Category: general

Blog Birthday:

My first blog post ever was on an old blogspot blog on May 28, 2004 entitled “Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection” and read:

“This is the first post to Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection. This blog will showcase art created by Thomas Hawk as well as discuss all things having to do with digital media.

There will be occasional side ramblings having to do with wine, computers, web publishing, media, photography, contemporary art, Microsoft and mylifebits. Remember, the only thing more important than sarcasm is love.”

Why do you blog?

I’ve always enjoyed publishing. In high school I edited my school yearbook. In college I edited my college newspaper. Being able to write for an audience and share my photographs gives me great personal satisfaction. Before blogging this was not economically feasible to do on a wide scale. Now with blogging bringing down the cost of publishing, it is much easier.

I also like the interaction of it all a great deal and it’s great fun meeting new people and making new friends through blogging.

What do you talk about?

Lots of things really. Whatever happens to be on my mind at any given time. I blog about photography quite a bit as it has been a huge passion of mine for many years. I blog about digital media. I blog about art and culture. I write about software and online communities.

But my blog is more free form than tied to any specific subject.

I’ve blogged about Hunter S. Thompson and Ween and the late Reverend Gene Scott and how DRM sucks and Media Center and TiVo and lots and lots and lots about Flickr and Zooomr of course. I’ve blogged about how I’d rather take photos of Marilyn Monroe than have sex with her. About how a camera store in Brooklyn almost ripped me off. About the occasional run ins with cops and security guards while out shooting about the San Francisco Bay Area. I blog a ton of my photos of course. I’ve written about 4,000 posts since I started blogging.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

There is nothing I won’t talk about really. Nothing specifically off limits. I hate sports and so I rarely blog about sports. I don’t blog much about traditional Dem/Republican type politics (but I will get into more personal political areas like art, culture, and why the hell we won’t have wi-fi in San Francisco by the end of the year). If I don’t talk about something it’s only because it’s something in life that doesn’t interest me… yet.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

My best experience was probably getting PriceRitePhoto, a sleazy bait and switch camera dealer in Brooklyn shut down.

My worst experience was probably calling Tim O’Reilly an asshole without really thinking and without talking to him and getting his side of a story when his company sent a cease and desist letter of the phrase “Web 2.0”. I apologized to him publicly on my blog.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

San Francisco is one of the most beautiful urban canvases in the world. The rich detail of urban life that can be photographed here is amazing. I love all cities for photography really but San Francisco certainly is one of the most photogenic.

The worst thing about where I’m living is the cost of living. It’s outrageously expensive to live here. I don’t know how people do it, myself included.

If you were president of the US:

I’d try to restrict initial copyrights to 5 years, allowing one additional 5 year extension by filling an application with a $1 fee. I’d have everything go into the public domain after that.

I’d push for an estate tax of at least 95% on anything over $3 million in an estate.

I’d try to abolish the speed limit on freeways. Legalize marijuana. Roll out free wi-fi everywhere I could. Double bridge tolls and gasoline taxes and make public transportation free.

I’d push to allow cruel and unusual punishment for people who kill kids as administered by surviving family members with a baseball bat. I’d fine each person caught in a child predator sting $100,000 even if it meant selling their house or pushing them into bankruptcy and use the money to fund more online stings.

I’d offer free birth control to anyone who couldn’t afford it everywhere. Free condoms, free birth control pills, Norplant, whatever.

I’d allow people to invest their social security money in stock index funds.

I’d let people on the West Coast watch East Coast feeds for their TV.

Of course I don’t think I’ll ever be elected President. I’ve got lots of other crazy ideas as well.

Tell me about Zooomr. What inspired you? How is it working out? What feedback are you getting?

Zooomr is a universal photo sharing platform designed to allow people all over the world the ability share photos with each other. At present we are localized in over 18 languages and have great geotagging tools which use Google Maps. Zooomr is about getting at what is in a photograph — its context, its metadata, audio annotation, portals, events, relationships, etc.

Zooomr is also a social network with many new social tools which will be coming in the weeks ahead. Groups and forums, more introductions and recommendations for contacts, more ways to connect people online with each other offline. More ways for private groups of people to interact with each other, etc.

Additionally we are building Zooomr to be a place where the advanced amateur photographer will be able to monetize their photography. At present we believe that there is a gap in the stock photography market between the Getty’s and the Corbis’ of the world and the microstock sites like iStockphoto. We think that there is a whole world where great photographers can make money with their work by offering their images for sale for stock, printing fine art books, selling fine art prints, etc. We want to empower the advanced amateur and especially the individual who is looking to find an on ramp to a career in photography but isn’t quite ready yet to quite their day job.

Most of all we want to make the world a more beautiful place by promoting the sharing of the most amazing images in the world. We are passionate about the future of digital photography and believe that the best photographs in the world have yet to be taken.

I was inspired to pursue Zooomr when I felt like other photo sharing sites on the internet were not innovating fast enough or often enough. My first desire in working with Zooomr was to be able to implement many of the features that I wanted to see the most but that are missing from other photo social sharing sites. I know there are things that people want in a photo sharing community and working with Kristopher Tate who is a brilliant software designer and engineer is giving me the ability to see many great new ideas in photo sharing to become reality.

Zooomr is tough. Right now we are just two guys. An 18 year old kid and a photographer. We have some angel financing but are also self funded. We will probably raise some additional angel money here shortly and then within the next 6 months to a year try to get the company to profitability.

Zooomr is hard work. It’s not easy for sure. We stay up late into the night and don’t have the budgets of a big company behind us. But we are truly very, very passionate about photography, about our users and about building something that people will really take joy in. And Kristopher is the most talented software developer I’ve ever met. It is truly amazing watching that kid work.

In general I’ve been blown away at how incredibly giving and supportive our community is. Volunteers are the ones translating the site for us. Even when we’ve had some unfortunate glitches and downtime our users have stood by us and have been just amazing.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Probably Carrot Top. No, just kidding. I’m not sure who I’d want to play me. Sean Penn would certainly would be up there and is an actor I’ve admired for a long time. Alec Baldwin would probably be another. I’m not sure my life would be interesting enough for a movie of course.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

Well I’ve got to work on this. Certainly out shooting photographs nearly every single day I’ll walk miles. This helps. I used to try to swim but lately there just has not been time. Typically I get less than four hours of sleep a night and unfortunately tend to supplement with caffeine. Once we get Zooomr off the ground more I’ll probably try to get back to a more regular routine for exercise and sleep.

How do you feel in retrospect about the controversy surrounding the crying-child photos and your participation in bringing more attention to it? Would you change anything you said/wrote/did?

It’s interesting. I’m not particularly pleased about the fact that the attention probably did more to build Jill Greenberg‘s celebrity than anything. At the same time I feel pretty strongly that children ought to be respected and promoted and encouraged and loved and that to deliberately aggravate them for the purposes of political statement renders the statement invalid and certainly unethical.

As a father of four I can’t imagine ever subjecting my children, or any child, to purposeful emotional distress. I think we won’t know what effect these photographs will have had on these children until years later. The celebrity of these photos very well may be badly experienced by these children latter in life and these project very well may end up haunting the parents whose children were involved.

I never expected the story to get as big as it did. After the Los Angeles Times wrote what I felt was a incredibly biased piece on the show (and it’s no wonder as she had photographed for the Times in the past), I didn’t feel that further media attention would be helpful and stopped talking to the press and returning calls. I had radio stations contact me and the folks from Inside Edition and it was at that point that I figured all of the publicity was doing more to help her than anything.

It may have been a mistake being a catalyst for people to rail and react against her work. I’m not sure. It was hard for me to sit by though and not call her out on something that I really felt and thought was awful.

Irrespective of my opinion or her opinion regarding her photography I do think her and her husband behaved terribly. I found it especially ironic that as an artist she would try to use political pressure to silence me. Artists of all people should see the value of free speech. When her husband objected to my article I gave him space in the same article to express his opinion. I felt a responsibility to allow a spirited discourse on the controversy at hand — they on the other hand just wanted to shut me down. They told lies about me. They said that I targeted their kids websites and linked to them when I never did.

It was overall a pretty miserable experience for me but it was something that I felt and still do feel strongly about. I don’t think I’d change anything that I wrote.

I’d love a parenting tip.

Ok, hug and kiss your kids every single day. Tell them that you love them and are proud of them every single day. Get them involved with the things that you do even when you need to devote time and attention elsewhere (my sons come with me a lot when I shoot and love shooting the 10D and learning more about it while I shoot the 5D). Give them a rattle or a toy when you change their diaper. Talk to them about how their day was. Read to/with them. Take them to the internet and ask them what they would like to see photos of and then find them photos of whatever they would like to see.

Favorite color:

Green

Favorite food:

Unfortunately too many things that are bad for me but let’s go with a Tommy’s cheeseburger. No, make that a double Tommy’s cheeseburger.

I thought I read somewhere that you hold a record for the most photos uploaded to Flickr. Is that true?

I don’t think so. I almost have 8,000 photos up on Flickr. I think I have another 40,000 or so, if memory serves correct, in a private account that I’ve let lapse. I think there are people with more photos uploaded to Flickr than me. I know Billy Warhol has quite a few and there are others.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

A fireman.

What do you hate?

I hate bigotry. I hate stagnation. I hate religious intolerance. I hate it when technology doesn’t work right.

What do you love?

I love innovation. I love art. I love beautiful and unique photographs. I love kids — especially my kids, my family and my wife. Friends. I love photography and taking photographs. I love music. Photowalking with Robert Scoble, I love discovering new places. I love cities. I love meeting new and interesting people. Technology when it works right. I love the internet. I love social websites. I love Zooomr. I love blogging. I love Tommy’s cheeseburgers (as previously mentioned), meat pie and chicken with black bean sauce from Henry’s Hunan, artichokes, cherry pie, burritos from La Taqueria, Cafe Americanos, great wine, walking, freedom, challenging and intense people, creative people, smart people, giant monitors, HDTV, fast lenses, fast computers, fast internet connections, time shifting television, neon, pop culture, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, London. Art museums. Sexy women. Places where you are allowed to take photos. Cool weather and rain.

What do you do that you get the most satisfaction from doing?

Taking photographs.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

Be true to yourself. Don’t limit what you say because you worry about how people react. Take risks. Make mistakes. Apologize for your mistakes. Always link back when you can.

