I wanted to let you all know that I have made some improvements here that I’m excited about. Thanks to all who have given me suggestions for my Everyone’s a critic project. The suggestions were very valuable. For those who haven’t, I challenge you to check it out for your own blog. I will help in any way I can.
For you subscribers out there, now’s the time to click on over to the site and check out the following improvements:

• Added a Google Custom Search tool at the upper right. I now have the power of Google on my blog. Woo hoo!
• Added a photo to the About me page. In case you’re wondering, I’m standing outside the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio in Scottsdale, AZ. This was taken the day before my first marathon
• Added a TOP POSTS section to give new readers a chance to see the democratic consensus of my most popular content. This is one of my favorite additions and if you mouse-over each link, you will see the number of visits to each page.
• Expanded the sponsors list and deleted the graphical ads on the sidebar. I think this was the biggest improvement in terms of cleaning things up. I may add graphical ads later on down the road, but for now this is how it will stay. Be sure to have a look at the SPONSORS list to the right as well as this one for great blogging tips. I personally use all of these services and will only put a link up here in which I believe to be worthy.

There you have it. It’s not perfect by any means but I’m very happy with the results. There are a few things I want to clean up, most notably the CATEGORY CLOUD. I just have too many categories to list, so I may end up moving it to a separate page and just featuring the top 20 or so.

I owe a million thanks to all who contributed their feedback. If you have your own blog, check out Everyone’s a critic and I’ll be happy to help out.

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I want to thank some of my readers for offering their critique of this blog. There were some great suggestions pointed out to me and few of them have already been implemented:

• I cleaned up the sidebar and eliminated some of the graphic ads. In the future these may return in a different form, but for now I think they were a bit unsightly.
• I have also eliminated the calendar and I’m working on something to make it easier to search the archives.
• The Top Commentators section (I also had to use the runPHP plugin) has been added and I am hoping it will improve the discussion activity here. The critique post certainly has helped! I encourage comments here, and the top commentators will be rewarded with a link to their site in the sidebar. This list will reset every 30 days. If I decide to change this time-frame, I will give notice.
• Some of the feed flare at the end of each post has been eliminated and I may make further changes as necessary

Again, thanks to all who have given me feedback. I encourage everyone to critique my blog and I will return the favor!

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I was out enjoying the beautiful spring weather we’ve been having here in Galway and took a few snapshots of the River Corrib and the Spanish Arch. I decided that my blog needed a more appropriate header image so here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

This photo was taken a few hours ago and what you see from left to right is the Spanish Arch, Nimmo’s Restaurant, and the pastel-colored row homes facing the River Corrib (bottom) which empties out into Galway Bay (far right). I see this image in person nearly every single day and decided it was time to capture it digitally. This is only about 3 minute’s walk from my apartment which is behind the image. Isn’t it amazing what we take for granted? I challenge all of you to enjoy your neighborhood or city and look at it in a different light, maybe take a few photos. Spring is already here in Galway, and I’m sure it is right around the corner for many others as well. Hope you like the new header image and happy spring to you all.

Let me know what you think in the comments below…

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Piece of cake…enjoy!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to post more frequently. The original intent of this blog was to serve as a repository of my experiences as a postgraduate student in Ireland. It’s been a big transition: picking up the family, quitting a job, selling a condo and moving to a foreign for two years. I have had a difficult, yet rewarding experience in Ireland so far and my hope is to be a better historian going forward. If I am able to inspire just one person to become as crazy as myself and start a new life abroad, then I will be happy. Without further delay, I give my thoughts to you…