It has come to my attention, through talking with a few people recently (and having to dig through my own diary in order to send certain URLs for things people missed), that the current format for this diary may not be entirely suited to my needs. What I'd like to do, if possible (which might be unlikely), is have a hybrid 'WebLog' type diary with a cookie that knows the last post you read. For instance, if it's been three days since you visited, and I've written four posts in that time, upon visiting this site the next time you'd see the four posts you HAVEN'T seen yet on the front screen (with the option to search the archives, which would be divied differently than the opening page--maybe by week, for instance). If you usually visit once a day, and one day I happen to have two posts instead of one, you wouldn't 'miss' the first one for that day--they'd BOTH show up on your screen just after clicking the shortcut for this site.

Subsequent visits before I updated again would reveal a simple message telling you that I haven't updated since your last visit. I think it would also be excellent to add the same Search feature that Diaryland employs to enable anyone to find all posts written over the 20 months I've been using this site that contain a specified word or phrase. In addition, this format would make it easier for ME to just pop in and write things, short things, wherever I am (home, any lab at school, parents', friends', work, etc.), without 'saving it up' for a longer post. Instead of one 'big one' per day, I could post 3 or 4 or 10 snippets. I think these changes would make the diary more enjoyable to read and to write. I also will try to use more links in my posts--a complaining party has complained about the 'unverifiability' of some of my tidbits.

By the way, I did make a post earlier today. Anyway, if anyone knows a way to assist in my goals for this place, why not email me? I think it would make the 'diary' better overall and enhance the aspects that people enjoy about it. I know Diaryland has a built-in WebLog feature, and they seem to grant much freedom of html customization to users (I haven't even had the agreed-to Diaryland banner for a year and a half). And I do have this. But if you reread the above, you'll note that what I want to do is kind of an in-between state, which is why I haven't done it yet. I'd rather maintain a clean appearance with no banners or pop-ups; I'd also rather not shell out any money for 'ad-free hosting at BlogSpot' or the 'gold membership' at Diaryland. Also, it would be fortunate if I could keep the same URL (in the case of staying with Diaryland).