codex

2/27/2004: Well, life is boring
right now. I'm waiting for a
phone call from Eric telling me
whether I have the job or not,
and Lowey's busy at home all
this weekend so we barely
have had a chance to talk.

Tomorrow I go over to Aaron's
to burn some DVDs, though...
so maybe it'll be better. We'll
see what happens.

2/23/2004: Happy happy
happiness... I just had the most
awesome night EVER. Lowey
came to town! Oh, so
wonderful... but let me describe
it.
It all started at 5:00. Dan picked
me up and we went over to
Aaron's house to pick up his
cellphone. After that, I went to
Walmart to pick up some last-
minute chocolates and a bag for
me to put my gift to her in. And then
we hung out at Dan's house for a
bit, playing video games. Lowey
called me while I was there, but I
couldn't get the bloody cellphone
out of its case. (I've never owned
a cellphone in my life.)
So yeah, I missed that call but I
called her back on the way to
Spaghetti Works, where we were
meeting her. After parking, Dan
showed me this perfect place to
kiss-it was in a brick alley-turned-
mini-mall. And then we waited on
the streets for about half an hour...
it was so cold. Dan saw someone
pull away from a parking space, so
he stood there to reserve it. Some
asshole punkfucks nearly ran him
over, though, and we were about
to kick their asses. But then I saw
Lowey waving at me through the
window... and that was truly
awesome. They drove on, to find a
spot, and I ran after them. I made
Lowey get out at the next red light,
and we hugged for so long, out
there in the cold street.
Then we walked towards the
restaurant, and she met Dan. He was
doing his little Captain Jack Sparrow
impression, and then he went inside to
ready our table while we stood and
waited for the others. We were seated
near the band, and it was way fucking
loud, so we moved and it was better.
I sat next to Lowey, and we were
holding hands and sitting so close to
each other the whole time, it was
absolutely wonderful. We talked about
the POD boards for a bit, about how I
had been banned from there. And
there were of course the obligatory
Canadian/American jokes the whole
time. Lowey was really shy, though...
didn't talk too much for most of the
meal. But that's okay.
After that, Lowey and I went walking
the streets. I took her to the city park,
where I had said that I would take her
on our first date in Omaha. It was
pretty romantic... we were alone, and
even though the pond was half-frozen,
it was still a pretty view. Not as pretty
as Lowey herself, though... I gave her
the Valentine's present there-a
drawing of myself, since she gave me
a photo of her for Christmas. And we
just held each other as we were
walking along the pond, and then
we sat down on a bench and we
decided to call Dave. We left a pretty
interesting message on his machine,
all things considered, but it was cool.
And then I kissed her cheek and got
to see her blush... it was SO CUTE.
We sorta cuddled there for a bit, and
then we decided that we could do the
above in a place with heating, so we
went to that mini-mall thing. I kissed her
then... first on her cheek, and then on
the lips. It was so amazing, so much
more wonderful than even my wildest
dreams had predicted. That kiss more
than made up for six-plus months of
longing for her... hell, her just being in
my ARMS made up for six-plus months
of longing for her. Tonight was so
special.
And then Dan drove me back to his
house, we played more video games,
then he took me home and I've been on
a nonstop online bragging session since.
I love her so very very very very much...
wow, this was so wonderful.

2/20/2004: Oh MAAAAN did that
ever suck. I have just spent about
ten HOURS on this bleeding site.
However, looking at it now, it's
definitely been worth it. I've done
the whole frames reformatting bit-
the site is 100% designed for
frames now. I've also done more
than I originally planned to.
First off, you may notice that the
scrollbars are a bit bluer than what
you're used to. Justin (Nostalgia
from DFS) gave me the CSS code
for that. Of course, just like the
whole frames index thing, I can't
get Geocities to work with the
whole concept of the style sheet.
(For those who don't know, a style
sheet is a CSS code thingie that you
can stick links to on every page of
your site. Then, merely by changing
that one little style sheet, you can
change your whole site. Helpful for
large sites like this.) But yeah... I
can't get that to work. So I just
went in to every single page and
manually put in the CSS code for
the scrollbar colors. I don't foresee
changing this site's color scheme
any time soon now.

