A heartfelt and personal thank you to all my followers

I've never done a proper welcoming post to thank those of you who've honored my by joining my blog. Thank you and a belated "Welcome aboard!" to all of you. I never thought this blog would have 24 such distinguished followers, much less 5,000+ page views in its first six months of existence. Since you've done me a solid, I'd like to return the favor. In the list below of my blog's followers, I've listed YOUR blogs, that is, if I can discover them from your blogger profile or through my weak web fu.

• adam of Miniatures, Painting and Hobbies
• Bringer of Death
• Brummie of Brummie's Wargaming Blog
• Chronowraith of Chronowraith's Corner
• clint of Anything but a One and 28 Dice Later
• commisarmoody of Moody's Adventures
• dannydiddle of diddle's world and (the currently empty) The Monkey Lives
• Doctor Warlock of Keelhauling for Fun and Profit, The Illustrated London News, Pulp City Planet, The Realm of Dungeons & Dragons and (the currently empty) Not Another Wargames Blog. 
• elquintodestino of el quinto destino blogzine. I guess this is actually blogger member homerleonidas, but I'm not sure. I also don't speak Spanish, sadly.
• laughingferret of Laughing Ferret Lab
• Mecha Ace of G3 and The Hangar Bay
• Minitrol of Strange news from under there
• Mr. Lee of Mr. Lee's Painting Emporium (I think)
• myincubliss of Dead Lead Project
• pench
• Shelldrake of Shelldrake's Wargaming Blog, Shelldrake's Soapbox and Shelldrake's Zombie Wargame Blog
• shintokamikaze of Shinto Kamikaze's Zed Men Walking
• spankyhojek of The Haunting of Portsmouth and Geek in the basement
• styx of Strange Aeons Adventures, Dice of Legends, Suncoast Skirmishers and Army of the Week
• The Secret DM of The Secret DM
• Vampifan of Vampifan's World of the Undead
• watchtower78 of The Armchair General and Aliens vs Hillbillies
• Weird WWII of Weird WWII
• Xander of Xander's Wargaming Musings
• Zabadak of Zabadak's ZombieWorld
• and my loving wife, Tracey Sheets

If I've missed your blog out, I apologize. Please comment below or drop me an email and I'll get you added in. Likewise if I've credited you with work not yours, please also let me know and I'll correct the listing.

From here on out, it'll be acknowledgement as people join. Again, thanks for your support in this venture and best wishes for 2013.

Eyes front, mister

Today I got an email to one of my online accounts that someone had left a comment on my blog.

Only not this one. This was on a blog I had back in the heyday of Livejournal. (I used to have a Myspace page as well. Good Lord!) It was a response to a post I wrote about the alleged "War on Christmas" that has been waged, apparently, ever since, well, Christmas. I wrote that piece back in 2005 and had no idea it was even accessible anymore. Here's the link, if anyone wants to check it out.

My "holiday" musings

I used to write a lot of stuff like that, slightly political, embarrassingly personal. Loads of fun.

I am much happier doing this, sharing my interests and my passions and sharing, usually to those of you who are my friends on Facebook, the real events that impact my life, normally dealing with Tracey's and my health challenges. Thank you all for your support, attention, and prayers during the tough times we've had during 2012.

Oh, and I passed a milestone the other day. Or was that a kidney stone? Actually, this blog passed a milestone, not a huge one, but one I'm proud of and didn't think I'd hit so soon. Sometime around Dec. 8th or so, Dispatches from the Rim passed 5,000 pageviews. Too cool!

I couldn't have imagined back on July 8 of this year that so many people would've looked at my writing here. Thanks, everybody, for the time and attention you've given my corner of the Interwebs. I promise it's just going to get better from here. More posts, more pictures, and some actual PAINTED miniatures -- newly painted by ME -- in the new year!

More soon. This is Christopher Sheets, over and out from the closing minutes of 2012 and looking forward to sharing 2013 with you, all my amazing, talented friends.