A change is as good as a break

Okay people, listen up! It’s time to talk meta.

Yesterday I received this comment:

You’re lucky to have visited such wonderful places. I just wish you can share more photos to us— people who are stuck in our office chair and couldn’t get more than the four corners of our computer monitor.

Well, funny you should mention… in fact I have been thinking the same thing for a long time, that blogging is great but a lot of the fun of blogging from various parts of the world is being able to share images with people halfway across the planet, to convey the beauty and personality of a place in a way that words just can’t do. But unfortunately, with finances being what they are, all I ever had to take photos with was my less-than-adequate cameraphone.

Until today, that is.

Generous reader and friend Martin Murray heard about my dilemma a few weeks ago, and kindly offered to send me a digital camera, along with all the goodies I need to get me photoblogging (SD cards and card readers and whatnot). I was taken aback by the offer, and I gladly accepted it. The camera arrived this morning, and let me tell you, it’s fantastic. It’s certainly a lot better than anything I could have gotten on my own. So Martin, thank you. I owe you big time.

This means that now’s a good time to announce some changes and improvements around here that I’ve been planning for a while. This week marks six months of melissamaples.com, and it’s time to review what’s behind us and look forward to the future:

• You’ve probably already noticed that recently I’ve been posting a lot more frequently. That’s going to continue and increase over the next few weeks as I get in the stride of true full-time blogging.
• Now that I’m equipped to go out on all those expeditions I’d been postponing due to the fact that I had no decent way to take pictures, you can expect to see a lot more photo-essay type things like yesterday’s story on Meis (for which I was lucky enough to have a guest photographer). The Turkish riviera is an amazing place, and I plan to show you and tell you all about it.
• There’s going to be a reorganisation of categories in the sidebar, to reflect the direction things have actually gone (as opposed to the way I predicted they would go six months ago). This means the categories will actually mean something and be useful.
• I’m also considering sprucing up the look of the site… nothing major, just a bit of freshening up for the summer.
• So many of you have said that you’d like this site to reflect more of my personal experience. The camera will help tremendously with that, as I can start documenting my adventures with photos, but also I’ve got a few ideas for themed projects that hopefully you will find entertaining and that will also give all of us a way to interact more directly. First up will be a series of posts following my ridiculous struggle to speak Turkish, and I’m also talking with some people about bringing in some guest bloggers and maybe even starting up a podcast. We’ll see what you guys respond to best and take it from there. My main goal is to have fun and make sure everyone who visits here has a fun time.
• And finally, don’t forget, the online bazaar shop will be opening very soon— several of you have mentioned specific t-shirts and other items you’d be interested in having, and those designs are nearly ready to go, but I’m still taking suggestions for other designs as well. So if you ever thought you’d like to own a particular shirt or bag or anything else from the bazaar, now’s your chance to speak up.

Thanks for making these past six months amazing for me; I’m looking forward to the next six more than you can know.