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 Uh oh...
I feel another layout redesign coming on. Random layouts are random!
Happy Hallowe'en! Incyanity has had a bit of a facelift. CTRL+F5 is likely your friend. : ) As you navigate, the layout will randomly feature a different character. As time goes on and I get back into doing more art, I'll either add in or swap out images for newer ones. Pretty spiffy! Read more... The "Contact" page has been eliminated. The link in the header above has been converted to a regular "mailto" link. Links to my LiveJournal, Twitter, and YouTube pages have been moved to the bottom of the navigation menu.
For now, please enjoy! Read less... Freedom 55
Heart of the Empire has reached the 55,000-word milestone! *parties* This of course means that Chapter Ten has been posted! In Chapter Eleven (or possibly Twelve, depending on how things play out), one of the characters is definitely going to die. Based on everything posted to date, any guesses? Twitter!
Now you can follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/Sakaane Tidbits
Incyanity now has a favicon! :3 16x16px is not a lot to work with, so special thanks to Dubird for lending me her pixel art talent. : ) Additionally, the Chapter Ten teaser for Heart of the Empire is up! Read more... I admit for the last week or so I've been snagged on what happens next (oh, the letdown), but an idea came to mind and now I just have to get some scribbling done. The chapter is about halfway done so I hope to have it completed "SoonTM".
I've been a bit laid up this week; I threw my back out last Thursday and the pain is pretty bad. I've had a few days where I felt good and thought the worst was behind me (been to the chiropractor too) but again this morning I woke up stiff and barely able to get my day started. : ( This makes for a considerable amount of downtime (and fuzzy dishes...) at home. Some of the ladies over at the Tower of Time forums are lovingly screaming for HOTE art, so provided my hands don't go tingly again I might as well make use of the downtime by trying to oblige. : ) Here's hoping! Read less... All hail the Muse!
^_^ Very happy to say that Chapter Nine of Heart of the Empire is up! The Muse is being very kind to me lately. ♥ As before (when the content was to be found in Chapter Seven), the beginning of this chapter was heavily inspired by a scene from Between the Candle and the Star. (I like pointing this out because I did, after all, promise to cannibalize BCS for ideas and I want the die-hard BCS fans to see I'm making good on that.) Long-time visitors might be able to figure out what specific scene I drew from. :3 HOTE now stands at 51,132 words! I really feel like I am making decent progress now and that the story is moving along. Really satisfying, considering I've been trying to write this story in one form or another since I was...twelve? Chapter Ten is in progress, with another 2K words to its name representing the last bit of the content I had written before taking on the reorganization. So what happens after I finish tweaking those two thousand words? I'm not quite sure yet, but things are heating up while Part One of the story is winding down. There are a few important events still to take place. Among other things, before the very end of Part One, at least one more character is going to wind up dead. (Dun dun DUNN...) Please enjoy! I look forward to reading your comments on all three of the recently posted chapters. :D (Re)Cracking Barriers
Hot off the press! lol Chapters Seven and Eight of HOTE have been posted. : ) Both feature a decent amount of new content along with previously written material, and the old material includes a number of important tweaks to align with the new progression of events in the story. Together, these chapters push the story's word count over 45,000, which is a satisfying milestone indeed. Before undertaking the revamp, HOTE was approximately 47,000 words all told. I still have another 8K of pre-existing material that needs tweaking and posting. I'm eagerly anticipating breaking the 50K mark! Fair warning. While the first 1800 words of the chapter describe completely new (and clean) content, the balance of Chapter Eight contains the adult material previously found in Chapter Six (or "Chapter Sex", as Ranakanth liked to call it :p). Enjoy! Heart of the Empire ver. 2.0 - Chapter Six and Art!
As the title indicates, the new Chapter Six of HOTE has been posted. I am about halfway through Chapter Seven and will have that up soon too. : ) The Chapter Six and Seven teasers have also been updated. There's new guest art too! My boyfriend Ranakanth plays SPORE and used the Creature Creator to come up with a 3D equivalent of Daenan! All in all there are three screen caps of his efforts in the HOTE Guest Art gallery. Thanks sweetie! ♥ HOTE ver. 2.0.1
Having received some excellent feedback, I've fixed a few mistakes, typos, and other "oopses" in the new HOTE chapters. Thanks for everyone's comments! Keep 'em coming. :D Heart of the Empire ver. 2.0
The Muse has been good to me lately. : ) I recently decided to rearrange the established events in HOTE in the hopes of better streamlining the action and character development, and to make certain upcoming events flow in a bit better. As such, the first five chapters have been freshly reuploaded and the Chapter Teasers updated as well. Chapters One and Two are basically the same as before save for some tweaks to the fine details. From Chapter Three onwards, things are quite different, though if you've read the story before you'll still recognize large chunks of text that were there before, just...elsewhere. There is a decent amount of new material in these chapters as well. Not all of the previously-posted material has been reposted. Chapter Six requires some pretty drastic changes owing to how Chapter Five ends now, but once that is done I'll be able to easily reintegrate the rest of the material and still be ahead of where I was before! Overall I am VERY pleased with the changes I've made and I hope you'll like them too. Please remember to leave comments on the chapters to tell me what you think! Pimped
Pallas is offering commissions: Single Character Fullbody:....................$15 with Background......$20 Bust:........................$5 with Background......n/a Multiple Characters Two Characters:..............$30 with Background......$35 Complex Background...$40 Three Characters:............$40 with Background......$45 Complex Background...$50 Four Characters +:...........$50 with Background......$55 Complex Background...$60 Chibi Rates Single Character:............$10 with Background......n/c Two Characters:..............$20 with Background......n/c Three Characters:............$30 with Background......n/c Four Characters +:...........$40 with Background......n/c Commission Info Here. Gamer Chick Scorecard
Just a small update today. Gamer Chick Scorecard has been refreshed and updated with a few new titles. My library is expanding! I also fixed the link in the menu to the HOTE Character Meme. Now you can actually get to the page! At the Movies
I'm getting into making videos that don't exactly fit under any particular category in Shutter Bug so I've added a public page called At the Movies to gather all my vids in one place. Please check them out! The newest is all about some signs of spring around where I live. : ) Tutorials Redux
The Tutorials have been reformatted for easier navigation. Coloring In Photoshop and Freeform Pen Tool have also been updated to reflect newer techniques. The Sphere Attack tutorial has been totally redone which means there's a new image in the Artwork gallery, of the completed attack. Enjoy! Starfury Art!