Also, I updated the links, updated
the photos section a bit (added
photos and hosted the larger photos
offsite to save space), fixed a bug
with the forums and guestbook, and
seriously reformatted the Surround
Sound Monotype section. (Speaking
of that, I should probably work some
more on #2 one of these days...)

But I have made a decision. No WAY,
no HOW is the Rapturous Ode site
being reformatted for frames. EVER.
Unless someone's interested in doing
it for me, that is.

So yeah, hopefully you people will
soon get to hear me ramble on about
my actual life instead of site updates.
Oh, wait... for the past two days,
site updates have BEEN my life. Oh
well...

That reminds me. Must get Dan's
phone number tomorrow, and call
Lowey. Must call Eric tomorrow, and
light a fire under his ass about the
Gamers job. So much to do...

2/19/2004: So Lowey's leaving for
Indiana today, and on the way back
she's gonna visit me. I'm gonna
miss talking to her for the next few
days, but that's just how things go.

So, since she's not going to be on, I
figure that I might as well use the
next few days to get a lot of work
done on my site-completely reformat
it using inframes. This will be a bit
of work, but it'll be worth it in the
end. I may even upload a few more
Tales of Columnia and Dark Future
stories. We'll have to see what
happens.

In other news... I'm approaching the
size limit for this site. I've used 13
of my 15 megabytes of storage.
Most of this is due to the new
gallery section... so I'm going to go
in there sometime soon, outlink the
pictures to Photobucket or
Freeserve, and only host the little
tiny icons that serve as links to the
pics. As far as flamepictures go,
I'll just resize them all and load the
smaller files onto the site.

2/16/2004: Ah, so nice it is to have
a single text file that can be saved
and edited in WordPad. Yeah, it's
technically the 17th right now, but
I want to call it the 16th because it's
easier to keep it straight this way.

But anyway. I've managed to do a
bit today. I leveled up my Dungeons
& Dragons character, Justaine, who
is now a 12th level priest/3rd level
contemplative. We're gonna play
this Saturday, for the first time in
about four months. So that's nifty.

Oh yeah-I still can't get frames to
work quite the way I want it to, but
I think I may have just figured a way
around it. I've just bored my friend
Scott to tears describing my cunning
plan to trick frames into working. It
involves making my whole site-the
sidebar, the header, and the other
stuff into three separate inframes.
Frames will make the site quicker to
load-you won't have to reload the
navigation buttons every time. While
loading time isn't a problem for people
like me with cable connections... I
want the dial-up guys to be able to
look at my site without a problem as
well.

So that's my mission for tomorrow...
as well as rustling up some web
space for a new Rapturous Ode
song. Pax ex.

2/15/2004: You may have noticed
the all-new format that you're
experiencing the Codex Principus
in right now. Yes, folks... I have
to a certain extent figured out the
magical wonderland that is frames-
at least the concept of inframes.
This, of course, means that I can
do away with the Codex archives,
because I can have every single
Codex entry right here in one single
text file and only change one website
(instead of two) when I post these
things. So I'll likely update this more
often.

Let's talk about things other than site
updates, though. For starters, last
night was the most enjoyable
Valentine's Day that I have ever had.
Speaking of such matters, it's only
eight days until I see Lowey for the
first time in person. I've already
gotten Dan to agree to hang out with
me in Old Market until she comes, so
the 23rd is going to kick SO MUCH
ass. I can't wait at all.

2/7/2004: I've made some changes to
the Fora Augusta. It's now got a brand-
spanking-new Celtic theme going on,
and there's even some signatures that
you can use to link there. I dunno, I
just felt that it was time for a change.
The old design was beautiful, don't get
me wrong-but the same classical
theme for two years running is not
entirely a good thing.

What would be plenty fun would be to
one day switch between a stable of
ten or twelve designs every day, just
to keep things fresh. That'd take a lot
of work, though, and I'd need to have a
decent-sized Fora Augusta population
to justify it.

So here is your mission, if you choose
to accept it-round up some immigrants
and get the discussions flowing. The
Fora needs you.

1/30/2004: So welcome to the new
year... let's see what it brings us.

