Q. What gave you the Idea to start a blog?

A few years ago I ended up with a lot of free time on my hands when my software engineering position got an all expenses paid trip overseas without me included in the package. I started surfing the web more frequently and came across some link blogs such as Boing Boing and J-Walk whom always managed to link to some fascinating subject. I started a blog to bookmark and share the links with friends instead of annoying them with a dozen emails a day. I never really expected to get more than a handful of visitors a day.

Q. Have you run a website/blog before this?
(if yes - what was it about)

No. This was my first attempt which is good because I wanted my site's template to scream "I'm new at this." It's easy to complete a goal when you set your standards low.

Q. Will you ever stop blogging?
(if so when)

Absolutely. I've already stopped several times but just didn't mention it to anyone which is for the best since I always end up starting back up within a couple of days. The weird thing is that I seem to get more traffic and people subscribing to my rss feed when I stop blogging. I don't wish to analyze why this happens.

Q. Does/did your wife object to the amount of time you put into the blog? (mine did when I did the old html version)

Not yet but we've only been married for a few weeks so she may still be testing the limits of her new powers. She is mostly surprised that I am still blogging. When I first told her that I was starting a blog she thought it would be like one of my million other hobbies I've had over the years and that I would grow bored with it after a month or so and be onto something else. The difference between blogging and most other hobbies is the amount of feedback you receive from readers. It keeps you on your toes because whatever you post, there will be someone out there who is an expert on the subject, or at least under the illusion that they are an expert.

Q. You told me a while ago, that you were only getting a few hundred hits a day in the early days, until a magazine ("Time" I think you said - correct if wrong) picked up an article you linked to - but credited you as being the source. From that article you got thousands of hits a day (i wish). were you surprised by the take off in popularity of your site?

Actually, you're giving me too much credit. I was getting about 50 hits a day when Time magazine mistakenly linked to my site. I knew someone big had linked to my blog when I checked my stats in the morning and had more hits in a few hours than I was getting in a week. (All bloggers check their stats as much during the day as a stockbroker checks the stock market.) Overall I actually didn't get as many hits as I thought I would have. A few thousand over a weeks time is quite small if you consider how many hits you would get if slashdot or digg links to your site.

It's much easier to just click on a link than type an address in
your browser from a magazine. After it was all done and forgotten, I
started averaging about 250 hits a day. Every few months the hit
numbers seem to double. I'm now averaging about 7,500 a day and if you were to have told me that 2 years ago I would have nodded my head and moved slowly away assuming that you were insane.

Q. Has any other posting generated interest from the media since, or have you been contacted by the media to add comment to a story they are covering?

I've been linked to by some newspaper websites a few times but have never been directly contacted by any media which makes sense since I am just gathering information and not actually producing it.

Q. Have there been any posts that have sparked a backlash (apart from the guy who doesn't like the cat blogging) against you?

If you want to get hate mail, the easiest way is to post about religion,
politics or Michael Jackson. I think I have received more hate mail and angry comments from Michael Jackson fans about a post I did about him than any of the posts making fun of religion or a politician. In fairness to the Jackson fans though, they are completely insane.

Besides those main three hot topics, you never know who is going to take offense at any given subject. Once I received an email from an owner of a business whose product I did a snarky post about. He started out saying I didn't understand the product and the email then took form of a support group session when he told me he was about to go out of business because nobody was buying the product. I felt bad until I went back to see what product he was talking about and then remembered how ridiculous the thing was.

Q. Do you have any rules for posting something - or is it just if it amuses/infuriates?

The only rule I have is it has to be interesting to me and something I
would share with my friends. Somedays the interesting links just don't appear as easily and I am too tired or busy to search for interesting links and I find myself regurgitating items that have already been on every other blog just to have something to post. That's usually a warning sign that I need a break.

Q.Do you have a subject that you go back to again and again because it's something that you are passionate about it in one way or another.