Yay for art! Check out the new image in the Crystal Memory Artwork gallery. I'm also working on something else for Crystal Memory and should have it done soon. : ) HOTE Character Meme
There is a new public page under Heart of the Empire. A number of years ago I came across an "original characters" interview-type meme and posted it on my LJ. At the time I mixed in characters from both HOTE and SA and it was great fun. Now that HOTE has been developed further, I've been able to update the meme using just characters from that story. So, if you're interested, please have a look! Comment Script Love
♥ Lots of love going around the site lately. After posting the HOTE Chapter Teasers on the weekend, it took the spam bots all of two days to latch on to these new public pages and fill my inbox with comment junk. Yippee! Anyway, I've now tweaked the comment script so anyone not logged in is asked the "prove you are a human" question. If you do log in first, you must (hopefully) already be a human, and therefore won't see that question. This script change is applicable to the Updates page and the Shutter Bug gallery too. Menu Script Love
As promised, the menu has been updated. Public pages now sport the Global icon next to them, so if you go hunting through the submenus, you might see a little world next to a page you didn't know was public! I know there aren't many public project pages, but as time goes on and each of the projects continue to grow, I might have occasion to open up new content. In a little while I'll be integrating public chapter previews for HOTE (and SA once I get working on it again) instead of having them on my LJ (where people don't seem to know they exist :p) so there will be that to look forward to. Unfortunately I couldn't include the tooltip for the Global icon and have the tooltip for the menu item itself, so people will just have to remember that little world = Global Access. (Or check the FAQ!) The menu choices have been reorganized. The idea is draw attention to the projects and present the content in less of an "Us" (members) vs "Them" (non-members) way. The menu is also "sticky" again! This means it will remember what you last clicked on, which is especially useful if you were in a submenu of a submenu. When that particular page loads, the menu will still be open to wherever in the menu you last happened to be so you don't have to open it again if you want to go to another page. : ) Incyanity - Now With More Icons!
Okay, maybe only one more. When you view Incyanity's Home page you will now see a new icon beside some of the links for both Book of Days and the updates. There are currently some other icons showing too. So what do they all mean?
Yes, this means that from this point forward, certain journal entries can be fully open to the public. : ) I am also going to revamp the navigation menu and put the world icon in it. Certain few pages under the "Members Only" section have actually always been public but I bet almost no one knew that. The revamped menu will make it easier to tell where the public pages are. I have updated the FAQ to reflect these changes. There is also a new question: Where can I find public content for CM, HOTE, and SA? for those of you who were curious. Login Script Love
This means that if (for example) someone shares a link to a protected page with you, you can load the page directly and it will automatically prompt you to log in, then refresh with the content you intended to see. Huzzah! Please let me know if you notice any errors or unusual behavior, or if I accidentally missed any protected pages. The new script has been tested a number of times, but anything is still possible! On writing, and things
I worked on chapter seven of HOTE today. It's been a long while and I lost the momentum I had. The scene I'm stuck on is an argument between two characters, and during this argument something significant takes place. I'm at the part right before that significant event, but every time I try to get back into it, the muse fails me. *sigh* But, I've been able to work on the earlier parts of the chapter, tightening up and improving what I already had written. I feel close to being able to break through the block and get it done. Just need to lure the muse back. Do you suppose she likes chocolate? Recently, HOTE has received a couple of wonderful comments from readers, including on the "riské" chapter six. Thank you! The feedback is really appreciated and the questions are valuable for future consideration. It's heartening to know the story is being read. ♥ I've been thinking about the next Crystal Memory ficlet too. I have an idea of how to get it started so I can lead into the situation which puts Sakusha into the "trial" her past self said she would have to endure to prove she can handle being a senshi. Once this ficlet is done, the character will be in a position to go just about anywhere and do anything. I've determined what the "bad guy minions" will be in this particular iteration of the Sailor Moon universe, so I can send Sakusha chasing around the galaxy after them, and in so doing, possibly have her bump into other characters, canon or otaku, as the muse strikes me (and other otaku owners allow). Hmm. Might need a lot of chocolate. I've made progress on the doll. Meshia, you should have trusted your instincts. : )  It's coming along, but it's been a challenge to get it all figured out! I had to learn some new knitting techniques for this, and it's possible the pattern isn't quite proportioned correctly. I have to wait and see how it looks once the head is finished. I am still thinking about what, if anything, to do with Incyanity's content. No one has spoken up (yet?) about the possible loss of Shutter Bug or the Tutorials so it seems there's no real incentive to keep them. It might be a good thing, to better focus Incyanity on my writing than anything else. I'm still thinking about it. I'm also still thinking about, but also leaning closer towards, opening up some of the other content to public access. Having some public content is important so new visitors can gauge whether or not they want to sign up for the rest—the public content should be the hook to get people interested in the private stuff. I am considering a small icon system, basically an expansion of the icons I'm using on Book of Days to denote friends-only and private entries. Perhaps fully public content could have its own icon as well—a star or something similar. Everything else would require login (don't want icons everywhere) and then there would be the additional two icons for my journal to differentiate the privacy levels. I also want to investigate how to make the login work so that if someone tries to access a protected page directly—say a chapter of a story, or an entry in my journal—but forgets to sign in first, that the login fields will be available on that page. Log in, and then the page should refresh to allow access. This would be more efficient than making people return to the main page first, then have to navigate back to the page they were trying to view in the first place. I just need to make sure having the login script available on each page won't somehow mess up the cookie. ^^; Mmm...cookie. Font Makeover and Content Musings
Today I discovered the font Anyway, it's not terribly widely distributed quite yet, but as Microsoft continues to cram its stuff down peoples' throats it'll eventually infest PCs everywhere, and from there slowly permeate into Macs and Linux OSes, just as certain other Windows fonts ended up doing over time. I haven't embedded it into Incyanity's layout, just added it to the font tree. Those of you who have it will see it, and those of you who don't will see Trebuchet MS, or Verdana, or Helvetica, or Arial, or if you have none of those, whatever default sans-serif font you do have (go get some fonts, people!). The layout colors have been updated a bit too. I bet you noticed that though, right?? :D I've been contemplating making some other changes to the site, namely taking down Shutter Bug since absolutely no one seems to care (not one comment on any photo in the three or so years the photos have been there—and while I know the photos are not stellar, I know they're not shit either). I'm hedging about taking down Tutorials too. They're pretty old but possibly still useful; I'm not really sure if anyone still uses them. Another tentative thought is to create another security level for Incyanity to open up certain journal entries to the public. I use my LiveJournal less and less these days, and what I do post on LJ I tend to also want to post in Book of Days so...is there any point to double-posting? Lastly, I've started another doll. Any guesses? Progress shot:  Knitted Artwork
Phhhbbbtt. :p You guys are no fun. Nobody guessed on the identity of the doll from the previous update post. Was it really that hard? ; ) First, there are two new videos up in Shutter Bug, one under "Aquaria", and the other under "Fauna". The doll is Jalen, from Seeking Abraxas! There was just one detail left to finish when I posted that photo. A pic of the final version is now up in the Seeking Abraxas gallery. Additionally, I've posted a photo of a puppy I knitted in the main Artwork gallery. "Knitted artwork" is something I'll be dabbling in now. My art muse isn't with me at the moment so making cute dolls out of wool is a nice change and still gives me something to update with. What character I should knit next? Who Am I?
 Starfury reborn—again?