So far, tonight, it's brought me fruitless
searches. I'm looking for a site that I can
host .wma files on, a site where I don't
have to pay them for it or do thirty
reviews for limited free hosting (fuck
you very much, garageband.com) or a
website with OGM FREE HOSTING!!!!!...
but a hidden little $30/year domain
registry fee. I understand that people
have to make money... but why the hell
is it so hard to just find some place
where I can stick a .wma and post a link
here to it?

This, of course, is precipitated by me
wanting to show you all my latest sonic
creation. Oh well.

12/1/2003: I was bored tonight, so I
figured I'd add a Codex entry. No
particular reason... but here are my
thoughts.

First off, I'm kicking around the idea
of adding a "live journal" button on
the menu to the left of what you're
currently reading. There are two
problems with this, though: it'd be
a pain to make the graphic for it,
and it'd be a pain to edit EVERY
SINGLE PAGE with the update.
Yes, I have yet to master the HTML-
fu that lets me have a template
thingie over all my webpages. Ah
well... I'll do it if necessary.

I talked with Tribble today. He's
planning on coming out here to live
in a couple years, and forming a
new band... since Jeremy will be
in the Air Force, a Rapturous Ode
reunion isn't in the works. At least
not anytime soon. But yeah, this
could be good. We already have
a basic idea of what the band will
be like, and we're working out new
songs.

11/23/2003: So I went to a Pillar
concert yesterday. It ended up
being pretty cool-I got backstage
access and everything for me,
my bro and my friend. I also got
to hang out with Dave and the
band before the show. It was
nice.

What else... I changed the look of
my live journal. Now there's
Maltese crosses all over the place.
I kinda like it... I'm thinking I MAY let
the Maltese cross be the wave of
the future for GC/PA. Let me know
what you think about this here, oh
my true believers.

In other news, Scarletstain Crucifix
may be closer to off the ground
now. I may have found a guitarist
and a drummer, but I'm not certain
if they're ideal for the job. We'll
see... maybe college will bring
better chances for living my rock
& roll fantasy.

So who likes the new gateway
page? Natalie Von Ewert, artist
of "Slave: IX", decided to draw a
picture of me a while back, and I
like it so much that it's the featured
picture on the gateway. But fret
not... you can still view the old
picture anytime you like.

11/4/2003: A new update to this
motherlover... so it's been a month.
Sue me. Actually, sue this guy,
since he's pretending to be me.
Well, not really... but it's a long
story. And since you, my true
believers, have waited oh so
patiently for an update, I shall tell it.

Someone on the POD boards by
the name of JP started a Xanga
wherein he pretended to be
Andrew Schwab (lead singer of
Project 86 and THE greatest man
in music today. He owns you.) So
anyway, he impersonated Schwab
on this Xanga, and it was bleeding
HILARIOUS. Andrew himself even
thought it was great. So, to top
that, JP then faked his site being
shut down by Xanga officials and
getting sued. I gotta say, even I
fell for it.

Well, now the site's back up as an
*ahem* Rapturous Ode Xanga. So
that would, in a weird sort of way,
lump me into the same category as
Andrew Schwab. Can't say that
this doesn't please me immensely...

Speaking of Xanga... I have terrible
news for my true believers. I have
strayed from the path of
righteousness. It's true... I'm now
registered on Xanga, and I update
it regularly. I know, I know... the
Codex was started instead of all
that. And I still can't do everything
on there that I can here. But... I'm
learning. I promise you, my Codex
readers, you will still see updates
on here, in about the same
regularity. So yeah.

I'm also adding more Dark Future
stories now. Have fun with them.

9/28/2003: Hey. It's been a while
since I've updated this thing. No,
really. I'm sure you all got sick of
seeing the same old news. But,
there's a lot to tell. For one, let's
start with the site updates.

With the advent of a new
Rapturous Ode website, the
whole music section on my site
has been rendered somewhat
redundant. So I'm going to go
ahead and just link that site from
my music section, and I might put
up some Scarletstain Crucifix
stuff later on either on here or
on an SSC site yet unbuilt.