Astounding facts about you:

I road my bicycle from Oregon to Delaware when I was 15. I shaved my head in high school. I have over four terabytes of personal storage at home which houses about 160,000 photographs and about 100,000 mp3s — most of which were ripped by me. I digitize everything and have an amazing library of .pdfs of just about every piece of paper that has ever touched my life, bills, college papers, owners manuals, elementary school report cards, books, etc.

I hope to have 100,000 finished processed fine art photographs by the time I die. I hope to one day build giant massive collages of 8×10 photographs of various themes. Of consumerism and marketing. Of neon signs. Of black and white prints. Of shots of people. etc. Collages with thousands of 8×10 prints stitched together on giant sheets of connected plywood making fantastic public art displays. I want to walk across America taking photographs every day and then publish a book of the best of those photographs.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Windows. I used a Mac from 1986-1991 then switched. I got a job working for a bank and that was the end of the mac. I decided that rather than use two systems I’d be more efficient and effective learning one better. I got into Microsoft’s Media Center Edition PC and that kind of trapped me more into the Windows world about 5 years ago. Lately I’ve been thinking about abandoning Windows though and moving over to Macs. I’m tired of things not working correctly with Windows.

How would your family describe you?

Too busy.

What is one of your favorite memories?

When each of my children were born.

Do you cook?

Very poorly.

What are you working on right now?

I’m answering questions for your interview. Before that I was faving shots on Zooomr.

Any application/program that has made a difference in your life?

Photoshop. It’s amazing to me how much can be done with the RAW material of my photographs. Flickr. Zooomr. Windows Media Center.

Your own favorite post? And/or your favorite post of someone else?

Wow. My own favorite post of my own would probably be one I wrote thinking about ideas that I had for innovating in the photosharing space back in early 2005.

My favorite post from someone else would probably be Arrington’s post which kind of jumpstarted Zooomr back in March of this year.

What will you being doing next year?

Hopefully continuing to make Zooomr Zoom and taking lots and lots of photographs.

Tell me a secret?

I once got kicked out of Bible College, which was not the place for me. I fell deeply in love with this woman Kimberly Stepp there who broke my heart in about a million places.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

Who my favorite artists are: Bob Dylan, Mary Lou Lord, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, Liz Phair, Edward Weston, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Johnny Cash, Drive By Truckers, Roy Lichtenstein, Chris Smither, John Currin, Mel Ramos, Robert Bechtle, Hunter S. Thompson, Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joseph Heller, Josh Ritter, Angelo Rizzuto, Woody Allen, Wim Wenders, Bob Schneider, Andreas Gursky, John Prine, Gerhard Richter, Banksy, Aqui-Ali, Chris Mills, Lyle Lovett, Gregory Crewdson, Sam Bloomberg-Rissman, Dr. Seuss, Cole Rise, Azure Ray, Bonnie Prince Billy, Eels, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Slobberbone, Ween, Jasper Johns, Willie Nelson, Richard Misrach, Social Distortion, Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, Dorothea Lange, Larry Sultan, Tom Waits, Todd Snider, Richard Estes, The Velvet Underground, Sean Penn, John Coltrane, and Richard Avedon, to name a few.

Brandon Rogers from One Child Left Behind makes me laugh. And laugh. And laugh until my gut hurts and tears are running down my cheeks. Sometimes, I have no idea what he’s talking about. Sometimes I do. But, it doesn’t matter because his writing is so creative and strong. It’s beautiful and honest. His own personal favorite post (listed below) is actually the first post I ever read of his and I admit it, I fell in love. Brandon has written for McSweeneys. And I hear he writes some pretty sexy material for scholastic books, of which I have not had the pleasure of perusing. Brandon lives in Washington State with his very understanding wife and two children, who ask him to bing them in the head with small, plastic toys. For fun. And, he has a potty mouth. If you are my mother, you don’t want to read any further.

Blog Birthday:

December, 2004

Why do you blog?

The reasons change weekly. Some days I blog to avenge perceived childhood slights. Some days I blog because it’s easier than talking out my problems with an actual human being who might either A. laugh at me or B. jam a stylus into her cochlea moaning “NONONONONO.”

But most days, it’s to create a living record of all the mistakes I’ve ever made. I have a feeling it might one day come in handy.

What do you talk about?

I think the most common comment I receive goes something like this: “I have no idea what the hell you are talking about but it’s pretty and I drink too much tequila, too.” (ed. note – I’ve NEVER said I drink too much tequila.)

According to my keyword referrals, however, it’s very clear what I talk about: Prison Sex, IROC Mullet Hore and Steve Pary Girlfriend Sherry.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

I self-censor when it comes to anything that I think might hurt someone’s feelings. And by someone, I mean someone who isn’t related to me. Besides, there are plenty of other sites that do this far better than I ever could. I mean, if you were to Google ‘PARIS HILTON CAMEL TOE,’ it’s not like you’d arrive at my site even if I did put a lot of effort into a well-written post.

I also try to avoid dirty talk because someone pointed out this website to my grandmother, and even though she hardly speaks English, she still understands, INTUITIVELY, what a Reverse Anal Cowgirl with Pearl Necklace means. And when she dies, I don’t want her corpse to flinch when I kiss her cheek goodbye at the funeral.

I also never write about cheese. I find this odd, because in everyday life I find that I talk about cheese quite often.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

When I first started writing, I put up a lot of posts detailing my childhood, thinking that no one from my family was smart enough to use electricity, and further testing this theory by actually spelling out my URL to the reporter when the local newspaper interviewed me to talk about my experience as a guest on the NPR Weekend Edition Puzzle with Will Shortz (GEEKNERD).

Fast forward to earlier this year. It’s 4 in the morning, and I’m actually awake getting ready for work. The phone rings. It’s my mom. She’s obviously crying (at one point she says, ‘I’M SORRY FOR CRYING’), and is in the emergency room of a hospital in Yakima. She’s convinced that she only has a few moments to live. And then she says, ‘I’m sorry for how hard your childhood was! I’m sorry for ruining your lives!’ And the first thing I’m thinking is,
“GODDAMNIT HAVE YOU BEEN READING MY BLOG?!” But fortunately, I’m able to say something a little more measured, “Don’t worry, everything will be just fine, you’re not going to die, you probably just ate too many burritos.” Getting the five-minutes-left-to-live-confessional from your mother is not a happy time. That was just a bad day overall. I expect a similarly poor experience when she uncovers my VOX site. Meh.

The best experience was writing two posts while my wife was in Romania, visiting her family, just ahead of our 10th anniversary. She got back and we went out for dinner. I picked what would turn out to be perhaps the worst Italian restaurant in Seattle. I had printed out the posts and had given them to her to read. When I saw that first tear roll down her cheek, I knew two things: the day wouldn’t be overshadowed by the awful food and I still had a chance of getting laid. Anyone who has ever gotten laid because of his blog will tell you that the best thing about blogging isn’t a potential book deal, it’s the potential for getting laid.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

I live in the Cascade foothills, far enough away so that it’s quiet and I can pee in my backyard, but close enough to SeaTac airport that I can easily fly some place where it’s noisy enough that I can pee in a bar alley surrounded by dozens of my peers. Plus, I’m a total animal freak, and everyday on my hour-long commute, I always have the chance to see elk or weasels or bald eagles or horses with massive erections. It inspires me to be more.

On the downside, when the terrorists launch a million nuclear bombs at us, we’re too far away from any major population center to die from a direct hit. Instead, we’ll be known in history as the ones who lingered on, smelling faintly of baby wipes and pine needles.

What’s the deal with the duckies?

I work with a guy who was a television producer, and one day I made a joke about how all of our videos seem TOO scripted, even down to the wildlife, and he said, ‘HA HA! CUE THE DUCKS!’ I thought that was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard, even though he doesn’t remember saying it. But now I say it all the time, primarily using it as a transition to the many dream sequences I incorporate into my posts. Seriously, blog posts without dream sequences are like nonalcoholic beer. You really have to chase them down with a half dozen tequila shooters before they’re even remotely effective. Plus, my parents, in an effort to become better people, started a farm after they ruined our lives, and they have about a dozen different kinds of ducks, which fascinate the ever living christ out of me. My BFF, Kat once posted photos to her Flickr account of an unnamed duck and I stood up and screamed at the monitor, “I KNOW THAT BIRD! IT’S A SMEW!” It frightens me that I know this.

Plus, is there anything cuter than a ducklet? If you said ‘yes,’ you are wrong.

If you were president of the US:

I’ve always found it odd that you are required by law to have automobile insurance, but health insurance is OPTIONAL. It reminds me of where our priorities lie. Unfortunately, as President, I wouldn’t actually do anything about this. Instead, it’s more likely that I would be the only chief executive ever caught urinating on the White House lawn holding a Pabst Blue Ribbon in one hand and the First Cock in the other.

What is TEQUILACONPACNW07?

Totally out of the blue one day, Jenny of Run Jen Run! asked me and Jill of Egg In Spoon to come to Chicago and drink tequila. And we did. And we called it TequilaCon, because anytime more than two bloggers get together it’s technically a REALLY BIG DEAL. But surprisingly, when we started writing about it, other people started commenting that they wanted to attend TequilaCon, too. So we organized another event in New York and I was amazed at how many people actually flew into town based on nothing more than a time, a location and a promise that one of us would hold their hair above the toilet when times got rough. The next get together will be in Portland on March 17 A ton of very cool bloggers have signed up, but it’s open to anyone, and there’s no pressure to drink or actually fondle each other. In fact, most people go home surprisingly sober and sexually frustrated. It’s like church camp. Only a lot more expensive.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

According to myheritage.com, Al Pacino would play me as an adult and Alanis Morissette would play me as a woman. If the movie has scenes from my gangster phase, then that role would be taken by Tupac.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

I read that a glass of wine a day is good for your heart, so I drink the whole bottle just to be sure.

In order to stay sane, I occasionally break down and smoke a menthol.

Favorite color:

Every kid knows the saying, ‘yellow and blue make green.’ And since blue is a metaphor for sadness, and green a metaphor for nature, that must mean yellow is a metaphor for anything that can transform sadness into nature.

