The Rules of the Interview
1. Leave me a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I’ll email you five questions, of my determination not yours!
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

A few days back Gretchen sent me five questions. It’s taken me a little bit of thinking to properly answer them, but hopefully it’ll be worth it. Without further adieu, here’s what Gretchen wanted to know:

1. If you were limited to seeing one genre of movie for the rest of your life, which genre would you choose?

Can I say indie? It’s listed as a genre at Netflix so it can’t be cheating, right? I’ve always said the Independent Spirit Awards are the coolest thing Hollywood does and that independent films are the only true creativity left out west. The stories are more interesting, the characters are more real, and they’re just much more enjoyable movies to watch. If I were restricted to just watching indie filmes for the rest of time, I’d be alright with that.

2. Do you have any secret talents that none of us know about yet?

I don’t think I’ve talked much about it here or on Twitter, but I really enjoy cooking. Inspiration typically comes from the Food Network, usually through Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives or from something created by Alton Brown or Giada De Laurentiis. I’m not a great cook, but I know my way around a kitchen and do enjoy it and not many people know that, so there you go.

3. Which of the 48 continental states would you visit if you had a free month and unlimited funds?

I would love to tour California. Driving the PCH seems like a lot of fun and it’d be very cool to be able to go from the large cities in the south to the vast wilderness in the north. Not to mention seeing the redwoods and Hollywood. That’d be a very cool month. It’d have to be one of the months that has 31 days though; 30 or 28 just wouldn’t be enough.

4. What’s your favorite part about being a youth minister?

Good question. I really enjoy my job and there are many things that could potentially be my favorite: working with the kids (surprised?), planning and executing retreats and mission trips all over the country, and being able to give back to a system that helped me when I was younger. Though what I consider my favorite part would be our worship experience on Sunday nights. Over the last year it has greatly transformed into what it is now — a very energized youth praise band and messages built around month long themes. It’s been a very cool process to be a part of and it has presented some very cool worship experiences.

5. (I’m gonna steal one from my interview because I think it’s so good.) What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?

I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought about that. I write things mostly for myself — there are a few things I write that I know think other people would be interested in. It would be awesome to be the next John Gruber and live off my blog, but I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. The site landed me a few featured spots in the local paper over the years, but that’s not really what I write for. When it comes down to it, I write as a personal outlet and if people find it interesting, than that’s pretty cool too.

On the site, the spoiler tag will simply black out the text in question. Should you want to read the spoiler, all you have to do is put your mouse on the text and all will be revealed. Check it out:

You’re reading this text and all is really cool but all of a sudden I decided to drop some really revealing information that you weren’t expecting. Now, thanks to the spoiler tag, you don’t have to see if you don’t want to.

Should you want to implement this on your own site, all you have to do is add the following CSS to your style.css template file:

.spoiler { background: #000; color: #000; }
.spoiler:hover { background: inherit; color: inherit; }

Then, the next time you decide to write something that could contain potentially spoilerific details, just wrap the text in a spoiler span:

<span class="spoiler">Juicy information goes here.</span>

I’m sure there are other things you could use this for, like making your blog posts look like something released under the Freedom of Information Act, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Now, after reading her blog post a second time — it was all about me the first time — I realized that Seven had given it to three bloggers (myself included) and her brother had given it to four (Seven included). Here comes the problem. I don’t really know who to pass it on to. You see, because of this award I realized why I’m such a bad blogger: I don’t read other blogs.

I mean, sure, I read a ton of topical blogs — things like Destructiod, MacUser, and TV Squad — but I don’t really read people’s personal blogs. It’s not really that I’m too self absorbed to be concerned with other peoples lives (maybe it is, what do I know?), it’s really that I find it odd reading about other peoples daily lives. It seems a bit invasion of privacyish — which is why I don’t really talk at all about my own life here. It’s all observations and topical things, because that’s what I read and find interesting.

It’s funny. You see, back in April I asked what blogging is all about. Who would have thought that my August Blog-O-Rama challenge would bring that answer. Warning: introspective content ahead.

For me, blogging is all about topical issues and not about life events. Life events are private things that don’t really need to be shared with the whole world. I call this site Mindless Chatter because it’s my incoherent ramblings about topics that interest me. It’s why you’ll find plenty of posts about Apple and not many about what I did yesterday. It all makes sense now.

But this touchy feelly crap doesn’t get me out of passing this award along. No, that’d be too easy. Instead, I’m going to pass it onto two topical blogs that I do read and enjoy that aren’t owned by a giant media conglomerate (since Seven’s brother went with four and Seven went with three, I figure I’m supposed to give it to two):

Two Slashes
Two Slashes is written by Nick Tabick and is basically his views on tech related issues. They are always interesting and I find myself commenting more there then anywhere else on the interwebs.

Hummer Guy
Hummer Guy is written by Brian Dooley, my college roommate. It’s about, you guessed it, Hummers: industry trends, new products, racing, everything. I don’t know how Brian gets all his information and it’s possible I don’t want to know, but it’s well written and deserving of a read — if you’re into Hummers of course.

So there you go. It was a long road to get to the point where I could share the award with others, but I learned something along the way. Did you? What defines a good blog to you? Topics, personal stories, jokes? Let me know in the comments.

Blogs have come a long way since the term was coined almost 7 years ago, when blogs were mostly an extension of one’s personal journal that the world was able to access. Today, blogs have moved to become more topical in nature–just look at the different categories for this years Bloggie Awards. There is a blog for people interested in celebrity gossip, cooking tips, and advertisements–there is even a blog about designing other blogs. But a vast number of blogs out in the some 26.8 million blogs on the internet have to do with news and politics. Technorati, a sort of clearing house for the blogosphere, lists five of the internet’s ten most popular blogs are political opinion in nature.

