WSS Featured Blogger:Astarte of Utopian Hell

• Name: Astarte
• Blog: Utopian Hell
• Tag Line: A Spinster's' Guide to Reality
• Location: San Diego, California

1. How did you start blogging? Why do you keep at it?

Well, I've technically been 'blogging' since about 1994. Back then wehad a penchant for animated gifts by the dozens and really loud backgrounds. That was before any of us realized that we could make websites aesthetically pleasing. I wrote and posted content about anything I could think of as an exercise in learning HTML. I remember getting so thrilled when transparent gifs came about. That was high tech.

I didn't really start taking blogging as a whole really seriously until after 9/11. I had been sent to S. Korea on a business trip, and while I was there I read a news article back home about a group of protesting students who turned their back on George W. Bush and were pulled out of their own graduation. I believe it was in Ohio. My political wheels had already begun turning (I've been a long-time democrat, worked on both Clinton campaigns in my hometown) with 9/11, and this seemed to serve as a gigantic wake-up call.

The war in Iraq and the sheer amount of beligerant republicans around me got me to writing about that, too. What continues to infuriate me the most is a group of people that claim unwavering patriotism, but who do some truly despicable things.

Utopian Hell is actually a new endeavor for me. This one is much less 'fluffy' than anything else I have ever done, and is dedicated to my pursuit of the written word, and the meaning of republicans.

2. What are your most important issues?

Feminism is a big one to me. I've worked all my life in industries that tend to be very hostile towards women, and I thrive in them. Feminists, for the most part, tend to be regarded quite wrong, and I think that if a lot of us work together we can make feminism not only right, but incredibly popular.

Other big issues for me are consumerism, the election year (of course), the taming of giant corporations, philosophy, and a touch of religion -- right now, I'm studying Taoism.

3. What's the nicest recognition you've ever received from the
media and/or the blogosphere?

Well, I've gained a little bit of recognition within a small community of mostly-feminist, left-leaning female bloggers, which has been very nice, and unexpected. The biggest, I'd say, came from Ampersand, at Alas, a Blog, in sheer size. To be honest, I'd shun off any media exposure, as I don't believe having big media cover independent media is a way to keep independent media independent ... and I use media in a very loose sense of the word. There are many people who get paid for writing like this who do a much better job than I do. My voice is primarily to please myself. That, and too much traffic could cause me to have difficulty in paying my Internet bills. I won't ever resort to ads in order to pay for my blog.

4. Who is your audience? What is unique about your blog?

My target audience are, really, progressives, but I'll take anyone willing to have a good conversation about how we can make the world a better, more civilized place.

What's unique? That's a tough one, because I don't think that anything about my blog is terribly *unique* with the exception of my voice. No one else writes quite like me. I also tend to like the fact that I try to stay away from the 'big news' pieces. Things like the swift boat and national guard incidents are covered so much that there's really no sense in beating the dead horse. Instead, I prefer talking about things that you might not have read about on CNN.

5. Most frustrating aspect of blogging?

For me, it's the fact that I constantly second-guess myself. In fact, you might call it quadruple-guessing myself. As a woman, I'm always leaning back and looking at what I write, wondering if I'm being too reactionary. As a blogger, I'm always worried that I'll hurt someone's feelings or piss someone off -- or worse, as I'm dyslexic, that someone will come along and mercilessly make fun of the grammar I try to be so terribly anal retentive about.

6. What's the one point you'd like a reader to take away from your
blog- the one thing for them to really "get".

That all liberals are correct, and all conservatives are backwater Neanderthals. No, really... if there was only one thing I'd want them to get, it's that the only voices in the world aren't the 'talking
heads'.

Quote: I have two, actually. They're both on my whiteboard at work:

A man has to be Joe McCarthy to be called ruthless. All a woman has to do is put you on hold. - - Marlo Thomas.

May I never be complete. May I never be content. May I never be perfect. Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete. - -Narrator, Fight Club, Chapter 5