tellhimfred.com

At our weekly staff meeting last week at TellHimFred.com world headquarters, we were tossing around ideas to satisfy our NaBloPoMo requirements. One idea was to spotlight some of our favorite blogs and bloggers and do short interviews (Just 10 Questions) to get to know them.

We all agreed this was a great idea, and for our first interview the choice was obvious: BostonBrat.net.

There is no one more devoted to the New England Patriots than Angela, the blogger behind BostonBrat.net.  I know what you’re thinking: “Now that is a BOLD statement.” Well, I stand behind that 100%. Here at THF, we’ll occasionally talk about Boston-area sports, but we will never compete with Angela when it comes to anything Pats-related.

From her bio:

Hi! I’m Angela, I’m 28-years-old *yikes*, a lifelong resident of the Boston area, and a hopelessly devoted New England Patriots fan.

By night, I am the world’s greatest girlfriend. My boyfriend and I have been together for two years. We never fight which I think is a feat worth mentioning. He doesn’t mind that I can’t cook or that I talk in my sleep and he isn’t threatened by my obsessive love for the Patriots. Which brings me to the most defining Angela fact…

…my undying devotion to the New England Patriots. I wish away my springs and summers waiting for football season. I have turned down jobs that would have required me to work on Sundays. Once, I dumped a guy because he said then-Patriot Ty Law “sucked.” Just about everything I do revolves around the Patriots in some way. I never thought I could love something as much and so unconditionally… is this what it’s like to have a kid?

See, I told you!

Well, opposite came up with a few questions, and Angela was kind enough to answer them. Here’s the interview:

THF: What prompted you to begin blogging?

BostonBrat.net: My first website wasn’t in a blog format but it sort of morphed into what we now consider a blog. I would manually add updates to my site’s front page and would discuss my hopes that the Patriots would someday win a Super Bowl. It wasn’t exactly titillating reading but it was a start.

THF: Did you read others’ blogs first, then decide to start your own, or vice versa?

BostonBrat.net:I never really read other blogs when I started but as I got more comfortable with the medium, I used some sites like Adam Gaffin’s Boston Common (now Universal Hub) as inspiration.

THF: Do you prefer your blogger identity to be anonymous, or do you not give a rat’s ass who reads it? (that is to say, do co-workers know about it, does family know, friends, etc….)

BostonBrat.net: I’m not a fan of announcing I have a site because it still seems geeky to me. I’m a geek in denial. Once, a guy I was dating found out about it from my friend and I wanted to die.He kept asking me questions about it. Thankfully, I didn’t mention him on it or else I would have died.

THF: Have you ever thought, heard, seen…something and immediately jotted it down to blog about later? Or are you more inclined to sit down, log on, and write what comes?  

BostonBrat.net:I’m not organized enough to write something down. If I see something I think is worth mentioning, I’ll try my hardest to remember it.

THF: Why do you love or hate your job?  

BostonBrat.net:I complain about my job but there are some things about it I like, such as the non-existent dress code and the three-day work week. What makes me hate it is my mean boss and the dumpster-like state of our office. I’m telling ya, my bosses refuse to throw ANYTHING away. My other boss chews cigars all day and spits them out everywhere. You haven’t experienced work hell until you have to make sense of a hand-scribbled document covered in cigar juice.

THF: Plug your blog:  Why do you think people read it?  (better yet, why do you know  people read it?)

BostonBrat.net: I don’t know why anyone reads my little webpage of madness. I try to make it funny and I keep my posts short but, again, I don’t know why folks want to read it.

THF: Have you ever met a stranger that recognized you from your blog?

BostonBrat.net: Freaky story - a few years ago, I met a girl from Tennessee online who also had a website. When talking to her, we learned that I worked with her aunt. Here’s where it gets freaky. I was flying home from North Carolina and when I was sitting in the terminal in Charlotte, I was inadvertently sitting next to her and her family and we were on the same flight to Boston. We figured it out later when I talked to her online.

THF: How many monkeys can you fit in a barrel of rum?

BostonBrat.net: Well, it depends on the kind of monkey. I’m sure I could fit 15, maybe 20, spider monkeys into a barrel.

THF: Do you aim to make $$ off your blog, or is it just for the sake of writing and sharing your thoughts and telling Colts fans to go eat turf?

BostonBrat.net: I never thought you could make money writing your rambling thoughts. When I started out, Google’s Adsense program didn’t even exist. It wasn’t until my site received 2000 unique hits one day for the search term, “Joe Theismann Broken Leg,” that I thought I should try and take some advantage of it. If I make money, yay, but I’m not looking to quit my day job.

THF: Has there ever been a post you’ve written that you wish you could take back? Have you ever had an “oh shit” moment where you realized you shouldn’t have posted something?

BostonBrat.net: Once, my sister pissed me off and I wrote about it. She read it and flipped out. Thanks to my stupid blog post, she got to win our argument and I had to apologize even though she was the one who was wrong. Never again.

That’s the interview. Be sure to check out BostonBrat.net, and thanks Angela.

We plan on doing more of these blogger interviews, and if you have any suggestions on who you’d like to see profiled here on THF, drop us a comment.