CSS, Wordpress and Irish tunes

To kiss or not to kiss?

Thanks to everyone who has sent me feedback thus far to my spankin' new DebbieOhi.com by post and e-mail. I have shrunk some of the graphic elements and will be shrinking more to avoid overwhelming monitors and dial-up connections out there. Also need to remember to always add ALT tags to image links.

Thanks also for the feedback to the Wordpress-ified My Life In A Nutshell. I've come to the conclusion that it's about time I learned a bit about CSS. I dabbled a bit in CSS years ago when it first came out, but at that time not enough browsers supported it to keep me hooked. Now, all the major browsers seem to support CSS. I like the idea of being able to change the style of my sites with only a few lines rather than having to modify every page.

Though I admit that the term "Cascading Style Sheets" has always brought the following image to mind:



Fortunately I have some technonerdboy friends who have offered to help me if I run into trouble (thanks Parki!). :-)


Scott Schumacher offered some useful resource links like CSSEdit and Dissection of a Wordpress Theme. He also pointed me to a huge archive of Wordpress themes called ThemeViewer where a user can enter search terms. Holy toledo. I feel like a chocolate addict in a Scharffen Berger store.

I wasn't happy with the way most theme pages list archives, though: most don't seem to have a single archive link from the main page which would allow users to access archives on a separate page. But then I found this page in the Wordpress documentation and this list of Wordpress Archive-related plug-ins. I especially like the plug-in used to generate this archive page.

Anyway, my goal is to learn enough CSS to be able to customise Wordpress themes for my own projects, and perhaps come up with my own from scratch. I've also decided I need to learn some Javascript.

Now if only I could find one of those magic watches that Hermione used to give her more time...


I've started reviewing Irish tunes on my whistle so I don't forget them, keeping my Burke whistle near my computer so I can play a tune every now and then. I'm trying a new method this time: using flash cards with a batch of old business cards. On one side, I write the name of the tune. On the other side, I've taped a scrap of music manuscript paper with the first few bars of the tune. I was inspired when I started reading The New Policeman by Kate Thompson...I'm about halfway through this book for young people, and thoroughly enjoying it. The story revolves around Irish music, Faerie mythology, time and magic. I can clearly "hear" the author's Irish brogue throughout, which greatly adds to the atmosphere of the book.

Sheet music for different traditional Irish tunes is included between chapters; I feel compelled to play the tunes on my whistle as I come to them, of course! :-) Anyway, so far I'm finding The New Policeman a delightful book.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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