Creating my own theme was going pretty well, but I am not much of a designer.  I am more of a programmer; therefore, I stopped and choose my favorite theme  in the recently released Theme Pack.  So in the recent weeks expect new programming items and modifications to this theme.  First, I need to remove that flower in the upper-left.

Probably one of the best actors of his time and has some of the best comedic timing.  And who else is willing to point back at themselves and laugh:

I was happy with Juan's Google Reader Picks, but I am not a huge fan of a  massive amount of javascript (removal of faviconizing is nearing).  So I went about creating a server side version.

Although I could have used the Twitter widget's code (didn't notice until I was done), I decided to try out XML to Linq.  Therefore, you will need to update your Web.Config to .Net 3.5.  However, future updates will remove that requirement due to BlogEngine.Net's current dependency on .Net 2.0.  Read on to find out how to install my widget.

Like most people, I don't like to reinvent the wheel.  I wanted to add my Google Reader shared items to my blog via the BlogEngine.Net widget framework.  I found a great widget.  So I installed the widget and followed his instructions.  Unfortunately, I ran into a few issues.

After about 6 hours, I have a very nice looking website.  I still have some more updates before I can submit the theme, but it is getting there.  Most of my time was spent debugging my issues with the Syntax Highlighter.  Most of the errors were my own fault, but BlogEngine.Net and  jQuery sometimes doesn't play nice together especially with paths.  In addition, I added faviconizing script, but I do not know how much of a fan I am of it.  Either way, this is a great start.  In addition, my old website has been replaced because I was confident in this update and path issues.

I tried to add FeedBurner with my new blog website.  However, there was a big error: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Parameter name: utcDate.  How nice?  Well, I did some googling and found this answer (Thanks krishnan).  However, the answer was a bit vague as to when the bug fix occurred, so I did some investigating.

The error usually occurs when the hosting server is not in the same time zone as the blogger (i.e. me = East Coast and GoDaddy = West Coast).  That means the server offset time is usually +2, so the posts appear right to the blogger. 

I added some minor updates to some images (opml and rss icons).  In addition, I have added some people to my blogroll: Bill and Scott.  In addition, I have added some styling to the recent posts and comments widgets.  However, I do not have those widgets displayed.  Once I am complete with the theme (aka skin everything), I plan on posting it to BlogEngine.Net and hopefully get it included in the theme pack.  Then I will heavily modify the code behind because there are a number of annoyances:

• RecentComments and RecentPosts - both need a space
• Change the output of some of the widgets
• Move the rss links around

Until next time.