M Dash 27 - Blog by Hecko X » Site Announcements

2011 Stats and a Happy New Year!

Hecko X — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:59:16 +0000

Source: http://purrduedvm.blogspot.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope y’all have had an awesome year 2011 and will all safely enter 2012 with your friends and loved ones!

I decided to make a 2011 stat post like Idid back in 2008 and 2009 (the 2010 one was deleted…).

General Stats

Up-time: Since January 1st
Total amount of visits: 31,061
Total amount of unique visits: 29,112
Total amount of pageviews: 43,081
Highest amount of visits in a day: 198 (January 7th)
Lowest amount of visits in a day: 0 (January 19th – Februar 8th; site down)
Highest amount of pageviews in a day: 273 (January 7th)
Lowest amount of pageviews in a day: 0 (January 19th – Februar 8th; site down)

Top 5 Most

Amount of Visits from a Country

United States of America: 7,836 visits
Indonesia: 2,427 visits
United Kingdom: 1,807 visits
Brazil: 1,604 visits
Canada: 1,391 visits

Viewed Articles (amount of visits, main page not included)

How to Make Fried Noodles: 4,753 visits (Post)
Grand Fantasia: 3,394 visits (Review)
Robot Unicorn Attack; Play It, But Not Too Much…: 2,379 visits (Post)
Doubt: 2,378 visits (Review)
Koka Noodles: 1,377 visits (Review)

Viewed Articles (time on page)

Fan Art and Gifts: 01:28:14
Music of the Moment #8: 00:26:44
How to Make Fried Noodles: 00:20:20
Grappler Baki Chapter 8: 00:15:41
Fut-Fut-Fut Freestylo: 00:14:59

Visits from a Source

google: 25,000+ visits
(direct): 2,771 visits
facebook.com: 518 visits
yahoo.com: 350 visits
mangaupdates.com: 336 visits

Computer Wiped Clean

Hecko X — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:30:59 +0000

Sent my computer in for repair; needed the fan cleaned since it was full of dust. Instead, they cleaned out my HDD. For obvious reasons, this is putting a considerable delay on Grappler Baki releases, since I have to find a way to restore all the files I had on my computer, many of which were work related, or simply have to redo a about a thousand files for Comic Party.

So far, no Partion Recovery software I have used has been able to find .xcf files used by GIMP, which I use for work when it’s in greyscale. I hope to find something soon so I can finish work and continue with Grappler Baki.

This is what my desktop looks like right now…

Help Japan

Hecko X — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:20:52 +0000

Image from shmula.com

If you’re old enough to be aware of the world, you’ve probably heard about the Earthquakes in Japan. Unless you are overly angry bigots with a completely pointless grudge, like most of these people, you’d like to help out, but you’re not exactly sure how. This is where this post comes in~

If you are an avid iTunes user, Apple has recently added software to allow registered users donate between $5 and $200 to American Red Cross by clicking the appropriate button. If you don’t use iTunes, you can instead visit this page on causes.com and donate there.

You can also donate directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society instead, via Google’s Crisis Response project. If you are struggling for cash or want to donate something in between the offered amounts on causes.com, then use this, as you can enter the exact amount (in Japanese Yen) that you want to donate rather than just press a button.

If you love playing those ~Ville games on Facebook, Zynga, the world’s largest social gaming company that is behind those games, have made it so you can donate money through the games themselves. All proceeds from the purchase of sweet potatoes in CityVille, radishes in FarmVille or kobe cows in FrontierVille will go towards Save the Children‘s efforts to provide relief in the Pacific.

For more info on where you can donate, visit:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-donate/ (I got my info from here, but they have more advice)
http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2011/03/donating_to_japan_earthquake_r.html
http://au.news.yahoo.com/japan-tsunami/a/-/article/8999354/donate-for-japan

If you, however, are broke or, like me, in debt, there are other ways to help. You can spread awareness of how to donate on Facebook or add the HelloBar to your website, so your visitors can help donate. Do your best to help the rest c:

GUESS WHO!!

Hecko X — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:22:51 +0000

It’s been a long and tough month, but I’m finally back, and boy do I have news for you guys! M Dash was unfortunately ‘shut down’, when the dude I pay for server space forgot to pay his hosting bill, and then suddenly decided to disappear off the face of the earth.

