Page Design - Feedback wanted!

I hate big tasks. Especially the ones that you have no aptitude for and need to learn from scratch because even the language used is totally alien to you. But unfortunately it's hit the point where that's what 90% of our time has to be on now. Ant's been dealing with some production stuff, refilming bits and pieces and finishing edits as ad when he can get his hands on a computer, usually my incredibly inadaquate laptop or super sexy computer of the marvellous Naz of White Mirror. Other than that though it's all those tasks that you're not even sure you're going to feel the effects of but apparently you have to try if you are going to be, you know, a real professional at some point. As Eat That Frog says, you're only as strong as your weakest part. Or something.

For me one of those tasks is to really understand and optimise using web tools, especially the new ones. I'm one of those people who doesn't even know what's gone past and is now considered laughably obsolete, let alone all the new innovations that pop up as and when. I don't even have a mobile of my own, and when I had one it, ahem, was not a smartphone. Now that is mostly about money, but certainly I could learn all about media communications and networking tools and project management that are freely available right?

In tandem with this, I like any other sensible person out there hoping to make films at some point with no day job of any sort, want to know about how to network with the rest of the film community. All of the resources, all of the best networking arenas, all the places to get all the news all the time.

I think everyone wants to be that if they take their future options seriously - to be the one who seems to know what's happening the same time or before everyone else does. Who puts it out there in the world and everyone else gets it from them.

But since that's monumental, so first things first - improving this blog. It's pretty barren, and even if we wrote better stuff on it, it would still be the blog of a technophobe tween. Need to fix it so that it's pleasing to the eye, but also flexible enough as a basic structure that things can be replaced, new things can be added and it still works without a jarring sense of sabotage.

So feedback, anyone who feels like it - what about my little first try at a blog do you like? What do you think sucks? What web 2.0 things (probably that I've never heard of, so feel free to patronise me with an explanation too) do you think should be added? What stuff have you seen on other sites that you think would work well, but like me you have no idea how to add them to a blog? Do you personally think wasting the sides is pointless empty space, or do you usually read blogs only on one side of the screen while you have other things open? Does light text on dark backgrounds do your head in?

Give Links! Give Criticism! I can take it. Any feedback will be appreciated just so I don't feel embarrassed by the web equivalant of:

I don't mind being ignored when I'm just ranting stream of consciousness but when you reveal you hope people are paying attention it's just pathetic if you're own voice just bounces back at you. You know, the difference between asking a few friends over for casual drinks for a quiet birthday celebration or hiring out a hall for a fancy dress ball and no one RSVPs....