Twenty-Eight

Personal

This is the tenth year I’ve blogged my birthday: 19, 20, 21, 22 (this one is funny), 23, 24, 25, and 26, 27. Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever done anything for ten years in a row before.

The public awareness of blogging comes and goes every two years, but for me it’s been a rock of intrinsic goodness that I keep coming back to. I think that’s why I love working on the platforms around it so much.

I was on the road a lot this year, covering about 190k miles over 245 days. (An average velocity of 21.6 mph.) I spent longer stretches in the same place, and often to places I had been before, which was nice for starting to appreciate the character of a given place. (52 cities and 12 countries.)

It was also one of my most productive years yet. The big resolutions from last year — launching Jetpack, Jazz Quotes, three major WordPress versions — all were completed, and as the team at Automattic grew and matured I was able to focus my time a lot more, even finding time to start coding again and switch (back) to Mac after 8 years on Windows.

In my twenty-eighth year I want to focus more on friends, family, and loved ones, something I’m running late for by doing this blog post, so will wrap this up now and see you all more later in 2012. 🙂

Reminder: In lieu of gifts, I’m trying to raise $28,000 to help bring clean water to Africa. It’s ambitious but I think we can do it. Please chip in!

40 thoughts on “Twenty-Eight”

  1. Happy Birthday, Matt!!! Wishing you all the best!!! (Can’t find any appropriate words to say, shame on me…:) )

    P.S. Wow, for the 1st time ever I am the first to comment?

  4. Happy birthday, Matt. And thanks for taking the opportunity to turn the occasion into a great charitable benefit — it’s an inspiration.

  5. Happy Birthday Matt!

    Happy to have contributed to the clean water fund. First of [hopefully] many donations for 2012 🙂

    The 26mph is a pretty awesome stat! Are you going to try to beat that for 2012 or slow down a little bit?

    Cheers & all the best!

  8. Are you going to take a stand like reddit and perhaps blackout WordPress on the same day? It would be awesome to see another major player take action against SOPA

  12. Thank You Matt for giving us WORDPRESS
    Just one line East or West WordPress is the best.
    Wish you a Very Very Happy Birth Day (I must bookmark theday to post Happy Birthday every year)
    Well what surprise will we get on WordPress’s BirthDay this January?

  14. Matt, just want to wish you a happy birthday man! These past 10 years have been awesome I’m sure, and I hope the next 10 are your best yet!

    Great job on WordPress, good luck with your travels, and I hope you meet your goal for Charity Water.

  16. Happy Birthday and congratulations for the 28->28k initiative!
    Ciao. Luca
    ps: please don’t make us wait another 6 years for Matt and WP 3.4 though.

  17. Congrats Matt, You have changed the web to better, helped a lot of people make money and helped people get inspired and do cool things like WordPress 🙂

    In the history of the internet you will never be forgotten Because we will use your application forever ^_^

  23. Happy Birthday Matt!
    Can’t believe it’s already 3 years ago when we met in Berlin in 2008! Back then you inspired me to help artists with their WordPress sites and that’s exactly what I do now 🙂 So all the best to you in this new year. Keep up the good work, you’re really making a difference for a lot of people out there!

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  26. Happy Birthday Matt! Thank you for WordPress. Seriously, thank you. Because of it, I am able to work from home part time and make enough to raise 3 beautiful daughters. It’s a good life, and I owe a small percentage of that to you my friend. Thank you. I’m not sure it would be possible without WordPress (and the team behind it).

    Wishing you the best in 2012 @ 28!

  30. Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever done anything for ten years in a row before.

    Well, there’s this wee little thing called WordPress…

    Oh, wait. That’s not until May of next year. That is if you’re still planning on being involved with WordPress then? 😉

    Happy Birthday, Matt!

  33. Happy belated birthday, Matt – congrats on your achievements.

    I noticed you’re looking to raise funds for clean drinking water. I’ve been closely associated with the guys over at Buy1Give1 which is essentially a zero cost charity conduit. A number of their worthy causes are around clean drinking water for a number of countries including Africa – to which I’ve contributed. You might like to check them out in case they’re able to assist you.

    And a huge thank you too for WordPress as well – I migrated my Drupal site over to WP over the Xmas break and what a breath of fresh air that has turned out to be.

  34. Pingback: Celebrate Matt Mullenweg’s Birthday by Donating Water « Weblog Tools Collection
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  37. I have to ask if the travelling includes flying? I can’t imagine that you travelled at 22 mph every second of every day if by road. If so, that’s quite an exhausting feat!

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