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5MV Update History maintained by Zeke | |
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JANUARY 2004 | |
| 5MV |
January 1 and 2 Well, this was an interesting update. I've been trying to decide what to say at the start of the new year, and I've gone back and forth between saying a lot and saying a little. For a while I was even going to write a whole article. I had a great title, too. "2004: A Clarke Analogy." Ultimately, I've decided to keep it brief. (This after taking so long to decide I missed yesterday's update....) What I basically wanted to explain is that 2003 wasn't 5MV's best year in a number of ways. There were highlights, to be sure, but we were plagued with server problems, and our overall output wasn't as high as in previous years. I know a lot of the blame for the latter is mine, and I'm sorry about that. It's been a difficult year for me personally, and while the problems haven't gone away, I hope I'm starting to deal with them better. On the other hand, I think the daily-updates experiment has been a major success. It's kept things interesting for you readers and kept me from vanishing for long periods again. So that will most certainly continue into the new year. There are a few resolutions I could make, and maybe should: things like getting the updates out earlier in the day, keeping current with Enterprise, catching up on other series, answering my mail faster... but I don't really think it would make much difference. I already know I should be doing those things, and I do try to do them, though I may not always succeed. So basically this year I'm going to do my best to build on the success of the last few months. I'll keep the new material coming as steadily as I can, and I'll let you know why when I can't. We on staff have got several major events in planning, too. So here's to 2004 being -- as Standback would put it -- a year of many fivers. [Comments] |
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January 3 Today there's no new content, but I'll make up for that over the remaining three days of Christmas. Look for very cool updates on those days. Link... link... hmm... want to know why I use .png graphics? Go Burn All GIFs. |
| 5ME |
January 4 First content update of the new year! Here's your parody Shipment, right on schedule. (Well, okay, not right on schedule....) [Comments] |
| 5MV |
January 5 Sigh. When I said there'd be new stuff all three days, I forgot to take into account that I have no creative energy the day after finishing a long Enterprise fiver. And "The Shipment" was my second longest one-parter to date, behind only "Acquisition". I always write longer when I'm coming back from a hiatus... when I'm out of practice, it's harder for me to know what cuts to make. (You'd be surprised how much of fiver-writing is about making the right cuts.) Apologies; new content tomorrow, but not today. So here are two links. First of all, that "Shipment" fiver happened to include my first Pokey the Penguin reference. (See November 8 link.) This strip is the one I alluded to. Second, I just found out from Nan that Return to Sender is back! She introduced me to this comic a while ago; it's violent at times, but well-drawn, funny, and definitely original. I can't stop laughing at the cheesestring strip. It also has very short archives, so there's not much to catch up on. Have a read. |
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January 6 And today's update is... (sigh) pathetic. Existent, but not the good update I promised. All I did was add something that came up at the forums to Jokes and References. "Twilight" is in progress (just ask Sa'ar), but it's not done yet. Sorry. I'll have more to say tomorrow; in a bit of a hurry now. |
| 5MV |
January 8 Kira here. Zeke's having connection problems, hence the lack of update yesterday. I've been instructed to pass along that a couple of minor corrections have been made to the fiver for "The Shipment" with regards to song lyrics and which of the Xindi is actually named Degra. And for your linking pleasure, what has nine essential nutrients and the power to cover the lands of Middle-Earth in a second darkness? It's The One Milk, a series of hilarious take-offs on the Got Milk? ads. The poor spelling and Pippin-bashing may offend some viewers, but they're an absolute riot -- and be sure to check out the captions below each ad. (Personal favorites: Eowyn and the second Faramir one.) |
| 5MSF |
January 9 Kira again, this time with an X-Files fiver from Derek Dean: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". [Comments] |
| 5MV |
January 10 Zeke's still offline, so no new content yet. Today's link is to a series of poorly scrawled yet amusing science comics: the SDS-Page. Those of you who have some knowledge of molecular biology may realize that the title is a very clever pun. For the rest of you, these may be over your head but some of the puns are enjoyable even without the background knowledge. |
| 5MV |
January 11 Nothing new to report today. Zeke is still AWOL, so there's no new material, and I'm fresh out of interesting links. To amuse yourselves in the meanwhile, try a Google search for "weapons of mass destruction" and then click "I'm Feeling Lucky" instead of "Google Search." Somebody at Google has a good sense of humour. Once you've shown that to all your coworkers for a laugh, try Googlism on yourself and your friends. And after that... well then you can just entertain yourselves, darn it. I'm busy. |
| 5ME |
January 12 Hey all, Zeke here. My connectivity problems continue, but I'll be making the next few updates anyway, through Kira. Today, here's "Twilight." I had something else to say, but I don't remember what. [Comments] |
| 5MV |
January 13 No new content today, and I'm wiped after a project-related crisis that cropped up, so I don't even have anything interesting to say. So here are a couple of dumb links. First, Kira's WMD Google trick from two days ago isn't the only case where a cleverly-designed page has snuck into the "I'm Feeling Lucky" slot: try "French military victories." (And follow the link that comes up, it's funny too.) Second... how do your Internet browsing skills stack up? Are you the mouse-button gladiator you think you are? Find out with this Checkbox Test. My best score was 57, but I'm wiped (see above). These links both come from the very, very peculiar minds at Albino Blacksheep. January 13 Supplemental And so does this one that I just spotted and can't resist adding. Check out the Alcohol Warnings. |
