For those of you who don’t already know, today is a very important day. While we Open Source geeks spend every day of the year trying to bring the freedom of Open Source Software to our proprietary-laden brethren still chained in the cave, there is one day of the year, the third Saturday in September, when we take to the streets — at least the virtual ones — and celebrate all that is good and right about being free from the forces of EULAs and DRM.

That day is today. That day is Software Freedom Day.

This particular Software Freedom Day is extra-special to me, because it is the anniversary of something. It was on this day last year that I — having had a bit of an internal tiff with the blog I was writing for at the time, over sucking up to a certain Evil Empire — posted a protest piece of sorts, in celebration of the fourth-annual Software Freedom Day.

And so a chain of events was set in motion. A certain someone read that very post. That someone was in need of something. An email appeared in my inbox from said someone, an email that was the beginning of something spectacular. And that email said:

[We are] currently looking for someone to post regular, short, news stories to [our website]. [...] [J]ust wanted to send a note to see if this was something you’d at all have any interest in talking to me further about.

That email was signed “Sincerely, Carlie Fairchild.”

“Publisher, Linux Journal.”

That was where it all began, the wild ride that is Linux Journal and the Linux Journal crew. Of course, things only exploded forth from there, eventually incorporating much ranting about the forces of evil, a psychotic April Fool’s Day that spawned the IRC channel that is now an institution in itself — with it’s own crew of deranged and demented derelicts — and led to being involved in such things as Sophie from Shinola, a Crème brûlée cookoff, the Shawn’s So Sexy craze, Manic Monday, Hurricane Watch 2008, and of course, the mind-blowingly awesome videographic experience that is The WFTL Show.

It’s been a great year, and I’m looking forward to the next one — there is going to be a next one, isn’t there Carlie? — and all the incessant wackiness that is sure to ensue. So, if you’re out there celebrating, be sure to drink a toast to Linux Journal and all of its lunatic crew just for me.