a show of weakness

Style
I love first impressions. They can be intoxicating, that initial onrush of sights, smells, sounds before analytical thought processes take over to carve the moment into associative experience. Most first impressions are mundane; we experience similar encounters countless times throughout our life. Once in a while though, an impression calls itself out. Visiting your site was one such experience.

Your site layout is very nearly perfect. Even though I am staunchly opposed to using scrolling divs (formerly known as iframes or ilayers), you have used one effectively, as a stylistic device. Most people use them without good reason, they add no positive value to their layout. Your layout demands it. But I simply must know if the template is your design or borrowed from a template foundry.

Beyond the template, there are two minor things to change: the broken image and text for your x70stitches link and the 1 pixel border in your global navigation. The copy around the x70stitches link is trying to use the wingdings font. As a Macintosh user, I don't have wingdings, so the characters become a lower-case 'z' and a big 'ý'. It's an honest mistake, but something to keep in mind when applying specific fonts (not everyone viewing your site may have the font). Remove the border around the top row of links in your navigation. I understand you're trying to call them out, but it's not necessary. Simply by being on the top row, they have stronger presence than the others. The border just looks out of place.

Substance
Yours is the first site where I find myself wanting more to read. The tone is heartfelt, sincere, unpretentious and engaging. Grammar and spelling are lacking, but this will come as no surprise (#6) to you. In the short term, at least use proper capitalization. I enjoy your writing style. Most diaries I've read, by people your age, typically annoy me with their self-satisfied, arrogant, sophomoric tone. Reading your diary actually made me care what happens to you (and that is no small achievement).

On pages such as rings, quizzes, dollies, you have to be careful. The content window is very narrow, which is fine for text, but nightmarish for graphics. Most webrings require posting their garish tags and so should be avoided. Those horrible webring images never match the site layout (and god help anyone whose site design does match); they stick out more like a wart than a star. This is true for most graphical links not created as part of the site design.

Suggestions
You don't have many posts, but it appears this is your third diary (and the best so far, I looked). Stick with this one, sunshine, and load it up. Obviously, you are no stranger to positive site reviews and I'll not break with that trend. Keep working on your grammar and spelling, clean up those links pages. You have a goodly amount of talent; sharpen your skills and you could be formidable.

A-
I'll be back in a couple weeks to see how you're doing.

Jon