What's happening, hot stuff??

A kind of milestone event in the life of "Yes, and..." occurred last week and I thought that I should write something to note the occasion. According to my Statcounter, this blog offcially received its 10,000th visit since it first began in October. Normally this type of acheivement would be cause for a celebration involving confetti, balloons, and party hats... but I cancelled the order for the sheet cake as soon as I took a closer look behind the numbers.

At first I had felt a tiny little bit of creative validation when the magic 10,000 mark had been passed. I thought that some people might actually enjoy stopping by for the occasional funny story, or to take a glimpse at the latest HNT pic. But to be perfectly honest, the majority of the credit for all of those visits belongs to somone else. Someone whose inspiring words and radiant smile bring people literally from all over the globe to stop by this blog every single day.
I am speaking, of course, of none other than The Donger:

Or to be accurate--the actor Gedde Watanabe, who played the character of Long Duk Dong- in the movie "Sixteen Candles". Perhaps a little backstory is in order.

Towards the end of October, I had written a post about a martini singles' night that I attended ("Martinis for two, with a twist"). At one point, I mentioned that the only two other men who had turned out for the event both resembled famous actors--one looked like Joe Mantegna and one looked like Long Duk Dong. I had done a Google search to come up with images for each of them, and then linked those pictures to their names as they appeared in the original text.

Not long after that post, I noticed a steady and noticeable bump up in my daily Statcounter numbers. As the weeks went by, one unusual http address kept popping up numerous times on a daily basis. At first I thought it might just be some spammer or phony address, but my curiosity finally won out and I went to the site to see who my #1 fan truly was. It turns out that by linking the actor's picture within that post, anytime one of the many devotees of Gedde Watanabe does a similar Google search--within a click or two they are brought directly over to little old "Yes, and..."

I can only imagine what must go through their minds when they land smack dab on my blog. I can't deny that I haven't felt a slight sense of disappointment from the fact that not one of them has taken a moment away from their adoration to write so much as a word for a comment in any of the posts since then. But then I put my desire for validation in perspective and reflect upon the fact that my situation could be worse--at least I'm getting more hits than Joe Mantegna these days. Apparently nobody is clicking on his Google images--not a single blip on my Statcounter has been from anyone following the link from his picure.

So, while it might be cause for a somewhat muted celebration, I am still really glad that some people, for whatever reason, have taken a moment out of their day to stop by here from time to time. Recently, outside events have caused me to cut back on the number and frequency of my posts--but I have a feeling that a corner has been turned and that things will be back on track in no time. As I close this commemorative post, I leave you with some words of inspiration that help me begin each and every day with meaning and purpose:

"No more yanky my wanky--the Donger need food!"

(Look out, 20,000--here I come...)