What better way to celebrate this, my 500th post, than by badly making the picture to the left, which inexplicably makes me look rather cross-eyed?

Well, yes, I’m sure there are many better ways, but it’s done now, so we’ll all have to get over it.

Anyway, 500 posts feels like something of a milestone, and the timing’s ideal in that this week I’ve been fortunate enough to see this blog linked to by the BBC Writersroom Blog and Stevyn Colgan’s blog alike. Forget happyslapping or having a Kanye West ringtone, linking to this blog is what all the cool kids are doing. Oh, yes it is.

So, thanks to you all for your ongoing eyeball time, and hello and welcome to any recently acquired readers – I can assure you that pictures such as the one accompanying this post are not standard practice, so don’t be afraid to come back again soon.

(Apologies, of course, to Gerard Butler for the above. And Frank Miller and Zack Snyder too. But if you think this bit of ‘for my own personal amusement’ non-artistry is bad, you really ought to check out the work of so-called professionals on Photoshop Disasters. Seriously – they get paid for that stuff…)