PH: I had online friends who blogged. I started back in the 2000s.
S: Did you stop blogging?
PH: This Day in Science Fiction was the last blog I wrote.
S: When did you stop blogging?
PH: TDISF ended in 2015.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
PH: Getting more work.
S: Do you ever miss it?
PH: Yes. I post daily old TDISF on Mastodon.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
PH: If I find a topic that interests me, I might.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
PH: I like keeping track of people on Facebook. I was genuinely saddened when Elon Musk turned Twitter to crap.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
PH: As it has always been, it’s a great source for stuff, but you have to pick through a lot of crap. I subscribe to several streaming services.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful answers! I confess I didn’t know about your other blogs! It’s good to connect with you again, Professor. It’s been a while. 🙂
FranIAm: First I had FranIam from 2007-2009 and that is no longer visible to the world.It was a snarky blog mostly about politics and other kind of shitposting! That is where I met so many of you beautiful bloggy people. In 2009 I started There Will Be Bread, a blog about the intersection of faith and life. It has kind of died off now, but is still online.
S: When and why did you start blogging?
FIA: I think it was around 2006 and my friend (the blogger formerly known as Distributorcap) had me start reading some blogs – Princess Sparklepony and also Daily Kos. I wrote something for Daily Kos and did a few times. They had a sister site at the time, Street Preachers. Its focus was politics and religion, and I had (still do) had a lot to say about that. Then one day in 2007 I started FranIam. It was fun to write about funny, snarky things. Once I remember posting a photo of George W. Bush in crocs, with some smart-assy commentary. That was where I was at! It was fun and funny all at once. That blog connected me with so many people, including you. It is weird because at first I met all you funny, crazy, politicalish, snarky people and then I also got hooked up to a group of far-left Episcopalians. In the end there was overlap, which was great! It is just funny how it all evolved very organically at a unique moment in internet life. It was wonderful.
S: Did you stop blogging?
FIA: More or less. I want to keep writing but am unsettled about how/where. Not a blog though, maybe a substack. I did start a substack before I sent you this. It can be found here – Not What You Might Think. It is pretty lame so far!
S: When did you stop blogging?
FIA: My blog just kind of died out over the past couple of years. Lack of time, interest, energy. Facebook sucked a lot of life out of it too and politics were not as much a factor during the Obama years. He will always be my favorite president.
S: What were factors that contributed to stopping?
FIA: A lot of things, primarily energy and focus. It just was hard to find time to do it. Plus social media (Facebook) kind of broke blogging. It just all felt like so much!
S: Do you ever miss it?
FIA: All the time!!
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
FIA: I will give the substack a go, but honestly – we lived in the Golden Age of blogging, and I do not think we will ever see that again.
S: Did you feel part of a larger community when writing your blog?
FIA: I did.
S: Do you have people you regularly interact with? How large a group is it? Are they also bloggers?
FIA: I have a pretty solid circle of people that I met through social media that I am still in touch with. Many of us have met over the years, and I am in regular touch with more than a few people. And that blogger formerly known as Distributorcap? I talk to him almost every day, pretty much via texting.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
FIA: Social media is a mixed bag. Love/hate for sure. Same feeling? A little bit the same, but the blog world felt much more communal, less cruel!
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
FIA: The internet is the best and worst thing in the world. I could wax on for hours, but overall I think it often does more harm than good. But yet – where else would I find all you beautiful people? The internet has been and remains a source of great information mixed with shitty information and disinformation, it is a place full of wisdom and love, except when it is not, which is often.
Let me use Twitter, I mean Xhitter, as an example. I grew to love that place. When I finally found my people, not unlike with blogs, I really loved it and found real community. But then that monster bought it and it is really awful. Honestly though, I cannot quit that xhit! 🙂
I am so glad you undertook this little project – what a reminder of days gone by, a ton of laughs, creativity, bold political thought and action, and so much more.
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Thanks for all your thoughtful answers, Fran!
And I’m glad I did this project, too. It’s so nice to hear from all my blogging buddies. Oh, if Distributorcap wants to be interviewed, please let me know! I’m sure I’m not the only person who misses him.
TFT: Ten years ago, my wife and I wanted something to do together.
S: Did you stop blogging?
TFT: Nope. Although we have changed course a few times. During the pandemic, we focused more on recipes and bringing the taste of travel home. And again recently, we’re now focused on visiting destinations that are less visited and are committed to sustainability.
