Making a theme isn't as easy as most people say it is, especially if you're a person with a very limited experience on coding. If you're a person with a very limited experience on designing, I think that makes it pretty hard as well. If you're a person with limited experience in both coding and designing. I think it would be best to know you're going to need all the help you can get.

Theme designing generally seems to fall under 2 categories.

1. Programers
2. Designers

It's always been said that if you're more of a programer, design will always be the last thing on your mind. The cool factor there rests with the fact that you're able to turn code into poetry and blend practical funtionality into the design. In short really, the code would be nothing but perfect.

Same goes for a designer, you can't really expect to come up with ingenious hacks or shortcuts for your site. What you can expect is for people to be at awe with what you designed your page with, the graphics, the colours, the intuitive design that serves to disguise the simple functionality of your site.

So where do I stand? Basically, I have enough experience to just go with being a designer. So the rest of my theme design is going to be based on just that. So first thing first though are the resources for theme design. For me, it generally came from three sites.

1. The WordPress Codex
2. Lorelle
3. Urban Giraffe

The point is to read all of it through and through and get as much ideas as you can. Don't be frightened of by the sheer amount of information that you have to read. I didn't have to worry about absorbing anything at all (not that I'm in a position to absorb anything at all because I'm on holiday), but I'm keeping those resources handy because I'm going to be going back to them over and over again throughout the course of my theme design.

Last but not least, ask someone else who's experienced in designing a WordPress theme what you need to do and where you need to go. Having all the resources is good but if you don't have anyone to point to you where you ned to start, that's not going to be of much help. In my case, I found that help in the ever friendly and ever humourous #wordpress IRC channel on the freenode network.

So that's about it really. The first step of Theme design for complete newbies is to know exactly what you're going to do and where you need to start. You may have an idea in your head but its not going to be of much use if it stays in your head. Know what you're getting into first and be mentally prepared for it, otherwise it'll just be an unfinished project. And that isn't what you want isn't it?

Given the state of nonsensical thoughts in my head right now that have everything to do with designing my new WordPress Theme and nothing to do with anything else, I thought I might take it easy at blogging for a while. So as luck would have it, I've been tagged for a meme by Dee.

Edrei's Meme Of The 5 Best and Worst Foods Fed In His Life

1. Durian – I have no idea how this became known as the king of fruits though I suspect that it's because it overpowered all other fruits with its repulsiveness and no other fruit bothered to contest it as the king of fruits after that. Which brings me to my belief that the durian has only one sole purpose on this planet and it's not as food…but as a biological weapon. Hard enough with spikes to kill anyone this drops on and strong enough to be used as a potent tear gas. One try was enough for me to vomit, that's enough said.
2. Tempoyak – If you thought the durian was bad, this is far worse. Technically this is the more refined version of that potent tear gas. Made from fermented durians, rest assured you'd stay far far away from this the moment you even hear its name. It best comes with a warning "Do not come within 100 meters unless you're wearing a Biohazard Level 5 Containment Suit". Trust me, I've learnt from that mistake.
3. Porridge – I have no love for this. I mean the way I was served this was more akin to rice and water. The worse part is that I had to eat this everytime I was sick, which gave me the ability to hide the fact I was sick from my parents or deny the fact I was sick in order to avoid the second food in my life that made me vomit because it was so damn disgusting. Not that it made a difference anyway, it looked like I was eating vomit.
4. Brinjal – I always never ate because come on, who'd eat a strange vegetable that looked purple? Then again the moment I had to eat this stir fried with sambal, needless to say it still remains till this day as one of the foods I will always eat if ever found on a table.
5. Wasabi – I actually ate this on a dare and I didn't know what it was supposed to be for until after I ate it. As always, the first times taking Wasabi would definitely rewrite the experience of what spicy is because it's on a class of its own going straight to your head and out your nose. Of course after I got off the ground after falling off the chair, I now look foward to it in dares and all the japanese food that I can get my hands on which actually needs wasabi on it, though sometimes I just eat wasabi with any food anyway. I can tell you that it's great when you got a cold anyway. Just the sort of thing to eat to avoid porridge.

Too bad I can't write more because I know there are plenty of other food experiences that I have seeing that I'm one of those people who'd try any food at least once in his life just to see how it is. Another time and another post I guess.

