Flynn's Paws: My Thoughts, My Gripes

Author: FLYNN

  • Simply Blog Home

    Simply Blog Home

    20250122-2309. So I just found out about the Blog Home template, which was where I left off after many failed revisions to the Front Page template!

    It’s so simple. Why didn’t I see this before?

    I spent many hours of stressing over the colors and details with the Front Page template that I finally decided enough is enough!

    Moments ago, I deleted the Front Page template after saving my hard work (of course) as a “pattern”.

    I felt relieved and renewed and refreshed all bundled together!

    I can’t believe theme 2025 pulled-through this time. I’m using the Default color scheme and the fonts are clear and appear LARGER.

    The basic lighter background color against the darker font color works out VERY well for eyeballs that are impaired, err, those with impaired vision.

    (I guess the “night mode” visual display is turned-on and so the usual brightness of the Default color scheme does NOT seem to hurt my eyeballs!)

    So that’s it: just one post front and center with the header (containing my three Site Profiles, my three hamburgers (Navigation menu for external and internal links) and a jump-page link) and the footer (containing a Search bar, a jump-page link, and credits for the theme, host and unto moi, of course).

    That’s all. End of temporary satisfaction 2318 PST.

  • Finished tweaking weblog

    20250122-1903. I’m eating chocolate chip cookies after convincing myself that I need to stop tweaking my weblog site because there’s really nothing else to fix other than produce content for my readers.

    I reverted back to theme 2025 after copying my hard work from theme 2024. I took out almost all the extra features and center aligned the elements. Then I remembered to use my plugin to hide the extra contents down below.

    Instead of all the clutter, there should only be the header, content and footer.

    The header contains my three Site Profiles (icon, title and tagline), three Navigation menus for external/internal links and a “jump page” tag link.

    The content should only show one recent post with the pagination for past or previous posts.

    The footer contains the Search, the complimentary “jump page” tag link and the credits to the theme, host and of course unto moi.

    I tried the dark color scheme but one of my plugins didn’t work because the colors for the text and especially the background didn’t adjust automatically! Whenever this happens I would have to manually find the color to make the text visible.

    I tried the other colorful schemes but the fonts were still too light for those who have impaired eyeballs/vision.

    And while being mindful of John Jr’s comment earlier, I had no choice but to select the Default color scheme with darker fonts with a lighter background, which hurt my eyeballs!

    That’s all for now. End status report 1920 PST. Edited 1924 PST.

  • Edited Nav-menu Title attributes

    20240122-1342. Welp, the whole day is freezing but amazingly sunny for two days! Gee! I think I know how and why this could be so grand!

    Yeah, so I think I’ve gotten to the point where there’s really nothing left to edit on my weblog.

    I’m learning the differences between Front Page and Blog Home (or Posts page).

    I’ve discovered that editing both non-native ands natively supported Navigation menus are different!

    When I tested and viewed my “drop-down” navigation menus, which is just the Navigation block/widget (my modified drop-down button menu didn’t respond properly to the mobile view), the hover-over information would be missing for the links!

    I discovered that the Title Attributes are within the page editing mode and can’t be found under either the old non-natively supported menus and the new Navigation menu pages.

    Both nav-menu pages only have the Description fields and not the hover-over Title Attribute fields that like I said could only be found within the page editing mode!

    That’s all. End status report 1350 PST. Edited 1359 PST.

  • Details block drop-down menu

    20250122-0905. Since last night, nay, since late in the early morning, I discovered two ways of creating my own modified “drop-down” menu for the top navigation bar of the Header!

    A few minutes ago, I added three blocks/widgets called Details, which is to “hide and show contents”. Unfortunately, I would have to add Paragraph blocks for each “Link” and then edit the URL set Advanced to “Open in new tab”. The blocks are for both my external and internal links.

    These “drop-down” menu items are called: Blogroll (external links that I am following), Projects (internal links to my static pages with my favorite Nextpage code and Table of Contents block) and Social Media (external links for my social media platforms/sites).

    Last night, however, I combined/grouped the Details block/widget with the Header or Paragraph block above and the Navigation block below: all three of which I combined/grouped but set as a “Row”.

    So the “Write summary” portion is the “Title” of the modified drop-down menu that we used as a “Button” to reveal/show the contents. Only this Details block/widget uses an “arrow” pointed towards the right to hide contents when NOT selected but pointed down to show contents when selected.

    It’s a convoluted way of just having the Happiness Engineers give us users a simple drop-down menu that combines the concept Buttons or Links with Navigation menus.

    That’s all. End of ranting 0918 PST.

  • Trying theme Twenty Twenty-Four

    20250122-0252. Behold! I found my ideal theme (maybe)! This time I’m trying theme Twenty Twenty-Four! And by golly-gee, one of the “template” worked!

    This had five columns in the middle and made use of one narrow column for my bible books! The light color scheme matched yesterday’s background header sporting the airplanes spewing forth chemtrails!

