If my calendar is correct, one of the OG bloggers Anil Dash is turning 50 today! His blog, which I believe has been active since 1999, inspired me with how he effortlessly transitioned between his top-tier fandom of Prince and his thoughtful commentary on the nuances and second-order effects of what we were doing with blogging, micro-blogging, web standards, interoperability, and much more. His writing is incisive and insightful. I see a core flame of empowering independents throughout his career that very much aligns with the philosophies I aspire to. Please follow him if you don’t already, and happy birthday Anil! It appears that I have linked to him 15 times on my blog before this post, and he has commented 17+ times, the first in 2005, so we have some history! Since I started drafting this he published his Five for Fifty birthday post.