Today was traditionally the day when the US acknowledged the Navy, although that practice largely ended in the late 40s. It's also, not coincidentally, the blog's birthday, and today marks four years of writing for me here.
It's been an interesting four years, and I've covered a lot of ground. I'm very happy with what I've created, and with the friends I've made in the comments. Thanks to all of you have followed me through this. Particular thanks this year go to dndnrsn, Rolf Andreassen and ketil for proofreading, Suvorov and Alsadius for contributing, Said Achmiz for hosting and Lord Nelson for putting up with me. And to those who followed me through various museums and ships. Also to the PAO staff at NSWC Carderock, for agreeing to show me around.
I was originally planning to take November off, but after talking to Directrix Gazer, I'm changing things up. Instead, I'm going to drop my posting schedule to once a week on Sundays, plus the open thread. I've found more and more that there are topics I'd like to tackle, but the schedule I have to maintain doesn't really give me the time I need to deal with them. Guest posts, if any, will go on Wednesdays, but I will commit to not filling that slot myself to save my sanity. In practice, I'm still going to have all of November off because of the fruits of the DC trip. So I'll see you all on the 31st, and I'm looking forward to starting year 5.
Comments
You are welcome. I will help you out a little bit more by pointing out that you spelled my name wrong.
Thanks Bean for all of your work on this site. Reading it is one of my favorite escapes.
Have you ever consideration to details on Guadalcanal and all of its battles? Especially the most dramatic battleship vs battleship engagement of WWII?
@Rolf
Oops. Your help, as always, is appreciated, and I've fixed it.
@Jason
Thank you.
I've thought about that, but that's a really big project to tackle, and not one the muse has called me to. I probably should break down SoDak and Washington vs Kirishima sooner rather than later, but unlikely to happen before Norway and the follow-on Sea Lion series.
Wow, it's been four years already?
I've been appreciating the free ride along with your fascinations, getting to find out about all sorts of aspects of this that I never knew existed, let alone knowing that I would care. For example I've really appreciated the Falklands series, and I'm sure I'd have never done any of my own reading if you hadn't made me realize it was much more complex and less of a sure thing than the vague impression I had before reading your work.
Happy anniversary! Enjoy your break.
Have you ever considered doing SSC-style link dump posts for interesting stuff you don't have time to write about? I don't get exposed to any naval news or history content outside this blog, so it'd be a great window into what you guys keep up with.
Congrats Bean on the four years. You have a good thing going here that is both educational/informative and entertaining in the very best sense of that word. Many good years ahead!
Many happy returns! And my honest congratulations and thanks.
I'd like to second @echo's link dump post idea. Naval, historical and technical too. In truth, this tends to happen in comments already, but one can always wish for more of a good thing.
The problem with a link dump post is that naval matters don't generate links at the rate I'd need to make that work. There's a reason I get most things from books, and it's that naval history is a pretty traditional field, and also just not that big.
...You have done an amazing job for the last four years - your posts are concise, yet have enough detail to be clear, and you've done excellent work on little known subjects like the Kriegsmarine in Norway. Your stuff is good enough that it's worth waiting for. Press on and have fun.