Mary begins the data collection phase of her meddle.
No, don't go there. Not much of a challenge - a bit of paint and clone. Who is this Moy & Giella and why do they tag Mary's apartment walls?Most of the search terms people use to find my site involve variations on clip art or cartoons but sometimes some weird ones show up.
Strangest search terms (in order of average time spent on site - 1:00+) that led to aperfectworld.org:
"robot chicken" jesus buddha
lola comic strip is in which vietnam newspaper?
photoshop pills (It's an addiction but there are no pills you can take for it)
bizarro cartoon planet zoloft
free tranvestite photos
invigorated
aperfecktworld.org (That would have been a funnier name for my comic)
toast
"get fuzzy" tech support
reincarnation
"mind control" tranvestite stories (WTF?)
I learned CSS and updated my HMTL skills back in August. I decided to put my new skills to use on my own website. The new design will go up on January 1. Because of the size of the site the archives and some other parts of the site will be incomplete but I wanted to launch the new design anyway because waiting for completion would delay things unnecessarily. I will continue to transition material to the new design throughout the year.
It's not just a new design but a different way of building and updating my pages. I will stop using MicroSoft FrontPage except to use the auto thumbnail function for my clip art. So far the code is cleaner, conforms to standards and the site functions real well on my machine. We'll see what happens when it goes live.
Because of CSS, next time things will be easier when I get a whim to change my site design. Or at least in theory things will be easier.
As a result of all this transition work, I've had the opportunity to look at all my past cartoons and writing. I've kept almost everything intact despite some regrets about some of the things I wrote and drew. I did alter spelling and grammatical errors but chose not to rewrite to reflect my current sensibilities. It was very tempting but decided that it needed to remain if for no other reason to demonstrate to me my own evolution. Some of the gags and jokes made me cringe and wonder how I could have found that funny. A few instances I replaced some things with something funnier or worded it differently to make it funnier. This happened in the Sears Catalog section and Betty Crocker section. I cannot edit a cartoon very easily. I have not and will not remove any cartoons despite what I feel when I look at them now.
I've been working on this transition since August but around this time of year the process has taken on extra significance. A mundane task becomes a form of reflection.
Especially the way Mary Worth makes it.
Figuring out the seating arrangement in this restaurant makes for quite an intellectually challenging puzzle.
Whoa, Billy! Turn the arrogance down a notch!
Thank you Bucky Catt for the new word - annoypid. Annoypid: annoying and stupid. I love it! Annoypid is such a perfect word for what my work week has been like so far. The annoypid students have attempted to turn their lack of planning into my emergency this week. I refuse to deny students the wisdom gained from experience. Consider it part of the "other education."
I can now update my regular website. Cannot do it in the most efficient way but I can do it. This is a huge relief. I will try FTP tonight but at least there is a working method as a back up.
I will not update on Sunday because of Radio M*A*S*H and the minister's installation. That day I will work at the toy drive, go home, clean up, attend installation and then go back to the toy drive, finish up and then go home and go to bed - hopefully at a reasonable hour.
Another non-gag. Not really a cartoon. The season was affecting me along with some news. Sort of looks like Martian Manhunter but he does not have a nose.
I'm on hold with Ipower technical support in an attempt to resolve my inability to access my files. My files are on an old platform that very few customers still use. So far the results of attempts to solve the problem lead me to a page with the message that says:
"Your Account Is Not Yet on the New Platform
You are trying to access something that is only available on the new hosting platform. For more information, or to manage your account on the original platform, visit the Transition Kiosk."
I'm told that things will be much easier once my site is on the new platform. I would have more patience with this transition if I were informed of when my site will transfer.
I decided to post new cartoons on the blog until the mess with my web host reaches a resolution. It seems that Ipower has more business than it can handle. I don't care about the transition process I just want to update my website.
I will take that approach with my next call to technical support. Help me find a way to update my website while you take care of this transition business. I guess I will need to become more assertive by refusing to hang up until I can access my files on their servers. Perhaps at least find out the transition status and see if I can wait it out.
If I receive no resolution or updated information by the end of the month then I will find a new host. Irritating customers is one method of bringing business down to a more manageable level but probably not one recommended by the experts.
