wonder of me x 100

Kristen knows she can get me to post when she tags me on a meme, although this time around she acknowledged that she might be pushing my aversion to "wonder of me" posts a bit too far.

Boy, did she ever.

I started this one the other night and needed to abandon it because it was just too gross. And, well, it's still pretty gross.

100 Amazing Things I've Already Done

This list is meant to be in response to those lists that are often generated about the things you want to do before you die to justify your time on the planet; the kind of list that will inevitably make you feel like sh*t as you look at your watch and realize that time is ticking and the top of Mount Everest isn't getting any closer to sea level.

So, yeah, this is a list of 100 thing that I have already done. Some are more impressive than others, some are about what has shaped me as a person, but all are things that I can pull out as story fodder ("Did I ever tell you about that time . . . ?"). There is a bit of starf*cking going on in here, so excuse me.

Enjoy. I tag everyone who feels the need for a little self affirmation. You can write the list in your notebook if you feel like it.

I have . . .

1. Surfed in Oregon
2. Won the gold medal in the National Latin Exam
3. Climbed the Acropolis in four-inch red heels
4. Salsa danced with Joan Baez and Desmond Tutu — at the same time
5. Been given ride home by Jackson Browne — from his concert
   
6. Talked to Maura Tierney in the bathroom at a movie premiere
7. Earned my master degree from Harvard
8. Driven cross-country — three times
9. Run Rock the Vote
10. Published a zine
11. Published a blog — for more than three years
12. Been a Salzburg Seminar faculty member
13. Traveled to South Africa – twice
14. Visited Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island
15. Dipped my toes in the Indian Ocean
16. Met Al Gore
17. Met Ted Kennedy
18. Taken a class from Michael Ignatieff
19. Done an independent study with Samantha Power
20. Developed the strategy for the first-ever Cabinet member blog
21. Kissed a Heartbreaker
22. Met two members of Nirvana — and kissed one of them
23. Seen a woman take her clothes off in front of the presidential palace in Prague
24. Maintained a friendship with Chris for 20 years
25. Survived and overcome
26. Been a guest on Loveline
    
27. Avoided financial ruin after a medical emergency that occurred when I did not have insurance
28. Celebrated New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh
29. Moved to London with no job and no place to live when I was 24
30. Visited the Lower 9th Ward post-Katrina
31. Written and read an original essay on NPR
32. Walked through Sherwood Forest
33. Trained young political leaders in Cambodia
34. Sat in a green room with Ted Nugent
35. Appeared on CNN as a regular political commentator
36. Contributed to fighting the global health crisis
37. Created a career out of doing “good”
38. Visited Bonnie Raitt back stage
39. Seen Badlands in a movie theater
40. Managed to avoid ever going bowling
41. Dropped out of college for a year and a half — and gone back to school
42. Moved to San Francisco (from Connecticut) on a Greyhound bus when I was 20
43. Met Bill Clinton
44. Trained youth organizers in Mexico
45. Been on the merry-go-round near the Eiffel Tower
46. Been John Hughes’ pen pal
47. Stayed in David O. Russell's guest room
    
48. Gone from growing up on AFDC/welfare to now earning more than xx percent of the population (too tacky to actually write)
49. Been offered a job by Mary Robinson
50. Spoken at my grandmother’s funeral
51. Had an essay published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
52. Attended a presidential debate
53. Met Bono
54. Met — and been quoted by in a speech by — Sting
55. Seen Wilco in concert (at least) 10 times
56. Climbed the Wicklow mountains in Ireland
57. Gone on a road trip to the Clinton Library
58. Talked on the phone with Katherine Hepburn
59. Shaken hands with John Edwards
60. Stood outside the Cambridge City Hall at 12:01 am on May 17, 2004 to congratulate the first-ever same sex couples to be married in Massachusetts
61. Voted in every local and national election since I turned 18
62. Attended the International AIDS Conference — in Barcelona and in Toronto
63. Maintained a database of everyone I have met for 10 years
64. Watched Taylor give birth to Victoria
65. Called John McCain a “wuss” on CNN
66. Received flowers from Martin Sheen
67. Managed to convince foundations and companies to give projects I am working on tens of millions of dollars
68. Been linked to by Jeff Jarvis
69. Had one of my ads used as set dressing (Zoey's dorm room) on The West Wing
70. Had another one of my ads used as an example of ad agency star Helen Hunt’s work in What Women Want
71. Overcome my fear of cockroaches
72. Had an essay published in How to Get Stupid White Men out of Office
73. Seen Edward Norton and Catherine Keener off-Broadway
74. Seen John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman on Broadway
75. Gone to an Ozzy Osborne concert — minus adult supervision — when I was 10
76. Seen Nation of Ulysses in concert
    
