How do you create your WordPress themes?
44 years ago
by Erin
I’m really interested and curious to find out how other people come up with their themes for WordPress. Although I really love the blogging tool, my one complaint has been how hard it is for people like me, who aren’t that familiar with PHP, to successfully get in and create their own themes. There are some guides out there for people like me, but unfortunately I find a lot of them hard to understand and not too user friendly.
Normally I’ll begin in Photoshop and do a mock up of what I’d like my final theme to look like, including link colors, text colors, and etc. Then I’ll go and try to find an existing theme (usually from my collection) that will fit this idea. I then tweak the CSS and code around to get the theme to work, and I always give credit to the original creator of the original theme. Sometimes the theme works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Lately I’ve been contemplating building a theme from the ground up, without borrowing code from other themes, and it’s a little daunting. How do I start? Should I just build a page without WordPress in mind using CSS, and then try to fit WordPress into it afterwards? Should I try to build my theme around WordPress functions I know that I want to use?
Other things I try to do when envisioning a new theme is to check out the websites of my esteemed peers. 
Websites like beccary.com, tehsheriff.org, pure-essence.net, bubblessoc.net (even though it’s down at the moment), and veerle.duoh.com are all created with that clean, sophisticated, and elegant style that I love. There aren’t too many elements distracting you, all are very simple and clean and all of the elements match well and work well together.
How do you go about creating your themes? What is your process?
WGA Strike Closes Production of ‘The Office’ Down :(
04 years ago
by Erin
The one thing I was afraid of happening happened: production of The Office has stopped because Steve Carrell refuses to cross the picket lines:
After a 7am call time with a 9am crew call, after standing around for 7 hours at our location waiting for the studio to make a decision once it was realized that Steve Carell would, once again, not be crossing the picket line of the Writer’s Guild picketers, our producer called the entire crew into the set of Michael’s condo and announced that The Office is officially shutting down.
For how long? That’s really up to the producers and studio, I guess. I feel the writers have a valid claim. They want residuals for all content written and produced for “new media” (i.e. internet, itunes,cell phones, etc.) and they absolutely should fight for it because all media will be streamed this way in the future. Truth be told, the writers picketing right now aren’t gonna gain anything. They’re losing so much money by not working right now that any residuals they garner from this new media will never cover it. But that’s not really the point…
So, it sucks for us little people, but I’m not all that annoyed. I fully support the WGA, and the writers of The Office specifically. I wish them luck in their quest.
As for me, it’s back to the unemplyment line and the dayplayer world. Personally, I’m kinda excited. As long as I can keep busy, I’ll be aok and I can meet new people, catch up with old friends and still pay my rent every month.
Until this whole thing blows over anyhow.
That is all.
Thanks for the support and if you need a dayplayer, you best call me. I’m pretty awesome.
-Dan
From the Myspace blog of Dan Beals, a PA for the Office.
Hopefully they can get all of this sorted out soon 
The Real Ho’s of Orange County!
04 years ago
by Erin
My favorite show to document my community is coming back on the air tonight, The Real Housewives of Orange County. The “gates” that the show affectionately refers to are Coto de Caza, and my little city is right outside of the gates (Rancho Santa Margarita). Many of the scenes that take place in the show take place in my city, because really all that is inside Coto is houses and a country club. All of their restaurant eating, shopping, schooling, takes place outside of “the gates.”
Many people ask me, “How can you WATCH this show? It’s so ridiculous! There is no way this could be true!” But the sad/amusing truth is, The Real Housewives of Orange County might be the most realistic reality show there is. Growing up right outside the gates, I have had firsthand experiences with many people just like the women (and kids) on this show. They really ARE that materialistic, superficial, spoiled, and stuck up. Of course, there are notable exceptions to every rule. I have many great friends that live in gated communities that AREN’T like this, and are as grounded and down-to-earth as you and me.
But people like those on this show made my high school experience less than enjoyable for the most part because it is located RIGHT outside of the gates of Coto (turning right from the senior parking lot takes you right to a gate for Coto) and as such, is populated with Coto snobs. Let’s face it, my high school was no different from any other. Every high school has a group of rich snobs who feel they are entitled to anything and everything they want. Every school has a group of middle class and lower class kids who feel victimized by the richer kids.
It’s just great to see these kids and their parents being made fun of on national TV. And let’s face it. It’s kind of a trip to see the Target you shop at on TV, too. 
