http://twitter.com/highlyobsesse

While you’re there, check out a couple of other update-happy Twitter-ers:

• http://twitter.com/snowbroader
• http://twitter.com/HittingKicker

We’ve also added a feed of our Twitter updates on the bottom right side of the website.

See you in the tweets!

As 2009 gets underway, I thought I would take a moment to look back and highlight the most popular posts of 2008, just in case you missed them.

• ACL Recovery: One Year Out, and My Final Post on the Topic: I am amazed at the legs this article has. Some of you may remember I posted quite frequently about my ACL injury, surgery and subsequent recovery; this post provides a bit of a timeline for my recovery, a year after the surgery. I believe there are north of 50 comments on this article now, as new folks keep rolling in to post questions about what to expect during the recovery process, tips on knee braces, and more.
• Pemberton (Music) Festival: Some Tips and Hints to a Good Weekend: Having been to Pemberton many times, I posted a few thoughts on how to best enjoy the crazy music festival help up there this summer.
• Sure Your Board Is Good, But is it ‘Good Wood’ Good?: Josh takes a look at Transworld’s top snowboards for 2009.
• Ride-along with Steve: Reviewing the Fuji SL1: On the cycling side, Steve weighs in with an article on the Fuji SL1, a high-end (and apparently popular, given the traffic to this article) road bike.
• Snowboard Biding Buyer’s Guide: Josh puts together another killer article on buying the right snowboard bindings for you.

So what about 2009? We plan to introduce a couple of new advertisers, some promotions/contests, and are trying to increase the amount of content we produce to make sure there’s an interesting reason to read us daily. We hope you come along for the ride!

Second, a short announcement: posting will be light, if not nonexistent, until the New Year. Josh is shredding out west and I’m heading somewhere warm (Punta Cana!). But rest assured we’ll be back in full effect the first week of January.

Thank you for all your support and see you in 2009.

We’re in pretty good company: Shaun White‘s blog, Transworld and iRide are all there too.

So if you’ve made it over here from Alltop (and judging by our logs a few of you already have)… welcome!

• Snowboarding and cycling guides: We’re always updating this section with in-depth articles on both topics. Some, like the Whistler Guide, are updated constantly.
• Snowboarding and cycling directory: This is a fairly new section. If you have any sites you’d like to see added, please get in touch.
• Separate RSS feeds for cycling and snowboarding: We realize not everyone is interested in both topics. By visiting the snowboarding category or the cycling category, you can get an RSS feed specific to that area.

Thanks for reading!

Some of the biggest changes include:

• “Board” and “Bike” graphics for each new article (you can see these above each new post related to snowboarding or cycling, as well as thumbnail graphics when they move along the right side of the article list);
• A featured article, below each new article, which generally will stay up for a few days;
• “Asides”, neat little tidbits of information that are rotated regularly;
• New ad locations (which are for sale; contact usfor advertising information);
• A snowboarding and cycling guides area, which will be updated regularly;
• New graphics everywhere!

Special thanks to Cody for the design and PressHarbor for the top-of-the-line WordPress hosting. Some of you have pointed out a few wacky issues and errors; if you notice any, or have any other kudos or comments on our design, we’d love to hear from you.

• Man gets arrested for picking up a fake wallet in the subway. What’s next, cash?

• GMail’s Google Talk now supports AOL Instant Messenger.

• USA’s debt will double while Bush is in office. Expected to reach $10 trillion. Perhaps it’s time to stop buying bonds…

• Need a new way to get high? Smoke toad.

• Pittsburgh Steelers guarantee victory over the undefeated New England Patriots.

• Passport Canada gets h4X0r3d…just by modifying the URL.

I know it’s not cycling or snowboarding, but it won’t get in the way of the ‘shredding and perhaps it will elicit comments.

• eating cheese “makes you smell like cheese” – can’t help with that one.
• getting a knee drained – been there, done that.
  
• help for snowboarders who can’t afford lift ticket oregon – hmmm.
  
• i’m obsessed by mountain biking help – quick! consult a physician!
  
• lt. bad ass snowboard helmet – I only know of one bad ass snowboard helmet.
  

Also, be on the lookout for a new site design soon. As some of you attentive readers might have noticed (or read), we recently made the change from one content management tool to another. In doing this, we temporarily adopted a default, vanilla template until we could work out design specifics. That project is now underway, and we hope to have a more visually appealing site in the near future.

As always, thanks for reading.

The new content will be largely on the subject of cycling, and mostly composed by my buddy Steve. I expect he will materialize here shortly to introduce himself. He’s a snowboarder too, so I’m also hoping he’ll contribute to the snowboarding side of the blog every once in a while.

I know there’s not much that connects snowboarding to cycling, aside from the fact they’re both outdoor sports and have both put me on my ass at some point in my life. But cycling will be a good fit for the site for several reasons:

• It keeps content fresh. I can’t post every day, but I expect the addition of Steve will increase our daily content significantly.
• Steve has been following the blog from day one, so he knows a lot about its content and its readers.
• Steve is even more passionate about cycling than I am about snowboarding – which is saying something!

We also have larger hopes of expanding beyond snowboarding and cycling to maybe skiiing, mountain biking and beyond… but we’ll take things one step at a time. I definitely think there’s room for more topics, though: If there’s one thing the past two years have proven to me, it’s that there’s certainly an audience for intelligent, relaxed conversations about active, outdoor sports. I really like the fact Highly Obsessed has been more or less devoid of content/comments like ZOMG shaun white 4 EVAR!!!11, and expect Steve will carry on the ‘intelligent conversation’ tradition over in the cycling area.

Anyway, aside from the look and feel, and aside from the bikes, it’s business as usual around here. I’m still nuts about snowboarding. Now we’ve just got someone Highly Obsessed with cycling, too. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll add a few more obsessed topics down the road.

Also, a few housekeeping notes: You’ll see the addition of some cycling categories soon. Also, we’re going to post all articles to the front page, as well as categorize and tag them. But if you want only snowboarding content, you can navigate here. And if you want to ignore me and just read about cycling, head over here. And finally, I apologize for the fact that the look and feel will likely continue to morph over the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Adam