UPDATE ARCHIVE
Every update of The Manitou's Lair, up until I switched over to The Manitou's Diary to keep you informed, is archived here. Why, you may ask? Damned if I know... You're dealing with the kind of person that saves receipts.
September 22, 2003
More changes here at the Lair: Crazy Guy's Diary now has it's own link on the navbar, and that section has been overhauled. There's a page now for each entry, as well as a new entry, and the old ones have been cleaned up a bit.
Weird Stuff: Flash Theatre has been removed, and a new section for visitor-submitted weirdshots has been created. There are also roughly 15 new weirdshots, and that section has been changed so that the newest show up first and you dont' have to wade through the archive.
Music: Lo-fi MP3 clips are now online for the Circuit Zero and Darkdance pages, and there's a new page called Video with some info and pictures about my music video projects.
The links section has been weeded to remove some broken links, and I've added Cici's Chainmaille. Stop by and check it out, won't you?
August 16, 2003
Two new sections in the Music area: Studio - with pictures of my studio and kit, and Circuit Zero - with info on a new CD I'm working on. Also, thanks to extra webspace, I've made my two Gary Numan cover songs "Replicas" and "Observer" available for download on the Gary Numan Covers page.
June 17, 2003
Ok the Music page and Human Factor page have both been updated. There's now a link to my music on Electromancer (a very cool site for independent electronic musicians). Also, all my email links should now be correct (I hope!).
June 16, 2003
This is half an update, more to come. A batch of new Weirshots are online, and I've redesigned that section to ease up drastically on the loading time for those of you with slow connections.
April 22, 2003
Hey, an update :) A new Silly Short is online: When You Wish Upon A Chocolate Bar.
There are two new songs available for download at my mp3.com site:
http://www.mp3.com/the_manitou/
I'm going to be working on a video for "Overload" this summer, you'll be the first to know when it's ready :D
A visitor to the site, and fellow music-maker, Burton Hall sent along co-ordinates to his Lab - if you're bold enough to explore new musical territory check him out!
Please bear with me as I need to give the music section a good going over, and there are lots of new Weird Shots to post.
See you next update!
September 18, 2002
For several days now I've been redesigning large chunks of the site. Also, a
few sections have been dropped (Feed The Squirrels, and a lot of what used to be
Welcome To Weirdville).
Navbar: the graphics are
new, and I've condensed the sprawled-out mess of links into three main sections,
with new graphics for each.
Music: totally re-done with pages and art for each of my CD's, plus updated
pricing info and sound clips.
Fiction: Silly Shorts still resides here, and Crazy Guy's Diary is
its new neighbor. Two new sections are under construction: Argil, and
Teacakes. Argil will be a serialized set of adventures with accompanying
pictures, and Teacakes is a novella I'm working on.
Weird Stuff: All the Weirdshots have been re-scanned and many new ones have
been added. Flash Theatre was formerly the Fun With Flash page.
Bio: has been brought up to date.
Links: also brought up to date, and the Computer Musicians Network has been
incorporated into it.
Hey, I think that's it :) Hope your visit is pleasant and rewarding, see you weirdos 'round. -TM
September 7, 2002
Okay, bear with me - the lair is in transit to a new host, so for now only the most important sections are online (Music, Fiction, Links, The Manitou). The two newer songs I mentioned are now online on my mp3.com site. Work still progresses on the new material and I'll have more on that very soon!
May 6, 2002
The fiction section has been overhauled, and the previous batch of Silly Shorts are now in a new archive to make way for the new stories, starting off with "On The Spot Orchestra."
I have some more songs to upload to my mp3.com site, and I'll let you know when those are online. Soon I'll also have some snippets from my short novel "Space, Time, And Teacakes" online, which is still a work in progress. There are of course many other things I'd like to add to various sections, but summer work is going to hinder that at least for now.
January 8, 2002
Just in the process of remastering Dark River - have to use "track at once" mode with my burner or it chops the thing to hell because of millisecond overhangs at the ends of the songs. Not too much of a task, but it means two songs I'd planned on merging seamlessly have to be faded out and faded in and one of the samples has to go as a result. :|
I've put realaudio clips of all the songs from Dark River in the music section, and also have my two singles available for free at: http://www.mp3.com/the_manitou.
Hey, I think that's it :) Hope your visit is pleasant and rewarding, see you weirdos 'round. -TM
December 26, 2001
My music page is now fully updated & decked out with full-length realaudio of my latest songs and older singles. Enjoy!
I've also moved the lair to my cable provider's server - so all links should work and there should be no down time or uninvited disappearances. Hooray!!!
December 23, 2001
Okay, my site has been down yet again - I've lost faith entirely in free webspace providers and could name a handful I'd like to jump off a cliff, but anyway - I'm apparently back online now, but for how long I don't know. I still can't host mp3 or zip files on my site, despite requesting this twice now, so I'm going to work on some realaudio files post haste!
My Xmas story has been uploaded and can be found in the Fiction section. I hope you all have a great time in what's left of the year - as I'm sure I will!
