200 Followers: I’d Like to Thank the Academy

I recently received the awesome news that my count of blog followers has hit 200! (Actually, it’s now 209, thanks to one more and those getting it through email.) It’s not a huge number compared to many, but I’m really grateful, since I started the year at 20 followers. So thanks to everyone, especially if you are actually reading my stuff! You know who you are. My intention was to list followers 101-200 in a post, as I did with the first 100, but there’s not an easy way to do that. If anyone knows how to download one’s follower list in a spreadsheet format, please let me know!

European Union GDPR

Thanks to the ever-watchful eye of author Dale Thele, I’m now aware of the impending EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules that are going into affect as of May 25th (I’m guessing Greenwich Mean Time but no one seems to know exactly). Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, is still “working on it.” So for now, I have updated my signature area with a Privacy Notice. I suggest if you are a fellow blogger or have your own website that you look into this. Have you also seen websites start to have pop-up messages announcing that they use cookies and by continuing to use the site you agree to the cookies (small bits of data collected about your use of the site, like computer location, IP address, time, country, etc.)? This is why.

ADAB Round-up

A Dude, The Book: I continue to work on my book about my 10,000 miles bicycled in 2016-2017. (Sorry, repeat readers — you’re probably tired of seeing that link. But I’m not, and for newcomers, it bears repeating.) I’m up to writing about late August 2016, in which I embark on an epic, bucket-list journey to the four lower-48 United States I had not been to. I wrote just one blog about that trip titled Mountain Time: Biking and Hiking the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming. So it’s pretty cool to go back and be able to recount more of that adventure in detail. Hope you’ll check it out!

The Annual Pun-Off is ON: Tonight I biked downtown to a pre-event dinner for the 41st Annual O’Henry Pun-Off International Championships. I’ve been attending the main event for about five years now (I think I missed one year), and know the producer emeritus who’s a neighbor, but this was the first dinner. I helped him erect a sign near the highway at great personal risk due to the traffic screaming by within feet of our work area. I hadn’t had time to change clothes from digging a grave for a friend’s departed guinea pig. The danger was so high due to the winds being so strong that it nearly tore my clothes off. PUN ALERT!!! You could say I was in grave a-peril.

That’s a mostly true story! Also fact not fake news: the American writer O’Henry, real name William Sydney Porter, lived in Austin from 1893-95. The City of Austin maintains a museum for him, and the Pun-Off is held in the park behind it. I think you can actually watch the Pun-Off on a live Facebook stream if have access. It’s from 11 am – 6 pm CST (Central Standard Time) on Saturday, May 12th. More info and clips and a documentary are available at www.PunPunPun.com. Also you can follow on Twitter at #PunOffATX. (Does being on Twitter make one a twit?)

Sir Bikesalot: According to my activity app Strava, I’m averaging 99 miles/week. If I put in 60 miles this weekend, that will make four weeks of cycling over 100 miles per week. Laundry needs folding, dishes need doing, and alot more, but for whatever reason I’m back to last year’s discipline. But I’m still often exhausted, it’s getting hotter and my free time is about to largely get sucked into a huge time sucking device that really sucks called a J-O-B, so I don’t know how long I can keep doing this. But it’s a good way to take advantage of the still relatively nice weather and free time and rack up some miles. Enjoy it while it lasts, Dude!

Google Plus: On a whim, I signed up for Google + yesterday. I’m not sure how widely it’s used or really how it works yet. But I hope to spread the A Dude Abikes message more broadly, so maybe it will help get the word out. After 10 followers and 30 days, I can customize the URL, but for now, it’s this long one with numbers, but here’s the link: A Dude Abikes on Google+. If you use Google+, please say hi there. Tips are welcome!

Sue Grafton: The Alphabet Mystery Author Died and Didn’t Get to the Last Letter of the Alphabet: Y, Oh Y?

I’ve been a long-time reader of the series of books beginning with A Is for Alibi. I recently reserved from the library and started reading X, which isn’t for anything, and have Y is for Yesterday is sitting on the coffee table waiting. Sadly, “the alphabet now ends with Y.” The great thing about her books is that the protagonist is not just that she’s a woman — but a memorable, competent, smart, funny, self-deprecating, kind, vibrant private investigator. So for the 20 or so years I’ve been reading about Kinsey Millhone, I feel like I’ve also been reading about Sue Grafton. She said as much that there were some alter ego parallels. If you’re not familiar with her, read this article about her in the New York Times. I suppose there’s only way to properly end this section, and this blog post: R.I.P.

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