"The Monkey Buddha"-10 Years!

I created this blog, The Monkey Buddha, 10 years ago today, on June 28, 2005!

The very first post I wrote was about a creation that I feel is one of my most notable achievements so far. It is an award-winning strategy game that I designed, based on the timeless principles of 'sacred geometry', called "Da Vinci's Challenge".

First Things First

In my second post, "Intro to The Monkey Buddha", I stated the reason for starting the page:

"Hopefully, this will be a place where I can finally share the ridiculous amount of info I have stored in my brain and its silicon symbiote I call my Apple Computer. I am looking forward to posting all kinds of important news, nuggets of crazy wisdom, interesting technologies, political rants, and useless fun crap.

Please bookmark this site and check back every once in awhile... I will try to be vigilant & continue posting new items. Basically, this blog will reflect the world and its infinite complexity - from my own infinitely limited perspective.
Enjoy!"

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of this creative endeavor, I wanted to share some interesting things about it.

Since I started posting to The Monkey Buddha, I've been able to fit every one of the 1,591 posts to date into one of these categories- click the links to explore!

• Art
• Culture
• History
• Humor
• Nature
• Philosophy
• Politics
• Religion
• Science
• Tech

Here are the Top 5 most viewed posts, since I created the page. My review of the iPhone was by far the most popular article.

1) iPhone 4S: Full Review

2) The World Was Always Awful

3) Monkey Business T-shirt 

4) Logos with Hidden Messages

5) Interview with Alex Grey


Although I love to write about all different topics, I am a professional graphic artist. The Monkey Buddha has also been a place to show my art, such as 3D renderings and graphic design work.

Art by Paul Micarelli

After years of uploading images, I've also built up a huge database of visual imagery in my Picasa Web Album.

Picasa:

The Monkey Buddha

Visual Archive

For me, blogging has always been a purely creative pastime, an opportunity to express my thoughts and interests publicly for anyone who happens to see it. I truly appreciate anyone who follows this page or The Monkey Buddha Facebook page.

I have never tried to directly make money from this page. There have never been ads or even a donation button on the page.

On occasion, I have shared some products featuring my designs that are available in my Cafepress shop.

Cafepress:

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar

Like so many others, I am a endlessly creative person, and this blog is a tremendous outlet for my ideas. It is a credit to Google that they offer this free blogging platform to people.

Sometimes I wonder, though... What would happen to all my work if Google or the Blogger service stopped existing? Would all my thoughts & work be lost? It's almost like the idea of a Tibetan sand mandala, where the intricate creation of the Buddhist monks is swept away after completion, leaving no trace. It is a meditation on impermanence, the fact that neither we humans nor our accomplishments will last forever.

However, there is the possibility that, because I've had the opportunity to add my presence to the Internet's electronic hive mind, my writings and artwork will outlive me for a time.

Hopefully, humanity will expand into the Universe beyond Earth, and my thoughts & artistic work will continue to exist in the repository of our species' shared knowledge as we travel to the stars.

I'd like to think that the content of this blog will last for many more years, and perhaps even decades- so that The Monkey Buddha can continue to inform, entertain, and perhaps enlighten others into the future.