tony pierce.com + mary!
busblog at gmail dot com

nothing in here is true

 


   Thursday, January 26, 2006  
i get interviewed all the time. next to the girls inviting me to spend the night, requests for interviews are the most flattering... uh... flattery i could imagine.

lately a rash of college kids have asked me for interviews for their term papers.

im always curious how their professors feel about them writing papers about topics that the teachers probably dont know very much about.

be it for magazines, newspapers, or term papers, i try to keep it as real as i can.

rarely do i ever get to see the end result - the actual essay or paper, but Peter of the pgBlog posted his essay today as well as our unedited interview. go here for Peter's essay and below you will see our interview.

1) How did you get into blogging? How did you even find out about it?

i was editing the closed captions at e! entertainment television networks in hollywood. an incredibly boring job. but one of the tools of the trade was a computer and the internet.

so during my two, 15 minute breaks, and during my hour lunch, many times i would write quickie little fantasy stories, or comment about something i heard in the hall or on tv. since most people were only writing maybe one thing a day - if that - i figured if i could knock out two or three things in a day then i was that much more worthwhile of a blog.

2) What made you choose Blogger over any other blogging website?

at the time (August, 2001) they were the only free one that all the other big people used. later they moved to moveable type and then wordpress, but im a loyal person and ive always had a very good relationship with the actual employees of Blogger. they read the busblog, link to it, and ive met a bunch of them at various events.

i also wanted to stay with Blogger to show people that you dont need anything fancy to have a halfway decent blog.

3) What do you think makes a good blog?

honesty isnt enough. you need style too. if i go to a blog and the person is super honest and has some sort of personality attatched to it then i'll read on. a good blog also has to update every day, have pictures, be funny, be unique, and show the world their little zip code.

and if a blog cant do that, then somebody needs to get naked or set something on fire.

4) What's your opinion on political comentary blogging compared to the journal type?

i read a lot of poltical blogs and journal types. i think that most political blogs are disingenious because they either show only one side "theyre bad - look how bad they are!" or they'll pretend that their side has never done anything bad.

theyre also not very creative and when they do have pictures theyre dumb.

journal type are usually written by younger people and i like theirs better because theyre more honest and theres more freedom to change subjects or visual appearance, most of the time youre literaly in their bedrooms. political blogs dont have that sort of courage.

5) Why do you think blogging has become so popular?

- because people are naturally interested in other people
- because its so easy to get a blog up and running
- because everyone has a few friends
- because there are lots of people who can potentially get to your brilliance

6) Where do you see the future of blogging going?

more video
nakeder chicks
mo money mo money mo money

7) How do you think blogging has impacted the world?

blogging has become the real 4th Estate, and its just in time. my friend ken layne, whose former apartment i currently live in, warned, "this is the Internet, we can fact check your ass."

it's also shown how small this planet is. i never knew anything about canada until blogging, and i read you guys's blogs and it made me believe that canada wasnt that different than the usa, and suddenly i wanted to visit to see the differences. without blogging i seriously doubt i would have ever gone there.

8) Are there any places you feel blogging has advanced too far?

in a way id say that it grew too fast for the average person, and definately faster than the average company. because it grew so fast it frightened Human Resource department heads and thats why you see all these bloggers getting fired for blogging. the bloggers knew they were just showing the world their private journal, but the HR depts didnt understand it and couldnt conceive why anyone would blog anything good - namely their real life.

9) Why do you think has been the cause of bloggins huge explosion in the
last few years?

- inexpensive computers
- free blogging software
- inexpensive high speed internet access
- the beauty of the human spirit
- inexpensive digital cameras
- 9/11 which spurred the "war bloggers" which have been the most publicized sector of the blogosphere.

it would have been interesting to see how much more blogging could have been if places like myspace hadnt shown up for people to say "here i am here i am" through pictures and stupid songs but what can you do.

oh canada + ryan_r + little kitchen


Previously on busblog...