Happy Birthday, Straight Bangin'

Even the raping self-proclaimed "stoppers" of rapists read Straight Bangin'

This internet has been an internet on the internets for one year as of today. Were this Straight Bangin's one-hundred-and-eleventieth birthday, I'd have to slip on my ring and make a not-so-clean getaway. But it's not, so I guess I'll stick with this "blogging" thing until then. Oh, and for the record, this is how it all started.

I want to thank every reader who has stopped by this interweb and spent some time reading my usually scattershot thoughts about whatever it was that I was obsessing about. (Wow that was an ugly sentence.) There were more than 120,000 of you. Yes, that's a fifth of Kos's daily numbers, but it's more people than I will ever meet.

My favorite thing about internetting is that interwebs allow us all to make connections, a paradox given the anonymous nature of the internets. Don't believe me? See here. This site has been a platform from which I have made friends, both real and cyber, and found catharsis. It has also encouraged dialogue and provided me with an outlet for so many thoughts, ideas, and opinions that I cannot always share in the real world with such satisfying results.

Again, thank you for stopping by, and if you haven't done so, please participate. Leave me a comment. Tell me I'm an idiot. Tell me about your site. Tell me that Houston hip-hop is awesome; that the Celtics of the 80s were better than the Russell Celtics; that Leave No Child Behind has worked; that sandals with tube socks looks good. Big up an opinion because you thought you were the only one who had it. Big up Tribe; big up TMac; big up Al Gore; big up silk knots. Whatever you want. Just participate. That's what makes this shit fun.

And also, thanks to all the bloggers who keep me hungry, who keep me humble, who keep me laughing, who keep me listening, and who keep me thinking. Ian and Ian and James and Taj and Orson and Stranko and Brian and Johnny and Stacey and Jon (massive drive failure at diary-x = no links) and Brandon and Wes and Rafi and HR and Paul and Bol and Reef and everyone else. Dear readers, if you haven't done so, check out these links, and check out all the permanent links to your left. My blogroll is overdue for an overhaul by about ten months, and I will be correcting that this weekend, but please, keep reading. Go through the archives of this site and peep all of the game I've recommended. It's worth your time. There are so many talented people out there.

Ok, that's enough. As some mixtape DJ once said at the end of some moderately good, moderately upbeat song, "Fuck all that happy shit; let's get back to the street-hop."

Enjoy the Wu-Tang Clan...