I've posted a revamped version of the Discovery ficlet. This new version deals a little bit more realistically with how Sakusha finds out she is a senshi, improves some details about her background, and takes care of a few other things. It now stands at 7,780 words! The new Discovery also puts me in a better position to lead into Trial, which will detail the test Sakusha's past self tells her she must overcome before she can enter the Sailor Wars. The Trial ficlet is probably not going to be very long, owing to how it will center on a battle, so I may be able to have that up in the near future. You never know though, sometimes these things take on a life of their own... Happy birthday Incyanity!
Today my site turns ten years old! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get anything prepared for my site's birthday. : ( With Christmas, New Years, and some other real-life stuff going on, it really just snuck up on me too fast. I've also had a pretty bad cold for the last week so I've been spending a lot of time sleeping. Anyway, ten years ago today, Incyanity first appeared online at a location on GeoCities known then as "Area51". This was before GeoCities clued in to using usernames to generate the URL. At the time, the site was called "Empire Madora", a nod to a very early version of Heart of the Empire (which was never actually posted on the site). At the time I was working on the Crystalstar fic, a Shadow Raiders fic, rants, and I had various other fan-related content such as a Sailor Venus gallery, Shadow Raiders galleries and the like. I ran a webring and a writing critique club back then, too, and had a forum on ezBoard. GeoCities quickly became GeoShitties. Like for many people, my site outgrew the space allowed by that provider so I moved on. For a long time the site was hosted at Risanet (for free!). It went through a great many iterations at that location (layouts and content). Eventually I purchased a domain name, and the site became empiremadora.net. I don't remember the specifics now (it's in my journal though), but at some point, Risanet went down and seemed to stay that way. I had to move. I found a new host, but when we tried loading up my domain, the DNS refused to propagate properly for a great many people across the globe. For those people (including myself), the domain was still pointing to the old Risanet location and refused to budge no matter what. In the end I had to change the domain name to get it fixed. Thus, the site changed to Shadowyng.net (Shadowyng being the handle I was using at the time). Time passed again, and slowly, the content on the site evolved. I learned more HTML, php, and CSS skills. I dumped content, created new stuff, dumped that, brought stuff back, shuffled stuff around... There were a lot of growing pains. Externally, I had been keeping a journal at diary-x for a while but wanted more control over functionality so I learned how to integrate one into the site (and not too soon either! diary-x later suffered a catastrophic failure on the server hard drive and everyone's journals were lost). Tokhai suggested I name my journal "Incyanity" and I instantly took to the name. Most recently, I decided to restructure the site again and expand the journal login functionality to protect other content on the site. I was no longer using the handle "Shadowyng" so the name and the URL was no longer appropriate. Adapting the name of my journal to apply to the entire site seemed fitting. Cyan is my favorite color, and this is my little insane corner of the web, so why not? : ) Over the years I've had a lot of great support from many people. Thank you so much for coming time and time again to see what I have to offer, and being patient every time I tore it all apart. : ) Incyanity exists just as much for you as it does for myself. I hope you continue to enjoy the site and its content for many years to come! Oh goody, comment spam!
:D The new inline comment script has been implemented across the entire site. And now, after six months (honestly, I'm surprised it didn't happen a LOT sooner) of having the comment script itself available on the updates, evil spam bots have discovered it! Le gasp! So, I have instituted a "prove you are a human" question. I already know it foils the bots because I've been using this question on the Shutter Bug gallery pages for almost a year now. Bots were drowning me in spam on those pages (upwards of a hundred posts a day) but after I stuck the question in there, I haven't had a spam post since. It's an easy question that nonetheless requires a thinking mind to understand and provide the answer for. I'm sure you'll all get it. : ) PS: Happy new year! Hard to believe 2009 is here already. I hope everyone has safe and fun celebrations tonight. In five days, Incyanity turns ten! :D Pop Ups and Milestones
Popups No More! Don'tchya just hate pop ups? I do. Pop up ads especially are annoying. It'd be like a commercial suddenly running in the middle of a scene of your favorite TV show. Down with pop ups! On Incyanity, a window would pop up to allow people to leave a comment. Comments are love, but pop ups are evil, and I've always hated that part of the script. Now, today, right this minute, there are no more pop ups on Incyanity! (Well, okay, for right this minute, no more pop ups on the Updates page. I still have to implement it everywhere else. :p) Over the last few days, Kruznik has lent me his uber l33t h4x0r javascript skillz to make the comment script inline. W00t! Major, major THANKS my friend, you're a lifesaver! Additionally, the new comment script will no longer publish your email address if you include it when you post. The email address is useful for me to have if I want to reply directly to you, but there's no need for it to be displayed on the website where bots can troll for it. : ) Instead, if you include a website URL, that URL will be linked to the name you use. Free advert for your site (or LJ, or whatever)! So go ahead, click that comment link and give it a try. :3 Milestones In just over two weeks, Incyanity turns TEN YEARS OLD! A whole decade of being on the internet (in one form or another), wow! I've been trying to think of something to do for my site's big birthday, and I do have an idea, but I was also curious to know what you guys might like to see or might like me to do for this occasion. What better way to test out the new comment script than to leave me some ideas? ♥ Is that...gasp! Art??
You bet! There is a new picture of Starfury up in the Crystal Memory gallery. Enjoy! Look for more updates coming in the very near future, I promise! Indian Paintbrush for Christmas
I found out today that this picture I took in 2004 was picked for my company's 2008 Christmas card! I had submitted it with a batch of other photos taken by my coworkers and mine was voted best. :D Exciting! For your viewing pleasure!
I've gone video happy! In the Shutter Bug galleries there are three videos (and a new photo) under Aquaria, five videos under Fauna, and one video under Flora. Remember, the Shutter Bug gallery is open to all visitors, so please have a look! Shutter Bug and Tutorials Refresher
I have finished updating the layout of the Shutter Bug galleries. The layout of each page that displays a photo has been changed to match the rest of my gallery layouts, making the Comment links and navigation buttons more prominent. The Tutorials have been revamped as well. They will no longer "pop up" and the text has been integrated with the layout of the website. In some cases I have tweaked the content of the tutorials, but overall they remain the same. Fish are friends...!
There are five new photos in the Aquaria gallery under Shutter Bug. HOTE Artwork!
*falls over dead* I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I last posted artwork of any kind! Definitely time to get back into the swing of things. Members can log in and visit the HOTE gallery to see a new picture of Arlayn. I hope you like it! I have also updated a number of other HOTE pics so that you can click on the display image to see a larger version. I have also updated the Contact page as well as the Aquaria gallery in Shutter Bug. Book of Days Tagging Complete
W00t! After nearly five months, I have finished tagging all 608 entries in my journal. The Tag Cloud is now fully populated. The bigger the tag appears, the more popular it is. You can see where some of my journalling priorities are or have been over the years! New camera = new photos!
