Announcing 1998/2018: Whatever 20/20
Posted on September 1, 2018 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
As most of you probably know by now, September 2018 will mark the 20th anniversary of Whatever, the blog you are reading right at this very moment. Twenty years is a very long time to be writing anything; it’s a long time to be doing anything at all, to be honest. I wanted to commemorate the milestone more than just waiting for the day (the 13th, actually) and noting it then. Something a little more concrete, that marks the passage of two entire decades of time.
What I decided on is this: Whatever 20/20. Every day of September 2018, I will pick a topic and then discuss it through the prism of two decades of time, from 1998 through to today. Some of these topics will be intensely personal, and about me and my life, and some will be more general, looking at how the world has changed over the course of these two decades. Some topics will be frivolous and silly, others more serious. As with everything on this site, the topics will be, well, whatever I feel like writing about. This is how the site works! This is, in point of fact, how it’s always worked.
This retrospective in many ways is just for me: It’s about me looking back on these last twenty years and the changes that have happened, and my thoughts on the passage of that time. It’s me observing myself observing the rest of the world. It’s going to be, and maybe has to be, a bit self-centered. Nevertheless I hope that as we go through the days of September together, you’ll find things in the writing that resonate with you as well, and that from time to time you will be inspired (or irritated enough, depending) to add your thoughts in the comments. We all went through the same twenty years, after all, providing you are older than twenty years old. Let’s talk about them, if you like.
(This retrospective is aided by the fact that for the large majority of September, I will be at home and not traveling, so I will have time to actually write 30 entries with accompanying art. And yes, “travel” will definitely be one of the topics I write about this month. It’s a thing.)
(Also: On September 13th, the actual 20th anniversary of Whatever, I will have a special announcement. Be looking for that.)
So that’s the plan for September. I hope you’ll read along.
Sounds great!
That announcement on the 20th better not be, “This is the end, my friends…” because, well, damn, that would make life a lot less interesting. I’d have to get another cat to replace the Smudge photos (and I feel Zeus is being left out a lot, for the record..poor guy)
Yay! An adventure. Looking forward to the next 20 days.
“… waiting for the day (the 13th, actually) and noting it then…”
Ummm, why wait until the 20th then?
Oh man, you’re going to send me into a nostalgia spiral for sure, 1998 would have been the start of my senior year of high school. Time flies. Except when it doesn’t :\
Oh boy. I’m excited to read your thoughts about success, money, kids, politics, technology, and uh, travel I guess.
Whoops:
The 13th is the 20th anniversary, not the 20th. Fixed it in the text.
Trying to remember 1998, so much crap has gone down since. Did we really give a damn about Bill Clinton’s foibles back then?
Orangerful was starting their senior year of high school, and my youngest was a year from starting her freshman year. Now she has a PhD, a husband, and a toddler. Her ne’er-do-well brothers both have MS’ and careers, and I’m retired and no longer living in the house (or State) that they grew up in. I suppose you could say things have changed.
My theory/guess is that the announcement will proclaim that a sequel will be done for “Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008,” to publish the best of the second “Whatever” decade, 2008-2018, in book form. This would be welcome to “Whatever” newbs like me, to fill in the gap.
Pianoman, look for ‘The Mallet of Loving Corrrection’ – Your wish has been granbted ;-)
Oh, my. 20 years ago I was 50. Now I’m old. How it flies…
You’ve been writing for 20 years. I’ve been reading here for 15. Dang.