Hi, everyone! If you’re a regular visitor, you’ve probably noticed at least one of two things:

1) We’re still experiencing “hackings” by various exploiters. I’m still troubleshooting it, and while it’s happening with less frequency than it used to, it’s still happening, and even one time is too often. Certain browsers may give you a scary “this site may harm your computer” screen when you navigate to the site. My apologies for this, but it happens when Google catches an infection before me, so they block the site to help prevent innocent users from having their computers infected. I check the files multiple times per day, but I can’t always catch the infections immediately, so I ask that you all diligently scan your PCs using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software, in addition to your usual virus scanners. Portions of the site may be unavailable in the coming days/weeks as I continue troubleshooting this. Make sure you follow our Twitter page, where I will announce when pages will be down. I thank everyone for your continued patience with this frustrating situation, and I appreciate everyone who notifies me when they see there’s an infection.

2) Since news is non-existent right now, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about our favorite Idina moments. Head over to our sister community on LiveJournal to watch everyone’s favorite performances and contribute your own memories.

Congratulations to Stephanie, winner of the “Idinafy Yourself” costume contest! Check out her awesome Elphaba ensemble:

This rounds out the 2009 season of Idina-Here contests. All winners have been notified and will receive a personalized, autographed lithograph. If you’re a previous winner and waiting for your lithograph, please be patient. Idina waited until all the contests were over so she had all our winners’ names before signing and sending them out. You should receive them within a few weeks, I anticipate!

In other news – “Defying Gravity” is going to be performed on FOX’s Glee tonight. Who’s excited? Come back tonight after the show and let me know what you think of their performance by leaving a comment here! (You will need to re-register with the site if you haven’t done so in the last two weeks as we erased the old database.)

I finally found time to get our awesome contest entries uploaded for voting! Sorry for the delay, everyone – between trying to keep the site clean from infections (and not always succeeding) and life, I didn’t have time. But here we go!

I received 11 great entries for our October “Idinafy Yourself” costume contest. Now, everyone can head over to the photo album in the gallery by clicking here to review the photos. Choose your ONE favorite and send me an email at contest[*at]idina-here.com with the number of your choice as the subject. Please enter only the actual number (ex 1, 2, 3) in the subject, as extra characters or numbers will slow down my tally of the votes. You do not need to send me any other information in the body of the email. Yes, you may vote for yourself, but no one may vote more than once – I’ll know if you voted multiple times from different email addresses, so please don’t waste your (or my) time trying.

Voting ends November 10 at 11:59 pm ET and winner will be notified on November 11. The winner will receive a personalized & autographed Idina lithograph. Good luck to the entrants – your costumes are great!

Thanks to everyone for participating in September’s metaphorical photography contest! The photos that were submitted were all AMAZING. I’ve reviewed everyone’s guesses, and here are the winners:

AnLi’s photograph received the most correct guesses and will receive a personalized lithograph!
Zoe submitted the most correct guesses and will receive an autographed limited edition copy of I Stand!
Claire’s subtly poignant photo representing “Hope” was my personal favorite in light of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will receive an autographed photo of Idina!

The answers will be revealed in the contest album in the coming days. I’ll announce on Twitter when the song titles are available. Comments on the photos are now allowed, so feel free to discuss and debate in the meantime!

Speaking of Twitter and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, each time you include “#beatcancer” in your tweets, 1 cent is donated to breast cancer research, so tweet away, and make sure you include #beatcancer.

Reminder that you have just two more weeks to work on October’s Idina-fy Yourself costume contest!

I forgot I had promised to post more detailed information for the costume contest back on October 1. My apologies! The good news is that the info I’m about to post won’t have any effect on what you’ve done or are planning to do.

RULES:

- Dress up like Idina, whether it’s a costume from her shows or something else.
- Take a picture of yourself wearing your costume. You may take more than one photo if necessary to better showcase your creation (I will combine your photos into one large photo for gallery addition purposes). You can team up with friends, use props, etc., but regardless of how many people are in your image, there is only ONE prize. Sorry!
- Rename your images as your name, i.e. JaneD.jpg, and email the picture(s) to me at contest[AT]idina-here.com with “OCTOBER CONTEST” as your subject. Please tell me what your costume is, even if it’s obvious. You have until 11:59 pm ET on November 1 to submit your entries.
- ONE entry per person/team.
- Open to everyone, all ages, worldwide.
- All photos will be added to the Gallery and visitors to the site will be allowed to view and vote on their favorite costume (how-to will be posted once images are added). The biggest vote-getter will receive a personalized and autographed Idina lithograph!
- HAVE FUN & BE CREATIVE!