Hey all

Welcome to our new home away from home.

In case you missed it, we had this parody page up while the site was down and being updated. Several people actually emailed me thinking it was real. No, seriously!

Now, the original idea was to radically change the look of the site. And we tried that but Kris couldn’t come up with something that we felt was the way to go. He did come up with an early version of this, though and unlike the other attempts it FELT like np.com, something the other designs were lacking. Another problem was that Kris is going to be jetting off around the world again soon, so we only had this window in which to setup a new design otherwise we’d have to postpone till he got back.

So we went with this. More of an update than a completely new design but I like it and hopefully you will feel the same. If not, we will definitely look into a radical change when Kris has more free time and if we come up with something great we’ll run with it.

Right, so let’s look at the new design. I really wanted to keep the look fresh. With the old design we had a rotating nat pic and rotating quotes but this time around we’ve really upped the ante. Firstly, the banner rotates and each banner has a “theme” of sorts. We still have the rotating nat pics and we also have a rotating np.comic button. In the same vein is the news ticker, which is a big addition to the site. It’ll not only give a summary of recent nat and site news but will also replace the quotes, that are funny at first but become very tiring very quickly. So just to clarify, not everything you see in the news ticker will be real news.

Another addition is the Nat on tv section on the right, which should be pretty self explanatory. It’s a little threadbare at the moment but with your help we’ll make it as comprehensive as possible.

Speaking of comprehensive, Mart’s library of articles now has it’s own little space on the right, featuring the newest additions.

Swinging over to the main menu on the left, you can see some new additions…

Rejected projects – Pretty much says it all really. Melody Nelson has put together a page of the movies that Natalie almost took…I still curse the day she turned down The Ice Storm. Argh!

Editorial – This is where the staff, and you guys, will be able to bitch, moan and praise all things Natalie and np.com. At the moment we’ve just got the one article, which was a bit of a rush job, but I’m hoping it will grow from there. I strongly advise you guys to send in your own thoughts because I’ll be putting up the best of the bunch.

FAQ – As with every new version of np.com, there’s a brand new FAQ. Not that anyone ever reads it, if the sort of questions I get is any indication.

Staff – The staff page has a number of new interviews with the staff of the other languages. Not everyone has done one yet but we’re getting there.

And finally, we have a new poll up. No prizes for guessing what it’s about.

So that’s about it. I hope you all like the new look and new features. Feedback would be GREATLY appreciated…good and bad. Nothing is set in stone so if something pisses a lot of you off, we’ll certainly consider making a change.

We also have two other “features” that we’re working on, but didn’t want to wait for them to be ready before going live. We’re as impatient as 3 year olds sometimes.

But now I must thank my staff. Mart and Melody have done a lot of great work and the staff of the other languages are racing to translate all the new content, not a fun job at the best of times. Robotinez, Titooy, AIRP, Bigger, Martin and Patricia …much love.

And last but not least, me…the genius…the architect…pulling the strings…such vision…what a work ethic.

Yeah, right.

The man who deserves most of the praise is Kris. He’s done a ton of work (in between warcraft matches) in the creative process. Change this pic, move that banner, center that menu…everyday he had to constantly be changing things to get what I wanted. And then when he got what I wanted Melody shouted at us to get what she wanted. And today, with Mart’s help, he’s been updating every np.com page to the new design. If you factor in the other languages that’s around 700 pages. A full days work and then some.

So a huge thanks to Kris for all the unseen work.

Co-worker…friend…lover.

And so that’s it. Hopefully the power will be back in Detroit tomorrow and Sanji can get the first proper update up.

Till then…