Bloggers Blogging about Bloggers Blogging: Remarks on a Rebecca Blood Interview

Fred First

Rebecca Blood is an acclaimed blogger that blogs about a number of things that interest her. Through the years, Rebecca has also interviewed bloggers about blogging and then blogged about those bloggers blogs and why they do it; it's quite the tongue twister I know. One interview that Rebecca conducted that I found interesting was her interview with Fred First, the owner of the blog Fragments from Floyd. Fred is a 58 year old (as of 2006) blogger from Floyd County, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southern Virginia.

When reading Rebecca's interview with Fred, the first thing that really interested me was his remarks about why he started blogging. Fred, in the interview, talks about how he started blogging initially as an outlet to get out his frustrations with the way his peers in the professional world were treating him. As someone that has never really been into blogging or had much exposure to them, I found this interesting because I had always assumed that blogs were about things that were happening in the world and what people thought about them. Fred viewed blogs in a different light, however, and utilized his blog as a medium for all of the people of the world to listen to his struggles in his professional life. As the interview continues, Rebecca also asks how Fred has changed his blog over time. I found Fred's response to this question pretty funny and also very humbling. Fred notes that the initial goal of his blog was to tell a story of his frustrations with life as well as to just talk about anything that he was immersed in at the time. Fred continues to talk about how he had received an email at one time about how one of his readers disliked something that Fred had blogged about and warned Fred that if he did not change his blogging topics that he would lose them as a reader. As a general statement, how rude! I am all for people sharing their opinions, but if you're not asked for it and you know you are not going to give positive feedback, keep it to yourself people! The thing that really made me smile though was how Fred explained that he reacted to the email. He states that he never actually responded to the email, but instead he wrote out a hypothetical response that had a very sassy tone to it and to summarize said, if my blog doesn't please you then stop reading it! He continues to explain that his blog has never been about pleasing people, it has always been the same from the start: to tell his own story.

Fred seems like a pretty humble man and holds more degrees than you would ever imagine having time to get. His interview is one worth reading and his blog gives you a peak into the life of an intelligent man with nothing to do in a small mountain town besides blog and watch nature.