A lot can happen over the course of 1,000 posts!
On August 14, 2008, I started this humble Blog. 1,000 posts later, here we are in August, 2019, virtually ELEVEN YEARS to the day!
I was in an APA where my writing was reaching the wrong audience. 1,000 posts later, I am reaching the best audience I could ever hope for!
I created this Blog in a den, hastily converted from an open-air carport. 1,000 posts later, I now write it from a den with two large windows and two skylights - albeit a smaller overall space.
My mother was alive and occasionally mentioned at this Blog, when it began. 1,000 posts later, she is no more.
Esther's father was a huge part of our lives as well. 1,000 posts later, he, too, is no more. We are parent-less.
This Blog began in a smaller, less comfortable house. 1,000 posts later, it comes to you from Esther's personally-selected dream house - and she so very much deserves it for putting up with me for 16 years!
As this Blog began, I had a successful career of 26 years! 1,000 posts later, that career stretched to 35 years until a particularly vile and despicable individual suddenly ended it. Said individual was also dealt with a year later, for improprieties and crimes both in the present situation and also those resulting from a shady history before our association!
Back then, I was an IT Specialist. 1,000 posts later, I am a "writer" with credits at Gemstone, Boom! Studios, Fantagraphics, and IDW.
I was stressed-out, overworked, and had sleeping issues - thanks to a succession of unpleasant changes in my workplace, culminating with the arrival of - and unwarranted abuse by - the "vile and despicable individual" mentioned above! 1,000 posts later, I am a happy, if occasionally underfunded, retiree.
I had a lot of comic books and DVDs - and wrote about them here. 1,000 posts later, I have many more. Perhaps there's some correlation with my underfunded state? Naaah! And, I'm still writing about them. How do you think I *got* to 1,000 posts?
I liked to ride county buses. A then-good, but slightly flawed system, which would eventually be privatized and severely cut back by politicians with agendas. 1,000 posts later, I am a local bus transit advocate, working for better bus service in our county - regularly meeting with the CEO of the bus operating firm (a good guy, who's in a difficult position), and speaking before the County Legislature for increased funding!
When this Blog began, I knew a few people with whom I shared some common interests. 1,000 posts later, I've made many new fiends via the Blog! Not mere "Facebook-kinda-friends", but great people whom I consider real friends! Take a bow!
I loved Esther before the end of our first blind date in 2003! 1,000 posts later, I love her more than ever!
I was "just me". 1,000 posts later, I am grandfather to Averi... the cutest, most wonderful little girl in the world! Of course, I'm biased... but she really is! Sorry, everyone else! :-)
A lot can happen over the course of 1,000 posts! ...What has happened to YOU?
C'mon along and let's see what the NEXT 1,000 posts bring!
17 comments:
Congratulations on 1000 posts!
We here at th’ SSOMM (which is an awful acronym, by the way) would like to extend our heartiest congratulations on this milestone blog post. Some of our members have even been featured in your posts (but being a secret society, we aren’t at liberty to say which magnificent mice they are, other than they’ve been in th’ animation and comics industry for years). So we salute you with a toast of wine and cheese, Mr. Torcivia. (Actually, we just want th’ cheese...you can keep th’ wine. Alcohol isn’t good for mice, Y’know...).
Congratulations, Joe, on 1000 posts (and just two days before the blog's eleventh anniversary, at that)! I haven't been reading your blog as long as some, but I enjoy every post you write, and am always glad to see that a new one has been posted!
Aw, what a nice post and what a nice thing to celebrate. Congrats on completing your 1K, Joe!
Such wonderful responses! Let’s get to them!
Deb:
Thank you for the congrats, and for being such a large part of it.
SSOMM:
Around here, we appreciate good wishes from all creatures great and… er, small!
Though I wonder if your legion of members extends at all beyond a single pesky (but undeniably clever) mouse by the name of “Mervin”!
Either way, you (or just Mervin?) write: “We here at th’ SSOMM (which is an awful acronym, by the way)…”
Take heart… Maybe SSOMM day the name will be changed!
Congratulations, Joe! This is indeed a milestone! I hope and trust I am included in the "many friends" you acknowledged. Your shelves look a lot like mine--in many cases almost a duplicate of what I have. I did notice a newer-looking "Huckleberry Hound" with a red side label and at first I started to hope--but it looks like it says "Season 1, Volume 1" which means it's a re-issue of what we already have. I have seen the new re-issues of several of the HB series and I am glad that they are remaining on the market for now. I just wish they would get that "Season 2" and beyond of HH.