Favorite food:

We had a poor childhood and among our government housing cuisine was chicken gizzards more often than not, and it still brings me a great deal of sick comfort, even though I’m a vegetarian now. Well, the other day I had a miserable time, and while I was in the deli, I saw a big plate of chicken gizzards, and because I was in an unhappy place I wanted to jam a whole handful into my mouth right then and there. Unfortunately, there was a very pretty girl next to me, and when the server came to ask for my order, I just couldn’t bring myself to say CHICKEN GIZZARDS PLEASE while this perfect stranger whom I’ve never seen again remained within earshot, how ashamed I was.

Can food be any more perfect than that? Anyone who questions the emotional value of what we stick into our mouths is lying to himself. I would tell you what my favorite food is, but I’m ashamed to say it out loud. And I can’t eat it, anyway.

It’s ten minutes to midnight the day before the world ends. Forever. No take backs. And there is no afterlife. What do you do with your last day?

Are you fucking kidding me? End-Of-The-World-Party excuse? Count me in. And I’d treat it like New Years, with all of us together on the beach one minute to midnight. We’d pop the cork, pour our final drinks, and I’d watch everyone go bottoms up. But I’d pour mine out onto the sand, the first and last time I would have ever turned away booze. I’d go out a winner, goddamnit.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

The only thing I can remember wanting to be when I was a child was a poet, but I don’t mention this because when I write poems God kills kittens and makes pedophiles masturbate on the bus, which is the opposite of how this whole masturbation-kitten mortality relationship happens in conventional wisdom.

I turned 10 in 1983, so there’s also a slight possibility that I wanted to be Ricky Schroeder.

What do you hate?

I hate that I stayed up reading all the interviews you’ve conducted, and it seemed like each person had a perfect answer for so many questions, so much so that I felt my penis getting smaller with each response. That’s a hard reality for a man who isn’t ready to admit that there’s probably more sexual intercourse behind him than in front of him.

I also hate splinters.

What do you love?

My kids have this really bizarre game where they bring me plastic toys while I’m typing away at the corner nook and then they take off running down the hallway expecting I will throw the toy at their heads, because I was such a good baseball player but not quite good enough to make the Braves minor league system when they were perennial doormats. Anyhoo, one time, they both took off running and I threw the big plastic cookie and it hit BOTH of them in the head, and not just glancing blows, but solid, and both of their skulls made sounds like coconuts falling onto a concrete floor. I think the little one even fell down and started crying. And of course, they came running back begging me to do it again. I loved this moment so much I gave myself permission to finish the box of wine, which, as I pointed out, is what I do to stay healthy.

I also love bloggers who purposefully misspell or completely make up words, use poor grammar or otherwise write posts that make no sense. This is the one format in the whole world where it’s permissible to do that. It seems such a waste not to.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

Just because you and someone else both suffer from a compulsive desire to write, and this manifests in an online journal doesn’t mean you have that one commonality that will bond you for life. Plenty of people were born with a natural ability to discharge a firearm and THEY haven’t all teamed up on the same side. Many armed separatists, in fact, can’t even stand each other. Some bloggers aren’t going to like you or respond to your emails or trackbacks or links. That doesn’t mean you should stop writing or that you’re a bad person. Sometimes it DOES, though. Go with your gut. I don’t know what else to tell you people.

Astounding facts about you:

I occasionally dream about having liaisons with other blogfolk. Most recently, I had a dream that when I returned for my reunion Mrs. Kennedy was the principal of my school, and we totally did it on her desk. This was the Eden before she cut her hair most recently, and our locks got entangled (DON’T ASK), which made it difficult to run away when her husband came after me to strangle me with his bare, mighty hands. I woke up simultaneously grinning and crying.

I’ve also written or contributed to 7 books related to college financial aid and college admissions. This has never gotten me laid, not even during my REM phase.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Everything I own is Windows, but it’s not a philosophical stand. If the senate were tied on a vote 50-50 for whether or not America should go Mac or Windows and I was the VP called in for the tiebreaker, I would either A. fall asleep during the debate, or B. skip the vote altogether and get arrested under suspicion of buying alcohol for an underage stripper named Mohina. If a blogger told me she would only sleep with me if I were a Mac user, I would tell her I was a Mac user. If later in the evening her sister were to make the same statement regarding Windows users, I would tell her I was lying to her sister only to get her to sleep with me and then we would sleep together. If their cousin then showed up to the party and said the same thing about Linux, I would probably tell her I’m tired of all the lies.

Do you really love Journey? If so, why?

I love the IDEA of Journey. I love that I live in a country where 20 years ago Journey could call its own shots in some questionable music video direction. I love that people got so upset when I told them I didn’t really like Journey and made me re-add it to my profile. I love that many of those same people believed me when I retracted and are now re-convinced that I love Journey. I love that I have yet to find myself in a crippling accident being cared for by a sociopathic nurse immediately following the release of my forthcoming novella: PLEASE STOP BELIEVING – THE DAY I KILLED JOURNEY ONCE AND FOR ALL.

How would your wife/kids describe you?

My wife would say I’m a great solution when the only answer is cock.

My kids would describe me as fast and a good source of cash. One day, however, they will describe me as the guy who never made them go to bed before 11 or eat their vegetables.

I’d love a parenting tip, please.

Don’t tell one child that you love him/her more than the other, even if you secretly plan on telling all your children the same thing. One of my earliest memories is of my mother whispering into my ear “you’re my favorite,” while my younger sister was sleeping just a few feet away. It fucking breaks my heart even now.

Also, never use the phrase, ‘Because I said so.’ Instead, say, ‘Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.’ I find it teaches my children to respect tradition, plus it comforts them to know that it’s not me making these decisions. Because I’m a moron.

And while you’re at it, how about a husband tip?

When your husband has angered you beyond any limit you thought possible, like let’s say he told you that the shoes you chose for your anniversary dinner make your ankles look swollen, fuck him hard for a good, solid day. Then as he climbs into the shower to wash off the day’s worth of filth, no matter how angry you might still be, climb into the running water and go down on him, and vice versa. You’ll both sleep for the next 12 hours and forget why you were so angry. And when he wakes up in the morning and looks at you, he’ll think you’re the most beautiful thing god created and regret saying those nasty things and never say such nonsense again. Unless, of course, he realizes the big reward he got for doing so, but still, it’s pretty sweet to have sex for two days straight, no matter the excuse, right? If spouses would just immediately go down on their partners whenever one made a serious error in judgment, we’d all be fine.

Plus, when you fuck a guy’s lights out, he really will think he doesn’t deserve you. And that’s half the battle right there. When a guy thinks he deserves you, you’re in dangerous territory. The other half of the battle is don’t ever tickle him, ever. He doesn’t like it, and hearing him squeal like a rabbit in a mole trap does no good for your faith in him as a protector, either.

What is one of your favorite memories?

On my very first call as a firefighter/EMT, I came to an 80-year-old woman’s house, looked through the window and saw her husband trying to perform CPR. A few weeks before, I had arrived on a scene of a dead man, and the two of them were the exact same shade of purple. I worked on her for about 10 minutes before the paramedics arrived. I was concentrating so much on CPR that I never noticed she had turned completely pink and was breathing again. It was the clearest transition I’ve ever witnessed between life and death, and it was exhilarating beyond description. She lived for a few weeks afterwards, and I’d like to think I helped buy them a few of those precious days.

Do you cook?

I experiment with a lot of odd ingredients. I have a fig tree, and I’m always dropping figs into everything. But since I get 80% of my caloric intake from liquor, I’ve come to realize there’s just so much you can do with olives and celery stalks.

What are you working on right now?

I’m writing another education-related book and continuing to solicit other bloggers interested in helping me test suitable Portland bars for TEQUILACONPACNW07.

Your own favorite post? And/or your favorite post of someone else?

This post by yongfook blew me away. Though his post on sexual positions is likewise hilarious and totally unsafe for work.

As far as my favorite post, I kind of liked my birthday letter to my son.

And I guess people found this one kind of amusing:

What will you being doing next year?

I will be introducing a new generation of bloggers to the depraved joy that is tequila/digital photography.

Tell me a secret?

My real father was a violent alcoholic, and although I don’t share his violent tendencies, I drink a lot. I drink during work hours, hiding booze in my Gatorade bottle. I take a drink in the morning. I take a drink before I go to bed. I drink too much, period. I know that it’s a problem, and I’m desperately hoping to go through life as the first alcoholic who never hurt another with his illness or is made to pay the price of his mistakes. My secret is that I know how horrible this sounds.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

What’s your favorite deciduous coniferous tree? It’s totally the tamarack.

Thanks, Brandon!

Illustrations

Designs, Logos and Buttons

Leahpeah Website Headers created from November 2002 through February 2008:

Photo credit: James Duncan Davidson/O’Reilly Media

Anil Dash, contrary to what you might think when you read some of his responses below, is not always a man of few words. He sometimes has quite a bit to say, unless you want to know more about Blortals, in which case, he clams up. A blog oldtimer, Anil does a lot of public speaking on subjects ranging from the relationship between blogs and traditional media to the future of social communication online. He has been featured in Wired, the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN and PBS as well as radio and in print. You might remember his influence when the word Nigritude Ultramarine started showing up everywhere. Currently, Anil is Vice President at Six Apart. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Alaina, and their feline and canine. And, he really does love Prince.

Blog Birthday:

July 20, 1999

Why do you blog?

Because it’s communication that works the way I think.

What do you talk about?

On my main public blog, mostly technology and pop culture. On my private Vox blog, I talk about my life to my family and friends.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

I don’t generally talk about my private life on my main blog, because it’s not anybody’s business and I hate people treating my life like they have a say in it.

Worst experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

Once on my personal blog, and once at work, I was at the center of a big pile-on by bloggers who were upset about an issue. In both cases, getting hundreds or even thousands of angry emails/comments/phone calls was among the most unpleasant experiences of my life. That’s why
I don’t put my personal stuff out there as much anymore.

What do you do for Six Apart and what do you like about working there?

I’ve done a lot of different things, but these days I mostly get to tell people a bit about what blogs are (that still comes up a lot), why they would want one, and how Six Apart can help them get one. The thing I love is that the goal here is really simply to get as many people blogging as possible, so they can see how it makes your life better. The thing I didn’t anticipate that I love is that it’s the toughest, most mentally challenging job I’ve ever had, and I’m surrounded by people who are passionate and smart.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

San Francisco is a geographically beautiful town. The worst thing is that people here probably aren’t critical enough of the culture around them.

