A: A thirtysomething black male living somewhere in the DC Metro Urreah (MD side of the Potomac). Family man. Married over a decade. 2 young sons.
Q: What else?
A: NC born & bred. HBCU grad. Kappa man. Washington Wizards fanatic. Obsessed with having the best lawn on the block. Generally funny guy.
Q: Is this your Day Job?
A: No. I'm an engineer.
Q: Cool, what's it like driving trains?
A: Not that kinda engineer. A systems engineer.
Q: Cool, what's it like working that cash register?
A: Next question.
Q: What's this blog all about?
A: Whatever I like talking about on any given day.
Q: Meaning?
A: Current events, politics, sports, music, movies, observations on everyday life, Negro Nonsense.
Q: What's Negro Nonsense?
A: Have a look around.
Q: Nuff' said.
A: Indeed.
Q: Why do you bash Black people so much?
A: It's not bashing, I'd prefer to call it "constructive criticism". One thing I don't do is apologize for other folks foolishness. By pointing out such idiocy, I try to encourage others to learn from these people's mistakes and not repeat them.
Q: Why don't you balance out the greasy talk with some more positive stuff?
A: I try to do this, but reality is, AB.com is just like the rest of the world: if it bleeds, it leads. I do run "positive" stories from time to time.
Q: Is there some greater cause here or is this purely entertainment?
A: Yeah, actually there is. The subliminal message here is to encourage others to "give back" to their communities by taking "The AverageBro Challenge".
Q: Why is the term "give back" in quotes?
A: I hate the term "give back", as if helping others is charity. It should be an obligation.
Q: High and mighty aren't we? Why?
A: The whole point of this website is to encourage folks to "do better". Doing better means many things, but most importantly, it means encouraging others to "give back" to their communities in tangible ways, namely by working with kids via activities like mentoring, tutoring, and coaching youth sports, all of which I actively do myself. I just feel like things aren't going to change for Black folks as a whole until we all chip in and stop expecting the skies to open and some Negro savior to appear first.
Q: So, are you a Republican? You know Obama is The Man.
A: Obama is The Man, but he's just The President. It's all our jobs to make things better. And no, I'm not a Republican, nor a Democrat. I'm officially unaffiliated with either party.
Q: Why?
A: Both parties have their pros and cons, it's stupid to pretend you agree with either 100% of the time.
Q: Point taken. Do you consider this a liberal blog?
A: This blog isn't political at all. It really defies categorization. I call em' like I see em'.
Q: Flexing that HBCU vocabulary, are we?
A: Next.
Q: How would you categorize it if needed?
A: An average black man's view on the world as is.
Q: With a wife, two kids, and a real Day Job, how do you keep this site going?
A: I have no idea. I guess God blessed me with the ability to put together posts quickly. Most of them take about 5-7 mins, start to finish. I usually have the idea in my head before I write. And about 75% of the posts are written days, sometimes weeks in advance. They self-publish when I schedule them to run. It's not as time consuming as it sounds, I write most of my drops on my lunch break, or while the kids and wife are sleeping.
Q: Where do you get your post ideas?
A: Everywhere. And in information junkie. Satellite radio, talk radio, sports radio, cable news talkers, newspapers, and of course blogs. I have about 50 blogs on RSS feeds that I check on once or twice during breaks at work. The other ideas come to me in the shower, or are send in by readers. If there's breaking news, I'll usually throw something out there on short notice.
Q: How often is the blog updated?
A: I try my best to have fresh posts every weekday. This varies widely based on my Day Job workload. When I can't update, I just throw up and Open Mic and let my readers have at it.
Q: How many hits do you get each day?
A: I used to obsess over this a long time ago, but stopped once I dropped Google Analytics. I don't check anymore, but I'd conservatively guess around 2,000 a day. Honestly, it doesn't matter to those who run ads here, and it doesn't matter to me. I'm more concerned about the volume of comments and stimulating conversation. If I do that, I've accomplished my goal.
Q: Is there anything you won't blog about?
A: No police brutality stories. I just don't have anything to add, wrong is wrong. No porn, obviously. No "racism is so baaad" stories. No offense, but again, I usually can't add anything to such stories.
Q: Are you getting paid for this?
A: The ads give my monthly allowance a boost. That's about it. You can help the cause by clicking on, or buying something.
Q: What's up with all the gambling ads?
A: That's how I get the most monetary benefit from blogging. I polled my readers before deciding to do these, and they were cool with it. If it's alright with them, it's alright with me.
Q: Why can't I comment on the older posts?
A: I had some d-bag posting comment spam, so I had to close the pre-Disqus threads. You can still comment if you're a "member" of this blog, but the older threads are usually dead. Keep it movin'.
Q: What's the longterm vision for this site?
A: There isn't one. I've done freelancing for AOL BlackVoices, The Loop 21, and The Atlanta Post. I'm always looking for new outlets who like an opinionated, but entertaining blogger. If you wanna make me famous and marginally richer, holla.
Q: Why do you remain anonymous? Weren't you on NPR for awhile?
A: Yeah, the NPR gig is up now, but even there I didn't use my proper government name. I'm private by nature and there's no personally identifiable info for me on the web. This is just the basic "covering of bases" to protect my Day Job.
Q: Really, it's like that? Who do you work for?
A: If I told you, I'd have to kill you?
Q: Seriously?
A: Nah, it's not that deep. I just don't want my info out there. It doesn't really effect the blog since most of my posts are non-personal in nature.
Q: Makes sense. Any last words?
A: Tell a friend to tell a friend. This blog (heck, all blogs) lives off comments. They're the fuel that runs this thing, otherwise it's just me talking to myself. Lurkers are always welcome. Come on in, the water's a little hot at times, but it's fine.
