Memos and Updates

This is a page of notes, events, or just plain anything that happens worthy of mentioning.

Note, I am stupid so the new updates are at the bottom. I might change that later but it's doubtfull.

1/5/2004
• To all who often check my site: (Meaning my imaginary friends, myself, and people who have a strange aberation of their computer programming that continually refers them to my website) I have been extreemly pressed for time lately and I do know my site hasen't been updated in a while. I will get to this as soon as possible! I hope you can be as patient as I am. Thankyou.

• Memos page Added

• Moved FAQ's and Polls to 'Main' list.

• Changed Banner on homepage back to original.

  1/11/2004

• Last time I updated I did some work on creating what is called a "blog" on angelfire that I was thinking about using to post memos and updates, such as this. When I did that however, they did not warn me that the blog would take the place of my Index.html page. (www.angelfire.com/mech/monkeys) From then untill a few minutes ago there was no Link to the website on my home page, just an annoying angelfire-based page. I had to recreate my Index.html page and fix all the links to my website. This was... not fun. I just thought I would give you the heads up on why my site wasen't working. If anybody is visiting my site and they find an error with getting from the Index.html page to the homepage then please

  3/6/2004

• Once again, apologies for the lack of updates. Today I have been working on updating every page to have hit counters and a link to email me. No biggy, it's more for me than it is for the rest of you. I also am working on changing every page to have the same text color scheme. Links, Active Links, Visited Links, and normal text should all have the same color unless I change it for some specific reason. I put up a new poll in the Interactive section where you can vote for what updates I should focus on. If no one happens to vote then I guess "Advertising" would have to be my first option...

  3/23/2004

• Added a page about a Sasquatch... Kind of morbid but good for a whole 5 seconds of hilarity, I drew it myself.

  3/25/2004

• I got rid of the "Test Page" link I had under articles, I realized there was actually no use for it. It was kind of a stupid idea. Very soon I will be getting rid of a lot of the useless things on my site and start posting some good full length articles. I'm thinking about drawing some more angry sasquatch pictures.

• I drew another Sasquatch thing about how much I hate computers. I'll add some written stuff about it later, tommorow maybe? I also hope to get rid of some of the older pages.

• I added the actual article to the I hate computers page. I also added another image.

  3/31/2004

• It's my birthday. Send me stuff.

  4/23/2004

• Sorry there haven't been many updates in a while, my computer crashed and I lost almost everything. I managed to save a couple important items, my computer was almost fried anyways, unfortunutly it is still showing problems, this might require another complete restart. Also, I have been grounded from the computer again. Don't ask why. I have written several things down in my notebook that should be published soon, you can expect to see things like an online newspaper called ''The Weekly Crap'' and more as soon as I get access again.

  5/2/2004

• Added a page about Wendy's. It was fun to write. I plan on taking down a few more useless pages. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I posted some of that stuff.

  5/9/2004

• I have finally created a new interface for the site! Hooray. Now all I need to do is get them up and running... Unfortunutely I have to go through each page and manually change the banner. *grumble* I am getting started right now and hopefully will be finished soon.

• And now, four hours later I am finished! All the new headings are up and running. And the interface has a sleek, new, and original look. I deleted some of the older and pointless pages. (About me, Arnold Schwarzanegger, I rock, Translations, and Photo Album) Those were there mostly for the sole purpose of taking up space and weren't that valuable so they are now removed. Once again, if the "Click to Enter" image that you see before you get to the homepage takes too long to load PLEASE inform me. I need some feedback on theese things...

  5/11/2004

• Added a page about Scooby Doo.

  5/16/2004

• Just spent two hours configuring that navigation bar you see at the top of the screen. It doesn't have much on it for now but it does make the site a little more accessable. Unfortuntly to get it up on every page I have to manually edit each and every page.... again... Maybe next weekend, because I doubt I will have time this week. Oh and in some brighter news summer vacation is nearly here! Wohoo! I might change the color scheme on that navigation bar... Probably to black and white again to match the rest of the page. But unfortunutly the whole website is getting pretty colorless...

