hello again! it's been quite a while, indeed...

things have been interesting. and rather different than
how i thought they'd go when i wrote the last entry.
you might notice that the site looks a fair bit different,
and also that despite this update following the last
after over half a year, there are no new pages,
besides some meta matters. i've actually made
quite a few new pages, but they aren't live yet.

what i have done, though, is rewrite the entire site
on the technical end. now, instead of a hodgepodge of
fuck-ugly markup, <br> spam, and a messy filesystem,
the site is comprised of ultra-clean (in my opinion!)
markup backed by a framework of CSS and javascript,
and including some common-sense features such as a
loading screen, all organized within a tidy and pleasant
filesystem that is easy for me to work with.

with the markup being so neat and abstracted, (again, in my opinion!)
writing new pages will be far more pleasant a task -
one that isn't so dreaded as to stoke inertia. this
means good things in the world of actually
getting things done going forward.

it all started when i wanted to fix some pages that looked
wonkier than they had to on non-1080p resolutions and to
do away with the aforementioned <br> spam. but one thing
lead to another, and before i knew it i had fallen down a
rabbit hole of CSS, javascript, and AJAX
that ran six months deep.

i learned quite a lot through it all, and came out the other
end with the site's core being about as good as i think it
could be. in the process, i'd like to think the site ended
up looking quite a bit prettier - especially the text boxes!

---

along with the rewrite of the site's innards, i've also
rewrote or adjusted a fair bit of exposition on the site.
i wasn't happy with a lot of it, as much of it had become
outright wrong in light of further realizations i've had of
this world. the witching_hour text in particular needed
quite a bit of work, for the aforementioned reason as well
as having been rushed for the halloween deadline.

on top of all of this, i've reorganized the "personal" region
of the site quite a bit, breaking up the "other things" page
into a new hotbar, and adding new pages for music and credits.
music? yeah, that's right! i've been dabbling in creating my
own music lately, rather than merely distorting existing
audio. if you've visited the new index, you've already
heard some of my work on this front, as its
background music is purely of my own creation.

currently i'm working on my first full-length song,
and it will be added to the music page once it has been
completed. while it's already a wee tad outdated,
here's the latest public preview i shared of it,
titled Dreadful Serenade:

but outside of projects such as this...
sounds used on the site, be it original work or
distortion, are also available to be downloaded on the
music page. but wait just a moment... distortion? what
songs have been distorted? who were the original artists
behind them? isn't it slimy to be distorting and using
their work without making note of either?

indeed it is! and that is why, along with naming the songs
and crediting the artists within the metadata, (outside of
a few songs that i've forgotten the original names of)
i've added a proper credits page that - along with being
the new home of any general thanks as well as naming and
linking to effect scripts used - also lists
these same song and artist names.

i feel a little less guilty with this being taken care of.
at least now that i'm learning how to make my own music,
there might be less of this. i've had people ask if i
compose all of the sounds on the site, and felt really bad
about that. i don't want people to be under that false
impression, and it's my own fault that it was allowed to
happen; quite frankly, i should have gotten to this much
sooner. well, better late than never, i do suppose.

oh, and i've also added a guestbook. it's admittedly a bit
rudimentary, but it's something, and i had trouble rigging
up something fancy without being foiled by the unholy
CORS beast. maybe i'll improve upon it later, but
no promises. at any rate, please feel free to
leave your comments - i look forward to reading them!

---

that just about sums up what was pushed last night. i'm sure
what those reading this are more interested in is the
roadmap going forward, so let's talk about that.

i remember saying that i wanted 2022 to be a big year
for my work. i'd say i've already made good on that,
but compared to what i had in mind, it's been in a much
less in-your-face and exciting way. that being said,
i still think it's very much achievable that i have
something more visible to show before the year's end,
especially having split up the workload
as i'll detail momentarily.

now that the site's new backbone is finished, it seems i'll
finally be able to get back to the creative side of things.
which is great, seeing as that's what really matters at the
end of the day. i'm going to be taking a break for a bit,
though, seeing as i'm visiting my folks in a bit over a
week and should be coming back with a new machine.
the one i am typing this from will be made into a
bedroom server. having another machine to bear
the brunt of noisemaker should be
a godsend, i'll tell you what.

once i've returned, and everything has been set up,
though, work will naturally resume proper. my plans for
the site going forward are split into two distinct updates.
the first will include expansions to most of the existing
regions of the site, including quite the hefty one in a
particular case, as well as feature the remainder of
the witching_hour subsite - something that
has become quite overdue indeed.

the second will include quite a wide array of new things
that i don't feel comfortable naming yet. but among things
i can name, it will conclude the two currently stubbed-off
puzzle paths. or, frankly, have them start beyond a
teaser's pittance, but also end. it will also...
despite it becoming a running joke at this point...
bring about the archives. this update is probably
wider in scope than the first. i think sometime in 2023
is a safe estimate as to when it will
come about, perhaps earlier in the year.

that's about all i can say for now. well, that, and
the fact that i wish the lot of you a fantastic evening
and hope that i can bring you something very, very wonderful.

take care!