1. Where are you? Tell us the story that got you there.

I am at home at my flat in Leeds drinking tin and tonic. This is actually not where I should be. I’ve just got in after trekking on foot across town having abandoned my mum’s car (at a friend’s house) which was threatening imminent break down. I have had to abort my mission back to my parents house in the Dales where my boyfriend is and where I should be cat and dog-sitting. I suppose this was bound to happen after me spending the week complaining that the animal sitting had been boring and uneventful.


2. Why do you Moblog? And which of the posts on your Moblog are your favorite?

It all started when I worked at this pub called The Fav in Leeds. There was a small bunch of regulars and for a while they were practically our only customers, so we got to know them fairly well. One day in passing, I mentioned I had the same phone as one of the guys who spent more time in that pub than I did. He told me that if I had I camera phone then I should join this blog site thing. After some fairly extensive badgering I caved into curiosity and signed up. That guy turned out to be Joe and I've been great friends with him and his now wife Suzi (and their now daughter little Leila) ever since.

Many strange coincidences happened that first year on Moblog, including realizing that my sister Helen was already pretty closely linked to Moblog through another forum which was set up by some of the guys who started up Moblog and who Helen had inadvertently met whilst at university. Generally the world began to get a little smaller after I joined and people who frequented The Fav kept popping up on the site and this bizarre network of people who already knew each other unfolded.

I guess it was this intrigue that caused me to stick around for so long. That and the really great community here. It's been a great place to share... everything really. I could go on and on about Moblog, I think this place has got a lot of things right with regards to community and temperament and I find the environment a really inspiring place to share moments and ideas with interesting people who usually have their own ideas themselves, not to mention knowledge on a subject!

Oh! Favourite posts! One of my favourite posts was the day I tried to ban cat blogging on Moblog. Needless to say it seriously backfired. It's a shame you can't look back through Moblog chronologically because after this post http://moblog.net/view/54354/kill-the-cat-blog the place was littered with cats. Mainly I enjoy the posts that get people talking, there are some photos I'm pleased with but the really memorable ones are the ones that spark a conversation. I think Helen's Oh Buoy, Oh Buoy post (http://moblog.net/view/66625/oh-buoy-oh-buoy-oh-buoy) is the one that I recall making me laugh the most, but that one’s not mine (I'm sure there were more really awful pun posts but these are the only two tagged http://moblog.net/tag/really%20awful%20puns)




3. Tell us one thing that you've learned in the last week. Or maybe something that surprised you.

This week I’ve mainly been feeling like there are a lot more people that I like than I don’t like. This isn’t really something I’ve learnt specifically this week but it does constantly surprise me how I can swing from a week of thinking I don’t like that many people at all to being overwhelmed by just how many people I think are really quite good eggs. Or if not good eggs, not too bad in a cake mixture.



4. Imagine you would have to spend the rest of your life on a deserted island. Which three items (or people) would you take and why?


Sometimes I already feel like I'm on a desert island. How I stave off this feeling is mainly through amusing conversations and ideas sharing, physical contact and visual output. So those are probably the qualities I value for my existence... which I guess is what the whole point of the question is. There are certain people who come pre-loaded with these qualities enabled already but I'm not naming any names.



5. What did you do today? And what would you do in an ideal day?

Today I got up at 6am got ready and drove from the Dales to Leeds. The whole day feels like it has been fraught with error but in actual fact it’s not been that bad, just driving and parking and cars and stuff in general stresses me out. I’m not superstitious but I did twitch twice when I counted thirteen students this morning and found myself parking on the thirteenth floor.

On an ideal day I'd probably wake with a nice shoulder massage, start working on something -really- good and finish it before lunch. Have a tasty and refreshing lunch. Meet some friends, go to a natural water park and slide down some slides made of rocks, bob around in the water for a bit, chat, go for a tasty dinner al fresco with a beautiful view. Enjoy some live music in the dark with some fire in the vicinity. Get a little heady on some wine and lie staring up at the stars engaging in profound and yet superfluous conversation. Then go to sleep in some white clean sheets in a big comfy bed surrounded by wood and low light shining through canvas and cuddles and dull, possibly cricket noises singing me to sleep.



