U-M to Snowmaggedon: We're still open, bitch!

It may be National Signing Day (or National Oversigning Day if you live in the South) for college football fans,  but that is being overshadowed right now by "I Hope The Power Stays On Day" in many parts of Ohio; by "Holy F@ck Was That Thunder Snow?! Day" in Chicago; and "Son of a Bitch!  Are Those Snow Flakes or Shards of Glass Digging Into My Face When I Go Outside To Shovel The Motherf@cking Driveway for the 38th Time Today Day" in Michigan.

Yet, while most governments, schools and universities in Michigan - including those pussies in East Lansing - are closed Wednesday due to the weather, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will remain open.  Why?  Because this is Michigan, for God's sake! 

So, in honor of the snow storm with the most nicknames ever; the only weather event that actually caused me to actually search for, find and turn on The Weather Channel in all my years as a cable TV subscriber; and the school that told Snowpacalypse to suck it, here are my two votes for today's Wallpaper Wednesday:

And the more explicit...

Wallpaper Wednesday - Tom Harmon

If the Super Bowl is a blow out in the second half, you can always tune in to the Big Ten Network on Sunday at 9PM to watch the premier of BIG TEN ICONS episode #5 featuring Tom Harmon.

For those of you wondering, yes this is a black and white photo (I colorized it). Also, yes, that is Sparty in the funny looking single striped winged gold helmets. Ask any one of those mouth-breathing idiots and they will gladly tell you that Michigan State College deployed their winged helmet before Fielding Yost did in Ann Arbor. Yawn.

Five hundred

Five hundred -- and still going...
Five hundred -- and going strong!
Five hundred -- and wondering if it's time to ramp it down.

I thought of all three of those as a potential headline for this post because this one here marks No. 500 since I started Rough and Rede on 3-1-09. Looking back, I see that exactly one year ago today -- on 2-1-10 -- I noted the 11-month anniversary of my blog and the 260 posts I'd written. I must have slowed down a bit because it took 12 months to write the next 240 -- a rate of exactly 20 per month or two every three days. Not bad, I suppose.

But as the odometer hits No. 500, I have to ask myself if I want to keep going. It takes time and discipline, a fair amount of creativity and, yes, at least some ego.

When I began, it was so I'd be able to point to my own example as I prepared to teach a class on the blogosphere at Portland State University. Unlike so many bloggers who got started earlier or who've come along since I began, I've never been motivated by a great yearning to broadcast my views and voice into cyberspace. There's a lot of self-promotion that goes into having a widely read blog and that goes against my nature, probably to my detriment.

So, I've been content for the most part to write about whatever strikes my fancy, knowing that any eyeballs on the site mostly belong to friends (both old and new) and a few family members. Of course, I've loved the feedback, sporadic though it may be. Every once in a while, there's enough of a critical mass to call it a conversation and that's really sweet. Other times, I realize it's me talking to myself. But that isn't so bad. Writing helps clarify what I value and what I believe. Plus, at some point, I'll take my friend Aki's advice and convert these first two years (er, 23 months) of posts to a bound print volume.

No doubt I'll keep writing for at least a while longer. There are still a few things I think are worth sharing, be they family matters or highlights from a couple of books on blogging and the economics of the news media. For those of you who've kind enough to drop in regularly or even just every now and then, I offer my thanks and gratitude.

Image: www.pinartarhan.com