Why, 2K! (Two Thousand Thank Yous!)

Good morning.  Or, afternoon.  Or whatever time of the day it is.  Welcome to a very special edition of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE!

Now, at first glance, this might seem like an ordinary blog entry.  But this one is important to me.  It's a blog entry that has been almost seven years in the making, and it has been one that I never thought that I would write!

I have shared a lot of stories in this blog.  I have shared dozens of pop culture tidbits.  I've shared episode reviews.  I've shared pop culture advent calendars.  I've shared movie postings.  I've posted many links to many songs and shared personal stories of them all. 

And if you have been keeping track of all the stories that I have told in this blog - whether they are small tales or huge essays - you may be surprised to learn that I have shared 1,999 different moments.  1,999 blog posts mostly dealing with pop culture, but also sharing some feelings, warm fuzzies, and implementing you to share your thoughts as well.

So, I guess this makes this my 2,000th blog post! 

Now that is a reason to celebrate! 

It's hard to believe that I have written two thousand of these blog posts.  I didn't think I'd make it to two hundred! 

And what have I learned about myself based on these two thousand blog posts?  Quite a lot, actually.

For starters, I've learned that if I ever appear on the game shows "Jeopardy", "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", or "Ellen's Game of Games", I would probably do extremely well.  With all of the research that I have done for this blog, I am a living, breathing vessel of pop culture history, and I do feel some sense of pride in that.  Whether anyone else feels that way remains to be seen.  Either way, I don't really care.

What else have I learned?  Well, I've learned over the years to pace myself, and to try and not to do more than I can handle.  You might have seen over the first three years that I have done this blog that I attempted to do a blog every day.  It was a great idea at first - but eventually I started to run out of topics, and run out of steam, and I noticed that my blog entries really started to suffer as a result.  I've been slowing down the pace since 2015, and I think it's given me the time I needed to be more creative and think about what I write about.  And that's nothing to be ashamed of.

I've learned that sometimes I get it wrong.  There are some rare instances in which some of the information that I have written in my blog have come from sources that are "fake news".  And believe me, I appreciate it when you point these things out to me (well, unless you're mean about it, in which case, you're a jerk face - yeah, you heard right jerk face).  The point is that I'm not afraid to admit when I have made a mistake...and in a lot of cases, I leave it as is as a reminder not to do it again.  I can't promise that it won't, but if anything, it has allowed me to be more diligent in my fact checking!

Speaking of which, I've learned to steer away from fact based entries in favour of personal commentary entries.  A blog, after all, is about sharing a part of you with the world.  It's not that I didn't enjoy writing them...I just didn't want the blog to turn into a poor man's version of Wikipedia.  So by sharing more of myself with all of you, I think I've taken this blog in a new direction which I hope is appreciated.

I've learned to incorporate more humour into this blog - and I think that one way I've succeeded in that is by doing the cartoon reviews that have been a presence the last couple of years.  And, speaking of which, I think it's time for the...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Okay, maybe to you, it isn't THAT big.  But I am happy to report that the episode reviews will be coming back in 2018!  In fact, I've already chosen the show that I will be featuring and it will be debuting one week from today!

The catch?  I'm not doing a cartoon this time around.  I'm doing a sitcom.  And it's a sitcom that is still on the air!

I was so blown away by how good the Netflix reboot of "One Day at a Time" was that I've decided I will be reviewing every episode of the series so far!  The show's second season debuts on January 26, but on that date I will be starting off with episode one of season one.  I've timed it, and it should take me into the summer of 2018 by the time I recap seasons one and two.  So, I hope you'll stick around as I recap "One Day at a Time" in this blog beginning Friday, January 26!  It will be a lot of fun!

Okay...so here's where I end this blog entry - entry #2,000 - by showing you all my gratitude.

Thank you.  Merci.  Gracias.  谢谢, Kittos, 

Ευχαριστώ, धन्यवाद, 

Grazie, Go raibh maith agat, Domo arigato, Diolch.  

HERE'S TO TWO THOUSAND MORE!!!