Back in the day, when I was in high school and even later while I was considering doing studying graphic design in college, I used to do a redesign every couple of months. It’s a bit late, so I’ll put up a proper post later, but if this design is a) too small for your computer to see, b) too hard to read, or c) too reminiscent of a blog advertising a laundry detergent in the 1970s, be sure to let me know!

Next redesign coming around June, when I temporarily make this my trip blog. Less than 8 months to go before I take off, and man, am I excited. The plan is currently:

Aug 08 Australia, Papua/Vanuatu/NZ (?)
Sept 08 Japan, Western China
Oct 08 China, South Africa
Nov 08 SE Africa
Dec 08 Kiliminjaro (?), Central Africa
Jan 09 Burma, SE Asia
Feb 09 SE Asia, India
Mar 09 India, Mideast, Egypt
Apr 09 Turkey, Balkans
May 09 Italy, France
Jun 09 Spain, Venezuela, Brazil
Jul 09 Peru, Argentina

I think this schedule does a reasonable job of being cost-efficient, arriving in places when the weather is reasonably good, and avoiding high tourist seasons, so I can’t imagine any major changes at this point. The more the merrier, so email me if you want to join along in any of these places!

pretty sick design!

In both Firefox and Safari, if the window is too narrow, the pictures overlap the text. Also, Allison says “It looks like it should belong to a 16-year-old girl.” As long as I’m commenting, I might also note that I’ve been disappointed by the continuing lack of “sweater puppies” and hot tubs in your latest posts.

Yup, the pics def overlap in any browser if the window is less than 1000px. I figure there are very few people with windows that small these days (any widescreen and any monitor 1024×768 or larger is fine).

Maybe I’ll throw some js in there today to narrow the text box if you have a smaller window, but below like 800px, it’s just not worth making it.

Yellow is too girly for Allison? I would agree with her if I had a photo of JT and little thought bubbles with bad poetry around…

Hope WA treating you well, and that you’ve got a good umbrella!

OK, I added a liquid float for the text column, and moved it over a good 30px, so if the text is covered here, your screen width is less than 900px or so, and even sites like ESPN are going to give you horizontal scroll bars, so you need a bigger browser if that’s the case!

I hope the entire nine hours between your posts wasn’t spent adjusting the text width! Anyway, I realize that most screens are considerably bigger than 1000px, but I doubt I’m the only one who works with a lot of windows open, many of them not full screen.

WA is indeed treating me well. My umbrella’s a piece of shit, but I hardly ever use it since it tends not to rain very hard here (Monday excepted, as you may have seen in the news…). I should have some good physics papers out in the next few months… I’ll keep you posted.

with luck i’ll be in argentina or chile around july ‘09, too.

the design looks awesome.

hope you’re well!

Jess: Def be in Argentina then - it will be the place to be! What are you planning on doing down there?

Kevin, I just discovered your site and read the tips on money and credit cards. Do you know the salary limit on qualifying for an IRA and a Roth IRA? Also, please tell me how in the world you are financially able to travel every month of the year? Are you independently wealthy? What is you job?

1) I’m not sure about the IRA requirements, I’m afraid.

2) Not independently wealthy, I’m afraid (indeed, as my Dad about as much debt as my lifetime earnings, I probably qualify as independently poor!). Travel is cheap, however - if you don’t mind hostels and buses, it can be cheaper than what you pay for rent, food, car, etc. living at home. I’m planning to start a phd in 2009, so next year is a good time for me to take some time out, since I’m not married, have no kids and am not in debt.

3) I’m a garden-variety economist (currently with the Fed).