Half A Million

I apologize in advance for what will will be the most self-indulgent post I've ever done.

I know, you're saying they're all self-indulgent, and that's technically true.  Doing a blog gives you the freedom to do it anyway you want.  I don't answer to anyone.  I write what I write and I write when I want to.  Every post I do pleases me, first and foremost.  When I write for someone else, like my Ante Up columns, I have guidelines to follow.  For example, I don't think they want me writing about hookers, or talking about how (not) to play pocket Kings.

But this one is more self-indulgent than usual.  You see, I just reached 500,000 pageviews on this here blog.  That's half a million.  A half a million times in the past 3+ years, someone has landed on my tiny corner of the internet.

It's very flattering and not a little bit humbling.  I want to thank all of you, all of my loyal readers, for coming back post after post to see what I'm babbling about this time.  Even if you don't read every post.  Even if you skim through the longer posts and don't read every single word.  Thanks to all of you for making it possible for me to do a post celebrating such a milestone.

To celebrate the occasion, I made a little video. This is the self-indulgent part.  It's a video of Hitler reacting to the news that I reached this particular landmark. It's the famous "Hitler reacts" meme that you're all familiar with. In fact, I posted one already, that my pal Woody made for me (see here). 

I guess maybe I should give you some context.  As I explained in the post here, where I was celebrating 50,000 pageviews (wow, now I've hit ten times that!), a lot of the early posts here were rewritten from emails I had sent my friends about my Vegas adventures.  Two of those friends Luv Malts & Woody, were the two who encouraged me to do something more with those emails, which led to this blog.

Another friend of mine saw these emails too.  I thought he was enjoying them as well.  However, as sometimes happens, the two of us had a tiff. Instead of things getting resolved, it escalated.  Harsh words were exchanged.  It got to the point where words were thrown back and forth that had nothing to do with the original quarrel, as I'm sure you can all relate to.

And so at one point, this friend of mine referenced the lengthy emails I was sending him and my other friends.  He said they were too long (imagine that?) and pointless. And at one point he said to me, "No one is interested in your silly stories."

To be fair to him, I really am not sure if he really meant, or if it was just something he said in the heat of an argument, when one tends the just throw everything including the kitchen sink at the other party.

This happened some time before I started the blog.  He didn't know about the blog when it started, and he never, ever suggested that I shouldn't do a blog.

Still, whenever I reach some sort of blog milestone, whenever I do a really popular post, whenever someone comes up to me out of the blue and tells me that they enjoy the blog, I can't help thinking of what he said to me.  And that amuses me no small amount.

And now, achieving half a million pageviews, all I have to do to make myself smile is replay those words in my mind, "No one is interested in your silly stories."

Oh, and just to save you some Googling, the word "ficken" I use in the video is, as best as I can tell, the German word for the f-bomb.  I hope I've used it properly.

I hope you enjoy this.