It’s Saturday, and for me that often means I post an entry to PhotoHunt. This week, the theme is “birds.”

Meanwhile, Becky of Welcome to My Life has informed me that she has posted the interview that she did with me as part of The Great Interview Experiment. So, I thought I should put up a post about that as well.

I had a lot of fun answering Becky’s questions, and I love the way she posted my answers along with some additional dialog. Go have a look:

If you’re having dinner with zombies, be sure to wear your nylon lamé pants, and use the good china. My Great Interview Experience.

I do rather have the feeling that she found me to be a bit of an odd bird. (But I suppose I am.)

Speaking of birds, here are a couple of photos I took of some birds in San Francisco last June. As they were flying towards me, I thought they were seagulls. But as they got close and flew overhead, I saw that they were pelicans. (Or at least I believe them to be pelicans.) What’s more, I was pretty impressed with how clearly I managed to get a shot of two of them, considering I was just using my little point-and-shoot.

For more people shooting birds, go pay a visit to the other PhotoHunt entries at tnchick.

For more people shooting the breeze with The Great Interview Experiment, go pay a visit to Neil at Citizen of the Month. (And please check out my own interview with Voix de Michèle.)

Two birds, coming over the horizon.

Two pelicans fly overhead.

Pretty cool, don’t you think? (This is a crop of the one above, by the way.)

For the Great Interview Experiment, I’m very pleased to be share my interview with Michèle of Voix de Michèle. I am really glad that I got to meet Michèle, as she is a fantastic blogger: smart, interesting, and funny as hell! I really enjoyed poking around in her archives, and devising some devious questions to torment her.

I also had get over the urge to do an interview Chris Farley style. (Hey, remember when you started a blog? That was so cool.))

Anyhow, here are my questions and her answers:

1. You are involved in Improv. That is so cool! (Oh, right. That’s not a question.) So, how did you get involved in Improv? Has it affected aspects of your work as a teacher? Your writing? Your life? (Great, now that’s 4 questions.)

Oh, Alejna, you totally get me already. I love questions with layers. They’re like cake except they don’t make you fat. I got involved with Improv this past August after going to the Minnesota Fringe Festival. After watching a bunch of really amazing one-person performances, laughing a lot, and reading some great reviews, all I could think was: Why am I not doing that? So I signed up for a class. And I loved it so much, I haven’t stopped. Improv has pushed me to consider creative writing projects never previously imagined and has shaken up my brain in lots of other as-yet-to be determined ways. I write about these ripples a lot, but to summarize: Everything is changing. And I love clapping. (But that isn’t new information.)

2. You have been blogging a really long time–it looks like it will be 5 whole years in just about a week. What prompted you to start a blog? How has your blog evolved over the years?

I started blogging over Thanksgiving weekend five years ago because I was really lonely. It was the first year I didn’t have anyone to cook for in a long time and I didn’t want to drive to Chicago for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was new in my MFA – Creative Writing program and one of my profs had a blog, so I set one up and started talking about myself. I kept it up because I really liked the attention. Over the past five years, I’ve become less of a confessional/emotional catharsis writer and more a creative process/big picture vs. Michele writer. I think my blog is a little less interesting than it used to be and I don’t post as often, but I’m also not a needy insecure girl anymore, either. But I still really love talking about myself. I think I’m fascinating.

3. Are there topics that are taboo for your blog? Are there topics you consider too boring for your blog?

Since I have my full name on my blog and I’ve been blogging for so long, the Google Bots have made me very easy to find. Type Michele Campbell – I show up first. So my resourceful and curious high school students check out the blog sometimes, which means I can’t write about sex. My dad reads my blog, so I don’t swear much. Many of my friends on Facebook (and I’m friends with just about everyone I know) read my blog, so I don’t write about current relationships – especially if someone is annoying me or I feel bad about an interaction. In addition, I try to avoid complaining about stuff that I know my friends will call me on. Example: say I can’t figure out how to change the stupid f-ing light bulbs in my office. Say they scare me, because they’re flush mounted and you need to have knowing man hands to take them apart and figure out what kind of bulbs go into the fixture and not leave scary burn the house down wires hanging from the ceiling for too long. Say that I forgot to get married and don’t have a man around to do things like change scary light bulbs without burning the house down. If I write a blog post about how much I hate these stupid light fixtures and don’t know how to change the bulbs and I’m suffering in darkness, woe is me, I get 5 guy friends emailing me saying – MICHELE, you’re supposed to ASK FOR HELP, not COMPLAIN ON THE INTERNET. (Actually, they’re nice guys, and they probably wouldn’t even yell. But then they’d make me give them beer for reminding me that they’re awesome and I can ask for help even when I’m embarrassed for not knowing how to do house things. So I don’t write about that kind of stuff until it’s a really good example of how I have learned how to get over myself and not put all my problems on the Internet.

