Well, by all accounts the new MegaGear store should be up and running. Unfortunately, when we launched the store Saturday afternoon, we discovered that the two servers running the store (Mai and Sayruri) didn't have anywhere near the capacity needed to handle the load.

E-commerce sites do take at lot of horsepower to run, and given our setup (one chosen to provide the best level of secure shopping i could afford and pull together) the problem is just a question of horsepower. We underestimated what we would need, by a lot it seems, and as a result I'm in a panic trying to pull together a plan to acquire the additional servers needed to handle the load. I am looking into getting the additional servers we'll need ASAP as well as working with keith and others to find the best way to optimize things so that we can handle the traffic. Luckily, i think this can be fixed, it's just gonna be a little painful on the plastic. ^^;;

I apologize for the problem. We should have done a better job of assessing what we'd need. When you consider the fact that the servers collapsed and i never even announced that things were open - it was only reported in the forums - Mai and Sayuri need help. We have been working very hard on the store, and no one is more disappointed than we are that it's not up.

In fact, after exhaustive talks with a lot of people, and trying desperately to figure out what we should do, we reached a point where it was clear that nothing could be done until monday. It's kinda hard to describe how i felt. Depressed, angry, frustrated, tired, sad, an odd mix of all those things that really left me feeling oddly blank. Sarah and i went home and dusted off and unwrapped a few of the DVDs that have been sitting on the coffee table. By four AM we had sat through most of Kino's Journey... for some reason, it made me feel better about things, i don't know why. There is a bizarre, surrealistic feel to this series. This is not a beautiful world indeed. But maybe that's part of what gives it a kind of beauty. It was just the kind of somber, oddly twisted and tweaked story you will find on the disks.

Today it's sunday, and i feel drained, and tired, and after spending most of the morning talking with many people (including several people who have experience with the system are using and are really helping us figure things out :) i need to turn over and start working on Monday's comic.

If you tried to visit the store yesterday - thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the problems. We will do everything we can to get things online and working properly as soon as possible.

we'll get this thing off the ground eventually. We just need a bit more road. :P