How often do people mispronounce your name?

Not as often as you’d think. There are lots of Indian people in the Bay Area, so maybe that helps, and that book “Anil’s Ghost” came out a few years ago, so it’s less frequent than when I was growing up.

If you were president of the US:

I’d probably be assassinated. Or impeached by people with no sense of humor.

Re: your post ‘Digga, Please!‘, what side ARE you on? Why?

Both sides. 🙂

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Slim pickings among Indian actors that would get cast here in the U.S. So I guess I have to go with Naveen Andrews, and pretend he looks like me.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

I try to eat well, and my wife and I spend a lot of time just laughing and having fun, which is probably the best way to stay healthy. I used to run for a while, maybe I’ll start doing that again.

Do you really love Prince and if so, why?

Sure! At an intellectual level, he’s a really interesting, unconventional character for being a pop music artist. But I think at a less cerebral level, he’s made his own crazy little world that’s fully realized, and he charges admission for others to come enter it. And he makes people dance. That’s pretty good.

In your opinion, what is the best application/widget/program or helpful-bit-o-code to come out over the past year?

Phew. Tough call. I guess I heaped some praise on Office 2007, which I think is an amazing achievement given all their constraints and obligations. The one app that’s come along that I end up using the most is Vox. I’m in there every day.

Favorite color:

Depends. I like black, red, and purple. Growing up, blue was my favorite color.

Favorite food:

This probably changes every day! I love soup dumplings, most Indian food, my wife’s roast chicken, Shake Shack burgers, and real New York pizza. I make a pretty mean steak, too.

What is interesting to you right now?

Trying to become a blogger again. It’s a skill that I think I’m good at, but I’m out of practice, and the game has changed since I used to do it regularly. So that’s interesting. I’m also a little obsessed
with food and pop music, as always.

What the heck is Blortal?

A blortal is a very effective solution to an all-too-common problem.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I think I kicked around being a writer or a lawyer. I’ve kind of ended up being a writer at least part of the time, so that’s cool.

What do you hate?

Extremism and shoddy advocacy.

What do you love?

Easy one! My wife, my dog and cat, my family, and talking to people.

What was the point of Nigritude Ultramarine and would you do something like that again?

I don’t think there was much of a point to it, except that I was annoyed by people who want to profit off of the web, but don’t *care* about the web as a medium. There’s no point to doing it again, it got much more attention (and criticism) than I’d ever intended anyway. Plus I just think stunts are fun to do sometimes if there’s a little bit of a reason behind them.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

On a public blog, everything you write is on the record under your name for the rest of your life. Act like it, and do something you’re proud of. On a private blog, you’re creating the record your friends
and family will remember you by. It’s a privilege to get to do that.

Astounding facts about you:

Luther Campbell from 2 Live Crew gave me his Player’s Card. I used to help run a water company when I was a kid. I haven’t owned a car since 1998. I was the first person in the history of my family to go on a date.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Windows, because I’m good at it, and it seems to antagonize all my friends who are Mac users.

How would your wife describe you?

Probably as funny and smart, I think.

Do you cook?

Definitely. I love cooking, especially since I’ve lived in California and had access to such great ingredients.

What are you working on right now?

Redesigning my blog. 🙂 And lots of stuff for work.

What will you being doing next year?

Good question. Something fun, challenging, and ridiculous.

Tell me a secret?

I’ve had my phone number on my blog for years, but almost nobody calls.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

Who are my heroes?

Thanks, Anil!

Interview with Derek Powazek

Derek Powazek has a thing for stories. He tells them through pictures and words. He was a Senior designer at Technorati, is the founder of Fray, a co-founder of JPG magazine and an Online Director of AlterNet. He wrote a few books and his photos have been in exhibits and in various publications including San Francisco Magazine, Curve Magazine and also online. He’s won awards like the Silver Award in PhotoJournalism from the Society of News Design and is currently starting his own publishing company. Derek is inspiring to me. He is true to himself, follows his dreams and has more than enough talent to take him anywhere he wants to go.

Blog Birthday:

Earliest reverse-chronological posting, you mean? 1997. Yeah. Back then is was called a homepage. Quaint, huh?

Why do you blog?

Because I’m always half convinced that I’m going crazy and a good way to find out if you’re crazy is to talk about what you think and then see if people say, “Yeah! Totally! I feel the same way!” or if they just look at you funny and back away slowly.

It’s about half and half.

What do you talk about?

Less and less. When I started, I really was a lot more loose with the personal information. As I get older and the web gets bigger, I find I have less to say (or can say). Maybe growing up is about learning to keep things to yourself.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

Well, I’m in the middle of starting a business right now. I’m experiencing all kinds of crazy new things: Dealing with investors, business partners, creative ideas, legal stuff, hiring, etc. After years of working on other people’s ideas, it’s just amazing to finally be working on my own.

But I can’t talk about much of it for various business and legal reasons. It’s a strange feeling to have this giant part of your life and not be able to tell stories about it. Especially for a compulsive storyteller like myself.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

I’ve put so much personal information out over the years, the best and worst thing that happens is when I get recognized. It’s eerie to have a complete stranger say, “so how’s your cat, Spoo, and your dogs, Chieka and Bug, and your wife, Heather, and your house in Cole Valley, and…”

What is the most rewarding of your online endeavors?

Fray. Definitely. Fray proved to me the power of personal storytelling, and showed that an idea could bring web geeks out from behind their computers. Everything I do, for the rest of my life, is going to have a little bit of Fray in it.

Worst thing about living where you live?

I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. The N-Judah was going by. What?

How many photos do you take per day/week?

This week? None. Last week? Hundreds. Photographic inspiration is pretty random.

If you were president of the US:

I’d apologize to the world, over and over, for the rest of my life.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

I’d like to lie and say Pitt but it’d probably be Keanu. Fucking Keanu. Stop being in all the movies I wanna see!

What did you learn with JPG mag? Will it continue?

I learned that Heather and I can collaborate on an artistic project without killing each other. I learned that digital photographers appreciate print more than traditional photographers. And I learned that I really, really like making magazines.

Will it continue? You bet your bippy. And it’s about to get much, much more awesome.

8020 Publishing: what is it? What are you doing? Where is it going? Who/what are you looking for?

What it is: Awesome.
What we’re doing: Building.
Where it’s going: Big.
What we’re looking for: Patience.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

Get away from the computer and out with friends as much as possible. And I don’t do that nearly enough.

I know in the past you have spoken regarding virtual/online communities. Do you have an opinion about Secondlife and what the attraction is and who are the people that ‘live’ there?

I have a theory. Virtual worlds like that and World of Warcraft are for people who enjoy digital interaction, but don’t like to write. If they did, they’d be bloggers instead.

What have you learned since you wrote your book and would you change anything you wrote based on what you’ve learned?

Since I wrote Design for Community, the world of web communities has really become much more about blogs, and blog tools, than the bulletin boards it used to be about. I covered blogs in the last chapter of the book, but not nearly enough. The talks I give these days are much more about how blogs change the old notions of web community, because everyone’s the king of their own castle.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

A game programmer for Atari. Or a guitarist in a rock and roll hair band.

Is Fray still around? Do people meet up and share stories?

Fray is on hiatus, but all the archives are still up. In spite of that, there was a Fray Cafe last SXSW, and will probably be another one next year (thanks to Eric Rice and Michael Brown and their utter refusal to let it die, God love ’em).

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

Ignore your links, your stats, your hitcount, and just WRITE. All that matters is the writing. Have fun doing it and everyone else will, too.

Astounding fact about you:

I am featured in a painting on the wall of A Dorm in Porter College, Santa Cruz. Naked.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Mac, because interface matters. If it hadn’t been for the Mac, I never would have gotten a computer.

Is there a design that you have done that you are particularly proud of?

My designs now are like my songs when I used to write songs: My favorite one is always the most recent one.

How would your wife describe you?

A romantic troublemaker who makes her crazy (in a good way).

Do you cook?

Breakfast is my specialty.

What will you being doing next year?

If all goes well, being the founder of a small company with a handful of employees making some really cool shit.

Tell me a secret story.

Ok, well, if your readers have actually read this far, here’s a brief story I’ve been saving for a special occasion.

A few years ago, I was working for a company, and let’s just say I’d had a difficult day. I went out to dinner with Heather and Paul (who is now my business partner) at a neighborhood restaurant. As we were sitting there, waiting to order, I let loose a torrent of work-related kvetching. I named names. I told tales. It felt great.

Just as I was reaching a crescendo of kvetch, one of the key higher-ups at the company walked into the restaurant, and headed directly for our table. When he got there, he embraced the woman who’d been sitting at the table next to ours the whole time.

“Oh, hi, Derek,” he said. “Have you met my wife?”

Thanks for reading – I’ll be here all week.

Thanks, Derek!

Interview with Laid Off Dad

Even though his blog’s name says he’s laid off, LOD is actually gainfully employed and living in New York with his wife and 2 kids. It’s not that he’s lying; it’s just that he’s already gone through the getting laid-off and the getting rehired process. If you missed it, you can read all about it in his archives. Laid Off Dad is not just funny, although he is that. He likes to use semi-obscure words and writes with finesse. His writing sometimes reminds me of The Good Example I could never hope to be as good as from my college writing course. His words intertwine and arabesque and then make you laugh so hard you almost pee your pants. You can also find Laid Off Dad at The Blogfathers.

Blog Birthday:

June 1, 2003

Why do you blog?

My two favorite things in the world are writing and being a father. The blog seems the most appropriate confluence.

I also like the immediacy. You put something out there, and within seconds somebody has read it and given you feedback. It’s purest form of self-expression afforded the written word. It’s the stand-up comedy of publishing.

What do you talk about?

Mostly whatever.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

I try to keep it goofy and steer clear of polemics, which angry up the blood.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

The best came last January, when a half-assed, last-second idea to get readers to de-lurk ultimately raised $1,280 for charity. You hear a lot about the power of the Internet, but you don’t fully realize it until something like that happens.

