Today marks the second anniversary of this blog. The editorial board would like to thank the readers of this site, whoever and where ever you may be. Given the reach of the (appropriately named) World Wide Web, it is likely that some of the visitors to this site are indeed from other parts of the world, set quite apart from where this blog originates, which remains at an undisclosed location, at the request of the United States Secret Service.
As was the case one year ago, the editors of this site are pleased to share some of the statistics from the site, which are certainly of little if any interest to anyone. But they make the author feel good that someone is reading, even if not appreciating, what has been published here. And as is the case with the VAST majority of blogs, they stand in service less to inform the public, than servicing the narcissistic proclivities of our age, as is clearly represented by the pervasiveness of social media of all class and form.
That said, the narcissism of the author is being well served by the fact that by the time this is read, there will have been slightly over 18,000 visitors to the site in the two years of its existence. This stands in stark comparison to the site visits to other blogs who probably receive this number of hits in the course of several days or perhaps even less. It should be noted that the author does not feel that he has anything less important to say than those others bloggers, they just have more friends. Oh, wait, that is the measurement in facebook.
The articles that have been visited most have been interesting to the editorial board. By far and away the most visited article over the last two years has been the author’s reflection on everyone’s favorite holiday titled “An Earth Day Confession“. We think people are less drawn to the snarky comments about a holiday that ought to be phased out of existence based on the recent debunking of the entire religion of Global Warming, and more to them having been directed to this blog by way of a keyword search for “melting glaciers”. In any event, for those who worship the created instead of the creator, they may have been simultaneously horrified by the author’s confession, but relieved by the contrition, unless of course they detected the cynicism. But most of the people who are absorbed by the Global Warming hysteria are irrational anyway, so they may not have discovered that the author really was not sorry for any of the heavy footed malfeasance and what they may have regarded as earth abuse or neglect.
The second most visited article was the piece on the satirical rendering of an Obama Triple Self Portrait titled “Even Norman might get a laugh out of this.“ The Obama Triple Self Portrait speaks volumes on its own, and frankly seems to land extraordinarily close to the truth.
Coming in at a very close third place, but miles ahead of fourth, is the article written in April, 2008 about the plus sized beauty queen from England named Chloe Marshall. As noted above, the visitors to this site come from far and wide, and the popularity of this article, to a large degree, stems from hits that originated with a Russian newspaper. How they found this blog in the first place is a mystery.
The board is clueless as to where this blog will head as year three begins. The intrigue around blogging has waned a bit, and whereas commentary seemed to be where it all began, short book reviews of material the author has been reading seems to be where the site has drifted in the last year. And perhaps that is good in the sense that the author is more interested in what others have to say, rather than what he can say. That said, we are guessing that as year three begins, the content of WHATEVER! will be as varied as it has been during its first two, with articles ranging from fairly serious theological discussion to the cynical commentary on contemporary culture and politics.
Our thanks and appreciation goes out to all of our regular readers. And if you have stumbled in here only for the first time today, thanks for visiting. We hope that you will check in from time to time to discover WHATEVER thoughts are on my mind. To which you might say…”WHATEVER!”
Posted by Chuck 
Posted by Chuck 
Posted by Chuck 
A regular package of M & M milk chocolate candies, not a part of a seasonal promotion contains the colors in the proportions shown below. 