The fact that the MarketingProfs blog has been down over the past day has given me an opportunity to consider some larger, more existential, issues. To wit: Is a blogger still a blogger if she doesn't have a blog...?


Tangentially, that question made me consider the label of "blogger." For example, I am always referring to my friends on this site and theirs as my "Blog Friend Forever" or "Best Blogging Buddy" or sometimes, "fellow blogger." There's a closeness implied by blogging, and a familiarity entrenched here. What's more, there is the sense that we define ourselves by, well...blogging.
But what this time in the darkness has taught me if that I desperately need to challenge those assumptions. If I am without my blog, can I still consider myself a blogger? Do I still have a voice, even? As David wondered here and here: do I matter? If a tree falls in the forest....do you see where I'm going here?
Suddenly, the "blogger" label seemed inadequate to describe the various nuances and little-known personal histories of the people I read and interact with every day. So I launched an effort to find out more about those of us who live and breathe here in BlogLand. I asked a few friends (specifically, anyone still online on a weekend in July): What's a little-known fact about you, OTHER than the fact that you blog?
Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand
Won a campus-wide talent contest singing love songs he made up himself.
Studied ancient Greek for 7 years and ancient Hebrew for 4 years.
Is left-handed.
Grew up in Columbus, Nebraska.
Has always wanted to be a star-ship captain for the USS Enterprise.
First sales success was as a neighborhood "arms dealer" selling water balloons for summer water balloon fights.
Maura Welch, Boston.com Business Filter blog
Once worked as an intern at the Senate Subcommittee of Immigration and Refugee Policy
Favorite band in the '80s was The Cramps.
Makes a pretty good red sauce for an Irish girl.
Sometimes regrets getting that puppy.
Paul McEnany, Hee Haw Marketing
Appeared as the defendant on a Judge Judy episode last year.
Tim Jackson, Masi Guy
Is an ordained minisiter in the Beer Church.
A metaphysical geek: tarot, astrology and Celtic Runes.
As a kid, raised snakes to sell to friends.
Had a childhood dog named Snoopy and later, with his ex-wife, a dog named Homer. (She kept the dog.)
Middle name is Vance.
Debbie Weil, The Corporate Blogging Book and BlogWriteforCEOs
Went to school in France for a year when she was 14 -- so speaks fluent schoolgirl French.
Andrea Weckerle, New Millennium PR
Once played the role of God in a college play.
Had a pet lemur as a child.
Appeared as a guest on a local TV show where the episode was called, "Is It True What They Say About Redheads?"
Has parachuted twice in her life.
Dreams of taking a cross-country motorcycle road trip.
William Arruda, Reach CC
Wrote a book about health and fitness for busy professionals, titled Health Without the Health Club.
And finally, yours truly.
I once won a year's supply of toothpaste
I once spent an interminably long and sweaty Saturday dressed as a Care Bear for a mall opening in Rhode Island.
I peaked at age 9 (for better and for worse) when I won 6 superlatives in my 5th grade classroom: smartest, prettiest, shyest, best handwriting, longest hair, and most artistic. It's been a slow decline since.
Ok, your turn. What about you? What don't we know? Spill it below.
Special thanks to blogger (and father, Harley rider, Brooklyn boy) David Armano for offering me refugee status on Login+Emotion, where the first draft of this post appeared.