I realised recently my favourite bloggers have sites that are distinctive and personal. Mine looked like a default theme you’d get in a WordPress blog, so in the words of Paul and Linda McCartney and sung by Joe English, I decided I must do something about it. Hey look, this turned into a Music Monday.

Therefore, introducing Rubenerd Houndstooth. Feel free to browse the site if you subscribe via RSS, though maybe it’s best you don’t. It’s a mashup of the following themes:

The navigation bar and tag formatting from my 2005 theme, because it’s more logical to me

The header from my 2010 theme, because I missed having images I could swap out from time to time, especially during festive seasons

Posts from my 2015 paper theme, because I liked having posts that look like they on sheets of paper rather than floating in space, and because nuts to flat design

The sidebar from my 2024 minimal theme, because many of you said you found it easier to find things

The houndstooth background is a new addition. If the posts are going to have a white background, why not have the body be something a bit more fun? Okay, there are many reasons why not. Classic versions of Mac OS and Windows had the ability to show a desktop background or wallpaper with a pixelart pattern behind it, and houndstooth is my favourite tessellating design of all time. I drew it in five minutes in Krita, and it likely shows.

I’m sure I’ve broken a bunch of things, so consider it a work-in-progress.