adding mine to the list

yea ..unfortunately it’s orange on some monitors, and red on others (intended color) .. so a more neutral, harder to misinterpret color may be better.
can you elaborate on ‘it’ in regards to making ‘it’ a bit smaller?
thanks for the feedback ! — michael

I like what you’ve done with the layout, but agree with MaxT about that background, the colour just isn’t working with the rest of the colour scheme (being grey).
It almost looks like a rust colour to me. I’d love to see you use something in the blue tones, but it IS your space afterall, so do what works for you.

i found something in a blue hue that is subtle enough to not be annoying (pattern/boldness) and enhance … different, slightly better even … thanks!

can you elaborate on ‘it’ in regards to making ‘it’ a bit smaller?

try to replace your p styling with this:
p {
color: #000;
font: normal 11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
}

nod …just wasnt sure what element you were referring to. changed some of the grey too …still deciding if i like it.

btw, your link to archives from calendar is broken… (try to click on “29” in your calendar)

hmm, i haven’t the slightest idea where the calender pulls those links from. the other permalinks seem to be functioning ok. any thoughts?

from mysql db…
not really… try to replace bit that displays the calender from original release. Or whole file that does it (not sure about it right now).

thanks .. that gives me a place to start; will mess around with it later this weekend.

This could be very very cool, so my input is only to support what is already a really neat piece of design. It is not criticism. I think the menu set up is too large proportionately for the content. There is no footer which I think would really bring it all back together. Finally that red border adjacent to the first post stops and is kind of hanging there. There are a number of workarounds. Other than those minor details, this site is lovely because at least to my eyes looks very original. It will be “designer quality” when finished and it puts mine to shame.
Welcome to Word Press

thanks for the feedback! i agree with you on the red border … after staring at it the last few days i decided it was unecessary. ditto on the footer, and once i get my pages to validate i’ll add it with all of my usual footer links (its absolutely embarrassing to have those there … and then find out they dont validate). and you brought up a good point about the menu … something i really hadnt paid much attention to. so that too, i’ll stare at and tweak until it finds its desireable width.
again, you all have been most helpful (still working on the calender archive link issue if anyone has ideas) and i appreciate your thoughts and opinions!
— michael

OH …forgot to ask. i’m still iffy on the dark #rap background … what do you think? lighten it up …just fine …darker?
i learned a long time ago with my art not to ask unless i was ready to hear the word ‘awful’ so you certainly won’t hurt my feelings on this.
— michael

it’s definitely shaping into something nice ?? … your comments have certainly been more than helpful in tweaking some of the small things that can make or break a design.
i guess i’ll stick around … ya’ll sorta seem nice … kinda … ??
thanks again — michael

Lovely. Just lovely!
The #rap background – perhaps a tad lighter, but not much.
The menu – not sure if you made it smaller already (after Root’s post), but it looks fine in size to me, I wouldn’t make it smaller.
A few other suggestions: The dashed border under the links when hovered over is a bit white for my taste. Perhaps a light grey would look better, I’m not sure, but it kind of sticks out. Also, all the links turn the same (as far as I can tell) blue colour on hover – all except the “posted by” links that don’t change their colour. Maybe they should turn the same blue colour, just for conformity’s sake (and supposing it doesn’t look bad, of course).
And then there are the search input field and the ‘choose month’ radio box. I think they’d look much better if you gave them a greyish background colour to fit with the whole grey theme (the search input field could then perhaps become white when you click on it instead).
Just my two cents for an already very neato design ??

you bring up a good point Oisin, yet i think that if i was completely devoid of color it would be a bore to the eyes. so i made some minute changes to the layout to bring some consistency (both across all links) and in concept. I tried a little darker dashed underline on the hover, per your suggestion, and i quite agree.
i also decided to ‘create’ the concept behind my design “color in a colorless world” … the main layout being surrounded by subtle blue, blue and green links turning to grey hues when hovered, and the occasional image preview in the posts.
“he’s gone a tad overboard in thinking this all out” you may be saying …but by doing so, i now have a benchmark for every element, every piece of the site … if it doesn’t fit with the design concept, then it doesn’t go in. that idea in itself is not something new to me, however i was having trouble narrowing down what exactly my design theme was. so thanks!
— michael