Meandering Passage: Out with the old and in with the new
You may notice a difference in the appearance of ‘Meandering Passage.’
While a noticeable switch to a new WordPress theme occurred last evening, the customizations will continue for a while.
These changes to Meandering Passage are being made for two main reasons:
- to give a more open and fresh appearance with the side benefit of being perhaps easier to read; and
- to update the dated code of my previous theme, which I’d been buggering up with hacks, code snippets and changes for well over a year.
I’d considered designing my own WordPress Template for this update but I dare say I don’t believe I could do as good of job with it as some of the templates that are out there now.
It’s just as rewarding to me to take a well coded standard template and make it mine. Plus there’s a lot less pain involved.
My strategy for this overhaul is to enhance and preserve. I’m utilizing sidebar widgets this go around instead of directly changing the code in each template. Other changes will be done using Custom CSS coding without tampering with the original template whenever possible.
I’d like to be able to take advantage of any template updates without having to redo all my changes. We’ll see it that’s possible. 
So have a look around at the new layout and feel free to leave feedback if you wish.
Richard Querin
Hey Earl,
I like the new layout and style so far. Very readable and fresh. Are you considering a logo or graphic at the top? There’s some space up there for you to stretch your creative muscles.
Re: not creating your own theme
C’mon.. just admit it.. you’re chicken!
Actually I’ve been contemplating the idea of doing another theme for my blog. I tend to get bored with things after a while. And there are a few bugs I’d like to stamp out as well. But as always, it will likely be months instead of weeks before I actually do something about it.
ps. We’ve upgraded the screencasters to wp2.6 but apparently there are Podpress issues to work out with the new release. Fingers are crossed that it gets fixed soon.
Earl Moore
Hi Richard:
First, let me clarify something about creating a WP Theme from scratch….damn right I’m chicken!
Yes, I’ll be doing a custom LOGO at the top. I have a couple of ideas but I haven’t settled on anything yet. At the moment I’m busy finding and fixing bugs the theme change exposed.
I think WP 2.6 broke a number of things. I’ve got a couple of plug-ins that seem not to like 2.6 much.
Thanks for the feedback and I look forward to “critiquing” you next original WP theme!
Sam
LOVE IT!
Earl Moore
Sam, Thank you!