Happy Birthday umf! (A letter to...yall, actually...)

Dear umf'ers,

It's Wednesday, and usually this is where I put the "Formsprung" reader question and answer session for the week, (don't worry, it's right under this...) but I accidentally discovered this morning that this is no average Wednesday. You see, apparently August 11th one year ago, I opened the app I use to post all this nonsense for the 1st time. That's right, today is umf's birthday! (If folk can have birthdays for their dogs and all that, I can have a birthday for this thingamajawn...it's kinda like a pet to me...)

When I started out at this after some suggestion from a couple friends, (Ci, Geraldine, Rags, Soash, that's y'all...) it was mostly made up of beefed up AIM/GTalk away messages that folk found funny and pictures of people around the city of Philly who put themselves in my line of rapid fire ridicule. (Ah, "Camera Phone Ninja"...still one of my favorite sections to do...) It was less the e-soapbox it is today and more a collection of short Facebook notes.

However, as time passed and I started smoking more weed, I began to see the funny side of more everyday shit ("Minor Life Failures", "What I learned this year" etc.) and recalling bullshit my parents fed me through a sippy cup when I was younger ("Lies they tell the Chirrens") and it kind of just went from there. Of course, there were bits ripped from news headlines like the one yesterday and the one about the Phillies fan who got his dumb ass tased for running on the field during a game, but if you even give a damn, my absolute favorite ones to write are random happenings from my actual life (tagged "adventures and misadventures"...remember "Red, Red Wine", AV?) which seems to be fated to provide me with umf material. (Shiiiiit, I ain't complaining...if you think it's funny reading it, try living it!) During these writings, I often made up words because I don't choose to limit myself to the words The Man gives me to use, so I had to define those...that was pretty damn cool. (Or "poppinfreshazimizadelic", if you read that post...)

umf was only read by a few of my personal friends in the beginning, mostly the ones who gave me the idea but over the last 365 days, somehow I got a few readers from all over the country, (even the world...hi Germany!) all of which I hope to meet and hug/bro-hug at some point in my life. (I'm adding that to the bucket list...maybe I need another one!) Since I do pretty much no advertising for this, not even an email sig, I assume that's due to word of mouth from y'all...so thanks, I love umf'ers. (Especially the ones like Shannon whose ideas I steal...well, borrow with consent and twist around against their will until they're completely unrecognizable and could have only come from me.)

I gotta say, the last year has been one of the most funtarded years of my life. umf and by extension the people who read it have become a part of my life, and I can honestly say it's improved as a result...every boring train ride, every mundane day at work is now a post just waiting to happen. I can actually see by going back and reading the early shit just how much it and the guy who wrote it have changed. So really, this is a day for all of us here. A year ago, I updated umf for the first time...now, today, for the first time I see it has updated me. So yeah...thanks for that.

Love,

AJ