merkal2005: Hi Les, please tell us about yourself and your background. What are your main interests?

lessca: I am a fifty year old father of four girls, all under 6 (second time around father). I have worked most of my life in adult education teaching in the areas of management, marketing, small business management, personal development and information technology. I am now semi-retired and spend most of my free time either developing articles for my web sites or surfing the blog world reading other peoples blogs. I have a particular liking for the human side, the personal or family blog. Away from computers I like to travel, read and sleep.


merkal2005: How do you feel to be the father of four wonderful little daughters? How do you find time for blogging?

lessca: I love being a dad. There is always time for blogging once they have gone to bed. We have been blessed in that all four are generally asleep for the night from 8.30 onwards. I also generally get the mornings free to prepare content etc for my blogs.


merkal2005: When did you discover blogging? Do you like writing in general?

lessca: I only discovered blogging about four months ago and started seriously about three months ago - the last week in September. I love writing. One of the things I like about blogging is that you can be yourself. You don't have to write 'beautifully' or write to a standard that booksellers and other publishers demand. I grant the better you write the more readers you may have. I have read many articles written by bloggers where English is obviously not their first language - they have not been any less enjoyable - probably more so.


merkal2005: How did you name your blog? What is the idea behind that?

lessca: When I first started I wanted a blog where I could write about controversial issues giving my own personal slant on things. I am a bit of a radical, anti establishment. The name was available as a dot com so I registered it. Since then it has probably better known for its radical reviews than anything else. I like to do things differently. Where others charge for reviews, I do them for free. Where the big name bloggers wont help the little ones - I will. I just like to buck the system. I would love to lead a revolt against Google.


merkal2005: Tell us about your 2008 goals. What are your suggestions to bloggers for 2008?

lessca: 2008 - to grow my traffic base. To grow my RSS and email subscription list. My ultimate goal for 2008 is to finish the year with a good reputation for providing quality reviews, having a good catalog of blogs I have reviewed and for providing good quality articles along the way. For other bloggers my biggest suggestion is for them to start working together. I think there is a lot of power in the blogging community. One example is the blogroll. I suggest every blogger throw it out and start using context links. If they have favorite sites, then keep the blogroll short.