The Bella Rossa Interview with CB of the "The Company Bitch."
CB is a young woman navigating some of the usual rough waters of one's twenties, namely boyfriend issues and corporate employment. In the spirit of "Copyranter," "Assistant Atlas," and "I Hate You, New Guy Who Sits Next To Me," she uses her online outlet to vent frustrations about life in the workplace. She recently wrote about her unsuccessful attempts at finding adult-sized footie pajamas for her boyfriend's birthday, her boss's insistence that she learn to successfully forge his name, and the general uselessness of her company's recent intern. CB is smart enough to retain her carefully preserved anonymity, so as to avoid any unpleasant dooce-like repercussions in the workplace.
BELLA: How would you describe your blog?
CB: "Office Space" meets "Sex and the City." Actually, someone else said that
about my blog. I would describe my blog as a young girl trying
desperately to find the humor in her humorless office existence.
BELLA: Why
do you blog? What was your original goal or intention when you started,
and has that changed with time? Is your blog a means to an end (finding
work, developing creative ideas, making money, meeting people), or does
it exist for its own sake?
CB: I started it because I was experiencing unholy boredom and
frustration at my old job. Then it slowly started becoming a different
thing. Like, instead of doing it in my spare time, I’d make time for
it.
BELLA: Is there one particular post that you think exemplifies your work, or represents your best writing?
CB: The ones I think are the best are the ones I sort of think I should
delete because they’re embarrassing and personal. So I’m not going to
point them out.
BELLA: Is there one particular post that garnered you an
atypically large reader response or number of referrals from search
engines? If so, why do you think that is?
CB: Holy f*ck yes. The one titled "Banned from Whole Foods." People
really got mad about that one, either at me or on my behalf. I really
wasn’t trying to start some consumer revolution, but people seemed to
think I was.
BELLA: How often do you Google yourself, check yourself on Technorati, and/or pore over your referral logs and visitor statistics?
CB: I can’t divulge that information. The answer is way too sad.
BELLA: What kind of person is the likeliest reader of your blog? What would you hope they get out of reading you?
CB: I have absolutely no idea what kind of person who reads my blog. I read their
comments and I still don’t know the common denominator. People that
work in an office?
BELLA: Are
there people in your life who don't "get the whole blog thing?" How do
you explain it to them without feeling as nerdy and defensive as I
usually do?
CB: Mine is secret so I generally don’t have that problem. I don’t
actually want to talk about my blog. Unfortunately, my boyfriend, who
does know about it, likes to get drunk and tell everyone I have the
best blog ever, that I’m sooo funny, etc. Then I feel like creepy
because I refuse to tell anyone what the name of my blog is. (Thank
God the boyfriend knows enough not to tell people that).
BELLA: How much do you self-censor, knowing that your friends and family might be reading?
CB: Not enough that I’d want my father to read it but enough so that the boyfriend doesn’t break up with me.
BELLA: Have
you ever heard yourself say something like "If you really cared about
me/were really interested in me, you'd look at my blog"? Is this a fair
thing to throw at, say, your sister, during an argument over who gets
the nicest drumstick at Thanksgiving?
CB: Ha! That’s hysterical. I bet I’m totally going to be like that if my
blog ever goes public. Then again, I have a friend who found out
about my blog by accident (long story) and she’s checking the thing all
the time. I’ll say "Guess what happened to me today?" and she’ll say
"I know, I read it in your blog." That’s not good either.
BELLA: Do you video blog? Would or will you? Are there any video blogs that you look at? What would you video blog about, if you did?
CB: What’s a video blog?
BELLA: Have you ever blogged something that later you regretted and/or deleted from your blog?
CB: Yup. One thing that got Gawkered but was more about a friend than
me. It really wasn’t my place to spread her story throughout
Manhattan. And then one thing that was too sentimental/sad for me
to handle after the fact. I was like, "Ugh, I don’t want to remember
feeling like this."
BELLA: What are your thoughts on the phenomenon of
"doocing," wherein someone loses their job because of things they
posted on a personal blog? Are you careful to maintain a clear line
between your online self and your real world self?
CB: I sometimes think I’m wily and slick. I’ll change hair color or dates
and think "Ha! They’ll never know it’s me." Riiiight. I think I’m
going to get completely busted one of these days.
BELLA: Are you conscious of creating an online persona? How is that persona different from the real world you?
CB: My online persona is exactly drunk me in the real world.
BELLA: How long have you been online, and what kinds of
things have you done online (chat rooms, message boards, games, aimless
surfing, etc.)? How has this changed your life, for the better or worse?
CB: Pretty much nothing besides read news crap, write this blog and occasionally read others.
BELLA: How long do you think you will continue to blog? What are the circumstances under which you can imagine yourself quitting?
CB: When it’s not anonymous. I sometimes think of stopping this blog and
starting a new, totally anonymous one but it’s somewhat exhausting to
think of getting people to read it all over again. Still, when I’m
totally outted, I can’t imagine blogging and enjoying it.
BELLA: What's the coolest thing that's come out of your blogging experience?
CB: Literary agents e-mailed me! I almost cried when it
started happening.
But they all said I’d have to write a novel and then show it to them
before I was signed. That made me happy for awhile, but then I realized
"F*ck, I have to write a novel." Writing a novel is hard, slow and
completely non-gratifying since you have no idea if it will get you an
agent, let alone ever get published. Still, it is the coolest thing.
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