Hello! *waves* Yeah, the rest of the world is still here (fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view . . .).

who_daily is a good place to check for writing (and other types of) challenges.

For beta-reading resources, be sure to check out teaspooners, which is a fic writing community open to everyone with a Teaspoon account (so you're good!). There isn't always a lot of traffic, but there are a lot of good and friendly people there.

I'd offer to help beta for you myself, but I just found out I may be moving soon (among other things), which will keep me very busy, so I'd better not make a time commitment I can't keep!