IT’S NEVER EASY TO SAY GOODBYE
There is a time for everything; and a season for every activity under heaven. Right now the time is an end of nearly a 150 year era as the Rocky Mountain News (a newspaper in Denver, Colorado) is closing its doors. Friday, February 27, 2009 will be its last day. If you are reader of this blog, you know I am huge fan of the Win, Lose, & Drew cartoon by Drew Litton that has been in the Rocky since September of 1982.
I am sure Drew will land on his feet and he is too talented not to end up somewhere very good. Still, I wanted to celebrate his time in Rocky as he has been a part of my life with his cartoons for a long time. I have an book of some of work that came out in 1987. It has his first cartoon for the Rocky in it. I thought I would post it here with his last cartoon.
Thanks Drew for all the great memories, laughs, insight, your kindness, and great spirit! I look forward to see what the future holds for you!!!
LikeMonkey Meditations
- Things I am learning again: God uses people that the culture overlooks and exploits
- Who would have thought a schizophrenia man known largely for riding his bicycle and picking up trash
- Would have made such a difference in thousands of people’s lives in his life and in his death
- Yep, God sure used, John Breaux more than I ever knew
- Things I am learning again: The NFL Hall of Fame does not like Broncos
- Congratulations to Shannon Sharpe on becoming the latest Bronco players to be hosed by the Hall of Fame
- I am sure he will have many more years of the same
- As usually, Win, Lose and, Drew says it best.
- Things I am learning again: Jason Elam maybe is a better writer than kicker
- I would say Elam is a Hall of Fame kicker, but he was a Bronco for a long time
- However, it does not matter, he is a great kicker, but I have become a fan of his writing
- His two books have been great reads
- Things I am learning again: Politicians don’t worry about raising taxes as they don’t pay them
- Yep, nice to see things in the Nations Capital are exactly the same
- Politicians can “forget” to pay their taxes and be OK
- When most of us commit crimes, we get jail
- Things I am learning again: Paying more does not mean better
- Once again Starbucks loses another taste test.
- No surprise there really
- Just cause they charge a lot does not mean it is good
- Things I am learning again: Sometimes the best even stumble
- Well, if you are like me then 24 has been a major disappointment this season
- We waited so long for the return of 24, but it has not been good
- I guess even Jack Bauer can have a really bad day
- Things I am learning again: The simple things in life can be a lot of fun
- The NBA All-Star game this year will involve a game of H-O-R-S-E
- I think that is awesome and for once I might watch an NBA All-Star event
- I just hope they pick the guys who have bad shooting percentages so it can last a while
NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU GOT TILL IT’S GONE
Happy Anniversary to Admirable Thoughts: Writings of Code Monkey. February 1, 2009, marked year four of this blog. I write a yearly review of the blog as a way to refresh our memories about why this blog exists on its anniversary. Also, I list stats about this blog that probably only I care about.
As always, feel free to leave comments, email me or contact me with the contact form about what you love or hate about the blog, changes you would like to see, or how this blog has changed you life.
Reasons For The Blog:
I had a few reasons for starting this blog. One was because I figured it would be good to know how to setup blogs in case I had to do one for professional reasons since I do a lot of website work. Another reason for this blog was to help improve my writing and grammar skills.
This past December, I did have a poll on the blog for the Monkey Pen Members (people who read the blog). It did ask what was their favorite entry over the past year. It turns out that 32% liked the story about the passing of our dog, Shelby, last May. I hope it was because it was touching and from the heart, and not that they were happy we had to put Shelby down.
Titles:
After my first entry, I decided that once and in while, I would have a bullet point format of thoughts called Monkey Meditations. If the entry was not Monkey Meditations, the title of the entry would be a line from some song. Hopefully, it gives my blog a little bit of character to call my own.
There is a link that is in on the left side bar called Name That Title; so if anyone wanted to know what song the title was from, they could find out. Some lyrics get used for specific entry types and that is explained on the Name That Title page.
Stats:
- Entries:
Type Past Year Overall Entries 80 280 Monkey Meditations 10 49 The number of entries last year was up by 15. So you got almost 20% more of me for free.
- Categories:
Type Past Year Overall Faith 12 37 Family 20 48 Friends 25 59 General 22 86 Hiking 9 36 Music 6 30 News 17 45 Sports 30 119 Some stories where in multiple categories.
- Entry Song Types:
Type Past Year Overall Country 37 108 Christian 17 76 Rock and/or Roll 3 13 Other 3 8 I do not include the special titles in this count.
- Comments:
Type Past Year Overall Number of Comments 119 327 Different People Who Left Comments 17 31 That you for the comments. I truly appreciate each one.
- Spam:
Type Past Year Overall Attempts To Leave Spam 23,008 60,219 That is a lot of attempts to put spam in my comment section, but it is less than last year.
Based on those signed up for the blog’s emails updates, people who have emailed me about the blog, those those leave comments, and those who use RSS readers to know when the site has a new story I believe there about 38 regular readers. So the Monkey Pen grew from last year! We have continued to grow every year.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and reading this blog. I do feel privilege that you read it.