I'm sure you all notice the lovely
lovely new fonts. I was playing
around with the fonts while
building the RO site and noticed
that Helvetica is both really, really
good-looking and incredibly
readable at small sizes. And it
beats the hell out of the competition,
provided that I can't use Felix Titling
or Palatino Linotype. So you all get
Helvetica in bits and pieces as I
sort through the various and
sundry pages of the site, which
will probably be a while because
the site's gotten rather big.

What else. Oh yeah, the Codex. I
think that I'm really gonna clean up
the mainpage clutter of Codex
entries. I'll only have one (or two
at tops if they're both small) on the
mainpage at a given time. And I'll
TRY to update the site more
frequently for all you true believers
(gotta love the Hulk Hogan
phraseology), but there's no
guarantee.

Anything else to say...? Oh right,
personal stuff. This IS my answer
to Xanga, after all. (I know the
subtitles are corny, but that's half
the fun! ...or something.) Well,
let's see. I'm back in Nebraska. If
you're wondering how I can be a
part of the Severn-based
Rapturous Ode while being half a
continent away, this is the answer:
correspondence. At least in theory.
RO isn't doing live shows anymore,
but we're still working on the CD.
I'm working on that SSC thing, I'm
hinking I'm gonna do a concept
album, this time on the Apocrypha.
I may even just call it that-
"Scarletstain Crucifix: Apocrypha".
I dunno, it's an unjustly underrated
segment of Christian and Jewish
holy literature, and the vast majority
of people are unfamiliar with it.

I'm not in college right now,
because I got here too late to
register for any decent classes at
the University of Nebraska at
Omaha. Plus, I found out that half
my credits don't transfer. So yeah,
that pisses me off. In the meantime,
I'm job hunting. So that's my life for
now.

4/10/2003: We are now at the final
stages of the war, Baghdad is
largely liberated, Saddam's WMDs
have been destroyed, and the
people of Iraq are free. And finally,
oh finally are the peacenik
loudmouths at the college shutting
up about Bush being an idiot. He
was vindicated, and if I wasn't such
a dedicated Libertarian the man
would have my vote in two years.

As far as the site goes... the little
ring bar down there leads to a
bunch of sites like mine. I just
forgot to put it back up after the
reformat.

What else... I'm starting work on
the biography section tonight and
maybe I'll get to the links. I dunno.

3/22/2003:The next update is here.
I'm sure you could tell that the entire
site wasn't up yet. I'm still working
on it, I assure you; I've got all of
Dark Future on the new scheme
and running smoothly and Emeriqua
is next.

On the war... we've captured
Nasiriya and Basra, important cities
in the south of Iraq, and it we're
about halfway to Baghdad. Dozens
of people worldwide have been
killed in anti-war protests. The
UK has 14 dead and America has
7. 40,000 or so Iraqi forces have
surrendered so far. Let's hope
we win soon...

I have spring break all this week,
so I can work on the site. Until next
time...

3/20/2003: At long last, I have
updated my site! Fear the update,
o my brothers. Despite Geocities'
typical neckpains, it wasn't that
bad as I first imagined, and the
final product will be much better
than I first imagined. Now, the
question remains... should I do
the same thing to the Fora that I
did here?

On another note, we went to war
with Iraq last night. A bunch of my
friends tried to organize a peace
rally on campus, but it got rained
out. Score one for the rain, and
let's hope it's over soon and
relatively painlessly. Nobody
likes Saddam, so let's get him out
of power and liberate Iraq this
time around.

6/17/2002: I changed the look of
the whole site. It's no longer
sky/blue lettering, it's tan. The deal
behind it is that when I was building
the Fora Augusta, I decided that this
color scheme looked better. Now
I've gotten around to putting it on the
rest of my site. Also, the dividers
look cooler and I'm setting up a site
directory. Enjoy, kiddos!

In other news, 1) "Exhilaration" is
canceled. Pretty much everything
failed to materialize, and on top of
it CDI is thinking about giving it
another go. So it's theirs.
2) "Slave: IX" is now working like
a well-oiled machine. A third
person, Natalie Von Ewert, has
joined the ranks of Spontaneous
Combustion and is going to be
inking, lettering, and shading: the
whole nine yards. Everything
you'll see between the covers is
either an ad or the result of my
ideas and her artistic abilities.
No final release date figured out,
we have to secure funding. But
it's coming together. Pax Ex.