77. Seen Circus Lupus in concert
78. Seen Lungfish in concert
79. Seen Beat Happening in concert
80. Advised three presidential campaigns on young voter outreach
81. Managed to have the most perfectly 80’s iconic first make out session ever: behind the Space Invaders game; at the roller skating rink; wearing sneaker skates, designer jeans, a velour Izod pullover and a turtleneck with a whale on the collar; while Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” played in the background
82. Interviewed Heather Armstrong and Robert Scoble
83. Saw Jawbox in concert in London
    
84. Worked on a diversity project that was cited by President Clinton's Initiative on Race as a “Promising Practice”
85. Had Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia ask me who she needed to f*ck to get into the VIP section
86. Exchanged emails with Pierre Omidyar
87. Met Walter Mondale
88. Gone to a rave in Southampton, England
89. Visited Angkor Wat
90. Shared "guest" status with Billy Baldwin on an ABCNews.com web chat
91. Served as an adviser on UNAIDS project
92. Attended four of five True False Film Festivals
93. Become a connoisseur of single malt scotch
    
94. Eaten dinner at a table next to Donald Rumsfeld
95. Served as a BBC political commentator on that fateful 2000 election eve
96. Worked on a documentary film project with Frances Reid
97. Organized a mayoral debate for young people in Kansas City
98. Driven the 101 from Los Angeles to San Francisco
99. Stayed at the oldest hotel in Savannah, Georgia
100. Attended one of two Dismemberment Plan reunion shows
     

blogger interview: Chris Jordan

I posted an interview with blogger Chris Jordan from Notes from the Trenches over at the agency blog.

Do you love it? Tell me you love it on sk*rt.

(By the way, read Chris' post from today -- and the comments -- about Elizabeth Edwards' decision to go on the campaign trail with her husband, and to bring Jack and Emma Claire along for the ride.)

Update: The online conversation about blogger outreach gone wrong is growing. The latest? "How NOT to Pitch a Blog" from Lee Odden at Online Marketing Blog.

blogger interview #5 - Richard Kamins

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about how my friend, Richard Kamins, had given me a shout out on his blog, See! Hear! which is featured on The Hartford Courant's web site. I'm returning the favor and getting some free labor out of him at the same time by featuring him as #5 in my ongoing series of blogger interviews.

Richard has known me forever. I thought he was a cool grown up when I was a kid and then, as I grew up, he just became a cool friend. He's a writer, a husband, a dad, a former business owner, a wine expert, a community leader and a really big music fan. And he's a good interview. Thanks, Richard.

So, Richard, how did you get the gig with The Hartford Courant?

I have written a column ("SEE! HEAR!") for the Middletown and Shoreline editions of The Hartford Courant since 1997. It came into being as part of a short-lived "Middletown Extra" section that was started by the paper to compete with The Middletown Press. But the section did not bring in enough ad money so it was dumped a year later. The Courant then decided to keep 5 of the columnists from that section and fold them into the Greater Middletown ("Town") edition.

Did you pitch them or did they come to you?

I didn't pitch it as much as complain about the poor editing job they were doing on my column. I write a lot because, most of the time, there's a lot going on and they edit a lot and much of the spirit of the column disappeared in the edits. I said, "You know, you could print the whole thing online." They said "No." I went off to Israel (for vacation) sure I was going to quit once we returned. Instead, I was called to a meeting and asked if I wanted to write a blog on the newly-expanded Courant.com. The Courant had taken a hard look at its readership and saw waning interest in the print copy from the 25-48 year old category. They're still dealing with the look of the website.

What were your intentions with the blog?

The blog allows me to "fill out" my column, list more events that are going on in the area, allowing more space for the small venues. I was also hoping to do more reviewing of CDs and books and open the "scope" of the column to events outside the area.

Has the blog evolved since you started?

Somewhat - I feel the urge to be more "political", especially in the light of current events. I heard an interview with Professor Anthony Braxton (who teaches at Wesleyan) in which he described his current music as being "political." That certainly begs lots of questions, but since I am quite interested in the creative process, I am curious to understand how the state of the world effects those who "make art", from music to movies to poetry to novels, etc.

