Fright Attendant

Horror, psychology, and the anatomy of fear.

Customizing My Website Theme

October 17, 2026 by Alexander Barriga

Here we get into the really boring stuff.

Or at least, the stuff that sounds boring until you realize how much control you actually have over your website.

This week, I worked on making Fright Attendant look and function more like an actual horror website instead of a collection of random assignments. But because of the nature of this class, that’s still kinda what it is!

Widgets: The Little Things That Do Stuff

Astra supports several useful widgets and WordPress blocks, including:

  • Search: Helps visitors find specific articles.
  • Categories: Organizes content into easily accessible subjects.
  • Latest Posts: Displays recently published articles.
  • Archives: Lets readers browse older posts by month.
  • Tag Cloud: Highlights recurring topics throughout the website.

I added Search, Categories, and Latest Posts because finding content shouldn’t feel like wandering through a haunted house without a flashlight.

Customizing Fright Attendant

I added About and Contact pages, organized the navigation menu, and included links to featured posts and outside horror resources.

I also added a site icon, experimented with background imagery, and adjusted the colors to create a darker atmosphere with crimson accents. The changes give the website a more recognizable identity without sacrificing readability.

I tested desktop, tablet, and mobile previews, experimented with CSS, and configured the AMP plugin for posts and pages.

Why Schedule Design Changes?

Scheduling changes makes sense for three reasons. First, updating during quieter hours minimizes disruptions. Second, coordinating changes with new articles or seasonal events gives visitors something fresh to experience. Finally, planning ahead leaves time to test everything and correct mistakes before they reach an audience.

Basically, making a website look good takes work. Making sure it stays functional while you’re messing with everything takes a liiiiittle more.

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My Website Theme

October 11, 2026 by Alexander Barriga

Apparently, even horror websites need to get dressed.

For Fright Attendant, I wanted something that looked appropriately out of place without making visitors feel like they’d accidentally stumbled onto an ancient website from 2004. The plan was simple, dark colors, dramatic typography, easy navigation, and enough customization to make the site feel serviceable without taking up another 40 hours of the week alongside my job.

After comparing three WordPress themes, I settled on Astra!

Where Do Themes Come From?

WordPress makes finding themes fairly painless. You can browse thousands through the official WordPress.org Theme Directory, purchase premium themes from marketplaces like ThemeForest, download them directly from developers, or even build your own if you’re feeling particularly ambitious.

Personally, I’d stick with more reputable sources. Free themes from the official directory undergo a review process andpremium themes might offer additional customization and support. Regardless of where they come from, checking compatibility, update frequency, security, licensing, and developer reputation is important. Nobody wants their website haunted by outdated software or any of that nonsense.

Now We Get Into the Really Boring Stuff

Underneath all those pretty layouts are the files that actually make WordPress themes work.

A traditional WordPress theme needs two essential files:

  • style.css: Identifies the theme and controls its visual styling.
  • index.php: Acts as the fallback template when WordPress needs to display content.

Additional files commonly include:

  • functions.php: Adds functionality and loads scripts and styles.
  • header.php: Handles the site’s header.
  • footer.php: Handles the footer.
  • single.php: Controls individual blog posts.
  • page.php: Controls static pages.
  • archive.php: Displays collections of posts.
  • comments.php: Handles comment displays.
  • screenshot.png: Provides the preview image shown in the theme selector.

Modern block themes work a little differently, requiring style.css and templates/index.html, and often using theme.json for global design settings.

Exciting stuff, I know I know, thanks. Still, understanding these files makes troubleshooting and customization considerably less mysterious.

The Theme Showdown

I compared three candidates using a weighted decision matrix:

My criteria were ease of use (30%), readability (25%), customization (20%), mobile responsiveness (15%), and visual aesthetics (10%).

Readability matters because Fright Attendant will feature articles about horror, storytelling, and psychology. Customization and visual aesthetics help create the appropriate atmosphere, while responsive design ensures visitors can actually read the content on their phones.

I weighted ease of use highest because I’d prefer spending my time writing horror stories rather than fighting with my website. Astra won because its interface felt intuitive without sacrificing the features I wanted.

Putting Astra to Work

Installation was (refreshingly) uneventful. I went through Appearance → Themes → Add Theme in the WordPress dashboard, searched for Astra, installed it, and activated it. No manual downloads, FTP transfers, additional purchases, or elaborate rituals required.

From there, I selected a dark color palette, chose Playfair Display for dramatic headings, and used Inter for readable body text. I also checked the mobile preview to make sure everything displayed properly on smaller screens.

Ultimately, Astra gives Fright Attendant a solid foundation. It’s flexible enough to evolve with the website, straightforward enough to maintain, and atmospheric enough to complement the content.

Now I just need to write something terrifying enough to deserve it.

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My Website Security & Users

September 23, 2026 by Alexander Barriga

Website security is extremely important, because even small websites like Fright Attendant can be targeted by automated attacks that probe for known weaknesses.

Protecting a WordPress site helps prevent unauthorized access, malicious software, and unwanted changes to site content. Several basic steps can improve security a ton.

First, I can use strong, unique passwords for every account. Second, I can keep WordPress, themes, and plugins updated so amny known security vulnerabilities are patched. Third, I can use SSL to encrypt information traveling between the website and a visitor’s browser. Security plugins such as Wordfence, WP Activity Log, and Login LockDown also help by scanning for threats, recording activity, and limiting repeated failed login attempts.

WordPress user roles help control how much access each person receives. As the Administrator, I can manage the entire website, including users, plugins, settings, and content. An Editor can manage content across the site, an Author can write, publish, and manage their own posts, a Contributor can write and submit posts for review, and finally, a Subscriber has no editorial control but can check out the site like a normal end-user.