The worst was when an MSN Groups website stole a picture of Robert and published it with a semi-literate caption representing him as a Lebanese kid named Antoine. (“The second male son wish the long life and the hapiness of the boy between his parents.”) I’ve never felt so livid. This is why I rarely publish pictures of my kids anymore.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

Most people think the usual things about New York, but not enough is written about how great a place it is to raise young children. It’s very neighborly; the coffee guy knows my usual, the deli guy has Robert’s bagel in the toaster before we walk in the door. Everything I need is less than three blocks away, and we don’t spend all day strapping babies into car seats. But we’ll never afford the space we’ll ultimately need, and on one very sucky day we’ll have to leave.

If you were president of the US:

I’d tell the current guy to get the hell out of my chair.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

The Patriarch once described me as “a less violent Lee Marvin.” When I read that, I thought, Is he kidding? Lee Marvin is like, 70 years old, and he’s dead. Then I took a good look at myself and thought, Holy crap. I look a lot like Lee Marvin.

I’m not aging well.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

Not nearly enough, apparently.

Favorite color?

Purple. What other color can claim to be a mountain’s majesty, the heart of the Army, the rose of Cairo, Prince’s rain, Jimi’s haze, Harold’s crayon, and a one-eyed, one-horned, flying people eater?

Favorite food?

Moxie’s rhubarb cake. She has to hide it from me; otherwise I’d scarf the whole thing.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I probably wanted to be an actor. When I was five, I starred as Prince Charming in an all-kindergarten production of “The Bluebird of Paradise.” And I killed. During the curtain call, the young girls showered me with their Pull-Ups.

Alternately, I was ten when the U.S. celebrated its bicentennial. So I could just as easily have wanted to be the guy who painted the red, white, and blue line down the middle of West Main Road.

What do you hate?

I hate the tiny aperture of time I have to write each day. It feels like noose. When I’m really inspired, I have to stay up at night to write. And that’s dangerous, because excessive fatigue can deplete your underpants supply.

What do you love?

I love how marriage and fatherhood have made me a better man. And when I need to manage stress, I love everything to do with words and anagrams and puzzles. They keep my brain from overheating and my blood pressure down.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

Stand by, and wait for my signal.

Astounding facts about you:

When I was two, I got a staph infection and almost died. My family was on vacation, and the nearest pediatrician turned out to be Rupert von Trapp, the oldest child in the (very fictionally dramatized) Trapp Family Singers. I have no recollection of the ordeal, but for some reason I often crave schnitzel with noodles.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Windows. As a New Yorker, my middle finger is too prehensile not to right-click.

How would your wife describe you? How about your kids?

Moxie and I are very much alike. Life with her is wonderful and exhausting, and I’m pretty sure she’d say the same thing about me. Robert thinks I’m the strongest man alive because I give upside-down hugs. TwoBert thinks I’m delicious.

Do you still wish you were laid off?

Hell, no. I am a brooder, so when I had all that time on my hands I had to keep from chastising myself as an unfit provider. I don’t like to think about what I might have done instead of blogging, but it probably would have involved a lot of self-medication.

What did you learn about yourself why you were laid off?

I learned that I hated the career path I was on, and that it actively squelched any creative impulse I had. I also learned that my wife loves me unconditionally, and that I could really get into being a stay-at-home dad.

What do you miss about being home with the kids?

My current gig affords me lots of time at home, so I don’t miss much of anything. What I remember, though, is the immense challenge of filling the hours each day. Dressing the kids is no picnic, either, since they’re both such aggressive nudists.

Why are you glad you are working again?

The boys outgrow their sneakers every 45 minutes.

Do you cook?

Not as much as I used to, but I love it. We experiment with new recipes all the time, and whether they work doesn’t really matter because Robert won’t eat anything, anyway. If I ever hit the big time, I’d love to pull a Hourihan and become a journeyman foodie.

What are you working on right now?

I began a story as a screenplay, but now it wants to be a novel. And it’s about food.

Your own favorite post? And/or your favorite post of someone else?

I’ve linked to a few of them here. I remember liking how TwoBert’s pregnancy announcement came out, and I enjoy my lists. If I have a favorite external post, Mimi probably wrote it.

You’re going to BlogHer? But, you aren’t a ‘her’.

At last year’s conference, all the women I enjoy reading got together and became BFFs 4EVER, and I sat here on the other side of the country feeling jealous as hell. I’m told we XYers are welcome, so I’m going. Since women are the dominant writers and readers of parent blogs, it is incumbent on us dads, the Elizabeth Cady Stantons of our generation, to blaze a trail.

What will you be doing next year?

Expanding the percent of my income that comes from writing, and agonizing about whether we can make it through another year in our little Manhattan Habitrail.

Tell me a secret?

At night, when everyone is asleep, I like to put a hard-driving tune (from Eve 6 or Veruca Salt or Rush or Molly Hatchet) on the headphones and air-drum until I can’t lift my arms. I think that’s one of those “things to stay sane” you mentioned before.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

If this were “Inside the Bloggers’ Studio,” I would tell you that my favorite word is kerfuffle, my favorite curse word is dipshit, and if Heaven exists, I would like to hear God say that I was right, and she was wrong.

Thanks, LOD!

Interview with Amanda Brumfield / Very Zen

Have you met Amanda B.? At Very Zen, Amanda talks about pretty much everything, including sensitive subjects such as her history with depression and anxiety and how she deals with them. She’s funny and witty and clever.

Amanda and her husband have spent the past year wading through bureaucracy up to their armpits trying to recover from Katrina. Their home is getting closer and closer to being done, just in time for this year’s wonderful storm season. There have been other hardships as well over the past year, and you might expect someone in her position to be mostly, rightfully and out of necessity, focused on herself. But in Amanda’s case, you’d be wrong. She spends her days helping people with their medical claims and often goes above and beyond the call of duty. Case in point would be Chester as well as various animals found in the wild that need a good home and nursing back to health.

When you read Very Zen, you understand very clearly how much she cares – just genuinely cares. And you feel it loud and clear. When you read between the lines, you see how big her heart really is.

In the ‘Also’ category, Amanda writes and sings songs in the bathroom and has met Chewbacca.

Blog Birthday:

January 31, 2005

Why do you blog?

To get a little right-brain activity back into my life. I’m a very abstract/random person with a 9 to 5 desk job and blogging helps me to keep in touch with my creative side. It keeps me calm- much like playing music does. .

What do you talk about?

I think my blog is a great representation of the way my brain functions. I talk about whatever pops into my head, whatever I’m feeling the need to express in the moment. I tend to go from one subject to another and the movement is often fairly incoherent. People seem to relate to my thoughts and feelings and respond to the way that I write, so I haven’t felt the need to regiment or change the flow of VeryZen. That’s one of the aspects of blogging that I love- I get to be the stripped down version of myself and enjoy the way people relate to that.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

There are personal issues that I don’t address out of respect for others. I try to steer clear of any serious subject matter pertaining to my marriage or my family and if I do write about it, I keep it as ambigious as possible.

I try to steer clear of certain political issues, although I have really enjoyed the political dialouge that has taken place on VeryZen. I’ve tried to create an atmosphere where liberals and conservatives can share their opinions and not be judged and ridiculed. More often than not, I’ve found that people are more alike than they think and that there really is common ground for us all to stand on. That being said, there are some topics that I avoid like the plague because I think that their very nature is to exaggerate the rift between the parties.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

The best experience I’ve had has been the number of people I’ve found who are genuinely kind and sincere when commenting on my blog. There are just so many good folks out there, people who are willing to help those in need, who are open to sharing their own experiences, who don’t see themselves as anything special- but have helped me more than I can express. I feel really lucky to have met so many people with such huge hearts.

The worst has probably been dealing with people out there on the net who are seemingly malignant and cruel. Several times, I’ve had to take a long hard look at the blog and decide if I wanted to continue. If I’m going to put my personal stories and opinions out there, I have to expect some negative feedback. It’s just a part of the equation.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

I love the easy, laid back atmosphere of the South. Also the cost of living is fabulous. Scott and I have been discussing a move, but when we look at the cost of housing in other areas we aren’t able to justify the expense.

The worst part of living in the South is the god-awful, sticky, mosquito infested, please kill me now, why doesn’t Jesus love me- HEAT..It is so hot here during the Summer that all you can think about is being somewhere else.

If you were president of the US:

I would make a terrible president. I care way to much about what other people think of me. Also I don’t really enjoy behaving like a responsible adult. But if in theory I wasn’t a neurotic lunatic, I would do everything in my power to protect the rights of people all over the world.

You’ve talked about your depression on your site. Have you had any backlash from that? Why do you talk about something that some consider so private in a public forum? How do you cope?

I have experienced some backlash mostly consisting of people informing me that I’m trying to copy other bloggers who suffer from depresison. It’s silly really, but I have to admit that it has bothered me a good bit because living with depression has been such a deeply personal and terrifying experience. Other than those few accusations I’ve only received support and encouragement.

I suppose I never really considered my depression as being a private issue. I don’t see it as being any different than talking about having diabetes or any other ailment, but I suppose that it is different in that it is a mental illness. There is still so much misunderstanding and false information out there concerning depression and other illnesses, I’m sort of taken aback by it at times. It helps me to write about my struggles with depression and in doing so I hope to help others suffering with the illness. I’d also love to educate as many people as possible about the effects of depression on the individual and the family, as well as provide an accurate depiction of mental illnesses and those who suffer from them.

I’ve always coped using several sure-fire methods: escape, therapy, medication, exercise. Of course escapism is not the healthiest option, but it has served its purpose in my life. I’ve used drugs, food, sex, and disassociation in the past to help me deal with the pain of my illness. I can honestly say that while these options are not the best methods coping, there have been times when they saved my life. I think I would tell any severly depressed person that if the options are a)a jelly filled doughnut, b) a few drinks, or c) walking out in front of a truck- go for a or b.

I have been lucky enough to find healthier methods of controlling my disease. I’m on a wonderful antidepressant, Lexapro*, and have felt such an amazing difference in my ability to see things clearly and to feel a sense of relief and peace. I exercise regularly, see a therapist once a week, try to eat right and get enough rest. I do things that I enjoy and I give myself permission to relax. Most of all I have accepted my depression for what it is and I am willing to do the things necessary to take care of myself. I am committed to keeping my disease in remission.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Abe Vigoda, no question.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

I get up early in the morning and drink coffee. I take naps in the afternoon whenever I’m able. I work in my garden. I snuggle with my husband. I am a huge fan of therapy and of talking out my problems. I try to get things off my chest and not harbor resentment or anger. I make an effort to be kind to others while not forgetting to be kind to myself. I listen to the rock and roll music.

