Would love to get some opinions on how to improve my blog

[JoshPatton]

Hello all.

While I know that the average weblog is supposed to be geared toward a specific topic, my real aim with this is just to have a place to put up various things that I write.

I am HTML-illiterate and would like to hear what you all thing.

The link is in my signature. Have at me. :)

[pmadams]

I like it! I like your writing style and the site looks pretty good. I don't usually like the dark backgrounds, but I think you are making it work for you. Don't really have any suggestions, just thought I would give it a thumbs up!

[veinglory]

You need to downsize your banner by about a third to stop blowing out the side of the template....

[Bluegate]

Welcome to the blogging abyss! I will second the banner sizing issue. The white on black works just fine. Some don't care for it but I think it just a matter of adjusting to the difference. You have some font color issues further down the blog that you should go back in and edit to match the white font of your last post. The grey on black is too difficult to read. I think you should also simply ditch most all of the grey on black colors because it really makes your words disappear. Not what you want I think unless you are putting up something that you do want to only appear subtly.
Personally I would put your mug above the ads, but that's me. If I am interested at the outset the first thing I want to do is look at your profile. I don't want to have to hunt for it. Yeah, scroll pansy.
Oh yeah, and super important is that there are some typos. The last post shows the word "the" instead of "they", assuming that is what it was meant to be. God knows I am the last one to crit that! LOL
Those were just my first quick impressions. I hope it was helpful.
Liked your tone of story telling by the way. ;-)