Monday, October 13, 2008

Great Interview Experiment Part I

In January of this year one of my favorite bloggers, Neil Kramer over at Citizen of the Month, started The Great Interview Experiment. The idea was that one blogger would interview another blogger, publish the interview on their blog, and then the interviewer would be interviewed by another blogger kind of like a chain reaction of blogger interviews. Cool, no? When I first read about it, I thought it was for bloggers more serious about blogging than me, so I didn't sign up and I didn't think much more about it. A few weeks ago, Neil announced one of the interviewers had to back out, and he was looking for a replacement interviewer. In keeping with my personality flaw that forces me to overcommit, and always try to help out other people, I told him I'd jump in and do that interview. At some point, I'll be interviewed as well, and I'll let you know when and where that happens. So without further ado, here is my interview of Unfinishedperson.

General Bloggy Questions

1. You have five blogs covering various aspects of your life. Which blog did you start first, or did you begin with a plan to have a multi-blog approach? And what brought you to begin blogging in the first place?

The blog that I began first was Just A (Running) Fool on Oct. 27, 2005 to chronicle my journey toward reaching a marathon by the time I'm 40. I'll be 40 on June 9 next year, with my first marathon scheduled for June 6, God's Country Marathon. For more on all five blogs, visit unfinishedperson.com with feeds to all four other blogs on left sidebar.

I think it was my wife who brought me to blogging and also my sister, who both started blogs before I did. Both are still going strong.

2. How would you describe your level of commitment to your blogs? How often do you post and how much time do you spend working on each post? What is the criteria you use for adding a blog to your blog roll? How do your family and friends react to your blogs?

My level of commitment to my blogs, plural, is not always consistent, but on individual blogs is good, depending on the week. My strongest blog so far has been my book blog: Just A (Reading) Fool, with the readership growing there by leaps and bounds. I try to post once a day on at least one of blogs, if not more on all of the blogs. A couple of my family, such as my wife and sister, already are bloggers, but most everyone just rolls their eyes, especially my parents when I put up a post about them going off about talking ants and a big, honking lot of pasta salad.

Blogroll: on my main blog an unfinished person in an unfinished universe, I include the ones I consistently follow in my Google Reader, and anyone who asks to be included, who considers themselves an unfinished person in this unfinished universe. On my book blog,I don't have a blog roll, because there are too many good book bloggers out there so I've put them all the ones I've encountered (and am continuing to encounter) on a bookmark on del.icio.us. I provide the link to it on my sidebar. On Journeying with the Saints, I've included the few other "devotional" bloggers I've encountered in my journeys. On my humor or rambling blog, Unfinished Rambling(s), I have many of the bloggers whom I've discovered through Humor-Blogs.com on my blogroll. However, I'm working on making that a little more consistent and am considering doing something similar to what VE's Fantastical Nonsense does on his sidebar, although I haven't implemented it yet.

About the Great Interview Experiment

What was your motivation for participating in the Great Interview Experiment? Is there a specific goal you have as a result of participating?

I happened across Neil's blog and the experiment through a friend of mine on SparkPeople, and thought it looked like a great social experiment. So why not? No specific goal, other than connect to other bloggers like yourself.

About Unfinished Person

Your blog's name is taken from a quote by Dr. George Sheehan, "Each one of us is an unfinished person in an unfinished universe." What parts of you do you consider the most "unfinished"?


Um, all of them, body, mind and soul and as I say that part of us that doesn't fit as neatly into the body/mind/soul paradigm. I believe none of us will truly be finished until we are...uh...finished.

About just a (running) fool


Before announcing your intentions to run an marathon by the age of 40, what was your level of fitness and what kind of exercise did you do? Was this something you'd considered doing before, or was it a moment of inspiration? In your recent posts it it seems that your motivation for the marathon has greatly diminished but I didn't read any explanation. Any idea why?