    This theme truly works because I was able to squeeze whatever stuff that I wanted! I kept switching and testing the width against the three views: desktop, tablet and mobile. And I was able to squeeze and center as much as possible for the mobile view!

    Unfortunately, the fonts are super small and that’s NOT good for impaired eyeballs!

    I guess that’s all for now. I’m still NOT feeling sleepy but I gotta lie down soon. End of happy status report 0300 PST.

  • How to make drop-down menus

    20250121-2145. Hey, John Jr! I got one of those inspirational incoming thoughts after I received your latest comment via email.

    And lo and behold! I have created my first set of modified “drop-down” buttons for my various Navigation menus by using three blocks/widgets: Details, Navigation and Paragraph!

    Then I played around with applied the five Styles of color swatches (besides the default Style) to my newly created “drop-down” buttons!

    The first row has Style color swatch numbers 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Default Style 1 is too light.

    It’s 2204 PST and I just now added a second “Row” of “drop-down” buttons for my KJV Bible verses project! Woo-Hoo!

    For this second Row, I used Style 1 (lighter) for the alphabetically-sorted bible books and Style 5 (darker) for the two testaments.

    Now I could have more fun designing my weblog. I now have duplicates for displaying my Page List on a static page or sidebar or in my newly created Top Menu Navigation bars!

    That’s all. End of sharing latest discoveries. 2210 PST. Edited 2215 PST.

  • Still tweaking my weblog

    20250121-2107. I’m not satisfied however many times I switch and edit my themes. I like light themes but the brightness hurts my eyeballs. I like dark themes but the color is too gloomy.

    So I’m left with tweaking but the features are limited. I do miss designing with Elementor but those are for professionals.

    My blog doesn’t get the views and visitors needed to make a dent in the internet or web blog sphere!

    And that’s my problem: no amount of window dressing would make me pay that much for nothing.

    Then again I wanna go back to Elementor Essentials upgrade at least.

    But I can’t because two of my main project pages use the Nextpage and Table of Contents widgets.

    And I don’t know codes! That’s for the backend and most users like me know only how to edit from the front end!

    That’s all. End of ranting 2115 PST.

  • Chemtrails background header

    20250121-1923. I just squealed in delight! I have created a Canva dot com background image meant for the Header, but it did NOT fit! And so I stuck my background header image below the Header!

    This worked out VERY well after I applied the Duotone filter (“a two-tone effect without losing the original image”] by applying the Shadows in orange color and the Highlights in dark black gray color.

    The image contains two airplanes spewing forth chemtrails; two outlines of forests, one background of mountain range, a flock of birds flying on Top of my Site Title and Site Taglines in the Middle.

    The overall theme color scheme of my modified theme OneNow (Header and Contents elements, which I copied and pasted into theme Twenty Twenty-Five), is basic dark/black and orange. You know, the spooky pumpkin colors meant for Halloween.

    I can’t help myself! I know I’m gonna keep editing my weblog site. This is how I keep busy. That’s all. End of status report as my dad was tweeting like a hungry baby birb. 1934 PST.

  • Discovered Lock Navigation

    20250120-2359. Welp, I did it again! I received yet another patient incoming thought about how to deal with my previous rant about why I would have to keep entering/adding-back the Description and/or Title Attributes to the Navigation block/widget!

    Lock Navigation

    Select the features you want to lock

    Lock all

    • Lock editing
    • Lock movement
    • Lock removal

    Apply to all blocks inside

    So when I clicked the “Lock all” box, the three items below were selected automatically! But the “Apply to all blocks inside” box was NOT selected automatically!

    I have yet to test if this is a way to make sure that my customized external/internal links stay locked; so I do NOT have to keep entering the Descriptions and/or Title Attributes!

    But I think I answered my own question that as long as I maintain and saved each nav-menu items that are found under the “https///[domain name whatever here]/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=wp_navigation” webpage, then I should be okay to add-back my Navigation block/widget with the Descriptions and/or Title Attributes still intact/”locked”.

    That’s all I have to say on this topic. End of status report 20250121-0010 PST.

  • Forgot description and title attribute

    20250120-2253. While pondering on the beauty and simplicity of my new theme OneNow which is on Twenty Twenty-Five because I did NOT like the colorful overlays of theme OneNow, I forgot to add/fill-in the Description and Title Attribute to each Navigation Menu items!

    I thought that adding/filling-in only the Description under the nav-menu.php page would suffice! But lo and behold, I saw a message on the top of the menu.php page stating that: “Your theme does not natively support menus, but you can use them in sidebars by adding a “Navigation Menu” widget on the Widgets screen.”

    So that means I would have to go back to my Front page template (Dashboard > Appearance > Editor) and copy whatever I added/filled-into the Description box/field under the nav-menu.php page and paste contents from that Description into the Description box/field of the Navigation block/widget.

