woot!

Looks good. And glad to have you back.

Looking sweet Matt :) Nice design, very clean.

Day.Month.Year in post headers a little confusing though.

Hi Matt,

You’re back! I missed you and I also missed the new digs. Does it feel good to be done? Hope you have a great trip to the Green Isle.

I didn’t even see the new site before you went back to the old one. D’oh.

ay ay ay. Spam Karma, set to the “kinda mean” setting, has been zapping comments left and right. Sorry about that. I’ve recovered most, if not all of them. Hopefully, this won’t happen again.

Looks like the verdict on the new design was not as lopsided as I thought.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and for visiting. I’m astounded that anyone is even reading this, since I notified only a few people about the new design. Magic of RSS, I guess.

@Lizzy: While I did finish my dissertation, I’m not truly done yet — the readers still have to approve it, and I still have to defend it. But I’m most of the way there, and yes, that feels very, very good.

I did have a great trip to Ireland; I hope to write about it here at some point. In the meantime, I’ll be posting shots from the trip on flickr.

@Karl: Fixed. Thanks. That’s one of the frustrations of using a theme written by Europeans!

Finally . . . I just wanted to say that I’m only kinda back, at least so far. It’s going to be hard to get back into the swing of things; and I’m not even sure I want to be as “in the swing of things” as I used to be. I don’t want to burn out again.

Thanks again to everyone.

dammit, i missed the unveiling. but glad to see you back anyways. onward to world cup blogging!

I’m going to try this again, see if I get zapped:

I like the new design. The old one wasn’t bad, but the new look is just a bit more to my liking.

I like it. Hilarious photo. And the design nicely highlight any photo in the future you may want to put up there if you get tired of this one.

I love it. It’s fresh (it’s so fresh), exciting, it’s so exciting to me.

I like the new look.

Thanks, everyone. The spam filter continues to feast on submitted comments; I’ll be sure to check the bin regularly and rescue any that get swallowed up. But if you submit something and it doesn’t show here, please contact me. And please don’t be offended if it considers your comment to be spam; it’s nothing personal!

Wuv it!

Welcome back, dear Matt.

XOXO

Welcome back, Matt!!!

WELCOME BACK MATT!!!

I missed your lovely and literate blog. I’m so glad to see it up and running again. I have since started my own little thing, called The Last Duchess and will add you to my list of favorite blogs as soon as I get back–I am now fleeing St. Pete due to Hurricane Alberto.

Kudos on the new look.

Hooray! Matt is back!

Yay! Welcome back! :-)

Matt, you stopped blogging? What the hell did I miss?

Spam filtered too. Damn, and I wasn’t even trying sell you my new penis enlarger and cheap speed package. But now that I mention it, the package is yours for the low price of $49.32 plus handling.

Hello my name is Mrs. Obaga Mobutu and I would like to offer you 80% of my deceased husband’s estate. It is estimated to be worth $2.5 billion and is located in the Central Kenyan Bank…

Welcome back homey!

Like the new look very much, clear and clean, though I will admit my brain is craving some small demarcation between elements. Maybe just a tiny line between posts? A tiny line between content and sidebar? Or a subtle backround difference? Something of that nature.

Also let it be known: I hate the ads, but… well… I’m a stubborn dolt who refuses to reap even the tiniest rewards. You know best.

Again, welcome back. Very much looking forward.

welcome back matt!

i’m not so crazy about the new look (sorry!)
the text is a little too big and spread out for me.

will you be at dl tomorrow?

Thanks so much, everyone. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this warm welcome back.

About the design: I’m still refining it. I like Jamie’s idea of adding borders to make it more readable.

The site runs a little too big for an 800×600 browser; when I looked at the stats before the redesign, I saw that only 4% of readers were using 800×600, and I thought it would be okay to go bigger. Today, however, that number is up to 15% — a number I can’t ignore. I’ll have to minimize the header image a bit to make it fit.

I’m considering a serif font for the site, but, having been part of the web-design generation that shifted from serifs to non-serifs, I find it hard to go there.If you have further suggestions, please send them my way. Thanks for your patience and your help.

borders added; I think it helps make the site more readable without distracting from the design — but please let me know what you think. Thanks for the suggestion, Jaime!

I’ve also shortened the header image; the entire site should fit into an 800×600 browser now. . .

the borders help a lot matt!

thanks, somegirl. I also went to a slightly smaller, serif font for the main text, which should also help make it more readable.

Hey Matt, funny interacting with you on your blog instead of over at Flickr. My thumbs up on the design! Very cool. I might have to ask for tips for my tired-looking blog.

My comment got eaten yesterday….Poor me. :(

Or would that be…poor you? :)

I love the new design. I think it’s crisp and happenin’ dude!

Blue Girl, you have my deepest apologies. The filter is ravenous, and must be fed. Luckily, it burped you back up.

Thanks for the comments on the new design.

Kyuboem, it’s good to see you over here. Thanks, and welcome!

One more spam filter note: I’m playing with the settings in an effort to avoid this problem, but it keeps happening. If you think you’ll comment more than once here, it might be worth registering with the site (link just above the comment form).

It takes only a minute, and I swear on Bill Clinton’s presidency that I will not sell your private information to thirteen-year old hackers.

hey i’m registered and the spam filter is still eating my comments…also is there some way for my name and email/url to be saved here? it’s kinda a pain to have to reenter my info every time.

somegirl, let me look into that. many apologies.