I don’t use Strava…except for the couple years or so when I did. Incidentally, I just tried to look up when I started and stopped using Strava, only to find it was down:
Huh, I don’t so much as glance at Strava for a year and when I finally do it doesn’t even work. I suppose the universe is trying to tell me something–and that something is “Don’t be a wanker.”
Anyway, the point is I don’t use Strava, nor do I track my blogging output. However, on a whim I did look it up (gotta do something while Strava is down) and apparently in 2024 alone I’ve typed over 136,000 words into this website. That’s a lotta bullshit! And it doesn’t even include texts or emails or Grant Petersen fan fiction or any of the other stuff I write in the course of the day that you don’t even know about–plus I’ve got to fend off the wildlife:
So while it feels both disingenuous and vulgar to suggest that any aspect of curating this blog is “work,” I must nevertheless announce a short and temporary leave-taking of the sort that, were this actually work, I might refer to as a “vacation.”
But since this isn’t work, let’s just say I’m fucking off for a bit, and that I’ll be back at the typewriter on Tuesday, September 3rd. For the avoidance of doubt, this is 13.0.11.15.14 on the Mayan calendar, which looks suspiciously like an IP address, and is also expressed thusly:
They must have had a hell of a time making out checks.
Speaking of summer, I may have mentioned it briefly on the day, but June 13th marked the seventeenth year since I started this blog. That’s a long time! But it doesn’t feel like it. Like a frame that’s been repeatedly stripped down and built up again I suspect this blog’s readership has turned over multiple times since then, but whether you’ve been reading it for awhile or you just came across it today after entering the term “Y-Foil porn” into a popular search engine I am grateful that you’re here. I’m also grateful for all the people who have made financial contributions to this blog’s upkeep, which you can do either directly, or else via Ko-fi if you’d like to throw your money away on a recurring monthly basis. (Though of course you’re under no obligation to do either, and your devoted readership–or even your occasional skimming as the case may be–is reward enough.)
So once again, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and may all your rides be laterally stiff and vertically compliant, unless you prefer it the other way around. See you on 13.0.11.15.14.
Yours and so forth,
–Tan Tenovo