4. You wrote a couple of great posts on blogging (how to blog and blog etiquette) back in 2005. Now that several years have passed, would you change any of this advice? Would you add stuff?

I think those lists are pretty good, actually. Blogging has changed and I don’t write every day anymore. Otherwise, to that advice, I would add this: Only write and post what you wouldn’t mind seeing on every single computer in your school library (or other work place.) A great example: I had a super cute photo of myself at a birthday celebration – wearing a tiara, a pink boa, and doing a very large chocolate cake shot. Loved it. Posted it on my blog. Went to school. A student saw over my shoulder when I was checking my blog at my desk and said, “Madame is that you???” I said, “No, of course not.” Then I went in and deleted the photo as fast as I could before he could copy it and send it to all of his friends, show my boss that there are pictures of me drinking on the Internet, and get me homeless.

5. If you were a dessert topping, what sort of blog would you write? And wouldn’t you have trouble typing? I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t be writing these questions late at night. I get a little goofy. How about this question instead: if you were a fairy godmother, what gift would you bestow on your godchild? (Or do you prefer the dessert topping question?)

I like them both. If I were a dessert topping, I would be Nutella. I would write about how much I love to spread myself over the spongy and crunchy goodness of baguettes, how I make a fantastic sandwich with peanut butter and bananas, how I can be devoured on crêpes, and how I am awesome melted over ice cream.

If I were a fairy godmother, I would give all of my godchildren flexible spending cards so they could get all the psychotherapy they needed to become self-sufficient, productive, and motivated members of the community. Which is not to say that my godchildren need therapy. But you never know, you know? I’m just sayin.

6. If you were going to put together a movie about you, what would some of the songs on the soundtrack be? (Aside from Punk Rock Girl, of course. That is a most excellent song, by the way.)

Here’s what I’ve been singing in the car:

World Spins Madly On – The Weepies
As Is – Ani DiFranco
Only Makes Me Laugh – Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo
Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
Girlfriend in a Coma – The Smiths
Dairy Queen – Indigo Girls
Angry Anymore – Ani DiFranco
Sénégal Fast Food – Amadou et Miriam
Je t’aimais, je t’aime, et je t’aimerai – Francis Cabrel
( I could keep going, but you get the general idea)

7. I see that you are a fan of the Bulwer-Lytton contest for really really bad opening lines. Have you written any such bad lines yourself? Could you write one for us here?

Oh dear heavens, no. I’m not any good at those. That is why I post them!

—-
Thanks for your very entertaining answers, Michele!

Be sure to check out some of the other interviews from the Great Interview Experiment, as well. Michele herself has one up. And Neil (of Citizen of the Month) will be posting links to participants each week. (I see he has a new list up already.)

Time has been running away from me again. I’m rather in denial that it’s already November, that Thanksgiving is a week away. In my mind, Summer has barely ended. Theo just had his birthday, and we just got back from Spain a few days ago. The calendar tells a different story, though, and the trees with their bare branches conspire.

The days and months rush by in a blur.

——–

I took this series of photos last month (was it really already a month ago?) while heading home from some family excursion. (I wasn’t driving, mind you. I let Phoebe take the wheel so I could take pictures.)

Out here in the country, we don’t have those high-falutin’ “billboards” you city people have.

This space available for your ad.

(If anyone else has a caption for this, please leave it in the comments. Or write it on a piece of paper, tape it to a farm animal, and walk it over here for me to read.)

As luck would have it, this is a busy month for me work-wise. My research group is submitting things to two different conferences this month, plus we’ve been ramping up on some other aspects of our projects with impending deadlines. So this is perhaps not the ideal time for me to have committed to blogging every day for a month. And yet somehow, the compulsions compels.