It's difficult to say because my interests vary so much from week to
week. Today it might be Tiki culture and tomorrow it may be weird
people from history such as the Bitch of Buchenwald (Ilse Koch). For the most part, the subjects that I come back to have their own category assignments because I revisit them so often.

Q. Are you getting more attention from women as a result of the cat blogging posts - is your wife jealous?

I can't go to the grocery store without some blog groupie trying to get me to sign her breasts. Wait, are you trying to get me divorced before my first month of marriage? Forget I said anything!

Q. Do you visit all of the actual sited listed in your blogroll daily or just the RSS feeds?

I get a lot of email from other bloggers asking me to exchange links
with them. I don't even answer those emails anymore. The rule about blogrolls is simple. If a blogger likes your site and visits you often, they'll put you on their blogroll. All the blogs on my blogroll are there because they are my favorites and the ones who I owe a great deal of gratitude for because they have given me a lot of entertainment (not to mention material). I don't have any reciprocal link deals with any of them and I'm not even sure how many of them have links back to me. I have them all in bloglines and visit them through rss when they are updated along with about a hundred other sites and feeds.

About you in more depth:

Q. You state you are in publishing - what area, book, magazine, newspaper?

The wonderful world of academic publishing. We publish a quarterly journal.

interests: List a few!

Go to Wikipedia and click random article. Chances are I'll be interested.

Q. Cat. - who's idea was cynikitty - yours, the wife / joint or did he bang on the door one day and demand that you feed him/her?

We were looking for a pet and were looking more towards a dog until I came to my senses and realized I would have to walk the thing every morning during the winter. Suddenly, cats looked more
attractive. Couple that with my mom's next door neighbor giving
away free kittens and the rest is hissstory.

Q. Have you owned a pet before?

I had a dog growing up and my parents always had a cat around. Even though I have a cat now I am most definitely a dog person. Dogs actually like humans while cats just seem to like you around
suppertime. Also they hold grudges. If Cynikitty could read what I
just wrote, I would go home to a couch minus any fabric.

influences: Person/people?

Vonnegut, Twain, Feynman, and Stewie from Family Guy.

Favourites:

food?

Anything high in cholesterol will work..

drink?

Pineapple juice. I rarely drink anything with alcohol.

(yeah, I prefer alcohol on it's own as well, wait... Oops, sorry just got what you mean)

music?

Jazz, blues, classical. I don't know anything about modern music. My music knowledge ends at 1992.

colour?

#33339F

joke?

A man walks into a library and asks the librarian for a book on
suicide. "Fuck off!" she tells him. "You won't bring it back."

place (can be -location, town, state, country)?

Oh I'm a total Vegas freak. There isn't another city like it in the
world although some, such as Atlantic City, NJ have attempted to
copy it and failed miserably. I love everything about it from it's
cheesy lounge acts to being able to get a steak dinner at 4am.

Q. What makes you laugh (apart from this dumbass questionnaire)?

People who thank god for winning an award or athletic competition. It always cracks me up when someone just won a grammy and then starts off by saying "First of all, I would like to thank Jesus for this." I mean if there is a god, shouldn't he be spending his time comforting or curing people dying of cancer or some other disease instead of hanging out at the Grammy Awards? If they don't win the next year do they think, "Jesus hates me, he really really hates me!"

Q. what makes you cry?

Styrofoam. I don't care if it is a good packing material, the sound
that stuff makes when you take it out of a box is just vile. (Although
it is more of a cringing eye watering instead of a boo hoo type of crying.)

(the sound grates my teeth, you know the feeling I mean)

finally (stop cheering)

Q. If you had the influence - is there something that you would change? (bring about world peace, prevent hunger or an event etc.)

Wait, when did this become a Miss America pageant?

I'd like to thank Chris, Jesus and my pet rock, Melvin, for making this interview possible. I, like many of your readers - hope that you keep this hobby up for many, many wonderful years to come..

Oh and Michael Jackson sucks!!