Time for a Tune Up

Time for a tune up.
 
So, I was working on Drupal (the Content Management System used on ParksPages) for work and realized that it's dog slow. That's one of the reasons my boss was hesitant to switch to it from the Perl script we're currently using to generate our web pages.
 
Now, I thought that PPages was slow because our host was slow. Turns out it's slow for a couple of reasons unrelated to that. Basically, two things: cache and theme. The underlying issue is that Drupal generates web pages on the fly, pulling from the database.
 
Cache simply saves a copy of the web page so that when a user comes to it, it can just spit it out without having to create it from the database and re-draw it.
 
Theme is the look of the web pages (of the site, actually). The more complex the components (images, shades, blocks, CSS, etc.), the more intensive it is to draw it.
 
So, with the combination of the thick, busy theme, and the lack of caching, the PPages website was slow slow slow.
 
So I've turned on caching, and right now, installed a much more minimalist theme. And you know what? It's 1,000 times faster. However, if you can find a theme that you like better than the Abessive one that's up now, let me know. You can see the repository of free themes here:
 
http://drupal.org/project/Themes
 
Update: I've switched from Amity Island to Abessive. Here's what the two look like:
 
 

 
 
 
Abessive Amity Island
 
 
What do you think? Abessive is dynamic -- you change your browser window size, and it changes with you. BUT, it's hard to distinguish between posts.
 
Amity Island is bold -- you can see each item clearly. BUT, it's static, so you have to have a window of at least x width or you miss stuff.
 
Whatever. I'm going to think about it and see if anyone has an opinion (which equates to Wayne and Tara).