Agreed re: the number of links. Unfortunately, my efforts at tiled backgrounds suck even more, and I *LOATHE* black-background pages... and my tastes in other solid colors tend to turn other people off. (I -like- green. Green is a friendly, cozy color.)

I would LOVE to have picture-based navigation... but believe it or not, I have more luck getting people to draw full-length porn comics entirely on speculation than in offering actual cash to people to draw icon-usable images for website design. I give detailed ideas and lists of needed icons, negotiate a price, and the answer is, "I'll get back to you..." with the unspoken addendum, "... after my round-trip vacation to Mars."

As for conventions... consider this. I'm an avid gamer and a fan of anime-style artwork (plus whatever makes me laugh- laughter and happiness are too rare in this world). I live about a hundred driving miles out of downtown Houston. The nearest gas station is twenty miles away... but within a twenty-mile radius there are no fewer than a DOZEN fundamentalist churches. If there were no conventions or Internet, I'd go stark raving insane...r. So even if I spend every bit of my convention time behind a table, going slowly nuts from my agoraphobia, working or being bored for lack of business, it's still a lot more fun than staying home!

So I'd better make my sanity breaks pay, hm? }:-{D