During the first week of my website, Clay Mentality, being online I have been monitoring its logs closely. I have watched as the expected visitors (my friends), welcome suprise visitors (search bots) and some unwelcome suprise visitors (unknown IPs, which have already started SPAMing email on the new domain).
Last week when I was preparing to unviel the site, the blog entry had been written for days, but it wasn’t until the last minute (literally, no more than 5 minutes before live) that I decided to register the ClayMentality.org domain. I was going to use a subdomain of one of my other domains for this purpose originally. ClayMentality.org is the first domain that I have registered AFTER the content was written, so it was destined to be a unique experience.
In the first day of the site, most of the visitors were friends who had recieved notification of the site via the blog. In the second day I was visited by a few friendly bots (new domain names attract attention). Throughout the last 5 days the traffic pattern has been mostly stable with return visitors (yes, you Oscar), as well as new visitors as news of the site spreads across my network of friends, and with the help of the bots, the Internet.
During the first few days of operation the site had a critical bug, the code used for protecting some of my administrative scipts from illegitimate use was accidentally being used to protect the proccessing code for the “Contact Me” form, oops. That issue is now corrected and the form is functioning normally.
The site was launched without 2 standard files in place, the robots exclusion file (for bots) and the favorite icon file; I have now implemented both, so the bots are happy and people using FireFox with too many tabs open should also be happy.
The bots that have checked the site so far include: Googlebot (Google’s crawler), SLURP (Yahoo’s bot), Internet Archive (archive.org). Websense (a bot looking for porn), and NetCraft (checking the server for its software and uptime).
So far no one has registered for the gallery, which suprises me, since I installed the new gallery system specificly for the purpose of allowing comments, rating and an overall more interacting image viewing experience.
The first week hasn’t been very eventful, but the site does feel alive, which makes me feel like throwing something 🙂
Announcing: Clay Mentality
It brings me great joy to announce the completion of my new ceramics website, Clay Mentality. This is my formal return to having a web presence. Several years ago as I slowly let more things out of my life, I gave up on having a personal website. A personal website without passion is nothing more than a dynamic autobiography. In the art of ceramics, I have found my passion, and my desire to open my world to the eyes of everyone.
During the past few weeks I have been working on and off with this project, in order to give me some distance from it as I allowed it to evolve around my habbits. For the first time ever I have managed to keep a secret. Only one person has been privilleged to see this site before its launch; Chris has given me much input on the site’s design as well as provided me with some technical tips for some elements of the site. On the topic of the secret, I have never seen anyone more interested in seeing a website I have created as my friends seem to have been when I told them that they would have to wait. I would like to thank everyone for their paitience and support during the development of the site.
And without further rambleing, I am proud to introduce, Clay Mentality:
Clay Mentality – http://www.claymentality.org
In addition to the website I am also announcing the new gallery for my blog. I have selected a new software, which allows for flexibility, as well as added functionality. For all features to be availible to you, you will need to register with the gallery software. Once registered you will have access to any special galleries I may have decided to post privately, and you will have the ability to comment on images/galleries. Registering is important if you wish to interact with the gallery.
New Gallery – http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery2
Happy Easter
Image of ceramic eggs made for Easter 2006, by me. Image by Chris
Inspiration from the Past
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! if you must – but never quit.
Life is queer, with its twists and turns, As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out;
Stick to your task, thought he pace seems slow-
You may succeed with one more blow.
Success is failure turned inside out-
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt –
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you musn’t quit.
—
I remembered hearing this poem in 7th grade, from a substitute teacher, Mrs. Tweedy Stewart. This evening when I found myself in need of inspiration I thought about this poem and through the magic of Google, I found it. There is no known author, but somehow I will always remember it the way that Mrs. Stewart spoke it.