As for Averi being the "most wonderful and cutest little girl," well, now that my niece is in college, I will concede. Averi is definitely a charmer, even in photos. It's wonderful you have such a delightful little person in your life.
Amazing to consider all the things that have changed even since the early 2000's--and as you and I both know, the year 2000 was that distant year that loomed so far in the future that it didn't even seem attainable. It was to usher in the era of the Jetsons and a squeaky-clean futuristic landscape marked by moving sidewalks, flying cars, visa-phones, and robot maids. But it was way, way off in some future galaxy. And childhood felt like it was going to stretch out forever.
I don't know about you, but I think staying tuned into the Disney and cartoon stuff keeps me in a youthful attitude and mind-state. This extends to how I feel physically as well. And I'm not quite sure why it works this way, but the farther we get from those early comic books and TV shows, the better they look, especially in contrast with most of what is currently available. There have been vast improvements in technologies for presentation and transmission of our entertainment, but somewhere along the way much of the fun factor has been drained out. Maybe it's partly due to the rising costs of everything, which forces every project to become a blockbuster or bust. There is less room for experimentation, which offers fewer possibilities for clever new ideas to develop naturally. Just a thought.
Let's hope this first milestone of 1000 postings is only the prelude to the next thousand, and the next thousand, and the next. Thanks for your work on this blog, thanks for your continuing efforts on it, and above all, thanks for your friendship.
George:
You write: “I haven't been reading your blog as long as some, but I enjoy every post you write, and am always glad to see that a new one has been posted!”
Thank you! Long-or-short-timer matters not! As you as you enjoy what we do around here, I’m overjoyed!
...And speaking of long-timers...
JoeC:
You’ve been part of "this thing we do" for quite a long time. Always appreciate the comments, and especially the good wishes!
Thank you!
Scarecrow:
I *meant* what I said when it came to new friends! And rest assured you are high among them!
The “newer-looking Huckleberry Hound” DVD set is the “Diamond Collection / 60th Anniversary” edition. I found it very cheap, and decided to buy it as a backup to the original Huck DVD set.
Besides, I was curious about that whole “Diamond Collection / 60th Anniversary” branding thing. What did it contain? How was it formatted, etc.? For anyone who is wondering, it is the same content as the original set – but WITHOUT all of the special features and extras. It’s good for someone who JUST wants the cartoons with no additional content or, as in my case, an inexpensive backup copy.
It’s a funny thing about Warner… I think there may have been a change in management over there, as there now seems to be a renewed interest in animation DVD releases – when, for TOO LONG A TIME, there was none!
It started slowly with the attention-getting (attention both good and sometimes otherwise) “Porky Pig 101” set (which *I* liked, regardless of the opinions of its critics), TWO color Popeye Blu-ray sets, a Jonny Quest Blu-ray with the flaws of the original set “done right” – with proper credits restored, interstitials added, and even some censorship reversed, and new sets for Wally Gator and Lippy the Lion!
A Jetsons Blu-ray is coming – hopefully with the same approach to credits and interstitials! If so, I’ll buy it, as I did with Jonny Quest!
So, despite the “go-to-excuse/rationalization” of music clearance issues, I now think it’s at least POSSIBLE that we may get additional seasons of Huckleberry Hound – my only remaining DVD grail! I can’t even find it in bootleg where, over the years, I have found Quick Draw Mc Graw, Augie Doggie, Snooper and Blabber, and other classic toons that never received a full and proper release like “MGM Tex Avery”, Beany and Cecil, Mighty Mouse, and Heckle and Jeckle! Even New DuckTales Season One and House of Mouse! …But, no Huckleberry Hound, alas!
I spent my entire childhood looking toward the wonders of the year 2000! Why that year, more than 1999 or 2001? I guess it seemed to be more of a “clean number”, and greater fuel for the imagination. Not only was I disappointed but, on a strictly personal level, 2000 and 2001 were the worst years of my life… and I survived the Disco Era! Since then, with occasional setbacks (some of which are mentioned in this post), it’s, thankfully, been mostly happy times since!
Like you, I also feel that “this stuff” that we discuss here, serves to keep me young! THINKING AND FEELING young, anyway! I certainly don’t THINK or act like a “grandfather/retiree”… or, at least, what I imagined one would think or act like!
