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

Yesterday I concluded a little project I had started in early July, just a whim really, and it got put on hold for a month while life went all crazy on me (again). But yes, the exciting conclusion to "Blogging the Editing Process" has finally arrived! Exciting indeed.

Members, here are some quick-links to the individual posts:
- Part 1: Shooting, Uploading, and Importing
- Part 2: Sorting and Selecting
- Part 3: Editing in Lightroom
- Part 4: PhotoShop
- Part 5: Prepping for Web & Uploading
- Finale!

As the post titles might betray, I tried to cover each step, start to finish, of what it takes me to get a new set online(okay, sometimes I just thoroughly "gloss over" a particular part). It's a little... nerdy, I guess you'd say, considering that much of it is just technical jibber-jabber, and not so much with the sexy "ooh I touch myself and take a picture" talk. Meh.

I did learn a bit about my own practices during this project. One, and the most obvious "no duh" lesson is that I am easily distracted. I mean, not just distracted, but when my brain changes courses it's like I never look back and am content to just let the story trail off into the wind. But I'm working on that, on the whole "finishing what you start" thing. I mean hey, I finished this right?! :D Well, anyway, I also learned that I am indecisive and do a lot of backtracking while I edit. Probably because I have no idea what I'm doing back here. But yaknow, it's a learning experience. And those are cool.

You probably won't see me do any step-by-step series again, because damn it practically triples the workload of just editing the damn photos. I'm not kidding you; I probably would have had the set posted much earlier if I hadn't near-overwhelmed myself by writing up the process. Nonetheless, I do enjoy the "time lapse" images of a single picture as it goes through editing. That's pretty interesting (to me/for me to create), moreso than a simple "before and after" juxtaposition. So I'll probably do that again, maybe even for each set. And there I go being all ambitious again... For you non-members out there, here's an abbreviated version of the timelapse: It's 4200x800 pixels big and shows 7 steps, as opposed to the Members Only version that is 6600x800 and has 11 different versions. Pretty dorky stuff. ^_^



Members can see the entire set here: Wet 80's Nerd, 51 images

Labels: admin, photos, projects

After moving to my new host's server, I wrote to CCBill asking them about re-enabling the whole CGI license thingy that they do that allows people to log in to the Members Only area (there are technical terms in there I won't pretend to understand, even if I do). I got a prompt response on how to do the work on my own, but when I asked for more help I got zilch. I waited a week before breaking down and callng their support line. I doubt I'm the only person in the world who dreads calling tech support, but email wasn't getting me anywhere. Thankfully, a super nice guy named James helped me out and painlessly (for me--I hope it was painless on his end) solved my login issues within 5 minutes. It was awesome. Except the classical music playing while I was on hold; that sounded awful over the treble-tastic headset. Anyway, here are the morals of this story:

• member logins and new member signups are working correctly
• I now know how to prepare my CGI dealy-bobs for future server transfers, and avoid downtime
• calling CCBill's support is not bad at all, and you should never hesitate to do so!

P.S. - additional thanks to the fellow who helped me later in the day; sorry I can't remember your name! But you were super nice too. Glad to know that even though the CCBill site is difficult to navigate, there are useful people on the other end of the phone. :D

Labels: admin, ccbill

Yes, new gallery--singular, not plural. Last week some issues popped up regarding the management system for the gallery (called Gallery2) and in my researching how to fix it, I realized that it was time to finally implement a change. The extent of this new Gallery2 installation has yet to be visible, but the project is going very well. :)

In the meantime, links on the Pics page won't be working, as they are pointing to an old system that isn't online anymore. It'll take me a bit longer to integrate this new install with the current layout, but I'm thinking it'll be sweet when it's done. :D The address for the Members Only gallery hasn't changed though... www.naughtymerrick.com/members/gallery!

The biggest change you'll see right now? A much prettier layout and navigation for browsing those sexy pics. Even though I'm not entirely done tweaking all the settings, I'm going to go ahead and reopen the gallery for members--as long as you guys bear with me over the next week while things get settled! xox

Labels: admin, gallery

So, over the weekend one of the MySQL databases for the Members Only gallery went down. I contacted our host and got that fixed right quick, and the problem inspired me to do some needed technical maintenance on the gallery (and I found a neat new skin to use!). During my initial perusal of what needed to be done, I saw that there was a new version of the core module for the Gallery2 installation, which is logically the first update someone would do during tech maintenance.

But--surprise of all surprises--something went wrong. Even though I was using the upgrade method that the Gallery2 website says is the most reliable and thorough, something had to go wrong. And I could contact our host again, or I could use the weekend to reinstall the whole thing and do a certain upgrade project I've been thinking about for the site. And you know how I can be... once I conceive about how something could be better, it will never be good enough until then.

If everything goes right (and of course, it will!) gallery navigation will get better and more intuitive, and I'll be another step closer to bringing this site to a point where I can get back to producing content instead of thinking about how it needs to be improved. And that's good!

Labels: admin, gallery

I doubt anyone has noticed this, but several of the photosets that are in the Members Only section are missing pictures. How do I know? Well, because they're missing the pics I used for previews! I guess I did some bad file managing there, I'm not sure. But I thought I'd put it out there that a) I do realize Member galleries don't have some of the preview pics, and b) I plan to fix this... when I can? Hmm, yeah. Adding this to my "to do" list. Wait, I don't have one of those... "Creating to-do list" is now at the top of my mental checklist of things to do! Egads, this is getting old.

Labels: admin, photos

w00t, here it is! I've officially made this the new index.htm page for naughtymerrick.com, which means that it is quite obvious to site visitors, no longer stashed away as some updates.htm file somewhere... ;)

I'm still working on getting the past content appropriately posted and labeled, so please bear with me. It'll be spiffy once it's done! And yes, I know there are still no comments. Email me if you have something to say!

There is also a new pricing structure... $12.95/mo is the basic, recurring plan, but it has a huge potential savings over time! I set it up so that members with recurring billing plans will drop from $12.95/mo to $10.10/mo over the first year, and it's a steady $10.10/mo after that. There's also a new 90-day (non-recurring) billing option, and a cheaper preview plan for those of you who aren't sure you're ready to experience the long-term awesomeness that is me. ;D

So, that's that. Also, Happy Halloween! It's the most wicked day of the year, and I'm planning on going out tonight and getting my demon on. Hope you all have a deliciously evil evening!

Labels: admin, billing, holiday

Well folks, here's the new layout for NM.com. What do ya think? I just wasn't enjoying the old one anymore and wanted to do something drastic. It's like my senior year of high school when I showed up to the prom with short blonde hair (after years of having long dark hair). Umm, hopefully you're more pleased than most of the people at that dance...

I'm still working on implementing this layout on the rest of the site, so things are probably going to start looking wonky for a few minutes... I'll probably be working on that the rest of the night. I'll let you know how things go!

Btw, I am aware that this update blog doesn't have comments enabled, but I'd rather focus on unifying the site's layout than making sure y'all can tell me it looks weird. ;) Comments will be enabled after the full layout update. I'll be retroactively posting update entries then as well.

Labels: admin, geek