New look

*UPDATE: it looks like Mobile Safari doesn’t deal with static background images very well.

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Maybe you noticed the new blog theme. If not, take a closer look. It’s hard to miss. I showed it to my editor (Cheryl) and her response was: “It looks kind of cool, but I like colors. This looks kind of depressing.”

It’s good advice, but I’m keeping it for now anyway. I’m not sure I’m cool with the degree of transparency in the posts – in Safari and Firefox for Mac anyway. I’m not sure I have the patience right now to fire up Windows on the iMac to see how the poor, unfortunate souls trapped in Windows will fare. Blogs with text that’s hard to read is a peeve of mine… and now I fear I’m sinking to their level. What good is a blog if you can’t read it? Though, in this case maybe it’s a blessing ;-)

We’ll see how it goes. I’ve been testing various backgrounds on my test blog. And yes, I have such a thing. I had been working on converting a three column theme I saw a while back to two columns. What the heck, just for kicks (mine, not yours) you can see it here (a rough version anyway).

This background picture seemed to fit both my mood, and was something that wasn’t too busy (not a lot of sharp and changing contrasts that would interfere with the foreground). I’m fond of this particular picture for a couple reasons. One, I took it on an awesome hike with Adam along the beach on a rare foggy day. Second, it reminds me of my mother, during her saner days. She used to like to drive out to the Dunedin causeway and watch the pelicans fish. I used this image for the cover of a picture book I had made for her for her birthday last year.

Maybe you wouldn’t believe it from the tone I often take, but I’m my own biggest fan… with more returning hits than any other source. I’m weird that way. Although the colors are dark, the picture itself reminds me of my mother’s better days.

So for now it stays. I hope it won’t turn you away.