How much direction does the Courant give you as far as what you write about?

None - I was given to understand my print column was quite '"popular" and this would be the opportunity to expand upon it, in a way that would be interesting to an audience the Courant is hoping to attract to its website. Feedback has been sporadic but positive. Sporadic because a good portion of the posts deal with local events.

Is See! Hear! your first and only blog?

It is.

How would you describe it?

On one level, it's an "arts preview" page - here's what's going on. The subtext is that I want readers to understand that there are many opportunities to get away from the big-screen "hi-def" in their living rooms and see "live" entertainment, to have interaction with artists and performers, to provide feedback (even if it's only applause) to the creators and the venues, and to help support the creative process. Many of the events that go on at Yale and Wesleyan and other colleges (as well as the local libraries and museums) in the area are free, so what's the excuse not to go look once or twice? (Yes, I'm an idealist.)

In the more than two decades that I have known you (gulp), you have always been a writer. Where does blogging fit into your identification as a writer? What do you get out of writing the blog? Do you still do other writing? Do you feel like the blog gets in the way of your other writing or does it encourage you to do more?

I'll answer this in reverse order. Yes, it gets in the way of my creative writing but doing research for the column opens up so many new doors and exposes me to so many other opinions and people that when I do write, I feel my voice and clarity are sharper and clearer. I just don't do a lot of "other" writing. But I have been involved in more theater lately and the process of self-editing my column has helped me focus on "editing" my characters on stage. Does that make sense? My focus is stronger because I want the reader or viewer to understand what I am saying.

Blogging obviously allows me to write anytime about any topic I choose (that fits within the parameters I've set for the column.) I hope it show that I think about how to describe the art and artists I write about. Blogging is part of my continuing growth as a writer - it exposes my weaknesses (and strengths, too) and allows me to work on being a better writer.

Where do you write most of your posts?

At my desk at home.

Is there a favorite place or time of day for posting?

I write mostly in the morning and (sometimes) very late at night.
Do you have any special rituals?

No, except in the warmer weather, I turn on a fan to get air moving in the room. Otherwise I open the windows. In the winter, I just sit and write. Mostly, I want to be comfortable when I'm sitting down.

Do you have a favorite blog that you read on a regular basis?

Do the Math, produced by the group Bad Plus. I don't love their music, but Ethan Iverson is a very good writer and interviewer. Also, I highly recommend Shadows of a People, part of an ongoing project by saxophonist-composer Matana Roberts.

Is there a new blog that you have discovered in the past month -- besides mine -- that you'd like to recommend to my readers?

The Comics Curmudgeon Someone who takes comic strips to task for all sorts of infractions - it's a goof.

blogger interview #4 - Stacie Barton

I first came across Stacie at Mommy Mosh Pit when I was doing a search for The Flaming Lips and I became a fan of hers right away. I think it might have something to do with the feeling that we would have been friends if we had known each other back in college. I can easily see her hanging out with me at Hampshire or taking a trip into Northampton on the Smith College bus, maybe catching a show at the Red Barn. She's an insanely prolific blogger who writes about knitting, crafts and food and (occasionally) being a mom, snapping photos along the way. Seeing as I can't cook, can't knit, can't make a craft to save my life and have managed to make it this far without reproducing, it's a fascinating mystery to me.

What made you start Mommy Mosh Pit? How has it evolved since you launched it?

I started blogging out of sheer boredom and loneliness! I was home with my baby and toddler, in the winter, in NW IL . . . New to the tiny town I live in . . . desperate measures!

You actually combine quite a few things in one blog: knitting, crafts, parenting and food. Mom bloggers and knitting bloggers are both strong communities -- do you identify more with one than the other?

The knitters. My kids aren't really the main focus of my blog. They are in real life though! Blogging is where I go to have fun, and tell funny stories about them!

I am meant to be a contributor to Do You Have One of These?, but I have been a serious slacker. (Sorry.) What made you start it and why do you think so many people have signed on -- and continue — to be contributors?

I met a guy into geocaching and I thought about the ways the Internet is becoming part of the real world. The ways we form communities in new ways through the Internet, and the ways in which our real lives overlap. I just thought it would be fun to see what kind of stuff we all have!

