The old version of this site used nested tables for layout, a single 800×600 background gif, and a hit counter gif I'm fairly sure was tracking me back. It looked exactly like every other site I loved when I was thirteen. This version keeps the spirit and throws out the tables.

what stayed

The marquee. The webring badges in the footer. The desktop-window chrome around everything, like each section is its own little program running on a shared desktop. The hanko stamp instead of a plain date - it felt more like actually marking a day than "3 days ago" does.

what changed

Everything under the hood. No tables, no frames, no auto-playing MIDI file (I thought about it, then thought about my readers' ears). The type is set properly instead of default Times New Roman, the colors are chosen instead of whatever came free with the desktop theme, and the whole thing is one stylesheet instead of copy-pasted inline styles on every page.

the part I'm proudest of

The little status ticker on the homepage that types itself out on load. It does nothing useful. I love it anyway. Some things on a personal site are allowed to exist purely because they're charming.

Anyway, time to make the guestbook!