blogging meme

Suzanne tagged me to answer these questions, so I'll have a go:

1. When did you start blogging and why?
I finally gave in in February and started. For a long time I resisted the whole blog thing, even though I've always been a writer, because I had an idea that a blog had to be a kind of online diary. I didn't want that, I'm not particularly interested in listing daily events, and there are private and personal things I have no desire to put on public display. but then it occurred to me that an online journal could be a way of putting together stuff that interested me, and that's the direction I've gone in.

2. What don't you write about?
Anything personal and private, my problems, my family (except for public events like graduations, birthdays, anniversaries etc). I don't want to get embroiled in political controversies, though I'll stick my neck out on issues I really see as matters of principle. My blog is more about things that interest me than about my private life.

3. Are you and your blogging personna the same person?
With pickles, what you see is what you get. I'm probably more serious in monologue than in conversation, to me jokes come up naturally in interaction, because of my overdeveloped sense of the absurd. But no, in other respects I think I'm very much my real self here: somewhere in the middle between introvert and extravert, passionate, quirky (ok, weird, but I prefer quirky) ..

4. How do you use blogging to build friendships?
I haven't thought much about it, I guess I'm still finding my way into the blogging world. What happens, happens ..

5. How would you describe your writing style?
Umm... poetry, essay style or just conversational. I'm not much into factual reporting, at school I always preferred creative writing to the "write a report about the excursion" type of stuff. Anyway, that's my take ..