Today is my birthday

But I don't want to talk about that (though, thank you to everyone who took some time out of their day to wish me a happy birthday.  That was incredibly touching!)

I want to, again, talk about the Mario Marathon.  The event starts tomorrow at 11AM EST and already they have raised almost over $12,000 (update: as I was writing this post, they surpassed $12,000!).  In fact, they've raised more than the grand total of the first ever Mario Marathon, and it hasn't even started yet!  I don't know that I've ever gone into why I support the Mario Marathon so much.  In my first post about the marathon, I touched on the viewer interactivity a bit, but today I want to expand on that a little more.

Over the years, my partner and I have become regular viewers of the marathon.  Whenever they broadcast anything (such as testing the picture in picture, writing code for the Wheel of Awesome, practicing SMB3, or sewing Toad hats), we try to pop in to the social stream and watch what's going on and interact with the other viewers as well as with whomever is broadcasting at that time.  Since there are a number of people who do the same, it's turned into quite an online community.  There are a good number of people in the Mario Marathon who I consider a friend and there are often talks of meet-ups at some convention or another.  As far as I know, a handful of these people have, in fact, met IRL.

In this community we support one another.  There's a section on the Mario Marathon website that highlights partner sites (thanks to everyone for your generous donations and keeping me in the #1 spot!  Let's see if we can keep it that way, hey?) and while there's some friendly competition going on between us, we still are super proud of each others accomplishments.  One of the other top partner sites is GrubberGamer.com, and boy are they catching up to me fast!

GrubberGamer.com is a site that scours the internet for deals (either through online retailers, marketplaces and specialty stores) looking for the best video game deals and discounts.  They have done a great job of finding a way for every day people who really love gaming but can't afford big box store prices to get the games they want without harming their wallet.  If you're a gamer (or a gamer groupie, like I am), I encourage you to check out their website.  It's run by amazing people (check them out on twitter, @GrubberGamer) who won't lead you astray in your affordable video game needs.

But donate through my blog to the Mario Marathon, mmkay? Consider it a birthday present.