This is a bit of a departure for me, but since this blog is literally "everything else", what the heck! My favorite blogger mredlich21 nominated me for this chain letter-style blogging activity, and I am always looking for new ways to procrastinate.
Here are the rules:
- Thank the blogger who nominated you
- Answer the 11 questions
- Make 11 new questions
- Nominate 11 bloggers you enjoy and think deserve the award
Many thanks to mredlich21 for thinking of me and for not giving me film-related questions to answer!
1. Why did you start blogging?I have kept a journal since high school (over fifty years), so daily writing is pretty much a habit. My first blog was on LiveJournal, and was essentially just a more public continuation of my paper journals. Then I added a series of blogs related to my professional work. The now-inactive ones that lasted the longest are Nice White Lady (2007-2013), which was about conscious consumption, and 23 Sherwood Drive, an experiment in memoir in which I transcribed my diary from 1965-66 and added comments from my perch forty years later. Right now I have two blogs, Gender Mystique, which focuses on my research on clothing and gender, and this one, which is -- um -- everything else.
2. What keeps you going online and writing?I believe that writers need to write every day. Sometimes I write in my paper journal, sometimes in my private online journal. But the value in blogging is in writing for an audience -- no matter how small. So I post something somewhere every day. Sometimes it's Facebook, sometimes Twitter, sometimes Instagram, sometimes a flash fiction app called TaleHunt, sometimes in Gender Mystique, and sometimes here.I write to share my thoughts and also to save them for later for myself.
3. What is the best comment you have ever gotten on your blog?That's a tough one! I have too many to pick a favorite. My son-in-law asked some great questions on 23 Sherwood Drive that forced me to think more deeply. I have also learned quite a bit from readers on Gender Mystique, especially folks from other countries who have shared their stories in the comments. I like questions the best!
4. What is the favorite blog post you have ever written?It has to be this one. Stupid me, I thought that writing a book and blogging about it would mean that I would stop getting asked the same question over and over (and over and over) by reporters. I finally got so tired of answering it that I wrote this post, and now when I get asked I just send them the link.
5. What is the favorite blog post you have ever read?Another tough question! I go back to mredlich21's analysis of Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge so often that it is clearly a recent favorite.
6. Why do you like writing about what your blog is about?
My focused blogs reflect my scholarly interests in fashion, gender, and sustainability. They help me stay on track with my research (publish or perish is real, people!) and also let me get my work to a public audience faster than any traditional mode of publishing.
7. Has your blog changed focus since you started?
Lordy, yes. (See question 1.) Gender Mystique has helped me write two books and I am now working on a third, and the focus has shifted to reflect my current project. First, it was baby and toddler clothing, then unisex and androgynous fashion, now it's fashion and age. Having the Everything Else blog has been very liberating. Lately it has been very Shah Rukh Khan heavy, but that will change once I finish watching all if his movies. I am even reblogging old posts from my other blogs here. Focus? what's that?
8. Are you embarrassed sometimes when you go back and read your earlier posts?
Sure. That's the wages of publication. There are old journal articles I could torch if I could. But so far nothing has been so awful that I have actually deleted it. (Updates, yes.)
9. What makes you happiest about blogging?
When a reader comments or emails me. I write to communicate, so making that connection is the best!
10. What makes you grumpiest about blogging?
Proofreading. I swear that typos are living, reproducing organisms.
11. If you could change one thing about the people on the internet, what would it be?
I would make them read that post about pink and blue so they would stop asking the same damn question all the time.
2. What keeps you going online and writing?I believe that writers need to write every day. Sometimes I write in my paper journal, sometimes in my private online journal. But the value in blogging is in writing for an audience -- no matter how small. So I post something somewhere every day. Sometimes it's Facebook, sometimes Twitter, sometimes Instagram, sometimes a flash fiction app called TaleHunt, sometimes in Gender Mystique, and sometimes here.I write to share my thoughts and also to save them for later for myself.
3. What is the best comment you have ever gotten on your blog?That's a tough one! I have too many to pick a favorite. My son-in-law asked some great questions on 23 Sherwood Drive that forced me to think more deeply. I have also learned quite a bit from readers on Gender Mystique, especially folks from other countries who have shared their stories in the comments. I like questions the best!
4. What is the favorite blog post you have ever written?It has to be this one. Stupid me, I thought that writing a book and blogging about it would mean that I would stop getting asked the same question over and over (and over and over) by reporters. I finally got so tired of answering it that I wrote this post, and now when I get asked I just send them the link.
5. What is the favorite blog post you have ever read?Another tough question! I go back to mredlich21's analysis of Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge so often that it is clearly a recent favorite.
6. Why do you like writing about what your blog is about?
My focused blogs reflect my scholarly interests in fashion, gender, and sustainability. They help me stay on track with my research (publish or perish is real, people!) and also let me get my work to a public audience faster than any traditional mode of publishing.
7. Has your blog changed focus since you started?
Lordy, yes. (See question 1.) Gender Mystique has helped me write two books and I am now working on a third, and the focus has shifted to reflect my current project. First, it was baby and toddler clothing, then unisex and androgynous fashion, now it's fashion and age. Having the Everything Else blog has been very liberating. Lately it has been very Shah Rukh Khan heavy, but that will change once I finish watching all if his movies. I am even reblogging old posts from my other blogs here. Focus? what's that?
8. Are you embarrassed sometimes when you go back and read your earlier posts?
Sure. That's the wages of publication. There are old journal articles I could torch if I could. But so far nothing has been so awful that I have actually deleted it. (Updates, yes.)
9. What makes you happiest about blogging?
When a reader comments or emails me. I write to communicate, so making that connection is the best!
10. What makes you grumpiest about blogging?
Proofreading. I swear that typos are living, reproducing organisms.
11. If you could change one thing about the people on the internet, what would it be?
I would make them read that post about pink and blue so they would stop asking the same damn question all the time.
That was a good hour's work! Now I am going to be a bad girl and not nominate additional bloggers because (1) I don't actually read that many blogs these days and (2) I just don't do the "tag you're it" thing. (Sorry.) But feel free to respond on your own, and post a link to your post in the comments!
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