birth. It's my mother's fault really. So blame her =wdwparksgal. I worked as a costume specialist at the Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida) for three years (1996-1999), on parades and shows. I've worked on Spectromagic, the 25th Anniversary Day Parade: Remember the Magic, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade (god help me, don't get me started on Christmas), Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parade, The Easter Parade, The Main Street Electrical Light Parade (a.k.a. ELP), The Sparkling Christmas Spectacular Castle Show, Disney Mania, Every Day's a Holiday, Galaxy Search, and numerous special events and shows. If anyone asks, I might just write about my experiences and load it here at the Directory. I left Disney to pursue my Doctorate at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, USA, studying Greek and Latin. My main artistic interests are photography and charcoal drawing. Beyond Disney I love anime and manga, especially Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist, Roller Coasters, baseball, college football, mythology of all sorts, languages (I can read German, French, and Modern Greek as well and Greek and Latin), cats, latching rugs, and snow (cold weather rocks. I hate Florida weather ). I try to get down to WDW as often as possible, though, and have a few friends who are still slaving away for the mouse. I have seen Mickey naked. Oh the stories I could tell.

2. Why did you create this directory?
I noticed other directories popping up, mostly for specific anime shows and video games, but none for Disney. I also noticed that many Disney clubs were dead dead dead, and it really bugged me when I went searching for a club to join (and I love to join clubs), only to find out that they hadn't been active in, oh, 67 weeks. So I began to think that there really needed to be a directory for Disney, and it needed to keep track of the status of the listed clubs. So I did it. Why wait for someone else to come along? Carpe Diem!

3. How did you go about starting the directory?
I started by making a big master list of clubs in a Word document, along with the last time they were updated or had a login. I would start at one club, and go through all their affiliates and all of their affiliates, and so on, until I had a list of well over 150 clubs. It was relatively apparent from the start what kind of categories the clubs fell into (in fact I just used the same categories that I had been using over at *disney-parkhoppers.) The Kingdom Hearts clubs were the hardest because there are so many of them. Once I had that all straightened out I registered the name, bought a subscription (because all my other sites have one and I am spoiled - just gotta have a subby), and made a bunch of journals. The Word document was then divided up into the respective journals and I set about making them all pretty and linking them together. Finally, I sent out Notes to all the clubs I had listed, and added them all to the Devwatch to more easily keep up with their statuses. I threw an ID and an avatar together really quickly and got them loaded asap.

4. How much work is the directory? Do you need any help?
Right now it is not much work, not even a half hour per day, and I have access to help if I need it, but thanks for asking.

5. Do you look for new clubs?
Actually I do try to keep an eye out for new clubs to add. I watch the major Club Listings, and pay attention to when one of the clubs listed here updates their affiliates. If I find a club before they find me, I add them and send off a note that they've been added.

6. What's up with the weird Status titles? Why not just say clubs are Active or Dead?
Well, because that wouldn't have any Disney Magic in it, would it?

7. Do you accept submissions to the Directory's Gallery?
Sure, as long as they have something to do with the directory. I'd absolutely love if someone made us some stamps. Cute fanart of characters with a Directory theme are always welcome. And I'd be more than happy to load other clubs' ID's with the appropriate links back to the club of course. I just might have a contest or two of my own here.

8. Are you going to give out any favorites?
Maybe, if I have the time.

9. Can I ask you a real question?
Sure. Just make a comment on this journal and I'll get back to you. I might even add it here!

~Tina