Central Perk

We’re attending the wedding reception of a couple of good friends tomorrow night, and we’re both thoroughly looking forward to it, I even have a wee ‘rehearsal’ this evening. It’s always good to catchup with friends, and I just know that we’ll come away on Sunday morning saying “why don’t we get together more often”. Funny that.

I guess that sometimes friends just drift apart, it’s not easy when they do, especially if you’ve been close friends with someone for a long time, share a lot of history and yet despite the emotional ties something is missing and the friendship fizzles out. Shame. Thankfully this group of friends are the kind that you just pickup where you left off in June (at the R.E.M. concert) and continue from there… which means that a lot of alcohol will be consumed and Keith will end up making weird chocolate based cocktails. Yay!

Thanks for all the feedback on the new design, still a few changes to make yet – more after the “fold” if you are interested.

And finally, did anyone else catch the BBC Breakfast News around 8.10am this morning? The main newsreader (can’t recall her name) was halfway through the headlines when she got to a piece where “scientists have discovered that stuttering was..is..wa…has been linked to…”.

I’m not sure what else she said as Louise and I had dissolved into fits of giggles.

Right, some web design questions follow…
1. I’ve been searching for an easy (javascript) way to make the search form clear the default text when you click it. Google can be great sometimes, but for this kind of thing is proving a little too “generic” and I can’t be arsed wading through all the search results – suggestions?

2. I’m thinking of adding a “combined feed” that includes both the main posts and the miniblog posts. Any pointers on the easiest/best way to do this? I currently use FeedBurner so I’m wondering if that’s a way to do it?

3. I’m caught, again, between my preference for minimal site design and the fact that, as someone mentioned, it’s a very “generic” look. Graphic design isn’t my strong point, anyone want to make a few wild suggestions for me? And I’m not entirely happy with the top banner either…

Basically don’t expect to see this design for a wee while yet. The basic layout I’m happy with but there is still some tweaking to do and I’m not going to switch to this until it’s ALL ready (including archive, post and search result pages). Don’t hold you breath.