Meta

Although we've been at the Beat blogging game since 2004, this is the first time we've had our own "creator-owned" website at our very own not-gonna-change url. Making it a year has had a few roller coaster moments, but it's been a year of vast learning and satisfaction. Oh, there have been a few pesky problems along the way, and the front page looks wack (because Team Beat hasn't been able to fix the image resizing script yet) but overall we're just happy to be here and incredibly grateful for all the support we've had from creators, publishers, advertisers and of course, readers.

"Your feeble skills are no match for the dark side!" -- Patriots coach Bill Belicheck channels his inner Palpatine.

Things are winding down for the holidays. The Beat is no exception. We'll be on holiday starting next week, and this time we really mean it. Almost no internet. We'll have a few elves looking in, but posting will be pretty perfunctory through Christmas. We will be posting some holiday art for the next few days so send us links or JPGs...but only through Friday. After that we're gone, baby, gone. Looking forward, we'd like to note that we're already booking advertisements into 2011. The top banner is sold out until April, and there are only scattered openings after that.

Hey there! The Beat is back! The Beat never really left, but we figured that what with the server overload it was best to...

As many of you have noticed, the recent server shuffle has resulted in a loss of visual images.  The Beatrix herself is spearheading our crack team of technological troubleshooters, and we hope to restore normalcy soon. Normally, in situations such as this, we would run "classic" columns from before the advent of the World Wide Web.  Unfortunately, our tape archive was mistakenly recorded over with the 67th Academy Awards. So instead, we have reverted to ASCII mode.

We're still kicking the tires and adding air here at Stately Beat Manor with our new server. Unfortunately, The Beat is a large, complex,...

The Beat will be moving servers tonight, from the insanely expensive one to a slightly less expensive one. There will be no posting until our Operatives give the go-ahead and there might be some wonkiness in the morning, as well. As soon as everything is safe and sound in the new spot, we'll give you an earful on our hosting advice.

It's my birthday, and I'm giving myself a present. No, not a Longstreth style beard. Email escape amnesty. After looking at the thousands of...

In the early days of The Beat I used to start many days with a "meta" post about my doings and very important thoughts, but that kind of personal stuff jumped the shark long ago, it seems. No one really cares about me seeing a blue lobster anymore...or rather, that's really what Twitter and Facebook are for. There's a social network for every ephemeral thought, and I now spend hours each day sharing the ephemeral thoughts of thousands of my close personal friends. In a way, it's too bad. Those were some of my most favorite posts to write -- like the time I went shopping for a mop. I guess you had to be there.

Just a quick note -- DC sales figures for August are, as you have seen, VERY late this month due to actual work for Marc-Oliver. He assures me he IS working on it, however, and we're hoping to have it finished imminently. Thank you for your patience.

A big birthday shout out to the Beat's own sainted mother, who is celebrating a special birthday today. My mother's art and cartooning and continuing interest in everything from MMORPGs to webcomics has always been an inspiration to me, and it's probably a huge reason why I've ever reached toward success in any endeavor. Thank you, Suzu.

As you may recall, I lost my camera at this year's SPX. Soon after, Jen Vaughn, bless her heart, started a fund raising drive to buy me a new camera, and -- mostly I'm sure because of Jen's enthusiasm -- folks had donated about enough for a more than decent digital camera.