Happy Birthday...To Us!

Yes, my little piece of the internet has turned 1. The blog debuted on this date last year, and it's been a fun ride so far.

I've tried to update it a couple of times a week, with everything from cool things I find online, to my thoughts on various topics, to some personal stuff or things going on at the station.

If you have any suggestions on things you've liked, things you haven't, things that can make this blog better, let me know in the comments section. That might be tough to do for some of you -- the listeners to my daily radio show, mainly -- because I'm convinced none of you even have computers.

I've enjoyed keeping tabs on visitors to the site that aren't from the listening audience. Thanks to keywords on Google searches that have brought my blog to the forefront, a lot of random folks -- an odd amount of people from out of the country, too -- have stopped by to read what I've posted.

In a related note, there was a time for about three weeks when I was getting about ten times the normal amount of visitors to the site each day. It was bizarre. Even more bizarre when I noticed that about 90% of the visitors were getting to my site after first clicking on a Looney Tunes image within a Google search.

The image was on one of my old posts. You can see it as it appeared in the original post by clicking this. For those three weeks, when you did a Google Image search for "Looney Tunes", the image I chose for my post was the first one that came up.

Great horny toads! Never knew there was such a high demand these days for Looney Tunes pictures, but thanks for visiting anyway.

To recognize the blog's 1st birthday, I thought I'd give you my Top 10 favorite posts, in no particular order:

* The very first post. This one introduced you to me, the blog, and our newborn daughter, Sarah.

* The transcript of my Rick Springfield interview. He came on the show promoting a concert in Joliet. I don't get to have many big names on the show, so this one earns a spot on the list. This was the first real interview that I transcribed for any reason. I have a new respect for writers.

* I might as well group these together...here are posts of interviews with Colin Mochrie...

*...Greg Proops...and Kathy Kinney. These two posts are grouped together as they made appearances on my show within a few days of each other to promote the improv show where I got to meet them, and Drew Carey. Name dropping is over now.

* This post from March of this year details the first hockey game my daughter, Megan has ever attended. Add in a beauty of a fight, called by one of my idols, Pat Foley, and it's a can't miss.

* I'm sure everyone with a blog made some kind of post in and around the time that Saddam Hussein was hanged at the end of December, 2006. I'd like to think I was the only one that made the suggestion that he be hanged at Times Square as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, but I doubt it. I may have been the only one that suggested that, AND threw in a perfectly appropriate song to play in the background.

* My life as a Philadelphia sports fan. Not pretty. This was a painful post to write. And, no, it wasn't cathartic at all.

* Everyone loves news bloopers! Many of my posts are links to cool or funny things I find online that I think you'll enjoy. Thanks to the power of embedding, many videos I stumble across can be viewed right on my site. This is just one example of a post that hopefully made you laugh, just like I did. There are countless other posts just like that on here. Well, of course I could count them for you, but why would I want to do that?

* My thoughts on RUSH. One of the nice things about the blog is the freedom to talk about anything. Well, almost anything. For example, since I do a radio show that a lot of kids may listen to, I do my best to keep most of the material on the blog -- which in theory should have many listeners checking it out, again, if they have computers -- relatively kid-friendly. Along the same lines, I don't get to play any songs from RUSH on my show. They don't exactly fit the format. So, it'd be rather pointless to talk about the group on the air. On the blog, however, it's a perfect place to tell you a little bit about the band, and also about myself as well.

* My girls. Yep, I admit it: I like posting about my girls. I've heard from many listeners that they enjoy hearing about them on the radio show, so I've made sure to get them some airtime, and now, some air, or (web)space I guess you could say. No need to send me any pictures or posts about your kids, because although I hope they're healthy, and a joy and all that, honestly, I really don't care. And you may not care about mine. That's the beauty of the blog. There's always more news bloopers!

Thanks for visiting during the past year, pass the word -- or better yet, pass the link -- and keep coming back!