And now you've started Knitted Toys this month as well? How do you manage to maintain so many blogs? Most people can't figure out how to maintain one!

This is not my blog. It belongs to Jenn and I am just an a-longer!

Where do you write most of your posts? Is there a favorite place or time of day for posting?

In my upstairs office. Day, night, whenever the kiddos will give me a minute! Have you ever stopped what you were doing because you were inspired to post to your blog?

Yeah, like the house work and child rearing!

Have you ever met the person behind a blog after having read their blog for a while? What was it like?

Nope, but I'd love to!
Do you have friends that give you a strange look when you tell them that you blog? Are there people whom you deliberately do NOT tell that you have a blog?

My friends and family are looking!

Did you have a zine when you were younger or did you read zines? Do you see a relationship between zines back in the 90's and blogs today?

I loved zines and comic books! Love and Rockets, Dirty Plotte, Hate were my faves. Yeah, definitely a newer, better, easier form of the zine!
Is there a blog out there for which you have blog envy? If so, why?

Lolly Knitting Around. She is the Queen Hostess with the Mostess! What an organized blogger! and I'm Mad and I Eat, that is the best title anywhere!

Do you check your traffic stats to see who is coming to read your blog? Do you have a sense of who your readers are -- even if you don't check your stats?

I'm always surprised at the numbers, I figure there are about 10 visitors to every commenter. I can't shut up, so I can't understand the readers who are not bloggers, but hey, I'm glad they find my life interesting!

Tell me -- or my readers -- about a blog that you discovered in the past month.

A recent fave is Sourdough Monkey Wrangler because it's a "he", and he tells long tales of cooking, mostly with his kids. Another fave is Knit Me A River because the awesome yarn porn!

del.icio.us tags 03.26/07

Search the Candidates — Earlier this month, I posted about Gisele Toueg's comments over at Echo Ditto about the importance of search for candidates in the 2008 election. Since then, I have come across this post from February over at Tech President about how this message is not getting through to Democrats, with Republicans leading the way in keyword marketing. Come on, guys (and gal), we're talking about the basics. Get your acts together.

New Poll — What I signed up for an account at Poll Daddy and wrote my my first poll. It's down there in the sidebar, which is obviously getting a little crowded. I'll decide if I am going to keep it going.

Social Search — Kristin Nicole at Mashable posted about Zudos yesterday -- a new social media search engine launched this weekend. It's apparently people-powered but, like Kristen, I'm not clear what that means. (Someone?) I did a search for more buzz on Katie Couric's interview with John Edwards and I'm at the top of "blogger buzz" (for the moment).

I should have a new blogger interview posted in the next few days. Sorry for the lull on that. It should be a good one and worth the wait.

blogger interview #3 - John Bell

John Bell is the blogger behind Digital Influence Mapping Project. He also happens to be my boss (and mentor and friend). He's been on the road in Asia for the past couple of weeks and, judging by this interview, he's feeling pretty content — or there's something in the tea. You should note that this is the first time the name of "the agency" has been mentioned. We'll let it slide this time . . .

What are you trying to do with Digital Influence Mapping Project? Has that changed at all since you started the blog in May 2005?

I began the Digital Influence Mapping Project almost 2 years ago. I set out to explore how we are all influenced in new ways via social media and word of mouth online — and also how I am influenced. There are so many great people and so much interesting content that affects me in some way and I knew that others feel the same way. I wanted to understand how people and “media” touched me. I am still doing this. One thing I will do soon, however, is focus on 3-4 categories tops and then let tags access more specific content. I have discovered, mostly through writing, that there are more specific topics that I interested in.

Where did the name come from? Can you remember any other names you considered?

My work and my life are intertwined and it’s all one big, never-ending “project” (or so I hope). The ‘Digital Influence’ part came from the acknowledgment that I am influenced in new, complex ways. And I love maps: I have books on maps, I am writing something that is all about maps (fiction). So, I liked the idea of cartography of an evolving landscape.

Go back in your archives and look at the first post you wrote on the blog. What did you write about? Does it make you cringe, laugh, gush with pride or feel a strong urge to hit "delete"? None of the above? Then, how does it make you feel?

When I read the first post, I am very satisfied. It describes what I was after and came from a very genuine place. I try to hold onto that no matter how naïve it may seem to people.

Because Digital Influence Mapping Project is primarily a professional blog, do you ever find yourself holding back or censoring yourself?

