Mad Men

Our old readers know that I've been wanting this job long before websites existed, so to be here and celebrate 7 years of living the dream really just fills my heart with every passing year. I'm blessed. They still haven't banned me from attending E3, as I'm sure my secret's out by now. Thank you, gaming industry at large. Too kind.

The number of people that deserve recognition today far exceeds the character limit of this blog, so just to name a few I'd like to send huge hugs to our associate & managing editors: Dale, Hamza, Jim, Jordan, Conrad, Holmes, Foom, Tony and two gangly kittens we've scooped up from our community blogs, Allistair and Chris. We also wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our editors, moderators, engineers, and our editors of the past, some which I had fun necro'ing last week for old time's sake. Thicker than blood, weirder than cult. Thanks to everyone for reading us, and we hope to be here for you for no less than seven years more.

I'm also celebrating a birthday this weekend (the big 35!) so if you'd like to buy me a beer please hold those nickels; what I'd really love is a tasty cinder block for charity instead. I'm lucky to have everything I could ever need, so every year I plan a trip to help an organization hit by natural disaster or poverty. More on this later, as I don't want to bring the party down.

It's dangerous to go alone: As a special gift today, you can download this Destructoid News App for Android. When sync'd over Wi-Fi it can store 1,000 Dtoid articles and photos for offline reading. Its hella beta, but pretty spiffy in light of Google Reader shutting down. We'll bring it to iOS as soon as possible too; I apologize it wasn't ready today. Enjoy!

Since we're doing a favorite Dtoid Memories theme I thought I'd share some of my favorite Destructoid moments of the year with photos. I'm @dtoidniero on Instagram.

_{Our annual GameWorks Dtoid Meetup at PAX is one of my favorite times of the year.}

_{I got to spend a week with Dtoid Portland. Here's Bowtie Cat showing me how to throw down at the food trucks!}

_{Xbox showcase with former editors Haley and Nick. That's Hamza, Dale and I on the right.}

_{The team hard at work in the newsroom at E3}

_{I got to see Usher in concert! My job rules!}

_{I only hang out with booth-less babes}

_{I'm in charge of Awards. It goes by faster over a glass of red stuff.}

_{Dangerous Kids meetup in Portland.}

_{I volunteer sometimes as Luigi.}

_{I love seeing our community members in the helmet. Reminds me of old times.}

_{I hope you're not seeing this screen too often anymore, though its cute! Thanks, Mikey.}

_{To be honest, I'm only interested in this genre}

_{Holmes and Necros in battle}

_Snarf

_{Rehearsing our panel, and by rehearsing I mean starting it that morning over breakfast}

_{The Dtoid Show raised money for clean water wells in Africa, and Dtoid.TV raised enough money to donate two houses in Costa Rica to single homeless mothers. I'll blog about this soon.}

_{Here's our crew in Los Angeles getting some sun after work}

_{The game industry is serious about karaoke}

_{Grabbing dinner after a grueling convention week}

_{Needs no words}

_{I haven't the slightest idea who any of these people are!}

_{Volpin Props redesigned our helmet this year. Harrison is the man!}

_{Some of the weirdest swag we got this year.  The soles were thoughtful.}

_{Whatever adversity comes, my motto is this!}