The delivery methods for products of entertainment have improved FAR MORE than the largely dismal product itself! I feel that most of the best stuff (TV, comics, film, etc.) is now behind us – and often by about half a century or more! …Funny, my parents and grandparents felt that way too! Only difference is that WE’RE RIGHT! :-)
And Averi, as you can tell, is the light of my life! She’s not only extraordinarily cute, but remarkable engaging as well! She knows far more than she is able to say! You can get only a fraction of the wonder from photos! She spends at least one day of every week here, and Esther (the other light of my life) and I love it no end!
The Blog should continue for a LOOONG time! I presently have 250 posts in completed or in-progress draft form (when you’re retired AND no longer writing monthly comics for IDW, you CAN do this), so I’m about ¼ of the way there already! …And It won’t take 11 years to get there!
My, but we're positively swarming with milestones and anniversaries this month, aren't we? In the past two weeks I've had the 50th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion, the 60th anniversary of Asterix, Page #4000 on the $crooge McDuck Wiki (dedicated to Captured in Banaland!), and now this! I don't know what's going on, but I like it.
Achille:
Sometimes, a lotta good things just happen all at once!
Then again, we’re only weeks past the 50th Anniversary of the infamous “Bird Bothered Hero”, so it works both ways!
But, to make up for my even MENTIONING “Bird Bothered Hero”, here’s the link for “Captured in Bananaland”!
Really? We of the Band of the Hero-Bothering Birds had no idea that our 50th anniversary had past! We'd better bake a cake for the occasion quickly - or better yet, hire the Mob of the Maroon Magpie to steal one from the Horde of the Violet Hare!
BBHB:
You Secret Society folks just may have more organizational titles and acronyms than the Junior Woodchucks…. and I oughtta know, ‘cause I created a few of them for the ‘Chucks!
Yes, it is indeed your Golden Anniversary of appearing in a (pardon) “Gold” Key comic!
(Switches to Story-Telling-Old-Man-Mode) My original copy of DONALD DUCK # 127, I remember it well… or did I throw it DOWN A WELL! What’s the difference, by cracky!
It was th’ Summer of ’69, (NINETEEN sixty nine, not EIGHTEEN sixty nine, ya young whippersnappers), and I was enjoyin’ my summer vacation from that li’l old red schoolhouse, when I received my brand spankin’ new subscription copy of DONALD DUCK # 127 in the mail! …The MAIL, ya idjit – not th’ PONY EXPRESS!
A nicely-drawn, action-packed cover, which the young-uns of today would never see because of the guns and stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans, belied a lead story that telegraphed its ending too many pages in advance! Telegraphed? Bosh! They shoulda used that newfangled telephone-dingus!
The middlin’ Goofy story was okay.
But, then I turned to “Bird-Bothered Hero”, with its unearthly combination of BAD STORY, BAD ART, and UNCOMFORTABLY LARGE AND UNATTRACTIVE LETTERING, an’ I wanted to wash MY EYES out with soap! …And, in those days we only bathed on Saturday… in a wooden tub… of cold water… through the snow… uphill… both ways! So, imagine the shock to my sensitive… uh, senses!
By gum, th’ thing still haunts me, nigh onto FIFTY YEARS LATER! But, if ya think THAT’S bad, gather ‘round th’ fire, an’ I’ll tell ye all about “The Legendary Super Pickax”! That one’s scary enough to “put hair on yer chest, an’ then turn it white from fright”! It all started back in th’ days of…
(Exits Story-Telling-Old-Man-Mode – somewhat bewildered for the experience) HUH? WHAT? Sorry, I had the strangest feeling I was being turned into a PUPPET… or a Story-Telling-Old-Man… or sumpthin’!
In any event, BBHB, happy fiftieth anniversary of that infamous appearance! You couldn’t help it if you were badly drawn and used as a hackneyed plot device – and you certainly had nothing to do with that dreadful lettering! At least you performed *your* part very well!
But, for what it’s worth, I enjoyed you MUCH MORE in THAT HITCHCOCK FILM!
…Bother on, Birds!
Congrats on the extended life of this blog, Joe—may your passion for this stuff outlive any hardships. And thanks for your friendship, oh fellow ruiner—er localizer!
Thank you for the kind words of friendship, Thad! I need not say how mutual they are!
Fear not, you cannot kill a passion like mine! In fact, I expect to be writing about this stuff long after my death, bringing new meaning to the term “ghost writer”!
And yes, the professional writing has… cooled-down for the both of us of late. But, even as it does, I’ve opened a new chapter to this passion – albeit a voluntary (non-paying) one! That particular effort will soon be described in a post of its own, and not be spoiled here.
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