I’ve recently been in a minimalist mood as far as themes go so I decided to try creating my own GTK+ and XFWM4 theme to see if it was a workable solution.

My reasoning is why use up so much space and cycles drawing what is nothing more than a functional item (scrollbars, buttons, etc.). We all know how to use a scrollbar and push a button and having a gazillion “pretties” around it doesn’t change it functionality, so why? I talked to systemx a bit in IRC and he gave me some great suggestions.

Anyways, HERE is the screenshot and HERE is the actual XFCE+GTK theme.

Please note that it’s 0.01 and still has a few funky colors that I’m hunting down and the proper attribution isn’t in there yet.

I have been following my Texas State Representative race with some interest as we have Carter Casteel, the incumbent, being challenged in the Republician primary by Nathan Macias. As I watch the race unfold a couple of things are becoming clear.

First, I had never heard of Nathan Macias. That’s not a huge suprise as I’m not big on keeping up with the comings and goings in the local political (or any) arena. A little poking turned up that it’s even less of a suprise: He hasn’t been around here for years. Mr. Macias just moved back to the area in the last 2 years…which I -think- is the minimum amount of time one must be a resident of the district to run for the office. I say -think- because it might only be 6 months, but regardless, that’s not much time to have a feel for our neck of the Hill Country and its very diverse sub-culture.

I’m not sure where he gets his money, but they are pouring it on. I could be completey wrong, but I don’t think that a retired Lt. Col. is typically going to have the cash to run close to a million dollar campaign. Hey, maybe I’m wrong…wouldn’t be the first time, but that’s a ton of Georges to be plopping down within short order of arriving on the scene.

Finally, the most interesting ‘data point’ to me (born in the Hill Country, grew up there, married a woman from there, live there, daughter born there, plan on raising my family there.) is the whole mess about ’someone’ acquiring some of Carter Casteel’s campagin notes. I guess I can almost understand some wide-eyed Carter ‘hater’ or Nathan ‘fan’ thinking they were helping by snatching them for/against their person, but what followed concerns me deeply. From my understanding, the Macias camp took those notes, which were obviously not theirs, and used it as some kind of pre-pre-emptive strike. It seems to me that the honorable thing to do would have been to have called Carter and told her that they someone had sent them something that obviously didn’t belong to them and asked what she would like done with it…kind of like when you find your neighbors cattle in your pasture.

Each of those items alone doesn’t seem like much, but when I put them all together it just makes me wonder if Mr. Macias really “gets” where and how we live. If my mind wasn’t already made up in this race, the actions of Mr. Macias and his crew have clarified it for me. Like Carter or not, at least you always know exactly where you stand and she’ll tell you that anytime you ask…and call you when your cattle get out.