Further, I have further committed myself even further to furthering my blogging obsession: I have signed on to the Great Interview Experiment, the brainchild of Neil of Citizen of the Month. (Well, he claims it as his brainchild, but we have yet to see the results of the paternity test.)

In this project, bloggers sign up to interview one another by leaving a comment on the announcement post. Who interviews whom is determined by the order of the comments. It’s a fantabulous way to get to know some bloggers you might otherwise not meet. I get to interview Michèle of Voix de Michèle, and I am being interviewed by Becky/Ms. Batman of Welcome to My Life. I’m very excited about both interviews, so I need to get my act together and answer the questions.

And look! Here’s a cute baby!

Every time I have the chance
While some may think it’s whack
I’ll write a post involving pants

Let the kitchen swarm with ants
Leave the laundry on the rack
Every time I have the chance

I give my work a sideways glance
I may catch a lot of flak
I’ll write a post involving pants

Humming lines from Safety Dance
I’ll type away upon my Mac
Every time I have the chance

I’ll not read a bad romance
Nor journal papers in their stack
I’ll write a post involving pants

Though others look at me askance
I swear I’m not on crack
Every time I have the chance
I’ll write a post involving pants

—————

These pants are dedicated, in loving memory, to my friend Elizabeth, whose claim that pants was the funniest word in the English language first introduced me to the humorous powers of pants. Your pants will never be forgotten, dear friend.

The form of this post is a villanelle, a style of poetry, and the assignment of today’s Monday Mission. Please pay a visit to Painted Maypole to see who else has chosen to accept this mission. Painted herself has told me that she has a poem up, also with the theme of pants. (Painted penned a poem of pants.)

Today also marks the third anniversary of this blog. It seemed only fitting that it should wear plenty of pants today.

It’s hard to stay on the ball with this daily posting…

The theme for this week’s PhotoHunt is “music.”

These are photos I took of a dragon at the folk music festival in Lowell, Massachusetts.

In case you’re wondering why the dragon is “musical” (aside from being at a music festival), take a closer look at the dragon’s scales.

For more people’s interpretative dances to this week’s PhotoHunt music, stop by tnchick.

The web is abuzz with pants. With so many people writing about pants these days, I’d be letting them down if I didn’t put up a post about it.

I bring to you: This Week¹ in Pants.

First, I’m pleased to report that the “in my pants” music meme is alive and well (and not just in my pants). Dee of On the Curb is the latest to report in:

• Dee: Lonely People in my pants
• Mary: Dancing in my Pants
• Magpie: Thursday Thirteen In My Pants
• GirlGriot: Party in My Pants
• Painted Maypole: A Little Pants Music
• FatBoyFat: Music in my pants
• Rima, whose musical pants started this run: Sunday Funnies In My Pants
• Sally and De also participated in the comments on the sound of music in my pants

You, too, can have music in your pants.

And wearing pants elsewhere…

• Comedian Myq Kaplan offers up some pants wisdom in Godzillionaire style: Umbilical Corduroys
  

  Umbilical Cord.
  Corduroys.
  Umbilical Corduroys.

  The grossest pants in the world.

• Leslie struggles with pants angst: The Art of Buying Jeans
• Country Girl has had a pants epiphany: And all I can give you is fat jeans…
• KC gets an awkward compliment on her pants: It’s not a compliment if you have to explain it’s a compliment
• And lastly but not leastly, Ashley has found “magic pants:” don’t touch my pants

And would you believe that the realm of pants extends even beyond the blogosphere? I scoured the headlines for news of pants around the world. Here are some of the top pants headlines:

• Chris Weitz and the peril of his orange pants
• Young black men can succeed without their pants sagging!
• Sagging pants may be outlawed at school events
• High school students launch crusade against droopy pants
• Tight pants a no-no for women in Indonesia’s Aceh
• Pensioner in pants battles burglar
• Man with no pants looks for job in downtown Chicago
• Cops: Fla. man stole ferret by shoving it in pants
• What do men’s pants say about them?
• Men only buy pants for 17 years of their lives
• The peril of pants for the young men of today

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¹ Okay, fine, so many of these posts are older than a week. But “This Fortnight or So in Pants” isn’t nearly as catchy as “This Week in Pants.” I mean, just check out the acronym: TWIP.