Links and Stuff: The 1,000th Blog Post Edition

Yes, ladies and gentlemen–this is it. My 1,000th blog article! That’s a lot of blogging. I know there are people out there who have been blogging longer and no doubt clocked up thousands of pages. But this is a milestone for me. Think about it. If each post is, on average, 500 words long (there are plenty of posts much longer and much shorter than 500 words, so I think this number works), that’s 500,000 words. About 6 average-size novels. Or about two Stephen King (or George R. R. Martin) novels. Wow.

Before we get to the actual Links and Stuff for today, I’d like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone who stops by to read, and maybe even comment. I hope you’ve found something here to entertain and/or inform over the past four-and-a-half years, and you will continue to drop by. Here’s to the next 1,000 articles!

Legend of Zelda Update

This was a busy weekend, so I didn’t get much Zelda time. Saturday evening, SecondBorn did some “map marking” for me. Much of the travel in Wind Waker is by boat, so part of the challenge is finding out where all the different islands are, and charting them on your map so you can visit them. ThirdBorn, my son, thinks I should have done this because, for him, part of the fun of the game is exploring the world and discovering these things for oneself. SecondBorn thinks the sailing around is boring, and she would sooner do the map-marking for me so we can use our time together for the actual quest. Since SecondBorn is guiding my game-play, I’m happy to do it her way. However, I plan, at some point, to play the HD version of Wind Waker (did I mention I’m playing the GameCube version?) unaided. That’ll be my time to explore.

It was, therefore, with a fully marked-up map that I set sail on Sunday. Given our limited time, SecondBorn had me do some “housekeeping.” This involved a game of hide-and-seek on Outset Island, and sailing to some “fairy islands” to upgrade my quiver and my money bag so they hold more, and to get some heart pieces and money. I’m sure all of these will become important later (I definitely welcome the extra life that comes from the heart pieces–I’ll need that!). So no dungeons, temples, or Bosses this time. But hopefully, I’m a little more prepared for what’s to come…

Other Stuff

Harper Lee, author of the modern classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD passed away this week, aged 89. I’m sure I’ve said on this blog (there are, after all, 1,000 articles here now!), and certainly elsewhere, that I consider TKaM to be the closest thing to the perfect novel. It’s thought-provoking, full of deep and interesting characters, and told with a distinctive voice. Although a “sequel” was published last summer (GO SET A WATCHMAN, which I reviewed HERE), in all honesty, TKaM was Lee’s only book. GSaW was her first draft from which TKaM was born, and I think that needs to be remembered in all discussions about it. There’s still doubt over whether she really ever wanted GSaW to be published. But I think, given the fifty-year gap between the two books, and the way GSaW is written, it’s clear that the story in TKaM was the one she intended us to know. That’s why, for me, Harper Lee will always be the writer of one, and only one novel. A novel many writers would give their entire catalog to have written.

This past weekend, Janet Reid hosted another writing contest. To my astonishment, my entry was selected as one of the nine finalists. I didn’t win, but if you check them out, you’ll understand why I feel particularly honored and humbled to be counted among these entries. There’s usually a high caliber of writing talent on display in these contests, but this one was particularly spectacular. The winning entry got my vote–such a clever use of rhythm and word-play.

Finally, March is only a week away, and before you know it, Easter will be past, and the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge will be upon us! If you have a blog, and want it to get more attention, you should consider signing up for this (about 840 people have signed up so far). I’ve written all but 7 of my posts, and I hope to finish them by the end of the month. If you want to know what I’ll be writing about for the month of April, March 21 is “Theme Reveal” day, so you can find out then. The sign-up for that posted yesterday on the A-to-Z Challenge site.

That’s all I have!