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“Interview Me” Meme

There’s a new meme going around the blogs called “Interview Me,” which I noticed yesterday over at The Other Andrew‘s place. So I decided to play, too.

Here are the rules!
You must have your own blog. And I will be limiting my own interviews to the first three requests. You have to link back to the original post and also to your Interviewer’s post and include the following:

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the questions Andrew, our adorable Aussie, asked, along with my answers. Maybe we’ll all learn something today!

I don’t recall ever reading the story of how you and The Geekboy met? Be it scandalous or sweet, care to share?

I don’t think I ever blogged how we met. It’s just a simple tale of two computer nerds meeting on a dating website. I was impressed by his good grammar and spelling (seriously, any would-be online daters — use the spell-check. When I read a profile with bad spelling or grammar, I immediately tossed it without a second thought). I was on the dating site for a while without finding anyone remotely interesting, until one evening I ran across the geekboy. I thought he had kind eyes. I messaged him and we emailed back and forth for days. I was smitten, but knew I should talk to and/or meet him soon, because many times the affair on the screen doesn’t translate to real life.

The first time we spoke on the phone, we stayed on for hours and I actually fell asleep on the phone. I felt like a stupid sixteen-year-old. Soon after that we went on a date. I took him to my favorite local bar/restaurant (where they know me, just in case he turned out to be a psychopath), where we shared a pork roll sandwich and then went to see “About a Boy.” He didn’t try to kiss me at the end of the night and I didn’t even know what to make of him. Then I realized that’s how nice boys act.

And the rest is history. I firmly believe that if we hadn’t met online, we would have eventually met in the real world. Soon after we started dating, we found out we had several mutual friends. A friend of his used to date a friend of mine. We used to hang out at the same club in college (City Gardens in Trenton, what up!).

So that’s, you know, that. Happily ever after and all that shit.

Tell us about your “How Stuff Works” writing gig. How did you get it, how much time and research goes into each article on average, and has anyone ever challenged your accuracy?

I got the HSW gig through my good friend (and freakgirl.com regular) Chuck. I had always known about the site and thought it was pretty cool. When Chuck got a job there, I was jealous! Then, last year, he told me that they were hiring part-time freelancers so I applied for a position. I wrote a practice article and went through a lot of tedious editing rounds, and got the gig. At first, I was only writing one or two a month, but now I’m up to one per week. My goal is to get two per week at some point.

I do not come up with my own article topics — they are given to me. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don’t. I do all my research online, but we are not permitted to use things like wikipedia or other people’s blogs; we have to use legit sources. I’ll usually spend an afternoon collecting articles online, then fashion an outline. Then I’ll write the article over about two days, interspersed with other things I might be working on (corporate work or blogging).

Nobody has ever challenged my accuracy, aside from my editor asking me to clarify or source particular pieces of information. I will say that I live in desperate fear of being challenged one day, especially when I’m writing about things like how to treat a snakebite. But so far, so good! I am proud to call myself a working writer, no matter what the subject.

Desert Island Disks: Freakgirl Edition. What 5 songs would you grab before the ship sinks, and for what reasons? (And here’s a hint, if there’s no General Public I will be SORELY DISAPPOINTED.)

Only five songs? Not even five CDs? Oh dear, this is difficult. I guarantee I will have changed my mind about these the minute I hit “publish.” But let’s see…

1. General Public, “Tenderness” — to remind me of high school, Beth, my sis (and Andrew)
2. Robbie Williams, “Heaven from Here” — our wedding song
3. R.E.M., “Perfect Circle” — because R.E.M. is the soundtrack to my life
4. Travis, “Turn” — reminds of me Ireland, of Lisa and a hundred other things
5. Mika, “Lollipop” — because it makes me laugh

One thing that always strikes me about you is your generousity of spirit towards animals, and those who care for them. Tell me about your first pet.

My first pet was our family dog, Teddy. My dad came home with her when I was little (geez, I can’t remember how I was, maybe seven or eight?). My mom said when my dad walked in with the puppy, my little sister shouted, “YOU BOUGHT US A MONKEY!” Teddy was a collie/german shepherd mix and she was a very pretty dog. She was good with us kids. She used to bark at the lawnmower and would spend the entire summer digging a hole under the fence so she could escape. She would make it over to the high school parking lot where my mother would eventually lure her back with a hot dog.

As most animals in our family do, Teddy lived a very long time (probably too long). As my mom always says, “She died years before she died.” But she was never in pain or agony…just tired. My mother ended up having to put her to sleep, and I can’t imagine how difficult that was. Although my father still calls her “dog-killer” to this day. We’ll talk about my family’s twisted sense of humor some other time. Anyway, I miss you, poor dead Ted.

In the US you have both a front row spectator’s seat and a ticket to participate in an exciting period of change, what are your hopes for the year ahead?

This is such an exciting time to be American, even though right now just about everything is in the toilet. Still, I feel like I finally have a leader I can believe in, one who honestly has my best interests at heart. Yesterday President Obama released a statement recognizing the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and affirmed a woman’s right to choose. I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Every year at this time I’m so used to Bush telling us all about protecting life and taking away our health rights, and when Obama made that statement, I think it really hit me that things are changing.

It will take years for this country to get back on track. But in this first year, I hope to see progress. I hope to see plans and ideas and the United States earn back its respect. I hope to see our troops begin to come home. I hope to see civil rights extended to everyone. I hope to see the entire country realize we are in this together and begin taking responsibility for itself.

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So there you go. As you can see, I tend to go on a bit. Now you all know a little more about me, your hostess on this slice of the internets. Thank you, Andrew, for this. It was a great way to start the morning.

Posted in Memes. on Friday, Jan 23, 2009

8 Responses

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  1. interview me!

  2. Interview me!

  3. Lake said

    Thanks The Other Andrew for getting Freakgirl to tell us these great stories! Swear I’m not a stalker! ; )

  4. I will be in touch with Lee and Oddrey before Monday. Still need one more!

    Lake, I can’t believe you read the whole thing!

  5. Okay, but it’ll end with me, because nobody reads my blog.

  6. And that’s three! Marjon, I read your blog. :)

  7. Great answers FG! Thanks for playing along.

  8. Thanks for the questions!