Tell me about Chester and what you’ve learned.

Chester is a terminally ill client of mine who was until recently being cared for by his 82 year old mother. I helped them as much as I could and then realized that the help they needed was beyond my means. After some consideration, I asked my readers to donate to Chester and his mother and boy did they! I think in the end the total of all the donations was close to $2000.00. It was amazing, and allowed Chester to live in peace until I could help him get into a nursing home.

I learned during this process that people want to and are willing to help total strangers, to give freely of themselves, to make someone else’s life better. These folks didn’t just talk smack, they took action and in doing so changed two lives. I was truly humbled by the entire experience.

Favorite color:

Blue

Favorite food:

Red meat- medium well

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I have always wanted to be a rock star. I don’t mean in the traditional sense- the money, the drugs, the fame- I mean I have always wanted to fucking rock. I admired and emulated artists like Janis Joplin, The Clash, Neil Young, Freddie Mercury, Springsteen, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Buckley– musicians who didn’t give a damn if they were pretty- when they were on stage they put their balls into it and gave everything they had to their music. They all wrote and produced music, played a half dozen instruments, and when they walked on stage and the lights came up they transformed the air around them into something better- something sweet and tangable. I didn’t just want to play and sing, I wanted to be that good.

You work with people every day that need so much. Do you have trouble staying emotionally full and in a place to be able to help them and feel compassionate?

Wow, that’s an amazingly intuitive question. Before I started this line of work I worked in a drug and alcohol treatment center for several years, and learned a lot about detachment. I eventually had to move on from that job, because it was too emotionally draining but I’ve been able to find a nice balance with my current job. I’m in a situation now where if I do my job well I can help people to drastically improve their quality of life. I stay focused on the goal and am able to be empathetic without getting emotionally attached to my clients. Mostly.

What do you hate?

Contractors, hurricanes, anal itching , Tom Cruise, my weird alien nostrils(note from leahpeah – her nostrils are actually quite charming), anxiety, racism, and bullies.

What do you love?

My husband, Starbuck’s Triple Venti Mocha, Star Wars, rock music, gay boys, Austin, Texas, my guitar, and working in my garden.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

I don’t think I’ve been around long enough to impart much advice. The only thing I think I would want to say is that I think that we as bloggers have a unique opportunity to do a lot of good. I would love to see us bloggers become more of a worldwide community.

Astounding facts about you:

I can eat a 14 oz ribeye without batting an eye. In one sitting.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Honestly? I don’t have a preference. My husband is the computer person in the family and he prefers Linux. I don’t know enough about computers to care one way or the other- basically Scott formats a box for me, I install a few programs and I’m off. I’m very unskilled and therefore low maintenance when it comes to computers.

I do love to poke fun at my Mac friends though. They are dead serious about their Apples.

How would your husband describe you?

The most proficently gymnastic piece of ass he’s ever had. No, I think that first he would say that I’m kind, loyal, brave and funny. Then I think he would add hot-headed, unfocused, fearful and hyper-sensitive. He knows me better than anyone. It’s amazing to have someone who sees you for who you really are and loves you for it. Scott provides me with ample evidence that unconditional love really does exist.

Where can I hear your music? (because, I really want to.)

That’s an excellent question. I really need to get some tracks online, but I’m super shy about it. I shall make it so, for you LeahPeah.

Do you cook?

Not on purpose. I’m not a domesticated humanoid.

Your own favorite post? And/or your favorite post of someone else?

I don’t think I have a favorite post of my own. I always feel goofy when I go back and read my own material. I have so many favorite posts I wouldn’t know where to start, but three of my favorite writers are Brandon, Sheryl, and Heather. I think these are three of the most talented humans on earth, and they inspire me and make me want to be a more open and creative person.

What is one of your favorite memories?

The day I realized that I was over my abusive ex-boyfriend. I was one of the most important days of my life.

“VeryZen is not affiliated with any political and/or religious organizations.” I was wondering, what organizations are you affiliated with?

None that I can think of at the moment. I’m a gigantic pain in the ass and have a natural aversion to people who get together in large groups and demand that they know the secrets of the universe. I’m thinking of starting an organization myself though, that will function as a vehicle for my ideas and my opinions. I think people would really benefit from seeing things my way, especially lots of people, and they could pay a fee to come and listen to me speak about my ideas for a few hours each week.

What will you being doing next year?

I will have cast my self debasing attitude aside and become the lead singer of a rock band. At first we will cover 80’s love ballads in dive bars to pay the bills.

Tell me a secret?

Sometimes, when things get tough, I sleep with a teddy bear.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

You didn’t ask me about my super powers.

Thanks, Amanda!

*it works great for amanda. (awesome!) it might not be the same for you. so, if you are interested in taking Lexapro, go talk to your doctor.

Interview with Pierre Kim / Metro Dad

Partially in the interest of not missing any sections of the blogging spectrum, but mostly because I think he’s really funny and insightful, I asked Pierre Kim of Metro Dad if he would be interested in an interview. I know, I’ve done some daddy-bloggers in the past, but not for a long time and it’s way over due. Pierre lives in New York with his wife and daughter. He’s part snake venom, which I find quite intriguing, and will give you his seat on the subway, if you are old or pregnant. Just keep that in mind. He’s also a stickler for good grammar but can take a joke quite well. You can also find Pierre at Rice Daddies and DadCentric.

Blog Birthday:

July 8, 2004.

Why do you blog?

I like to joke that I blog because it’s cheaper than therapy but actually that’s probably fairly close to the truth. Blogging is very therapeutic for me. It not only gives me a creative outlet for my writing but it also gives me a microphone so my wife doesn’t have to listen to me rambling non-stop like a crazy man on the subway in his underwear.

What do you talk about?

Generally, my transition into fatherhood and the more humorous aspects of being an urban dad. Prior to the birth of my daughter, I led a very selfish and hedonistic life. Now, my entire life revolves around a little 20-month old girl who has me completely wrapped around her little finger.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

I don’t discuss politics, religion, or specific details regarding my family and friends. Why? Because I’ve got an antiquated sense of civility and etiquette that prevents me from discussing topics on my blog that I feel are traditionally better left for the parlor room.

Personally, I find this extremely ironic since I’m also the same person who apparently has no qualms talking about drinking his wife’s breast milk, getting high with my dog, and breaking up with old girlfriends via FedEx.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

By far, the best experience for me has been making personal connections with people with whom I never would have met if not for the blog. It’s been incredibly gratifying to find people who share your sense of humor, your values and a similar perspective on life.

The worst? To tell you the truth, the only semi-bad experience was when a few trolls not only left anonymous comments on my blog but also felt compelled to send me hate mail. For a brief nanosecond, I considered ending the blog but then I realized that would be like letting the terrorists win. Who the hell has time to write hate mail?

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

I’m a born-and-raised New Yorker so the only bad thing I’ll ever say about my city is that I would kill for some more personal space and privacy. Our apartment is a closet-less shoebox with only a thin piece of balsa wood separating us from the Russ Meyer casting call of assorted freaks that live in our building. Sometimes when I’m reading late at night, I can hear the guy next door trying to flush his cat down the toilet.

Otherwise, I absolutely love living here and taking advantage of everything the city has to offer. Between all the museums, the off-Broadway plays, the concerts, and the restaurants, I feel like the entire world is right outside my doorstep. I thrive on the manic energy of the city and I absolutely love the sheer diversity of people.

Also…being inherently lazy, I love the fact that I can get anything from car batteries to sushi to hookers delivered directly to my front door at any time of the day.

What place do daddy-blogs have in the current mommy-blog regime?

Whereas mommy blogs are like the giant 800-lb gorilla of the parenting blogosphere, daddy blogs are like the tiny gnat on the gorilla’s ass. In all honesty, most people don’t even know we exist. However, that’s part of what I find so appealing about writing a daddy blog. It’s such a small close-knit community. Generally speaking, we’re all huge fans of one another and read each other’s blogs devotedly.

That being said, there are so many fantastic mommy bloggers out there that they deserve all the attention they get. I’m in awe of them as writers, as parents, and as people. Without women like Heather (Dooce), Melissa (Suburban Bliss), and Alice (Finslippy), I’m not sure that daddy bloggers would even exist. Although their modesty would prevent them from ever admitting this, I believe that these great writers (who just happened to be mothers) paved the way for people to blog about parenting. Not only were they unafraid of exposing the darker sides of parenting, they also demonstrated that there could be more to a parenting blog than cute stories, rainbows and lollipops. I love their sheer honesty and vulnerability. And, in all honesty, as much as I love my fellow daddy bloggers, there are only a few of them that can write as well as these women. In fact, the only two that come to mind are Laid-Off Dad and Dutch.

If you were president of the US:

I would immediately institute a national dress code outlawing baggy jeans, revealing thongs, Day-Glo, and Birkenstocks.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Umm…David Carradine in yellowface?

Sadly, there’s a real dearth of Asian-American actors who have the emotional depth and intellectual range to play such a complicated character as myself. Just kidding. Fortunately, nobody in his or her right mind would ever pay to see a movie about my tediously boring life so I think we can hold off on the casting call for now.

I will say, however, that my wife thinks my personality best resembles the illegitimate love child of Tina Fey and George Clooney with Jackie Mason as the Godfather.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

It’s highly debatable whether I am either sane OR healthy. Thanks for asking though! It’s very sweet of you, Leah!

Favorite color:

As I was reading in W Magazine the other day, black is the new black.

Favorite food:

3-way tie: Lombardi’s pizza, Peter Luger’s bacon and the Peking duck from Maple Garden.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

My mother always held up Bill Bradley as an aspiring role model. After all, he was a Princeton grad, a Rhodes scholar, a NY Knick and a U.S. Senator. I had to admit that was a pretty impressive resume. So, not surprisingly, when I was 10, I was convinced that I was going to be the starting shortstop for the NY Mets. After a glorious Hall-of-Fame career and winning the World Series for my hometown, I would then move seamlessly into the world of politics and become the Mayor of New York.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hit a curveball so my political career ended before it began.

What do you hate?

Rude people. It truly boggles my mind that an able-bodied man would knowingly NOT give up their seat on the subway to a pregnant woman, a handicapped person or the elderly. It literally drives me insane when I see this happen.

