Last week I was traveling, so updates were sparse. This week should be back to normal, starting with an article later today.

The other day I mentioned problems Internet Explorer 6 and 7 users were having viewing The Diving Blog. Namely, the sidebar was showing up at the bottom of the page.

I believe these issues have been remedied, but let me know if you’re still having problems.

Also, I still recommend upgrading your browser if you are using Internet Explorer 7 or older.

I just realized yesterday that the blog sidebar to the right is not displayed properly for users of Internet Explorer 6.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0.

I apologize for the inconvenience and will fix it this week. The sidebar shows up, you just have to scroll down to access it.

In the meantime, perhaps this is a good opportunity to upgrade? Firefox is an excellent alternative, or, if you prefer Internet Explorer, simply upgrade to version 8.

The Diving Blog turns five months old today! Our first post was on January 1, 2010. Since then, there have been over 100 posts on a variety of topics, including gear, buoyancy, physics, and fish identification.

In the sidebar on the right, you can see some of our most popular posts based on traffic. We have many more gems buried in the archives, articles like

Location of Sound Underwater
Weighting Guide
What Diving Equipment Should I Buy?

I encourage you to check these out and more.

Thanks for a great 5 months, and I look forward to the next!

Want your chance to make things better? Contact me or leave a suggestion in the comments if you have any ideas for making The Diving Blog better. I’d love to hear from you!

It’s official, I finally received my PADI divemaster certification card in the mail!

Turnaround was quick, about three weeks. I also received 12 of the 15 specialty cards I was expecting. My mail lady probably hates PADI.

Next up, assistant instructor then open water scuba instructor!

Our first post was January 1, so today celebrates three months that The Diving Blog has been active! New readers are arriving everyday, so if you haven’t already, I encourage you to poke around the site’s “older” articles. Here are a few of interest to get you started:

Exposure Suit Guide
What Makes Something Sink or Float? (this article has been pretty popular)
How to Perform a Simple Buoyancy Check
Improve Your Underwater Air Consumption
10 Reasons to Start Diving Now (the blog’s first article)

Updates

I was out of town for a few weeks and have finally gotten caught up on everything, so I can focus on the blog a little more. Besides the regular postings, I want to start working on the blog in other ways:

• Encourage more discussion. Articles are a good starting point for discussion, so I’d like to get the readers more involved and learn their perspective on things.
• Twitter looks like an excellent way to attract attention to the site and encourage discussion outside of The Diving Blog’s domain.
• Newsletter. I also want to start a newsletter to offer unique material that maybe doesn’t warrant its own blog post.
• eBooks. I have some ideas for eBooks I’d like to explore, from short pamphlets to actual book-length material.
• Site design tweaks. There are always changes going on, and I’l continue to tweak the look and feel of the blog.
  

  Where do you fit in?

  As part of the previous, I’d like to get you, the reader, involved. What are you looking for? What kind of articles do you like? Dislike? Want to see more of?

  If you have any feedback or just want to say, “hello”, feel free to leave it in the comments (posting is easy), or even email me.

  Also, subscribe to the site by following the links on the top-right of the page. You can automatically get new articles in your RSS reader or even your email.

  Hope to see you around!

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Sorry, everyone, but there will be no fish identification article today. If you’re new here, check out the fish id archives.

I’m currently in Bonaire, but I’ll be back on Monday. On the good side of things, I’ve finished my divemaster certification!

Have a good weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.