Now that I've had some time to wrap my brain around this site after that outage, I feel like I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. Okay well, for some reason the blogging process continues to feel really foreign to me, but I'll push through, in the name of some much needed updates...

First up on the ballot (Haha it's a pun! Wait, you don't get it yet...) is the new set of pics, which I shot in the middle of the day on November 4th when I was really tired of hearing about the election. (Now: haha wasn't that a great pun?!) I uploaded a few to Flickr under the title "Today is Not a Special Day", but now that feels too long and sarcastic so a simple "Election Day" it is.

A short, odd set for Members: Election Day, 17 images

Relevant short story: I actually managed to first upload that set without watermarking it and didn't realize it until a week later. The reason? One of my fave guys and someone I've known for years, I'll just call him Oz, is a huge fan of bush and really wanted to see more pictures like this one (NSFW, like it matters to you?) and... since his birthday was coming up, I was happy to post the rest of the set with--yes--more bush. So Oz, I know I'm saying this late but Happy Birthday man! ;D

Now, as I mentioned in my last Update, I recently bought a new domain name for myself. And it's been functioning for, oh, about a week now, and running smoothly at that (though I continue to tweak and poke at it, which is inevitable) so I am excited to finally announce it here! GO NOW: www.MerrickMonroe.com!!! Oooh shiny green! ^_^ Here is a feature/benefit list:

• a login link to Members Only in the top right corner gets you to smutty pictures fast!
• links to chat and networks right at the front, for all your socializing convenience!
• hand-coded from the ground up, so it looks good in any browser!
• most modules are straight-up HTML so the page loads quickly!
• this also means it looks pretty good on an iPhone!
• most* of the images and content are boobie+ free, so you can browse the page at work in leisure! (*no guarantees though...)
  
• with links to pretty much everything I do online, it's the fastest way to get your Merrick fix!

Weee feature/benefits! I'm sure my economics teacher never expected me to utilize his instruction quite like this... ^_~ I have some other website upgrades and shifts planned for the coming season, so keep your eyes peeled...

And I do believe that's it! Goooo, explore the good newnessss.

Labels: admin, members, new, photos, website

Updated: the gallery is now working too. Yeah!

Um, hi! Been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, about that...

Over a month ago, I purchased a new domain name to begin an expansion of the NaughtyMerrick.com website. When attempting to attach the domain to my hosting account, something went wrong on the back-end of the servers, and cPanel started spitting out error messages. Really confusing, strange error messages.

I asked Makal for help but he was stumped. I asked the guy who coordinates my hosting for help, and he was stumped. But he said he would work on it. Eventually I just went over his head with the issue and started working directly with the Lunarpages server admins. And finally, overnight, the issue was resolved. Sort of.

Of course, being corporate tech support, they feel obliged to go "above and beyond" in the name of servicing my... *ahem* issue. This means that they took completely unnecessary actions that made my job of recovering from the month of downtime that much more difficult. But hey, at least you can see this.

As it stands, galleries are down. This is because I am busy behind the scenes transferring files and rearranging permissions to point to the right subdirectories. Technical jargon, mumbo-jumbo, all that jazz. I'm working on it, and it's getting fixed--hopefully that's all you need to know.

You know, guys, I am really, truly, really fucking sorry about this last batch of downtime. Wish I could relay in polite terms how frustrating it's been for me. I hate waiting for other people to fulfill their obligations so that I can fulfill my own. I hate being let down when I give people the benefit of the doubt. And I strongly dislike tech support (except Makal, of course). Through all of this I was considering switching to yet another host but god, that'd be what, 3 hosts this year? At the least. And another week of setting up databases to make everything work right. At least this time I knew that my data wasn't lost, and thus I never gave up hope. Sorry for this being such a pain.

On the upside, now that NaughtyMerrick.com is back online, I can start back down the road of progress. Woo, progress! Like I said, I've got some expanding to do... but before I even revisit the HTML I've had sitting in the wings I am diving head on into the Gallery issues. And I'm gonna kick their butt.

Oh, and be aware: after months of speculation and hazy memory, I've started to get previews from the shoot with TwistedMonk back in August. And oh. my fucking. gawd. Y'all are gonna flip over this shoot. ;D Soon my pretties, soon!

Labels: admin, gallery, server, website