How Often Do You Change Your Blog’s Theme?

This morning I was playing around with the Aquarium theme that had been displayed on this site for most of the past year and when I made some key coding changes, the theme did not “behave” in a manner to show my changes.

Specifically, I entered the coding to separate regular comments from trackbacks/pingbacks and, instead of separating them into two neat categories, nothing showed up. I double-checked my work and confirmed that the steps I followed were correct. Clearly, there was something within the Aquarium theme that was blocking the coding changes from taking place.

Instead of looking for the problem, I decided to swap out themes. This was the last thing I wanted to do with a week and a month coming to a close on the same day. So, I pulled up the trusty (if not bland) WordPress 1.6 theme, made some color changes, and what you are seeing is what I’ve decided to go with for now.

I had planned to make a theme change after the first of the year anyway, as a refreshing of a blog’s appearance is nice to do from time to time. I have noticed that I am not the only one who changes themes on a regular basis, but I was wondering how often other bloggers make a change and the reasons behind these changes.

My questions for you today are:

How often do you change your blog’s theme? Why?

By the way, if you want to separate comments from trackbacks/pingbacks you can snag that code from several different blogs. I visited Michael Martin’s Pro Blog Design to find the information I needed to make what I believe is an important layout change for my readers.

It Must Be A Girl Thing!

I visit a lot of sites during the course of the day, including blogs managed by other freelance writers. I don’t find too many guy bloggers out there who are also freelance writers, but I do have some favorite bloggers who all happen to be, well, girls!

Please note: women don’t like to be called girls between the ages of 18 and 30, but I have learned that it is “okay” for us boys to call them girls again once they reach a certain age.

>>I think I’ll move this conversation in another direction right about now.<<

Anyway, I had a fun laugh earlier today when I came across Laura Spencer’s Writing Thoughts blog when I read her WAHM (Work At Home Mom) Wednesday posting titled, “Is Your Shopping All Done?” Translation: is your Christmas shopping done, presents wrapped, and your tree decorated and lit?

I was about to leave a typical doofus guy reply, but I thought the better of it. Instead, I said to myself: isn’t it still only November?! There is so much time between now and Christmas — what’s the rush?

Of course, I didn’t show Laura’s article to my wife who finished her shopping before Thanksgiving, has wrapped most of the presents, and put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving — lights, decorations, and all. Maybe I should have “gotten it” when she began making Christmas plans for us back in September and presented her personal Christmas list to me in October, but I guess I don’t get it.

On the other hand, I’m currently micro-managing my business and trying to figure out the upcoming college football bowl schedule. The leaves need to be raked (again) and the gutters cleaned out. Christmas is coming, but I won’t be starting my shopping until I make my first click on some favorite websites. I can walk to our mall, but I’d rather shop online.

Hey, it must be a boy thing!