Meme: In The Spotlight

I was tagged for this meme by Carter-Ann at The Baby Gravy Train. This meme is a bit different because you get to pick which questions you’d like to answer. Head over to Christy’s Coffee Break for the list of questions and Official Rules and Such. I’m going to answer the questions Carter-Ann answered, plus one more. You’re gonna love it.

What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?

I want it to serve as a record of my life right now. Being me: a mom, a survivor, a lady and one bad motherfucker. This is a lazy way of staying in touch with far-away friends. I felt like copying and pasting the same text into several emails was cheating somehow. Now I can write about my day and my friends and I can chat about other things when we’re online at the same time or when we call each other. I also think I know how to make a good sentence and am funny. Most of you agree. I think you are brilliant.

Someday I might design a t-shirt or coffee mug and make twenty bucks off one or two of you.

Do your moral values affect the way that you blog, and if yes, how?

Are you ready for a mind-blowing answer? Strap in.

SORTA. Mostly, it affects what I don’t write about. I don’t blog about religion and politics because they’re not up for debate and I don’t feel like defending my beliefs and opinions regarding either subject. Church is a big part of my life but I don’t write about how hard it is to wash goats’ blood out of blue jeans. I only care enough about politics to vote and complain. I link to others who say things I like about religion and politics. (Watch the Google Reader links in the sidebar. There’s great stuff over there. Though only 1% of it is political or religious. Still, this seemed like a good time to remind you to look over there.)

What’s your favorite childhood memory?

One of my favorite memories from childhood is rollerskating. I got a pair of roller skates for Christmas one year. Until it was nice enough to skate outside, my sister and I pretended the kitchen (in our mobile home, no less) was a roller rink and we played the living shit out of that Night Ranger cassette skating circles around the kitchen table. I wore those skates almost constantly for the next four years. They had blue and white pompoms with little jingle bells on the toes.

What are your feelings on the “blog popularity” issue? (This is the fun one!)

If you’re blogging and you don’t have a sense of “Wait wait! Look at me, too!” I’m not exactly sure why you’re blogging. Isn’t that kind of the point? So, yes, I would like to be popular and have enough traffic to justify ads so I could use those funds to host this blog myself and buy my own domain and blah blah blah.

I would guess the popular answer to this question is something like, “I’m like, so totally over stats and being popular and who cares? I just write because I love it! It’s all about the music, baby. It’s not about the fame or the money.” (Like interviews with hair bands in 1988. NSFW.)

I could say that, but it wouldn’t be 100% honest. There are times I see a newer blog with lots of participation, lots of comments and the blogger is suddenly EVERYWHERE. Sometimes the content is fresh and engaging, so I can see how the Internet has caught on quickly. Sometimes, though, the content isn’t that great and I’m left wondering what makes this so special? Hello? And there’s one relatively popular, long-time blogger (not who you’re thinking, I promise) whose popularity mystifies me. I can’t visit that blog because the content makes me want to peel my skin off and the comments make my right eyeball explode inside my head.

So, I’d rather have fun, engaging, thoughtful and awesomer content and be genuinely appreciated by a small number of seriously good-smelling people than be …not that great and wildly (but mysteriously) popular. Because those cats are just crazy.

But I still want to be popular. Don’t you?

Want to play? Consider yourself tagged. Also, those Night Ranger links? They will make your day. Turn your speakers on.