No, I haven’t found the perfect theme yet, but I have a couple installed right now that would be good compromises in case I don’t find anything better.  Both themes should be relatively easy to modify to my liking although they look good right out-of-the-box.  If the wait for a new theme has been killing you, by all means check out the two new themes called Soloss and Curved.  Any feedback will be disregarded.  Just kidding.  Post feedback here in the comments.  Also, I deleted Fluidity3c.  If you were in love with that theme, sorry guy.  I might take out another one of my old themes since I don’t quite like them anymore, to be honest.

Things have been a lot more “happening” in my summer research.  I’ve been given crash courses in operating an SEM, the excimer laser system, and an AFM.  Using the AFM is the most boring thing ever.  It takes ages to take images and while they certainly look cool, the effort you have to put in to take several different pictures is not fun.  The learning will continue as I familiarize myself with all the equipment available before starting my experiment.  I think EBSD is up next on Monday.  If you’re lost in a sea of acronyms, Google is your friend.

I’ve been on the look out for a new theme for my blog, as I mentioned before.  I’ve looked through at least a dozen websites but no single theme has jumped out and grabbed my attention immediately.  I’m trialling a few of the better ones I found and I may eventually go with one of these.  But I would really, really, really like to find the special theme that I can switch to with no hesitation.

Many good themes are ruined by abnormally large headers that serve no purpose.  Others are handicapped by a poor choice of fonts and/or colors.  Yet more are undone, in my opinion, by the relative lack of information displayed on the blog’s home page.  I can totally see why some people like simple, minimalistic blogs, but that’s not my preference.  I’d like something that presents a decent amount of information in a clear manner and with a dash of color.  I don’t know PHP but I can play around with the CSS code and modify themes to suit my needs.  I think this is what I’ll have to do eventually.

Also, one or more of my older themes will be deleted once I finalize the new theme.  Just cuz.

Check off one more item on my summer 2008 list!  I updated my blog to WordPress 2.5.1 today and while not everything is hunky-dory, at least things are functional.  I’m having two issues right now - one, the theme switcher is not behaving properly, and two, some posts have additional text characters like the one here:

I’ve edited most of the posts to fix this problem, but I know it still exists on some posts.  I’m way too lazy to correct the problem in all posts, even though I have nothing else to do right now.  I’m going to look into the theme switcher problem too.

It’s also time for my now annual theme hunt.  The last time I changed my blog theme was last summer, after an intensive search for the perfect theme.  But themes don’t stay perfect for long and now I need a new one.  This time, I’m going to be less strict with my requirements.  I’ll accept any theme that looks good and is functional.  So far, I’ve come across a few good ones and I’ll be trying them out slowly.  If you see new themes pop-up in the switcher, feel free to explore.  But be aware that not all of them will have a switcher installed.  If you notice glaring problems, let me know.

Also, for anyone keeping count, I have now posted a blog entry a day for a month!  WOOOO!  Nothing has affected my determination - finals came and went without interrupting my updates.  Even an utter lack of comments and site visits have not deterred me.

For there is a virtual barrage of posts coming your way in the next three weeks. No, I mean it this time. There will be a lot of new posts. I just need the time to finish writing them all up! I’m just posting this message in advance so that you can be prepared.

No seriously, how is your life today? I hope it’s good. If it’s not good and the reason for is that you’re tearing your hair out trying to figure out why I haven’t updated my blog recently, then have I got some news for you!

I’ve been working on a new (GASP!!) website. No, it doesn’t mean that updates will be even fewer. It just means that I’m responsible for managing a new site. If you want to know what this website is and where it’s located, point your browser to:

http://www.cuewb.org/india-wiki/tiki-index.php

It’s a wiki for a non-profit group on campus that I work with. Of course, it’s new and hardly complete but as with any wiki, we are constantly adding information to it.

In other personal news, I finally caved-in and bought myself a black N95-3. It’s a swell phone and the WiFi is awesome! Expect a short review soon.

Ok, I was just kidding. With Mobile World Congress starting on Monday, did you really think I’d risk a phone purchase right now? If you did, then you need to, umm, you know, do something. I just can’t figure out what right now. Now let me get back to making beautiful plots in MATLAB.