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Posted by: David Spinks - 2 August 2010 / 10:44

Welcome to Behind the Blogs, where we take a moment to get to know the bloggers in the Scribnia Community on a more personal level.  We’ve read their words, but now it’s time to learn a little bit about the person behind the keyboard.

Today’s interview is with Robert Boylan who writes for The Stir-Fried Dinosaur.  Rob is  28, born in San Francisco and raised on Long Island (Strong Island ftw).

Rob’s blog is a about as real and random as it gets.  If he has something on his chest, it seems there is very little you can do to stop him from blogging about it.  It’s refreshing.  Let’s find out a little bit more about the writer behind this dinosaur…

1. What do you do when you’re not in front of a computer screen?

I play guitar and read books and watch movies and flirt with pretty girls and hang with my family and try to convince my friends to hang out with me. I shower a lot, and I pace around smoking cigarettes, and I work. Haha, I forgot about that! I work 40 hours too. That’s a lot of time.

2. Who are your biggest inspirations in life?

I am a sponge. I am maybe the most absorbent person you’ll ever meet. So inspiration, for me, comes from everywhere. Sometimes, it’s all too much. I can watch a stupid movie about baseball and it will make me cry my eyes out. I am just… highly affected. By everything. So I think, more than being inspired, I am highly influenced by my environment at all times. And yes, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made sense in answering even one of these questions. I sure hope so.

3. Have you ever faced a challenge in the past that helped define who you are today?

Absolutely. Tons of them. I was homeless for a good amount of time. I was in drug rehab at 16, battling hallucinations that were making me feel homicidal. I found my dad’s dead body in bed when I was 5 years old. I’ve had various sleep disorders since I’m 5 or 6 years old. On and on. Life is a series of weird struggles that I’ve had to learn to deal with and accept and eventually smile/laugh about. I will say that, despite being a little eccentric and a little sad inside, I have grown up to be an extremely strong person. And I smile a lot more than most other folks who would walk in my shoes. So. I’m pretty stoked. I mean, I feel good. Life started out rough for me, but it’s taught me everything. And as the years pass, it’s all getting easier for me.

4. Have you ever written anything on your blog and then regret it afterwards?

Yes. Almost every day. But what can you do?

5.  What is the biggest challenge you face in your life today?

The struggle to be myself in a world that I’m clearly not cut out for? Haha. It’s terribly sad when I’m not laughing about it, but it’s really difficult to be myself. Because my values and ethics and concerns, at every turn, seem to be so very different than most of the others’ around me. I mean, I’ve clashed with family and friends for my entire life, because they just don’t understand why I won’t ever stop swimming upstream.

6. How has music impacted your life?

I’ve been playing musical instruments since I’m 8 years old. I’ve been obsessively listening to music since I’m 3 years old. I’ve been a pirate radio DJ, I have worked in record stores and in guitar shoppes and in live music venues. I have worked on street teams. I was briefly doing marketing for a small label…. Music is pretty much just… what I do. When I accidentally cut myself, I bleed in the key of F#.

7. What is your idea of the perfect blog?

http://nostomanic.blogspot.com is pretty damn close to perfection. I wish I could do what Amber does.

8. What are 5 things you want to do before you die?

Kiss a midget on the lips, spend a year in Ethiopia or Kenya, adopt a sugar glider, get a decent band together and go on a real tour, and eventually find the kind of love that I have always idealised up in my head (the kind of love that exists only in Beatles songs?).

9. What makes you and your blog unique?

I don’t know. I assume I’m a neurotic mess, and people like that kind of thing. I mean, look at how popular Woody Allen is. But then, I am like a Woody Allen that came from the wrong side of the tracks, and did a lot of LSD as a kid. Haha. Yes. No, that’s it: people love train wrecks. I am definitely a train wreck.

10. What advice would you provide for people looking to start a blog?

This is terrible advice, I know, but I’d say: Just start doing it. Stop all the thinking, stop all the worrying, and just write. Every day. Twice a day. Nine times a day. Whatever you have to give, give it. It’ll feel good.

Thanks so much for sharing your story with us Rob. Your blog may be random but it’s one of the most interesting blogs I’ve read in a while.  Keep up the writing.

Again..Make sure to read Rob’s Blog, review him, and follow him on twitter.

If you know of an interesting blogger/author that we should interview for the Behind the Blogs series, or if YOU are that blogger, send me an email at David [at] Scribnia.com

Tags: Behind, blogs, Boylan, Dinosaur, Fried, Interview, Robert, Stir