  5/26/2004

• I added another small chart to my page on the punisher. Also today was THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. Now there should be more frequent updates hopefully.

• Added a list of things that could improove my day.

• Added a page about people typing like idiots.

  5/27/2004

• Added a page about reality tv and the unreality of it.

  5/28/2004

• I added two pages, a short on that annoying anime Hello Kitty show, and another one about forwards (yes, another one) which I had originally finished a while ago but haden't posted until now.

  5/31/2004

• Wohoo! I finally found a copy of Photoshop on a Cannon CD I had from my old printer. Unfortunutly, it is the buisness edition which is nowhere near as versitle as Photoshop 7.0 or even the home edition. Therefore I will be looking around for my copy of the home edition for quite some time since it is located somewhere in the deep dark depths of my home... But on the brighter side the buissness edition can convert .bmp (paint files) files to JPEG! That means higher quality and faster loading time on all the images, isn't that nifty. Soon I will update all the images into JPEG format when I have enough time.

• I did some tests with photoshop and found I can also convert images to .gif files. Which is also very nice. Therefore I added a little bit to my "I hate Wendys" page where little Dave Thomas heads float around, they kind of get in the way of the text so I might shrink them down a little bit or add a button that allows you to remove them.

• On the subject of .bmp, .jpg, and .gif files the abilty to save files in all three formats will be incredibly valuable to my bandwith. A 418kb .bmp image (of the punisher, if you wanted to know) is 92kb if converted to .gif, and only 29kb if converted to .jpg. Depending on the file compacting it may or may not alter it's appearence. Most of the files that I have drawn on paint I will not be able to convert because it alters the image and it is not as crisp afterwards. On actual photos (such as the punisher image earlier) the change is minimal and not even notable unless you scrutinize the two files next to eachother. Hopefully I will have the time to sort the files and compact them so that the site will run a bit smoother and allow me to use the extra space.

• In other news, I have decided to keep the task bar the way it is for the time being and I will only place it on pages that are not articles (and the index.html page of course...). That will save time if I ever decide to change it. If I put it on the article pages I would be forced to go through them all and update them manually which takes lots of time.

• Changed the Memo's and Updates page (this page) a little bit. Now the date will only appear once and will be written in yellow. Nothing big, just a little easier to understand now.

  6/6/2004

• I added a page about General Mills products. One of the images on there is in JPG format. Unforunutly it sacrifices quality for small file size and loading time. (677kb to 57kb with minimum degregation to the actual image) It shouldn't be too much of a bother because it is neccesary. I couldn't even get the image to load on my computer in .bmp format. When I changed it to .jpg format it took around 10 seconds for the entire page to load which is actually not bad for my 150 year old computer.

• Also a couple days ago I added another image and description to my "Lame Advertisements" page just out of boredom. I forgot to post here what I had updated. I don't even remember what I was thinking when I wrote some of the older articles so just ignore them.

  6/11/2004

• I added a page about the Carol Duvall show. I hate that show. ESPN and the Carol Duvall show are the only things that ever reach my television. I'm starting to think it is just a bunch of crap.

• Another thing, I'm working on programming a quiz, the entire thing is written out and working I just need to figure out how to get it to direct you to the right pages. It took me all of the day before yesterday to get it to this point. Then something screwed up and I took all of yesterday to find out it was one tiny "}" symbol making everything go haywire. I hate Javascript. DHTML is so much more user friendly but 100 times as limited. Don't expect me to make any more after this.

• Oh, and I also made another page yesterday comparing my website to the Isle De Muerte in Pirates of the Carribean. Read it to find out why we are so similar.

• I just added a page about some interesting things Dicovery Channel has been airing. It does make you think though.

  6/20/2004

• I added another page about Hello Kitty. I was bored and messing with a new program I downloaded and thought it would be fun. I had also recieved some complaints and found it amusing to make another This time I used a program called Animation Shop 3 which is basicly just an easy way to make animated GIF files. It is a little choppy at the moment and a little too big. I will fix that after a while I just thought I would get it up for now. It kind of gets squished on frame number 8. It did however take a about 3-4 hours to get to where it is now. Not that I was concentrating on it fully that entire time though. No idea when I will get that done.

