Image Gallery!

Even though I've been busier today than I feared (what with it being Super Bowl Sunday and all), I did still manage to get a very exciting thing done - I created Gallery Galiana! http://galianachance.com/gallery

I wanted a simpler web-based way to deliver groups of pictures for sale, especially now that I'm getting a new camera (any day now!). I can easily enter captions, protect albums which are pay-to-view, and have the user experience be a little more feature-rich than I am willing to build on my own. On Friday, I realized that my hosting provide had free image galleries available as auto-installer scripts, so all I had to do was compare features, install, configure, and I was good to go!

Each individual task was simple enough to do, but of course, it took time to read through all the options, make changes, test things, and the inevitable "scrap the whole thing and reinstall because you'll be sorry later if you don't" ... twice. At least I'm predictable.

I have two galleries ready for your perusal, if you don't mind helping me out and testing them, please. Thanks!

First, a free, public album, of pictures from my 40th birthday celebration shoot in September which have been posted on the blog in one form or another. http://galianachance.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1

Then a "private" album, which means it's password protected, which are a few of my favorite pictures from the at-home amateur-photographer photo shoot I did in July 2010, including one topless. The password for it is "reader" -- as in blog reader, because blog readers who read this post will get access to it for free! http://www.galianachance.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=4

It would be a huge help to me if you could go check them out, play with the features, and let me know what you think. I can't make changes to the core functionality, but if you have ideas for how it could work best, I'd love to hear them.

It's fantastic to be able to deliver photo content in a different way. And honestly, it's tons easier for me than the way I was doing it, now that it's all set up. I'll still continue to deliver a .zip file with all the pictures, but many people can't do downloads, or want access from their phone. I'm thrilled I can provide it.

I love that you can view them as a slide show. I love that you can click on individual pictures to see a higher-resolution version. And of course, I love the ability to write captions easily.

Those three things together, well, this was a triumph. Making a note here, huge success. (apologies to non-gamers for that last reference...) Well, look at me still talking when there's science to do! (stop that, GLaDOS, just stop it right now) Anyway, this cake is great. (give. me. back. my. blog, dammit.) Ahem. I apologize. We had to tear a few things to pieces and burn them. We seem to be okay now.

(someone should stop me from posting after midnight...)

Anyway, hopefully now picture sets can be released more rapidly, and be available in more formats. Yay! Goooooo Galiana!

What I Did On My Day "Off"

I took a 36-hour break from being logged in to NiteFlirt. In theory, it was my first day off in over a month. In reality, Thursday was a true night off, where I did nothing "productive" while I watched a Mythbusters episode and chatted with friends.

But on Friday, ... 

I registered galianachance.com (hosted by a company who is fine with adult content, and who offers WHOIS privacy - nice). The host hasn't enabled it, and there's nothing on it yet, but it's mine!

I took the first steps to research blogging, e-commerce, and content management packages for when my site is set up. Those are long-term projects, but it was interesting to look into, and much less intimidating to think about now that I've learned a few things. For example, if I had my own e-commerce package, I could potentially set up a pay-for-text-chat system, which is not offered through NiteFlirt.

I posted the "Gentle Fun" mp3 for sale and blogged about its release here.

I cleaned my computer of a particularly nasty virus, which was posing as anti-virus software. I also took the time while doing that to delete unused programs, change boot settings for crap I didn't need to launch every time I logged in, and do a comprehensive disk scan (virus & corruption/defrag). My little laptop purrs like a kitten now.

I drafted 4 awesome blog entries - a new series - which are ready to hit "publish" on rainy days when I have nothing else in mind. Keeping secrets is not my natural state... will I be able to withhold them? Ohhhhh the suspense...

I set up a Google AdWords account, which I will eventually use to advertise the blog. If it brings in readers who turn into callers (or Kindle blog subscribers), it would be worth a small daily investment. It will be relatively easy to track, since I usually ask new callers why they chose to talk with me, and people who come in from channels other than NiteFlirt (my blog / Twitter) tend to say so. 

I did the horrible, tedious, repugnant, soul-sucking, skin-crawling task of recording my voice greetings for phone callers for ALL 14 Mistress Galiana listings, ALL 14 Hypno Galiana listings, and my new Role Playing Smart Fun Galiana listing. (No me gusta la repetición. That's right. Mmmhmmm. I dislike repetition so much that I couldn't even say the word in English. Repetition, you totally just got served.)

... Thankfully, I used the last of my Godiva chocolates and some amusing texts from a friend to cheer me on while I expressed my desire to bash my head against the wall to motivate my way through it. I heard those voice prompts twenty... nine... times... (Did I mention that I'm not a big fan of repetitive tasks? If you say that I'm repeating myself, I will punch you in the shmoo. Don't think I won't.)

... But seriously, I'm very proud of myself to have knocked that out. It is not my favorite type of task, so it was hard for me to do, but it is in my best long-term interests to have it done. And it's not something I could do while being logged in, so it was perfect.

I figured out how to spend a few recent Amazon gift cards - I had been trying to use up all my random bath and body products before buying anything new, and I am finally at the exciting place to buy new stuff. I haven't figured out the complete shopping cart yet, but I'm looking forward to feeling pampered!

Measured stuff in the Fuckatorium to get it ready to reorganize. Again. Of course. This time, it's to set it up for camera / video... Or at least, "cam/video set up version 1", since I'm sure I'll change my mind a bazillion times. I didn't actually start moving stuff because my husband was also having a surge of energy to knock old items off his to-do list, and I had no desire to interrupt that, since some of those benefit me greatly as well. I'll have him help me when the camera actually arrives, and he's out of good ideas for himself.

I guess the rare snow day in Austin must be inherently domestically productive, because we were both on fire with getting stuff done. If you can't leave the house, you might as well shorten your to-do list, right? Right!

So now, naturally, my to-do list is... ummm.... wait... longer?!? What the hell, Chance...

Why is it that when I get stuff done, I always think of more to do?