This blog is meant to be focused. I talk about the things that interest me and may interest peers and colleagues. I do not talk about clients unless it's okay with them. I am, by nature, not snarky so there’s not much to censor in that category. I am conscious of Ogilvy’s business interests and will not consciously go against it in my blog.

What led you to start your personal blog, John Bell's Other Blog?

My Other Blog is all about the things that I am a fan of. The experience of really loving something or somebody is just tremendously positive. I started it to try out our friend’s (Six Apart's) new platform and to have something refreshing. I have to say, writing about Nick Cave or Richard Ford always leaves me with a good feeling.

Where do you write most of your posts (try to be specific)? What's your favorite place or time of day to post?

I write a lot of posts in my office at home. My office is a small little room that overlooks our backyard. There’s no door so the kids are always interrupting. I have also learned to write on airplanes which has turned into my only uninterrupted work-time these days.

Do you have a favorite post that you have written?

Two of my favorite posts include the one reviewing Mom communities. I don’t know why but I love mom bloggers (my wife does not blog). When I reviewed all those sites several of their founders reached out to me. I offered them some advice because I really do wish them a ton of success. Moms have long exerted their power via commerce, but this new wave of mom bloggers has really amplified women’s voices and given them a new power. One even asked me to join an advisory board which is really flattering. The other post was the Social Media Score. I was a bit exasperated with all the energy I was putting in with clients — some of whom ultimately weren’t ready to do anything, even listen, with social media. I developed that system in a very fast writing session and it still seems good to me.

Do you have any recommendations for blogs I -- or my readers -- should check out?

I love so many blogs. A few that come to mind quickly – Birdie Jaworski’s blogs. She has a new one called La Pajaro that is separate from her Avon work. I am just blown away by her writing and emotion. There are several posts of hers that make me cry – mostly joyful tears. I love China Web 2.0 Review. I spent time with Tangos Chan, the principle writer and founder in Beijing and he’s super great. He works a full time job at a search firm and then writes all this great coverage at night.

Is there a blog out there for which you have blog envy?

There are a lot of blogs I admire out there. I don’t think I have blog envy though. The great thing about blogs is that I can be truly who I am. I am old enough that I have to be satisfied with myself versus pining away to be someone else.

Besides the legendary Birdie Jaworski, have you met any of your favorite bloggers in person?

I am writing this on my way to Singapore to meet 4 outstanding bloggers including ChubbyHubby who is a tremendous food blogger and Wendy or Xiaxue who is probably so much more than I can handle. I met a few bloggers in Beijing. In Hong Kong, I did a meetup with 6 or so bloggers including the amazing Sidekick who seemed to know everybody. I make a point of meeting up with bloggers wherever I go.

blogger interview #2 - Jim Dowling

Jim Dowling is the blogger behind Let's Keep Things Simple, which he just launched this month. Jim and I work for the same company, but so does half the free world, so I've never met him. (Plus, he lives far away.) But, like Jim, I'm a sucker for sarcasm and cynicism and I sensed a touch of that in his posts, so I was reeled in. (The Superficial is in my RSS reader as well, Jim. Andrew Sullivan turned me on to it.) Jim has discovered that the blog comments are the true gateway drug, so if you want to send him free falling into a bad habit, go visit him and post a comment.

1) You've just launched Let's Keep Things Simple. Is this your first and/or only blog? (If not, tell me about your other blogs, if you don't mind.) What made you decide to create yet "another pocket of digital hot air"?

It is my first and only blog. I've been dabbling with the idea for a while, as I've always enjoyed knocking out pithy comments on emails to my friends. I thought I'd widen the audience a little. The reality is, I am doing it for the financial gain of my employer, and that's what's finally made me do it. I have a job that requires me to travel all around Asia, helping our offices become more creative. India to Australia is a long way. By starting a blog, in theory, I'd have to get on less planes to share my thoughts with our people. And if it works, my company makes more money.

2) Based on your posts, it seems like you have read your fair share of PR blogs and have found some of them to be less than engaging. What do you think makes a good PR blog? Do you have any in particular that you would recommend to me or my readers?

Actually I am a recent returner to PR blogs simply because when the blogging world first piqued my interest, all I could find from PR bloggers were people who liked to show off about how tight their client relationships were, or justify how busy they were. It switched me off. My fave to date is Strumpette though. Anyone that doesn't take all this too seriously is good by me. I'm also inspired one of the world's great publicists - Flying Frank.

