Welcome the to the 8th edition of the JT Evening News (published whenever I feel like it). Yeah, it’s been awhile. In fact, it’s been longer than awhile but things have been in total disarray lately. Actually, I’m the one who has been in a total disarray lately but that’s besides the point. Now to the so-called “news”.
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(Note new coffee flavored asterisks?)
I Bollixed the Thing III
As you might have noticed by my last two posts, I really bollixed things up on the blog when I switched from a three column theme back to a two column without backing up my text widgets first. Since WordPress changed to the new Widgets setup in the admin without that convenient repository where I can place previously used widgets for safe keeping (a piss poor change if you ask me), I’m always forgetting to copy out the contents of my text widgets to a handy local text document. As a result, that piss poor widgets interface completely lost the entire contents of my left sidebar when I switched themes.
So with only a couple of minor exceptions, I’ve replaced most of my lost widgets with new ones, modified my “obligatory AdSense” to (sort of) fit in with the coffee flavored looks of things, took a hint from Grandad and blatantly replicated his FeedBurner widget and offered up my usual two flavors of search.
Good enough for now however…
There was More Work to be Done
The theme was an old one, last updated when WordPress 2.3 was new. No Gravatars for comments (understandable, Automattic didn’t own Gravatar when this theme came out) and no page navigation!
For the life of me I can’t understand why the heck these theme authors who write up a simple two column, “blogging only” type theme don’t include simple page navigation. You know, those links at the top of the single post pages that point to the next<title> and previous<title>? posts This little reader convenience has been included in the “Default” theme just about forever so I’d think they’d take the hint. Oh well, can’t complain about free stuff I guess.
Either way it meant that I had to somehow include these missing items myself so…
I’m so Proud of Me
With all my amazing lack of PHP and CSS skills I actually managed to enter the appropriate PHP calls into the appropriate files in the appropriate places. This, of course, totally screwed up the looks due to having no styling for these new items so with more panting and sweating I finally managed to screw in the needed pieces/parts into the style sheet thereby fixing all the screwed up looks.
The fact that it took me 2 hours of searching Google, reading various WordPress “tips and tricks” type posts, looking through WordPress.org documents and implementing all sorts of various mistakes until I finally got it right is besides the point. The fact that certain blogging compatriots of mine could have done the same thing in 15 minutes or less is also besides the point. The actual point of the matter is that I did it myself and I’m proud of it, so there.
Threaded Comments?
Of course WordPress 2.7 now offers threaded comments…
Ah, forget that noise, I don’t get enough comments here to warrant any sort of threaded comments. As much as I would love to see more arguments discussions on this blog of mine I wouldn’t even dare to attempt the modifications for that kind of thing and I certainly don’t have the money to bribe ask the author or anyone else to do the modifications for me. Of course, if I posted more often I’d probably get more comments huh?
Well, if I can ever get to the point where I do and it does then I guess I’ll have to reinstall XAMPP, throw in a copy of the theme, get out my sewing kit and go to work on threading those comments. In the meantime we’ll just have to put up with the old way of doing it.
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And that’s it for another edition of the JT Evening News– All the guff that’s fit to wait. I also had to post this in a hurry because dinner’s ready. I’ll fix the typos, misspellings and whatnot after we’re done.
So you like the theme or what?
Edit: Okay, done eating and jayzus what a bunch of mistakes, misspellings and bad grammar. I think I fixed them all. If not, let me know.
Having read this post with total incomprehension, I did get the bollixed bit, I am confirmed in my believe that managing a blog would be beyond me. Think I’ll just keep reading yours.
Hey KevanB,
I’m answering your comment again cos’ I had to rebuild the site due to a gummed up database (and I lost my last 3 replies in the process) which, I suppose, only further justifies not having a blog of your own. I still say you should get a free one on Wordpress.com. All the work is done for you. That way we could all harass you personally.
I love the hidden smiley in the coffee beans! Is it the coffee fairy?
It certainly is. I think everyone should have one, don’t you?
You know, I have the strangest feeling of deja vu.
I just received your very first Wordpress posting on my RSS.
“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”
It must have been traveling for nearly three years, and has only just arrived? Is this a record?
Grandad,
Hey, you found it! I always wondered where that first post went to. Must of got lost in one of them cyberspace anomalies they keep talking about. Would you mind giving it a good home? It won’t eat much and Snady can play with it.