My sister likes watching cartoons here on NG, but doesn't do a whole lot else. She really should post something more exciting on her blog, a user photo for starters.

I do love how she used her only blog post to promote the staff page, but still... she needs motivation to pimp that bitch out.

Man these pink buttons really clash with all the orange still hanging around the layout.

Not that I'm suggesting anyone actually do something about it. Heaven knows what a nightmare THAT would be. Form fields, emoticons, header text, the little search bar magnifying glass. As if we didn't have enough to do already...

So we've made a change to the BBS today. I won't bother describing it since it's detailed in the accompanying image, but I will say I like it.

At first I was skeptical, since I was simply used to seeing it one way and it seemed like devoting time to such a small detail was a waste. But Tom was insistent and I agreed to mock it up for him eventually. Now after seeing it live I'm fully on board. No need to use 6 lines when 3 will do, and since Experience is just a further breakdown of Level anyway, it was extremely redundant.

The best part is that it's a surprise for Tom. He mentioned he really, really wanted it taken care of, but has no idea we made the change yet. When he logs on tonight after putting in a long day at PAX it'll be there to remind him that we're still working hard back east.

I'm meeting with Abner, one of Ross' programming friends/ex-coworker Friday to discuss the new store.

We sat down over a month ago to go over initial framework using Stampers mock-ups, and shortly after I mocked up some HTML pages for him to implement. But we haven't spoken since then so I'm really curious to see if he made tons of headway on his own or if I still have some work to do.

All the indices and individual pages were done, and the back-end functional stuff doesn't have to be terribly pretty so I'm thinking positively. We still have to deliver the cart page to him and there's a bit of CSS stuff to work out where shipping labels are concerned. There is also the issue of how powerful this store will be, like order tracking and account crediting in the Userpages; all that stuff has to be discussed, developed, and tested so it could take a while.

It's a shame, too, since we have some absolutely mouthwatering stuff to announce.

I'm as bad at updating this blog as I am at posting to my own site.

I've been a little busy lately with summer stuff like family vacations and home renovations, not to mention out-of-the-ordinary (for me, at least) Comicon trips and NG Store duties. Speaking of which...

We have SO many shirts right now in the store. I hope to have time to make a formal front page post in the next day or two announcing that we finally got our shipment in and that all backorders have been filled. We have a crapload of new designs, too, though we're waiting until just the right time before debuting them all. Those who had a chance to see them at Comicon will be the only ones to have them for a few more weeks at least.

Today, the last of the orders and prizes will be shipped out and the process will begin anew.

Thanks for your bug reports. We have them on file.

Man, it was so hard finding a picture of myself for my userpage I just gave up. There simply aren't any recent photos of me without a giant afro.

I jokingly announced back in February that I wasn't going to cut my hair until the redesign was launched. I had no idea that it would take until mid-summer to finally pump this thing out. So, here I am without any pictures of myself that match the user icon of myself that Jeff created for me over a year ago. (It also doesn't help that I've gained a bunch of weight, either.)

But I'll work on shaving off this mane o' hair and uploading some fantastic pic of myself soon. Until then, enjoy the layout that we've been working on for the past year. I'm proud to be the father of the CSS portion of the design. There are a few things that I could have done a little cleaner, but hindsight is always 20/20. There's still plenty left to do, but even before we get to that there is plenty of stuff that I've written since this first little bit that we're just not ready to debut yet. Just prepare yourself: it's going to be a feature-laden year.