That being said, I know I'm supposed to write down the 5 people who got tagged last and the 5 people who I will tag right now to do it…but I'm not going to. All I'm going to say is what I have always said with memes, if you want to do it…go ahead. It's all yours. Just make sure you put durians as the worst food that has ever been forced on you. Its evil atrocity as a biological weapon must be controled. I kid you not.

I'm starting to think the situation I'm in right now it detrimental to my mind because I haven't been able to piece together a single string of philosophizing thought in over a week. Not that the calm mind is bad for me, I do like the fact that I have been getting extremely restful sleep for a while now without my nightmares tearing my mind to bits.

It's just that without that constant churning of logic and reason that drives me to do the things I do…you can pretty much realise that I haven't been doing the things I usually do. I don't mean I haven't been doing the things I need to do…like work and…well…more work. It just feels that the things I used to do…the things I used to push to do to keep my mind focused doesn't seem to mean much anymore.

I'm sorry if anything, it seems like I don't care anymore. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm aloof and enveloped with a deep sense of apathy about your life that I used to watch over before like a hawk. I'm sorry that I seem to be distracted with other things that didn't use to interest me before.

I know it's hard that some things change when you didn't expect it to…then again, when you look at things that way, you'd know that life goes on regardless. It isn't something good neither is it something bad, it's just something that happens. At the end of it, everything works out the way it's supposed to work out…which is by your own hand.

This is my hand, this is the way it is going to work out for me. Where I go from here is wherever I choose to move the pieces of my life with the sights I set out with. With hope and a little luck, maybe something good will come out from all this.

Of course, it also means that at the end of it the rest of your life belongs to you too. Where you go from there is a choice you have to make. Hopefully at the end of that road…we'll mee there again in the end…and we'll all be happy for being where we are and for the company we share the end with.

Ok…the title is kinda misleading. It's not exactly a global project of building a WordPress theme. But its more of a personal thing to build my very own WordPress theme. After all, here I am, being the guy who just happens to be closely connected to WordPress and I haven't designed a plugin or a theme.

The best I have come up with is beta testing and reporting WordPress related bugs and on occassion WordPress related plugins and well…helping many of you with your WordPress itself. Since I have absolutely no knowledge as to how PHP really comes together, designing a plugin is…well as possible as I would be elected as the next Pope.

What I can do with the skills I have so far is design a WordPress theme, which doesn't sound so bad. Strip a theme down to its bare essentials and build it up from scratch with my astoundingly miniscule knowledge of XHTML and CSS. Doesn't sound too bad considering I have about oh say…3 months of so to complete it.

So thus begins the project, I'll go about my days blogging about what it takes to build a theme from a newbie's perspective…for the most part, it'll help me focus on it and not toss it into a corner cause I got too lazy to finish what might have been the next Sistine Chapel.

The good thing is, if my theme does not completely suck, it'll prove once and for all that WordPress as well as web designing, as daunting as it may seem, can be, in the hands of someone who has trivial knowledge of coding, turned into a personal blogging masterpiece. So wish me luck on that. I think it's going to be a long haul on that one.

It seems that I've been blogging pretty short lately, despite the fact that my days have been more or less chokeful with things happening. I suppose at the end of it, I'd just digest everything that happened during the day and turn it into the scores of thoughtful excrement that I would definitely pass out during the weekdays.

It's not that I wouldn't want it to blog now, it's just that despite the fact that my day has been nothing less than eventful and pretty much fun filled, nothing…nothing in the world could have prepared me for the email I got which contained this picture.

If that isn't a reason to love her more, I have no idea what would…well…that's not entirely true, the fact that both of us love to drink and seem to have no limits to how much we can drink is already reason enough but that's beside the point.

The point is, my Christmas gift now pales in comparison to that really cute present she got. Or maybe not…seeing that she's prone to getting things dirty and she's more practical in gifts in the first place so…it either way…it's a safer bet to keep things a little small.

Having said that and seeing that Christmas is around the corner, I wonder what the rest of you people are getting your loved ones this Christmas? Or at least the people you really really care for. Something sentimental? Something meaningful? Something to remember? Something practical? It's always the questions that many people struggle but few know exactly what to get.

I wonder. What are you getting that special someone for Christmas anyway?