I was watching a TV clip on the web about Chelsea Clinton campaigning for her mom. It was a new story but referenced an event a few months old when Chelsea was asked a question by some 10 year old reporter. According to the transcription, Chelsea said (roughly) “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately, even though I think your cute.”

“Your” vs “you’re” is such a basic skill but I see it misused everywhere! And certainly the people in the media with communications degrees should be able to get it right! I was so pissed that I actually looked it up and found one source that suggested it was a third grade skill.

Criticism is one of my talents, but I really don’t think proper use of “your” and “you’re” is too much to ask. I have a few grammar standards for myself (e.g. I try to use “fewer” and “less” properly (and also “e.g.” and “i.e.”)) and I don’t fault others if they don’t know any better, but I just might think less of you if you use “your” when you should be using “you’re” and vice versa. I’ll forgive you in conversation, but not if it’s in writing (haha, homophone joke, get it?)

I’m not great at English stuff, but I do find some of it interesting and enjoy the stuff that is nit picky (that term is gross in writing) and almost like a logic puzzle. Today, I was looking at one of my pint glasses and it said “Stolen Lame Pint Glass”. I did buy it from the bar, they were just being clever since there are definitely a few that make it out without being purchased. Anyhow, I realized that the adjectives were out of order. Why would I steal a “Lame Pint Glass”? I think the point they were making was that it’s lame because it’s stolen, in which case it should be labeled a “Lame Stolen Pint Glass”.

Right now it’s looking way too similar to Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction, but I hope to be creating my own unique spin on it as soon as I get some inspiration.

See, I started with Derek Punsalan’s Grid Focus theme, changed a couple light greys to dark greys, and boom, I had a Subtraction clone.

It’s not my intention to rip anyone off and I’m hoping that I can modify my theme so that it’s not a stolen design. I’ve only recently been exposed to grid design so it might take me a while to get a hang of its intricacies. I mean, I’ve always had a decent feel for laying things out in an organized manner, but it’s interesting to see actual specific rules behind design techniques. Grid design has been used on the web for a while (and for longer in print), and it may no longer be “cool”, but I don’t need many fancy graphics for a blog and I really like the minimalism of many grid-based designs.

Theming WordPress is pretty simple and perhaps I should’ve done my own design from the start. I was a little intimidated, though, since my last experience with CMS was with Drupal and creating a theme for Prime Health Solutions at my old job. That project was a little tricky since we were customizing everything a lot, but WordPress is improving my opinion of CMS’s. Perhaps that’s because WordPress was designed to facilitate exactly what I’m trying to create: a simple blog.

I’ll keep tweaking this blog’s theme and hopefully I can come up with something a little more original. Right now my main concern is to make it complete and consistent, apologies to Khoi Vinh during the process.

The next struggle will be deciding exactly what I want this blog to be. I want to showcase some tech stuff, but also want to share personal stuff with my friends… I guess I’ll figure it out as I go — wish me luck!