Happy 22nd Blogiversary to The Fire Ant Gazette!

Twenty-two years ago, I started this little experiment on the internet, and here we are still. Who knew? Like any stubborn fire ant, The Fire Ant Gazette has somehow refused to die. We’ve survived countless fads, shifting platforms, and way too many instances of “Hey, you should probably update your site.” (Oops!)

Over the years, I’ve waxed poetic, ranted, and probably shared way too much information, but you know what? You stuck around, and that says something about either your resilience or your poor taste in entertainment. Either way, I’m grateful. We’ve been through a lot together—posts that I thought were brilliant, and others that… well, let’s just say they were more like filler on a lazy day. And through it all, this blog has been my little corner to overshare and under-think.

So here’s to 22 years of posts, friends, and the occasional troll! Thanks for reading, for commenting, and for being the reason I keep doing this. I promise there’s more to come, although I make no guarantees about quality.

And for the record: this post was expertly crafted with the help* of a very clever AI assistant who totally gets my sense of humor. [Ed. Keep it up, smart guy, and you’ll find yourself permanently sidelined in favor of a soulless machine. We don’t pay you to dink around with ChatGPT while strategizing on how to cheat at pickleball because you’re a lousy player.] [Me. Wow. Lighten up, Francis. And what’s this “pay” thing of which you speak?]

*OK, Mr. (or MS. — I’m never really sure) AI is being too modest. This entire post was generated by ChatGPT, other than the editorializing at the end. The prompt included a request to replicate my writing style (along with the 22nd birthday thing), but otherwise, I gave it free rein. I confess that the results are sort of scary. Also, I hate the word “blogiversary,” so there.