How Can I Follow That Up?

I’ve been fretting about how to follow up on my last blog post. People who subscribe to the blog nearly tripled (thanks, I think), and engagement (pun) was much higher than usual. I’m sure I’ll get back into the regular swing of things in no time, hopefully somewhere between the start and end of this blog.

Segue dog.

Bike Stuff

I could talk about how accomplished American cyclist Kerry Werner won US Cyclocross Singlespeed Nationals in Louisville while swapping between bikes with different gear ratios. In cyclocross, you can have a “pit bike,” aka a second bike that stays in the pits during the event in case your race bike gets clogged with mud or is otherwise inoperable. Kerry started the event on a bike setup with a harder gear before swapping it for a different bike with a slightly easier gear ratio for the rest of the race.

 I don’t have any skin in the game, I wasn’t at the race, nor can I beat Kerry in any type of two-wheeled race (ok, maybe motorcycle vs. bike), but I’m going to say that’s complete bullshit. They don’t call it double-speed, three-speed, twelve-speed, or even zero-speed. Single-speed is about committing to a single gear and ratio, and I will die on that hill. Do I think Kerry should have to give up his jersey? No. Do I think he should get a slap on the wrist from USA Cycling and that a new rule be written disallowing riders from having a spare bike with a different gear? Yes. Absolutely. That’s the nice thing about this being a personal blog and not a paid piece of media: I’m not limited to purely reporting on happenings; I can have an opinion about them.

Incriminating moment. Closed captions don't lie.

Secondly, I hate Strava's new 'Your Ride is Ready!' messaging. It feels so patronizing.

KuDoS, cAsEy! Shut up please, brand.

Now that the bike-world ramblings have lost some people’s attention…

How to Quit an App

I’m one of those people that deletes and redownloads apps constantly. As soon as I get an inkling of regret or guilt about using an app on my phone, I’ll hover over the icon until it shakes and quickly hit the delete button. Often, usually later in the day, I’ll go back to the App Store and redownload it, and I’ll do this repeatedly, sometimes for months at a time. The first major instance of this behavior I remember is when Snapchat was popular. I recall deleting it when the map function was introduced. I would delete it mid-day, get FOMO about the content and messages I was missing, redownload it, and do the whole thing again the next day. I did this for weeks, months, even. Even after I had deleted the app for 2 or 3 months, I went back and redownloaded it for the shot of serotonin when I saw a bunch of red and blue squares indicating I had messages to open and read. Since I deleted it in 2017, I haven’t had any inclination to return, but I’m sure there are lots of little red and blue bubbles hanging out for me to find.

Ridiculous. I imagine it’s like quitting anything addictive.

I’m going through the same thing with Instagram. For now, it’s been deleted from my phone for the last few days, but within the last two weeks, I’ve deleted and redownloaded it at least a dozen times.

I understand that there’s valid merit to apps like Instagram. I want to stay caught up on people’s lives and events from their corners of the world, just like I allow people to keep up-to-date on my happenings with a blog and semi-active Instagram. However, there are some serious issues with the app that I’m finding I’ve been better off without. For clarity, you’ve probably seen me post a story or two or reply to messages. Still, I’m doing almost all of that on the desktop app. I don’t sit in front of a personal computer very often anyway, so now, when I do, I’m generally checking messages like anyone else would check their email. That being said, I’ve got a strong and serious opinion about the app.

Fuck reels.

Reels are Instagram's worst, most damaging, negative, and mindless time-suck. I’ve been Googling about how I can disable reels from my feed, but it appears you need an Android phone from a decade ago that can install an older version of the app (pre-reels). Reels also play into my (undiagnosed) ADHD nature, and I’ve caught myself mindlessly scrolling through reels while I’m missing a deadline for work or supposed to be paying attention during a meeting. I’ve taken to literally throwing my phone across the room when I have meetings or important deadlines to hit, as the only way I can stop myself from staring at the internet box is by removing it entirely. As I type this, I can feel a distinct rage growing inside me at the passion of my hate for those 3-12-second clips of grossly entertaining content and the disgusting and insanely negative comments that come with them.

Without reels, I like Instagram. I like clicking on stories from people I follow and care about and seeing pretty pictures in the feed from their adventures and travels. I want to read about their accomplishments and life happenings, and I like to stay connected with the few media entities and brands I follow. Nowhere in that sentence does the Tik-Tok style Instagram reel fit.

I don’t know anyone who works at Meta, but if you or someone else does, for the love of God, let us disable reels, and I’ll consider redownloading your app.

Editing is Hard

I’ve been editing a friend’s non-fiction, Hunger Games-esque short story for them during my downtime. My god, is it hard. That’s not to speak to their quality of writing; I don’t think it’s that bad, but I am struggling with the editing. I’ve been working in corporate, cookie-cutter media content for so long that it’s completely shifted how I write and how I read other people’s writing. I read a lot more non-fiction; I enjoy concise sentences that set the scene and deliver endless backstory to a character. I’m not as good at reading non-Neil Gaimon fiction, where the words and the scenes are fluttery and often lack detail or character development. I find myself doing little tweaks grammatically to make the sentences more straightforward but then deleting those tweaks because that’s not how the author intended it to be read. All I’m saying is that if you need a resume, cover letter, or ad copy reviewed or written, send it my way, anything else need not apply.

I don’t envy people who try to write non-fiction books or short stories, it’s not easy. TV shows and movies make it look so easy to create non-fiction content that I think everyone takes how hard it is for granted. In a TV show, there are so many subtle details that people look past. The music. The background. The tone of the dialogue. In a book, you can’t use visual clues and hints to set the scene like a movie can, so you’ve got to make the scene with words while keeping the plot intact. I don’t need to attempt this in my corporate writing because it’s always accompanied by an image or links to a product that provides more context or further background information.

I found a good bike blog!

This might be surprising, but I found a fun bike blog hosted by corporate media. I wasn’t looking in the right places initially, trying to find more bike blog content on places like Reddit or through niche Google searches. I found this blog via LinkedIn, where it was shared and reposted by one of my “connections.” It doesn’t have a real name other than ‘magazine,’ but it’s hosted on The Pro’s Closet and written by Bruce Lin. Not only is Bruce a prolific writer (he averages 2-3 original articles per week), but he's got an entertaining voice that is mostly unsullied by his employer. Even in his “tis the season” click-bait articles he talks about how useless and annoying most gift guides are, something I’ve touched on in past blog posts. My only negative is that his headlines don’t speak to his writing, because even though almost all his headlines are written like some kind of ad/review, the content within is opinionated and fun to read.

Anyway, this blog is getting a little long in the tooth, so I’m going to wrap it up.

Life Stuff

It hasn’t been that long since my last blog post, but thank you for all the well wishes and congratulations messages. We’ll have some nicer photos to post soon, I promise. Love you all.

Books Worth Reading

Devil In the White City – I started this book years ago but put it down halfway through. I’ve since restarted it and have been completely engrossed. I can see why it’s acclaimed as one of the best non-fiction books ever written. Fascinating stuff.

Shows Worth Watching

The Princess Bride – It’s been a few years since I last watched this film. It’s as good as ever and worth a re-watch right after you've read As You Wish by Cary Elwes. Thanks, dad!

Also, I was told if I mention @MaggieKirkwood in this blog she'd come down south to do an Aspire race :)