I asked Kurikku to pass along some messages for me, so I could pay for the hosting myself, and then move everything to my own host provider that I had just recently acquired. However, for more than a month, nothing happened, so I decided to go “screw it” and asked for the dude’s personal info, so I could talk to him myself. After being ignored for a a few days, I went to his place at like 6 in the morning, just to be sure he was home, and lo and behold, only a few hours later, M Dash is back! :D

I have much more to tell, but no time right now to do it. Some of you might not like that, and be annoyed be annoyed with the blog having been down for so long, but guess what:

TALK TO Y’ALL LATER!!

Frontpage Change and Lack of Posts

Hecko X — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:44:02 +0000

SO!! Some of you are probably wondering why updates are so rare and why when I -do- finally update, it’s just a manga release. Truth be told, I’ve been super sick and I’ve also been having exams, so everything taken a second place to those things. And then come things I have deadlines to, like scanlating or Genki, and then managing M Dash just dropped way way down.

Anyway, posts will eventually be coming, I get a review from a buddy of mine I’ll put up soon, and I’ll try to schedule some video posts to be published automatically so this place doesn’t die out.

Anyway, notice the new frontpage? I removed the the feature slide show since it only show the six most recent posts (which you can also see by just scrolling down), so I substitued it with some awesome tabs!! With this, you can see the 6 most recent posts of each respective main category here on M Dash. Cool, huh? ……… ;>.>

Anyway, updates to come, wish me luck on my last few exams!!

Joined OrionWave + Manga on M Dash

Hecko X — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:57:57 +0000

Long story short, I applied for the job of QC with the scanlation group, OrionWave (orionwave.wordpress.com), and I got in, wuuuuw! \o/

Anyway, the group is best know for scanlating the shounen mystery manga “Q.E.D.” by Motohiro Katou, but have recently decided to take up “Rocket Man” and “C.M.B.“, both by the same author.

My work will be mainly “C.M.B.” where I’ll do QCing and maybe various odd-jobs, but odds are that I’m gonna be an assistent QC for some of the other stuff as well. In any case, due to this, I will be posting Manga releases on M Dash roughly 6-12 hours after we’ve released them :3

BACK!! … -ish

Hecko X — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:24:40 +0000

So, what’s new? Nothing much. I’ve been kinda wondering if I really bother keep updating M Dash, because as far as I’ve been able to tell from the visitor statistics, there haven’t really been much change in the couple of weeks I’ve been gone which makes me ask the question: “How many actually know about this place and care enough to read it?” My bid? 4, at max. So I’m other gonna make it moar epic or just give up and phail epically. In either case, the word epic is involved

Anywho, I’m back in physical therapy hell. It used to be just calisthenics (no-weight exercises and stretches), but now they’ve added weigth training because I apparently have a hormone imbalance :/ Also, I have cardio-exercises to help improve my poor circulation. I’m also taking pills for like a gazillion other things, but all in all, the next month will be crap and then I should gradually get used to it until finally, ALL GOOD BABY!! It should take about 6-9 months though, I’m afraid of rushing it D8 More on how well it’s working in a month or two.

I’ll try not to die in the meantime, look forward to epic posting or something 8D

Pulling the Plug

Hecko X — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:44:04 +0000

Truth be told, when I get sick, I usually just try to shrug it off and ignore it, unless it’s really bad. This is really bad. I usually have a bad habit of not sleeping much, but for the past 2-2½ weeks, it got pushed into overdrive.

I’ve been getting maybe 1-2 hours sleep per day, until 4-5 days go by like and I finally pass out from exhaustion and ‘sleep’ around 16-20 hours; then repeat. It was so bad that today, I went to my mid-term exam and had to say that I simply couldn’t perform and requested to be failed on the spot since even my speach is slurred and not very coherent.

My mental capacity and wieght have plummited, and I am honestly worried about the strain this (sudden dramatic weight loss + extreme lack of sleep) is putting on my heart and brain. As such, I simply cannot keep up maintaining M Dash and have simply decided to pull the plug until I feel better. Thanks to all the loyal readers, you’ve been awesome and I hope you’ll be back again eventually (lulz, I hope *I’ll* be back again eventually…). Take care.

