The Sunday Roast

Here's A Blogger Whose Life Is A Huge Canvas

This week's interview is with Arne,
who writes the blog Arne's Blog.

The first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

Blogging became a way to improve my communication with individual and society through presenting my view of certain topics in a global world through the Internet.

I started with ITC in 1968 (pioneer in data processing in Norway) and have professionally worked with system design, programming and man/machine interfaces for users of modern technology. I have through my work in HR and management searched for open communication in a global organization. I started to use Internet when staying in Singapore 1994-1996.

I have used photos to document my life and experiences since early 1970s and found after being disabled through heart and kidney failure and transplantation, that painting meant more than only buying and decorating my home. Through the Flickr system I discovered a way to show my paintings to others, and even more elegant after the blogging systems developed in that direction in 2003-04.

My first blogpost was published in March 2005 and have posted more than 750 posts since the start. More than 60.000 have visited my blog since I started. During the last six months I have had visitors from 110 countries. I feel that I still have something to tell the world about my life and have no plans for terminating my blogging activity.

What's the story behind your blog name?

I have always been open to show the world who I realy am, and have never used pseudonyms. That mean that my name is used as blogname, but should be read in connection to the ''Det er godt å leve'' (Living is great). That has to do with my simultaneous Heart and Kidney Transplantation in 1998. I was very, very sick, but got a possibility to prolong my life by organ donation from somebody that no medical assistance could help living.

I have been on necessary heavy medication every day since the operation (almost 11 years), and will do so for the rest of my life. I have gone through many of the side-effects these medications give, but the Gift for Life given by the donor has given me a good life, and living is great.

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

Having an area where family, friends and bloggers all over the world can be kept updated on my life, thoughts and doings, and be part of a global communication network. I can present views and opinions that Internet users find interesting, and being found through Google and other search machines as helpful for others work and learning.

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

Find what YOU want to blog about and follow your path. Be known as the one interested in your specific meme, but use other memes as door openers to extend your fellowship. Accept that ''owners'' of memes have their own rules, and make up your own mind if these rules are acceptable for your goal. If not, find other fellowships to join. Never bend your own principles in the freedom of speaking (presenting) your own words, photos or videos to the word.

May be the best key advice is to have only ONE blog. Many bloggers have several blogs (for photos, videos, local stuff, flowers, animals, etc.) I recommend you to put everything you want to present in one URL. I am tired of going to blogger's additional sites finding out that no new post have been presented for weeks.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever read?

Very difficult to make priorities but here are some important urls: Blog Advice; Oldest Blog; Intro To Rec Humour. I hope nobody feels bad by not being chosen.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?

You Are Not Alone, which is my ''first'' blog in English after swapping from Norwegian text. Both my link to Mulitasking and my link to The Life Cycle of a Blog Post are also worth reading.


Today's Sunday Roast with Arne is the 60th in a weekly series of interviews with bloggers from around the world.