This past Friday, the same day Adam Lanza killed twenty eight people in Newton, Connecticut, most of them school children, JPAttitude.com registered hit number five million.  Not surprisingly, I didn’t feel like celebrating.

Six days later, website traffic still doesn’t seem like a worthy subject.  Evil stalks the land, moral turpitude infects our children, we are all of us aghast at the cloud hanging over the season and wondering if it’s okay to celebrate Christmas.

To top it off, the usual shady characters have callously used the tragedy to pole vault their favorite political causes over the bar and Crybaby Boehner has surrendered the nation’s financial future so many times trying to avoid the illusory “fiscal cliff” he’s worn a groove in the White House lawn carrying white flags to Obama.

In the old days, when a military leader wanted to humiliate a defeated opponent, he rejected surrender attempts until the opponent grew so desperate he conceded everything and literally begged for the chance to surrender.  That’s what Obama is doing to Boehner—it’s ugly and discouraging to watch.  Luckily, the Speaker’s Creator made him too stupid to comprehend the ignobility of his own defeat.

This will be the last time I write about hitting one of the million milestones.  Good websites get millions of hits every day, for crying out loud.  It took JPAttitude 861 days to hit one million, 241 days to hit two million, 96 days to hit three million, 76 days to hit four million, and 49 days to hit five million. The pace is still accelerating, fame is just around the corner, but it seems to be a mighty damned big corner.  Not a turn-right-at-the-end-of-the-hallway-to-get-to-the-bathroom sized corner—more like a turn-right-when-you-get-to-Siberia-to-get-to-Korea corner.

Here’s the updated chart of JPAttitude’s hits showing the accelerating trend:



The chart’s gone from showing 12 million by the end of 2013 to almost 15 million.  Go team.

If I ever learn how to properly monetize the place, that would be cool.  Right now I simply hope people notice the Google ad—TOP RIGHT!  THAT’S HOW THE WEBSITE MAKES MONEY PEOPLE!—and once in a while I sell a dedicated ad.  My son-in-law’s business had an ad for a while.  (My daughter says it garnered zero customers but I told her goodwill is notoriously difficult to quantify.  I think she bought it.)  I replaced my son-in-law with Newsmax for a month.  I like Newsmax but their list of headlines was double indented which drove me crazy.  It wasn’t neat.  It felt like somebody left crumbs on my kitchen countertop.  Better my son-in-law’s bald head than a double indentation.

Now I have another Google ad in that spot, hoping to double my Google earnings—MIDDLE COLUMN, BELOW THE FAVORITE LINKS, THAT’S HOW THE WEBSITE MAKES MONEY PEOPLE!

I am not overly optimistic about my Google earnings doubling.

Yesterday I took my five-year-old granddaughter, Grace, shopping at Toys ’R’ Us.  Shopping with Grace reminded me of what it was like to be a parent with young children, reminded me of the stone cold panic when Grace’s mother went missing at a downtown festival at the same age.  I can’t imagine the pain of learning my child was senselessly gunned down in her school.

After horrible events like this, we have a right and even an obligation to celebrate Christmas and website achievements and everything else about life, even if we have to force it for a while.  Joy transcends horror; the glory of God is paramount.  What we do not have a right to do after losing twenty eight precious lives is forget, even for second, that evil stalks the land and we are at war.

“Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.” —Richard Cecil

From Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA        Tweet

December 22, 2012 - Congrats, JP! Remember, sometimes the smallest act by one person can have the biggest impact on the entire world. – drb, North Carolina

December 20, 2012 - Stop downplaying yourself. Five million is a pretty good number... wish I had that many hits. – Bruce, Illinois

December 20, 2012 - Congratulations! Last friday was an awful day. People across the nation mourned over what can be viewed as a complete disregard for the value of human life. We are in troubled times, dark times, but who or what we turn to in the midst of our despair is what defines our character. Some people will seek answers from the souless media, some will give up hope completely, some will see that there is great work to be done, some will turn their eyes to God and His promises. Whatever it is that gives you answers to the changing times in our world, I hope you'll continue to bring us along with you on the journey. Keep writing, and keep celebrating the fruits of your labor! – Samantha, Michigan