Questions for Claire, part 1

The Great Interview Experiment continues. Neil's keeping a running tally of all the interviews as they are completed here.

This time, Jen of Quarter Life Crisis asks me questions (It got so long, I broke it in half. Questions 6-10 will go up tomorrow):

1. I understand you started your blog a couple years ago as a vehicle to tell the stories you had been sending out to friends and family via e-mail. From then until now, how has your blog evolved? What does the future hold for your blog?

Initially, my blog was meant to be a showcase of my writing, mostly what falls into my taller tales category. Now, I pretty much post whatever I feel like whether it's a book review, random thought, story, photo, vlog, or link to something cool.

I used to post a tip of the week to inspire me to write and to give my blog a bit of cohesiveness, but after several months, they felt forced and I was keeping up my blogging habit without them. Audioblogs went up a couple of times a month on average until the free service I used to record and host them bailed out in late 2006.

On the upside, there are an ever growing number of my photographs on TTaT; I was long reluctant to share them for fear of theft. There are a number of things I'm still paranoid about posting, but much less so than when I started. Many stories I never would've posted here in that first year have found a place on TTaT since.

I'm not sure what the future holds for TTaT. A couple of tweaks for my sidebar I've yet to figure out, I hope. More vlogs, perhaps? A shift from ebb to flow in my posting. More photos, more tales.

Any requests?

2. What is one thing you like about blogging? One thing you dislike about blogging? Why?

I really enjoy the camaraderie that's developed with some of my readers, bloggers themselves. That they regularly take some of their precious time to read what I've posted, I really appreciate.

I dislike that I need to keep stalkers, identity thieves, and employers in mind at all when I decide what to post. Censorship even for safety reasons is a drag.

3. I see the name Joss Whedon peppered throughout your blog. Obviously you are a fan of his work. I've never seen one single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I've watched Firefly and Serenity. I'm not sure I totally "get" his style or sense of humor. Can you tell me what is so great about Joss Whedon?

The name Buffy was enough to bias me against the show for a good while, but once I gave it a shot during reruns of season 3, I was hooked. Joss Whedon's writing is smart, funny, and multi-layered. It clicks for me, but I also often discover something new when I re-watch an episode.

Buffy is full of metaphors for relationships, life, and growing up, but you don't have to "get" everything to enjoy an episode. If you do decide to give Buffy the Vampire Slayer a shot, skip the movie; it will give you the wrong idea about the series. The characters develop and change a great deal, and accumulate quite a bit of history over the seven seasons, so I recommend starting with season 1.

Most of all, I love that Joss Whedon writes strong female characters. His work inspires so many people all over the world, myself included. He's a cool guy. See for yourself; Joss Whedon speaks as an honoree of Equality Now.

4. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a Star Wars fanatic. The name Hayden Christensen came up, because my husband expressed a misguided desire to see Jumper. Naturally, we started talking about the "new" Star Wars trilogy, how Hayden's acting was just so very bad. Then my Star Wars fanatical friend said, "You mean, those movies that were Star Wars-esque? The ones that sucked?" I thought this was funny. How do you feel about the "new" Star Wars movies? Did George Lucas get greedy?

Argh! Those prequel movies pain me they sucked so hard. If not for Ewan McGregor, I might not have watched them all. I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid, but the new movies irritated me so much they tarnished my memories of the old. Just tongue tripping between new/old, original/prequel, and episode numbers to differentiate the trilogies really aggravates me.

Re-releasing his cleaned up, digitally enhanced versions of the original trilogy certainly smacks of greed to me. And I hate that Greedo shoots at Han Solo first in the bar now. Missing him point blank, I might add, which makes no sense. Han shot first in the original version.

Lucas became too arrogant, in my opinion, when he insisted on writing the new trilogy by himself with no feedback. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi both benefited greatly from having other screenwriters involved.

Robot Chicken sums it up pretty well:

Now I fear his involvement will ruin the next Indiana Jones movie. Why don't you make something new, George? 5. What books are currently on your nightstand (or side table, dresser, bookcase, etc.)? Well, I just finished Six Feet Under: Better Living Through Death. It's actually sitting next to my keyboard right now to prompt me to blog about it later. Next to my bed for reference are Webster's New World Dictionary, DVD & Video Guide 2006, and 150 Ways to Play Solitaire (Beleaguered Castle is where it's at, my peeps). In slow progress are Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat (a Calvin & Hobbes collection) and What You Wear Can Change Your Life (by Trinny and Susannah of UK's What Not to Wear). My bookshelves hold too many to list out, but there's my collection of Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, books by Geoff Dyer, numerous autobiographies, books on Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs, art books (both how-to and of various artists), books about filmmaking and filmmakers, Shakespeare, some textbooks, novels, a bit of poetry, some reference, plays, a cookbook or two... Part Two>>> A year ago on TTaT: Keeping Score, Today's follow-up