  6/23/2004

• Wow, I am really impressed with myself. I just added a picture of me that I used photoshop to edit it to look similar to the Matrix pictures. I plan on making another similar one with better quality and a slightly different concept. A black shirt, and sunglasses, maybe a full shot of me walking foreward and I could superimpose crows from an official image so I look like agent smith. I also plan on making the next one even more Matrix-true by changing the decending letters saying "The Matrix" to the actual Matrix Code or something very similar.

  6/24/2004

• I finally finished the new Matrix photo of myself. Hooray for me. Okay, I'm done bragging. Those images take way to long to make. I have about 30 copies of each in all the different stages. I'm going to go through and delete them all in a little bit.

  6/29/2004

• Hello everyone. I'm updating from Moore Hall, Kansas State University at Manhattan. If anyone was wondering I will be returning from camp in two days. Just thought I would share that fact if anyone is wondering where I am... which I doubt.

  7/8/2004

• I just added a page on movie theaters. I wrote it a while ago and originally intended to add more but decided against it. I apologize for the lack of updates as of late. I recently aquired a Gamecubeand have found them to be another interesting way to spend my time... Or waste it, rather. More soon.

  7/9/2004

• I added a page about a hermit crab I met. He was great, be sure to vote for him in the upcoming election for ruler of the universe.

  7/13/2004

• I added a page about tanning. Not that funny, slightly informative. One of the few understandable rants I have. I also created an image page that lists a few of the images on my site. I might put it up later on the navagation bar but that would require a little bit more updating then I want to do right now. All it will really do is make the site a little bit more accessable if your visiting it for the first time. If you really want you can have a look at it. Image List Tell me whether it is helpfull or not.

  7/28/2004

• I added two short articles that were just basicly lists. "Certain foods and the utensils it is particularly difficult to eat them with" and "Bored, did a search on yahoo for "You are"". They were quick and easy to write.

  8/2/2004

• I went and saw "The Village". Bad mistake. It was awefull. Wrote an article on it.

  8/3/2004

• Congratulations to all the hardworking creaters and writers of "The Mechanical Monkey" (Me) on making it to the 1000 hit mark. I have recieved 3 emails to date. Thanks everybody for supporting me by doing absolutely nothing.

  8/7/2004

• I updated quite a bit today, it may not look like much but it took a while. Since I have been frequently adding "Art" type content and I plan on doing more I decided to make it into a new section. However, since it wont be as broad as the articles I put it under the miscellanius catagory for the time being. The home page now has an "All Content" catagory rather than "Articles" Which may be organized further. Here is what I'm thinking in the scheme of long term updates in the Navigation Bar, along with the catagories on the homepage.

• Home

• Main
  -Memos and Updates
  -FAQ's

• Content
  -Articles
  -Rants
  -Movie Reviews
  -Art

• Interactive
  -Polls
  -View Guestbook
  -Sign Guestbook
  -TagBoard

  Any suggestions, ideas, or comments would be appreciated as always. I can find my way around allright, because I wrote it. But I may need some feedback on what seems easy for everyone else.

  8/19/2004

  Happy birthday to The Mechanical Monkey

  The Mechanical Monkey has been in existance for exactly one year. Woohoo. I am so amazing I shock myself frequently.

  Unfortunutly as a birthday present all my counters seem to have broken. Dang. I'm not sure what is wrong, I haven't changed them and everything is just the same. Either it has something to do with my site being a year old, or it is a coincidence and Angelfire just screwed up the CGI bin. I need get a text counter. That would work so much better. I hope the counters fix themself in the meantime. I can't stand having broken links or images on my page. I hate it when that happens.

  I was planning on making an interesting picture for the site but I never got it done. I will do it later.

  Oh, and also I have bad news. School starts tommorow. That means doom for me. Oh boy. Party.

  8/22/2004

• Added stupid random nonsense.

  8/26/2004

• I added a page about stupid instant messaging names. I also customized the scroll bar on the home page to be colored. Nothing special, just something neat to see. And in further news, I am now officially dead. Congrats to me.

