Help with changes to site design?

Hey, I'm looking to give my site a small makeover and would appreciate some suggestions. It's at http://www.thinkdammit.net/.

I'd like to keep the red title, and I also really like the dark blue. The main change I want, though, is to make it lighter--black on white text would be much easier to read. What do you think? What's the best way to go about doing this while still maintaining the feel of the original site?

Edit: By the way, I've already made a few changes on my local copy, like getting rid of the border on the site logo, fixing the navbar so it'll stay a constant width, and making all the lines on the navbar display correctly.

 

Definitely you need to do something about the contrast - its tough to read and tough to look out. Nothing is grabbing my attention (perhaps the site title slightly, but that I would say is not really where you want to route attention). Lighter, more color, more contrast - tell me where you want me to look in the first 3 seconds when I hit your site.

 

I agree with contrast, but you could also use graphics or pictures to make your page stand out.

Maybe incorporate an image with your logo across the top. People respond to images and graphics......

 

White Text on a blurry dark background is hard to read. Also switch your logo to top left instead of top right. The site was really really slow.

 

Slow? It's usually nice and fast for me, from various locations in my area, so I don't know why it was slow for you.

Thanks for the input! Here are some plans I've come up with based on that and some brainstorming:

• I'll add a second sidebar to the right that contains time-sensitive info. I'll put a weekly quote there (I've been saving quotes for a while for this purpose) and move the list of recent updates there.
• At the top of the main page, I'll put some sort of weird, eye-catching picture that characterizes the site. Below that I'll have a better description of what's on the site.
• I moved the title to the left of the screen. Maybe I'll add a tagline to the right of it now? I don't quite need a search box yet, since my site is small, simple, and organized, but I'll put that at the top-right when I add one.

I'm still not sure how to solve the problem of the dark background and light text though, and still have the site look nice. I do like the color scheme that it has now (blue with red and green--I like primaries), so any specific suggestions on how I can maintain that look while fixing the readability?