Ok! I've fixed up a bunch of site-y things. The archives page is now more logical, and I'm fiddling around with the titles. The galleries now work again. I've also added a page for my random photography. Check it out!

I have been contacted recently with concerns regarding a spam email that links to "me.smockgirl.com/au/". To address these concerns, all I can say is to read this: DNS Cache Poisoning. There is no valid me.smockgirl.com subdomain, a fact which has been verified by my host. However, as you can see by this report, while most DNS servers have nothing cached, there are still a couple that come up with the evil Russian IP. The cache will eventually be cleared, and everything will be happy again in my corner of internet-land. Unfortunately as I have no control over the servers responsible, there is little I can do to solve this at the time being. My advice is this: stop clicking links in spam emails. Complicated, I know. UPDATE 2006-09-08: So I have been graciously informed that I was incorrect in my previous assessment of the situation. Regardless, the problem seems to have been resolved, and no one else will become infected (though, if you ask me, they deserve to be... but that's a separate issue). If you have any further concerns, feel free to email me.

Woohoo! Regardless of the fact that we're discussing invisibility in practicality... clearly, as is demonstrated by the rabid discussion below the article, the most important establishment must indeed be whether it was the Romulans or the Klingons with original cloaking technology. This update isn't really much of an update at all. I added another review a while back. X-Men 3 and Transporter 2 reviews are forthcoming, and will be up later this week. And since my poor, poor, Phoenix Suns were eliminated on Saturday, the basketball scene is filled with utter despair, cloaked only by apathy and carelessness. Thus, through gritted teeth I say: "Go Oilers?" Yes, the question mark is intentional, as I wouldn't want to seem too enthusiastic about anything involving a certain, unmentionable sport. Ugh. I can't believe I just mentioned it. I gotta go lie down.

Check out this piece of work. Needless to say, I didn't really know what to write for that page. Most of the features had already been explained on the front page, and were all in all very self-explanatory. Oh blessed sarcasm, how you can rescue every situation! I think I did rather well, considering. Anyway... yes. What I was actually updating for: I've fixed the contact, links, and the about pages, and will be adding content sporadically. Sporadically! Archives and Galleries are up next, and then I'm pretty much good to go! B-dot out.

It has always bothered me immensely that the general stereotype associated with fan fiction seems to be that of the "shippers", as they are so called, who basically degenerate all decent writing into a cheap 70's Hollywood soap opera. Save for those involved in the process, the moment fan fiction is mentioned, one almost rolls one's eyes at the pathetically miserable state of whichever human would need to resort to using someone else's characters to complete their own fantasies. There is actually a plethora of valuable stories that can be spawned from one good idea. Just have a look at the sheer number of Star Wars novels out there today - and while I admit that quantity does not at all imply quality, having read some myself I can say that many of them are not at all bad pieces of writing. These authors themselves could be considered merely fan fiction writers, those who simply get paid to do so. I am by no means attempting to clear the entire name of fan fiction in general, nor am I so bold to even try. Frankly, from what I've seen, a lot of the fan fiction out there really isn't worth reading. So instead of trying to break an entire generalization, I wrote my own piece to attempt to show that interesting themes and plotlines can still be explored in familiar settings, perhaps even more so than just embarking into new territory. Victory's Stench is still very much in the editing process, but I'd thought I would put it up to ask for the feedback of those around me. It's my first attempt at fan fiction, but with the help of my genius sister, I believe it to be a fairly accurate representation of the Star Wars world. Before I'm pounded by angry shippers, I will clarify that I'm sure, and I've seen, that there is definitely good fan fiction out there. Unfortunately the majority of what I've come across just doesn't fit into that category.

Ok! A bunch of content has now been added, including:

I've updated most links (I may have missed a few?) and added a comment script for my news posts. I've decided to take away the comments for my image gallery, at least until there's a way to block them from being overly spammed. The reviews are up as well, although I'm still in the process of working on copying most of them over from my old and primitive system. More content will be added tonight.

Due to an unimaginable (UNIMAGINABLE!) amount of spamming occuring in the comments of the images in my gallery, I've disabled comments for the time being. I've been assured that a way of preventing this is being worked on, but I'm not sure when that'll happen.