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Before I announce the contest, I wanted to let you all know that I probably won't be blogging for a few days - I am having my hip surgery on Tuesday, and I will be in the hospital until Wednesday. I am having my radiation treatment on Thursday, so I am not sure how much I'll feel like blogging the rest of this week. I will get back on here as soon as I am up for it, and I'll let you know how it went. But while I am gone, I have a little contest for you!

I have upgraded my blog template to Blogsphere 3.0.1, and it offers a great deal more power and flexibility over style and presentation than previous versions (among many other new kickass features). But with all that power the fact remains that I completely suck at style and UI. The new Blogsphere template does provide the ability to use Moveable Type skins, but that still doesn't help me.

And that's where you come in! I want to have a new look for LotusGeek, but I don't know how to do it. I am going to have a Skin the Geek contest. I know that there are some amazing UI folks amongst my readers, and I know for them the effort to create a new skin for LotusGeek would be trivial. So, I thought I would ask you to whip something up for me! In return I will offer the winner an item of their choice from the LotusGeek CafePress store, and I will post a permanent link on my site stating "LotusGeek skin provided by you" (check out the last block on the right!).

Here's some random criteria for this contest:

• I want something original (hence my reluctance to use an existing Moveable Type skin), but of course it can be based on some other style.
• I would like to keep it two-column, but I am not married to the idea. If there is a better way to do it that looks better in a particular style, then I'm fine with changing it.
• I want the ability to add multiple blocks - as you can tell I like to have a lot of "things" in the side column, so keep that in mind
• I like to use graphics in my posts - almost all of my posts have them. Need to keep that in mind too
• I want a LotusGeek logo. I have been using the one above for a long time, and you can either continue using that - or you can create something completely new. However make sure it is something simple - it has to be easily shrunk and also has to be easily used on things like t-shirts.

To submit your entry to this contest please respond to this blog entry with a link to an example of your skin design. You can provide a link to an example site, or to a graphic example. If your skin is chosen you simply have to provide me the Moveable Type skin files and I'll incorporate them into LotusGeek.

That's all I can think of at this point! If you have any other questions please let me know.

Good luck, and happy skinning!

Rock
**Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?