In the short history of WordPress there are just a hand full of themes that have left an indelible mark on the WordPress community and some of those are certainly Michael Heilemann’s Kubrick and K2 themes, Chris Pearson’s Cutline theme and my favourite - Derek’s Foliage theme. Of course there are many others that have gained immense popularity.

Functionality of Themes

Now most WordPress themes end up falling under some sort of category. Tags, categories and generally taxonomy is the bedrock of blog structures. But it does breed a type of ‘box’ logic that I sometimes find contestable. Be that as it may, the classification of WordPress themes is usually based on the theme’s column count, so that Kubrick is a two column theme for example, while Cutline and Sandbox open up 2-3 column possibilities. But as the WordPress blogging platform develops and grows more complex at each new update, in line with user suggestions and demands, so does WordPress theme functionality. And while WordPress is usually associatied with ‘conventional’ blogging such as this blog for example, there has been a parallel development in using WordPress to power far more ambitious projects and this is typically the realm of Ezines or online magazines.

Magazines and WordPress

The ezine Wordpress theme category is really in a league of its own, not least because magazines using Wordpress often have to hack the coding core to distribute posts and pages in a way that rises to the layout and distribution demands of a journal but also because there are simple only a few of them around. To date, most Wordpress ezine themes have been difficult to set up and offer little in the way of customization for amateur coders. With the exception of Eston Bond’s Gridlock theme there is really only Brian Gardner’s Revolution theme, but unfortunately that is not part of the open source Wordpress adventure, since it comes with a price tag.

Holy Grail from India

But then came the Morning After! The answer to the holy grail of Ezine themes! Search no more people, it has arrived! And it’s arrived from India thanks to the brilliant work of Arun Kale. Arun delivered a theme that is suitably customizable and I suspect this will easily take top positions in the Wordpress hall of themes.

Please excuse me, i´m very late with this post. Pink for October allready started again.

Web sites and blogs are going pink for October again. And perhaps your favourite blogs and pages too, you ask why? Well it’s to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Facts

The objective of the month long project is to increase awareness on breast cancer as well as raise funds for further research on the subject. Breast cancer is the fifth in the list of most common types of cancers in the world and the first most common for women. And breast cancer could also affect men, albeit with a lower probability. It’s the illness, which caused 1% of all deaths worldwide back in 2005.

Designers Support

Due to this, many designers have come up with various pink for October WordPress designs. Here are some of the many:

• 5thirtyone Pink October WordPress theme
• Randy Clay Design’s Pinkbird WordPress theme
• Pink Adaptations by Charity Ondriezek
• archGFX’s The Thin Line
• Geek With Style’s Pink October Theme
• Pink for October Stripes and Business by Natalie Jost
• WordPress Diva’s Pretty In Pink
• Design Adaptations’ Pink Adaptations
• Yoru from cureless.net’s Pink Beauty 2.0
• Pink for October 1 and 2 by Teresa Maree

These are some of the free pink WordPress themes released since the announcement of the event. Those who can afford to change their themes, feel free to use them as long as you comply with the designers’ specific requests and conditions of usage.

Sign Up

And when you’re done changing your theme, go to the Pink for October’s web site and sign-up to be officially part of the event. Not only do you profess your support for the project but you also get a backlink. If you don´t like to change your theme or look of your homepage, you can support this project with a logo on your blog, just visit Pink for October’s download page and be part of it.
The event was started by Matthew Oliphant of Usabilityworks.com last 2006.

Personal Note

My dad got cancer, and we know this since Xmas/06. It´s very hard for us seeing him fighting and sometimes it seems nothing helps. Over the last year he got several chemo-therapies which knocked him down - but he´s still fighting. He is so strong and sometimes we are helpless. I wished i could do more for him, for us. This year is such a blur of pain and loneliness. But my family never gives up and i´m very proud that we stay together in this terrible time.

We must support those who are affected, thats what we can do. This is what my entry here is all about. This is why I support it.
Dad i love you!