S: Do you feel part of a larger community when writing your blog?
TFT: Yes. I feel like we’ve developed a community of like-minded people who like food and travel.
S: Do you have people you regularly interact with? How large a group is it? Are they also bloggers?
TFT: Yes! We have apretty active account on X (formerly Twitter) with 32,000 followers. We also have pretty good interaction on our Facebook page, too. People also seem to like getting our newsletter. They frequently respond to us directly asking questions or giving feedback. It’s a mix of other travel writers, destinations, and just regular folks who like to travel and eat.
S: What keeps you motivated to post?
TFT: Knowing that people are reading it (affiliate sales are nice, too) it also provides us the opportunity to travel to a lot of places.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
I loathe social media. I used to like it but my feelings have definitely changed over time. I now keep up with it to a much lesser degree. I know it’s important to destinations and brands we work with. Otherwise, I would stop completely.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
TFT: It continues to change so it makes it difficult to keep up with all the aspects that are important to blogging. If you want to be found you have to be a search engine optimization expert, a marketing manager, a PR manager, a bookkeeper, a social media manager, and an expert on the topic you’re writing about. It’s no easy feat and it never stops it’s open 24/7.
Johnny Yen: Here Comes Johnny Yen Again. It’s the opening line to Iggy Pop’s great song “Lust For Life.” It’s an homage to my youthful exuberance. I was quite the bon vivant. I’m a much calmer guy these days, LOL! And happier.
S: When and why did you start blogging?
JY: The beginnings of my blog go back to two things.
One was an article I had read in the New York Times a few years after the 9/11 attacks. It was about a South Dakota couple, farmers, whose daughter was killed in the attacks that day— she worked in one of the Twin Towers. The daughter’s belongings from her New York City apartment were returned to the couple. This included the daughter’s laptop. The couple weren’t very savvy with computers, but a friend helped them open it after they’d had it for about a year. They discovered that she had kept a list of life goals. They were fascinating, ranging from the mundane to the magnificent. Things like “gossip less,” to “climb K-2,” etc. Shortly after reading the article, I opened a computer file and started my own list. Mine had things like “Make sure I can pay for college for (my son),” and “Teach (my daughter) to ride a bike.” “Journal more often,” “Buy more art.” “Plan for retirement.” And “Start a blog.” I still have the list, and still update it, adding to it occasionally and marking off things I’ve accomplished.
I had to change some of them. #1, which was to pay for college for my son, became “Pay for college for both of my kids.” Which I did. In fact, the list had its intended effect— it focused my life.
The second thing that got me to start my blog, besides that it was on my list of life goals, was the horrific murder in the summer of 2006 of my friend Mark Evans, who had the nickname “Atwood,” from the Iliinois town near where he grew up in, and hung out in. Mark was one of the most unique people I ever met. His family were, like the family of the woman with the list that inspired mine, farmers. He’d grown up sensitive, weird and artistic in Central Illinois, a place where jocks and cheerleaders were king. He was bullied mercilessly, something I could relate to— my family had moved from a diverse part of Chicago to a bland non-diverse suburb, and it was not fun. I was bullied a lot. At Eastern Illinois University, he and I kept running into one another at parties and bars, and had great conversations, and became lifelong friends. We became part of a bigger crowd. We’d found our tribe.
After college, I moved back to the north side of Chicago, where I’d mostly grown up. He moved there too, and we roomed together with another EIU classmate for a year. Over time, when I became a parent, we spent less time together, though he still lived near me in Chicago.
His brutal murder was part of the worst week of my life, in June, 2006. I was being laid off of a teaching job I thought I’d work until I retired— I’d had a two year battle with education’s version of Nurse Ratchet, trying to jump through the hoops she put up. The same week, my father was diagnosed with cancer, which they thought might be pancreatic cancer. Even before I was a nurse, I knew that was nearly always fatal. When I got an email (our mutual friend didn’t have my current number) that Mark had been found shot to death on his own front lawn, I was staggered. When losing your job is only the third worst thing to happen in a week, it’s bad.
The blog helped me process my grief, and gave me a community of cool and interesting people with varied backgrounds and interests. As I started being able to manage my grief, and the perp was caught and sent away for 75 years without parole, and my dad recovered from his cancer (he lived another 15 years) and I finally got a plan, nursing school, I continued blogging not so much to process loss, but because it became fun.
S: Did you stop blogging?
JY: No— I still post once in a blue moon.
