I've had a few late nights this week. Because it was time for a remodel. And remodels happen best at night. And I just hope my new neighbors don't have sensitive ears. Because my office shares a wall with them. And there have been keyboard taps coming from over here. Lots of 'em. Tap. Tap. Tap. Remodels can be loud affairs.

Remodels also works best when all the lights are out, save one. Sitting in a shadowed room. Headphones on, all snug and complete. Tonight it's been a lot of the Soul Coughing that fills them. And I'm mouthing lyrics here . . . Irresistible. Bliss. — And ever since then I got disseminated. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. It just flows better this way.

And so, as you may have noticed unless you're reading this from a feed reader, nicolasix has been spruced up a bit. Some new color. A wider look. A more newsy feel. A lot of the ideas for the look and functionality have been fueled by a project I'm working on right now for a client. That tends to happen a lot. As I work out problems in other projects, it gives me ideas for my own site. And it's great when that happens — when the pro work you do fuels your personal work.

And so I'm writing this now at 3am and, well, there's not much else to say. I'll post this in the morning because right now it's difficult to see what I've just written. Yep, there's really no telling. I can tell there are words there on the screen, but I'm not really sure what they say. Sometimes my head just reaches that buzzing conclusion of no more input. But I can still output. I just don't know if it makes sense or not. And no amount of Soul Coughing can drown out the sound of those sheets calling me. So distracting.

So real quick, a few things to point out:

1) Most people's screens are set for 1080 pixels and above these days, so the wider default layout shouldn't be too big a problem. But if yours isn't and you're getting a horizontal scroll bar in your browser, then try clicking the 'Narrow' link at the top right of the page, or in the footer. This will make it more comfortable for you 800 x 600 people. And your setting will be kept on that computer, so when you come back again and again (hint, hint) you won't have to make the adjustment each time.

2) As you can probably tell, with the new layout you can expect more photo posts. That was one of my primary motivations for the remodel.

3) Two other sites deserve some mention here, as I drew some ideas from each of them. First, a site I discovered recently: 5ThirtyOne. This one sort of confirmed in my head that, yes, it would be alright to use a more newsy-themed layout for a blog. So thanks for that. Second, I've always loved the way suicide blond's comment form was laid out, all tarski style, so I borrowed that general concept for mine. Again, thanks.

As usual, all content is driven by my own ColdFusion code and styled with my own CSS templates . . .

So that's about it. Let me know what you think. What you like. Or don't. Ideas for things to add. Or subtract.

And have a good weekend.

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