My blog has nothing to offer.

My blog has nothing to offer.

Testing Add This and seeing if it's a good way to update my blogger with my most recent posts at my main site.

I've done it. All 397 my paintings are now online.

I got 'em all up at my main site: http://markwstevens.com/home/gallery/

They're grouped by year because there's just so damn many of them!

What does this mean for my blogger blog? Well, it's likely to quiet things down over here. I do focus on my main site quite a bit since I really prefer to have my announcements, ramblings, and paintings all in one spot. I won't completely ignore this place. Anything really important will be echoed here, and if I have a main site crash again this will make a damn fine back-up blog.

Please check out my paintings. I've worked very hard on both them and my site. Comments are always welcome!

Thanks.

- Mark

My main site is back online!

Smoke, abstract oil painting

     Hey hey! I got my main site back online. Please visit markwstevens.com. I have all my oil paintings up there as well as any future announcements. I also plan on rebuilding my drying rack page. There you can see paintings that I've finished but are not yet dry enough to haul outside and photograph.

     I will not be abandoning my second home here at blogger. No no! I'll be making announcements here too. This will also serve as a back-up blog in case my site crashes again in the future. I've learned my lesson! Always have a back up plan.

- Mark

Uploaded 20 new paintings to my Picasa

Simple Landscape #37 - 18" x 24" Oil painting on canvas

     I uploaded another 20 paintings to my picasa oil painting album this morning. I know, no one gives a crap. Not a single view at a single painting. Whatever, I'm not stopping.

- Mark

Photos from Fox State Forest

     M'lady and I went to Fox State Forest for a short trek on the Tree ID trail. We missed a turn and our 10 minute walk turned into a 40 minute hike. No biggie, we weren't lost, just... off our plan. We know that area of the forest pretty well. I think we just got all excited to be out in the woods. It worked out pretty well, I had my camera, got a handful of good shots, and some much needed exercise.

My old site is dead... well, mostly dead anyway.

I read an interesting article today:

Network Solutions Hack Highlights Hosting Risks from InformationWeek.com: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/04/network_solutio.html

The most horrifying sentence to me was the following:

Hundreds of NSI-hosted WordPress blogs were hit with malicious iframes that would automatically infect visitors to the blogsites, and in some cases, spread fake antivirus software.

Not only was (is) my site hosted by NSI but I've been using WordPress software. Yes, my site was absolutely one of those affected. As soon as I can get access to it again, I'm pulling it down. I can't bear the thought of exposing innocent people to malware. I've removed the link to my old site here so as not to infect you guys and I've posted warnings over at my Facebook fan page and pulled those links as well.

This has me very depressed. I put a great deal of time and effort into that site, not to mention that I'm all paid up for hosting through Nov. 2011. Shit.

I'm trying to stay positive and see this whole mess as serendipity, but it's not easy. Maybe it's for the best but man oh man, I'm not happy about it. Eh...

I guess what it comes down to is: Welcome to my new home.

- Mark

People keep asking me if marriage has changed anything...

...no, it's hasn't. Why should it? What is it about marriage that should change a relationship? Shouldn't the relationship not need changing before a marriage?

I just don't get it. M'lady and I were happy together before we got married and we're still happy. Nothing's changed, nothing needs to. We're still the same people and we still love each other very much. We got married because we were happy... why the hell would we want to change that?

Perhaps many people think that getting married will strengthen their relationship or fix whatever problems currently exist? Well, I don't think it will. A bad relationship won't get better with a binding contract. If it's broke, it's gonna stay broke. If it's good, it's gonna stay good.

A marriage won't change a relationship. All it does is announce to the world that two people want to be together for the rest of their lives. Nothing less and nothing more.

- Mark