It is once again August and to us here at CSTM, that means our little blog and podcast, A Casual Stroll to Mordor, is turning three-years old!
It’s hard to come to the realization that we’ve been doing this for three years now. Time has seemed to fly by and it probably helps that we’ve been doing it all while playing our favorite online game.
We started this whole thing thinking it’d be fun to record and share our long discussions of LOTRO we were having anyway, fully expecting no one to listen. The blog was just going to be a little companion to help me share pictures and things I found useful. Both these have expanded past our initial realization and we are pretty darn proud with what we’ve built here.
The official first post on Casual Stroll to Mordor was on August 11, 2009. We recorded our first podcast the last weekend in August and it wasn’t posted until September 2, 2009 (mostly because we didn’t know what we were doing). August is our time to reflect and celebrate what got us this far!
Our List of Thank Yous
We wanted to send out a very special thank you to our writers. I cannot express what a complete joy it is to read their thoughts, ideas and other sparks of brilliance. All of them with unique perspectives but sharing the single love of The Lord of the Rings Online. Thank you so much for your hard work, dedication and support you’ve given Merric and I. We really would be not half the site without you!
Thank you to Middle-earth Network for taking us and our silly little blog under it’s wing and being so gracious to us giving us a home and even some wonderful giveaways to our reader/listeners! They are an amazing, creative and enthusiastic bunch of crazies which is why we are getting along so famously!
CSTM has posted 2,750+ posts and has received over 41,000+ comments throughout the years and we also want to thank our fans! From your brilliant Outside LOTRO finds, emails into the show, to excellent comments and poll suggestions; it is the community that what makes all the effort of running CSTM a labor of love. You guys are all amazing and we would have quit long ago if we didn’t have this awesome community urging us to do more and more.
Baby Hobbit Growth
It’s not just CSTM that continues to grow, our own Baby Hobbit, who was just four months old when we started CSTM is now three-years old! Here’s a couple pictures to show how much she’s grown since last year!
 Baby Hobbit 2011 |
 Baby Hobbit 2012 |
You can follow Baby Hobbit on twitter at @theBabyHobbit and you can listen to her very own podcast The Baby Hobbit Cast. Both are rarely LOTRO related and really more just an excuse to share more Baby Hobbit with her fans.
Merric Shrinking
While Baby Hobbit is getting bigger every day, Merric has been experiencing the opposite and shrinking before everyone’s eyes! He has to date lost over 80lbs!!
He has been sharing his weight loss journey on his solo podcast “Shake it Off Cast”. It’s pretty inspirational and I encourage you to check it out if you are working to improve your health like Merric is.
Giving Back to our Fans!
We absolutely adore our CSTM listeners and readers. We honestly would not have kept up any of this if it weren’t for you encouraging us, sharing with us and interacting with us.
As a result, starting next week we’ll start having some giveaways open to all fans in any country that we’ve picked up as thank yous for being here for us. Keep your eyes peeled to the blog so you don’t miss out on entering!
August 4, 2012 at 10:00 am
(a) Baby Hobbit is adorable.
(b) Well done, Merric! You are an inspiration.
August 4, 2012 at 10:43 am
Happy birthday and grats you two! You should be proud, you’ve really built a great site/podcast and helped strengthen the LotRO community.
…also, your hobbit is super cute!
Here’s to hoping you make to eleventy-one!
August 4, 2012 at 11:44 am
Congratulations CSTM. In one way, three years has flown by and in another it feels like you’ve been around as long as LOTRO – seems strange to think that it ran for two years before you guys started.
And well done on the weight loss Merric – no small achievement (no pun intended). Here’s to smaller bandwidth in future (waistband width, that is).
August 4, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Congratulations to both of you, as well as all the writers on this great site!
As celebration, here’s a beatiful video of baby hobbit hosing down merric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJpm5_eBC8
August 4, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Congratulations guys on a great job! It’s inspiring to see the level of commitment you put into the website and podcast! Great job on the weight loss as well Merric!
August 4, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Congratulations! Here’s to many more years of The Baby Hobbit Show aka CSTM
/toast
August 4, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Happy Birthday guys! Still number one!
…and Merric, dude, you are looking trim man, an awesome achievement, I hope you are very proud. You have my axe, and my respect!
August 4, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Congratulations guys!
Ive heard all of your podcasts and gobbled up most of what you guys write. For me its still as fresh as like when you started out.
If Merric keeps shrinking and Baby Hobbit keeps growing they eventually will meet halfway … hehe
Raising my glass.. here’s to the next 3 years!
August 5, 2012 at 10:36 am
Thank you Merric and Goldenstar for all you do for the lotro community you guys are the best congratulations and I’m hope for many more years to come. Keep up the great work.
August 5, 2012 at 11:21 am
Congrats on your success with the blog and on Merrics quest for health. On a personal note, I would be lost without the guides and tips you have passed along. You all really should be paid for such a professional informational site. bravo!
August 5, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Keep up the good work! You are a bunch of awesome people wIth an awesome podcast and blog, congratz!
August 5, 2012 at 3:52 pm
I love this site, it’s as important to LOTRO as the launcher as far as I’m concerned. Thanks for all you guys do! Congrats!
August 6, 2012 at 10:07 am
Congrats on 3 years … WOOT!!!
CSTM is a daily source of info for my husband & myself.
We often use you as a reference to faires & the current happening of our ONLY form of fun on-line (LOTRO).
Thanks for all you do & know that you are greatly appreciated.
Wyllo & Grunn
August 6, 2012 at 2:02 pm
I have great admirattion for Merric on the weightloss, you’re looking awesome! Keep up the great work
Baby hobbit looks so cute! It’s good to know that she’s growing and doing good
Happy anniversary to you all. Kuddos to all the writers and other contributors to CSTM. I love all the work you’re doing!
August 6, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Congratulations on this wonderful occasion, and thanks to all those who make CSTM such a wonderful read/listen/playground.
May it be the 3rd of many anniversaries to come.
August 6, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Thanks guys!! Your podcast is easily my favorite. I don’t know how you guys do it all. Goldenstar is a machine, right?
Teamwork requires good team leaders, and CSTM has them.
Baby Hobbit you’re adorable.
With less Merric I feel there is less CSTM.
j/k Great work!
August 9, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Your comment does not compute. *beep boop*
August 12, 2012 at 4:26 am
A HUGE congrats to Merric for losing the weight. Keep at it!
Congrats too to CSTM for 3 years of podcasts and keeping us all entertained, especially when we have a long night of deeding ahead of us *ugh*.