As you may have noticed, the web site for the game shop has changed a lot in the last month. Now that I'm home, it made a lot of sense for me to take over managing the site. We've tried several new things and we'd like your feedback. What things do you like on the new site? What things don't work for you? What would you like to see in addition to what's up there, or instead of something?

The forums are back up again, but you will have to register again to access them. We hope to make them an active part of life at Paddy's.

I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive when we made this decision. What did I know about building or maintaining a web site? We bought a template program and I started playing. This is the third template I tried, and it took some time to figure out how to change the pictures out, but I found it. Then there were parts that seemed like they should quite easily work that didn't! Luckily GoDaddy has some great customer support, and they were able to help me find acceptable work arounds. You can't believe how proud of myself I was when I hit "Publish" for the first time, and it was there! On the web! Three weeks later, I'm logging in, making changes, adding events (I need to go put in the days we're closed!) and changing content.

I've also taken on our web advertising, and while it's new and intimidating, I'm getting a thrill out of seeing how many times our site comes up. It may seem like something minor to people that are used to it, but boy did I step out of my comfort zone to design and maintain the web site. It felt pretty good too. I've been getting in to a rut, and that always seems to bring me a bit down. Learning something new, trying something new, and having it be useful is always a lift for me.

Future plans? well yes, I do have a few! First thing, I'd like to get a newsletter going for the store. Nothing fancy, just a short update on what's going on, what's new, and what's upcoming. We also have some great ideas for events for the store, and for those you'll just have to stay tuned in order to find out what's coming.