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 3, 2012 at 8:13 am
Congratulations CSTM!
Accompanying you for quite some years now, it was great to see you grow and become what you are today. I’m sure there are more exciting things to come.
Thanks for putting all this energy in my favourite LOTRO site. Keep up the great work.
~Pjotr
PS: Merric, you look great! Keep going!
August 3, 2012 at 10:06 am
Thank you
August 3, 2012 at 8:13 am
Congratulations on reaching three years!
Thanks for all the time and effort you both put into the site and podcast and I hope you can keep it up all the way to Mordor
August 3, 2012 at 8:44 am
Wow, looking good, Merric!
August 3, 2012 at 8:53 am
Thanks Goldenstar and Merric for the great site and podcast. Been playing off and on in LOTRO for a couple years now and it always seems to be CSTM that gets be back into the game.
Keep up the great work!!!!
August 3, 2012 at 9:28 am
I’m so happy for your Anniversary! I don’t rememeber when I found out about your blog but since then, I always find useful info and I love going through archives, too!
Congrats on growing Little Hobbit. She seems to soon get a new nickname – Miss Hobbit, as she’s looking prettier with every photo
Big high-five to Merric as well. I’m sure his shrinking gives hope to a lot of other people, not only LOTRO fans
August 3, 2012 at 9:29 am
Congratz!
You guys are great.
August 3, 2012 at 9:30 am
Congrats on the 3 years – time flies when you are having fun! I have mostly lurked for the past two years just plucking up courage to ask questions and post my two penneth!
Looking good Merric – keep up the good work
August 3, 2012 at 9:45 am
Congratulations!! Please don’t stop – you guys are my “go-to” when I have questions – thank you for all your hard work over the years. Baby Hobbit is adorable and Merric is looking great! Will have to start listening to his podcast so I can be inspired
August 3, 2012 at 10:05 am
Congratulations all! I’ve been listening from the beginning, and I can’t express how much I have enjoyed the journey. Merric, keep up the good fight, you look fantastic!
August 3, 2012 at 10:06 am
Congratulations! Thanks for the good work, and Bravo Merrick, that’s a great achievement!
Melkraen on Dwarrowdelf
August 3, 2012 at 10:29 am
Congrats on your leather anniversary! It’s hard to believe that much time has passed…and we appreciate all you do; you all often give better info than Turbine does!
And gratz to Metric on the weight loss….I’ve been struggling to lose the pounds over the last few months. I’m at 30lbs, and have a long way to go.
August 3, 2012 at 10:30 am
Congrats guys, you are currently my favourite podcast and I always look forward to a new edition.
August 3, 2012 at 10:37 am
Congrats, CSTM, Baby Hobbit, and Merric!
August 3, 2012 at 10:41 am
Thank you all very kindly for your compliments and encouragement. Especially to my wife, Goldenstar, who is the foundation of CSTM.
Of our total posts almost 50% are by Goldenstar. She is our editor, our project manager, and our news hound. She is always pushing all of us to do better and encouraging us every stop of the way. Without her there is no CSTM.
August 3, 2012 at 11:01 am
Congratulations on three years Merric and Goldenstar! I’ve been listening since I started playing LoTRO in May of 2011. You are my go-to site for all things LoTRO & I look forward to your podcast every week. Hope you’re around for many more!
Keep it up Merric! Hang tough! You are the man!
August 3, 2012 at 11:15 am
Enhorabona, Feliç Aniversari!!!!
Congratulations, Happy BirthDay!!!
Enhorabuena, Feliz Aniversario!!!
August 3, 2012 at 11:51 am
I am so very glad you guys started to do a podcast and blog. Your posts and guides have helped me tremendously and I can’t imagine playing LotRO without CSTM! Congratulations on 3 years! Thanks to everyone here for making my game that much more enjoyable!
August 3, 2012 at 11:55 am
woohooo!!! May your stroll to Mordor be pleasant and eventful!
August 3, 2012 at 11:59 am
Also may your stroll back be just as awesome =D Congrats!
August 3, 2012 at 11:56 am
Congratulations CSTM! And way to go, Merric!