Finally, some whacking good news (at least I think so!) my new CD "Dark River" is now complete. I'll be working on the promotion side of things in the new year, and probably get to work on some more stories, etc... Stay tuned for samples, cover picture, etc..!!!
November 23, 2001
September and October were busy months, and this month I'll be flat out working on my new CD (see the music section) so I apologize profusely for the lack of updates (sorry!). The lair was down for some time when my webspace provider DELETED it. (#$@#%$#@%!!!). But that *should* not be happening again.
On to the updates! I'm glad to announce that two singles from the upcoming album "Dark River" are available for download as 22khz mp3s. Check them out on the Music page :)
Two new stories this month in the Fiction section, to make up for missing October completely (sorry again!). They're called "Jelly Trekkin'" and "Organ Grinder." Check back on the first of December for a special Xmas story entitled: "Infiltration At The North Pole." This is a skewed look at Santa's operations (along the lines of "Interview With God."), and is going to replace my Xmas e-card this year :)
Lastly, there are a handful of new weirdshots in the Weirdville section - taken with my new Digital Camera which is an absolute blast! Also a couple of new desktop wallpapers - Enjoy!
Crazy Guy has been slack, I know, but I'll kick him up the backside and maybe he'll write about it for the next update of Crazy Guy's Diary ;).
August 19, 2001
Wahey! Digitalrice.com finally came through (a month and a bit later) and The Manitou's Lair is back online! I'm still in the process of uploading things - the Mess Board, for instance. I had to move my entire Music section to a new site, so if things are missing please be patient - they'll arrive shortly :)
There's a new story titled: "Gnomes Don't Live In Thorn Bushes" in the Fiction section. Enjoy!
July 27, 2001
Now that we're on a server with ASP scripting, I've added a Message Board to the Lair. Sorry, "Mess" board, there's a difference, you know. Check it out!
July 20, 2001
I've added several new Weirdshots in the Weirdville section, along with some full-size wallpapers for your desktop of the better ones. :) Also, Crazy Guy's been busy, so check out his diary.
One or two more stories in the works for the fiction section next update, which shouldn't be too far away, I hope. Once again the hidden url of the site is changing, but my domain name (www.manitouslair.com) is still (and should always be) the same :)
Oh! And for the last couple of weeks "The Return Of Mr. Sockforahead" has been online at The Weirdcrap! They were even nice enough to call it's predecessor ("Death Of A Sock Puppet") a classic! Woop!
June 16, 2001
As promised, you'll find "The Return Of Mr. Sockforahead" in the Fiction section. I've decided to make use of the html format to display my stories, and I've even included an illustration. Enjoy, and let me know what you think of the new layout :)
The squirrels have simply been a pleasure to work with since they received a new letter the other day. Drop on by "Feed The Squirrels" and see what I mean.
June 12, 2001
I've added several new links to the Computer Musicians page, as well as updated a couple of listings there and in the links section.
Crazyguy is back with another diary entry, and four new weirdshots have been added to the Weirdville section. There is more to come, including a new story - the sequel to "Death Of A Sock Puppet" which I'll upload in the next day or so.
May 21, 2001
A small update - two new demos in the Music section. My Dark River project has been advancing in leaps and bounds recently :)
May 5, 2001
It's official - The Manitou's Lair has a domain name! Please change your links/bookmarks to:
www.manitouslair.com
I sent the moolah off today to register it with Namezero.com. By crikey nothing had better go wrong ;)
Updated the Computer Musicians page - our new banner is there, plus a banner for the link to Taxi.
April 26, 2001
Just when I was going to promote the Lair all over the 'net, I discover my former webspace provider put horrible-looking advertising bars all over the site which interfered with the frames. Then to make matters worse, they announced they were pulling the plug on all the freely hosted sites due to lack of paid advertising. Then I hear from namezero.com, and they're asking me to pay for my up-until-now free url redirect "www.manitouslair.com." And I can't pay them from the site cos I don't have a credit card. So I quickly switched hosts, and with great goobly gobs of luck digitalrice.com should carry us nicely. There's no advertising here, they have ftp, and I have 25 loverly megs of space to play with. But, they changed from "www.digitalrice.com/username/" addresses to "members.digitalrice.com/username/" just days after I signed up, which could have been a big disaster had I submitted my site everywhere. And, their server has been down once in that time as well. I despair. Please bear with me.
As for the site, I took this as an excuse to totally streamline the navigation and layout. Every page (bar text) now has a back button, so you won't get lost if you're viewing the lair without frames. I've cut out the clutter, and spent at least an hour weeding bugs out of the Fiction page (been there since 1998!). You'll also notice (or maybe not) that I've spiffied up the tables a bit. :)
Sigh...
April 17, 2001
Hey hey! My poor neglected Lair has been updated at last :) You should be seeing more frequent updates from now on, at least in the Fiction section anyhoo. Here's what's new:
The Humour Section has a new layout, complete with pictures; Crazy Guy has written a new entry in his diary, and has also benefitted from a change of layout; There are now screenshots of the animations in Flash Fun.
