I can finally say that the Flightblog WordPress theme is all my doing. The overall design hasn’t changed much from the previous version, but the CSS style sheet is all new and all clean.

My previous theme was based on the classic Kubrick WordPress theme and modified (or more like tortured) into the design idea that I held in my pointy, little head. Needless to say, there was a significant amount of less-then-standard CSS holding that theme together.

I took that tortured mutant, made sure that every template had the tags I wanted and then removed every last remnant of CSS. From this blank canvas I reorganized my style sheet and made it more efficient (I hope) and was successful in eliminating the needless one-off CSS objects that had previously haunted this blog. This better, simpler organization will help with any future updates or fixes.

The new design is the fixed three column “Holy Grail” layout. There are a number of iterations of this layout available on the web that I tried but kept coming back to the three column CSS layout create by Antonio Lupettiat at woork.blogspot.com. In fact there is a ton of helpful info at Antonio’s blog from CSS to Ajax. Well worth checking out.

At nearly the same time that I completed this new theme I also installed the first release candidate of WordPress 2.5. The new control panel design is from Jeffrey Zeldman (Happy Cog and A List Apart). Sneak peek here.

A List Apart was another very useful source of ideas for this new theme design. I can remember reading Zeldman’s “blog” way back when the blink tag was still in style. Zeldman and his cronies are the experts when it comes web standards and his blog is a great source of design articles.

It took a few hours of hacking around before I understood how WordPress works. The documentation is great and everything needed for building a theme can be found at the WordPress Codex.

A lot of work for a custom theme when most of my traffic comes from Feedburner or Google Reader…Oh well, maybe my mom will like it.

You have to figure that eventually someone, somewhere is going to tag your blog. Friend and fellow photog Sue-Leigh tagged me and now I must reveal eight previously unknown secrets about myself.

1.) The first memory I can ever recall happened was when I was four years old at the University Hills Shopping Mall in a Hallmark store in Denver with my mom. I remember looking at a birthday card for a four year old and thinking, “I’m four years old.”

2.) The first plane ride I can remember was on a 747 to Hawaii. People were smoking, I joined them, I was 7.

3.) As a kid I wanted to be an astronaut, a fireman or Fonzie (until he jumped the shark). I still want to be an astronaut and they’re hiring.

4.) My password is a combination of the name of the first girl I ever had a crush on plus my gym locker combination. Somewhere between 23 and 32 alphanumeric characters.

5.) I have an older sister by seven years. She and I have had only one, single, knockdown, drag out fight. It was over the power supply for a my model train set, that’s all I can remember.

6.) With the support of Brent I can now freely admit that I sleep in PJs that have feet.

7.) People retire to the south to avoid the harsh winter, I think I’ll retire to the north to avoid the harsh summer. I’m a completely different person when the temperature is below 50 degrees vs above.

8.) Deleted by blog administrator.

9.) It has been several years since I’ve watched a complete professional sporting event (football, baseball, basketball, badminton) from start to finish. I just loose interest and the commercials are so obnoxious; the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.

10.) Ear and nose hair are a pet peeve.

I’ve exposed my underbelly and now it’s time to pass the torch. (This means, for some, you’ll need to remember your blog password and write something for the first time in months.)

Casie

Brent

Will

Scoogles (I understand if you dog us cause you sold out to Apple)

Scooter

Evan

Tony

Karen

Urchin is telling me I’m missing.