My blog is a desperate cry for attention. It’s a daily chronicle of my current obsessions, rife with hyperbole and pandering to the objects of my affection.
I tend to rant a lot about indie music, and consider it a life’s calling to spread the gospel of Canadian music, which means that I go to a lot more concerts on a school night than is advisable. But despite my chronically sleep-deprived state, this blog is not all concert reviews and scenester sightings, festival reports and musician encounters, theatre analyses and pimping for the arts community. Sometimes I even write about my cat.
In my day job I work in medical research. By night, I shed my mild-mannered lab manager persona and pretend that I actually have a life.
Essentially, I like to hear myself talk, which is what got me started blogging in the first place. And then a weird thing happened – people responded. Naturally this created a monster.
Now that I’ve got a small loyal group of readers in my firm but benevolent grasp, I feel as though I have license to regale them with tales of all the concerts they missed, all the cds they should have bought, and all the plays I should have dragged them to.
One day they will rise up and kill me.
I’ve been at this site since July 2005. Nations have risen and fallen, as have hemlines, but surprisingly I am still here.
It varies, but I average about 90 visitors per day. Surprisingly not all that many of them are searching for porn. I do have a close group of loyal blog friends whom I visit daily and who visit me regularly.
Are you kidding? It costs me money to blog! Why, just last week I spent $10 to upgrade a file-sharing service. Big bucks are spent to make my blog look as fabulous as it does.
Actually, that’s not quite true; I did get free theatre tickets all last winter in exchange for reviewing plays on my blog. But then I bought season’s tickets this year, so I guess I broke even on that one.
Zombies may feel comfortable coming around to my blog, where they can just be themselves and not worry about being judged by the snobby living. The same goes for bad-tempered people of all kinds, living or undead.
Anyone with an interest in reading concert, theatre, and new music reviews, and possibly listening to me rant about perfume abusers or strange encounters at the hairdresser, would be more than welcome to hang out at my place. I don’t usually have any pie to offer, but I do serve up some tasty samples of music that I happen to be obsessing over.
Probably far more than is healthy. I generally post daily, and, while I can bang out a post fairly quickly, I do spend a lot of time answering comments and of course visiting and commenting on the blogs of others. You know, socializing.
I would guess that I spend a least two hours a day blogging.
I am amazed that anybody does, to tell you the truth, as I am not really as nice as people think I am. But most of the people who do regularly drop by my blog are smart, kind, and dead funny. So that more than makes up for my shortcomings.
Besides, I hardly ever post pictures of my cat.
I guess it depends on what is meant by blog success. For me a successful blog is like a kitchen table, where everybody feels welcome to drop by for a while and shoot the shit. It’s a sociable place. How does that happen? Reciprocate. Respond to every comment and make a point of visiting everybody who visits you. Always comment, unless you are totally flummoxed by the person’s post. Even then, say something smart-assed, at least.
Try to offer your readers a fresh perspective, something that they are not going to be able to read elsewhere.
And be funny, damn it!
This blog can be visited at http://badtemperedzombie.blogspot.com/