While growing up in Tampa, Florida in the 1980's, all the local McDonald's franchises used to have the phrase, "OVER __ BILLION SERVED" on the bottom of their roadside signs. Every few months the number on the sign would increment and I'd notice and scream out to my startled parents from the back of the car. "AHHH! LOOK! The McDonald's sign changed!"

I was amazed each time. I was amazed that they were keeping track. I was amazed that all the different signs in the city would change within a couple of days of each other. I was amazed that they'd served billions. Was it people or burgers? I didn't know and I didn't know how to find out. (Now that we have Google, I just learned it was burgers.)

Right at the end of my time in Tampa, just before I went off to college, something happened to disrupt the steady increment of billions. This was only the early 1990's but it was a hint at the year 2000 problem to come. McDonald's ran out of numbers. The signs had been made with just 2 digits and they got to "OVER 99 BILLION SERVED" and they were stuck.

Months went by and I'd occasionally find myself wondering when they were going to come and rework all the signs to have a 3rd digit. I imagined the frantic meetings that must be happening at McDonald's HQ about the problem.

A year or so later my answer came, and it was disappointing. McDonald's decided to stop counting, and the new signs they were putting up said, "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS SERVED". For the next few years I'd get excited when I'd see a McDonald's that still had an old sign that was stuck at 99 Billion. Today most of the signs have been replaced again and they don't have any mention of billions at all.

Why this trip down fast food memory lane? Because BubbleTimer is nearing a milestone of it's own. 500,000 bubbles served. That's a big one. It's not quite as profound as 1,000,000 bubbles will be, but it's profound none the less. We celebrated 100,000 bubbles earlier in the year, so let's celebrate 500,000 too.

As of this moment, there are 463,823 bubbles or 6,957,345 minutes in BubbleTimer. To put 500,000 bubbles in perspective. That will be 7,500,000 minutes of time tracked with BubbleTimer. That's a lot of time. By keeping better track of where those minutes have gone I really hope BubbleTimer has helped people.

If you are the person that bubbles the 500,000th bubble and you are not a paid user. Then you my friend, are in luck. You'll get a free BubbleTimer account for life. If you bubble that bubble and you are already a paying user, you're in even more luck. You'll get a free BubbleTimer account for life, and a $50 gift card to iTunes, Amazon or Apple. You chose the place.

Thank you all. I couldn't have bubbled all those bubbles without you. Good luck in the contest, and keep bubbling!

Photo by TheTruthAbout...