Being Amber Rhea

It’s the next-best-thing to blogswapping - bloggers interviewing bloggers! We get to indulge our self-absorption and learn about each other at the same time. Everyone wins!

I interviewed Alyssa a.k.a. Drama Wench, and Thomas of Grabbingsand interviewed me. So, without further ado:

I started blogging in April of 2003. I started (I’m ashamed to say) with a diaryland account. I still have it, though I haven’t updated it in forever. I started because of my community theater group in Athens. We had started a fake sorority called Moo Moo Pie, and a ton of the girls in in had Diaryland accounts. So I started one and I really loved writing in it and keeping up with my friends and having my out of town friends and family be able to keep up with me. And it all went downhill from there. :D

2. Do you write mainly for yourself or for others?

I think I write mostly for myself - it’s a great way of expressing myself, putting things out there that I don’t have to filter. I can say whatever I want, however I want it, ’cause it’s my space. However, I think I’m always aware that I am writing for an audience. Kind of like in life - I think it’s because I’m an actor, I always keep that in the back of my mind.

3. Do you see any major differences between LiveJournal and other blogs?

Yes, definitely. Livejournal is much more about community - it’s about meeting people through your friends list, joining groups through the service. It encourages groups. I like it better for my usage because of the commenting structure - it encourages conversations through the threading of the comments on a post. So I can respond directly to you if you leave me a comment and we can have a whole conversation that is easy to follow. It’s also pretty easy to personalize, to make the page look how you want it.

I do like personal blogs, because you can have your own URL, and it’s truly your own. But I am very attached to my LJ. I lurve it. :D

4. What are your favorite kinds of blogs to read?

I like ones that are more personal - I like getting into people’s minds and heads, what’s going on in their lives. The best are the ones that are able to make everyday events really funny and extraordinary. One of my friends has this ability - she can make a trip to the DMV the funniest thing you’ll ever read.

5. Do you think blogs serve to let people get to know someone without meeting them in real life, or do you think they just serve as a façade preventing people from getting to know them because bloggers can choose what kind of image to project on their blogs. (That was terribly worded, I admit, but hopefully you get my point.) :)

I think it really depends on the person, but that your true personality can come through, even when you don’t intend it. I know that I do consider the kind of image I’m projecting at times, but overall, I think my blog is a good example of me. It just depends on what kind of person you are - are you using your blog as a place to vent, to put your thoughts out there, or are you doing it to be the person you can’t be in real life?

I have gotten to meet a lot of the people I blog with and I am always nervous to see if they are going to match with how they are online. And I’ve had great luck of meeting lots of folks who really are what they put out there.

6. Are you ever afraid of the dooce factor?

Oh absolutely. One of my close friends on LJ got fired because of his blog, so that’s always in the back of my mind. I’m very very careful to lock the entries that I discuss work in, and I try to never talk about specifics, just in case. That’s one of the things I like about LJ - you can lock entries in myriad ways, to protect yourself.

7. What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on?

Oooo, good one. Probably my eighteenth birthday. My favorite aunt and uncle flew me up to New Jersey to stay with them and my 3 cousins for a week. We had a huge family barbeque my first day there - about 30 crazy Italians running around the house :D We went to the shore for a couple of days (the Jersey shore is my favorite beach) and went on a drive through upstate New York, including going to Sleepy Hollow and walking through the real cemetary from the story. But the highlight was my aunt taking me into New York City for an entire day and taking me to my first show on Broadway. We saw the original Broadway cast of “Jekyll and Hyde” (still one of my favorite shows) and I swear, my life has never been the same. :D

8. (This is cheesy but…) Do you believe in “true love”?

That’s a hard one. In my heart of hearts, I am a hopeless romantic. I love romantic comedies (I own way too many of them) and I’m a sucker for those stories. I always imagine that someday I’m going to meet someone and we are going to fall in love just like in the movies. But my cynical heart has seen too many people fall out of love, seen too many divorces, and I can get really disgusted with lovey-dovey people. So I guess I would have to say that deep down, I do believe in true love, but that my brain really hates me for admitting that ;D

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? :)

My deepest, darkest, most desperate desire would to be a professional actress. I love the theater and am never more happy than when I am on stage. But alas, my chicken shit self and very disapproving parents put a stop to that, so my true ultimate goal is to be a children’s book editor. I love to read (as anyone who has seen my bedroom can attest) and I really do believe that literature helps shape the person you will become and how you see the world. I want to be the person who brings those amazing books that you remember your entire life to kids. Cheesy, but true.

10. So… WTF?

Duuuuuude.