SECRET FUN BLOG TURNS 2

Remember the year 2006? Gas was merely three dollars a gallon, James Blunt told us we were beautiful, YouTube existed independent of Google, and there was only one Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. The world was naive and innocent, the perfect time for a bright-eyed, retro-headed webmaster to proudly proclaim "I'm going to add a blog to my web site!"
Friend...that webmaster was me.

I'm not sure why I picked the most beautiful month of the year to delve into this neverending project, but two years ago today I published my first two posts. So in honor of this mediocre milestone I decided to sort through my 222 posts and apply a new "Best of Secret Fun Blog" label to the most popular entries as well as my personal favorites. Please allow me to outline some of my picks...

Ren & Stimpy Production Music
Easily my most popular post of all time, and rightfully so. I found a ton of authentic mid-century production music that was used on Ren and Stimpy mysteriously gathered and tucked away on the web. So I designed a cover for it and redistributed the whole collection. Incidentally, if you're one of the folks who went gaga for this, then you might want to visit again in a few weeks.





My Life in Frosting
In which I assembled photos of every birthday cake my mother made for me from ages 1 through 14. This post also tops the charts traffic-wise, it's received more international attention than any of my other pieces, and it's even fueled political unrest.



The Phantasmagoria
I learned the true power and joys of blogging when a simple post caused one of my lifelong dreams to come true. When I learned that my favorite dark ride was being torn down I lamented its demise with a hearty retrospective in which I spoke of a failed attempt to personally paint its exterior. Gracious park employee Buddy Stefanoff offered to give me an exclusive walking tour of the ride's interior. This incredible day begat one of my most wonderful entries, Secrets of the Phantasmagoria, which was eventually followed up with Phantasmagoria: Revelations. Thanks again Robbie, Buddy and Kyle.

Teen Time
Now here's a post that truly deserves a second chance. It's one of my personal favorites and I laugh uncontrollably every time I reread it. Teen Time is a garage sale find that proved to be one of the most ludicrous board games ever conceived. It was mentioned on a couple of keen-eyed blogs, but I feel that it merits another wave of mockery.



I've noticed that road trips can make for good blogging. Here are a few fun ones...

• My journey to Neptune, New Jersey for the S.S. Adams 100th anniversary banquet

• My trip to Atlanta and Gatlinburg, Tennessee last year
  

• The time I traveled to the place in Wisconsin where they make giant fiberglass sculptures

• My visit to the Charles Spencer Anderson design firm in Minneapolis
  

Then there's my Skeleton countdown and my 2007 Halloween Countdown which were both very well received.

When it comes to personal nostalgia, I'm particularly fond of these...

• My encounter with a novelty vending machine
  
  
• A write-up of the advertising mascots around my town
  

• My exclusive look at the junk you got when you joined the Freddy Krueger fan club
  
  
• Looking back at the joys of the Woolworth's at my local mall
  

And about a dozen more faves can be found using the new Best of... label.

I am thankful to all of you who have read, commented, contributed, encouraged, shared, linked to, or spammed the Secret Fun sites. I've greatly enjoyed both entertaining and getting to know you, and I look forward to many more years of secret fun (seasoned with lengthy periods of complete inactivity).