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December 01, 2003

Although I believe few actually read this page I know that some of you out there do, it is for you that I am posting this update.

Long time visitors will know that most of my old works are no longer online but they will return one day, some in new forms and some as they were, but they will be back along with many new works.

Visual arts and web pages are not the only things I do, I also write poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Another project I have been working on for about two years is interviewing family and scanning family pictures. I am well into the process of writing a timeline of my past, my family's history, and making a photo-timeline. My goal is to merge these two timelines into one and then display a synopsis of them online eventually.

More recently, I began researching my family history at Ancestry.com. In two months researching with Ancestry.com resources, I have been able to find information about family and individuals my grandparents never knew about. I now have hundreds of names on my family tree and several of these ancestors lived in Colonial American times, before there was a United States of America. It turns out that I am descended from the original 13 Colonies and the Pioneers that came west later.

I have been learning a lot about my family and myself as I put the puzzle of the past into a coherent picture. I started scanning family pictures to get more details for a non-fiction writing project, to get a better idea of what happened about when, and for that it has definitely helped. As I scanned the family picture I began to get interested in those who came before my own time. I had not intended to write about my family history, just my own, but now, I have learned enough details that it would be a shame not to write about what I have found.

Some examples

Both my mother and father were born here in Washington State but my grandmother Crane's grandmother was the first to arrive here in 1899. My grandmother Crane's father came from Oregon and I have found his family arrived there sometime before 1850. One of my great-great-great aunts was married in Oregon December 5, 1850. Her younger brother, my 3rd great-grandfather married in Oregon on June 1, 1865.

I have a few pictures and letters dating to the 1800s. The oldest letter is dated February 8, 1862. It is from a man who was serving for the Union in the Civil War, he was writing to my 3rd great-grandmother. Although he was not of my bloodline, he did marry my 3rd great grandmother after the war. My 2nd great grandmother must have thought highly of him, her stepfather, she used his surname as my great grandfather's middle name.

There are still things I am looking for in my family history. So far, several of the family tales and rumors have actually turned out to be true but I some are proving harder to verify than others have been.

Examples

On my mother's side of the family it is said there is Cherokee blood from a great-great grandfather. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any real detail about him yet. There is however, a Cherokee reservation very close to where this part of my family is from in North Carolina. If anyone out there knows anything about a Mack "Gus" McKay, born sometime about 1858, please contact me.

Contact Page

It is rumored, but not proven yet, that the James blood in my line is somehow related to Frank and Jesse James. I have talked with the James clan but even with there help I cannot find a positive connection as of yet. I have not given up the search but it is looking less likely now. I need more information on a Jasper James who was born in Indiana sometime about 1852. I have more information on his daughter, my great-great grandmother, Eva E. James who was born in Winterset, Madison, Iowa on January 1, 1871.

There are still many pictures to scan, and more family history to look up, but in time I will bring my focus back to this web site. When I do, there will be many new things to read and look at. I hope you come back and take a look then.

Additional note: I no longer support Digimarc digital watermarking services. All images still using their watermarking services will be replaces eventually.

Digital Photograph taken in 2002 by Robert Augustson

As I take notes, Grandma Crane is telling me the history of the family pictures and the story of the people shown in them.

January 01, 2003

Finally, I have more than a few sample pages to look at! With this latest site update I have moved, reworked, and added new art to the old pages, which I now call the Garden Gallery. I also created a new section I call the Metamorphic Gallery. Unfortunately, I did not have time to re-work my Mini-Verse² web site but I will be working on it soon.

I have been creating art with computers since 1992 when I bought my first computer (a Tandy 1000 TL 80286). I have fond memories of that old machine. I bought it used and probably learned more about how to use it in the first two weeks than its original owner ever had. I tend to jump into things and learn as much as I can until the next project comes along. With computers though, my whole world changed. I found that I could do many things with computer and now most of my projects involve at least some work with computers.

I make my art using a mouse and a program called Paint Shop Pro (originally by JASC, now owned by Corel). Paint Shop Pro is my canvas and the mouse is my brush. Although my work is done with the use of a computer it is still handmade art.

November 20, 2002

Due to my error, this web site was closed for a day and a half (November 19th and 20th).

I discovered that I had been using the wrong watermarking account for my art for about two years... oops!!! I had forgotten to reset my account information after I reformatted my graphics computer a while back. Fortunately, there were only a few samples online at this time. The problem has now been taken care of and this site is back online. Now, I need to re-watermark the art I will be uploading January 1st.

Note: this only effected the jpeg file types. The gif files use a different method of copyrighting.

I would greatly appreciate if those of you who have downloaded art from my web site over the last two years would delete the copy you have and download a new copy. If the art you have is not currently online I will be happy to send you another copy of the art you had.

I am sincerely sorry for this inconvenience.

Michael A. Crane, Jr.

February 08, 2002

Things are changing here at this web site. I have deleted the larger part of my web site and have started to restructure my whole site from the ground up. MACJR'S Mini-Verse² is now, temporarily, closed (it formerly was the larger part of my web site). Over the last year and a half, since the introduction of MACJR.COM, I have pondered how best to split my nature themed art from my space art to make two main sections (with more sections planned). Now, the time for pondering is over and the work is underway. I have already updated the link pages and moved them to a new location at this web site. I have also updated all the MACJR.COM pages but that job is still unfinished. There is more restructuring to do and new pages to be added soon.

Some of the art pages formerly at my Mini-Verse site will be moved and reformatted for the MACJR.COM pages. Some art will become universal to both sites. New art for both my nature and space pages will be coming online over the next weeks and months.

Come back once or twice a month to watch this site grow back to its former size and then some.

I hope you like my work and enjoy your visit.

Best Regards,

Michael A. Crane, Jr.

June 30, 2000
Revised: December 27, 2006
Revised again: December 15, 2015

I created my first web site, MACJR'S Mini-Verse², on May 30, 1997. My Internet service provider was GTE Internet Solutions. What finally made me leave, after a year of service, was the lack of adequate web hosting space. GTE, at that time, only provided 5 MB of web space and there were no options to purchase more. 5 MB is more than enough web space for most personal pages, but I had dreams of an expanding universe to display many megabytes of my computer graphics in.What finally made me leave, after a year of service, was the lack of adequate web hosting space. GTE, at that time, only provided 5 MB of web space and there was no options to purchase more. 5 MB is more than enough web space for most personal pages but I had dreams of an expanding universe to display many megabytes of my computer graphics in.

On August 21, 1997 I switched to a local ISP called Adept Online Services and then promptly moved MACJR'S Mini-Verse² to its second location on the World Wide Web (www.wiredweb.com/~macjr/index.html). Adept Online Services (AOS for short) has been, and still is, a great ISP. There is almost never a busy signal and very rarely is my service interrupted while they upgrade their systems and perform routine maintenance.

[On June 14, 2000, I purchased my first domain, macjr.com, from Network Solutions.] On June 15, 2000, I added a Web Site Hosting package at AOS, to my regular ISP service, and now, finally, I have my own domain name on the World Wide Web. This is the third, and hopefully, final location of MACJR'S Mini-Verse². Now that I have my own domain name, even if I do change my web site host in the future, I can bring my domain with me as long as I maintain my Network Solutions account.

Michael A. Crane, Jr.
AKA MACJR

Afterword Notes:

GTE changed its name to Verizon - a long time ago.
The wiredweb.com/~macjr site was discontinued - many years ago.
Sadly, Adept Online Services no longer exists.
I no longer do business with Network Solutions.
Directnic.com is my current domain and web site hosting service.
MACJR’S Mini-Verse² moved to mini-verse.com, on November 15, 2015.

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