20 Years of Whopper's Bunker

On Friday 9th of September 2005 I wrote a post entitled "This Blog Thingy". Hardly the most auspicious representation of my extraordinary writing talent; but nonetheless it's what began the now 20 year history of this blog.

Originally entitled "The Colonel's Eagle" and changed the following year in 2006 to "Whopper's Bunker", the blog was actually suggested by Mark Twomey after he observed my extensive "show notes" for one of the early episodes of 2IGTV and in its initial years I used it to cover the stuff we didn't get to on the show.

As one would expect, one's interests may change over the course of 20 years. I certainly have no time to observe the day-to-day antics of Paris Hilton or critique the latest movies nor would I care to do either now if I had the time.

Blogging itself isn't as it was 20 or even 10 years ago. People's use of the Internet has evolved. Later users don't read long-form posts now and they don't need to because everyone can just record a video for YouTube or social media will feed it to you in other ways. If you write more than 100 words people will have AI summarise it and read it to them.

To be fair, being a 3-star general and responsible for the global operations of a multi-national security and defence organisation protecting the planet from what no one believes actually exists takes up most of my waking hours but I still enjoy writing about my video game experiences every once in a while.

I'll be here 'til it goes dark.

Seven years?

I guess that if this was my first post back then today is a seventh Birthday of sorts for Whopper's Bunker. 

I'm reliably informed by many people, people who've either had or read blogs regularly that seven years is a long time to maintain one when looking at average blog lifespans. While I can't obviously say I post every day or even with the frequency that I used to, I guarantee that while it may be slow, there is no intention of wrapping things up on my part.

Thank you to all those who have contributed ideas for content and read and commented this year. More to come.

Colonel "Whopper" Creedon

Whopper's Bunker - Fifth Anniversary

On September 9th in the year 1000. The King of Norway had his fleet sunk by Svein Forkbeard, Olaf Eiriksson, and Eirik Hakonarson. 11 ships vs. 70. Olaf threw himself into the sea rather than being captured (and then killed). As a result, Norway then became a fief of Denmark and Sweden.

Just as dramatically, 1005 years later, on Friday, September 9th 2005, I created and posted for the first time on this blog. Yes indeed, five years has gone by. My first post was a very simple affair, no pomp, ceremony, dancing girls, cannons or fireworks - just this post really. It was suggested by Mark after he observed my "show notes" for one of the early episodes of 2IGTV. There was enough material to record a 4 1/2 hour show each week but it had to be cut down for the sake of sanity [both Mark's and the listeners] and so I transferred some of those "extra thoughts" here.

First entitled "The Colonel's Eagle" after the insignia of a full-bird colonel, the name of the blog was changed in November 2006 to "Whoppers Bunker" following my temporary demotion and it stuck. It took a good while for me to get my sea-legs when I deployed with the 22nd MAU in '82 and gathering my blogging legs was not much different but took a lot longer. Looking back on some of those early postings would almost be enough to embarrass me, but I've allowed them to remain there as a reminder of how far I've come as a master blogging artist.

I did seem to have a lot more free time back then as opposed to now - well there are more alien threats now than before - and I used to blog about literally anything that came to my attention - well anything non-classified... ...more or less - including the latest news in entertainment as well as military technology and appointments. Admittedly some of my more cringeworthy early posts centered on my love for Ollie North and Tom Sizemore as well as my deep hatred for Micheal Jackson and Paris Hilton.

I broke dozens of hot news stories about upcoming movies, TV and video games but I didn't actually review any movies until December 2005. This was due to the fact that I did most of my movie reviewing on 2IGTV which ran concurrently at the time. Once that show ran it's course my reviews soon became the last word in most peoples decision making process on whether they see a movie or not, or perhaps wait for the DVD.

Did you know that my reviews are actually more authentic than Empire magazine's? Apparently the reviewer does not actually assign a movie it's stars, it's done by staffers! What a fraud!

Some people have asked what I think my best blog posting was and I honestly can't answer. There are some that are very quick affairs but others that take much as they require more research and so they may spend days in draft before being good enough to publish. My favourite posts however are those where a "circle is complete". Completing a circle is one of the tenants of my religion; There is to anything - 1. inception, 2. creation and 3. the final experience, so I think that any blog posts or series of blog postings that complete the circle are most important to me. Writing about them designing and constructing The National Museum of the Marine Corps in April 2003 and then actually visiting the completed complex in Quantico, Virginia 3 years later stands out as probably the prime example but it also includes breaking the news about what I hoped will be a fantastic movie like Iron Man and being able to see my hopes fulfilled and write a review of it 2 1/2 years later.

