Death, taxes and $100 oil are closer today than they were yesterday. But does that mean we are going to die this evening, or hand over taxes tomorrow? No. And neither is $100 oil here this morning, despite the over-blown news of an explosion in a Minnesota pipeline. I think I just need to turn off the TV and get on with life, and leave the news games to them that want to play.

Osama getting close

And talking about news that we don't want to hear, do we have any idea what the bin Laden tape is going to reveal this afternoon? I am amazed by this whole story. Not wishing to sound ignorant, but isn't he dead? Wasn't there an incident a few years ago and he was blown to hell? And if the bombs didn't get him, wasn't there talk that he was suffering from kidney disease and he was on the point of popping his clogs in a cave at any time? I dunno, he is getting more and more like a crazy cartoon character or an Austin Powers anti-hero.Or the Scarlet Pimpernel? They seek him here, they seek him there...

New theme getting close

Talking of pipelines and despotic leaders, I recently posted about some Pisstakers theme changes in the pipeline, and I also intimated that I was going to revamp 1200 posts, by incorporating SmartLinks technology into the theme. Me and my big mouth.

Although the comments about theme changes were positive, I had a feeling I may have overstated the case. In words of one syllable, if you had seen what I had on the drawing board, you would have thought I was a bullshitter too! 2 doodles and a squiggle on the back of a pack of cigarettes doesn't really equate to a face-lift in any language.

And what was I thinking, saying I was going to re-jig 1200 posts? For a start, after a quick count, there are 1300. And for seconds, I don't know 1300 books, movies or cds to Smartlink to. Oops.

But there is nothing like a bit of pressure to bring out the best in a loser like me, so I started Googling for more inspiration. Luckily, I came up with a plan after digesting some useful info which included: a great tutorial on CSS tables; some more info on our pet project, Kiva; a snazzy use of SmartLinks, and a general tip that in web design, evolution is better than revolution...

...and after reading a gigabyte of text, I came away vindicated that ads in sidebars, adsense, sponsored posts and a load of other money-making techniques don't really ad much to the blog experience. All in all, I might actually be onto something and I don't feel so bad about pre-announcing an idea.

Without giving the whole game away, you might see something like this screenshot in key positions around the site. I doubt whether this snippet of info helps much, but you now know a lot more than I knew the day before yesterday.