One Year Later...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and enemies, Dr. Who fans and people who don’t like cool sci-fi shows about time traveling aliens and thus don’t like fun... welcome to either the last post of Bad Shakespeare’s first year, or the first post of Bad Shakespeare’s second year. It’s all about perspective. Either way, welcome to this post. For those of you just joining us, welcome. For those of you that stuck with it for the year, thank you.

    It’s tempting on birthdays, anniversaries, or just in general anything that we use to mark the passage of time, to look back. I’ve fallen into this trap plenty of times. The thing is, looking back isn’t always healthy, particularly if you’ve had a year like mine. While there has been some good, there has been some bad, and I find myself back closer to square one than I would like. Which sucks, because square one is really the only numbered square we like to talk about. Most setbacks don’t take us back to Park Place, or Reading Railroad, and there’s rarely a chance at the community chest. Plus, I promised all of you that this was not going to be a downer. This is a celebratory post! I’ve stuck with this blog for over a year and over 150 posts! I get more views now in four days than I did the entire first two months that Bad Shakespeare existed. That’s something to celebrate.

    So rather than dwell on what I’ve already talked about, let’s start talking about the future! (That line is so much better if you read it in Doc Brown’s voice. “Marty, we’re talking about the future!”) And I don’t just mean a future filled with evil wizard overlords who pul us all into human zoos and circuses so we can perform our mortal tricks for their amusement. I’m not even talking about the future of me, where I’m planning on being a teacher, and possibly Spider-man, if I could get just one radioactive spider to live long enough to bite me.

    No, ladies and gents... I’m talking about the future of.. Bad Shakespeare.

    For you see, I recently went out to Godaddy.com, which I noticed because it has all the commercials which either exploit women, or feature hot chicks (perspective, people.) and I made a little purchase. You all are reading a post by the man who now owns Badshakespeare.com. No one, not even the people who sold it to me, could believe that it was for sale. But it is. I own it.

    Right now, it’s little more than a collection of screens letting you know that someone has purchased it. The plan is by December, to move badshakespeare.blogspot.com to it’s new home at Badshakespeare.com.

    “But wait,” you’re saying, “a whole website dedicated to nothing more than your blog? You’re mad! MAD I TELL YOU! Isn’t that a lot of money for just someone who wants to blog about being a teacher?”

    I appreciate the compliment in saying that I’m as crazy as Tesla after a few too many cocktails.

    “We didn’t say that, we just said you were crazy.”

    Meh. I take compliments where I can find them. You’re right, I’m not dedicating Badshakespeare.com to just my blog, which while amusing isn’t amusing enough to carry everyone’s attention. My plan is to bring in other aspiring writers, and set up other blogs, and hopefully serialized stories, and other opportunities. You see, this year I’ve also attempted to make the leap into doing more writing, submitting my stuff. It just hasn’t taken. So i want to use Badshakespeare.com as an opportunity for aspiring writers to get their stuff out there. I’m starting with this blog, and a serialized story I’ve been working on for about 10 years now, but never did anything with. I may have some more people on board after some meetings.

    “That sounds groovy. What about me?”

    This is still in it’s early planning stages right now. When I can open it up, people can submit their work, we’ll go over it, and eventually I hope that Bad Shakespeare can be a voice for aspiring writers.

    But again, let me stress, this is being planned right now. We’ll eventually get to it, and you can follow this progress on the blog while I do it. But I’m very excited about this prospect right now.

    “Wow.”

    I know. It’s exciting isn’t it?

    The other, equally as exciting announcement involves my logo. My logo was created a year ago by my talented mother, Maria Hock, who has supported me a lot. And it’s a cool logo. Which is why we’ve been working on getting the logo on a shirt, which should be available on Cafepress.com by the end of the month! Wear your Bad Shakespeare pride on your body, on your mugs, or on your head!

    What else does the future hold? I certainly hope it involves benevolent robot servants and a type of cheeseburger that helps you lose weight. But, who knows? The future is a fickle place. But I do know you can help by sharing the Bad Shakespeare Blog with your friends. You can help by continuing to read.  You can help by liking Bad Shakespeare on Facebook. (And eventually all the other social media Bad Shakespeare is about to be on.) And you can help by commenting, and keep the support coming.

    This post is getting long, but I really wanted to thank each and every one of you for your support this year. Blogging is something new for me. But I enjoy writing. And I’ve enjoyed your feedback. You’ve helped me through the darker times, and I’m glad that you’ve been there to enjoy the happy times. I’m glad you were there to share all the Nicolas Cage and Star Wars references. And of course there’s the fact that I’m a toddler, and if you find something funny I’m going to keep doing it. But thank you. All of you from the bottom of my Shakespeare-like goatee.

    That’s a wrap on year one. Let’s go kick year two in the head.