Yay, new public content! Shutter Bug has been updated. There are three new photos in "Aquaria"; two new in "Enviro"; three new in "Fauna"; three also for "Flora"; and five new shots for "Macro". Most of these pictures were taken with my new Canon PowerShot S5. Enjoy, and please leave comments! : ) Shutter Bug Facelift!
I have revamped Shutter Bug and split the photos into general categories: Aquaria (fish tank), Enviro (landscapes and things around me), Fauna (animals and insects), Flora (plants and fungus), and Macro (super-close ups of just about anything). I'm hoping these categories might help visitors see the photos they like. Also, this minor facelift is in prep for a larger update—I bought a new camera recently and have been having fun with it! Another little Book of Days feature
Did you notice the small icon in the recent entries list for Book of Days? :D  This image will now display beside entries which are friends only.
 This image will now display beside entries which are private (for my eyes only).
If there is no image, the entry is "public", meaning all registered members of Incyanity can read it. At some point in the future I'll work this feature into the Archives. Eventually. :3 HOTE Chapter Seven Preview
The full chapter isn't finished yet, but there's a preview of it for your reading pleasure in my LiveJournal. HOTE Trivia: The beginning of this chapter was inspired by a short scene originally found in BCS. For those "in the know", do you remember which scene that was? :D Book of Days Feature
Just a quick, small update today. I have amended the main page so that when you stop by, you can see if Book of Days has been updated. Links to actually access the journal entries will not display until after you log in. Facelift - Take 2
Incyanity should now be coming to you from the middle of your browser window. : ) It took some doing, but I was able to beat the menu into submission. The result is not exactly what I wanted but it's close enough! I have converted the navigation menu from submenu pop-up to a tree format. The arrow images indicate where submenus are available and you can click on the arrows or the text itself to expand the tree. Unfortunately, the menu no longer scrolls with you as you go down the page. : ( That functionality wasn't available in this format via the program I was using and it's the one thing I hated to lose the most. I'm not that smart yet to know how to extract it from the previous menu. Maybe later. I might tweak it a bit more in the near future. Frequently Asked Questions Since I was playing with trees and JavaScript, I took the opportunity to revamp the FAQ. Technically what you see is a tree menu, but instead of navigating anywhere, it's just a nice way to make the FAQ questions and answers appear/disappear to keep the page neater. Updates Yes, even the updates page has an update! You might notice the format is different. Using my journal code, I have converted this page into a blog and now I can post the update text via the website rather than having to upload the PHP file. All the updates are now stored in their own database—which also means I can auto-generate the "Recent Updates" list on the Home page instead of having to manually update it every time. (I know, it makes absolutely no difference to you, but to me it's exciting! :D) This change also means you can leave comments to let me know what you thought of each particular update. In Other News... There are no other significant updates as yet. I am making progress on HOTE chapter seven (about 1500 words so far, woot) and now that I have finally found the memory cards for my camera (they've been missing since Easter) I can put some new photos together for Shutter Bug. I also want to force myself to sit down in the near future and draw. It's been six months since I drew anything... Part of the trouble with getting longer between updates again has to do with life, like it always does. On the positive side, I've been spending time with Ranakanth, going places, things like that. On the negative side, my job is sucking me dry right now (has been since January, but the wear is really starting to show). It's really hard to have energy and creative juices left over by the time I get home. : ( But, I keep trying my best and hopefully things will get better work-wise soon so I can concentrate more fully on my family, friends, and these projects which I definitely enjoy better than that stuff I get paid to do. ^_^ A bit of a facelift.
Incyanity has had a little makeover! It was time to spruce things up just a little. You may need to CTRL+F5 to refresh your cache and get the tweaked layout. Not a lot has changed other than the width of the layout (it's smaller) and some of the colors. Most significantly, you'll find my galleries no longer pop up (though the comment windows still do). The location of the layout in your browser is temporary. I want to have it load in the middle, but the menu doesn't want to co-operate in that regard with respect to lower screen resolutions. I am working on changing the menu to a tree instead of a submenu pop-up, but with this layout it's not as easy as I thought it would be. When I get it figured out, things will move! Heart of the Empire In preparation for events in chapter seven (which isn't finished yet, sorry!), I had to go back and make some minor changes to chapters one through six. The only major change involved moving Veovis's realization about Zai'al from chapter two to chapter three. I tweaked a few things and added in some details, mostly to keep the prophecy of the temple closer to the forefront. Many thanks to Nightshade for the awesome fanart of Daenan! ♥ Check the pic out in HOTE's Guest Art gallery, fourth thumbnail from the end. I'm not dead. Honest!
Just wanted to post briefly to let everyone know Incyanity hasn't been abandoned. : ) I'm still finishing up some coding for the Book of Days tag feature and I have been working on HOTE here and there. I have to admit though that my time has been somewhat taken up with coding another website for the EVE Online player corporation I am a member of and I have been spending a decent amount of time with friends, especially now that the weather has started to improve. Never fear! Updates are forthcoming, promise. : ) Little Goodies
Just a small update this time around. : ) Crystal Memory New fan art! Nightshade drew a wonderful tribute piece to Starfury's past and present forms. It's interesting to see how Starfury has evolved in one image. This pic is front and center in the Guest Art gallery, being the first piece of fan art I've received since bringing Starfury back. &heart; Sakura and Song of Amazon also sent me some fan art from my days as a Crystalstar. Their images are fifth- and fourth-last in the third row in the Guest Art gallery. Thanks so much! Heart of the Empire New fan art! Peludrax did an awesome picture of Daenan. Be careful! It's a hot, not-work-safe image. : ) Gamer Chick This public page used to be the Final Fantasy Scorecard. I've revamped it to include many other games that I've played in recent years. If you can't see this page listed in the menu, refresh the page a few times. The Fishroom This gallery (under Shutter Bug) has been streamlined to incorporate information on my current aquariums and no longer splits out the photos. Fishy fishy! Who's Online? When you first come to Incyanity, scroll down the index/home page a bit. At the bottom some membership stats now display. I thought this would be a neat little feature. Miscellaneous The FAQ has been revamped. I took down the "Site Info" page and incorporated that information in the FAQ. So, the links across the top of the layout have been revised. If it's looking wonky, refresh to get the newest images. BIGGEST. UPDATE. EVER.