    For mine, I copied the Description from nav–menu.php page and pasted the contents from that Description into both the Description and Title Attribute of the Navigation block/widget.

    The Title Attribute is where the mouse-hover or mouse-over shows the “Description” of the external/internal blogroll Links!!!

    So now that whenever I would ponder on the beauty and simplicity of my new theme OneNow, I could also see the little pop-up description of each link! For crying out loud, I keep forgetting why editing with blocks is supposed to be easy! But it’s NOT easy; because I keep forgetting about editing the links!

    Why can’t all themes natively support these Navigation blocks/widgets in one place and have the Description and Title Attributes saved in one place; so that I do NOT have to keep editing the Description and Title Attributes each time I delete and add-back the Navigation block/widget?

    That’s all I have to say about this topic! End of rant and status report 2312 PST.

  • Trying theme OneNow

    20250120-1934. Besides my elderly father coming downstairs to announce his hunger by making the usual modified birb sounds of tweet (eat) tweet (eat) tweet (eat), I just finished my project of editing my three OLD site pages.

    And so I copied the style from theme OneNow and pasted the style to them Twenty Twenty-Five. This might just work out for me because the Front Homepage clutter is stressing me out!

    So the style of theme One Now sports a grid of four panels and an header, but I added my footer way on the bottom. The top left corner of the grid has the Latest Post, which is just one.

    The top right corner of the grid has my main/parent pages.

    The bottom left corner has my social media links.

    The bottom right corner has my external/blogroll links.

    That’s all. It’s time for me to prepare our late supper.

    End of status report 1939 PST.

  • Tweaked latest template

    20250119-0934. Welp, I did it again! I’ve tweaked my weblog site!

    After receiving refund pending email last night and after failed error messages this morning, I deactivated and deleted the Elementor site-building plugin and reverted back to designing with my primary site-builder here at WordPress. The credits are located on the corner left of the footer.

    I enjoyed the remaining/short days of playing around and trying out the various Elementor features and themes and realized that all I needed were some samples of webpages online, especially the two website builders and one web browser company!

    And from studying these landing pages, I edited constantly the appearance and layout of my weblog site, which was mostly my Front Homepage static page. I have various OLD pages called Home, Homepage, Front Page and Home Page set to Draft and/or Private mode.

    Voila! Instead of cracking my “numbskull full of mush” (á la El Rushbeau), I’ve edited the “default” patterns for the header, content and footer sections! I do NOT know why I bothered forcing my ideas on what was already in front of my flat face!

    For the header, there are about 20 patterns. I chose the very last header pattern: Logo and menu, with social right. And I edited the header pattern to include four elements: 1. my VERY first Main menu located to the left of 2. my Site Icon and 3. the Button for my Read Blog (or Blog Home template page) located/stretched evenly to the far-right.

    That was the “bottom” header row. Now the “top” header row sports fourth element: 4. the eye-catching Title, which I borrowed from the Elementor’s Hero pattern, which has three Titles and one button.

    My eye-catching, one-liner “Announcement” for the “top” header row is all I needed for the “greetings” or “welcome” (after all these years of having my outmoded full-on page containing a plethora of text and images!)

    For the footer, there are about 19 patterns. I chose the second footer pattern: Footer with columns. And I edited one footer column to include my Site Profiles: Site Icon, Site Title and Site Tagline.

    For the other two footer columns, I replaced the elements with my Search bar and my Navigation menu (Bible – all 66 books KJV), which I uploaded using a plugin, which is only possible by upgrading to a “Business” plan or something like that.

    For the bottom-most section of the footer, I edited the two Paragraph element to include credits to the theme design and host platform located to the left and my copyrighted stuff stretch evenly to the right.

    For the body-matter/Content section, there are 14 Blog Posts patterns. I choie the “List of posts, 1 column”, which exposes the Full Content. Now that I no longer care for annoying/irritating myself and others with Excerpts, I left this default pattern intact! It’s perfect the way it is, especially the stretched-out evenly Navigation element!

    Once again, what I like about theme Twenty Twenty-Five are the 9 templates that are perfect in “default” modes!!! There are options to created Customized templates, which I have created my Bible pages because the Pages were inheriting/picking-up the “default” modes which had more than what I wanted in the Bible pages, which is just the two elements: Content and the Featured Images.

    So that’s it in a bundle or nutshell. Theme Twenty Twenty-Five allows for 9 style variations: Default, Evening, Noon, Dusk, Afternoon, Twilight, Morning and Sunrise. I chose the Evening style because I wanted the dark/black color scheme and sans-serif fonts; where as the Twilight style has serif fonts but is also a dark/black color scheme.

    Welp, that’s all for now. I hope y’all like it and I hope to stick with it for longer than now.

    End of status report 1023 PST.

    P.S. This morning is foggy! And I took some photos through the windows both downstairs and upstairs.