Day One - My Half Marathon Blog

Follow the whole nine yards here (a 95 part series) :- Half Marathon Blog
Why I am running:- West Coast Eisteddfod  Bryn Seion Church
For details of how to sponsor see this post

AmeriCymru 2.0 - Part 1

AmeriCymru is 3!  And to celebrate, we're upgrading both sites.  Yes, there are two AmeriCyrmu's:  

AmeriCymru.net, our social site, is the place to meet other Taffs, Gogs, Cymruphiles and descendants of Wales the world over to make new friends, network, play, brainstorm or just find out what's happening with the Welsh in the world.   The blog is our online magazine, to showcase articles, multimedia and content on the arts, culture and news of Wales and Welsh-Americans.   Both sites of course present opportunities for Welsh artists, authors, musicians etc to promote their work to the Welsh American community.

The blog ( and several sub-categories including books, poetry, art, humor ) is now linked from the AmeriCymru social site and can be reached from the top navbar 'Magazine' button and associated dropdown menu.

Here are the three most important additions to the site ( beside the new look template ). They can all be found at the bottom of every post:-

This the Outbrain widget and it's purpose is to suggest other ( hopefully vaguely related ) content on the site that you might like.

This is the DisQus commenting box. You can leave a comment here or join a discussion thread. Comments containing urls or images are moderated and if you are on Twitter you can send your comment to another user by using the @ symbol followed by the users name. In order to use the new commenting system you will need to log in. The screenshot below displays the various login options. It is also possible to share your comments on Facebook and Twitter. All comments , regardless of which pasword or service you log in with will appear in the same thread. Comments containing urls or images are moderated.

And finally, the 'Popular Articles' widget. This displays the most popular articles on the blog ranked solely according to the number of hits they have received in the last seven days.

We hope you will enjoy these new features and visit and comment on the blog often. In part two of this series we will reveal the new features that will be added to the social site ( http://americymru.net ) soon.

Calling All Bloggers

Are you a Poet, Short Story Writer or a Photographer?...then read on.... For the second year running the Left Coast Eisteddfod is being held in Portland Oregon. What is an Eisteddfod?   An Eisteddfod is essentially an arts competition and the Left Coast Eisteddfod is an online arts competition. It features four categories:- Poetry, Short Story, Photography and Video.  The first Eisteddfod was held in 1176 in Cardigan in Wales. The National Eisteddfod and Bala Eisteddfod are held in Wales every year and more all over the world, wherever Welsh people settled. The competition is open to both Americymru members and non-members and submissions need not have any Welsh relevance. Why should this be of interest to bloggers? Cash prizes of $150 dollars in all competition categories! Submissions judged by experts with international reputations! Winning submissions and other entries stay on a heavily trafficed page-rank 4, social network site for more than a year together with backlink! No registration fee! Two ways to submit your entry If you have an original poem,short story, photograph or video that you would like to enter you can either, Join the site. Americymru is an American Welsh social networking site on the Ning network BUT if you have no Welsh heritage fear not. You can simply check the Eisteddfod option when categorizing your profile or copy and paste the following ....'I am here to compete in the Eisteddfod', in the 'About Me' field. Registration only takes a minute or two. Please remember that in order to qualify your blog must have some literary, poetic or photographic content. If this is the case please feel free to include a link to your blog on your profile page. To join Americymru go here. If you prefer not to join but still wish to compete, email your submission to americymru@gmail.com. We will post it for you together with your backlink. You may request that your submission be removed at any time and we guarantee to respect your copyright. Your content will not appear on any other page than the submission page. The winners will be announced at the Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland Oregon on Oct 6th 2010. Winners will be notified via email and checks mailed shortly after. Why are we doing this? Welsh culture is rich with artistic tradition in poetry, song and story.  Our mission is to promote art in the Welsh tradition in North America and to bring the Eisteddfod and the Welsh love of the arts and the art of the word to artists around the world. ( Submissions deemed to be of insufficient quality may be rejected by the Eisteddfod Organizing Committee.Please enter your best work. Blatant link-dropping will not be tolerated. ) To all our contestants both current and future we wish the very best of luck:)

Iolo Multnomah

Who is Iolo Multnomah? What's in his pipe? What is the mysterious "Pine Egg"? Read on here http://iolomultnomah.blogspot.com and all will become unclear.

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Americymru Blog Nominated for December Blognet Trophy Contest!!

We proudly reproduce an email from the BlogNet Awards Team below:-

"It is with pleasure that we inform you that your blog has been nominated for the December BlogNet Trophy Contest. Before a site is accepted to our site, we do a manual review to make sure that it meets our standards for content and quality. Congratulations, your blog has passed and is now viewing on our site.

Should you win the monthly award your blog will hold a prominent position for the following month on our front page and on all the sites who display our widget, and you will be included in the year end competition for our Annual award.

This is a Free contest that is fun and will give your site more exposure and traffic! The best way to create a buzz for your nomination is to let all your readers and viewers know about this contest, from friends, family and all your contacts in the various communities and forums that you are with. To encourage people to vote and comment to your nomination, we have created a Comment Contest. People need to REGISTER to have their votes and comments counted and the benefit to them as an added bonus is that they can create a backlink to their own primary business, not to mention the cash prizes that they can win. Nominations close on the 15th of the given month, but the voting and commenting goes to the last day of the month.

Again, congratulations and best of luck!"

Dear members, readers and friends. We need your help more than ever before with this one. We think voting the "Americymru" blog as number one in its category in this competition is an excellent way to promote Wales and also your own sites and blogs at the same time ( see above quoted email, paragraph 3 ) Please dont be shy...get along to BlogNet Awards now...register, vote for us and comment, comment, comment! You'll be doing us and yourselves a favour.. You know it makes sense! Have Fun.

Diolch

Ceri Shaw


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