Well I'm back from an extended but unplanned break. I've been pretty much out of commission, other than an occasional appearance at praktike's Liberals Against Terrorism and my continued addiction to producing del.icio.us clippings (see sidebar).

I'd reached a point where posting here wasn't fun -- I found myself in a constant state of irritation with the blog's setup. Probably also reflected a lack of focus with what we should do with the site more generally, especially how to handle my predeliction for long-form blogging.

Guess I'm one of those folks who keep searching for the perfect combo. I want a system that's not super heavy-duty, with features I'll never need, or overly intimidating for the technology-challenged. It's not enough to have a basic publishing device that handles comments etc without constant spam hassles. I also want the blog to be a decent content management system that satisfies my magpie instincts, displays uniformly well in all browsers and sizes without requiring constant tending by a professional webdesigner, etc etc. Beauty, multi-functional, simple, and cheap. Like I don't want much, eh? So I've been off exploring lots of options, and we're now working on a better solution, probably WordPress.

In the meantime, however, I have succumbed to blog-envy, just looking at all the shiny new editions of my favorite old sites. So I decided that the least I could do was some quick remodeling of the old homestead with a reskin. I'm now in the process of tidying up the backend, which had gotten decidedly messy indeed -- like the upstairs linen closet where you stick all the odds & ends and suddenly one day can't find anything in it. The categories are partially reorganized -- still not finished but everything should be there -- and the old mammoth blogrolls are getting a major update and facelift. It's still a construction site, so mind your step.