3) Do you tell your friends and co-workers about your blog? Any strange looks? Are there people with whom you specifically do not want to share your blog?

I've posted four times so far, and I've managed to keep it hidden from my girlfriend and family. My girlfriend has a real job educating children so I try to keep a distance between hers and mine. It's compounded by the fact I'm usually spending my time at work trying to persuade her kids to buy cell phones or sneakers. My co-workers have been supportive so far though.

4) I know that you're just starting out, but what is your process for posting? Do you decide, "I'm going to post," and then come up with something to post about or do you sit down and post because you have something specific you want to say? Have you felt the urge to stop what you are doing to post?

So far, I'm getting myself into the discipline of posting but I expect to behave slightly more irrationally as you're suggesting. This is going to make me sound terribly naive and innocent - but I got my first comment to my first ever post from a complete stranger. It was a very mild kind of buzz. It's going to be like a drug isn't it?

5) Any blogs out there for which you have blog envy?

Yes. I'm English, so that may qualify what I'm about to write. I would like Will Luke's job. He runs a blog called The Corridor and he spends his days writing about cricket and then blogging about the important aspects of the game, like the media and culture around the sport. I feel like I've been drinking with him for 15 years, but we've exchanged about three emails in our life. In all seriousness, his blog awoke me to the power of the online community. If I wanted to talk cricket with people with the same attitude to it as me, I'd rely on meeting my mates Dom, Rich and Ray in a bar. Now I'm doing that with 300 people I've never met. In my public relations world looking after brands - that's hugely significant.

6) Is there a blog in your RSS aggregator (presuming you have one) that people might be surprised you read?

I do my best to take the moral high ground, but I'm always sucked in by sarcasm and cynicism. The Superficial for me does it every time.

blogger interview #1 - Kristen Havens

This is my first blogger interview, the first of many, I hope.

Kristen Havens is the blogger behind My Back Pages. Kristen and I have known each other for a little less than 11 years. I first met her when she was an intern for a project that I was working on and we got to know each other better when, a few years later, she moved out to Los Angeles and joined me for a while at Rock the Vote, an organization for which she and I have similar feelings (that I won't go into right now). Kristen and I also share the fact that we both grew up in central Connecticut and her posts over the holidays this year about her trip home filled me with nostalgia for strip malls and dirty snow. Kristen is a great writer in many of the same ways that she is a great friend: funny, sincere and devastatingly perceptive.

I'm a regular reader of My Back Pages, but I have no idea where the title come from. Want to tell me the story?

When I first started keeping a blog, around 2000 or 2001, it was one portion of a larger website meant to showcase my creative writing and my freelance capabilities. I considered the weblog to be the part of the site that was "off to the side" -- not the main focus. "My Back Pages" had a supplemental sound to it, like the author bio you find at the back of a book. I also liked the name because I knew it was the title of a Bob Dylan song. Though to be honest, I couldn't hum the song for you. I don't even know any of the words.

You're a writer, but you've posted recently about the difficulty you've had with writing. Where does blogging fit in to your identification as a writer?

I've been keeping a steady journal since I was 8 years old. I credit whatever writing skill I have now to all the years I spent writing about my mundane life, trying to make it sound exciting for future archaeologists. But because I've been doing it so long, writing about daily life feels like a self-indulgence. I'm sure it keeps my punctuation sharp, and it's nice having feedback from others, and meeting new people through the site. But at times it feels like a comfortable distraction from the more challenging work -- the stuff that scares me and requires real structure and planning and social isolation, like writing short stories or screenplays or a novel.

Where do you write most of your posts (try to be specific)? Is there a favorite place or time of day for posting?

It's become such an automatic activity for me that I don't remember doing it. Usually I'm either at my desk or on my couch. I rarely plan ahead to write a post -- something will pop up that makes me want to make a comment, and I'll log into Typepad, write something quickly, log off, and take the laundry out of the dryer. There's no particular time of day I set aside for the task.

Go back in your archives and look at the first post you wrote on the blog. What did you write about? Does it make you cringe, laugh, gush with pride or feel a strong urge to hit "delete"? None of the above? Then, how does it make you feel?

