1,000th Post Edition

I had no idea when I wrote the “Now What?” [6-10-16] post last year that I’d still be doing this.  Imagine my surprise Wednesday night when I suddenly noticed that I’d put up Post #999.  Who’d have thought it?  Start something in 2009 and look what happens.  I hadn’t been posting more to get here; I’ve just had more time to write and been watching and listening to more baseball.    Since the “Now What” post went over my favorite (and least favorite) RPG posts, I thought I’d list some standouts from my sports and other posts.

3-14-09 Junior Post.  Definitely my favorite of my old posts.  Just a pure piece of comedy.  And now, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is retiring.  Where does the time go?

4-14-13 Demolition Weekend.  I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.  The construction of Southwest University Park and the arrival of the El Paso Chihuahuas has been a tremendous boon to the area.  (I still maintain this relationship will eventually end badly.)

5-28-13 First Memorial Day Posting.  This one’s always special, because I still can’t believe how much I watched, listened, and wrote.  It’s simultaneously a testament to extreme laziness and exhausting, back-breaking labor.  

7-17-13 Baseball Fashion Police.  I don’t care if I’m the only person who cares about the look of Major League uniforms, but I just had to get this off my chest.

4-20-14 & 5-13-14 Community Posts.  I enjoyed writing these, since I loved the show.  My Season Six predictions produced my favorite comment (on another person’s blog).  He’d found my synopsis for the season so plausible, he momentarily thought it was real.  I swear Dan Harmon read it, because there was a gag in the actual Season Six that referenced something in it.  (And if so, he definitely didn’t like what I’d written.)

4-22-14 Bullfighting.  This was most real thing I’ve posted here, as it involved actual life and death.  I’m not sure I approve of the spectacle, but I certainly gained a new respect for it after watching it.

1-23-16 First Aggie Women’s Basketball Game.  Given what a big fan of the team I became last season, this post got that relationship off on a really bad foot.  Given my skepticism of the sport and women’s athletics in general, they had to win me over as a fan.  You guys earned it.  

I’m somewhat embarrassed by the post now.  I’d be tempted to take it down or retroactively edit it, but unfortunately, it got a bunch of hits for a bad reason that had nothing to do with the team or the game.  I discovered why about a year after posting it.  It’s really something to see your blog in a screenshot on somebody’s Twitter feed by someone who took offense to it.  I went back and re-read what I wrote, horrified that I might have really upset someone.  I couldn’t see the offense.  I could see that this person had gotten easily offended at some other people.  Now, I’ll be damned if I’ll take it down.                

11-9-16 NMSU Sports Economics.  I sent this to some financial people at work, and they thought it was interesting and well written.  I take some pride in that.

10-29-16 Aggie Volleyball loss and 10-29-16 Aggie Soccer win.  Oh, that volleyball game versus Bakersfield.  That was as angry as I’ve ever been at a live sporting event.  Kudos to the Aggie girls for not taking it as badly as I did.  It took me a couple days to cool down to write the recap.  Thankfully, the soccer team won later that afternoon to make me feel better about life in general.  

4-29-17 The Longest Day.  I’d spent some long afternoons and nights at the university for sporting events, but this one took the cake.  I still can’t believe I was out in the cold and wet all day and didn’t get a cold or worse.

5-13-17 Aggie Softball wins the WAC Tournament.  Once again, these games ran the gambit of emotions.  It was so awesome to see the girls win a championship and in such a dramatic manner.

I know they say that, “The Internet is forever,” but it isn’t.  Ask Apollo Smile.  My 2008 Myspace political blog disappeared after a business strategy change by the company.  All of my reviews, pictures, and even some fan fiction on an Archie Comics fansite went into the ether when their server crashed.  I’ve been locked out of this blog on a couple of occasions, once for a year.  I could say the wrong thing here and offend someone and this place and all 1,000 posts could go away instantly.

So if I have any advice for other bloggers, don’t assume what you post will be here forever or haunt you for the rest of your life.  Write what you believe and feel passionate about.  You’re free to change your mind later, just acknowledge why.  Treat your blog like each new post is your last and you won’t regret anything.