Anyone who's read MDJ or MWJ knows I have almost zero graphic design skill, though I can learn rules that make things easier to read and try to follow them. That's why I use pretty standard Manila themes for the blog - people with actual talent make them, and then I try to avoid rogering them.

The previous yellow-and-white theme was one I picked a few years ago because, for the most part, it's CSS-based, and CSS is better than not-CSS. It wasn't very handsome then, and it didn't improve with age.

When Bryan Bell released his latest theme a few weeks ago, I thought, "I could use that." Finally, today, I made the switch. The process cleaned out a lot of optional cruft from the sidebar, including a lot of badges and other links that I may restore someday (I have the old theme saved). And I might change the color if I get some time in Photoshop at some point, or move the stylesheet to an external file for faster serving. The theme also allows for a logo in the upper-right corner, but I don't have one, and for a top navigation bar that I've disabled because I don't know what to put there right now.

But it's still a far sight purtier than what was here before. Those of you reading through RSS won't notice anything, but I have to look at it in a browser and I'm happier.