100,000!

The author, celebrating hit #100,000.

Sorry for the delay, kids, but justice never takes a holiday. Well, unless I have something really important to do. Today was not one of those days, so I was stuck in work. Some of you may be wondering who won the 100,000th Hit Contest - well, those of you who didn't see Rachel spoil it - so I won't hold the suspense any longer . . .

The lucky visitor was RFTR! He logged on at 11:18:33pm (EDT) from his old blog, and logged off at 11:19:18pm (EDT). I was glad it was a regular, and not some toad looking for nekkid photos of Helen Thomas!

I will now pause to allow those of you who weren't the winner to call RFTR a son of a bitch.

Okay, we're back! I wanted to give a runner-up gift to DragonLady, who spent most of her evening trying to win the DVD, so for that, she gets this:

Hope it helps you with your Val Kilmer fix, DL! And now, a few thoughts on the milestone . . .

Most of you don't know this, but Rachel was right: I was going to kill the blog today. I had every intention of doing what Alan Woody (and, in a way, Crash Davis) did: I was going to hit the milestone and hang it up. I have been writing this drivel for over two years, and was afraid I was getting burned out. Bloggers usually have a shelf life of two or three years, so I figured I'd try to go out on top. Personally, I made my peace with the fact that I'll never be a great blogger that readers flock to in droves, but the thought of posting just to post was unbearable. Although I say I write for myself, in actuality, I try to write something entertaining for you, the readers. As you know, I am my own worst critic, and when I realized that my posts were less than exciting as of late, I made the decision: the blog was dead.

And then something happened. I reminded everyone that SYLG was approaching 100,000 hits, and you got a little excited. Then I got excited. The next thing I knew, I was struggling to stay awake to find out who #100,000 would be. It was pretty cool. (For the record, I was asleep when RFTR made his appearance, so I missed all the fun for the sake of not being a zombie in the division today. My loss.) Then, I started to feel good about blogging again. And although 100,000 visitors is a small accomplishment in the overall blogosphere, it was pretty awesome for a little guy like me. For the first time ever, I thought that maybe SYLG mattered to some people. And it felt pretty good, because making people laugh - or wrap their heads in duct tape - is what I've always wanted to do here.

The resulting "Era of Good Feeling" around these parts and all of the well-wishes - Hell, even Wild Bill commented here! That's awesome! - left me both humbled and speechless. And for that, I refuse to kill SYLG. In fact, I promise that I will do my best to entertain each and every one of you for as long as you'll have me. For you see, you folks, the readers of this inane blog are, in effect, the heart and soul of this thing. While I do not say it often enough, without you, SYLG is nothing. I cannot adequately express my appreciation for your support, and while I don't believe I deserve it, I am thankful for it. I hope I continue to meet your expectations.

God bless you, and thank you all.

Wyatt