Some quick questions about the blog.

So far, what do you like and not like about the new blog look? You don't have to go crazy, but I really value other people's perspectives since I'm too close to the thing to be objective.

I fixed some of the spacing in the footers of each post.

It's very minimal, yet resizes dynamically and I'm using larger photos. Do you like this? Or does it make the page choppy on your system?

Would you like to see a sidebar of some kind that listed archived posts, or had widgets like a fancy analogue clock and links to other sites/blogs of interest, a poll of the day, that kind of stuff like you see on many other sites?

What about a chat box like Mandula's blog has, where anyone can leave comments?

I was thinking about going with white and a steely blue as my main color scheme. The background is currently white and the titles are blue (I may tinker with the RGB values for the blue a little). I was thinking about making a logo in Photoshop that would also use the same color of blue and maybe look crytaline, with white flecks of light as though you were looking at a brilliant-cut sapphire. And maybe a drop shadow to make it float or a bevel to make it feel 3D. Any opinions?

Right now, I've put the archives on the bottom, as well as the search bar. It's my experience that no one uses the search feature on a blog, but the archives might be a bit obscure down there. I reduced the number of posts that display vertically at one to half the number, so it should still load fairly quickly even with larger pictures. That puts more posts into the archives, but also makes the end of the page come up more quickly when scrolling, where you can find the archives in the first place.

I like the flourish between the posts a lot, and no, I will not give away the graphic file. Sorry. But I can teach you how to embed things like it in your own Style Sheet. In fact, I don't mind helping anyone with anything. I don't know a lot, but I'm a fast learner. I don't mind even designing graphical elements or schemes for people, though usually people want to do that part themselves.

I will probably center almost every graphic - photo or other visual element (video, graph, and so on) - because it retains a nice look as the window is resized. And title for pictures and famous quotes and snippets of text like that will probably get centered. But I hate centered paragraphs of text, so I really want to keep them flush-left. Agree or disagree?

What about the main body font? Readable? Suitable or boring? Too small, just right, or too large? Anything you'd change.

I'm open to all kinds of suggestions. In all my design work I like to start with nothing, or at least the bare minimum, and then build onto it only as is vitally needed. I never start with something elaborate and then start removing things. I guess that would mean I'm an architect and not a sculptor.

I like negative space too, and I like that so far this design has plenty of it. It never feels cramped or busy. Having no ads or widgets helps, but I think the spacing padded white spacing around each post helps, and the colors are cool and soothing, or are they boring?

Photographers like to work against grey backgrounds on their monitor, their light table, and in their display galleries, because that way the eye forgets the boring grey and attention is thrown on to the work itself. Do you think this current design has that effect, making pictures and polls and things stand out and not distracting the eye?

What about rollover effects - links that glow blue slightly when you hover over them, things like that... Cool and futuristic, or lame and annoying?

How about a music player that stays put in some corner and plays music like a jukebox while you're visiting (but can be muted)? Or would that just be clutter, and you have your own music players anyway...

Should there be a blog with serious stuff on it and a second one with polls, quizzes, music, and video clips? Or do you like it all jumbled in one blog, like trailmix?

Any opinions would be great :-D