There are two new Silly Shorts in the Fiction section. First is "Fart Auction," an oldie I dug out of the virtual attic (where I also discovered more lost classics, to be posted soon). The second is "Interview With God," a totally irreverent mockery of religion, so be warned :) This is my first new Silly Short in ages. Right now I'm working on a longer and hopefully more enjoyable sequel to "Death Of A Sockpuppet" (which you can still read here in the Fiction section).
Music - Four (count 'em) new demos to download, as usual they're 22hz (half quality) mp3's - to save both upload and download time without sacrificing the feel or listenability of the tracks. I've also posted a progress report on the album, and made the background image slightly easier on the eyes.
A band called Monomania has joined the growing number of links on the Computer Musicians page. They're even offering up some free mp3s of their music, so why not pay them a visit?
Lastly, I've replaced the old "about me" page with a new one I wrote for my other page - Dark Alien Light. (Can you spot the shameless plug?) ;) Anyway, the infamous "Manitou & A Pickle" photo has been replaced with a slightly nicer scan of the photo. Who says I don't care about quality? ;)
January 12, 2001
Howdy folks, I've uploaded a new animation called "Pillsbry Instant Bagels" to the Fun With Flash page. Just a warning, this movie features a graphic cartoon death scene. Enjoy, and look out for it on Newgrounds.com.
December 13, 2000
A couple of new things for ya's - A demo of my first song for the Dark River project "Expander" in my music section. This is the initial demo I did, to test out my softare and keyboard ability, and is just a might dodgy, but otherwise a decent representation of the song in its purest form. I'll add more demos of this and other songs as things progress. Right now I'm concentrating on getting my workspace finished :)
Also new in the Humour section, a flash animation by Andy West entitled: Freda The Pregnant Fish. His animation is a tad more complex than anything I've done so far (just look at the squirrel animation to prove my point!) and is definitely at home here at The Manitou's Lair.
This will probably be the last update until after Christmas, so happy holidays everyone, and see you in the new year :) -TM
October 20, 2000
The Manitou's Lair Mark II is online! The change is to accomodate two new features: Music, and Computer Musicians (a web-ring of sorts). The Bad Puns Department has gone the way of the dodo, mainly because I didn't have the time or inclination to update it anymore, and visitor input had become pretty much nonexistant. A new page has taken its place in the humour section - Fun With Flash. This is where all my nifty little flash animations will be posted - Shockwave Flash plugin required! So go get it from macromedia.com if you don't have it already :) Also new: Crazyguy has finally made a new entry in his diary, and the pictures in the Weirdville section have been replaced with high-res versions. There are a few new ones there as well.
July 1, 2000
What was I thinking??? I was totally blitzed by that large watermelon Slush Puppie the other night. I knew I shouldn't have asked for an extra squirt of syrup. Now I'm paying for it - apparently I authorized the squirrels' very own web-page. Heck knows what they're saying on there - they've put up a barrier so I can't even access it. You'll go there won't you? And tell me what they're up to? Please? THE SQUIRRELS' LAIR
June 9, 2000
Whoa! I got inspired by the renovations at Groovy Concepts and decided to breathe some new life into the neglected Lair. Hope you like!
Also new (aside from a host of new graphics and text): The squirrels discovered a lost letter, have made their apologies and answered it in the Feed The Squirrels section. Some new Weirdsounds in the Weirdville section.
February 29, 2000
Silly Shorts - check out the new story: "Sandwichmaker of the North."
Welcome To Weirdville - some new weird news headlines to puzzle over.
Loopy Links - I've added links to my "Computer Musicians Network" site, and "Weirdcrap." Please visit them, won't you?
You wouldn't want me to send the squirrels out for your blood...
January 20, 2000
Silly Shorts - an interactive thingy: "fun.bat" added.
Bad Puns - another vote added, nothin' much else tho!
Weirdville - totally revamped, and more stuff added!
Crazy Guy - Crazy Guy goes crazy on New Years.
Letters - It's Q & A time with the squirrels!
Loopy Links - updated.
October 12th, 1999
Bad Puns Department - The Grand Stinker has been destroyed, and a new pun has been added.
Welcome To Weirdville - A new section: Weirdpeople, and some new headlines in the Weirdwords section.
Crazy Guy - 3 new entries by the wacky one.
Silly Shorts - A new story: Hotel Nowhere.
Letters - A touchy feely letter from our friend: The_Specialist!
August 7th, 1999
Bad Puns Department - The Grand Stinker is here!!! Sorry for the delay, folks!
Interactive Idiocy - Gone! No more! Kaput! Outta here! (I removed it, people).
July 15th, 1999
Main Page - Animated logo, and this nifty new font color (heh, it matches!)
Silly Shorts - A new story: Death Of A Sock Puppet.
Crazy Guy - A nifty new *animated* gif.
Bad Puns Department - Two new puns are waiting on death row.
Welcome To Weirdville - Revamped
Loopy Links - Updated
About Your Host - Updated
Letters - The squirrels move now!!! Check it out!
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