One of the first things I wrote was a list called "Top 100 Cultural Imperatives". I've always been opinionated about pop culture, and in the beginning I figured if I'm going to have a website, I may as well foist my superior taste upon the masses, because the masses need to know that Colin Firth is hot. When I go back and read it now, I mostly chuckle at how funny I was. Then I cringe at how awful it is to laugh at your own jokes.

Most of the time, though, I cringe at how consistent my personality has been over time. Not much changes. My anxieties, my daydreams and even my phrasing haven't changed much. The worst is when I read myself mentioning a writing project that, five years later, is still stuck in the same place. Sometimes I hate having a blog, because it can feel like a chronicle of stasis. I think it may be wise not to revisit the archives too often.

Have you ever stopped what you were doing because you were inspired to post to your blog?

Sure. Because I work from home, my day is very fluid. I sometimes use the blog as my "fifteen minute break". It's my substitute for the cigarette break. Though I should improve upon this and take the computer outside to get a little fresh air. That's the one nice thing about cigarettes -- they get you out in nature.

Have you ever met the person behind a blog after having read their blog for a while? What was it like?

I haven't done this as much as I'd like. The people I read most tend not to be in my "community" of bloggers, so the chances of meeting them are slim. I have met and befriended a couple local L.A. bloggers, but we don't see each other often because L.A. is a socially backward city.

In all cases I found that the bloggers in question were more attractive and outgoing than I expected. I tend to find this intimidating, because I myself am shy and fashion-challenged.

Do you have friends that give you a strange look when you tell them that you blog? Are there people whom you deliberately do NOT tell that you have a blog?

Even now, with blogs becoming so popular and commonplace, I'm often embarrassed to talk about it. I'm not sure why, except that I think a lot of people are suspicious of people who are compelled to write. I think when people find out you write a personal blog, about nothing in particular, they assume you're writing about them and spilling all their secrets.

I just found out that my great-uncle reads my blog, so I expect to have nightmares about this for the next six months or so -- wondering what he's read and what everyone's saying about me back home. I shouldn't be surprised -- he's a computer teacher, so if anyone in my family were to find it, it would be him. But I'm still in shock that this isn't my dirty little secret. I'm always terrified when someone tells me, in person, that they read my blog. I'd rather we maintain a complicit silence about the whole thing.

Certain people, when I email them, get the outgoing mail message with no blog URL in the signature. I make sure to delete it before I write to my mom, but every so often I forget and the URL slips through. I realize it's impossible she hasn't read the blog by now, but I try not to let my mind go there too often.

Of course, if I were writing a business blog, I'd feel differently. I'll be blogging about publishing and publicity soon, and I'll be happy to advertise that, because it's for "the greater good", professional, and not just for my own entertainment.

Is there a blog out there for which you have blog envy?

I envy Maggie Mason's Mighty Goods. She created an outlet to express her shopping hobby, and now people are sending free, classy swag to her P.O. box. She's been written up in Forbes and The New York Times. And she has fantastic taste. I love that site. I wish I'd thought of it.

Do you check your traffic stats to see who is coming to read your blog? If so, have you ever come across something that made you want to track down who it was? Do you have a sense of who your readers are -- even if you don't check your stats?

I used to do this compulsively, but now all I do is check about once a week or so, just to see if my numbers are going up or down. And sometimes via the referring URLs you'll find something that surprises you -- someone who's linking to you but didn't ping or write to you to say "hi". Just this week I found that a new blog about the TV show Medium was linking to something I'd written. Last year, someone with a blog about Lost quoted one of my observations and pinged me, but forgot to give me attribution in her post. I had to chide her for that. (She was very nice about fixing it.) I no longer check the IP addresses of surfers who land at my site -- it's too harrowing. People in the U.S. military have read my site, and knowing that freaked me out a little. Now I'd rather not know where the readers are, or even who they are, unless they're nice and unarmed. I suspect that I've met most of my regular readers, either in real life or via the blogosphere.

Tell me -- or my readers -- about a blog that you discovered in the past month. Do you remember how you came across it?

I like A Weight Lifted. It's run by a weight loss spa for women in Vermont, and it has a very healthy attitude toward dieting, exercise and self-image. It often includes good recipes and tips. I made a pomegranate salad for dinner one night based on one of the recipes they posted. I'd love to hear about other healthy food and cooking blogs, if anyone has recommendations. I wish I could remember how I found them, but I can't. I think I happened upon them in the course of ordinary surfing.