S: Was there anything in particular which slowed down your blogging?
JY: When I finished nursing school— see “pay for college for my children”— I got a job that was incredibly stressful, but also gave me essentially unlimited overtime. It was great to be able to pretty much just pay my kids’ tuition, and have them come out with very little debt. But it entailed working 50-60 hour weeks, and some 70 hour weeks. I didn’t have the energy to blog. And of course, Facebook came along, and most of the old blogging crowd went over to it.
I still feel a part of that community of bloggers— I still look forward to the posts from those people— among them, Vikki, Chris, Becky, Dale, Beth, Aaron, Polly, Kristi, Sharon, Lulu, Barbara, Margaret, Bubs, and of course our prodigal son, Grant Miller. Oh, and that Splotchy guy! There must be about 25 from the old group that transitioned over to social media. I deleted one of them because they had a habit of attacking people on my blog, and another because he was a creep. Most are either not blogging, or not blogging very regularly, but I still feel a connection because they were there when I needed them, restoring my faith in humanity, with their intelligence and compassion. I badly needed to see that after the events of June, 2006. The medium may have changed, but I still love that I keep in touch with them, still see their kindness and wisdom.
I may start blogging again. I thought I would get a break when I left my old overtime-heavy job that had paid for college for my kids and helped my wife and I buy a house. And of course, being a nurse in a worldwide pandemic threw a wrench in that for nearly four years. I’m starting a new job in a week, and I’m hoping it’s less stressful than the ones I’ve been working the last 12 years.
I also might start blogging about nursing. I feel like Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer’s character in “Blade Runner.” “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…” In all the years of my life before I was a nurse, I’d seen only a few dead people i— one in the ER of a hospital, and the rest at open casket funerals. Since becoming a nurse, I’d seen several dozen people die right in front of me. A handful of those were people who I was giving a dialysis treatment to, and I had to calmly run a code while a crash team was resuscitating or trying to resuscitate someone. I gave CPR and shocked someone with an AED for the first time at work last year. I’ve seen great and awful things, and had remarkable conversations with patients and family members. If I can do it while respecting the privacy and dignity of the patients I’ve handled, I might do it.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
JY: I’ve got mixed feelings about social media. I love the fact that a bunch of lovely people I’ve met in various parts of my life, or bloggers I’ve never met, but adore, are still part of my life. Old friends who live in other parts of the country are still part of my daily life. On the other hand, social media has helped greatly increase “confirmation bias” in people. Blatant and sometimes monstrous lies have been spread on social media. My late friend Mark originally sold me on going onto the internet because he thought it would be a wonderful marketplace of ideas. It’s a marketplace of ideas, all right. But some of those ideas are terrible. But I don’t see social media, good or bad, disappearing any time soon.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
JY: I see good and bad. I was telling a friend this weekend a story that involved running into the governor of Illinois, who was an alum of my college, in a used bookstore around 1993. The funny part was that I was excited about finding a book I’d been looking for for years (a bio of Albert Camus), and nearly didn’t notice that the governor was standing next to me (my first clue was that there were three guys with guns and walkie-talkies also near me). These days, it might not have happened. I’d just get on the internet and go to Alibris or ABEBooks and find the book (I just looked— it took a few clicks, and the book is $4.52, LOL). Going through bins of books and records, and finding random things is something that was great, and might lead to finding something unexpected. My friend Michael Roper, who owns the Hopleaf tavern in Chicago with his wife Louise, was telling me a while back that younger people are staying in in droves. They don’t come out to bars and have conversations with random people. They’re home on the internet playing games or whatever. The internet has increased access to information, but it’s taken away some wonderful randomness in life.
P.S. The picture. It was taken in Shanghai, China in 2002. I was there with an old friend, and it amused me that Ronald McDonald— and capitalism— had beaten me to China. It was the picture I used on the dating app I met Kim through. It obviously worked.
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Thanks so much for this interview, JY! It was nice hearing your thoughts, about everything.
TBDT: 1995ish. I decided I missed my old Wildcat BBS, and also thought learning HTML could be useful for my job. Registered the domain in 1996. Back then it was just a hand-coded website where I gave Lord of the Dance and Emeril Lagasse updates. And just mundane stuff.
S: Did you stop blogging?
TBDT: Not officially. So I will answer as a no?
S: Do you feel part of a larger community when writing your blog?
TBDT: No. I never considered myself a blogger. I was just writing on the internet.
