It was just a regularly normal evening...

I got on the internet and was...

Fiddle-farting around...

Probably checking email...

Probably checking the sports...

And the YouTube...

I really don’t remember exactly...

But that night...

My life changed...

For the better...

Much, much better...

I got do something I’d always wanted to do...

But didn’t even know it existed...

To my recollection...

I’d never heard the word before...

Or if I’d heard it...

I really didn’t pay much attention to it...

I really didn’t know the meaning of that word...

But the more I learned about it...

The more I realized it was for me...

I had actually taken a stab at it...

Before that fateful day...

Sending it through emails to family and friends...

That was short-lived...

But that night...

I remember this magazine I once subscribed to...

I thought it would be cool...

So I checked out their website...

It was the last week of June...

Five years ago...

TheSportingNews.com

I read that they let people blog on their site...

Regular people like me...

For free...

Now that was cool...

I love to write...

It's my favorite hobby...

Writing jokes...

I even wrote professionally...

Radio commercials...

This one was kinda poetic and sing-songy...

Big Nate is this guy with a big, burly voice...

Hey Big Nate, your sure lookin’ great...

That’s cus I’m eatin’ two for eighty-eight...

Two for eighty eight???

Two tacos or bean burritos for eighty-eight cents...

That makes sense...

Eighty-eight cents...

Two tacos or bean burritos for eighty-eight cents...

For eighty-eight cents...

So don’t be late...

Now through Sunday for the BIIIIIIG eighty-eight...

(Jingle) “Anytime is Taco Time”...

The big green cactus for great food...

And fast, friendly service...

(Jingle) “Any time is Taco Time”...

In Twin (Falls), Burley, and Buhl...

I even wrote a fake commercial...

One that I voiced myself...

So...

Writing was in my blood...

And an opportunity to write blogs...

Five years ago...

Was like a dream come true...

I kept it simple at first...

Even predicting in my second blog...

That the TrailBlazers blew it...

Shoulda picked Durant over Oden...

Didn’t get too many views at first...

I looked up to guys like Mo and Frag...

I became best friends with baconmaker...

A couple months later...

I delved into writing song parodies...

The Angels had rats roaming the stadium...

So I wrote..

To “Bad Moon Rising”...

“There’s Some Vermin out in Right...”

And to “Cats in the Cradle”...

I wrote...

“Rats in the Ladle”...

And many others...

From K-Smell Records...

Then...

About a year into it...

I had this bright idea...

Everybody was bellyaching about...

“The Sporting Blog”...

A blog commissioned and paid for by SportingNews...

Written by so-called professionals...

But not nearly as good...

As the ones we wrote...

For freeeeeeeee...

Out popped The Snorting Blog...

Nobody knew it was me...

Until I let the cat out of the bag...

I called it my one-liner comic strip blog...

In my regular blog...

I even wrote about...

Mercurochrome...

Crabby occasionally arrived...

To predict...

And mispredict sporting events...

Ya bums...

And in April of ‘08...

I noticed something unusual...

My views were skyrocketing...

One thousand...

Five thousand...

Nearly ten thousand...

I couldn’t believe it...

Or explain it...

But I loved it...

Until “it” happened...

“ViewGate”...

My friend Backell taped down two keys...

Thus sending his views into the zillions...

And overloading the website...

Everybody got mad...

I was mad, too...

Cus Sporting News quit listing how many views I had...

Sort of...

And somewhere along the way...

Lew Troop nearly died...

Or so it seemed...

Then...

Seemingly as a reward for our efforts...

We were promised...

A special 2.0 blogging system from SportingNews...

New and improved...

But it never came...

Then we had more infighting and bickering...

And rumors started to abound...

That our toy...

Our little blogging toy...

Would soon be gone...

YouGabSports blogging was born...

SportingNews blogging went nitey-nite...

TSBN was born...

Then disappeared...

Then reappeared...

I have shared my affection for Buck O’Neil...

And my disdain for Ray Lewis...

But all along the way...

I met people I’d never met before...

Had dinner with Backell...

Yes...

I know how many of you feel about him...

Went to Kings games with Ark...

Talked to Harvey and Kevin and Beeze on the phone...

And some others as well...

Mourned the passing of 3rdStone...

These strangers became friends...

Who have been so very kind and gracious to me...

Yes...

I’ve yanked on a few chains over the years...

Made fun of athletes...

Made fun of myself...

Had fun with Gilligan...

My All4LSU blogging little buddy...

And I still need to eat that plate of asparagus...

All of these...

Are moments I will continue to treasure forever...

Five years...

In a sense...

It does seem like forever...

I’m thankful for my cyber friends...

Who in many ways...

Are closer than some of my human friends...

I am not fishing for compliments here...

Just wanna say, Thanks”...

From the bottom...

Of my blogging heart...

dvt

http://www.med.harvard.edu/jpnm/lectures/webbasednucmed/SURFING.GIF

​http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUTHVx-SaPc