I found a nice free applet called Glass2K for Windows 2000/XP that can make any desktop window transparent (10%-90% or opaque) and keep it an always "on-top" pop-up, too.   This is proving useful for keeping my daughter-sized chat window always "on-top" for viewability's sake while yet be able to simultaneously blog "underneath".

In fact, I just keep the chat window at 10% transparent and on-top until someone comes on to chat, then make it always on-top but opaque (non-transparent) in a quarter of the screen.  Thusly, I can pretty much visit blogs, comment, and chat on the *side* simultaneously.  It works for me!