Assigning these roles gives each user only the access needed for their responsibilities, which helps reduce unnecessary security risks. Together, these practices create a safer and more trustworthy experience for the site’s visitors.

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Why Web Accessibility is Important

by Alexander Barriga

Web accessibility essentially means designing websites so that people with different levels of ability can access, understand, and interact with online content.

Accessibility itself matters because people use the web in very different ways. Someone with limited vision might need larger text, stronger contrast, or screen-reader support. Someone who can’t just pick up a mouse may depend on keyboard navigation. Visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing may need captions or transcripts for audio and video content.

Common accessibility features might include:

  • Alternative text for images
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Adjustable text size
  • High-contrast display options
  • Clearly labeled forms
  • Captions and transcripts
  • Screen-reader compatibility

During this lesson, I installed Accessibility by UserWay and tested several of its options on Fright Attendant. Seeing the site change after a few adjustments made it easier to understand that small design choices can affect whether a website is comfortable or even possible at all for someone to use.

Web accessibility is super important because websites are used for an endless variety of essential services. Making a site easier to use for people with disabilities helps create a more inclusive experience and can also improve usability for visitors in general.

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Blasting Off with Jetpack

by Alexander Barriga

Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that combines a large number of tools into one package.

Instead of focusing on any single feature, it has different modules that can help with writing, sharing, discussion, traffic, and security.

One useful area is Security. Jetpack includes tools related to backups, spam protection, and added security. These features could help protect the Fright Attendant site from unwanted activity and reduces the amount of maintenance needed.

Another useful area is Traffic. Traffic tools can help a site owner monitor how visitors interact with the website. This could make it easier to see which Fright Attendant posts attract the most attention and which topics readers seem more interested in.

A third but far from final useful area is Sharing. Jetpack includes social media integration tools that can make it easier for visitors to share content. For a blog, this could potentially help posts reach a wider audience without requiring visitors to manually copy and paste links.

Finally, the major overall advantage of Jetpack is that its modules can be enabled or disabled individually, which gives the site owner greater control over which features are actually being used.

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External Storage & File Sharing

by Alexander Barriga

External storage services are super useful (and money-saving…most of the time) for website owners because they provide a separate place to keep backups and important files.

If a website server fails, is damaged, or becomes compromised, storing backups somewhere else can make recovery way easier. The text stresses that backups are the most useful when they’re performed regularly and stored somewhere safe, which brings us to Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.

Dropbox

Dropbox is very simple to use and works well for storing website backups. One big advantage is that files can be accessed from different devices and also shared easily. A big disadvantage is that the free storage plan has limited space, and the pricing on higher storage gets pretty ridiculous.

Google Drive

Google Drive provides cloud storage along with standard tools such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It’s useful for collaboration and gives users access to files from almost anywhere. Its con is that storage can get cluttered if the same account is used for personal, school and site files.

Microsoft OneDrive

OneDrive integrates closely with Windows and Microsoft 365. This makes it convenient for users who already work in the Microsoft ecosystem. A disadvantage is that some storage and advanced features may require a paid Microsoft plan. Also, if you’re a Mac user, what are you doing?

External storage is useful because it creates redundancy for backups. During this lesson, I connected UpdraftPlus to Dropbox so that Fright Attendant can store website backups away from the main server. The book describes this same approach, using UpdraftPlus with remote storage such as Dropbox for automatic backups.

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What I’ve Learned About Plugins

by Alexander Barriga

Plugins are one of the easiest ways to add useful little features to a WordPress site without having to build everything from scratch.

During this lesson, I used plugins for backups, analytics, caching, social sharing, spam protection, accessibility, annnnd contact forms.

When choosing plugins, it’s important to use safe and trusted sources. For this course, plugins tend to come from the official WordPress.org plugin directory. Before installing each one, I would check how recently it was updated, whether it was compatible with my version of WordPress (some were not), how many people use it, its ratings and reviews, and whether the developer still provides support. I would in the future be cautious about plugins with poor reviews, very few users, or long periods without updates. The text also recommends checking on popularity, support forums, changelogs, compatibility, and update history before installing a plugin. Kinda like mods for games on Steam, but in this case you’re installing mods for your website.

     Plugins can also be discovered through WordPress blogs, tutorials, reviews, support forums, and searches for a specific feature or problem. These can help narrow down possible choices before checking the plugin itself on WordPress.org.

     For my additional plugin, I chose WPForms Lite to add a working contact form to Fright Attendant. I also considered Contact Form 7 and Forminator, which are similar features. I ended up going with WPForms because its visual form builder was easy to set up and use within (a very well-advertised) 5 minutes. The contact form gives visitors a simple way to reach out to Site Admin and gives the website a useful feature that could later be expanded upon for feedback, questions, or submissions.

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Lesson Concepts

September 12, 2026 by Alexander Barriga

What I Learned About Categories and Tags

Two ways WordPress helps organize blog content are categories and tags. Categories give you broader groupings for posts, while tags describe more specific topics or details in a post. You can also organize categories hierarchically, which allows your website to have parent and child categories. Tags, on the other hand, are much more flexible and are useful for connecting posts that share specific subjects or ideas.

For my website, I’m probably going to stick to using categories to create the main organizational structure for my content. Since my site will focus on horror, psychology, storytelling, and related topics, categories could include areas such as Horror Psychology, Film Analysis, Horror History, and Storytelling. This will make it easier for visitors to understand the different types of content available on the site.

I will use tags for more specific subjects that may appear across several categories. For example, a post might use tags such as “fear,” “trauma,” “suspense,” “grief,” or “body horror.” Using categories for broad subjects and tags for specific topics should make my content easier for visitors to browse and search while allowing related posts to be connected across the site.

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