The political blog became mainstream in America during last year’s heated Presidential election. There were bloggers situated on both sides of the isle evaluating the other sides messages, stance on issues, and ratifying their own. Since then, the blogging world has moved from just being accepted to being embraced by traditional media outlets. NBC’s Dateline features a look at the blogosphere once a week, CNN’s The Situation Room has “internet reporters” who look at bloggers opinions daily, and Slate–an online news magazine owned by the Washington Post/Newsweek has a column called “The Daily Blog” that looks at just that–what the blogosphere is talking about.

Blogs are a way for people to freely deliver information and their opinions to the world–and for the world to respond to them. This open dialog between the reader and the author has never been seen before. Traditional outlets have “letters to the editor” but never has the dialog been conducted in a real time public forum. This free exchange does not come without it’s dangers–in this case the danger is slant.

The traditional media, whether it will admit it or not, contains a bias to either the left or the right. Each paper, magazine or network has it’s own slant either subtle or great. When it comes to the blogosphere, the slant is usually pretty large–and identifiable–thanks to being comprised of opinionated postings. While this is a danger, it is also a strength. Instead of trying to cover their slant under the disguise of fair journalism, blogs embrace it as their raison d’être. This is also, in a very round about way, holding the traditional media to a higher scrutiny. Because traditional outlets are now featuring blogs on their programs and in their pages, they are–for the most part–showcasing both sides of the isle–relating opinions from all vantage points.

The blog has redefined the op-ed piece and will continue to do so in the future. Traditional outlets, in looking at the blogosphere and featuring it’s contents, will in turn be holding themselves more accountable–pushing them toward a truly unbiased relating of the news. Who would have thought the blog could be so powerful?

Let me start with a question. What do you think is the most popular page on my site–the article read more than any other? The answer, Article 50: Dawson’s Creek Series Finale. That’s right. Shannon’s article about the final episode of Dawson’s Creek is the most popular page on this site. Nearly one third of all site visits (27.52%) results in a viewing of this article; this is just under twice the amount that view the sites second most popular page, the index. Have I confused you? Ok, here’s the deal. My faithful readers, friends, family and what not who either have the site bookmarked or type the address in directly, result in a visit to the index. So how, then, does Shannon’s article double the viewing of the index? Two words, search engines.

For some reason, unknown to me, by searching for “Dawson’s Creek Series Finale” on pretty much every search engine brings my site up right near the top. For example, take Google (click here for a shortcut to the search). Now, if you attempted the search or are just taking my word for it, you’ll notice that Shannon’s article is THE SECOND RESULT ON THE PAGE! Yes, it results even higher than THE OFFICIAL DAWSON’S CREEK EPISODE GUIDE! How does this happen, I have no idea. However, I have been tracking the views of that page and a majority of them are from countries all around the world. My thoughts: the finale hit syndication around the world and people went online to get info on it. You’ll also notice that Shannon’s article has the most posted comments than any other article, but we’ll get to that later.

So enough about the Creek, what is the second most read article? Well, I’ll answer that with the second most searched for phrase. The second most searched for phrase which leads to my website is any combination of “nude youth camp,” naked volleyball,” “photos of nude teen girls,” etc. Figured it out yet? The second most read article is Article 59: Summer Camp, With a Twist. I’ll have you know that a lot of sites hide keywords (what the search engines search for) like sex and porn on their pages somewhere to get more traffic. But I do not stoop that low! No, I, the author of the one and only Lone Palm Creations, place words like sex, porn, nudism, and the Olsen Twins DIRECTLY in the body of my articles for the world to see–the result is still the same in the long run.

Anyway, enough about that crap. I want to take the time here to address some of the more, shall I say, special comments made throughout my website.

Visitor Harley, who has been traced back to London, comments on my article The Meaning of That as follows:

Zebras are black and white for cooling – as the wind passes over the white and black areas – it draws heat off the body more effectivly thanjust a solid colour…

To this I say, Harley thank you for the wonderful insight. I am really impressed that you know this and hope that, in the future when I attempt to make a joke, you continue to correct me and make sure my readers stay informed and in the know.

Reader Jasmine, who appears to be from Austin, Texas (don’t mess with her) left about a six page response to Shannon’s Creek article, and then, these interesting words:

i’m always looking for new ppl to talk to– especially since i watch a lot of tv, and NONE of my friends like the same shows i do,a nd i love to talk about my fave shows. but if u want to contact my, u should first now that i’m EXTREMELY weird and insane, and i HATE preps ans peps.

Hum… I’ve written about Hot or Not, though my new friend Jasmine (hi Jasmine) has got me thinking, LPC: Hook Ups. How’s an internet dating service sound? Look for it in the future.

Some guy from Tampa named George, in a comment also on the Dawson’s Creek article writes:

i want to have a 3 some with dawson and pacey

Yeah, ok George. Let me see if I can arrange that for you. I’ll add it to the list just below getting Jimmy Buffett to play a Lone Palm Creations benefit concert and having Katie Holmes become a regular author here.

And our finnal comment of the night was posted by Jeff in regards to Popular Culture:

justin, i hope you weren’t complaining about low rise jeans, they’re a good thing.

No Jeff, I am in fact a big fan of low rise jeans–especially when they’re on the Olsen Twins (I bet that’ll draw in some readers).