It's a bit late, but here finally is my holiday season gift to everyone. I'm SO EXCITED! I've been bursting at the seams for months while working towards this update. A few times I almost let slip the surprises because I could hardly wait to see what everyone would think! As it is I did give away a few tidbits to certain people. Oh, I hardly know where to begin, there's so much to tell! First I want to say thank you. Since the site's overhaul in 2007 the member base has grown quite a bit. It makes me really happy not only to see all the new visitors coming in, but also everyone who keeps coming back. Incyanity wouldn't exist if it weren't for you. Recently I have received a number of notes from visitors voicing their support and giving great feedback. I can't say enough how much I appreciate that you took the time to pass those comments on to me! In return I have striven to invest more effort into getting new content onto Incyanity, as this update hopefully shows. So, thank you to all my visitors!! *hugs* And now, on to the updates! Updates are listed in order of appearance in the menu at right. Artwork I bet this page looks a bit different, hey? Where did some of the pictures disappear to...? Keep reading, you'll figure it out. ; ) I want to take a minute to talk about my art. A little while ago a friend posted on her LJ about realistic illustration and quoted someone as saying how, if that person wanted something to look real, they'd just go out and take a picture. This got me thinking. You know, it takes a lot of effort to make a picture look realistic, and since I stopped drawing in anime style, the amount of art I've produced has gone down to almost nothing, and not for lack of trying. I have a lot of half-finished drawings that I keep avoiding simply because it'll be a lot of work to finish them. I've wanted them to look good and "real"...and I don't think I have it in me. My goal has never been to be a stellar artist. Basically, I just want to share what the characters look like and have some fun creating images that are nice to look at. Art is a great add-on feature to the writing I do. It's also great to get gift art, and it's easier for people to draw that art if they have something to compare to. At about the same time I saw my friend's LJ post, I also came across a "how to" drawing book which talked about something called "fusion art", which, from my quick glance through the book (I didn't buy it), is basically American comic styles blended with Japanese anime/manga styles. This really got me thinking that maybe I should try "downgrading" my attempted drawings to something like that, go back to being more simplistic, see if I can carve out a new style that works for me and means less frustration when trying to draw. Maybe then I can complete more pieces more quickly. I'm sure other people would enjoy that. : ) At the Movies I have taken this section down. It wasn't receiving any attention and I have decided to put the file space to better use elsewhere. One plan I have is to resurrect an old attempt at an animation for HOTE that I dabbled with a number of years ago. At the time, I was trying to do it in Flash, but found (and still find) that program frustrating because some of the tools work sort of the opposite to what I am used to in Photoshop. I wanted so badly to create the lineart in Photoshop, as that would've been easiest for me, and then just import it to Flash, but it didn't work out that way. Now I believe I can try the same thing with Photoshop and Premiere, as Premiere supports all kinds of media, and then I can export the result as a Flash Video. We'll see. I have no experience with animation though and my art skills are pretty rusty so this just may be an exercise in futility! Crystal Memory SURPRISE! Raise your hand if you remember this part of my site from a number of years ago. It's true, your eyes do not deceive you: Sailor Starfury is back! Recently I went down memory lane, rereading my Sailor Moon manga and watching the anime. In the last few months I've also happened to come into contact with a few long-lost friends from my days in the fandom. A bit more poking around led me to discover just how alive the Smoon fandom still is. I started to get that itch again. My exit from the fandom was a real shame, and I know for a while afterwards I was quite negative about fandom in general. I thought a great deal about coming back, and in the end decided to revisit the character and the fandom...just a little. For this, Sailor Starfury has been "reincarnated", hopefully for the last time. Her fuku is new and different and her history has been revamped. Within Crystal Memory you'll find a bit of fic ("ficlet", as I've come to think of it), profile, fuku analysis, and art! Wherever possible I collected old images of my own and from fans. Also, there are three new pieces of art to look at. One is a "redo" of a pic of Starfury I did from way back when (the first thumbnail in the first row of outdated images in the gallery) while the other two are brand-new and show her and her weapon as they are now. On the Fuku page there is a link to download a Photoshop color swatch (palette) for anyone who may be interested in drawing Starfury with accurate colors. : ) I have blended some details from Starfury's original form with her new one. Other details I ditched completely. As far as the ficlet goes, I am taking some license and choosing elements from both the anime and the manga which appeal to me. In the Stars manga, Sailor Cosmos tells Sailor Moon about a war that "ruins the future" Sailor Cosmos is from. The ficlet takes place before this war. More content will appear in this section over time. I may also be interested in some collaboration work with other Smoonies (ie, fic cameos and the like) if the opportunity presents. Mainly I just want to have a bit of fun with it again, dabble here and there, for those times when I'm maybe feeling burnt out on my original work. Enjoy! Heart of the Empire SURPRISE! Not only has chapter five been posted, but chapter six as well! I'm making some real headway on this story now. Admittedly, chapter five is a bit rough around the edges, but the core is sound. An important event takes place in this chapter, and combined with the events in chapter six, readers should be able to get a sense now of where some of the lines are drawn between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. Things are heating up! Fair warning about chapter six: it contains mature content which is sexual in nature. (Oh noes!) This is the first time I have written material like this and I think I have made every effort to write it tastefully. The chapter is not overly graphic but neither is it vague. Overall I think most people will be all right with the content, though some may be uncomfortable reading it. Personally, I am happy with the results and I'm certainly very curious to see how this chapter will be received! But, if you can't be mature and responsible about the content, don't read it. As with the other chapters, you can leave your thoughts about chapters five and six by clicking on the "Comment On This" link at the end of each chapter. I look forward to reading your responses! Also new for HOTE is a Profile page! I will be adding short blurbs for more of the main characters over time. The current pictures are temporary, as I have plans to draw ones specifically for this page. Sounds of Inspiration has been updated too. The tracks have been organized into a more soundtrack-like order for the story and a new song, Theme from Voltaic has been added for download. More thorough comments have been added as well. Over in the gallery there is a new image, the first ever canon picture of Zai'al! Her appearance is based on a piece of fanart of this character drawn by Celestial back when HOTE was still in development. Many thanks to Celestial for helping out in that regard. This picture is part of a much-larger poster-type image I've been working on for a while. Two characters down, four more to go! Seeking Abraxas Gasp! When was the last time I had an update for this project? It's just a small one, but definitely worth noting: check the Artwork gallery for a new picture of Shiori, and the Guest Art gallery for a new pic of Maeve by Purenightshade. Thanks for the gift! SA isn't dead, it's just hibernating. I'm so pleased with how much progress I am making on HOTE that I want to continue with it until such time as the Muse nudges me over back to this story. I know if I try to force SA it isn't going to work. But, I constantly mull over it in the back of my mind, trying to figure out the roadblocks that keep me from getting going again, and I can say I feel close to figuring it all out. I just need a bit more inspiration... Guest Art Due to the opening of Crystal Memory, Starfury fanart from this section has, of course, been moved. Quotes This is a new version of a page I used to have called "Opinions". Since Incyanity doesn't have a guestbook (I got sick of having to delete spam posts) there isn't really any way for people to see what existing visitors think about the site. I originally took the Opinions page down because Incyanity had gone through a lot of changes and many of the comments weren't relevant anymore. Some of the quotes that appear on this page were previously only accessible under HOTE. With the recent influx of feedback I decided to move the page to the public area and add to it as a way to hopefully entice more people to sign up and check out my work. Hopefully the feedback will continue to come in and I can add to it. : ) Of course, anyone who has some constructive criticism about Incyanity should send that in too. I can't improve the website if I don't know what's wrong with it! Shutter Bug Big changes here! The Main Gallery has been updated with thirty-four new photos. Also, I have opened the Fishroom gallery to show photos taken of my aquariums. There are twenty-four photos here, with more to come! Both galleries have the Comment feature enabled. I'm looking forward to your feedback! Miscellaneous The website menu has been reorganized just a bit and updated with the new site areas. If you can't see the changes, refresh the page. The Links page has also undergone some reorganization. I'm displaying buttons for the sites I like to visit most. There's a good variety of them in there, too. Hover your mouse over the button for some info on the site before you visit it. WOW! That's quite a lot of new stuff, isn't it?! Now you understand why I was so excited. :D Hope it was worth waiting for! Countdown to Update
So, due to that thing called Life, I obviously missed the target of updating no later than early November. But! The extra time I'm taking just means extra goodness for everyone once the actual update is ready. To give you an idea of what's left to do (while being as cryptic as humanly possible :D)... Complete diagram accompanying text for Project #1 (scan, tweak, ink, color, shade, splice) Finish prepping Project #1 HTML for deployment Finish writing approximately 2000 words on Project #2 Tweak vignette #3 for Project #2 Convert audio from high to low for Project #2 Complete imagery for Project #3 This might still look like a lot, but there's a whole bunch more to this list that is already complete that I'm not going to share. :3 As soon as I can strike these last things off, I can update! So, let's count it down! All finished! I hope you're ready for this... :D :D HOTE Chapter Five Preview
If I've posted the HOTE Chapter Five Preview on my LiveJournal, it must mean I'm getting pretty close to being able to post a site update, right? The fifth chapter is about halfway done. I'd like to get it and a list of other items finished so I can update Incyanity sometime in October (or early November at the latest). If I can have everything done sooner, the better for everyone! I will do my best to have the update ready as soon as possible. But since I have an exam for work to write at the end of November, I don't really want to promise anything, because if I fail the exam it won't be good. I hope you enjoy the teaser! Book of Days Finished!
