It’s a celebration!

Today is a big day. Huge, like. Today is the celebration of the 500th post on BigShotsNow.com. What you say?!? 500 posts? Most people don’t even live that long! Yes loyal readers it’s true. You have been subjected to these daily posts for the last 500 days, give or take a day or two when I’ve been traveling, but otherwise, yes, for the last 500 days I’ve gotten up and sat here in front of the computer, selected an image, then written a story about it and sent it blissfully and ignorantly out into the unknown, to make its way through the ions and eons and Oh Mon’s, not knowing whether anyone would see it, let alone read it. But it has reached many of you as can be seen by the piles and piles of threatening but somewhat flattering letters and emails that litter the floor of my office. Yes there were some flattering ones too and both of these have been gilded and placed in my hall of fame room and as an extra bonus the authors of each of the nice letters have been added to my will. So I thank you all for your support and participation.

The stats of my little blog are fairly staggering. The blog went live on March 19th 2013, a day that will live in infamy, with the aim of showing you famously beautiful photos and accompanying incredible prose that would have any one lucky enough to find my blog, staggering around in stupendous disbelief that anything so wonderful existed. Well that whole idea went to hell pretty quick. I got some decent photos published but my writing suffered a little due to the fact that I didn’t know how to write. That’s a fairly huge problem for a blog as a blog by definition is all about writing. But through perseverance and being blissfully unaware of what the readers thought, I persevered until today I get much less mail telling me to get a real job.

Being the curious type I delved into the stats for BigShotsNow and found some startling facts. Since the blog opened for business I have had visitors from all over the world. I mean all over. The blog has been looked at over 11,000 times. Although my actual subscriber list is low, people in the following countries have stopped by to lurk and marvel at the amazing content to be found here. Not too bad for never having advertised it. Here’s a list of the countries that have visited.

U.S., Germany, Russian Federation, New Zealand, U.K., Canada eh, Iceland, Netherlands, India, Australia, Mexico, United Arab Emirate, Thailand, Costa Rica, Ukraine, Nepal, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Czech Republic, Philippines, France, Spain, Greece, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Malaysia, Slovenia, Columbia, Norway, Switzerland, Indonesia, Taiwan, Ecuador, Romania, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, Venezuela, Denmark, Cyprus, Belgium, Angola, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Guadalupe, Albania, Ethiopia, Israel, Nigeria, Paraguay, Nicaragua, French Guiana, Finland, Ireland, French Polynesia, Dominican Republic, Tunisia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Turkey, Honduras, Peru, Ukraine, Algeria, Mauritius, Morocco, And more countries in Africa than will fit  here.

I know, right, who’d a thunk it. But it’s true. They’re all listed on my stats page and I don’t know why Word Press would lie to me. I mean, that wouldn’t be cool. Along the way you’ve been introduced to “The Institute”, a fictional organization created to allow me to present incredible events and highly improbable situations with a straight face. You’ve met lovable but incorrigible characters like Aunt Pheeb and Uncle Skid, who by the way are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary by trying to circumnavigate the entire city of Orlando in Skid’s rebuilt 76′ Honda Accord. Yeah the one without the passengers seat. That’s not because it’s broken or anything, it’s where Skid keeps his case of beer. Aunt Pheeb sits in the back seat and whacks him with a bent coat hanger she keeps to remind him to drive right.

There have been funny stories, and sad stories like “Old Friends” where I revisited my best friend in the world Bill DeDog, and my tribute to the best human friend I’ve ever had, David L Hollingsworth. We served together in the Navy and he became a doctor then died suddenly from Hodgkin’s as he was entering practice as an Oncologist. How does the universe let these things happen? There have been stories about animals, people, places, supernatural events, alien probing, things that never happened but should have, Stone woman walking, trials and tribulations, time travel, raging despair, highest peaks of happiness, quiet stories of contentment, and preposterous things that never occurred but I made up simply to make you snort milk out of your nose as you read them over breakfast.

All in all this venture has been a roller coaster of emotions. I’ve loved every minute of it even as I bitched about having to write again this morning and missing it like a long lost friend when I’ve been on one of my trips where I couldn’t post due to Wi-Fi issues on the road. It has given me purpose and focus and I’ve made new friends and lost some old ones but it’s been a journey and many of you have accompanied me the entire way. For that I salute you for your courage and thank you as a friend.

It would be neat to know what the future will bring, unless it’s something horrible like your eye falls out and you step on it or something, but on second thought maybe it wouldn’t be all that neat after all. What I do know is that I shall continue to photograph and write and publish as long as I can despite the numerous requests not to. And you’re welcome to come along for the ride, there’s always room on the bus. This has certainly been a labor of love. I don’t know what my word count totals out to be over these last 500 posts, but as I write anywhere from 350 to a high of 2000 words a day it’s got to add up to the same amount as the Encyclopedia Britannica. OK maybe not that much but a whole bunch of words anyway. And so far there isn’t an end in sight. Sorry.

As part of the celebration I am goings be reposting some of the favorite stories from the last 500 days. No rhyme or reason to their order, not a top ten list, but just the ones many people seem to like. If you have any favorites you’d like to see send me a note and I’ll dig them out. dlutsey@enchantedpixels.com will get them to me. Or if you just want to say Hey, or anything else on your mind, just do it.

And remember I’m out there watching. The next story may be about you.

Seriously, I truly want to thank each and every one of you for stopping by and checking us out. I’d probably still do this if you weren’t there but I’m really glad you are. Be well and happy, or at least content and I’ll see you at the next post.

Dwight Lutsey