So, Thing 2 is completed. I've had a good sniff around The Blogs of Others. It is good to know I am not alone in starting a blog for '23 Things'. I still find it a bit intimidating, putting myself out there like this, but I'm sure I can overcome that after a couple of posts.
So, on to Thing 3. Branding. It does lead me to think of painful images of body art and cattle branding. I'm writing this blog from the depths of the countryside in rural Ireland so farm-related imagery springs forth with a little too much ease.
I suppose branding decisions have to be made after reflecting on how personal or profession we want our blogs to be. I enjoy reading about the personal so I would like to keep elements of the personal in this blog. But that's just a Personal Thing.

Hello World. This is my first ever blog post. Here is why I'm writing this. I find myself unemployed and in Ireland. My location and the current recession have rendered the job hunt challenging to say the least. I have become a professional interviewee of late and some of the jobs I've been interviewed for include librarian jobs (my number one choice!), jobs in financial services, database jobs and even a job flogging leprechauns at a popular Irish gift shop. I signed a contract for this job before realising that I would actually lose money after paying for the commute to and from work and the occasional coffee or sandwich. Good old minimum wage. It's a pity in a way as I'm sure flogging all things green would have provided a few interesting blog posts!

As I await the outcome of the other interviews I have decided to sign up for '23 Things for Professional Development' which is a kind of online to-do list for professional development. Task One is to create a blog and post to it. So this is my homework. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to say in my next post - maybe news of an impending library job move to the UAE - fingers crossed that this works out and my blog may morph into something a little less ordinary. Watch this space.