Readers of the Year 2009 + Stats

Hecko X — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:31:54 +0000

Like last year, I’ve decided to make a stat post and nominate the readers of the year.

For the winners of the Readers of the Year 2009… I HAVE NO IDEA!! 8D The data provided by Google Analytics is inconclusive, but if you are one of the people who’ve been to the site more than 200 times this year, you deserve this award! THANKS FOR READING, MUCH LUBZ!! And now for some boring stats:

General Stats

•Up-time: Since January 1st
•Total amount of visits: 3,332
•Total amount of unique visits: 1,621
•Total amount of pageviews: 8,188
•Total amount of unique pageviews: 6,481
•Highest amount of visits in a day: 29 (July 6th)
•Lowest amount of visits in a day: 0 (April 4th & December 28th, server downtime)
•Highest amount of pageviews in a day: 151 (August 25th)
•Lowest amount of pageviews in a day: 0 (April 4th & December 28th, server downtime)

Top 5 Most

Amount of Visits from a Country

•Denmark: 953 visits
•United States of America: 709 visits
•Australia: 645 visits
•United Kingdom: 194 visits
•Canada: 90 visits

Viewed Articles (amount of visits, main page not included)

•FFTA2 Job Requirement Animation: 383 visits
•FFWiki Holiday Shout-Outs 2008: 135 visits
•Bartender: 87 visits
•Genki 2009; Day Three: 78 visits
•The Guestbook: 68 visits

Viewed Articles (time on page)

•Argento Sōma : 00:27:25
•FFTA2 Job Requirement Animation: 00:21:33
•To be Cast for Reality Show: 00:15:53
•Hecko Leaves Daily Draw: 00:14:52
•Religion: Age of the Earth: 00:12:56

Visits from a Source

•(direct): 752 visits
•finalfantasy.wikia.com: 598 visits
•google: 510 visits
•forum.dkneko.net: 304 visits
•facebook.com: 200 visits

And We’re Back?

Hecko X — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:45:19 +0000

Yeah, I don’t really know what happened. The host had originally shut me down because I didn’t pay the bill on time, but M Dash has now been re-opened. I’m assuming that they were assuming that it was just because of the holiday rush, since banks obviously close down for the holidays (inkluding online transfers), and when they re-open, they have so many transfers to deal with that it might take a few days for them all to go through (I’m still waiting for a transfer from over a week back to go through).

In any case, M Dash is back from the dead (for like the third time… I might start calling it Frankendash), so let’s just enjoy for now?

Layout Updates Done for Now

Hecko X — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:06:16 +0000

Okay, haven’t posted in ages… >_____>

Anywho, as the title implies, I’ve finished the layout updates for now, and by that I mean I finished as much as I cared and had time to finish. While I have started on a custom purple theme, I haven’t gotten around to finishing it; I had more important things to do. I’ll get around to it eventually. Also, some of the category pages are still buggy, but I’ll get around to it.

Changes

Here’s a basic list of the changes I’ve made.

Menu bar now links to index pages and categories to provide easier navigation. I still left the category dropdown though, just in case.
Killed off my off-site art blog and instead feature a gallery here: m-27.com/art/my-art-gallery
Simplified the fan-creation gallery instructions and made the page prettier to look at.
Removed some stuff from the sidebar and added the random drawings box. It features stuff both from my gallery and the fan-creations gallery
Added excerpts and thumbnails to posts that have been missing them (though I’m only little over 2/3 way done).
Added a comment reply function (it appears when you hover the comment you want to reply to). I also wanted nested comments, but that doesn’t seem possible with this theme, so the reply-linking-to-replied-comment thing is the closes I’m gonna get.

And that’s pretty much that. I should be back to posting semi-regularly after tomorrow, hopefully.

Comparison

Before

After

Updating Design and Layout

Hecko X — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:22:29 +0000

I’m in the process of updating the design and layout of M Dash since I found the old one kind of limited in terms of page access and exposure and dull to look at in terms of colours.

