Ten Questions with Tommy of Big Stupid Tommy

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
My blog began as an attempt to make myself write: I was operating under the delusion that I was going to be a writer, yet I wasn’t writing anything regularly. The blog began as an attempt to prime my writing pump. In the four years since, it’s become a lot of things: it’s still a way I get my brain moving when I’m trying to write something, but it’s also a place where I can go and be goofy, or bounce an idea or two off somebody who’s listening, and unexpectedly, it’s become an outlet for meeting a person or two.

To make a shorter answer: it’s my place on the internet where I get to go
be myself for a little while.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
http://bigstupidtommy.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_archive.html

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I dunno. I’m not trying to set the world on fire. I don’t have any particular agenda, beyond amusing myself. At it’s best, my blog’s going to
make you laugh, and make you think. At its worst, I’m going throw a string of fart jokes up on the page for the world to see.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
A co-worker had pointed out a site called xymphora.blogspot.com, which is full of left wing conspiracy type thoughts. Really hardcore anti-Bush, anti right-wing stuff. I was showing it to my roommate at the time, who showed me what “blogspot” and “blogger” were. So, blame him. And also all those left-wing conspirators.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
The anonymity bothers me. There’s too much opportunity to come in and be nasty, to tear people and ideas down, with no accountability, complete with the ability to run and hide when faced with confrontation. Often, there’s no real reason behind it other than the desire to be nasty. And it’s a nastiness that wouldn’t be present, by and large, if everybody were face to face. I’ll qualify that by saying that, by far, the cool people that I’ve met and read doing this blogging thing outnumber the dicks, but sadly, those who come in to tear down end up leaving more of a mark than those who don’t.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.

I don’t think I have one. Right now, I like having a webcounter. But I’ve blogged as long without one as I have with. No big deal.

7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog,who would it be and why?
I would like William Henry Harrison do come in, perhaps while I am on vacation, and do a week long series of posts about “Why it is important to wear a coat to inauguration.”

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
It’s made me write a little more. It’s made me get off my rear end a little more. It’s made it a little easier to meet people. Also, I can
deadlift a VW Mini-Bus. I don’t know that blogging has anything to do with that, but I couldn’t do it before I started blogging. So I can’t discount it.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
You know, just go in and write what you enjoy writing. Write about whatever’s on your mind. If you want to write about baseball, or politics,
or whatever you’re reading, that’s great. But don’t write about what you think other people will read. At the end of the day, there’s no guarantee that a lot of people will read or respond to what you’ve written. Just write what you enjoy writing, and what you would enjoy reading.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?

I really dig NewsComa’s site. She always brings lots of great insight to the table. She’s brutally honest, has an eye for the absurd, and she makes me laugh.

Categories: Personal, Ten Questions