Archive for site news
Exciting Site Updates!
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Courtesy of moleitau on Flickr
Those of you who got a slew of duplicate emails last night are aware that I spent the better part of yesterday tinkering with the site. I apologize for those emails and have disabled the offending plugin, so that won’t happen again. Not all is lost, though, as I do have some exciting updates to report.
- All of the blog posts on EiH are now licensed under a Creative Commons license. What does that mean for you? It means that you are free to share and distribute content from this site as long as you attribute the work and you don’t use it for commercial purposes. I believe in openness and the main goal here is to spread knowledge. You can see more info about this license on the bottom of the page.
- I changed the layout of the sidebar. You may have noticed that the 125×125 ads are gone, leaving only an ad for the EiH Recommended Reading Shop and an unobtrusive ad on the bottom. I felt that the ads were taking away from the purpose of the site and they weren’t performing too well anyway.
- Finally, I switched providers for email updates. I used to have Feedburner handle it, then I saw how ugly the emails were, so I switched to Mailchimp. As you can see on the right, the form is just a little bit different, but when you receive the emails in your inbox, they’ll be prettier. In addition, if you subscribe via email you also get signed up for the monthly EiH newsletter which will recap the month and preview upcoming events, articles, etc. For those that wish to subscribe via RSS, there is now a stylized icon in the “Join the Social” section.
Thank you to all that have supported me in this endeavor, and I hope that these changes enhance your experience. Let me know in the comments what you think or if you have any suggestions.
EiH a “Very Interesting Blog”
Posted by: | CommentsI’m always looking for constructive feedback about this blog, so last week I requested a review from Find a New Blog, a blog review site. From the look of things, they enjoyed EiH, and they gave a pretty flattering review. I even got them to stick around and read the post about my hometown:
Completely different and varying, whilst I’m aware of the Gettysburg Address, i’ve never even heard of Deltona in Florida, yet I still felt compelled to read through the entire post.
He had even more good stuff to say about EiH, so head on over to Find a New Blog to read the rest of the review and to submit your own blog for review. Do you agree with the review? What would you like to see on EiH? Pull no punches, I’m a tough guy 
Do you Like the Redesign?
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been contemplating a redesign for a while now. For starters, the theme I was using didn’t allow for too much customizing, and also had an encrypted footer. I found out I was giving backlinks to gambling sites. Besides, I thought the theme looked a little too corporate, which didn’t help with all the ads all over the place. After reading the Jack’s guest post over at Problogger, Does Your Blog Look Like NASCAR, I knew it was time to change. So, here’s a list of things that I changed.
- Created a new header to reflect that it was a personal site, and that you’re liable to find anything on here.
- Changed the background to make it look like those old school composition notebooks.
- Put full blog posts (instead of excerpts) on the front page.
- Got rid of Disqus and switched back to the standard Wordpress commenting system. I liked Disqus’ social media integration, but at times it seemed to cause the page to load too slowly.
What do you think? Take the survey below, and feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.
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50 Years of 50 States: The Grand Finale
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It’s been a remarkable journey, even though we’re pulling into the station a little late. But it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, right? Along the way, we’ve found out that Ohio was actually the 47th state, the first opera performed in America was in Charleston, South Carolina, and that there is an association that exists solely to judge the flags of the states and provinces in North America (the North American Vexillological Association). It has been an amazing project, one that I have enjoyed immensely, and I hope you have, too. And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the final question. This one is for all the marbles, and everyone can participate, even previous winners. So, here it is:
What is the significance of the order in which I posted these states?
First one to get this one right wins a $50 gift card to Amazon.com! Simply submit your answer in the comments section, and if you’re the first to get it right, you win! You’ve got until noon on Thursday (9/10) to submit your answer. Good luck!
UPDATE: Here is the order in which the states were posted:
Wyoming
Maine
South Dakota
North Dakota
Idaho
Montana
New Hampshire
West Virginia
Alaska
Vermont
Kansas
Delaware
Mississippi
South Carolina
New Mexico
Utah
Rhode Island
Hawaii
Arizona
Virginia
Maryland
Connecticut
Kentucky
Arkansas
Oregon
Wisconsin
Tennessee
Missouri
Iowa
Nebraska
Nevada
Oklahoma
Louisiana
Colorado
Michigan
Alabama
New Jersey
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Florida
Indiana
North Carolina
Washington
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Texas
California
Georgia
New York
Illinois
UPDATE 2: You can find the answer on the 6th most popular website on the Internet. Search for United States state lists.
Day Five Trivia Question Winner!
Posted by: | CommentsThat wasn’t nearly as tricky as I thought it would be! The question was: Three states were admitted to the Union in the 1950s. Alaska, Hawaii, and which other state? The answer: Ohio. As anthonydurham so eloquently put it,
Ohio. Congress recognized the state of Ohio on February 19, 1803, but no formal date of statehood was set by the act of admission or a later resolution, as occurred with all other new states. On August 7, 1953, Congress passed a law retroactively setting the date of Ohio’s statehood at March 1, 1803, the date when Ohio’s first legislature convened.
USA License Plate Map Fine Art Poster
Everyone who answered that question, answered correctly. So, removing past winners, and my mom it comes down to between nickschueller and akanderson. So, to the random number generator…and the winner is akanderson. Akanderson is the new owner of a USA Map poster. Congrats! Tomorrow’s the grand finale, so be sure to come back for your chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon. And for those of you that won before, you are eligible to win the gift card as well! Hope to see you tomorrow!
50 Years of 50 States: Day Five Trivia Question
Posted by: | CommentsWow, what a journey! We’ve actually made it through all 50 states, and its time for the today’s trivia question, so here it is:
Three states were admitted to the Union in the 1950s. Alaska, Hawaii, and which other state?
USA License Plate Map Fine Art Poster
I’ll admit it, this one is a bit of a trick question, but the answer can definitely be found on this website. Answer the question in the comments below, and if you answer correctly, you could win an awesome USA Map License Plate Poster! Since I’m posting so late, I’ll give you until 9 AM tomorrow (9/8) morning to answer. Good Luck!
UPDATE: Due to popular demand, I’m extending this one through 1 PM this afternoon (9/8).
50 Years of 50 States: Day Four Trivia Question – Answer and Win!!!
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Today's Prize: Names on the Land
It’s that time again. Time for you to answer a trivia question and win a prize! You know the rules. Answer in the comments, and the winner is selected at random out of those who answer correctly. Since I’m just posting this at 11:30 PM, the normal deadline of 11:59 PM will not apply (you’re welcome). Instead, you have until 11:59 AM tomorrow morning to submit your answer. Today’s prize is a copy of Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States by George R. Stewart. Now for the question:
Where is the United States’ tallest state Capitol building located?
Submit your answer and win. Also, subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow EiH on Twitter for your chance to win again tomorrow. P.S. If you’ve won before, you can’t win again until the Grand Finale, so why don’t you go read about how the King Family doesn’t think James Earl Ray killed MLK while you wait?
