Before I go into my post today, I wanted to take a second to hype up what I feel to be a very important post by one of my brothers in blogger arms, Mikey Miller of Who Do I Have to F&$k to Get Laid. He recently interviewed Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, the young boy who contracted HIV via a blood transfusion treatment he received for hemophilia back in the early 1980s. Ryan died in 1990, but his mother is still very much involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy.
Mikey's interview is posted on his site in its entirety.
Please take a moment to go check it out. It's an incredible interview.
Speaking of interviews, what follows is part of an ongoing interview series begun by Kelly and thrown my way by Belinda as part of the BlogHer 2006 Conference. I may be doing it wrong as it seems as though they each interviewed someone else, but I wasn't sure who I'd want to interview or who, in their right mind, would want to interview me. So I'm answering the standard questions myself. If it makes you feel better, pretend that Belinda is interviewing me and the answers are posted on my site instead of hers. Here goes...
1. When did you start blogging and why? Or talk about your blog. What can I learn about you in under five minutes?
Using blogware (in my case, Typepad), I've been blogging since June of last year. However, using whatever means were at my disposal (read: "static HTML"), I've been posting online blog-like entries since early 1998. Yep, more than eight years. That's a long time.
Five minutes may be more time than you really want to spend with me. Trust me on that one. Well, if you decide to stick around the full five minutes, you'll learn that I am a movie, TV, and book nut; I have several regular readers whose friendship I cherish greatly; and I love my wife almost too much for it to be truly healthy. I'd like to think that's what you'd walk away with.
2. How do you use blogging to build friendships?
I read my favorite blogs and learn about people and comment on their sites and hope that they reply if it necessitates one. I also use my favorite blogs to find other new people and wind up on their sites and learn about them. It's the ultimate social network.
3. Who do you read every day, rain or shine?
I'm hoping rain never becomes a factor in my reading. My bloglines subscription is about 87 strong, but this also includes a few news sites and Flickr feeds so I know who has added new photos. I have many that I read on a regular basis including Dave, Karl, SJ (both sites), Johnny, Neil, Dustin, Sandra, Sizzle, Jax, Jacynth, Kim, Mikey, Pauly, Alissa, Carly, Chanakin, DGM, Dagny, RW, Hyperion, Brandon, Eve, Gary, Bec, Sheryl, Elaine, Jill 1, Jill 2, Tracy, Kelly, Ryan, Belinda, Nicole 1, Nicole 2, Nat, Jackie, BA, Sass, Jenny, Hilly, Claire, MM, Rabbit, Dariush, Bre, Lynne, ChickyBabe, Suze, Anomie-Atlanta, and Shane. Then there are also Jack and Xtine, if they'll return from their self-imposed hiatuses. And, I suppose Chase as well (heh heh). You'll notice I'm being much more thorough this time around than the last time this sort of question came up.
That's a lotta damn links. God I hope I remembered everyone. If not, please don't be offended.
While I may not necessarily be on their sites every day, I do read every post as often as they post 'em. There are a few others that I've only recently discovered via some blog affiliations and I'm currently getting to know them as well.
4. Why did you choose to share that piece of yourself in a photograph?
My head? Seemed like a no brainer. Wait, that doesn't sound right.