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January 14 Today I've got a couple of mock blogs for you. Ensign Stuart Hershfeld's Journal is based on redshirt life on the Enterprise-E, whereas those who share my obsession with The Ring will get a kick out of Samara Morgan's Journal. (Neither blog updates regularly; they have a few entries each.) |
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January 15 Today's link is technically another blog, but a different kind, unique in my experience. Tailsteak.tk is the home of Tailsteak, webcomic artist and philosopher/intellectual at large. After the conclusion of his brilliant comic One Over Zero last year, Tailsteak created this blog to host various other comic projects, miniseries, and one-offs; he intersperses them with commentary on any number of subjects. I definitely recommend giving this site a look. Particularly notable are the Blue Android series and The Sixth TV, a clever retelling of Plato's Myth of the Cave. |
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January 16 It's another link day! Hooray! Seriously, I'll try to have something more exciting for y'all on the weekend. You readers have provided some great hitcounts this week (in the 400/day area), so I'll try to make your next visit more worthwhile. My connection situation is stabilizing somewhat, which should help. For today's link, here's a cool site IJD showed me a while ago. They're making new episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series in comic form. The art is exactly like the show's, and the stories are intriguing, with some unexpected crossover twists (can we say Section 31?). Well worth a browse. |
| TJI |
January 18 Hey all. Today we've got the first This Just In of 2004: "Peter Mayhew contracted for fourth Indiana Jones movie." This is IJD GAF's sophomore article, and a darn good one. IJD has also suggested that I link to this page of StarTrek.com. The page itself isn't of interest, it's the note at the bottom: "Would you like to see the Animated Adventures on DVD? Let us know at editor@startrek.com." This sounds like something worth supporting -- according to IJD, Paramount has so far shown no interest in putting TAS on DVD, and fan feedback might encourage them to. If you're interested, drop them a line. [Comments] (Note: Sorry about the missing update yesterday; after a long week, I ended up falling asleep at 9 last night and not getting up again.) |
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January 20 Sigh... another missed update yesterday. I had a really good reason, though -- today was my honours project presentation. It went really well (about seven of my favourite professors showed up, which was particularly cool) and now the darn thing is behind me once and for all. Also, I'm halfway through "North Star" and making progress on "Chosen Realm." In lieu of a link, here's a sample from the former:
Archer: Howdy, miss. Mind if I -- |
| 5MV |
January 21 To keep Enterprise on 5MV's front burner, today's link is to the latest on my list of favourite ENT sites. Enterprise Oddities is a collection of original hand-drawn art featuring Enterprise characters. The artist has a charming, cartoony style; some of the material is played straight, but most is meant to be funny, and is. Take "Mr. Reed's Not So Secret Passion," for example.... Definitely worth checking this site out, especially if you're a Trip/T'Pol fan. |
| 5MV |
January 22 This is the coolest thing ever. We killed Enterprise Oddities! For most of the day, the site's been down for high bandwidth consumption. Don't get me wrong, I don't think 5MV is solely responsible. We get 400 hits a day, which is respectable but shouldn't be enough to kill an Angelfire site. Regardless, however, we helped nuke someone's bandwidth -- and it's just so cool that we can do that. Five-Minute "North Star" is about 90% done. Look for it tomorrow, and earlier than midnight for once. |
| 5ME |
January 23 As promised, here's Five-Minute "North Star." (The intro is a parody of Firefly's, if you haven't seen that series.) This weekend, along with at least one more fiver, I'll be talking about a number of things, some site-related and some not. One I'll mention right now, though: you guys are giving us some great hitcounts lately. Thanks! [Comments] |
| 5MV |
January 24 Continuing with the Enterprise theme (no, not "Faith of the Heart"), here's Starbase 34, a great ENT multimedia site. I particularly recommend the wallpaper section, with four pages of beautiful images. |
| 5MVG |
January 25 You get a brief reprieve from that talking I was going to do -- I didn't leave myself enough time at the end of the day. But as promised, we've got a new fiver. Tate, who introduced us all to the marvel that is Chex Quest, is still doing videogames but has wandered out of the CQ series for his fourth parody: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Enjoy. [Comments] |
| 5MV |
January 26 I've been working on killing my email backlog. (God Almighty, do I have an email backlog.) The good side of this for you guys is that my email backlog includes guest fivers, some of which are basically ready to publish. That, plus the fact that a couple of staff fivers are ready or almost ready, makes our content situation pretty good. I'm not making any promises, but I hope to make this a week of many fivers. Today's link: mirrordance dot net, home of Liz Barr and her various works. She's mostly into Harry Potter now (shudder), but before that she was well known in Voyager fandom, which is where I know her from. Liz is also, of course, the creator of the C/7 Hippo. (Remember?) There's a lot of good stuff on her site, so poke around a bit. |
| 5MV |
January 27 Today's link is a really interesting page called The Complete Starfleet Library. Unlike the better-known Psi Phi (also a worthy site -- in fact, I publish my ENT fivers at the forum there), the Library is a guide to all Trek-related books that are out there, not just the official Pocket Books titles. I found the site via its very interesting Lost Books page, which covers some official and unofficial books that ended up never being printed. Visit so you can tell everybody how literate you are. |
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Site navigation: Five-Minute Voyager and subsites are © Colin Hayman. | |
