As you may have noticed, I’ve made a few changes to my template. I’ve kind of gone a bit bananas with plugins as well.

So… the most obvious change is the new themes. Or, rather, the ‘new’ themes, since I tried to get back some of the ones I had before I upgraded. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m so happy that I’ll mention it again - installing themes and plugins was so much easier now that my version is consistent. It was just so much smoother, although some designers didn’t code their themes consistently so I made a couple of changes to neaten them up. Anyway, at the moment I have 3 themes, and you can change them by clicking on the links at the bottom of the sidebar. Whichever one you choose should be remembered for the next time you come back. Most likely I’ll add more themes as I find ones I like. Maybe I’ll even try to write my own, but I really have no imagination and every time I try to come up with something, it ends in failure.

I’ve also updated my weather section in the sidebar with the latest version, which has lots of customisable parameters in it and some new icons. I had a teensy bit of trouble with it, but I guess that that’s when being a programmer comes in handy. And speaking of my sidebar, I’ve got my mood back! The original creator of the drawings took down the site last year, but they’ve been revived by someone else, so they’re back again. Originally called Unkymoods, they’re now back as Punkymoods.

The other changes I made are in the commenting. The first thing is fairly major - I’ve taken out the comment verification stuff. Yay! Yes I know you loved typing in a code every time you left a comment, but I’m afraid you’ll have to try to live without it. I’m using a comment security thing embedded in WordPress, and so far it’s going ok. So I’m hoping I won’t have to put the verification back in.

Secondly, I’ve added a little flag next to each commenter’s name according to the country they’re in. It’s not infallible (or so the developer says), but the comments I’ve looked at so far have all had the right flags, so I’m happy. I think they’re quite cute really. If you want it, it’s called IP to Nation.

The final change is one that I’m not sure how much I’ll use (if at all), but it’s there anyway, and if you want to use it, please do! The plugin is called Quote Comment; next to the timestamp in each comment is a link called [Quote]. So if someone posts a comment that you want to refer to in your comment, you click on the link, and the other comment will appear in the comment edit box above your comment.

That’s it for now! I’d write more, but my hands are so numb with cold that I’m having difficulty typing. Time for bed. Aaaah electric blankets are wonderful.