Sick of Kubrick
I’m sick of Kubrick. Not the director fellow (although his interpretation on King’s Shining is a bit so-so) but the WordPress theme or its derivatives. I see it everywhere (no offense Eric. But, your site is nice despite the Kubrick 
) and people praise it to high heaven although I see nothing special about it. Don’t get me wrong, it is clean and organized — and ok that way. I guess it’s a good starting point. Surely, it’s more beautiful than the classic WP default theme, but I don’t buy Eastpacks or those nice elfish shoes even though I’d like them (well, actually, Eastpacks are pretty dull sacks and elves are not my thing) because everyone else already has them.
Maybe I just really don’t see what other people see in Kubrick. Maybe I’m design-blind. Maybe there’s some neato CSS or PHP trick that tickles everyone’s inner designer-slash-coder except mine. What’s wrong with my inner coder?
But now, oh yes, the default template on WordPress is based on Kubrick! Kubrick-ish things (images) are removed and replaced by a blue masthead. But still, it reeks of Kubrick. Nice if people take the time to personalize it, but if I made a fresh start on WP, I’d stick to the classic theme. It’s flexible width above all. I have 1024×768 resolution and I want to make most of it, not just some percentage.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve made several fixed with layouts. I know I have and I know I probably will, too. That’s not the point.
One of the most frustrating things imaginable in blog-life is this: You search the whole wide web for the single beautiful, clean theme that you want to use for your blog (Kubrick in my case) and then, some days later, that theme gets selected as the default theme for your blogging tool of choice (WordPress, of course). So that now hordes of newcomers will use the same theme you do _without even having made the decision for themselves_. Grr, argh.
As to Kubrick, I can understand why it got selected as the new default theme, for exactly the things you mentioned: It’s clean and organized.
Guess I really have to start working on a design of my own. Beh.
Oi, now that’s a bummer
I’m a DIY kind of gal only (?) because web design is my passion (or close). I hack and tweak and tear my hair (oooh yes) until I get it done and THEN I publish my site and the development continues. I have been tempted to get a ready layout for my 2 new WP sites but then I’ve decided not to get one cause the design part is the (only?) reason I have sites. Some people need a site but don’t necessarily have a desire to code into the wee hours. I’ve just always seen a correlation on having a site and doing the coding (even in my Front Page stage — I’m not too proud of that stage, nor many others). Nowadays people don’t need to strain their brain on HTML and things. 
Kubrick is nice, but there’s just toooooo much of it.
Heh. I have a friend who’s a bit like you in that regard. Has a blog, changes the design from the ground up twice a month, but only posts something every other month..
Guess I’m just too lazy to roll my own design these days, since I’ve realized that I’m not really gifted in that area, oh well. Nice design you’ve got here, by the way
Hey! I do post more than every other month
Honestly, I’m surprised I’ve kept this layout as long as I have, probably since September. I just like it. It’s going to get simpler when I decide to upgrade but that’s a good thing. I think nowadays I don’t *re*-do sites, I just make new ones and new ones… I’ll end up with dozens and dozens of sites to run and my oldest ones get neglected (e.g. my XF site)