The updated version of this theme is actually quite different from the original. There is alot more space between posts, but now I think it looks unique from the rest.

You can change the permalink symbol, just type/paste whatever you want it to be into the box located in the appearance tab. 

All my themes now have the option to show sidebar photo, title, links and captions on photo and video posts. There is also custom link boxes that you can fill out with links to facebook, or other social networking sites, or even to another blog.