a (quarter) milestone

by D.O.


This one almost came and went like your odometer rolling over 100,000 miles and you looking at it on mile 100,002. Luckily, almost doesn’t count. I caught it just in time. We have avoided a great disaster today my friends.

I’ve decided to treat this 250th post like a reflection episode of Saved by the Bell. I’ll be Zack talking to the camera and when I’m done, things will blur into a look back at some posts of days gone by. (I’m not clever enough to make your computer screen blur between the time you click the links and the page actually loading, so just pretend, and please, click the links, as it will certainly be to your enjoyment… I used to be funnier than I am now).

As many of you know, things here at odfm started way back on May Fool’s Day, 2005, with a debut post most have never read and the rest have forgotten. It’s mind-blowingly creative title was, “testing…” I was gearing up for my big summer in China, and I planned on using this blog (inspired by one Joshua Langston) to keep the masses updated on how I was doing. Things started off well but really exploded when a post titled “red carpet at the barber shop” boasted double digit comments (thanks to Jon‘s mom posting the same comment twice). Double digit comments is a feat that has only been achieved 7 other times in odfm history.

Upon arriving back in the States I posted a few posts on reverse culture shock and then I went out on a limb and posted a non-China post entitled “laying out aka lawn mowing.” This post was not only significant for trail-blazing a way for odfm to survive in America, it also debuted the first ever total stranger comment by “Immortal Beloved.”

At that point in blogging history, you didn’t have all the blogs you have today. As I recall it was only Joshua, the Supercinski’s, and myself. Of course we weren’t the only three bloggers in the world at that time, but in my circle of friends, that was it. In the two years that followed blogging spread like gangrene to the point that everybody and (literally) their non-speaking-much-less-typing babies had blogs.

I’ve had many posts from that fateful 1 May 2005 to present. The following are some of my personal favorites (in chronological order).

- the bike crash heard round the world
- superhero soirée
- trip results…
- … down in New Orleans
- Bush, Graham, Osteen and Oliver
- “the sub that hacks”
- first ever contest!
- 75 things that make me smile and/or things I like
- freshman door… an epic
- done and done.
- Reformation Day, 2006
- my ears are still ringing
- undeserved
- perfection
- to all the nay-sayers
- a (quarter) milestone

It’s crazy to think about how much stuff has happened since I started this blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed keeping it and you guys are gracious enough to pretend like you enjoy it as well. It’s a wonderful blessing to know that most of you readers have been my friends longer than this blog’s been alive. I’m sincerely thankful for my readers and I’m at a loss of words when it comes to describing my friends. I’ll just go ahead and sum it up with one: love.

Thanks for reading. Here’s to 250 more posts…

(note: this entry took longer to create than any other post in odfm history, bar none… in case anyone asks)