  9/1/2004

• I wrote an article on a few planets scientists discovered. Weeee.

  9/13/2004

• Can you remember the adress of the main page? You can't? Then your not reading this. I was feeling depressed the other day and thought I would make it impossible to view my site unless you can remember the main page adress. No real reason, just thought I would see if anybody cared. I added a page about cats again, not that anyone can read it yet. I also made a much needed change to a few of the headers on some pages. The image that says "The Mechanical Monkey" on top of every page has now been changed to a GIF file. The big one on the main page went from a 304 kilobyte image down to a 3 kilobyte image. That is a big decrease in size and loading time. I haven't yet got to all the banners, seeing as I have to go back through every page but I plan on doing that. I also will change a few other images to GIF files. GIF files are tiny and BMP files are huge. Tons of images (mostly ones drawn on paint) could be reduced to from files ranging from 300k-900k down to 3-9k files without reduction in quality whatsoever.

  9/18/2004

• I added a page about math instead of doing my homework.

  9/27/2004

• The other day I made what I hope is my LAST page on cats. Some people are too sensative about theese things. Also, I'm tired of it. I made a page about Batman as well. Enjoy.

  10/3/2004

• I added a page on my plan for the earth. It is very reasonable if you think about it.

  10/11/2004

• I added two articles. One I was working on yesterday for a bit but didn't finish. Another one I did today. They are both stupid but one has a ferret so it can't be that bad.

  10/22/2004

• I added an article about people telling me to update more often. I'm too lazy so I made an update telling everyone to stop asking for updates. Ironic... no?

  10/23/2004

• I added a few questions to the FAQ's on the subject of submitting material, and my repited, constent spelin eror.s

  10/24/2004

• I completed a long article on what my diary would be like if I were stranded in an Alaskan cabin for an extended period of time due to a snow storm. How long would it take me to go insane? Negative four hours. Enjoy.

  10/26/2004

• Added a new section for hate mail or hatefull comments directed twoards me. Should be fun.

  11/01/2004

• Added a page about Florida a couple days ago. Too lazy to mention it here. Today I added a page about how video games are better than friends. I've been feeling very cynical lately.

• Memo: Nobody reads the memos.

  11/15/2004

• I wrote a tuturial about the versitility of the MSN search engine. Very educational if I do say so myself. I know I haven't updated in a while, I was being attacked by eskimo's, bears, and balloon animals. If I feel like it I might update again soon if I'm not so busy.

• Memo: People still don't read the memos.

  11/26/2004

• Added a few pages lately. One about school, one about thanksgiving, and one with a mysterious white box. It isn't really that mysterious but pretend it is.

• Memo: The reason I don't always add memos, is because no one ever reads the memos.

  12/6/2004

• I added a page showing the Christmas list my parents refused. I should have left the 96 Doge Viper until, the plasma screen tv would have cushioned them for the impact. Oh well, there is always next year.

  12/19/2004

• Made a lot of changes. Well, maybe not a lot of changes, but a few changes that seemed to take up a lot of time. I experimented with ways to solve the "crowding" problem on the main page with the overabundence of articles from the past year and then decided to remove them from the page entirely and make an archive. Each time I reach 60 or so articles I will remove them from the page and toss them into an archive. I soon plan on making a "back" button on each individual article. Just to appease everyone I added an article on jingle bells, which has been driving me insane lately. Curse the evil tune! Bah!

  12/22/2004

• Finally had a submission for the mysterious white box. Hooray! Added it. Have a party then jump off of something high.

  1/16/2005

• I added another page to the art section of a photoshop I did of a Wraith. It turned out alright. I also told how I made it which could be used to make your own similar images kind of tuturial style if you wanted. Also I added an article on the 1st. Forgot to mention that. Sorry I haven't been updating much I have been playing some awesome games I got for Christmas. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Ho-ha!

  1/24/2005

• Okay so the Wraith wasent enough to keep everyone happy. I added a page on the new wonder drug I invented called Athedrine. Bewarned of the mild sideaffects.