Yes, it's true! All the entries from Book of Days have been transferred to the new journal code. Whew! A lot of work. The Archives even work, though they don't yet display the date in the format I would like. Still working on that, but hey, functionality is more important. I tweaked the menu a bit, too. To get to the current entry, click on (you guessed it!) "Current Entry", which now comes up as a submenu. Speaking of Menu Changes... I made some other changes. HOTE and SA, which have submenus, also had their titles as clickable links. This was contrary to other places in the menu where a heading led to a submenu. In those places, the heading would turn dark and then the submenu would come up. For consistency, I've changed HOTE and SA so the titles are not clickable anymore. The pages the links used to lead to are now located under the submenu "Story" (click on "Blurb"). Now I can get back to concentrating on other updates! EDIT 10:36pm: Guess what else I finished! :D :D The Shutter Bug gallery has finally been updated. The photos have been rearranged and a few have been taken down (while a few others have been added). Visitors can finally leave comments on the pictures, too! Please let me know what you think of my shots. : ) Progress Report
Now it's way too cold! Last month we were dying of heat. This month (at least, the last few days), it's been chilly to the point of wondering of the dark clouds coming in are bringing white stuff which shall not be named. Wah! Book of Days 220 entries to go! Now I also need to restore the comments as well as the entries themselves, so it's a tad more slow-going, but once I find a rhythm, it'll be all good. On the homestretch now! I'll hopefully be done the transfer in a few days. After that, the Archives needs to be restored, and then I can get back to journalling! Heart of the Empire I have been working on chapter five. I have only a few hundred words written, as I'm finding this chapter tough to start. The events which occur in this chapter are planned, so I am not struggling with what to write, but rather, how to write it. When finished it will likely remain rough around the edges, but will be passable. Part of the problem is knowing some of the subject matter regards things I'm not very knowledgable about and have little experience writing (mostly military-ish scenes). I have some ideas for sources to reference, but I need to find time to do that. : ) As an aside, I have added the comment feature to the chapters themselves (at the end, near the "next chapter" link) so readers can leave their thoughts upon finishing the chapter. In this way I hope to make it easier (and more immediate) for interested parties to leave feedback. (You know I'm a feedback whore, come on! Gimme gimme gimme.) ♥ The urge to do some sketching has recently arisen (GASP! I haven't drawn—or finished—any artwork in eons), mostly with respect to a few scenes from HOTE. These would be actual sketches, rather than character images, which I haven't done for a really, really long time. If the Muse is prodding me in this direction, it's possible this is my opportunity to get back into drawing on a more regular basis like I used to. Shutter Bug Yup, still on the to-do list. But I've also had some ideas, for example, creating a subsection called "The Fishroom", in which to place photos taken of my aquariums. (In the fish-keeping hobby, a fishroom is a room in one's house where all the tanks are kept, usually because the hobbyist is a fanatic and has so many that an entire room is required. I only have two tanks, but if I have a whole gallery devoted to aquarium photos...well...) In General I have plans for some other new content when I actually do get to update next (as soon as Book of Days is finished), though if I say what that might be now, it won't be a surprise later, will it! Going through my journal forced me to revisit a lot of topics from my past, including old projects, old ideas, and the like. In some cases I was definitely glad the project(s) in question were dropped. In some other cases, I found myself (fondly) reminiscing and wondering what would happen if...? Coincidentally, the other day I came across my copy of the Crystalstars soundtrack and also had to dig up an old Yahoo! ID, which just happens to be Sakusha. I miss that character, even though her early incarnations needed a lot of work. Perhaps—just perhaps—it's something I could touch on again in the future. Webmistress Musings
It's way too hot. We've had 30°C+ weather nearly every day for the last month. Additionally, it's a humid heat, so no matter what I do I always feel sticky and wet and gross and disgusting, and would really prefer to shower twenty-four hours a day. This is not something born-and-bred Albertans such as myself are used to. How do Torontonians stand it? I don't think anyone in Calgary has been able to get a full night's rest since mid-June. We're all crabby. And many of us are sunburnt. Like me. Anyway, the heat makes it hard to want to do anything but melt into a puddle, live in the freezer, eat ice cream for supper every day, etc. Eating ice cream every day would be great, except for the inevitable pudge that will follow. Book of Days It's interesting (and mortifying, at times) to be going back through those entries from five years ago. Almost like a different life, yet still me. I need to redo my mood theme to match my garsona. That's kind of low-priority though. Must. Get. Entries. Transferred! Heart of the Empire Despite the heat, I have managed to scrape out an outline for chapter five. I hear gasps of astonishment! Yes, I really am moving forward with HOTE again already, which I know is a complete turnaround from my "tradition" (established many, many moons ago on other projects, and not at all on purpose) of maybe only having new written material once every year...or so. I must be having fun with this story, eh? The Muse keeps surprising me; more events and a new character have sprung up, and depending on the wordage for the new events, the outline may also encompass chapter six, which means I'll be writing at least one chapter (but realistically, two) from scratch, and the part I prewrote back in January will be bumped to chapter seven. This is good and bad! Knowing where my material is going is highly satisfying. Knowing I actually have story (three chapters at least before I have to plan again!) to write is fantastic! (I used to write from the seat of my pants. This plan-first-write-second method is much better for me.) Pretty soon I'll have quite a substantial chunk of writing on the site again, compared to the measly bits that gathered dust post-BCS collapse. But, knowing I don't get to cheat on chapter five with prewritten material...sucks bigtime. Heat = lazy. :p Although, I have a certain level of anticipation and eagerness to get the prewritten material posted, so this is motivation to get chapters five and six written. Wherever the prewritten material falls, it will officially bring HOTE into the realm of mature reading (justifying the 18+ warning in the Terms of Use) and though I did my best to approach the adult material responsibly, having never written anything like that before, I'm quite curious to see how it will be received. Ranakanth (♥) has been wonderful with help and inspiration on HOTE. I think most of my recent enthusiasm for the story is due largely to his interest in it. Shutter Bug Yup. Still on my To Do list. Last (But Definitely Not Least) A shout out to all the new members who recently signed up. Welcome! I hope you're enjoying Incyanity while I slowly put it back together. Thanks for visiting! No, it isn't a trick, I've updated!