6. Are there any causes or principles you would be prepared to fight for? What form would your protest take?


Yeh, I think there are probably a lot. Things like equal rights and other things that in my head are a complete given tend to flabberghast me when I find the world isn’t quite like that. You can’t fight every battle but I think you can do your part, which could be as simple as just speaking up when you don’t think something is quite right with what the people are saying around you.

I went down to the "How to make news and influence people" talk that Moblog was involved with and some interesting things were said that kind of relate to how I feel about this. Charlie Beckett discussed the topic with regards to the general public's reaction to charity campaigns, he suggested we are kind of distanced through mass publicity and we consume rather than confront and that emotional appeal isn't the same as empathy. Anyway, basically he was suggesting that traditional media only asks us to consider what's in front of us and new media allows us to engage and interact with a subject.

So I think if I was fighting for a cause I'd probably use this networking skill I've been honing for so many years.

I'm not opposed to more traditional ways of 'getting things done' though. For instance, I got pretty fired up when I discovered our new supposedly quite eco-considered home had no recycling facilities and the council didn't have us on their recycling route and had no recycling areas within Leeds that I could walk to. It was reasonably quickly resolved once I got in touch with our local MP though and I can now recycle most things except organic waste (which still upsets me).


7. What's your motto? Your tagline? Your favourite saying?


"Everything’s fiiiine"


8. What question were you hoping to be asked? And what would your answer be?

“Where do you see Moblog in 5 years, will you still be blogging?”

Well, technology wise it’s hard to say. Community wise, I hope the place is still thriving. I think in general, the photo blogging format is a winner and I think that the original camera phone premise has enabled people to share images that they wouldn’t previously have deemed really ‘fit’ to share. Moblog is more than just sharing an aesthetic, it’s more about telling a story or setting a scene through pictures and I hope it can carry on doing this. I think this simple format appeals to voyeurs and creatives alike and by creatives I mean people who like to fill in the gaps, who are imaginative and interested. As long as it continues to attract those kinds of people it will continue to appeal to me. I’m really enjoying the short stories and photographic challenge blog at the minute, so yeah basically I’d like to see more of what everyone’s got to share.






9. What movie have you most often recommended to others and why, or what's your favourite movie?


At college I recommend a lot of Michel Gondry's work. I love the way he manages to visualise feelings, quite baffling, difficult and surreal concepts in childlike and experimental ways. He's a pretty good all rounder too, a crafter and a philosopher. I'm particularly taken with "The Science of Sleep" but really any of his feature films would do. I get a kick out of shared experience and sometimes when I'm watching his films I feel like Gondry is lifting the top of my head up and tapping on my brain to say "hello." I love those split second sparks that happen when you feel you've really connected with something.



10. Of all the places you have travelled or lived, is there one in particular
that you think everyone should see some time in their lives, and why?
Conversely, is there one you never want to see again?

I’ve been very fortunate to travel to many special places. I still have very fond memories of a small fishing town in the Basque area of Northern Spain called Mutriku. I’d love to go back there; I’m very nostalgic for it because it just seemed to be this really lively place where the locals really knew how to entertain themselves.

More and more I realise how lucky I was too, to grow up in the Yorkshire Dales, it’s an incredibly lush environment and so very green. You’d be hard pushed to beat the view from my parent’s bathroom window.

I’m not sure there’s anywhere I’d discount ever going back to. I had an unpleasant time in Hull once but even that has it’s charm. All those rotten seaside towns like Blackpool and Llandudno can be depressingly bleak but they’re still very interesting and I’ve hope for them, there’s too much ‘what once was’ for them to go unvisited.

Posted by beth