I also hate beets, bad grammar, the designated hitter rule, Paris Hilton, and bigotry of any kind.

Why do you hate North Dakota?

I don’t hate North Dakota! Despite the fact that I’ve driven across the country about 7 times and traveled extensively, I’ve somehow never managed to find myself in North Dakota. It’s literally the only state that I’ve never set foot in. Does it count if I say that “Fargo” is one of my favorite films?

What do you love?

I’m a fairly simple man. I’m a sucker for a good scotch, a good book and a good old-fashioned romantic comedy. I love the smell of my wife’s hair, tiny kisses from my daughter, warm summer days at Shea, walking along the Hudson River, and the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

Give me all of those things on a daily basis and I’ll die a happy man.

I would like to hear about the snake venom in China, please.

I was traveling to a village outside of Shaoxing for work and one of the local leaders decided to throw a huge banquet dinner for us. Halfway through this magnanimous feast, a woman walked into the room with an enormous snake around her neck. It must have been about 10-12 feet long and scared the living crap out of me. The handlers grabbed the snake and forced it to release venom by sticking its fangs into a cloth-covered glass. The venom just shot out in a violent burst. The local leader then mixed the venom with some local rice wine (which tastes like Turpentine) and handed the glass to me.

Now, I’m usually pretty game for anything. When I travel, I like to throw myself into the local culture and ignore any preconceived notions that may have been formed by my upbringing. However, there was no way that I was going to drink that venom. Unfortunately, one of my guides informed me that this was a huge honor being bestowed upon me and that if I turned it down, it would not only be a personal affront to the host but it would also be quite embarrassing for him. How could I say no to that?

Next thing I know, I’m drinking half a glass of venom and thinking about the fact that I’m going to die alone here in China and nobody will ever know what happened to me. Fortunately, I lived to tell the tale. And aside from the occasional desire to eat rats and slither naked in the grass, I don’t think it affected me in any way!

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

Don’t quit your day job.

You also blog at Rice Daddies and DadCentric. Why three blogs? How are they different?

In a way, I feel that each blog allows me to express a different facet of my personality. On Rice Daddies, I usually discuss race-related issues that either concern me or influence how I raise my daughter. Being of Asian descent is an important part of who I am but it certainly doesn’t wholly define me as an individual. So I generally use Rice Daddies as a forum for race-related topics that I’m interested in discussing with either other people of Asian descent or those raising Asian-American children.

DadCentric is just a collaboration of some really cool, down-to-earth fathers who share a similar sense of humor. My DadCentric posts tend to be very light-hearted and fairly short. Sometimes I’ll post cocktail recipes or rant about sports. Other times, I’ll ask readers for advice about what I should do when both Tiffany AND Debbie Gibson are in concert on the same night at different venues in NY. However, most of what I write there would appeal only to other men.

Astounding facts about you:

1. I eat food so quickly that you’d swear I’ve been in prison for the past 37 years.
2. My head is enormous. My wife weighed it once and swore that it was over 11 lbs.
3. I can drink an entire liter of scotch while beating you in a game of Scrabble.
4. I can’t carry a tune to save my life but unfortunately I have no inhibitions or shame.
5. If every song by Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Pearl Jam, Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy were to somehow completely disappear from the planet, I’d probably be able to write down the lyrics for the rest of humanity. I’d remember about half the lyrics to songs by U2, Oasis, The Replacements and Prince. Sadly, Celine Dion and the entire country music oeuvre would be lost forever.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

I’ve been a die-hard Mac addict for over 20 years. I’m in love with their simplicity, elegance and beauty. As I’ve said before, I think I’d rather see my mother in a whorehouse than on a Windows PC.

How would your wife describe you? How about your daughter?

My wife would say that no words could describe the true essence of who I am. However, I think she’s just saying that because she’s watching “Laguna Beach” right now.

Actually, my wife would say that I’m a very handsome man with smooth skin and smelly feet who makes her laugh so hard she snorts but, at the same time, drives her absolutely crazy by correcting her grammar even as she’s falling asleep. She’d also say I’m the smartest man that she knows but that I’m nowhere near as smart as her.

My daughter would say I’m really fun because I let her stick her tiny finger up my nose just to hear her laugh. Otherwise, she would describe me as “Mommy.”

Do you cook?

Not really. We tend to use the kitchen as an extra storage space. I’m not joking when I say that I actually keep my ski boots in the oven.

What are you working on right now?

Being a better husband, father and son. Quitting smoking.

Where do you like to travel to? (i put in some dangling participles just for you…..but as a joke since i still want to be friends and everything….) Why do you like to go their? (again, just for you. i kid!)

Even though I know you’re joking, Leah, I’m still getting an aneurysm!

I love traveling off the beaten path. Being immigrants to this country from Korea, my parents were always taking us on tours of Western civilization. Before I was even 18, I’d probably been to about ten different countries in Europe alone. It’s partly why I chose a career that would take me to some of the more remote regions of the world, places unstained by the greasy palms of tourists.

My favorite trip was to the Galapagos Islands. My wife and I spent almost two weeks on a boat going around the islands with a naturalist tour guide and it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I’ve never been anywhere else on the planet where you can have such an affinity for the natural world. It’s almost like going back in time. It’s a special place and I can’t wait to take my daughter there someday.

Your own favorite post? And your favorite post of someone else?

I actually have two favorite posts. The first is “Confessions of a Grammar Nerd”, where I discuss my life-long obsession with grammar. The second is “My Name is MetroDad”, where I share some of the more embarrassing indiscretions of my past. What I like about both of these posts is that, prior to writing them, I found myself at a point where I briefly felt like I was pandering to my audience and creating this on-line persona of who I was as a person. After a nanosecond of soul searching, I realized that I really didn’t care whether people liked me or not. I also came to the conclusion that I didn’t give a damn about traffic or comments or my stat counter. The freedom I gained from this was extremely liberating and it made writing the blog much more enjoyable.

My favorite post by someone else was written at Tales from My Tiny Kingdom, which is the blog of the fabulously funny Anne Glamore. Her post “It’s Natural, But It’s Rated R” is the story of her and her husband trying to teach one of their sons about the birds and the bees. To this day, I still can’t read it without laughing out loud hysterically.

What will you being doing next year?

Hopefully finalizing my plans for world domination. However, those plans might have to be put on hold since my wife wants to have another child next year. Therefore, instead of sitting on my golden throne and bossing around my many minions, I’ll most likely be massaging my wife’s feet or running out to get her cheese fries at 4:00 in the morning.

Tell me a secret?

When it’s late at night and everyone’s in bed, I pour myself a drink and watch re-runs of “Extreme Makeover” so I can cry myself to sleep. Does that count as a secret? Oh yeah, a few years ago, I got really high at Johnny Depp’s house in L.A. and I think I might have slept with Robert Evans.

Actually, I’m just kidding. Want to know my deepest secret? You can’t tell anybody but, despite my self-deprecating nature, I’m actually incredibly vain. My therapist says it’s probably due to the fact that my mother had two miscarriages after me and I was an only child for almost five years. Or maybe it’s because my mother’s philosophy of positive reinforcement backfired and went awry. However, the truth is that the source of my vanity is my hair. Only four people on the planet are allowed to touch my hair. Aside from my wife and daughter, my dermatologist and hair stylist are the only others who are allowed total access.

My other secret is that I come from a long family of freaks dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Despite this travesty, I’m frightfully well adjusted. I didn’t used to be. However, drugs and alcohol have done wonders.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

Are you really as pompous as you seem to be? No. My therapist says that I’m overcompensating for my narcissistic need to be loved so I do my best to make people hate me by portraying myself as eminently vapid and arrogant. He says that, at heart, I’m actually a really nice guy with a good heart. I tell him that if he wants my $30 co-payment, he’d better shut up or I’ll cut him!

Thank you, Pierre!

Jason Scott, creator of Textfiles.com, has created an archive that is constantly growing and changing. There are always people sending in new files for him to place into the massive collection he started from nothing. Work of this quality is only found in labors of love. Part of the reason the archive is so huge, and continues to grow, is that the people contributing to it were at one time a part of a community much larger than themselves and welcome, very much so, when a person comes along and sets up a place for that community, or the shadow of it, to reside again. It feels a little like home.

For someone such as myself, who loves interviewing people and finding out what makes them tick, I was pretty much in heaven while I watched his first set of films, BBS: The Documentary, in which he speaks to over 200 people about their involvement in BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems). He’s a journeyman historian, yes, but not just that. He has a wonderful and insightful way of getting people to open up and talk about something that is, or was, so important to them, to their lives. He then puts the stories together in a way that makes sense, even for someone like me that had very limited knowledge of what having a modem meant prior to the Internet. I suspected that I would enjoy viewing it, but I had no idea that I would heart it so much. I eagerly anticipate the next two films he is simultaneously working on, Get Lamp and Arcade, even if they also take twice as long to create as he first thought. It’ll be well worth the wait.

Blog Birthday:

I kept a weblog before a lot of people, over here. So December 17, 1997!

Why do you blog?

These days, it’s several factors. For one, I have essays that don’t really fit anywhere. I used to have a “thoughts” page on textfiles.com, but it limited me to discussing the direct files on textfiles.com, and that got a little weird. Then I became a “guest blogger” on boingboing and got such a wildly positive response from people, I decided it was time to get myself a separate site, and ascii.textfiles.com came in.

What do you talk about?

Computer history, life lessons I’ve learned, things that amaze me, my own history, things that make me sad.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

I avoid politics discussions when I can because all it does right now is foster conflict and hate without any resolution. I keep my political actions elsewhere.

Worst/best experience regarding something you wrote in your blog or put out on the net?

All of my entries criticizing Wikipedia have caused enormous crap-storms that make me sometimes wish I’d never opened my goddamned mouth in public. It also confuses people to have this historian guy “against” something, which is how it’s usually interpreted, that I’m “against” Wikipedia. In fact, I’m against implementation choices in Wikipedia, choices that they themselves are starting to undo. It’s been a great time studying it, but jeez, come on, I’m more than a Wikicritic.

The best experience was the way my article about why I used Creative Commons shot around the world. It sold a lot of copies, but it also touched a lot of people.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

I live in the Boston area. I enjoy the access to the wonders of New England, but I hate freezing. I would live in a warmer climate if I didn’t know it would basically cut me off from my family, who are very important to me.

