Happy Birthday LTP!

I got a little confused this week and I now realize that I missed LTP's third birthday.  I was confused because March 11, 2006 is the day that Natalie and I started dating.  March 7, 2009 is the day I started lovestopicnic.com.  So this blog has been around for over three years now.  That is pretty incredible to me. I am very proud of this blog and since today I am celebrating three years I thought it would be appropriate to answer some frequently asked questions.  Thanks for reading this blog.  It really means alot to me.

How did you start this mug?

This whole thing started because of my love of the movie "The Dark Knight" and my annoyance with facebook status updates.  During the summer of 2008 I was obsessed with the opening of the new Batman movie.  At this time Myspace was the most popular social network.  There was an option on Myspace to write a blog if you wanted to.  I was so excited about the movie that I decided to write something about it.  After I had written about my excitement I quickly told Trina Cress to read it and tell me if she liked it.  She told me that she thought it was funny.  That's all the encouragement I needed.  From then on I felt like I should be writing funny articles and stuff.  

Later on in 2009 Facebook had really taken over and everyone was posting terrible status updates.  They were either humblebrags or pointless.  I was so against being a person to post bootsy status updates that I wanted a different forum.  Just like anyone I wanted to feel like people cared about what was going on with me.  But at the same time I didn't want people to be forced to read about what was going with me on facebook. So I thought why not come up with a blog that way people aren't forced to read my junk on facebook but they can choose to go to my blog and read it.  This made sense to me until I begged everyone to go read it.  Anyway on March 7, 2009 I came up with this.

What in the world does Lovestopicnic mean?  Do you really love to picnic?

When I was sitting in my basement coming up with my blog that Friday night I really had no idea what it was going to be or what I wanted it to be.  I did know that I wanted it to be my personality.  So when it came to the title of the blog I had two options.  One was my slogan "Big Rich aint diggin no ditch".  That was said to me by Luke Mackey one day when I walked into his dorm room to say wassup.  The other was "Big Rich loves to picnic".  That was given to me by my boy Mike Polite when I was a Junior in high school.  It was originally a rap song about Big Nick Wessleman.  But Mike saw that the words fit me better.  So one day he started calling me Big Rich and he gave me the line about the picnics.  Both of those things stayed with me through college.  Mike Polite's nickname stuck so well that now my Dad calls me Big Rich even when he is mad at me.  So to answer this question I really don't care too much about picnics.  I actually haven't been on too many in my lifetime.  I do love the annual lovestopicnic picnic.  

Have you ever not posted something in a day?

I am proud of the fact that I have never missed a day in the last three years.  One time when I was in Philly and I had no internet in my Hotel room so I got on my phone and posted that I didn't have internet.  So you could say that I didn't post anything on that day.  But I posted that I couldn't post.  Is that not a post.  In 2010 I posted ten things a day for a long time.  It got kind of watered down so after that I decided to focus on quality and not quantity.  Also my wife was going to leave me.  Even now if I am a little late to post I'll get several text messages asking me if I am still alive.

How has your blog changed in three years?
I would say the biggest change is me putting my own stuff in.  If you read my blog for the first year you'd know that I didn't have alot of my own stuff on here.  Then this happened.  After I got my junk stolen I bought the Canon Rebel.  The rest of the year I took pictures.  I haven't stopped taking pictures since then and it is still something that I love to do.
My blog has changed because I have changed.  When I first started doing this I had been married for one year.  So much time has passed and I have learned so much.  As I grow and change different things interest me.

Why do you do this?
My sister and I have several things in common.  One of those things is that we are constantly trying to show people new things.  Have you heard this song?  Have you seen this movie?  We love pop culture and we are constantly putting people on to things.  This blog is a way for me to just show things.  Most of these things are stupit but they are things none the less.  I love doing this blog because it changes the way I think of things.  I am always looking for an opportunity to take pictures or go somewhere that I've never been.  I sincerely thank you if you read this blog.  I love doing it.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep informing everyone of the hot gossip in Lincoln Nebraska.