August 3, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Congratulations you guys! I’ve been listening for about 2 of the 3 years and the show gets better all the time, you always make me laugh. Merric, you look great! Keep up the good work, it will pay dividends in the years to come. I’ve lost over 100 lbs myself over the past 5 yrs. And, last but not least, Baby Hobbit is getting cuter by the day. The episode where she filled in for Merric still brings a smile to my face when you did the itsy bitsy spider song at the end. Ketani and Elb wedding proposal was way awesome too.
August 3, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Woow! That’s a lot of time!
Thanks for your hard work guys! There is a lot of useful stuff in your blog, like the guides and your recommendations for the sales. Truly, this blog is one of my favorite sources to look for Lotro info, and I’m sure a lot of people think like this.
And special thanks to Goldenstar, the few times we spoke, you were really helpful!
Thanks guys! And Congratulations!
August 3, 2012 at 12:39 pm
Happy 3rd birthday both, blog is a great source of info, your guides and writers are some of the best sources of LOTRO information anywhere, but what takes CSTM to the next level is the two of you, your personalities and rapport with the community. Keep it up
August 3, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Congratulations on reaching your third birthday!
August 3, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Congratz Merric, Goldenstar and all the others that make CSTM to the wonderfull institute that is has become! It has all been said in previous comments but you guys REALLY have become the go-to-place for every LOTRO fan on this planet!
Keep up the good work!
Caelas
The Shadows Kinship
Laurelin
August 3, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Awesome congrats on your anniversary!!!!!!
August 3, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Awesome. Congrats on the weight loss too, that’s great to hear. I’ll have to check out that podcast.
August 3, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Congratulations and Thank You for all you do for us!
August 3, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Happy 3rd Anniversary!!!
You have a great site that I visit daily and I impatiently await each new podcast episode. Great job, and MANY, many thanks!
August 3, 2012 at 2:35 pm
For me, LOTRO would not be the same without CSTM.
Your coverage of the various festivals and outreach in so many areas has always been top of the line.
The way you bring people together is incredible. I can truly say that my own little blog had never gotten so many hits as the day you listed it as Recommended Reading.
Thank you so much for all you do. I wish only the best for you and your continued enjoyment! Forever a fan of CSTM, ~Supergirl
August 3, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Congrats, you two. Thank you for the three years of great LOTRO coverage you’ve given us, and thank you for allowing me to be a small part of this.
August 3, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Congratulations to the premiere LotRO website and podcast… IN THE WORLD!!!
We here at Middle-earth Network are so proud to call you our friends and partners. Well done, truly.
August 3, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Wow! Congratulations on three years! CSTM has been my first stop for LOTRO news for quite some time. Thank you for your diligence and hard work. And congrats on the weight loss–that’s awesome!
Ely
August 3, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Congratulations on your Third Anniversary, and thank you for all the past and continuing hard effort you put into this website and podcast. You’ve truly become a touchstone for the entire world community within LOTRO.
August 3, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Congratulations on reaching the three year mark!
I suspect the time it takes for you all to create such a wonderful pod cast/web site and still hold down jobs and be a family too is tremendous! Organization must a mantra around your house.
The research you all do, along with the other contributors, saves me a lot of time trying to figure out game aspects when I would rather spend playing the game.
Your podcasts also give me a sense of relief realizing that I am not the only one who does not understand everything about the game!
Please keep up the great work and please add/redo your round tables for each of the classes (especially the guardian which I tend to prefer to play).
August 3, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Congrats CSTM and Merric that is awesome. I need to lose some LB’s myself.
August 3, 2012 at 4:08 pm
congrats!
August 3, 2012 at 5:30 pm
congratulations! this is THE best lotro-related site, it covers everything from server maintainence to skirmish and festival guides. without CSTM, I wouldn’t play lotro anywhere near as much and I wouldn’t have stumbled on the Landroval community
without CSTM, I wouldn’t know about Weatherstock, Summer Fun, Lotteries, Dev Diaries or pie-cake
THANK YOU MERRIC AND GOLDENSTAR
August 3, 2012 at 5:31 pm
yeah, what he said.