However, since I have more important things to tend to, such as my exams, the update will be gradual and I don’t expect to be done until Sunday of next week. Posts and pages might therefore be out of order or just look weird for a while, but please bear with me.

Flaming Ninja volunteered to help out and he’s really letting me have it, so hopefully the end product will satisfy him as well as you.

Home Alone

Hecko X — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:01:44 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve been home alone for a while since my momz left for Serbia, so the time I usually spent blogging is now spent cooking. Don’t worry though, I AM working on a few posts, but updates will just be slow since my top priority is studying and getting enough meals to not get sick and miss school. This is somewhat difficult though, as my cooking sucks… >_<

Anyway, hang tight, I will try to have the next post up within the next 36 hours. But you should expect posts only every 3-5 days for a while, since I didn’t have time to prepare posts in advance this time around.

Back to School

Hecko X — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:00:06 +0000

Long story short; despite failing my written Japanese exam, they are gonna let me continue after I wrote a complaint that, in a nutshell, explained how fucktardy they are. If the complaint goes all the way through, I get my grade changed, if not, I have to retake the exam with the current year 1. Aaaanywho, because I’m going back to school, blogging will suffer a little. Reviews will be further between since I won’t have as much time to play games or watch dramas, short video posts and other random stuff will increase slightly to help fill the gaps. However, hopefully I’ll be able to start up the Learning Japanese series again, since I have to review a lot of stuff anyaway.

Just for fun, on the right, you will see the books I had to buy for the fall semester. They cost roughly three months worth of income, after taxes and bills (does not include the money I have to spend on food and other groceries). In other words, I’m in deep debt right now, so if the administration decides to flunk me for no apparent reason, expect to hear news of an insane 20-something-year-old guy snapping and causing mayhem of unheard proportions in the student offices of the Copenhagen Business School! >:3

Back From Serbia

Hecko X — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:50:44 +0000

Okay, so I’m back to the land of the Vikings and will now be able to post whenever. Also, sorry for no updates on August 7th and 10th, I had no Interwebz and I think the Domus office was getting annoyed with me stealing a free computer whenever I could. I do have a few posts ready though.

Anywho, the trip was pretty boring and uneventful, not counting the killer storm that destroyed many homes, but more on that in a later post. I also went back to intense physical therapy like last year, except much, much worse. It lasted 10 days and after the 6th day, I couldn’t make it up the stairs to the first floor to rest, so I just crashed on the couch (which isn’t actually a couch, but I forgot the French term). It was Hell. Well, maybe not Hell, but it was pretty fucking painful.

So yeah, look forward to more posts. Also, a “winner gets the glory” contest using a drawing made by Yuan-chan. I think it will be up in a few days. Look forward to it.

New Theme

Hecko X — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:51:43 +0000

Considering that this blogs birthday is about a month away, and that the old theme was hopelessly obsolete (but purple! ♥), I figured it was about time I changed the theme, and since myGallery slideshows and feature nodes and excerpts are all the craze, I went for that.

However, unsatisfied with the most popular of these types of skins, Arras, due to it being less than HTML friendly when it comes to tables and the likes. Instead, I ended up finding a discontinued theme called Options which I then customized to fit my specific needs and criteria; kind of like I did with the old one, but a bit more extensive.

It still has a quite a few bugs here and there (like headers, lists, tags, etc.), not to mention tons of stuff that now needs editing, but I hope to be able work on it little by little while I study for exams, and then have it done by the time I leave for Serbia. All in all, even though it’s fra from done, I’m pretty happy with the result so far. What do y’all think about it?

Eeeeey, New Logo!

Hecko X — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:15:54 +0000

Look what I just made XD >>
It was based on this original by Madhatter.

Lulwut Update?

Hecko X — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:14:09 +0000

Ever had those times where you’ve been busy as a sannnnzamabitch, but it’s like you’ve haven’t really been doing anything? Yeah, totally, that’s where I am right now. Anywho, this update is just so to let peoplez know I’m not dead or injured or in a coma or kidnapped and held for ransom by a group of ninjas dressed like the Mushroom Kingdom’s version of the Village People.

I’ve been staying creative, making Flaming Ninja stuff on my deviantART account. Below is a small sample of the stuff I’ve made recently (click thumbnail for full image on DA). It’s mostly killing memes and making images for forum stuff.

