10 Questions with Karen of A Strange Life

1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
A Strange Life began as a place where I could say what I needed to during my descent into another bout with depression and anxiety. I found in my blog a place where I could express my feelings, the silliness that people didn’t see as silly while I was in the state I was in, and to try to clarify for myself what was happening to me. I wrote (and write) my posts without looking backward, which makes for an eclectic and swerve-in-the-road ahead kind of blog. Now that I am back in the sane world, I find that the blog keeps me in touch with myself, which sounds silly, but is essential to my continued mental health. Plus I write for PPP at the dungbeetle level, so I can make a little money to support my various hobbies outside blogging.

2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
If I Had Kids The Front Door Would Have A Huge Red X Painted On It

3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
I have an inside view of a person whose brain has gone berserk and come back, a couple of times. Being a crazy person gives you some very bizarre insights, especially into your own brain. Most people never get to see what happens when every chemical in your head gives up the ghost, and I hope that at least some of my posts help people understand what it is like. I also always use spell checker prior to publishing.

4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I stumbled on Dooce who I found totally hilarious and, in her archives, someone who had endured many of the same problems that I had.

5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Sites that take tons of time to load because they have three tons of advertising, which is flashing and spinning and popping around, but you want to read the blog, so you put up with the crap that comes with it.

6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
I adore my TypePad blogging platform. They were the first one I found, and I have never been unhappy with them. Their automated services are great, and you can actually get help from a real person in a reasonable amount of time with a trouble ticket.

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 ask Graham Norton to write a guest post for me. The man is absolutely hilarious and I think he would be a definite change from my humor.

8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Blogging has made me a better person because it requires a commitment to yourself. Every morning, no matter how bad, depressed, anxious, stupid, whatever I feel, I get up and turn on the computer. I may sit in front of it for a long while, waiting for inspiration, but eventually something will come. It gives me a starting point for a series of healthy habits I want to institute in my life.

9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
Always write, if you aren’t in the psycho ward or hugging the porcelain god, sit in front of the screen and pound out something. Make it into a part of your life, and use it to explore situations and personal actions that you have been in or done.

10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
Daisy The Curly Cat. This blog is always sweet, always interesting, and always new. The blogger is a wonderful woman, and her cat (the REAL author) is very special. I have never been disappointed when I clicked into Daisy’s blog!

Categories: Personal, Ten Questions