S: Do you have people you regularly interact with? How large a group is it?
TBDT: Yes and no. Not from my blog exactly. Most were from early Twitter and we all connected on IG and FB. I also am still friends with people from an old Compuserve forum for MST3K, and a group of women with Jan 98 I met on a mailing list.
S: What keeps you motivated to post?
TBDT: I had been focused more on creating other types on content, including a podcast, but I’m trying to pick up the keyboard some more. I don’t think anyone’s reading, but maybe I’ll catch someone’s eye.
S: How do you feel about social media?
TBDT: I think I have made many more connections on social media, so I get the instant gratification I do deeply desire.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
TBDT: I think some great things were ruined by greed, but it’s not like I haven’t already outlived 10-20 platforms I was on. I’m bitter about Twitter becoming a cesspool, and I hate that we’ll never create friendships on what’s left the way we did. I hit my 15th twitterversary in August. 2008 was a kinder, simpler time.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
L: Land-o-Lulu started out as a personal blog and became more of a travel blog once I moved overseas to teach. I finally closed it down because while I loved having a lot of readers, the earlier, more personal stuff seemed out of place in a blog that was easily discoverable by students and their parents. I had an experience where I went to a party in Bangladesh, and a woman was introduced to me and said, “Oh, you’re Lulu! I’ve been reading your blog for ages!” And it felt very weird and public.
S: Do you ever miss it?
L: I do miss my blog. For a while, I really enjoyed Facebook, but I don’t post much there these days, partially because it seems like every other post on my feed is an ad, but mostly because many of the people I am interested in keeping in touch with no longer post very often. I miss having a forum for longer-form writing and photography.
I also miss the community of friends, both real-world and online, that I had the privilege of interacting with while blogging. Several people I met online became real-life friends, and while many of those people are still in my life now, there was a sense of community that I no longer feel.
On Instagram stories, there are frequently little post-a-picture-of or ask-me-a-question-type trends, which are fine, but during the golden age of blogging, instead of a picture or question, there would be complicated, round-robin posts, long book reviews, thoughtful discussions of politics, popular culture and whatever else was on people’s minds. I looked forward to reading my friends’ blogs and to their comments on mine.
One of the things you learn as a teacher is that student writing is always better when they have an authentic audience reading their work rather than just their teachers. And I think the same thing is true for all of us. When I knew that a couple hundred people were going to read my writing, I cared about it more. I spent more time crafting my words and trying to make things funny.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
L: I don’t think so. I feel like the golden age of blogging is over. It seems like all the blogs I see are either corporate blogs or people trying to commodify their writing, and neither of those things is of interest to me. I am also very aware that any sort of online presence that isn’t squeaky clean can be problematic for teachers. I live in a conservative country and work at a very prestigious school; I don’t need to draw any attention to myself.
Sometimes I think about doing a podcast, but that seems like a lot of effort and equipment, and so many podcasters are annoying. I would hate for people to think I am annoying.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
L: My presence on social media is scaled way back. I do the birthday greetings thing on Facebook, and occasionally post travel or food photos there or on Instagram. I do post a lot of aggressively political memes on my Instagram Stories, but my audience there is very limited, and the stories disappear in 24 hours, so I feel like I can’t do too much damage. During COVID, my friend Jane and I ran a cocktail Instagram account called Drinking_While_Quarantined, and I actually became online friends with a group of people who ran cocktail accounts. It was similar to the blogger days because there was a lot of commenting on each other’s posts and doing themed group posts. Once we could go outside again, the urge to post photographs of fancy drinks dwindled and the account is mostly inactive these days. I don’t feel the same sense of engagement with social media that I once did, mostly because everything is an ad. Late-stage capitalism is a bitch.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
L: The internet is the worst. And also the best. We’ve created amazing tools, and we are unable to use them. We have the opportunity to communicate with people all over the world, and we spend our time trolling them on Twitter. Don’t get me started on ChatGPT.
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Thanks so much, Lulu. It was nice hearing your thoughts on things.
CoC: I started blogging in March 2006 because I thought it would be a fun way to stay connected with my friends. I never imagined folks outside my group of friends would read it! I learned so much about life and music and people during my three blogging years. I really miss that connection.
S: Did you stop blogging?
CoC: I did.
S: When did you stop blogging?
CoC: April 2009.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
CoC: I just couldn’t find the time to write a decent post anymore — and joining Facebook allowed me to keep up with those in our blogworld. Facebook is great for lazy interactions.