Why SSI sucks
Why does Single Sign In (Single Sign On) suck? Because its centralized and one broken link kills all! I have been trying to log in to OfficeLive for the past few minutes to work on my website, but because it uses Passport to log in, Passport, OfficeLive and the interacting APIs between them must all be functioning. In this case, OfficeLive and Passport both seem to be working, but the OfficeLive link to Passport is preventing me from being able to manage my new websites through OfficeLive.
Single Sign In services are only a good idea when they work, but all people implementing them should consider having a backup plan.
The Reason Glazing is an Experiment
I just opened the lid of the kiln from my most recent glazing. It was a load of 4 pieces, 2 of which glazed well, and 2 of which didn’t do so great. One of the not-so-good pieces is a bowl that I really had high hopes for. I really like the design that i did on that bowl, so I think I am going to try doing it again on a new bowl, but I might refine certain elements of it a bit, as well as use a heavier dose of glaze to make the colors not fade as they did on this first attempt. Images of the pieces (even the bad ones) will come soon.
A Preview
During the past few days I have been playing with glazes, and now there are a few pieces that are complete that I am ready to share images of. Here they are http://www.disturbingthoughts.net/gallery/index.php?folder=/Ceramics/20060329/
I have typically only enjoyed the wheel side of ceramics, but I am starting to really find creativity in the glaze proccess. I have a few more pieces that are almost ready to be fired that I have spent more time putting thought and energy into. I have a few shelves full of bisqueware that is waiting for some type of finalizing treatment that I want to experiment with.
Vulnerability As A Tool For Emotional Experience
Tonight I’ve been doing some thinking about emotions and the way they relate to physical conditions. There is something I have noticed about men who have very thick emotional walls (especially ones who have been hurt), it seems that the only way in to this shell is to do it physically. I have a friend who doesn’t really express emotions at all, and doesn’t really recieve them either. I feel such distance from him talking on the phone or talking in person from a distance or in public, but lift his shirt and tickle him a bit and as the vulnerability of the situation sets in, emotions start to flow, the shell comes down for a short time. Any amount of touching that occurs after this seems to bring out even more ability to see emotion and react to it with emotion. I have noticed this with myself as well, it seems that when I am standing around in nothing but my briefs (handcuffs optional), I tend to loosen up and actually say whats on my mind instead of playing all of the bullshit to make things “flow smoother” in a situation.
if (tequilla MAKES her clothes fall off) and (tequilla LOWERS inhibitions) and (vulnerability LOWERS inhibitions) then (standing naked in the rain MUST be a valid tequilla substitute)
therefore, people who drink to “relax” really just need to be captured, stripped and tied down until they relax and express their inner thoughts.
WARNING: theory written in a silly and kinda not all here state of mind.
To Crowders Mountain
To Crowders Mountain: I wish you a fast recovery to your magestic beauty.
One Stupid Person Ruins Everything
This evening I am saddened by news that my favorite place to hike has been mostly destroyed, by fire, likely due to the careless actions of a smoker. The peaks at Crowders Mountain usually burn at least once per year due to lightning, but the peaks have always survived and recovered from that and likely became stronger because of it, but in this situation it is very different. The source of the fire was not natural, and the mountain burned quickly, as opposed the slow replemishing burn that occurs due to lightning.
I don’t understand why some people visit parks like Crowders Mountain, it just doens’t seem normal for those types of people. I think of the mountain as a very healthy place, why would someone as careless about life as a smoker be somwehere like that? Additionally, I am bothered that people are not more cautious with things like that. There are several points at which the mountain could have been saved. 1. the smoker could have not gone to the park, 2. the smoker could have not smoked at the park (prefered option), 3. once the fire began, the person could have used the abundance of dirt availible to smother the fire, 4. the person could have gone to the ranger station, or the call station at the welcome center once getting down to inform them of the problem. Instead, this cowardly smoker did nothing and said nothing, leaving the mountain to burn and be destroyed, taking its beauty away from everyone else. If you care so little about life and beauty, then STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY MOUNTAIN!
Current Mood: Pissed and Hurt