Thank you and thanks to AboutBoulder for naming me Blogger Of The Year. 

I’m deeply honored to share that I have been named Blogger of the Year by AboutBoulder.com. This heart warming recognition coincides with AboutBoulder officially breaking the barrier and exceeding two million page views a month. It took me about six months to learn how to write like a blogger and to stop writing like a lawyer. One of the most liberating parts of that transition was learning how to use an exclamation point. As a lawyer, in fifty years of doing my own typing, I truly believe I did not use a single exclamation point. In my very first blog, I think I used at least five. Now, for better or worse, I drop them like candy on Halloween.     I still remember having to check the rules of the road for lawyers to see whether I could use italics or underlining for emphasis. The rules, as I recall, didn’t prohibit it, but they did say “use 12-point font.” I have always been someone willing to stretch rules just a bit, and I felt brave assuming italics and underlining were acceptable. It’s funny now that something as small as punctuation or font emphasis could give pause, but as a young lawyer, it felt like a big deal. I also, without being chastised for it, always used 14 point type.         Writing like a blogger, on the other hand, is way more fun than “lawyer writing.” Some of my contributions to legal writing were small. Others were, at least in my mind, more significant. One example: I insisted on writing in 14-point type instead of the 12-point type universally used at the time. I found it easier to read and reasoned that judges, who were generally older than I was, might feel the same way. My own eyesight wasn’t great to begin with.       I once served on a panel on Advanced Motions Practice and suggested filing motions in 14-point type. A judge on the panel rather rudely dismissed the idea as silly trivia, not worth anyone’s time. Years later, the Colorado Supreme Court changed the rule to require 14-point type. To this day, I get a private chuckle when I remember that exchange. I like to imagine that judge grimacing when the rule changed. The room that day was filled with fifty or so lawyers, and I like to think they all get a small smile every time they work in 14-point type. That moment still resonates in every pleading filed since.         When I was about six years old, early in the last century, my father didn’t read me bedtime stories. He was a math genius, and instead we talked. When I was about six years old he taught me how to solve simultaneous equations in two variables in the dark, without a blackboard. One night, he walked into my bedroom and laid a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People at the foot of my bed. “You’re being an asshole,” he said. “I’m not going to talk to you again until you read this book.” Needless to say, I didn’t leave the room until I finished Dale Carnegie’s famous tome. Decades later I donated a half dozen copies to the jail library. Another night he told me that when I grew up there were three things I would need to learn. First, a memory system. I learned Bruno Furst’s memory techniques, which served me well for decades. Second, I needed to learn a method of speed writing and speed reading so I could take notes and read fast. I learned speed writing while teaching Business Law at Rocky Mountain Business College. They didn’t pay much, but classes were free.         Finally, he said computers would keep changing, but the QWERTY keyboard would remain the same. “You have to learn to type.” Again, Rocky Mountain Business College to the rescue. Learning to type saved me about $3,000 a month for fifty years. It also helped me pass the bar exam. While a hundred anxious examinees were handwriting essays, I was in a typing room with about fifteen others. The vibes were calm. When my strongest subject, criminal law, appeared as the final essay, I typed my answer cleanly and without finger fatigue. The question involved People v. Katz, and government eavesdropping on a phone booth without a warrant, a case and topic I had just studied at Rutgers Law School. Pure luck.           The keyboard is still QWERTY. I can still type nearly as fast as I think, with both slowing over the years. At my peak, I was probably around 120 words a minute. No longer true. Blogging, I’ve found, is far more fun than writing motions. I get to choose my topics, and AboutBoulder.com has supported my writing completely over the years. I’ve now written well over 500 blogs. AboutBoulder also gave me the freedom to take my own photographs, and as a photographer, that added a whole new layer of joy.         More than 90 percent of my blogs are syndicated by NewsBreak, with additional reach through Google. I admit that this tickles my ego. When I was asked to write a blog announcing that I had been named Blogger of the Year, my first reaction was fear. Who was I to write such a self-promoting piece? Years ago, a neighbor named Roberta gave me the nickname “Lensworth.” What better pen name could anyone ask for? My first book is titled Lensworth and is available on Amazon. The name stuck. And if I was going to tell this story, who better to tell it than me?           AI has proven to be a powerful tool for creation. Working as a team I’ve been able to create many memorable images. That includes this picture of me in my fantasy studio, featured in Lensworth, my first book. Blogging about myself still feels strange, but it also allows me to share how I got here. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Roberta. Thanks to my wife Debi and to so many friends who have supported me along the way. Even my strict sister Sherrie thinks I’m good at blogging.         The combination of writing and photography suits me perfectly and gets me out of the house. Being didactic and choosing my own topics suits me too. My contributions to AboutBoulder helped grow the AboutBoulder site from about 250,000 page views a month to more than two million. Syndication through NewsBreak, now exceeds 50 million page views a month. NewsBreak syndicates well over 90% of our blogs.  The significant growth in the reach of AboutBoulder has been attributed by others, not by me, in significant part to my contributions.   .   We are proponents of positivity and cannabis-friendly culture. Again, a perfect fit. If I were to write a job description for myself, I could not have done better. I’ve included links to some of my favorite blogs as well as some of my favorite photographs. They may not tie directly to the text, but since I’m writing this, I get to choose. I’ve long believed that shared knowledge is power. I will continue to share my photographs, my writing, and my efforts at teaching, and I’ll continue to have fun doing it. I hope readers enjoy the work as much as I enjoy creating it.         Writing these blogs and helping build this readership is a personal milestone, but it’s also part of a much larger story about community, storytelling, and local media reaching a global audience. Blogging is visual. That gives me space to share my photographs and an excuse to wear a press pass and ask, “May I include your picture for publication?” The answer is almost always “yes.” Our audience reflects a hunger for meaningful, authentic stories rooted in place, nature, culture, Boulder, and the human experience. It has been a privilege to contribute to a platform that amplifies Boulder’s voice on such a massive scale.           I’ll continue to uphold the high standards of AboutBoulder and to spread kindness and joy, our most powerful tools. This recognition, along with Google visibility and indexing, reinforces the importance of consistent, thoughtful storytelling. I’m sincerely grateful to the AboutBoulder editorial team, the readers who give life to every article, and the Boulder community that continues to inspire story after story. Being named Blogger of the Year is both an honor and a motivator. I look forward to continuing to write, explore, and share stories that celebrate Boulder while reaching readers around the world.         Thank you for reading and for being part of this journey.         THANKS! Shared Knowledge Is Power! Lenny “Lensworth” Frieling