S: Do you ever miss it?
CoC: All the time! It was a great way to share my life with others and learn about their lives — and I loved doing the Mix Tape Friday posts! There was this lovely intimacy among our blogworld — and yet I’d never seen their faces or heard their voices. It was a lovely connection, wasn’t it? I couldn’t wait to dive into those posts every day. I often think of the stories and the laughter and the tears those posts brought me. So many good, honest writers out there. I learned so much — and I valued the takedowns I got when needed (I’m thinking of you, Coaster Punchman, and still feel filthy shame).
I made so many true friends through our blogworld, just some of the coolest people around. I’ve met a few in person — C.K. Baxter, Thomas Houck, Chris Hull, Jenny Shaw Kessler and Dax Kessler, Grant Miller, Joe O’Sullivan, Fran Szpylczyn, Lisa Williams, and Doug Golden — and I wish I could meet more of y’all. I also met some of my now-dearest friends through A Cup of Coffey, non-bloggers who read my posts.
There was one blogger, Mike Kascynski, who became a dear, dear friend, though we never met. I had planned to meet up with him in Chicago during the summer of 2022, but he died suddenly nearly two years ago. I miss him desperately and regret never seeing him face to face. Y’all get out there and meet people!
It was a beautiful, unique world.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
CoC: I do consider it on occasion. Maybe once I retire in 2025!
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
CoC: I think of social media as lazy blogging. You don’t need to spend time thinking of a good post idea, then writing and polishing it, then posting it. I can post a photo and I’m done. But what does that say about me? How am I learning about others? I know the foods they like and the books they read, but there’s so much more. I’m a bit more protective of myself on Facebook and Instagram.
S: How do you feel about the state of the internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
CoC: The internet has opened up so much of our world for me. And it’s made my life so much easier. I bank online. Shop online. Travel via apps. Watch movies and shows. Discover music. But I do miss the connection of talking to a bookseller instead of ordering it online (we go to locally owned bookstores, but not as much as we should). I met my husband via Facebook (or re-met; we grew up together, but never really hung out), so that’s wonderful. There is so much good — political organizing, sharing secrets, tracking down that new band. But it breeds so much hatred. I find I’m following news less than I ever have because of that hatred and all the untruths out there.
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Thanks for the interview. It is so wonderful to hear your thoughts!
V: I started in 2005, although I’d had a blog at Salon before then that has since been deleted. I’m not sure why I started, except as I go back and look at some of my first posts, it’s clear to me that I really needed to hear myself talk.
S: Did you stop blogging?
V: Yeah, for all intents and purposes. I still enjoy crafting a essay or even just writing a joke, but somehow it just doesn’t seem worth the effort anymore. Sometimes I will write a 1000 word post on Facebook and then just delete it. Facebook’s algorithm is not a big fan of me, so whether I publish or not it seems like the same amount of people will see it. That’s just how it works there.
S: When did you stop blogging?
V: It fell off sharply and then petered out during the first couple of years of the Obama administration. Like other political/comedy writers, I appreciated how easy W made it for us.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
V: Twitter and Facebook were huge, and the blogging culture just wasn’t out there anymore. You know down one side of your blog you would have your blogroll, the blogs that you read, and they were either very big important blogs, or they were friends that you read who also read you. And everyone just kinda stopped posting. They were on social media. It was the end of that short-lived era.
S: Do you ever miss it?
V: Yeah, I miss the camaraderie, and I miss the control that we all had over what we were taking in. We read what we liked, not what was being fed to us. We supported each other, and were always expanding our circle to include more people.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
V: Well, maybe, but probably not. Talking to an empty room is kinda sad.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
V: Social media has its good points and bad points. On the plus side, Twitter and now Threads has allowed me to listen to and learn from a lot of voices that I never heard before. And I appreciate keeping up with my friends’ activities on Facebook and Instagram. But the whole time I’m just very aware of the control that is being exerted over what I see, the monetization of my attention.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
V: I mean, besides all the advantages of information at your fingertips, the internet has taught me not to be a dick to people I care about. It’s such a cold medium, it’s very easy to be misunderstood, and so I think I am now always aware of how someone will hear what I’m saying. On the other hand, there are so many garbage people that put themselves in front of you, I’ve also learned how to cut and walk away very quickly. The internet is useful if you employ a reasonable amount of judgement to what’s out there, and sort of disastrous if you don’t.
