Theme development

This is what I have for my layout :
http://www.vdubphoto.com/files/1/screenshot1.jpg

This is what I want :
http://www.vdubphoto.com/files/1/screenshot2.jpg

Iv tried to change the code below. But I had no luck.

Here is the code for the sidebar and the content.

page.tpl

I'm trying to build a theme, and the default primary links are assigned the following class:

<ul class="links-menu">

What can I do to remove or override that?

This is what I am aiming for:

http://www.toofly.com/downloads/menu1.gif

#mainNavList ul {
position: absolute;
z-index: 300;
top: -2px;
right: 0px;
height: 39px;
padding: 8px 0 8px 0;
}

#mainNavList li {
float: left;
padding: 0 0 0 6px;
}

#mainNavList li a:link, #mainNavList li a:visited {
float: left;
font-size: 1.4em;
background: #000 url('images/bgTabLeft.gif') no-repeat left bottom;
color: #000;
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: normal;
text-transform: lowercase; padding-left:10px; padding-right:0; padding-top:8px; padding-bottom:8px
}

#mainNavList li a:link span, #mainNavList li a:visited span {
background: #000 url('images/bgTabRight.gif') no-repeat right bottom;
padding-left:2px; padding-right:12px; padding-top:8px; padding-bottom:8px 
}

#mainNavList li a:hover, #mainNavList li a:active {
/*background: #000 url('images/bgTabLeftOver.gif') left bottom no-repeat;*/
padding-top: 11px;
color: #000;
}

#mainNavList li a:hover span, #mainNavList li a:active span {
/*background: #000 url('images/bgTabRightOver.gif') right bottom no-repeat;*/
}

But this is what I get:
http://www.toofly.com/downloads/menu2.gif

How can I adjust my css in to my blocks, comments etc?

Thank you

This all seems too obvious and if it's already been covered, shucks. I looked all over but couldn't quite find the keywords to answers. Here's the site and my problem: http://www.politicsinminnesota.com

Basically we have a content type 'Morning Report' with daily news headlines. currently it is a View-derived block on the right sidebar, but i hate how Views insists that "Posted October 8th, 2007 by Staff" must be included.

Hi

I have been trying to change the look of the way forums are presented. This has lead me from the file 'forums.module' to theme.inc present under 'includes' directory of drupal.

Since the forums are presented in a table view, I looked for theming the table. So it lead me to 'theme_table( )' function that finally leads to '_theme_table_cell( )' function that returns each cell as output.

I have been struggling for months now to get a theme I like for drupal. There are many but I need a custom one. I have found the perfect theme for me but it's in wordpress. Does anybody know where I can find out how to design a theme from scratch or convert from wordpress, I dont know css or php but I can hack my way around certain things. Or any tutorial anywhere about how to convert a wordpress theme or design a new theme from scratch.

I have looked everywhere but cant seem to find tutorial how to do this.

Thank you for any help.