For some reason, I found the middle panel especially funny and relevant to my web host problems.
My log in problem has been sent to the next level technician.
Today is Walter's birthday. I did not forget.
My account is unsuspended. I still cannot upload or log into my control panel but at least the site is up. I received a response from the address I found on the Ipower website rather than the address given by technical support.
My account was suspended for Apache abuse. Something, I don't know the specifics yet, I did would have caused some downtime. I cannot think of anything that I have done differently from the last 4 years that would cause a problem.
Now I'm on hold with technical support to try to resolve my other problems. At least they have classical music as their hold music rather than the soulless instrumental crap.
Wow, it looks like my comment about Suddenlink got noticed. Thanks for paying attention and attempting to address the problem.
For the record, my comment about Suddenlink was more of a vent about my neglecting to tie up every single loose end and failure to contact every single entity that had my e-mail address when my e-mail was changed.
Now maybe a little bitching about Ipower might get the attention of someone from Ipower who can help me.
I went to the Ipower website and found that the address for abuse is different from the address given to me by technical support. So, I will, for a third time, send an e-mail to the abuse department, except I will use the address on the website.
Would an auto reply kill anyone? I've sent two e-mails (one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday). Is a quick auto reply saying that my messages were received and my problem will get addressed in a certain amount of time too much to ask? I did not receive any bounce back messages so who knows where my pleas are going?
It took three calls to technical support to find out that my account was suspended in the first place. 3 calls. The first two techs could not understand why I could not log in my control panel. The third tech made the discovery.
I was probably contacted via the e-mail address on file (which for technical reasons was changed) and no response was received. I have updated my files with Ipower.
I want to resolve whatever problem that caused my account suspension as soon as possible.
Until all this, Ipower's customer support has been quite good and service very reliable. I would like to stay with Ipower but as this drags on, I'm reconsidering.
I hope I find a message from abuse@ipowerweb.com (the address given to me by technical support) when I get home. It would make me feel better and get the ball rolling on getting aperfectworld.org back up. This whole thing has become quite frustrating.
The job is not so bad right now. I'm working on an interesting project but since it is registration time my train of thought is often interrupted by phone calls. I feel like a character in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. (I made a reference to Kurt Vonnegut - I'm such an intellectual!) Just when a germ of an idea develops the phone rings.
Some helpful hints in calling for an appointment and thoughts that go through my head while talking to you:
About the account suspension and taking time off from exercise: I did not realize the amount of time in the evenings that I devoted to updating my website and exercise. I've been going to sleep earlier than usual. Maybe this account suspension was the break I needed but refused to take. I'm still quite interested in what caused the suspension and would like to get things back up. Someone actually expressed concern.
I finally found out what the problem is with my website. My account has been suspended since Nov. 4. I've contacted the "abuse department" at Ipower. I was sent an e-mail informing of the suspension but thanks to Suddenlink's incompetence I did not receive it. Ipower now has my correct e-mail and hopefully they will send me the information I need to resolve the problem.
I hope somebody did not get their panties in a bunch about one of my cartoons.
The site outage has become quite annoying. I look forward to a lovely afternoon on the phone trying to figure out the problem.
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Attended my father-in-law's funeral yesterday. He is buried in the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery. The cemetery is less than two years old. A lovely location nestled among hills. The site is also on the flight line of a small airport and adjacent to Ft. Hood. The would make Walt happy because he did not want to be buried in a place that was too quiet.
Aside from the family, my father, a woman from College Station ISD Transportation and a couple from church attended. The navy sent two people - one played Taps. The sailors folded and presented a US flag that was draped over the coffin.
Regarding the couple from church, I refuse to believe in a God that would condemn these two kind people to eternal damnation simply because they did not say or believe certain things. Going out of their way to support Walter in his time of grief has got to be worth more than just mouthing words and holding beliefs. I'm grateful to have these two people in my life.
It went as well as a funeral could go.
Now comes the time to take care of little details and learning to live in the new reality.
