Birthday is, for most of us, a good day, but sometimes, the date you were born on can be a hassle. For example, I entered this world in January, way too close to Christmas to get equally large amounts of presents. And this here Metroblog was born in July, a time where most people are on holiday somewhere. So, naturally, we were a bit anxious yesterday - will anyone actually show up? The setting was inviting enough. Christian allowed us to hold our little party at the Phil, complete with ultra-comfy chairs and nice music. And due to some scripting magic contributed by Mr. Hinterhalt, the Metroblog was finally shown in a proper way - LARGE.

We started out small, and grew over the 5 hours that followed. Sadly, some of our Bloggers could not make it (and you were all missed), but a good deal of readers, friends of Metblog, and even semi-random strangers showed up. Discussions waged from the world’s most stupid google search phrases to the afterlife of Ms. Josefine Hawelka.

The evening ended in the most surreal, geekish way imaginable to man: with a free for all Pac Man match. In defense of my ego, I won’t post my score here, but at least I wasn’t reduced to the shame and agony that is last place. All in all, while far from an ancient Roman orgy, it was a very nice, relaxed and productive (I love that world, I really do) evening, and I vow to try and hold more Metblog-related festivities, not only once per year.

P.S. : As a special birthday present, Metroblogging was finally added to the Wikipedia. The article is still a little short, but most likely not for long. And while I’m normally free from patriotic feelings of any kind, I’m quite proud that Mr. Grenzfurther is mentioned as one of the representative bloggers of our network/world domination conspiracy.

P.P.S. : Mr. Fum (the guy in the yellow shirt) created a very nice time-shifted picture that I morphed into an animated GIF - please observe the shaking banana in the background, it’s very symbolic. I think.