At the Movies There is one new flash movie here. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a comment! Book of Days Still working on this. 573 entries to go. ^^; Heart of the Empire The long wait is over! Chapter four of Heart of the Empire is up! This chapter weighs in at just over 6600 words and brings the total for the book so far to just over 24,600 words. Wow! I know some of you have just reread the chapters in anticipation of this update! But, in order to properly integrate the events in this chapter, I had to go back and make some alterations to the other ones. Most notably, the ages of some of the characters had to be changed, and the events at the end of chapter three needed some significant tweaking. I also changed the name of one of the crystals found on Madora from "senixx" to "senicite". At the very least you'll want to have another look at chapter three so that everything which happens in chapter four makes sense. Chapter five is already bubbling away in my brain. Depending on how long some of the initial scenes of that chapter turn out to be, it's conceivable that I have most of this chapter written already. I have to do some planning first, but otherwise anticipate being able to post this chapter in the near future too. To celebrate the completion of chapter four, I've added a neat little gizmo to HOTE's index/blurb page. It's a progress bar specifically for keeping track of the number of words in the story and shows how far along the book is overall. Personally, I think 100,000 words is a bit conservative for the first draft of the completed story, but it's a good target to shoot for, and can always be updated later. If you're feeling brave or don't care about mild spoilers, check out HOTE's Gallery! I have posted a Character Relationships chart there. By looking at this image, you may be able to deduce certain aspects of the story that have not yet been fully revealed. There's a warning page in place before the actual image, just in case. Last, but not least, I have expanded the Sounds of Inspiration list by two titles, plus posted one mp3. Miscellaneous I've updated the menu with a neat little feature. The very last link on the menu will now display "Log In" if you are visiting as a guest, and "Log Out" once you have signed in. Pretty cool! Let's Do the Time Warp Again!
Anyway, the last bit of tweaking for Book of Days is currently underway. What this means is that, if you click on the journal link in the menu, you're going to see journal entries from ages ago. To set the permission levels and get the mood icons working again, I have to add all 625 entries back into the database manually. Tedious, yes, plus it means the Archives are broken again, but hey, it gives us all a chance to have a walk down memory lane, right? Enjoy the blast from my past! Book of Days 98% Functional
For all intents and purposes, my journal is back up and running! I'm quite pleased I managed to convert the old code on my own. : ) I still have to figure out integration of the mood icons and the Recent Entries list, but these are minor features that don't compromise the functionality of the journal in any real significant way. The privacy levels will come last, once everything else has been fixed. Enjoy no longer having to log in twice! Feast Your Eyes and Ears!
My journal is still limping along the same as before. I've started working on recoding it, but it's going to take longer than I thought, so in the meantime I've put together some new member content for everyone. : ) At the Movies This area is now open! There are four videos posted for your viewing pleasure. This is the first time I have tried posting embedded video online, so please feel free to give feedback (comments can be posted on each of the videos' pages) and definitely let me know if they don't work for you—they work for me! More movies are forthcoming. : ) Heart of the Empire I've uploaded three songs out of those listed under Sounds of Inspiration. The mp3s are lower quality to help save on some storage space, but still not too bad. In the future I'll put up more mp3s. : ) Seeking Abraxas As with HOTE, I've added an mp3 to this project's Sounds of Inspiration page too. The song list for SA is currently much shorter though, so there is only the one song for now. Instead of streaming these songs off the site, please right-click and download them instead. In all cases, checking the tags of the downloaded files will show album and other information, in case anyone wants to seek out better-quality files. I should also mention that anyone who has Incyanity bookmarked at http://incyanity.net/?x=login should change their bookmark to http://incyanity.net/. The "?x=login" part only appeared due to the old code and is no longer needed (for the moment it still appears when logging into Book of Days but eventually it will be eliminated there too). It's a BAND-AID
My journal is working. Kinda. For the moment, when you log in to Incyanity, you are only logged in to the site itself. If you click on Book of Days in the menu, you'll be asked to log in again. I know this is annoying. I'm working to eliminate it (maybe I'll have it figured out by tomorrow). Take note: The logins for the journal are the OLD ONES. This means it's case-sensitive AND if you updated your password for the new login system already, the new password does not apply to the journal. See what I mean when I said it was annoying? Anyway, at least it works. The idea will be to change the code so that it recognizes when members are already logged in, and allow them to see the entries. Once I get that part working I'm going to work on an additional feature which will let me set privacy levels for some of the entries. This means, depending on the user (and how much I trust you), you may get a message saying you aren't allowed to view that entry when you try to click on it. Once again, PLEASE let me know if you experience any problems using the site. The new code was written by me (with the help of two fabulous PHP and MySQL books) and two members already discovered some typos I made which broke the site (which have since been fixed). No matter how small or minor you think the problem might be, please send me an email with details. This also includes any problems (perceived or actual) staying logged in. The login session does appear to expire after a period of time even if you are still on the site (but perhaps sitting on the same page for a long time). I haven't set an expiration time myself so I suspect it's a default setting on the server that I may be able to override. Also, you may experience problems staying logged in if you still have old Incyanity cookies on your hard drive. Try logging out, deleting the cookies manually, and then logging back in. If you still experience problems, let me know! New login is LIVE!
I'm happy to announce the new login system is live! All members should be able to log in using their existing username and password combinations (Kat, your new username is now active), except for Venus, who will need to register again (sorry, I was too impatient to wait for you to get me your email address). I highly recommend each member who was provided a generic password by me (rather than choosing one of their own) should use the "Change Password" link at right to update their password to something unique. Also! I managed to get the "last login" feature working, so no more Roll Call! Yay!! Everything on the site is currently operational except for my journal (Book of Days). I'm still fiddling with it. Actually, I'm still fiddling with a few other things too, such as the "home" page and other small annoying things. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you notice anything not working properly, send me the details (including the text of the error, if you get one). I can't fix it if I don't know the problem exists! Additionally, both HOTE and SA each have a new section, called Sounds of Inspiration. As you might guess, these pages relate to music. I'm still debating whether to host the mp3s. Please also note the revised Terms of Use page. Whether or not you are a registered member of this site, by visiting Incyanity I still expect you to be a considerate human being. It's not a long or involved document, so please take a look at least once. : ) Otherwise, everything should be status-quo for now (have I finished Shutter Bug yet? Of course not). Look for more updates coming soon. ♥ Redevelopment Progress!
