Quite some time has passes since I left off working on this site. Nearly 3 years have passed, and I had only intended to take as short break. However, that short break turned into years of doing other things and not completing the new pages of content I had already put so much time and work into creating. Those pages of content are still waiting for me to finish them.
Today though, I am only here to remove a link that had gone bad. Due to expenses being tight, I gave up the domain, macjr.zyz, and my plans for that site. I should have removed that site right then and there, but I did not, and then I forgot about it, until today. Today, I found out that macjr.xyz now redirects traffic to a porn site. OOOOOOPS! Thus, today's emergency update of this site to remove, and/or deactivate that linked URL from my pages.
I have nothing against porn, or porn sites, but I will never knowingly link to a porn site from my sites. My web sites are meant to be viewed by people of all ages. Sure, I do recommend that parents view and read my pages before they let their underage children see them, but my pages, in general, should be safe for everyone, not just for adults.
With all that said, I really will try to get at least some of those unfinished pages finished, and uploaded here sometime soon. And I will never make the mistake of leaving links to an abandoned, or sold, domain on my pages ever again.
Regards,
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer
It looks like I am going to need to extend my deadline for the Metamorphic Gallery again, by at least a few more days. Last minute changes and additions, and taking a few days off to rest and relax, and the purchase of another domain, macjr.xyz (Update: This is no longer one of my domains and it is not recommended that you go there), all took time away from getting these pages done on time.
The good news is that there will be more newer art, and even for those who have seen some of these new works, on Facebook, or elsewhere, these are freshly reworked and polished versions. Also, the art I post on Facebook does not look its best because they tend to over-compress the images. That is okay from most photographs, but digital art tends to suffer badly when over-compressed. Compression is used to squeeze a large file down to make it a smaller file, that loads onto a page faster, but when you do that, some information, like color values, get removed, and this is why JPG files often look like digital trash. This is especially a problem for images with a lot of colors, or many shades of a few colors.
The image files I post on this site are PNG files. They tend to be a bit larger than JPG files, thus take more time to load onto web pages, which is a problem for old slow Internet connections (sorry about that), but they are much higher quality images than you can get with a JPG file format.
As for macjr.xyz, I am probably going to turn that site into my new MACJR’S Prose site. It is just a splash page right now, and I do not plan to start work on this new domain until after I finish the new Metamorphic Gallery, and get at least a good start on the new Art Gallery (or finally add some content to it, that is). Right now, the Art Gallery is just a splash page, using an older version of a macjr.com page. That will change soon. Right after I finish these Metamorphic Gallery pages and get them online.
I am not going to give an estimate on how much longer I need to finish the Metamorphic Gallery this time. However, I am in the final stages of work now. I just need to update/revise/upgrade several of the older artworks, and finish the text about the art, that is on each of these new pages (or will be).
This upcoming new version of the Metamorphic Gallery will not be complete, but it will have several pages of art to look through. There are only a few poems this time around, but more are planned, and I will also add “Additional Notes and Images”, like I have in the Garden Gallery, at a later time.]
The Metamorphic Gallery will be here soon, I just need a few more days, or so.
Regards,
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer
Just another quick note. I will post a more in-depth Update Note at a later time.
Work on the Metamorphic Gallery is taking longer than planned, but this is because I have added several new pages, some new art, and at least one new poem, and I am also adding at least two older poems that were posted in the Garden Galley in the past.
I had originally planned to have the new Metamorphic Pages online a few days ago. I clearly have missed that self-imposed deadline, however, the new pages are getting closer and closer to being ready to post online soon. I am now trying to get these pages online by about August 15th, or before.
If you would like more frequent update notes about my progress, check out my Facebook page. If I am actively working on my sites, that is the place to hear about it first.
Above is a picture of me playing my new viola, back in May, shortly after it arrived. I am used to playing the violin, and I can play the guitar at a beginner level. The viola is still new to me, but I can play a few simple tunes with it.
Regards,
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer
Just a quick note. I will post a more in-depth Update Note at a later time.
On July 21, 2019, I uploaded the new version of macjr.com. It is still incomplete, but work is in progress to get more pages online soon. Currently, some links will lead to an "Under Construction" temp page, but this will change soon.
As of today, the new Garden Gallery pages are online (although still incomplete), but the Metamorphic Gallery, the Art Gallery, and the new MACJR'S Prose pages, are still under construction. I am working as fast as I can to bring those page online. The next set of pages to return will be the Metamorphic Gallery.
I hope you like what I have started here. Feel free to tell me what you think.
Regards,
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer
I figured that it is about time that I updated my picture for these Update Notes pages. After all, 2002 is getting to have been a long time ago. I will leave in place all the old picture posts, but try to post a few new pictures of me every now and then, as I make new Update Note pages. I am not really fond of taking pictures of myself though.
I am clearly getting older. My hair has thinned out more than a little bit, and I am about as close to bald in the back as you can get, and nearly that on top of my head now too. Sigh. Oh well. So I chopped off what little was left of my long hair to what you see in this picture. It does not go down my back much past what you see here, and now it is even shorter than it was in this above posted picture. I can’t grow long hair anymore. What a bummer. But again, oh well.
Moving on and getting older. My mind is still sharp, although my vision is fading, but I can still create new art and new web pages when my mood and focus allow me to do so.
I have now, or will have by the time you read this, updated macjr.com to full HTML5, removing all of the old XHTML 1.0 that I could find. If I missed a spot, please feel free to let me know. I can be a bit sloppy in my haste to get things done sometimes, although I do strive to overcome that personality flaw the best I can.
I had fun reworking the macjr.com page design. Cleaning things up a bit, and adjusting things this way and that, and reworking, or changing, some of the graphics too. I hope I had time to add more of my newer art works before I post this update live online. If not, I will try to get to that soon.
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
Artist/Webmaster/Writer
And again, I have neglected this site for too long. I was working away, back in late 2015, on making a lot of major changes to this site, and then in early 2016, I took some time off to rest, leaving everything here hanging in limbo. I left off with many unfinished pages, and most of the old content no longer available. I had not meant to take this much time away from this site.
One of the changes I was working on, back in late 2015, was removing one of my gallery pages to give it a new home at its one domain. MACJR’S Mini-Verse² never really fit in with the direction I took with this site, macjr.com. The differences in look and feel of a space themed gallery in a garden themed site, just wasn’t working for me. So I bought mini-verse.com and moved MACJR’S Mini-Verse² over there. This was going on at the same time that I was working on redesigning this site.
In November of 2017, I started back to work over at the mini-verse.com site, but I still have not made it back over to finish work over here. I have made a lot of progress over at the Mini-Verse, but there is still much work to do over there before I will be ready to get back over at this site.
When I do get back to work over here, at macjr.com, I plan to convert the XHTML, that I wrote these pages with, over to HTML5. Back in late 2015, HTML5 was still too new, so when I started redesigning this site, I stayed with XHTML, but now that I am getting used to writing pages in HTML5, and HTML5 is far more mainstream these days, it is now time to phase out XHTML, and work exclusively with HTML5.
When I do get back to work over here, I may make some design adjustments. I was being very creative when I wrote these pages, and some elements of this web page design may be a little confusing for some people. I know I had to look at things twice when I came back to take a look at things, after I had been away for a while. Now that I see this site from a fresh perspective, I may want to simplify a few things.
I will be back. I am not sure how long it will take, but I do want to get back here and finish what I started. I still need to finish the Garden Gallery pages, and get started on the other gallery pages, and get more of my work, art, poetry, and prose, back online.
