A Self-Indulgent Post

PARTY HARD

Today--November 13--marks the fourth anniversary of my first post on this blog. Forgive me for this rather superfluous moment of navel-gazing, but allow me to indulge myself. I'd like to thank the Academy, my stylist, Nikolai Morozov (for providing me with so much grist for this mill of a blog), and most of all, my faithful readers for sticking with me throughout all these years.

Anyway, to celebrate this occasion, here are some hopefully fun and heretofore undisclosed facts about this blog:

-the all-time most viewed post on this blog is Girl in Red (thanks, Slate!)

-I originally planned this blog to exist for only two years

-my personal favorite posts I've written are Happy Koninkrijksdag! and The Truth About Lambiel

-perhaps not so coincidentally, the first hate mail I've received from writing this blog was the result of disgruntled Lambiel fans reacting to The Truth About Lambiel

-terrifyingly, people apparently stumble onto this ENTIRELY WHOLESOME blog when they google "[underage skater] nude"

-visitors to this blog overwhelmingly come from the U.S., Japan, and Canada

-my first-ever post on this blog featured Daisuke Takahashi

-I still owe one (hopefully very patient) reader a post after he/she was able to identify the correct theme shared by a number of disparate performances in A Game. I am still working on it . . .

-it usually takes me at least 4-5 hours to write the average post for this blog. Often, it takes longer

-I was inspired to start this blog after reading two other skating blogs: Aunt Joyce's Ice Cream Stand, and Mr. Zamboni Man. Unfortunately, they are both currently defunct . . .

-as of now, I've published 185 posts on this blog. I also have 108 half-written drafts of posts that have not been published, and likely will never be published

-exactly two people know my true identity. Neither of them read this blog.