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Thanks for this interview, Vikki. I really appreciate your thoughtful answers.
GT: I’m a writer by trade and blogging was a good outlet for my thoughts. I thought it would be funny to assume the character of an earnest Les Nessman-like reporter.
S: Did you stop blogging?
GT: Yes.
S: When did you stop blogging?
GT: Around 2011, I think.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
GT: Life got messy with a breakdown of my marriage and I didn’t feel like sharing my life and thoughts.
S: Do you ever miss it?
GT: I miss the connection but did keep up with many old friends via Facebook.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
GT: Probably not a personal blog. The internet has morphed into a weird space and I’m not keen to share too much any more. I still write a newspaper political opinion column commenting on current affairs and do blog content for work.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
GT: Oh boy! I know it is really about data mining. Some really bad social outcomes have resulted from social media. I use it less and less.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
GT: Following from the above, the Internet has been a force of liberation that has allowed connections that would have never occurred – like this group of interviews with truly lovely people. It is also a force for bad things and has undermined our democracies, manipulated our politics and divided us.
I truly loved the connection and friendships with bloggers I never met – I still miss that part .
S: I realize this might be upsetting to you if this is the first time you are learning about it — It appears that giftedtypist dot com has been repurposed for some kind of porn site (I think it’s Chinese).
GT: Yes, I was aware of this and forgot to mention it.
S: Just as I did with the word “Splotchy”, you chose words not obviously connected to your name and offline identity to represent yourself on the web. When you stopped blogging, did you decide to let the domain expire? Does it feel personal that this site is using your old domain, or do you no longer feel a connection to it?
GT : I gave up the email account the blog was registered with, so when my domain was due for renewal I didn’t receive the notifications. Beyond that, life was complicated and I wasn’t focused on my blog. So it was overtaken.
Alt first I was sad that that part of my recorded existence had disappeared – just like that, poof! But with time, I accepted that phases and people come and go during our life‘s journey. The real joy was in the writing and the connection with the community I had.
I do wish I still had some of those posts too – I’m sure they would be amusing to me now.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful answers. Visitors beware, giftedtypist dot com is NSFW and is not in any way associated with our interview subject.
If it’s helpful at all, I found an archive of the real blog via The Wayback Machine. If you visit it, I hope it brings back some nice memories. 📇 ❤️
IB: I started blogging about a year after George W. Bush won re-election in a shady way. So I started to dream of impeachment, and just went from there.
S: Did you stop blogging?
IB: Yes.
S: When did you stop blogging?
IB: When Obama was elected in 2008, it felt thing would be different—no more war crimes, no more outright robbery by war profiteers, and so forth. We finally had a president who could actually put words together in ways that made sense. It had been so long—8 years under the moron. I continued for a bit, changing the name in my banner to Other Dreams. But it wasn’t the same.
S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?
IB: There wasn’t an endless stream of political bullshit like there had been under bush. I was happy with the young new president.
S: Do you ever miss it?
IB: Yes and no—it took a lot of time to craft posts. Lots of reading and research. In those days, I had this easy job in which I could have all my work done by around 10 a.m., so I just blogged and read other blogs until it was time to go home.
S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?
IB: I don’t think I’d have time. Certainly not to do a political blog. I’d probably resurrect my birding blog first. But even that would be hard; I’m married with two young children now—Mateo, age 5, and Carina, who just turned 3. Plus my job for the last 10+ years keeps me incredibly busy most days.
S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?
IB: No, not really. A lot of the old bloggers are on Facebook, but we kinda post short things, pictures from our lives. I don’t think any of us does research or anything; we just post fun stuff that’s going on. Or not so fun stuff. I feel like there’s so much noise on social media. You get more and more friends or you follow this or that person, and then you get this highly curated (and algorithm-determined) feed of friends’ posts and a ton of crap and advertising.
S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.
IB: It seemed so interesting and fun in the early days. Now it’s just a shitshow, mostly. The “vast wasteland” that guy Newton Minow called TV. There are good things. If you like certain things like DIY or woodworking or blacksmithing, you can find YouTube channels, Reddit subs, or Instagram feeds to follow and not get that much garbage like you do on Facebook. And I won’t even talk about Twitter. Musk can go up in one of his rockets and stay there.
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Thank you so much for these answers! I hope you are continuing your birding, and hope you never stop getting more lifers!! 🐦 ❤️