When I first went in to look around textfiles, I initially felt overwhelmed. Is that a normal first reaction?

The site is kind of intended to be overwhelming. But it’s also an accurate reflection of what it is, a massive collection of files. I wanted to ensure it was all saved as well as possible. I created the “top 100” so most people could just browse that and get the idea.

Did artscene come after the initial compilation of textfiles? Some of those files are the most interesting to me, coming from an art background.

Everything after www.textfiles.com came later, between 2 and 5 years later. The most recent is digitize.textfiles.com, which is scanned in ads and brochures. So it’s always growing.

Is there one thing that stands out regarding textfiles that you are most proud of?

I think it’s the best thing I ever did. It’s brought nothing but wonder for me.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Either Bruce Campbell or Kevin Smith.

Do you think that your Wikipedia page speaks of you accurately and fairly?

Depends on the time of day, right?

A lot of it came from my own website. Some of it is incomplete, or inaccurate. Some is correct, and accurate. Whenever I get in the news about my wikipedia criticism, it gets modified a lot.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

Well, I try and eat right and read a lot. And make documentaries.

Did creating the BBS documentary take longer than you anticipated?

Yes, when I first started it, I thought it would be 2 years and it ended up being 4. So double my money. I wanted it to be 9 hours, and it was 5.5. But I thought it’d be 2 DVDs and it was 3.

Did it turn out how you hoped?

It came out even better than I’d hoped. When you work on something like this, you never know what’s coming out at the end, but this was a great final work, and it was all worth it.

How has it been received?

It’s done well, with thousands sold and many more downloaded. I paid off the costs of the film within its first month of release. But hey, buy more. www.bbsdocumentary.com.

Will you do anything different this time around with your new projects, Get Lamp and Arcade?

The best things I’m doing differently with the next two is to film it in HD and be more focused with interviews. I’m less worried about being the one and only source on these subjects. With the BBS one, I was often that very thing.

As for how it ends up, why guess? I hope it’s good. It all depends on who I can get to sit down with me.

Why do you make documentaries?

I make documentaries because I feel like I’m doing amazing good talking to these people. It never gets old.

Favorite color:

Blue.

Favorite food:

Swedish Meatballs.

In your opinion, what is the best application/widget/program or helpful-bit-o-code to come out over the past year?

A program to make my HVX-200 High Definition video camera work with Sony Vegas (my favorite editing program) because the Sony people are too bull-headed to make their software work directly yet. So this other guy went out and created Raylight, which does this work. That’s great. It was worth the $200.

Do you miss TinyTIM?

I miss TinyTIM as it was up to about 1997. Very much so. I wouldn’t trade those first seven years for anything.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Make movies.

What do you hate?

Little tiny kings ruling in little tiny kingdoms that they think you’re standing in.

What do you love?

Making a difference.

What are you thankful for?

I have had the same well-paying job for a decade, allowing me the freedom to do all the rest of these things.

What do you want to tell other bloggers, if anything?

If you’re not generating original content and just regurgitating other links, then machines are going to replace you.

Astounding facts about you:

I’ve seen ‘Caddyshack‘ over 120 times.
I read every Agatha Christie novel in 30 days when I was 25.
I learned to drive when I was 26.

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

I’ve been windows and mac at various times, as well as Atari, Commodore, and Apple II. It’s whatever worked for me. Right now, I run Windows XP with a collection of UNIX boxes doing the heavy lifting downstairs. I work best with PCs.

Do you cook?

If scrambled eggs count, hell yeah.

What are you working on right now?

A documentary about text adventures (www.getlamp.com) and a documentary about arcade games (www.arcadedocumentary.com).

Your own favorite post or essay you have written or contributed to?

I was very very happy with the Creative Commons post as mentioned above, but I’m also amused how a recent one about a lonely childhood called “The Best and the Interesting” got some nice response from the world.

What will you being doing next year?

Still filming my two documentaries, doing talks, travelling.

Tell me a secret?

I lost one of my best friends over a stupid thing, but I’m not sorry.

What do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t?

What I was doing for dinner sometime.

Thanks, Jason! (and what are you doing for dinner sometime?)

Interview with Jason Kottke / kottke.org

I’m a busy girl and there aren’t many sites that I click over to read more than once a day but Jason Kottke’s site is frequently updated with lots of link yummy-ness that I can’t stay away from. If you blog or get on the internet much, chances are, you know who Jason is. He’s well known for so many things that it might take more room/time than I have to list them. The short list: a year of micro-patron supported blogging, an interview with Newsweek’s Brian Braiker on msnbc.com, his live web-cam (which appears to have ended in Dec. 2005), a connoisseur of fonts including Silkscreen, which he created, B-Swing, a Senior Fellowship in the R&D Labs, the Kottke Diary at Valleywag.com which includes The Meg and Jason Courtship in the New Yorker and Wedding Story, and the Matrix Revolutions post. A lot of people want to be him or be like him. I was very happy just to get to interview him.

Blog Birthday:

March 14, 1998. I had a bloggish site in 1997 called Quick where I posted a photo, a link, and a snippet of text every day, but it only ran for a few months and is now offline and on a Zip disk in my closet somewhere. I should dig it out at some point and get it back online.

Why do you blog?

At this point, inertia.

What do you talk about?

Basically anything that interests me…it’s all over the place, which makes it a impossible read for some and a favorite of others. Favorite subjects include movies, science, design, New York City, photography, food, technology, Apple, and sports.

What don’t you talk about? Why?

Politics (not a fan). My private life, which is circularly defined as that part of my life which I choose to keep private. When I first started putting my thoughts online in the mid-90s, there was little about my life that I wouldn’t put online, but now it’s almost the opposite situation.

Favorite/worst thing about living where you live?

I’m a curious person by nature and — like the Web — New York City is a never ending source of amusement, stimulation, fascination, and interesting people to work & play with. Worst thing? Expensive and wasteful…those two things generally go hand in hand.

If you were president of the US:

I would resign and look for a new job. I do not envy any of the people who have held that office; it’s a fantastically difficult job.

What is interesting to you right now?

Pre-Columbian America. I read Charles Mann‘s 1491 on my honeymoon and it was a fascinating companion to our exploration of the Yucatan in Mexico.

What actor would play you in the movie of your life?

Ewan McGregor, circa Trainspotting. Renton and I have the same hair.

I know you get asked lots of questions by people like me who are nosy. What is the most frequently asked question and what do you tell them?

The most common question I get via email is, “how did your site get so popular?” I don’t really have a good answer to this, but if you’re looking to make something that other people might be interested in checking out, I’d advise you to do what you love, be enthusiastic, be curious, build a network, get sued for copyright infringement, and just keep at it.

What do you do to stay sane and healthy?

My wife is into food, so we have a lot of nice meals, both at home and out…it’s one of my favorite things we do together. I also like to have time on my own, just to goof around and do nothing in particular. NYC can be overwhelming at times, as can being online all day, and I need that alone time to recharge.

Favorite food:

I will eat a good sandwich at almost any opportunity. I like soup. A few years ago, I had a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar, which was sublime in an undescribable way.

When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I was never one of those kids who had a ready answer for what they wanted to be when they grew up. I recall that most of my friends wanted to be nurses or doctors or fireman, but I was such a serious little kid that I thought, “I don’t have any idea what it’s actually like to do any of those things, why would I want to?” But my dad was a pilot and he used to take me flying with him, so I may have wanted to do that because I was at least more familiar with what was involved.

You link to lots of people/sites on a daily basis. Does anyone ever get mad?

Not that I know of. I’ve gotten pretty selective as to what I link to. I don’t link to videos on sites that look like they might not be able to handle the bandwidth…I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s monster end-of-the-month bandwidth bill. The denizens of Slashdot are gleeful about taking down people’s servers; I am not. I also don’t link to anything that seems like it’s not intended by the author to be widely public. If someone posts some photos on their blog of their birthday party for their friends to see (thinking that no one but their friends reads their blog), it’s their own fault if that gets out. But I know that if I link to it (because it contains a particularly funny photo of someone dancing oddly), it could turn into a meme and be potentially embarrassing or upsetting for the blogger in question. People should still be given their privacy in public places.

Do you read anyone obsessively?

I will seek out anything new by Malcolm Gladwell, David Foster Wallace, and Steven Johnson. This being the age of weblogs, I also get to read my friends obsessively, which is great.

Astounding facts about you:

I have never seen Jaws. (I don’t consider this particularly astounding, but a recent post of mine mentioned this fact in passing and several people wrote in, stunned that I’d not seen it.)

Are you Windows or Mac? Why?

Mac. I love their hardware and software. It’s not a religious thing like with some other people (I’ve used Windows in the past), but for right now, the Mac gives me what I need.

What is your favorite place that you’ve traveled to? Why?

Paris. I’ve been there 4 times, for about two months total. I love the food and the scale of the city; it’s a beautiful place.

Do you cook?

I do not, although I should learn at some point. My wife enjoys cooking so much that she’s happy to take care of most of the meals, way happier than I am to take care of the dishes.

In your opinion, what is the best application/widget/program or helpful-bit-o-code to come out over the past year?

I’ve just discovered the latest version of TextMate, which is an OS X text editor. I’d tried it when it first came out awhile ago and it didn’t take, but they’ve improved it extensively since then and it’s an amazing little piece of software. Newsfire is underrated as a newsreader; I find it much faster and easier to use than NetNewsWire.

You were born after me by 2 years and grew up in a totally different part of the country. Were the Osmonds as much a part of your life as they were mine?

Haha, I don’t think so, although I vaguely remember seeing them on TV when I was a kid.

What are you working on right now?

I just finished redesigning Megnut, my wife’s new food site. It needs some tweaking, but I’m mostly happy with the end result. I’ve got a couple other projects in the works for kottke.org, one typographical in nature, a mapping project, and I’m working on a little blogging widget with a friend. I also just signed on as design advisor for a company a friend is starting. It’s going to be a busy summer.

Your own favorite post or your highest hit entry of all time?

The most well-received post on kottke.org was one of the very few not written by me: Bear with me on this

Greg Knauss wrote it while babysitting kottke.org when I was at SXSW in March, 2000 (this was before everyone had laptops and there was wifi everywhere at conferences). It’s tough when the best post on your site wasn’t even written by you, but then again, I’ve never thought of myself as that much of a writer.

Thanks, Jason!