Before: My level of fitness was nil. I hadn't run or done any consistent exercise since high school when I was a member of the cross country team (pictures here). I was a couch potato and worked in a sedentary job where I ate at McDonald's all the time. After ballooning up to 280 pounds (I'm 5-foot-6), I decided enough was enough and started with Weight Watchers. When that only got me so far, I took up running. I didn't want to be Mr. Potato Head anymore, and I'm not now.

I don't know why I've experienced the lack of motivation recently, but today after a long layoff, I finally got out for run. It was too beautiful of a day where I live in northcentral Pennsylvania not to run.

About Just A (Reading) Fool

You are a voracious reader judging by the list of books you have read and reviewed. I didn't notice any theme of content or genre, is there a specific criteria you use when selecting your reading material?

Short answer: Nope.

Longer answer: No, ma'am.

Slightly longer answer: Mostly I choose what I already own and those books which I haven't read yet. I occasionally am influenced by what others recommend on book blogs.

About Journeying with the Saints


Given the religious background you described in your conversion story
, I found it interesting that you found your way to Catholicism. What was it about the Catholic church that appealed to you? Has your initial expectation of what conversion would mean held true?

With all of the scandals in the Catholic church, especially in the last couple of decades (not counting the Crusades, the myriad "bad" popes the Church has had), it may seem odd that anything about the Church appealed to me. However, what really drew me was the focus on Jesus, pure and simple, at least for me. Jesus is at the center of the faith, especially in the Eucharist, where we believe the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. From that, everything else flows. The Church leadership and laity, of course, are sometimes, although not always, flawed-- as all are any of us who are humans. It's that we're still working toward being finished people, or being more finished than when we began. That's what matters.

I'm not sure what I expected from conversion, except for a growing knowledge of the holy in all of life-- and even though it sometimes is hard to see in a world full of war, poverty, etc., I think I'm more aware of it now-- even in the midst of all of that.

All that said, if you think I'm a completely serious person, then you need to check out the site for what I call the alter ego to unfinishedperson: unfinishedrambler @ unfinished rambling(s). You've got to laugh too at yourself (and at others, naturally).

Other

In more general life, because let's face it, I'm a mommy blogger not a psychologist, what is your best time saving tip? What three grocery items make you feel like your cupboards are well stocked? What phrase do you use too much either in speaking or writing?

Time saving tip? Hmmmm. Don't sweat the small stuff? No? It's all small stuff. I'm not very good on time management, to be honest. Even now, I'm pressed up against time, to finish this and then head off to a high school football game I have to cover for a newspaper.

Three grocery items: bread, milk, peanut butter. I mean, peanut butter, bread, milk. Bread and milk because live in the Northeast U.S. and when it snows, that's what you have to get from the store.

Hmmmm. What phrase? Probably...hmmmm. Or ummm. I also use "also" too much and parenthetical remarks (although not in these answers as much as I normally do, hmmm).

Are you happy? And what does "happy" mean to you?

Right now, no. Getting a headache, but that's just because I'm thinking about all the things I need to do before I head out the door.

Overall, though, yes.

To take completely out of context, from a Billy Joel song:
Things are okay with me these days
I got a good job, I got a good office
I got a new wife, got a new life
And the family is fine

Good job: Working at a bookstore, even if part-time. Good office: My home office with a window. New wife: Same "new" wife for last 12 years and only wife for me. New life: Every day.
Family: no children, but we got a cat Seamus, and that's enough for us.

3 comments:

52 Faces said...

Oooh! I love interviews! I just love hearing about other people's lives (hence the blog addiction). Must come from my training as a therapist and life coach and actor and writer...oh wow I did alot.

Green said...

I love reading interviews (and interviewing people and being interviewed)!

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for the interview. It was fun to do...and to meet other people with whom I might not be acquainted otherwise.

If you need someone to interview you, just let me know (if Neil will allow it ;) and I'll reciprocate. Just drop me an e-mail.

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