ATTENTION VENUS! In order to roll your member account onto the new login system, I must have a valid email address for you! Please send me an email right away using an address you want to have associated with your account! ATTENTION KAT! In order to roll your member account onto the new login system, I must have a username for you of four or more characters! Please send me an email right away! Progress is GREAT. The new login system is ready to go live, and will as soon as I hear back from the two above-mentioned users. Everyone else has already been rolled over (anyone curious to know what email address I've associated with their username should ask). The new system includes the following features:
Guests who try to access a members-only page will get an error message instead of simply being redirected to the login form. Members can reset lost passwords (valid email address required). Members can change their current password. Passwords are encrypted for better security. Member registration dates are logged (so everybody who rolled over "registered" today :p). The login fields are no longer case-sensitive. The system prevents registration of duplicate usernames and/or email addresses (ensures everyone has a unique identity). The system provides error messages when something goes wrong (for example, an incorrect password, a duplicate username, etc). The new login system will use cookies just like the existing one, so you will still need to allow these in order to log in properly. The only information stored in the cookie is your username and user ID (not your email address or password or anything else that identifies you). Furthermore, the new login system gives me a much cleaner way to protect member-only pages. The current script is bulky and slows down the load time on those pages. Everyone should (I hope!) notice a significant improvement when accessing the members-only areas once the new system goes live. This should be fairly soon, and I'll put up an announcement, as implementing it will mean a short span of site downtime. One snag so far is the new login system doesn't include my journal. Converting the journal to the new system will take longer, so initially, members will probably have to log in twice (once to the site and again to the journal) in order to see my journal entries. Or, if the two login systems won't play nice, I may have to disable my journal until I get it figured out. I don't really know how this will work until I get the new system up and running, so we'll have to see. Either way, it'll be a bit of a pain for everybody, but hopefully not for long. : ) A New Sparkly!
Be sure to wear a hard hat and some steel-toed boots. There be construction work going on around here! I haven't implemented anything major yet. Oh, except! Yup, you probably noticed the site layout has moved from the center of the screen to the left-hand side and it no longer confines the content to an inline box, meaning that now, the text spills off the bottom of the screen and you have to scroll down to see it. I didn't really want to do it (I liked it how it was) but in order to accommodate the spiffy new menu on the left (did you even notice?! :p), it had to be done. On the other hand, said spiffy new menu will float down the screen as you scroll. The float condition doesn't kick in until the rest of the page has loaded though, so don't worry if it seems "stuck" at first. It'll join you further down the page as soon as it can. This menu is an improvement over the last one in a number of ways. Firstly (and probably most important), the program I used to generate it swears up and down it's compatible with practically every browser out there as well as multiple operating systems. Secondly, isn't it pretty? Coding it is a bitch, but hey, good looks count. If you hover your mouse over each menu title, a little description should pop up too. I think the headers separating out the private and public content is vastly better than before. Everyone can see now at a glance what is open to them and what isn't! (*insert "oohs" and "aahs" here*) If you can't see the menu, you need to allow JavaScript to run in your browser (for example, in IE, the ActiveX control blocker may have come up with a warning. I promise the menu is safe to run and has no malicious code in it). For the moment, the pages under HOTE and SA which were public before (such as Quotes) are still public even though they show up in the "Members Only" section of the menu. I haven't recoded the login scripts yet, so all the permissions are still the way they used to be. Having said this, once I do recode the login script, the permissions will change to match the groupings in the menu (all pages listed under "User Pages" as well as the links across the top of the layout are public too). I don't want the private vs public pages concept to be too baffling. A note about the new login script: existing members don't need to worry about having to sign up again. Everyone currently registered will remain that way. : ) Upgrades In Progress
In case you missed it, Incyanity recently had some trouble. My journal stopped working and then all the member logins were disabled. At this point, everything should be functioning properly and all members should be able to log in without trouble. Please let me know if you're still having trouble or notice anything else wonky. Since the last update, some other changes have been implemented that, in and of themselves, weren't really worthy of an update. The forums have been taken down (despite the small pool of loyal posters...) because they were being ravaged by spambots and it was simply becoming too much of a distraction to manage. I've also tweaked some pages here and there, including the Links section, in an effort to root out some outdated information and fix miscellaneous bugs and errors. Yeah, real exciting, eh? Life's been a bit of a storm so far in 2007 so I haven't had much time to work on content. Not all of the storm has been bad, though! I was very happily swept off my feet in January by Ranakanth, and suddenly having a boyfriend after a long time of not having a boyfriend tends to have a big impact on one's free time. But more recently, my grandmother passed away and it has been a sad time for my family. In any case, things are settling down again for me and I'm looking forward to getting back on track and reaquiring some of the balance in my life that was lost in recent months. As part of this, mainly because the downtime Incyanity experienced was such a pain the ass, I'm taking steps now to expand my php knowledge so I can improve the site's code and database use. The problem has been that I didn't write the code I am currently using. This code, as described by the person who gave it to me, is "fugly", even if it functions. On top of that, I've since bastardized it using the small portion of php that I do understand, so it really is no wonder that the site busted (and honestly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner). The upgrades are probably going to take a while. I'm studying two More good news: When I'm finished, Incyanity will perform better for users:
What I don't plan on is letting these upgrades interfere overly much with putting up new chapters for HOTE and (if the Muse cooperates) SA, as well as art and things like that. Regular updates will continue as often as I'm able to get them out, which I'm going to try to do more often now that the last (I hope) of the real-life upsets are done with for a long while. : ) HOTE Chapter Three
I hope 2007 is going well for everyone so far! Did you know that Incyanity turned eight on January 5? I'm pretty excited about this update, since I have posted the third chapter of Heart of the Empire! It's been quite a while since I got any writing finished and I'm hoping this trend continues (I just have to figure out what happens in chapter four!). : ) I also made some minor changes to the first two chapters to bring them in line with events taking place in chapter three, and if it's been a while since you read them, you might want to go back and refresh your memory. ^^; Two of my friends have cameos in this chapter! ♥ Other updates include the addition of a couple of quotes to the HOTE Quotes page. If you find quotes in the story that you like, or have something else to say about the story, please submit them! Guests can check out the HOTE chapter previews on my LJ. To read the whole story (plus get access to a lot more content), become a member! |
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Incyanity and all website content © 1999 - 2010 Shai · Do not use without permission.
Online since January 5, 1999