Year 15

I've been blogging here for 15 years?! God, I'm old! And blogging a lot too, because I often busted my one-post-a-day minimum. We're at 9509 posts, in case you're wondering, so a little over 400 posts up from last year. If you're still reading, thanks for being here, especially considering that this is a dying medium in competition with audio-visual platforms. One set-back that almost made me want to throw in the towel myself was Blogspot changing how images are stored, which caused network-wide problems with thumbnail resolution. It really screwed up my third party layout and I tried many things to fix it somehow, usually sacrificing a morning, afternoon or evening to frustration when I could have been creating more content. When nothing worked, I tried other templates - someone refreshing the page during these periods might have seen all sorts - and after almost two months, I settled for the one you see now. It's not as attractive or functional and the previous configuration, but it's the closest and I'm getting used to it. Better than a page full of blurry images, certainly.

Year 15 Highlights
-In terms of show reviews which have been the SBG's bread and butter, I took the year to cover Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which is set to end January 12th. Despite (or perhaps because of) the abominable second season, I chugged through the series late in the summer, writing one review a day even though they would only be published on a weekly schedule. At one point, between those, the easy to set up One Panel feature, and the even easier Star Trek CCG reviews (revising older material once published on the ST CCG boards), I had almost 100 posts "scheduled". Keeping up with some hefty contracts has drained that slush pile down to about 20.
-I did plan myself into a corner with the shows I mean to review, however. New Doctor Who and (especially) Star Trek means I have to double up if I want to stay current. Another season of The Orville will add even more work. Rather than kill myself with the crunch, I've decided to pace myself (see So, what's next, below).
-Most Mondays, still doing one post for every "label" or "tag" the blog has spawned, alphabetically We're up to the letter "R" now, so I guess we're gonna keep going for another year!
-Who's This? - the OTHER weekly feature - is currently near the end of Who's Who issue 4.
-In the podcasting category, still covering Tuesdays at the Fire and Water Podcast Network, with a rotating slate of shows (in addition to guest spots on others'). This is the year I decided to move certain irregular shows to their own feeds - Panel by Panel, Who's Editing? and Let's Roll! (combining that one with Hero Points) - and putting Gimme That Star Trek on a 6-month hiatus, doubled up on oHOTmu OR NOT? by the Hot Squad to Who's Who #1 in Who's Hot & Who's Not? It's been a blast and we can hopefully do more. I know listeners of my shows have questions about the future, so again, see the section below.

So, what's next?
With so many long-running (not to say open-ended) features, the future looks pretty much the same for 2022. But what will replace Buck Rogers? Ah! Well! You may remember that a few weeks ago, I posted a Poll on that very question, and I'm ready to announce the winner! Though Quantum Leap came quite close and was front runner early on, the honor belongs to... Blake's 7! So that's gonna be a thing I'm discovering for the first time. However, there's so much backlog of shows I'm continually reviewing that it probably be back to back with Buck (though at exactly 52 episodes, there's an OCD impulse to make it fit a year exactly). Doctor Who: Flux just ended and I'm gonna start reviewing those starting next Thursday, and then either replace that OR Buck with Star Trek: Discovery/Prodigy/Picard. Blake may have to wait a little, or I may find myself refreshed, who knows?

And in podcasting news, what people really want to know is what Bass and I will be covering after Zero Hour Strikes wraps. The answer isn't what you were expecting. There are absolutely no crossovers/eras I long to index in the same fashion, so don't expect One Million or Atlantis Attacks to "Strike". Rather, I've retooled FW Team-Up as an indexing show that will cover what, frankly, listeners were the more enthusiastic about - the Bronze Age team-up series. The show will rotate between these four key series, with a permanent host for each: The Irredeemable Shagg on his beloved Marvel Team-Up, Chris Franklin on The Brave and the Bold, Ryan Daly on Marvel Two-in-One, and continuing my relationship with Bass (who also has plans of his own) on DC Comics Presents. Which runs we will start with is still up in the air, but more information will be made available in the Spring. Plus, Gimme That Star Trek returns in March for another six-pack.

So stick around, won't you?