Belated Blog Birthday Bash

In all the excitement over the Halloween Weekend, Modern Philosophers, I forgot to mention that it was the blog’s birthday.

Yesterday, the blog turned three.  It’s growing up so fast, and it seems like only yesterday it had two followers and absolutely no sense of direction.

You all know the story of how the blog got started, so I won’t bore you with that again.  What I will say, however, is that I still cannot wrap my brain around how large this little enterprise had become.

The blog is approaching 14,500 followers now.  I’ve never missed a day of blogging, so that’s almost 1100 consecutive days of sharing my Deep Thoughts with you.

I had no idea what to write when I started this.  My friend Dave suggested that I use Modern Philosopher in the title, since that was the name of one of my old screenplays that he liked.  I’d also worked the name into the title of a zine I’d published when I lived in California.  Plus, MdrnPhil was my longtime address on AOL.

Once I had decided on The Return of the Modern Philosopher as a title, I still needed a sense of direction.

The first post I ever wrote after a basic introductory one, was inspired by an annoying phone call I’d had during the day at work.  I’d called a doctor’s office to find out if a patient had been scheduled for an appointment, and I’d gotten the voicemail.  At the end of the message, I was informed that they would return my call at their earliest convenience.

Excuse me???  My rage became a blog post, and I was off.  Here is that post in case you want to see how things have changed around here (First Post).

Back in those days, there were no blog interns to fetch my lunch, do my research, and go out to interview people and Otherworldly Beings for posts.

Snapple had yet to come on as the blog’s official sponsor, so I didn’t have a fully stocked Snapple machine in the dining room of The House on the Hill.  Back then, I had to actually go to the store and buy a Snapple when I was thirsty.

Doc Brown had yet to become the blog’s major financial backer via a grant from the Emmett Brown Foundation, so I was cutting corners to keep down costs.

Luckily, it was November 2012 so I had the Presidential Election to inspire my writing.  Before long, it was December, and I spent the month writing silly posts about Christmas.

I had no idea how much fun it would be to put my own odd spin on the biggest holiday of the year, or how I’d become such good friends with Santa Claus, his brother Fred, and the whole crew up at The North Pole!

Finally, the blog had some direction, and I was finding my voice.  Blogging every day became something I looked forward to, and it got me through some rough times.

January 2013 changed everything.  I wrote the Zeus post, which earned me my first Freshly Pressed trophy.  Suddenly, people were following my blog.  The number of views soared.  A post actually got hundreds of reads, rather than a mere handful.

Then at the end of the month, I saw a commercial for Survivor while a snowstorm pounded Maine and threatened to knock out the power.  I quickly got to work on a post about Survivor filming in Maine during the winter, and I had my first viral post.

Having a post go viral made me want to write more viral posts.  I really upped my game, found my creative voice, and realized how much I loved writing these crazy stories.

I can’t believe it’s already been three years.  So much has changed in my life since then, but the one constant has been this blog.

I’ve never enjoyed writing as much.  This blog has led to my landing a job as a writer for The Nite Show.  It’s helped me to meet a Sweet Irish Girl who I’m crazy about.  It’s reminded me that I’m a writer first, and the day job just keeps the roof of The House on the Hill over my head.

Thank you, Modern Philosophers, for supporting me and my silly little adventure into the world of blogging.

I’ve made so many wonderful friends via this blog, and I can’t wait to make more.  It’s always been my goal to get this blog to one million views, and I think it’s going to be a blast to keep writing until I get there and then just keep on going.

Happy Blog Birthday to you all.  Please feel free to stop by with gifts at any time, or simply mail them to The House on the Hill!

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