These are two great comic strips that deserve to be in more papers and other venues that will result in financial rewards for the artists. I especially love the battery low detail in Watch Your Head (the second strip). I'm glad that printed newspapers are not the sole source of comics. Thanks to the web (the Houston Chronicle and the Seattle P-I websites do a great job of using the web to expand the selection of comics available to the reading public without having to shrink things to include all the comics in the print edition.) I can enjoy some great comics. Of course this leads to some frustration because with all the great material to choose from why are some comics still in print?
aperfectworld.org is down. Very annoying. My host is doing some kind of transition and has set up a "transition kiosk" to let their customers know about the status of their transition. Good intentions - poor execution. Going to the kiosk only sends me back to the site telling me about the kiosk. I do not get any useful information about my site's transition and attempts to log on to the old control panel are unsuccessful. I hope the site is back up soon so that I can put up my latest cartoon.
Now about other people's cartoons:
Mary's scarf has lengthened since rescuing the dog. The lady with the cat in the first panel is irritated because she has been waiting for hours, despite patronizing this animal hospital for decades, while Mary Worth and her stray get to see the vet immediately.
A fun look at the first UU principle.
For the first time in months, I took time to write some cartoon gags. Some of them are funny.
I think the time change helped because I did not experience the 9:30 - 11:00 wall of sleepiness this morning. I felt a bit more focused this morning.
Ipower is doing maintenance on some servers. Found this out after a long time on hold. I cannot access the server which has my website so still no updated cartoon.
I attempted to replicate Dawn's hand in the first panel. I dropped my phone. I couldn't balance it on my thumb. The man wearing the blue shirt in the second panel looks away hoping to find something more interesting. Alas, for the poor fellow all that's over there is Gil Thorp. Any bets on how long this break up will take?
I took the day off yesterday to wait for a repair man. He actually appeared when he said he would and had the parts he needed in his truck. Now I can dry clothes in the dryer instead of hanging them. I know using a clothesline is a greener way to live but I don't enjoy drying myself off with sandpaper and wearing cardboard.
I used the day to draw some extra cartoons and work on the new web design. It will probably officially launch in January 2008. I hope to have it complete by then. I had no idea just how big this thing has become. I may post the thing at the end of the month depending on how far I get in adding content. I've been building the pages then going back and adding the content so if I launch early there will be quite a few pages that do not have content. A lot of it is copying and pasting but I can make pages very quickly. I've found that my web updates with the new design will take the same amount of time as the current use of FrontPage.
Darn, the U.S. military's don't ask, don't tell. If gays could serve openly perhaps Sarge and Beetle can express their affection for each other in a healthy way and still keep their military career.
This is not a marriage - it is two crazy people sharing a house - an asylum for two. One is dangerously psychotic and the other just kind of loony.
They always are good stories but then people starting taking the stories seriously and then act on whatever lessons they think the stories are telling them. The whole thing becomes quite ugly.
Today, classes begin. Not so chaotic so far. At least I did not have an 8:00 am class in my classroom today. I had some time to do a few things.
I'm redesigning my website using CSS and clean and updated code. I'm moving away from FrontPage (I have FrontPage 2000. I will still use the auto-thumbnail feature unless someone can point me to something that can do that. Preferably something free. Check out any of my clip art pages to see how I use the thumbnail feature.) The site is rather large and some pages will be eliminated from the site altogether. Right now, I'm doing minimal updates on the cartoons and clip art and have put other projects on hold. I'm working on both sites at the simultaneously. I hope to have something somewhat complete enough to publish by the end of September. It will take longer to fully integrate the whole site. Talking over 1,500 cartoons and a lot of clip art here. New cartoons and clip art will go up on schedule. The Sears Catalog and Betty Crocker sections will be part of the new design.
Interesting thing I found on the web:
WORDCOUNT/ Tracking the way we use language
WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is. The most common word: the; the least common: conquistador
I've installed Google Analytics on to my site. I'm looking at the keywords list. Most of the words are clip art related which makes sense since I offer a collection of clip art, free and not free, in addition to the cartoons which I draw for mostly therapeutic purposes.
A list of the more confusing/ interesting keywords used to come to my site:
Can anyone top "zen joke dog fart" as a keyword?
