ONE WEEK NEIL Pasricha is working at his human resources job tucked away in a cubicle in a suburban Mississauga office complex, the next he’s walking the red carpet at the 2009 Webby Awards alongside Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Fallon.

The modest Toronto resident had his 15 minutes and then some, including a chit-chat with Martha Stewart, but with the publication of a book based on his popular blog, 1000awesomethings.com, it is looking like a bit of extended fame time for Mr. Pasricha. “I am massively surprised by its success,” says Pasricha, over coffee in a North Toronto café. “I mean, I felt lucky when I got one hit [on his website].”

The blog is Pasricha’s valiant response to the run-of-the-mill doom and gloom that dominates the daily news as well as some of his own problems with his marriage (he’s now single) and with a friend coping with depression (he committed suicide).

“I just wanted to do something positive and talk about what’s awesome about life, the small simple pleasures,” Pasricha explains.

June 20, 2008, Entry #1000: Broccoflower. And so began the countdown.

“I actually underestimated how long it would take, until someone reminded me that I wouldn’t be done until 2012.” Pasricha laughs. “I didn’t mentally process it.”

It didn’t take long for the site to catch on, and soon he was getting tens of thousands of hits every day, and he was nominated for Best Blog at the Webbys.

After his surprise win, literary agents and book publishers beat a path to his virtual door. But, five minutes into our conversation, it became evident that, even if he was still just doing it for his friends, it wouldn’t make a lick of difference.

“I’m certainly addicted to writing it,” says Pasricha. “It is massively addictive.”

“You know, I’m just an average guy,” says Pasricha, with genuine modesty. “I don’t even know how to use a semicolon. I work in a cubicle in suburbia, I should go to the gym more, and I eat frozen burritos.”

The book, published on April 24, contains some classic entries from his blog and all-new awesomeness, including “Fixing electronics by smacking them” and “Waking up and realizing it is Saturday.”

“It is so easy to see them now, I notice awesome things everywhere,” he says.