5/21/2002: I have just builded unto
myself an bulletin board! The link is
above. It rocks. You want to click
it and post something. I know you
do. So why don't you stop reading
this and do so? Pax Ex.

4/25/2002: An update a day! Don't
get used to this, folks. :D But as I'm
sure you all don't know (or at least
didn't), I am an artist. I work in many
mediums, and I have decided to get
a site dedicated to my artwork.
Right now it sucks, but I'm working
on it. It's on a British server, so you
might/might not be able to link there.
But it's at
mysite.freeserve.com/stuartrichards
and it contains some art and it's all
direct linkable (as opposed to
Geocities). So that rocks. Pax Ex.

4/24/2002: I've revamped the site
yet again; now I've got a opening
page and I'm putting some additionals
on the Emeriqua section: an
Emeriquan/English primer, a main
characters bio, and pics of said
main characters. Enjoy. Pax Ex.

4/7/2002: I've got the "Exhilaration"
page all rearin' and ready to go. In
other news, apparently I'm running
out of room for the Codex Principus.
So I'm gonna move some of the
older entries to a new page in the
near future for your viewing
pleasure. Pax Ex.
(Edit VI/XVII/MMII: The "Exhilaration"
project has been scrapped. Sorry,
I know that maybe two of you are
going "Aw, shucks!" out there.)

4/5/2002: Haven't updated the
Codex in a while, I feel bad about
that. But I have a bunch of news.
Look up for a moment at my links.
One of them is "CDI Productions",
a movie production company I had
the distinction of working with for
the past several months. I wrote
them a movie script based off of
some of their basic ideas, but the
"Exhilaration" (name of the movie)
project got canned about a week
ago due to poor actor management.
I managed to buy full rights to the
script from CDI in exchange for 1%
of all proceeds I ever get from it.
So presuming I ever get enough
money to buy equipment, I might
start filming. Hold on-I just got an
idea. I'm gonna build a page
dedicated to the resurrection of
the "Exhilaration" project (complete
with details), and you readers just
might be able to help me out. I'll
have a link to it by Sunday if all
goes well.

Work on Slave: IX has come to a
crawl. I'm halfway done with the
first issue and I'm stuck on concepts.
I have an idea for the second and
third issues, but I have to get there
first. Ah well, I'll figure something
out. Thank you, and Pax Ex.

3/16/2002: I've been busy lately.
I'm about halfway done with the
first "Slave: IX" comic book, which
you might not have heard about if
you happen to not be 1) family 2)
involved with Struckmute or 3) my
stalker (I don't have one, but I'm
accepting applications. :D) But
anyway, it's set about 500 years
before the Emeriqua Series and it's
about a religious prisoner of the
reborn Sophiate Union. Kind of a
dark artsy Christian comic meets
"The X-Files" done with a blend of
manga and realist artistic styles.
Nothing much happens in the first
issue; I introduce the characters
and their backgrounds. I MIGHT
also do little two-page "Slave: IX"
spreads for Struckmute Magazine,
not sure about that. I have a few
ideas that wouldn't make a full
comic book but would do a lovely
two pages. But since I'll have to
scan the pages to send to Matt
Frink @ Spontaneous Combustion
Comics (he's the guy that's gonna
publish "Slave: IX") I might put a
page or two up on a brand-
spanking-new Slave: IX website
as well as a way to order issues.
Since it's a rather sporadic
production schedule, I won't be
able to do subscriptions.

On another note, what's with all
the Bush bashing I've seen recently?
Just because the guy pulled us out
of the ABM Treaty (which we were
technically out of since '92 when the
Soviet Union fell) he's been branded
as a nuclear hatemonger. Good grief.
He wasn't my first pick for President
(I will vote for the Libertarian
candidate next election) but he was
a solid second. He's just doing his
job, and a better one than Clinton ever
did. If you have serious issues with
him, fine. If you just don't like him
because he isn't a Democrat (like so
many people I meet), GROW UP.

What else springs to mind? Can't
really think of anything. So that's that,
I guess. Pax Ex.