http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/houdini81/

I couldn't see the hover buttons at all. (this browser is a mess, IE5 on NT4.0 and the admin here where I work refuses to check it out)

The rest of the site looks good. It took 66 seconds to load at 28.8, there are a lot of graphics.

You may want to try compressing the background by 20 - 50% and see how it looks. Also, try it in a .gif and see if that changes the size at all.

You may want to loose the background and go with a solid color of some kind.

Also, to speed up the download you might take the pics and move them to an "About Me" page...

You're right about the hover buttons. They can be a problem. They are Java applets which are very slow loading and require a lot of RAM to load. That's why they sometimes crash browsers, including IE. Search engines cannot follow their links. Sometimes they just don't load. JavaScript or text are your best bets.

I think you should find a different background. Like you said, it's too large in file size and does not tile well.

The site took almost two minutes to load on my machine...way long.

From a design standpoint, there is an awful lot of activity going on and some of the graphics you're using are very '80s. However, since it is a personal site, you are free to use anything that suits your fancy and/or is a reflection of your taste. If download speed is a concern, cutting out or cutting way down on the animations will help a lot.

Just a word on your "best viewed" notice...I have never met anyone who was willing to change their browser or resolution to view a site. It's just a detraction from your content.

One more hint, and I'll stop. You have mastered a lot of the basics of getting a website up. I think you're ready to move a step higher and work more with tables. They can do a lot to help get rid of the "everything centered" look.

Thank you for sharing your personal site with us. It will be fun watching you hone your design skills.

Sandy

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www.alleghenyweb.com

Neil