Thursday Q&A
You asked and I answered. Okay, so it was only Joanne that asked*, but, still, I answered!
Joanne asked:
(1) Haha, you know that’s interesting because I did wonder, how did you happen to come across that post which inadvertently started this whole blog sparring between us? MBL? Though I can’t remember if I joined it after or before I wrote that post…
I didn’t know about MBL back then. I don’t remember for certain, but I think I had found your blog a couple days earlier through another blogger’s blogroll. Don’t remember who though.
(2) And, how do you pronounce your last name?
Correctly.
(3) What are your 3 favorite books? Or 5, even…it’s always hard for me to chose all-time favorites and I know you read a lot. Oooh, do you have any favorite authors? That’s generally easier to narrow it down.
The Science Fictional Dinosaur was, I think, the first non-fiction book that I read. Death of a Salesman was good. Candide, which I enjoyed for the fact that I was finally able to answer my high school psychology teacher’s question from the beginning of the year. Several years too late, but at last I knew the answer! I swear that one day I’ll be in a school and he’ll have a class there, and I’ll just walk in his classroom, announce “Candide!” and walk away. Autobiography of a Yogi was one I did a high school oral book report on. We all had to draw numbers to see what order we would go in. I think I drew #17. But, I ended up at #2. Authors: Douglas Adams, Joseph Campbell, Guy Kawasaki. Probably more, but those are the ones that come to mind at the moment.
(4) Coffee or tea? Or neither? Or do I already know the answer to this question since you did have a soda plugi-n for awhile…
Don’t you read my blog? You make me so sad. 
(5) Recent weirdest dream?
None lately. You should have asked me a couple weeks ago, when I did have an odd dream. I have since forgotten it.
(6) What’s your favorite dish to make?
Haven’t made any dishes yet. I made a vase once, that didn’t turn out too well. I was supposed to put two coats of the final whatever on it, but only did one. So, it was blotchy and part of it broke. The teacher displayed it in front of the class as an example of what happened when you didn’t follow directions. The teacher said I should have followed the instructions in class better. I told her I was out sick for a week so she should have given me better notes. Okay, I didn’t say that, but I should have. Ticks me off because of the work I put into making the thing.
So, I am just going to say that my high school art teacher sucked. There, I’ve said it. I’ve kept that bottled up for far too long. She did not have a freaking clue what she was doing.
Through my school years, I had that “respect your teachers” stuff in my head, so I never spoke up or anything. And, I should have. One time, she accused a classmate of lying about a piece of artwork, and I could have handily demonstrated minutes later that she was most likely wrong and that my classmate was not lying. But, instead I said nothing.
Were I to do things over, I think I would worry less about grades and more about building and keeping friendships. A’s and Honor Awards and all that stuff doesn’t make a hill of beans of difference in the real world.
Besides, I learned more about drawing spending an hour on a website reading about it than I did in a whole year of high school art class.
And, while I’m confessing things, I ought to mention that I got an A on my high school book report on The Aeneid. This is in spite of the fact that, to this day, I still haven’t finished reading the book. And, no, I did not use CliffsNotes.
(7) If you HAD (not could, because then that gives you the opportunity to be a sneak and say “Why, of course I wouldn’t change anything about myself!”) to change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d like to lose weight.
(8) What’s the most important thing you learned about blogging thus far?
This chair is not comfortable.
(9) Which do you think is better: the 1-column, 2-column, or 3-column layout for a site? Why?
It really depends on the site design and layout. Readability is key, and it can be difficult to have a readable 1-column layout on large monitors. I tend to prefer the 2-column blogs. The key is that the content area (i.e., where the posts are) is the largest section, but not too large that you’re reading long lines.
I don’t mind 3-column layouts. As you know, I’m using 3-columns on my eCommerce site. The key is that the content area ought to be wider than the combined widths of the other two columns. With a lot of the 3-column blogs, one column will be for content and the other two columns will be for ads. And the ad columns seem to dominate the page. The mindset seems to be to jam 2 columns with ads with little consideration given to the overall look of the page. People come to a site for the content, not for the ads. The ads should never draw away from your content.
That’s not to say that ads are a bad thing; just that more consideration needs to be given to their placement in terms of the overall appearance of the site. I see a number of well-designed 2-column blogs, but it is rare that I come across a well-designed 3-column blog.
(10) What is your preferred site stats tracker that you use?
I just use MyBlogLog.
Thanks to all who submitted questions. Wait, that was just Joanne… Okay, thanks to Joanne for asking questions! Well, Deborah too, but her Q & my A will be on her blog, so that doesn’t really count for Open Mic Thursday!
*And that’s beginning to worry me… What does she do with this information? Time for a pre-emptive strike with a tiny drunken Google bomb for drunk Chinese girls.
WOW! You answered 7(-ish) out of 10 questions this time!
Hm, I liked your format for this Q&A. Past ones I’ve seen were all conducted in the comments. It’s a easier to process when you turn it into a whole new post. IF I were to do one, I think I’d like to conduct it the same way.
And, lols, what else but compiling a list (I do love my lists, as you should know). Perhaps you would consider another Q&A down the road…they say third time’s a charm!
I noticed your meme to-do list is a bit out of date. You don’t have all your to-do’s listed!
Another Q&A? I don’t know; it just seems to be you asking the questions. I feel like I’m being interviewed for the same job over and over again, only I don’t know what the job is and I don’t get the job anyway.
Haha, I figured that if it’s not listed…it’s “not to be done.” Sort of like an out of sight, out of mind type mentality.
Hey Joanne, If he doesn’t tell you how to say his last name properly I figure that we should just make it up then include it in a future post. If we get enough people saying it we could change his last name to whatever we want!
Don’t make me launch a pre-emptive strike from start to finish, Mr. Lewis.
Oooh, I like the potential of where this can go. Definitely.
And–hey!–I answered all 10 questions truthfully!
dcr sez:
“This chair is not comfortable.”
OMG, I nearly fell out of my chair reading that! Man, you just got a reader for life with that one. Too funny.
On that note, my chair is not so bad, but the my giant CRT monitor is way too big. I need one of those LCD things. I should look into running water and trading in the horse for a car as well.
I also liked the comment on the chair. Mine’s not too bad, unless I’ve been sitting in it all day - which happens all too often.
So I guess I better get up and go do some weed-whacking - which is what I told my wife I’d be doing today.
Out of the chair and making my wife happy - two fer the price of one. See ya!
Haha….#8 was funny.
“This chair is not comfortable”
Oh, I adore sarcasm. Your responses had me rolling off the couch (a comfy place to blog). I’m glad you pronounce your name “correctly.” Otherwise, I should need to worry about your relations with other individuals.
I need to cut down on drinking soda, too. It is just terribly addictive. I finally gave up Coca-Cola. Instead, I’ve been drinking clear sodas. Like you, I drink iced tea when I’m not opening up a can of fizz. Do you think that drinking a lot of iced tea has something to do with us both living in about the same area? A bit of Southern influence? When I traveled north, I didn’t notice the usual want to drink iced tea.
I used to live in Michigan. Seems to me that we had iced tea there.
But, I think Vernor’s Ginger Ale was the primary drink of choice.
People in the South (me) put iced tea in their sugar. It’s that sweet.