501

This is post number 501. Ra!

Yes, I have now gone past the big 500 (although that may include a couple of draft posts that were never published), and decided that I didn't particularly want to bother the Minyon Falls post with the occasion. Oddly, I cannot find the link to the very first post, but the archive of August 2004 is here. If you scroll down you should see the very first post I ever wrote. Well, in fact it was the third after a couple of false starts with image-hosting problems.

Originally I had set this blog up to be a place to post some of my rants from the forum at bikeforums, where I'd been a regular contributor over a number of years. A few things changed in the period following that, I got a little bored with the back and forth flame wars that tend to define most message boards these days. I also started to question a few of the old assumptions in cycling "advocacy", and concluded that there is virtually no "advocacy" group in this entire country that even attempts to represent my intests as a cyclist.

As these events happened, my cycling interests changed to the point where touring seems to be my main interest these days, and when I don't have time to go touring I prefer to focus on the local long-distance rides. At other times I've posted various rants here when I just wanted to get something off my chest, and often those opinions have put me in the minority (something deemed "unacceptable" on an increasing number of Internet fora these days). Of course, that's probably killed my traffic, but I can live with that. Maybe it's for the best.

I'd like to make some grand statement about "where this blog will be in 500 posts' time", but frankly, I'm not that bothered. It will just continue to evolve in whatever direction I feel like taking it. Perhaps (if I ever manage to archive it properly) I can look back on it as a reflection of not only where my life was at during a particular period, but also where I was at as a person. If that doesn't work, at least I should be able to come up with some more material for part 2 of the troll competition.