24 Years
Posted on September 13, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
Another year! Another post noting today is the anniversary of Whatever! Today is anniversary number twenty four, which is quite a feat. Once again I am slightly amazed that I have done anything for two dozen years, much less a more-or-less daily repository, on which I record thoughts and opinions and sunsets and pet photos. Next year at this time will I’ll have been doing this for a quarter of a century. We’ll have to do something big then.
In the meantime, one of the things I would like to note is just how much a part of my life Whatever has become. If I don’t update on any particular date, I feel it; I wouldn’t say it makes me anxious not to update, but it is definitely something I note (“damn it, forgot to update.”). If I miss several days in a row without informing readers in advance I’ll get emails from people asking if I’m okay. This is less of a problem these days because Athena and/or the Big Ideas pop up to keep the site populated (I increased the general number of Big Ideas posts during the pandemic to help out writers and have kept the number up since), but it still happens. It’s nice to know people care, still.
Overall, however, I’d say it’s been a quiet year in terms of Whatever, with the exception of the announcement of the church purchase, and the “Personal History of Music” series, which I posted not only for fun, but to keep the site busy for a month. I will suggest that once the church renovation is done and we can actually start to do things there, we might see an uptick in posts about/from there. We do have plans! We’re not quite there yet, however. This is seemingly a recurring theme for me in 2022, both personally and professionally: a whole lot of hanging tight, waiting for certain things to be done so I can move forward on them. On one hand, I want things to move forward. On the other hand, having a little bit of a breather has not been horrible, either.
With each of these annual anniversary check-ins, I ask myself if I still want to go on with Whatever. The answer is always “yes” (so far), although some years the “yes” is more enthusiastic than others. This year, the “yes” is a pretty mellow one. Yes, I want to keep writing and posting here; why wouldn’t I? There are still things I want to write and say and do here, and still things I want to do with the site in the future. There is a future for Whatever, so far as I can see, and so I want to keep it going to get there. It won’t happen all at once, or might even be immediately noticeable when it happens; the future is like that. It’ll still be good when it happens.
So, yes: Whatever! It’s gonna keep going. Come along, if you like. It’s good to have you here.
— JS
I went looking for a funny meme or gif to post here and learned that there is an official whatever hand gesture. Extend thumb and forefinger on each hand. Place thumbs in contact to form a W shape.
Repeat as needed.
I like the comic and heartily agree.
Glad you are still behind doing the extra work to keep this site going. I came to it late, just a few years ago. But I’m enjoying it immensely.
While on one hand Athena helps offload a bit from you, I like her differing viewpoint and her posts also. So it’s all good in my book. Hope you all keep at it. Thanks.
Happy Anniversary John!! Continue to enjoy “Whatever!” and ALL of your writng!! Cheers and a Polish well wish if i may… “Sto Lat!” which loosely translated means… may you continue for 100 years!!
Though I rarely comment, do much enjoy keeping up on Things Scalzi via Whatever.
Thank you!
As a sometime commenter here who’s more British in their SpecFic tastes (and eliding all WSFS/ASFS/Hugo comments for the time being): thanks for keeping on running this! I’m honestly here more for Athena’s comments/articles now than the “John Scalzi, professional writer of Redshirts” content, so I hope that y’all find a wonderful way to keep this digital space open and relatively free of spam.
P.S. MY MAKING LIGHT ACCOUSKSKSKSKSKSKSK uuuurrrkkkksssskkkkkkkk (((disemvoweled by relay from VPN.se.ie.nxdomain.example.com)))
It’s always amusing to me that your blogerversary is 3 days before mine.
Hey John, Absolutely continuing along for the ride! Congratulations on 24 years of Whatever.
It’s nice to be here!
Happy anniversary. I enjoy reading Whatever and am glad to know you enjoy doing it.
I’ve been blogging since the late 90’s. First at Kuro5hin later at the Cow Site (if you know, you know, if you don’t, well, being quiet about it keeps the trolls away. Sorry.). Heck, there are people I’ve known that long that I’ve never met in Real Life.
Hope you keep this place going for a while.
Happy 24th! I hope you’ll still enjoy keeping Whatever going for many more years to come.
Congrats on your 24th anniversary. Back when I started reading Whatever there were 2 or 3 other science fiction writers whose blogs I read. Everyone seems to have migrated to Facebook, migrated to a paid site or just gone away. I’m glad to read that you enjoy posting here, because I certainly enjoy visiting and seeing what’s up with you, Chrissie and Athena.
Jolly good, Scalzi! Been following the blog for a minor fraction of its existence, perhaps about two years, but with much back-history reading as well.
My goal for the rest of this year is to actually read one of your books. Sorry, but I’m not really an avid fiction reader, and can’t imagine being able to write it either.
Prolly will start with that latest monster thingy of yours….
–And also, I’m insanely jealous of your church purchase. For about 4x the money, MAYBE one could consider a comparable buy at our GPS coordinates.
Whatever, dude.
Yeah, if I don’t see a whatever update for a couple days, I start to worry about you, it’s true. Is that weird?
Anyway, I hope you keep up with it in one form or another.
September 13th is also International Chocolate Day, so now I’m expecting Scalzi Day, 2023 to involve Chocolate. And Burritos. I’m just saying.
If I make a Pilgrimage to the Church of Scalzi on Sept 13, 2023, there will be some combination of Chocolate and Burritos involved, even if I have to make them myself. And yes, probably bacon. Because bacon.
Chocolate, Burritos, and Bacon, at the Altar of the Many-Headed Guitar.
You are hereby forewarned.
Happy 24th!
And @ Anne Gray: I would totally enjoy your chocolate bacon burritos.
Sticking at anything for 24 years is quite a thing; good luck for keeping it up for another!
Yes, indeed, I’m grateful that you keep posting, it’s something I look forward to checking every day that isn’t related to anything else I do. I enjoy Athena’s posts too.
Happy anniversary, John! Whatever is one of my favorite places and continues to provide a vital resource for authors. I know it’s a lot of work, but we appreciate it.