As great as I am and as much as I love the "sound of me", I'll admit I probably wouldn't have bothered keeping this up for 5 years if it wasn't for the love and support that you, both apathetic casual readers and devoted fanatical fans have shown me since day one. Chief among you:
Mark who said "Make your own Blog!"
Vaughan who calls me several times a month to tell me some famous person is dead and only an obituary written by me will grant them eternal peace.
Sith Master [formerly Sith Apologist] who teaches me to beware of corners, especially dark corners.
Civilian Overseer for whom I'm reminded not to leave a gaping hole in the plot for.
Constance whom has spent hundreds of hours correcting spelling and creating extraordinary examples of sexual innuendo for her commentary.
Former Grunt for being my yes-man.
Bruce Russell the funniest lawyer on the planet.
Cubaboy for being a reprehensible sick fucking foulmouth bastard.
and lastly
Master Guns for being a true nemesis, worthy of a hero of my stature.
Special thanks also to:
The Whitehouse, Declan, Pint Of, Dahar Master, PF, Douglas Castle, Harmon Rabb Jr., Aaron, Darth Harrington, Alro, Barry and what must be hundreds more that unfortunately I can't possibly list here, but thanks to each and everyone that has posted comments or contributed information over the years.

Additionally, I decided that after 5 years it was time for a major redesign to make things a bit more professional looking. I enlisted the services of VerTecX21 who recreated the blog as you see it before you. There are still a few extra bits to be tacked on but they should appear soon enough, so bear with me.

The Bunker will continue.

"The Colonel's Bullets" reloaded

It has been suggested that I move my "bullets" (which traditionally appear in the left sidebar) into main blog posts where such postings can more easily be seen and of course commented upon. I will also most likely include more than one bullet in each post where appropriate.

The left sidebar will display notable U.S. General and Flag officer appointments above the Department of Defense news widget now that it works.

Change to the "New" Blogger.

Blogger received a massive upgrade in late 2006 which required you to migrate your blog to the new Google servers. Many claim the service is now more reliable, due to the quality of the servers; I've not found anything that would make me disagree with that claim yet.

I'd been holding off on this until I had implementation time, so before the weekend I moved Whopper's Bunker over the new Google-Powered Blogger. Now, one is not forced to move (as yet) but I'd received a lot of encouragement from Blogger to make the move, most notably in the form of in big letters "have you moved to the new Blogger yet?" etc. when I logged in, replacing my dashboard editing screen with Google account applications and information on the three steps to make to migrate the Bunker.

Well it wasn't as painful as I imagined, but there were some changes to existing settings and a few new options to ignore or adopt. Along with the migration to Google servers, several new features were introduced:

Label organisation. This is the ability to apply labels or topics beneath each post. Clicking on the appropriate label should now bring up posts which I've applied that label to, like President Bush or GWOT (Global War On Terror). I've made specific ones in some cases for say, Star Wars or Paris Hilton and generic ones such as TV and Games. They take time to apply as I have to revisit and attack labels to almost 400 posts but should be working by this Friday.

Drag-and-drop template editing interface. As I have a custom template, I'll have to investigate this before implementing it or everything could go wonky.

New Web feed options. I didn't notice much in the way of new options at least anything that I'd use, but I'll investigate further later. One alteration that could not be helped was the change to the RSS site feed, so if you use an RSS reader to access my headlines then you must now point your aggregator to: http://genthar.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss to avail of my wisdom.

Furthermore, blogs are updated dynamically, as opposed to rewriting HTML files which decreases posting time and ensures quicker updates.

As always if you see anything wonky on any browser (except Opera mobile or whatever you were on about the other day Sithy) let me know.

The Colonel's Eagle: 1st Anniversary

Indeed it is folks, on this day in 2005, I created this blog with this post. Admittedly it's not awe-inspiring, but one has to start somewhere yes?

Who would have thought that people like Lt.Col. Oliver North, Paris Hilton, William Hootkins and Iron Man would come together in one place let alone a place of my creation?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many contributors to the success of "The Colonel's Eagle" over the past year, I doubt if I would have continued on for this long or posted as much as I did if you lot had no interest in me or what I have to say. I especially thank the more active commentators who contribute their opinion, knowledge or generally heckle to keep me on my toes- Sith Apologist, Civilian Overseer, Cubaboy, Mark, Master Guns, Aaron, PF, Vaughan, Former Grunt, D K eeshan, Pint Of, Interloper Prime, Seeker of Wisdom and No Angel.

Are you ready for another year?

Warning! Construction work ahead!

If you see things go a little "wonky" around here in a bit: Do not adjust your computer or change browser. I'm just doing some modifications and improvements. Due to the fact that I'm not a qualified web-designer nor have I any formal training in HTML I expect things to go horribly wrong before getting it right. As I often say: "It's going to get worse before it gets better!"

Updated:
Please report any issues with my adjusted layout (citing browser and resolution) by commenting or E-mail.

This Blog Thingy

Well this is my first post. I hope you weren't expecting anything exciting. I'm using a template for my blog at the moment put I'll be Creedonising it later, stay tuned.