August 3, 2012 at 5:51 pm
I’ve known about CSTM for 3 years just started actually keeping up with it recently. Grats on 3 years, keep going! And grats Merric you’re looking great!
August 3, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Hearty congratulations! This site has really allowed me to feel like I’m part of the larger LOTRO community. I truly appreciate the efforts you and everyone at CSTM put toward making this site interesting and useful.
August 3, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Well done, you two. Thanks for the great service you provide to the players and the opportunity for more to participate in the community.
Here’s to greater and greater successes!
/Narnian drinks to Goldenstar and Merric’s health.
August 3, 2012 at 9:01 pm
CONGRATULATIONS!
i’ve been here since the beginning. I was listening to a couple of LotRO podcasts at the time, and they were a little… we’ll say… “inconsistent” and sometimes just plain obnoxious. So i was always on the lookout to try more and running weekly searches to find a better LotRO podcast, when i found yours, i was hooked from the first episode.
…and you’ve never disappointed me. This podcast has been a consistently invaluable source of information and just good nerdy discussion about something i enjoy. And the husband & wife dynamic appeals to me as well, since playing LotRO is something that my wife and i enjoy doing together as well and it’s fantastic to hear two people share the experiance and their enjoyment as much as we do.
so cheers! and thank YOU for three years of awesome!
August 3, 2012 at 9:52 pm
Hugs and congratulations to you for the best LOTRO resource out there. I never miss visiting at least a few times a day! The podcasts are wonderful and the wealth of information in the posts is invaluable. The real strength, however, lies in the atmosphere of fun, friendship, and community that you provide for us. Most of us are separated by physical distance, but we can all come together in the game AND here to share our thoughts, ideas, news, hopes, and achievements.
/toast
Here’s to many more years of CSTM!
/cheer
/dance_hobbit
August 3, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Congrats on 3 years! I can’t even begin to tell you how much I value your website and podcast! I just want to give you a hearty thank you for it! You guys are awesome!
August 3, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Congrats to CSTM on 3 years (and going STRONG!) of awesomeness! Baby Hobbit and Merric are looking awesome, and let’s face it, who can’t /resist Goldenstar’s golden-blond hairdo?
Without the awesome pair of Goldenstar and Merric (or is it Merric and Goldenstar?), I fear we would all despair in +10 Dread and fall to the power of Sauron’s gaze. We thank you for all your work and effort into maintaining this excellent cache of LOTRO knowledge.
Cas-u-al Stroll Foreverrrrr!
August 3, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Congrats! Thanks for all you do for the LOTRO community!
August 4, 2012 at 2:39 am
Congratulations! All the info is great, but the best part is that you’re all so real and down to earth. I look for the podcast every week, even when, like now, I have long breaks from playing.
Keep having fun and sharing it with us!
Thank you all!
August 4, 2012 at 5:53 am
Thank you Goldenstar and Merric for three years of this wonderful blog. Lotro wouldn’t be the same without you. Congratulations to both of you!
August 4, 2012 at 6:22 am
Congrats! Hope you keep running the blog for years to come. And Baby Hobbit is so cute. :3
August 4, 2012 at 8:22 am
Pictures of Merric and Baby Hobbit, but no Goldenstar? I totally understand if you don’t want them out there, but what about one from a past PAX LOTRO event or something?
No wait! I will just keep the image of you as Rosie Cotton from the LOTR movies when you are speaking!
Seriously though, I am so happy that you guys have made it so far! I came to the game in March of 2010 and one of the first things I did was search and search for a site with information – and found CSTM! I visit the site multiple times each day!
August 4, 2012 at 9:02 am
I hadn’t really accomplished anything this year worthy of talking about. Its for the best you picture Rosie
August 4, 2012 at 12:46 pm
You’ve accomplished the best LotRO fansite in the world, with extensive news coverage and constant updates, with a top quality podcast. Is that not worth talking about? <3
August 4, 2012 at 8:29 am
I don’t participate here much but I’m a big fan of the written articles. Thank you for being the best LOTRO blog out there