Help critique my website Options

[mipadi]

After about 4 years of telling myself I would redesign my website, I finally got around to doing it. But before I go live, I'd like some feedback:

Here's the front page of my site. (Note that the logo in the top left will eventually have the words "Monkey Robot" in the space next to the monkey's tail, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet.)

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Here's the pagination stuff at the bottom:

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Here's the comments on blog entries:

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Here's the listing on the archives page:

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Here's an example of what hyperlinks look like when you hover over them:

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Any suggestions?

[Mickey]

I quite like its practicality. Have you thought about incorporating a background?

[mipadi]

Have you thought about incorporating a background?

I've considered it -- either a solid color of some sort, or maybe a "delicate" speckling or gradient or something, but I haven't looked into the idea really closely.

Any background would have to be minimalist -- one of the goals of the design of my blog has always been to highlight the content of the site (i.e., my writing).