Other than that I’ve been keeping busy with my year 1 project, which I had to present with my group a few days ago. In about a month and a half we will have to turn it in, so it’s exciting to see how it turns.

Of anime I’ve been following has been “Soul Eater“, which finished not long ago. I don’t plan on writing a review on it since it got pretty infamous in the West. Instead, I’ll most likely review “Ballad of a Shinigami“, which was recommended to me, and later on possibly also “Black Jack” (the first show). Also, I’m still waiting for “One Outs” to finish, which is probably the best series I’ve seen in the last six months.

What else, what else? Ehm… Events! Yuan-chan was at an animecon called Animania which she promised to write about, so look forward to that. Also, I’m helping out at the Sakura Festival here in DK next week, so I’ll be writing about that (hopefully with pics). Uuuuhm… Oh, yeah, and I’ve become the unofficial substitute English language teacher for a year 1 class at my former gymnasium, and apparently, I’m pretty popular =3

And that’s pretty much all from me for nauz, so stay safe peoplez, bai baiz ♥

Project Estimate: Phail!

Hecko X — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:17:28 +0000

Image is a joke reference to this. Anywho, I’ve been promised a few posts, but haven’t gotten any thus far, and with exams just a day and a half away, I don’t have time to post anything big myself. If not a single post makes it through before the end of the fourth week, I’m deeming this a complete failure and will be closing up M Dash for other authors until I see fit since the more I count on others to help with posts, the less I post myself. which leads to even more inactivity. Though, if anyone know of any blogs that do collabs, feel free to drop me a note in the comment section and tell me about them.

M Dash Opens to Outside Authors

Hecko X — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:03:18 +0000

Long story short, I’m entering a period of exams, which means me posting here will be sporadic at best since I also have other obligations in addition to having to study. As such, I’m opening up M Dash to other authors for a trial period of 3-4 weeks. If it goes well, I’ll consider keeping M Dash open, if it doesn’t go well, the idea gets canned. But for the time being, I’m counting on you to help keep this blog active =3

For those who remember, M Dash has had a post from an outside author before, which turned out to be quite popular for a little while, so I do have some hopes that this will turn out well (at least to some degree). However, since I’m not just gonna give free database access to a bunch of people, all posts will have to be sent to me by e-mail for a final check (spelling, grammar, and content) before being added to the blog, but once that’s done, you’re golden =3 I will of course make sure you get full credit for the work, no worries, so make sure to add your name or nick to the post.

Posting rules

•All posts are to be written in English, obviously, since this is a blog for an international audience.

•For the time being, I can only allow review and recommendation type posts, such as anime reviews and game reviews, since these are that much quicker for me to process. If you’ve been to a local event (this does not include a friend’s birthday party or the likes…) or con or something, then that is also okay to write about. If you’d like to recommend something, like a band/singer, artist (in the world of art), a website, or something like that, please write something about them/it and why you are recommending them/it. For an example of what could go in a singer recommendation, see this great post by Hopy.

•I do not allow posts that are self-advertising (i.e. reviews/recommendations of your own site/blog/products). If you want your site linked to from M Dash, link back to us and you’ll be added on the “Links” page.

•All posts are to be sent as attachements to my e-mail, vma_aka_unknown♣msn[dot]com (I trust you can “decipher” this), preferably as Word documents since this allows you to use images as well.

•If I feel the quality is a bit lacking or that it is too superficial, I will correspond with you so that you have a chance of improving your post, i.e. I won’t shut you down just because it wasn’t good enough the first time around. If it’s just stuff like spelling or grammar, then I’ll correct it, no worries =3

•Avoid doubles whenever possible. If something has already been reviewed, don’t review it again if your opinion is more or less the same, so if that’s the case, write a comment instead =3 If your review is the diametric opposite of an existing review (i.e. dissing it if the first review praised it, or vice versa), then it’s a-okay.

Finally, feel free to write it in your own style and setup, you don’t have to try and match mine ^^ So just because I write an anime review like this doesn’t mean you have to do the same. I might add breaks to your reviews though, if it improves readability, but I won’t change content.