There was no Sunday Stealing last week because the guy who posts the questions was having surgery. But he's back, so here is this week's Sunday Stealing
1. Why did you sign up for writing your blog?
My friend Steve Schalchlin had been keeping a blog since 1996. It started as a way to keep his friends and family up to date on his health. I figured if Steve could write a blog, so could I. I also wanted to see if I was capable of writing an Erma Bombeck-length column every day, in case everybody ever asked me to do it. Twelve years and 4,263 entries later, I think I answered that last question, but I'm still waiting to be asked!
2. Why did you choose your blog's name? What does it mean?
Well there are two blogs with 2 different names, both with the same content. Funny the World is the title of a Lawsuit song (the lyrics of which are on the index page for this journal). The mirror blog on Blogger is called Airy Persiflage and the title is from a quote from The Mikado, where KoKo asks, "Is this a time for airy persiflage?" (meaning frivolous banter).
3. Have you ever had another blog?
Lots. Right now there is The Pen Pal Project, My Compassion Kids, and Bitter Hack. In the past there was one for all of my post-crossing postcards (got to be a pain to keep up), one for weight loss attempts (obviously I'm not keeping that any more) and one for videos, which I ended when I started embedding them here instead. There were others too, now all dead.
4. What do you do online when you're not on your blog?
Check other blogs, write and read e-mail, spend time on Facebook, play Lexulous, research things I'm writing about or just interested in, write theater reviews, check sales on Amazon and Audible.com, check Pinterest follow current events, read some columnists I like (like the San Francisco Chronicle's Jon Carroll).
5. How about when you're not on the computer?
Read, watch TV, mess in the kitchen (operative word being "mess," though the end result would be called a "meal"), cuddle with the dog while napping, and when I get really wild and crazy, clean house. Fortunately that doesn't happen very often, or I would have no blog material!
6. What do you wish people who read your blog knew about you?
That I'm not as open and gregarious in person as I appear in print
7. What is your favorite community in the blogosphere?
Don't have one. I've tried BlogHer many, many times and just can't find my niche there.
8. What is your philosophy on your blog layout?
No philosophy whatsoever. It just works for me.
9. Tell me about your picture you use to represent you on your blog.
The camera is because I like taking photos and videos, and the smiley in the screen changes each month, trying to represent something about that month, whether everyone "gets it" or not. This month's is pretty unambiguous!
10. Pick 3 random blogs from your blogroll and tell us about them.
Jim's Journal. Jim has been at this longer than I have. He's from Rhode Island and writes interesting stuff about his travels around the state, and his physical activities (he and his daughter are big runners, for example) and posts cute pictures of his grandchildren.
Life on a Small Island. My friend Sian lives on Graemsay, a small island in Orkney (Scotland). She writes about island life, her cat Button, and a side of life that many are unlikely to experience. Oh. And she lives next door to a lighthouse. Her photos of the island, her chickens and flowers, seals lounging on the beach, sunsets, and island activities are great.
Life of Wry. I include my friend Kari's blog because she is looking for new readers. She lives in Davis, writes beautifully and takes great photos. She posts a photo a day.
There are LOTS of other bloggers from which to choose and it was difficult to only choose 3. I completely left out the 40 blogs written by letter-writers (fortunately most of those don't update very often), the 19 blogs written by Compassion sponsors, and lots of blogs I have been reading for 10 years or more.
11. What features do you think your blog should have that it doesn't currently?
I would like to be more entertaining so I would have a larger following. Those Mommy Bloggers have hundreds of comments in their guest books and sometimes that makes me jealous, especially when I have written something relevant that I would love to have comments about and am lucky to get only one or two. Maybe I should get pregnant again...
12. What do you consider the 10 most "telling" interests that we would infer from what you blog persona?
1. I love my family
2. I like dogs
3. I go to a lot of theater
4. I like reading
5. My mother is my best friend
6. I am no fashion plate
7. I have a crazy friend named Char
8. I eat too much
9. I am a TV addict
10. Martha Stewart I ain't.
13. Do you have any unique interests that you have never shared before? What are they?
I don't think so. I think that over the past 12 years I have pretty much covered just about everything.
14. The best thing about blogging is all of the friends that you make, Aside from those folks, do you think your blog has fans?
I know it does because occasionally I get notes from someone who will say they have been reading my blog for a long time but have never written before.
15. What's your current obsession? What about it captures your imagination?
Bonding with the Compassion-sponsored kids and writing snail mail. It should be pretty clear why I am obsessed with bonding with the kids, since I really want to get to know them, as much as possible. As for snail mail, I'm sure it's a passing fancy which will pass again in a few years, but I used to love writing snail mail and I was tired of getting only junk mail in the mailbox. Now that I have a lot of pen pals, it's more interesting getting the mail each day! (Walt will also tell you that I'm obsessed with reruns of NCIS and Criminal Minds!)
16. What are you glad you did but haven't really had a chance to post about?
Nothing comes to mind at the moment.
17. How many people that first became a blog friend, have you met face to face?
Steve Schalchlin and Mary Wise (my ex-clown friend!). However, there are several people whom I first met on line, then met face to face, and then later they started blogs. Lots of those.
18. What don't you talk about here, either because it's too personal or because you don't have the energy?
There are (believe it or not) family issues that I don't bring up as much as I used to. I learned my lesson on that. I'm always trying to edit myself so as not to hurt or anger someone in the family. (The exception being my mother, since I know she will never read it and whenever I'm concerned about her, it definitely helps to get feedback from the community of people who read this journal.) I'm not always successful, but this is my goal.
19. What's a question that you'd love to answer?
Is there life after death? Because the older I get the more important that question becomes and the more I hope for a reunion with the growing number of loved ones I've lost.
20. Have you ever lost a blogging friendship and regretted it?
There are some bloggers I used to follow when I first started reading this one -- Al Schroeder, who wrote about his autistic child and drew cartoons, for example. I know there were lots more, but I can't remember them now. I often wonder whatever happened to them. I also regret losing Laura Morefield, who wrote wonderful blog entries, but, sadly, died this year.
Overdue? No, I don't think so. I have lost blogging friendships when we both seemed to decide it was time.
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