played with picom, added blur, border-radius, and global inactive

opacity. added icons to i3bar and roughly centered date/time. looks much
nicer

i3blocks.conf

@@ -7,11 +7,26 @@
 
 
 # Global properties
-separator=true
-separator_block_width=25
+separator=false
+separator_block_width=40
+
+[date]
+command=date '+%a, %b %d - %H:%M:%S '
+interval=1
+# color=#c0caf5
+color=#c0caf5
+
+[padding]
+command=echo '                                       '
+interval=once
+
+[weather]
+command=curl -Ss 'https://wttr.in?0&T&Q' | cut -c 16- | head -2 | xargs echo
+interval=1800
+color=#c0caf5
 
 [brightness]
-command=echo "dim: $(brightnessctl get | awk '{print $0 / 24000 * 100}')"
+command=echo " $(brightnessctl get | awk '{print $0 / 24000 * 100}')"
 signal=11
 interval=once
 color=#c0caf5
@@ -29,13 +44,3 @@ color=#c0caf5
 # interval=30
 # color=#c0caf5
 
-[weather]
-command=curl -Ss 'https://wttr.in?0&T&Q' | cut -c 16- | head -2 | xargs echo
-interval=1800
-color=#c0caf5
-
-[date]
-command=date '+%a, %b %d - %H:%M:%S '
-interval=1
-# color=#c0caf5
-color=#c0caf5

i3blocks_volume

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+if [ "$(pactl get-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@)" = "Mute: yes" ]; then
+	echo " mute"
+else
+	echo " $(pactl get-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ | awk '{printf "%s", substr($5, 1, length($5) - 1)}')"
+fi

i3config

@@ -177,6 +177,10 @@ bar {
 	strip_workspace_numbers yes
 	tray_output none
 
+	separator_symbol "-"
+
+	padding 5px 15px
+
 	colors {
 	 	background $bg-color
 	    	separator $text-color

picom.conf

@@ -1,19 +1,19 @@
 backend = "xrender"
 
 # Disable background blur; search picom.conf for Background-Blurring for details
-blur-background = false;
+blur-background = true;
 
 # Disable background blur; search picom.conf for Shadows for details
-shadow = false
+shadow = true;
 
 # Disable window fading; search picom.conf for Fading for details
-fading = false
+fading = false;
 
 # Disable rounded window corners; search picom.conf for Corners for details
-corner-radius = 0
+corner-radius = 15; 
 
 # Defaults
-inactive-opacity = 1;
+inactive-opacity = 0.75;
 active-opacity = 1;
 
 opacity-rule = [