  4/3/2005

• I haven't been posting Memos, because no one reads them. I hate you all. I wrote an article about skiing. Because skiing sucks and I went skiing. Go skiing and break your neck. Also my birthday was on the 31st. It sucked because all I did was pay 293 dollars in paint scratch damage for someone elses car. Damn car.

  7/24/2005

• For my own benifit, if not anyone elses I will try to continue posting in the Memos. I have just recently gotten a new computer. Wohoo! But... all my old stuff is gone which sucks, but hopefully I get used to the new one quickly. Because it's nice.

• 80 gigabyte hard drive
• 512 megabytes of RAM
• 3.2 gigahertz Pentium 4 Processor
• Dual Drive DVD/CD Burner

  The only problems with the new computer besides my lack of files is I am still stuck with my 56k modem and the slowest dial-up on the planet. Also, I didn't get a new monitor and the old one reacts funny to the new video card. So in each of the top corners its all wavy, very annoying. But I should be getting a new one withing one or two monthes, maybe an LCD? I can hope can't I...

  8/18/2005
  Big updatings are in store for the Mechanical Monkey. Rather than navigational updates they will be more interface updates. With the changes I'm planning the website should run more efficiently and function more like an actual website instead of just looking odd. I explain a bit more in my page "A new Mechanical Monkey?" The updates would range from a simple things like a new e-mail, and changing this stupid order of old to new I have with updates to newest at top like my links on the home page. The navigation bar at the top of the main pages may be changed, color scheme might be tweaked, and I'm attempting to find a way to make text counters rather than the ugly green thing your used to seeing. If you have suggestions of what I should include or what you prefer the way it is e-mail me at my new e-mail address benleppke@gmail.com.

  8/19/2005
  It's the Mechanical Monkey's 2nd Birthday! Wohoo! 2 years and kicking. Sorry Mechanical Monkey 2.0 couldn't be ready but I'm lazy and it wont be that much different anyway. I added a page about little kids. You may have noticed that I made a custom pointer for the homepage. I will place it on all the other pages eventually if I decide I like it but for now it will stay there. The Archive will not be updated with changes anymore so those are set. But any articles on the homepage I might eventually change.

  8/20/2005
  I added a page about turtles. I've written a few other things that I may or may not post. I'll have to see. I'll try to get a few article up before I get involved with school. Good news is I should be getting wireless internet soon. I'm thinking of buying a laptop within a year or so too. Who knows. More soon.

  9/8/2005

  From now on all memo's will be written by a cave man.

  Made page about Fairy Tales. Ha ha. They funny. Laugh. Laugh or I club head in. New website take while to build. More complex than thought. Don't know how to write in Perl. Grug think it hard. Wish he had Unix operating system to chmod files easy. Still want wireless internet. Wish parents had not paid with check. Over and out. Ug.

  9/28/2005

  Alright alright. I haven't updated in a while. You howler monkeys need to get off my back. I've been busy with school (The story of my life) and used my free time in other wastefull manners. I would promise to update more frequently but that would mean lieing... But that may be in order here so "I promise to update more.*"

  * A complete and total lie.

  In other notes I pre-ordered "Ultimate Spider-Man" for GCN which came out on the 24th. It was backordered and ships in two days. I should have it this weekend which will give me the chance to roam the streets of New York as Venom eating children, which is the coolest thing Venom has ever done. Hooray for another efficient way of distracting myself.

  10/18/2005

  I added a page about why I'm lazy, and how much Axe deodorant sucks. I am working on making things easier on myself for updating which means less updates for a while, more updates later. I've been busy playing Ultimate Spiderman and eating children. I'm trying to get the Symbiote suit for the Spiderman costume and it's taking forever. I only have one more trick race to do (They were harder than nipples on a wet kitten in the antartic) and a bunch of tokens to find. It sucks, but I am determined.

  Also I started changing the e-mail links to go to my Gmail address. I'm too lazy to do it all now, but I might later.

  11/01/2005

  I put up an update last night and today. Today's is just a stupid joke and last nights was about tricker treaters. It is pretty short too but the Photoshopped stuff took a while. Stupid, but entertaining.

  
  
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