New blog design tools? Cool!

I just had a chance to look over the "Blogger in Draft" site and immediately converted my dashboard to it. Blogger has some cool tools in there, and I can easily see myself poking around, experimenting in there.

Especially the Template Designer, which has the prospect of making very cool (in my opinion) designs and typography. One thing is: I have a hangup about the Georgia typeface--I really think it looks neat, with the serifs and the ascenders and descenders on numerals. And then I also like my pictures to be seen at full width--not cut off at the sides or shrunk down to fit.

Available picture width is something I have wrestled with for many hours. Maybe the adjustable widths in Template Designer will prove to be a permanent solution. After all (to be honest), I would have stuck with my basic Blogger template if it hadn't been so narrow (with so much empty space on the sides). I liked it otherwise.

So what are the winning ingredients for me? A cool background. Cool colors (literally--shades of blue and green). A cool header typeface. Large pictures. Bing, bang, and we're in business. I don't have time to get into the redesign project right away, but it may be sooner than later. If I can make the Blogger site look more attractive (by my highly subjective standards), then it's going to be more and more like home. And home is where I like to be.

Like now ... waiting for my wife to phone, telling me lunch is ready. Man does not eat by blogs alone, you know.

I also have to say (as I wait for the call--shouldn't be long now) that I am enjoying writing more by using my new approach: writing shorter, more personal posts to Blogger only and "for the general public" posts on the Efx3 and Vox sites. I can prepare those on Blogger, too, because of the autosave feature. All of a sudden, I'm not using Google Docs as much.

What I really need to do, though, is read more posts and get more involved with other blogs. My bloggy friends are special to me, and I have been largely ignoring them for way too long. Must correct that.

And, you know, not writing B as often also has an impact. Not writing such long letters so often opens up time and creativity for bloggy thoughts and ruminations. More food for thought. "It's an ill wind that blows no good."

Which brings up food ... and there's the phone call!