Revision

Well, I said I felt like a change so here it is. I had been thinking about redesigning the Souzek Republic since I implemented Dinka's new site ideas and a couple of months later, I finally got around to doing something about it. I wanted to change for a few reasons: the novelty of the old design was wearing off, the challenge of doing a lighter, CSS-based site was calling me, and I didn't feel like I was producing enough content to fill the original concept. So I consolidated the four thin sections (weblog, media, contact, resume) into one page, implemented a few ideas that had been bouncing around for a while and slapped a new face on it. I have never claimed to be a web designer and this page represents that as well as anything. Over the course of designing this page I found out why websites have gone away from the traditional newspaper layout: 1) it's difficult to accomplish in this form, and 2) it doesn't make much sense. I still have mixed feelings about the design but it's growing on me and I think that ultimately the change will be a good thing.

If you would be so patient, I would like to offer some explanation for a few of the new things on the site:

• I modeled the top of the page after the New York Times because I enjoy their design, but that was probably obvious.
• For users with more advanced browsers, you may notice an Olde English "S" in your address bar or browser tab. That's right, the Souzek Republic now has a favicon.
• We are now valid XHTML 1.0 strict and valid CSS2.
• You can now access the site at http://souzek.com/lincoln/ instead of /lincoln/blog/. The old way will continue to work (I hope) but there's no reason for those extra five keystrokes now.
• The picture to the right will often accompany the latest post but not all posts necessitate a picture so occasionally a photo might stay up for a week or two, depending on how much I like it.
• The Briefs section below will feature short one-line links (with their sources to the left) to articles, news items, essays, etc. that I have read and found interesting but don't feel the need to expound on. I anticipate that this will be a regularly updated section of the site and I hope I can present an interesting mix of ideas.
• In keeping with my newly found newspaper spirit, I would like to occasionally publish entries from contributing writers. Like a good anesthetic, the contributions should be topical and timely. Everyone is certainly eligible for this, so feel free to email me with any ideas.

And finally, I am launching this new look at this particular time because I am the type of person that, while undertaking a project like this, cannot do or think about anything else until it's completed. For the last week I've been working on these pages from the couch and quite honestly, I need to get this out there so I can get on with my life. I have Christmas shopping to do, a wife and child to spend time with, a Netflix queue waiting on me and a host of other things to undertake. So with that being said, the code might not be as robust as I would like it to be. I've only tested it on Internet Explorer 6 and Mozilla Firebird 0.7 on Windows 2000 and although its standards-compliance should ensure compatibility, you just never know. I don't even know if my colored links look decent because I'm working on a laptop with a half-crippled video card. So report your problems and bear with me.

And now I deserve some sleep.