Okay, I'm actually starting to enjoy this now that I kinda understand what I'm doing here. Following a link from the lovely Tina, I downloaded a few themes created by Theron Parlin and have been examining his code as compared to his output to figure out how/what he did to achieve certain effects. Borrowing some code here and adjusting values there, I ended up with this result -- and I've gotta say I'm pretty pleased with it. Note the sidebar pulldown menus! Fun fun. 🙂
I'm still a little confused about the purpose of those links at the bottom, though, which I left in for now but will probably eventually remove. I get that they're used for validating the page's XHTML and CSS, but why are they there for all to see and do? For that matter, why are they there in the first place? I think it's kinda weird.
And now I must be off to the bookstore. Ugh. But in less than 24 hours things may be looking up! *fingers crossed* Ja ne, minna-san.