CelticsBlog High Five with bloggers (Part 1) - What made you start blogging?

I thought I'd take my High Five interview series to the bloggers this week.  I asked a number of folks 5 questions about blogging and the Celtics and gathered up their answers here.  I'll release them in 5 different posts to keep them from getting too long.

The first question was "What made you start blogging and what keeps you going with it?"

John Karalis - Red's Army

We started the site because it seemed like a fun thing to do. My partner on Red's Army, Chuck McKenney, and I both have similar personalities in that we like to have fun and bust chops a lot. We both are obviously huge basketball fans, and when we first saw blogs start to emerge, we thought it would be a fun way to do what we did in our spare time, which is talk basketball and occasionally be total wise-asses about it.

Part of what keeps me going is just the love of basketball, the Celtics, and writing. I love just about everything about the blog and what it's brought me. If I could sit at home blogging full time, I'd do it forever. I wish I could spend more time doing it, but if I could, I'd sit around dreaming of new ways to help people have fun while watching the Celtics.

Bill Sy (wjsy) - CelticsBlog

Other bloggers really. I'm relatively new to it and when I found out there were other people that talked basketball like me, it was absolutely refreshing. SBNation is such a vibrant community of great writers and the Celtics blogging family is second to none. You can get in touch with writers at RedsArmy, the Globe, or CSNNE and they'll get back to you before the day is out.

And I have to really thank you helping me find a voice at CelticsBlog and encouraging me to write. It has been such a pleasure having a home here for the last two plus years and I can't wait until we're back on top and covering another deep run in the playoffs. Thanks, Jeff.

Kevin O'Connor - CelticsBlog

A simple conversation with Andy from Comcast SportsNet made me start blogging, seriously. I didn't know what I wanted to do but I told him that I like analyzing, conversation, and debate, so he suggested that I try writing for CelticsBlog, so I did. Thanks again Jeff for the chance. Sometimes it's difficult to see something when it's right in front of your eyes but you don't allow yourself to see it. I think that's what happened to me, as I've always had dreams and aspirations to do something in the sports industry, but it seemed difficult to attain. Now, I think it's a possibility if I keep working hard, which is one thing that keeps me going as a blogger. But the root of my love for sports is analyzing, conversing, and debating, which I receive in return for writing. I would be analyzing the draft and the NBA like a freak with no life whether or not I wrote for any site, and it's nice to receive feedback so I can converse and debate with others about topics that I find interesting. That certainly keeps me going too.

Nick Gelso - CLNS Radio

Late In 2008, I sold my business. After nearly a decade of owning and operating a fairly large business, I found myself going a bit stir crazy because of idle time. The phone was no-longer ringing, customers were no-longer emailing daily and I suddenly had no schedule, no routine.

Once depression started to set in and I started to drag a bit, a family member gave me the advise that I had to get up in the morning, shower and DO SOMETHING, whether it be public service, part time job, or even volunteering.

I made a decision to do 2 things...

1. I went to church every day of the week. Yes, you heard that correctly, I went to daily mass.
2. I started to write ""blogs"" ON FACEBOOK about the Boston Celtics.

Inspired by the original Celtics' blog-o-sphere, people such as Jeff Clark right here at CelticsBlog, John and Chuck at Red's Army and, of course, Justin Poulin and Jon Duke of Celtics Stuff Live, I started to transfer my ""blogs"" from Facebook Notes to a blogspot site called, North Station Sports.

I later teamed up with Brandon Paul to create a podcast called The Celtics Late Night Show. Again, inspired by the Celtics Stuff Live gents, we decided to broadcast right after them, Sunday nights at 10 pm, and thus the name, Celtics LATE NIGHT Show was born.

To make a long story short (something I've never done very well - lol), the name stuck, and the acronym C.L.N.S. was born.

Today, we are CLNS Radio, a podcast network, covering ALL Boston pro sports teams. Our roots, however, are still with the Boston Celtics so I feel no shame or remorse in keeping the CLNS name alive. Plus - it's always an interesting conversation starter when people ask, ""what does CLNS mean?""

What keeps me going? I just don't stop. Most people that know me can vouch for the fact that I am a complete workaholic. I am literally at my desk from the moment I wake up in the morning, until the time I go to bed at night (if the Celtics aren't playing, bed usually comes fairly early for me).

Beyond that, if it weren't for our audience of readers, listeners and viewers, this job would be pretty boring though, wouldn't it? The feedback, mailbag entries, callers into our Boston Sports Teams' Post Game Shows, etc. All that keeps me logging back onto CLNS every day.

Jeff Clark - CelticsBlog

I suppose most of you know the story by now but for those that missed it, here's the short version.  I went to college outside of the Boston area and missed talking about my teams with friends that cared about my teams.  I sought out communities online and never found exactly what I was looking for, so I started blogging about the Celtics and was lucky enough to get a couple breaks that built up the community (like the Globe closing down their chat room which forced a group of diehards to look for a new chatting home, which I provided).

What keeps me coming back is all of you, really.  I love the Celtics and I love writing, but I don't want to simply talk at people, assuming I'm right all the time.  I really love the exchange of ideas and viewpoints and friendly banter back and forth between peers and friends.  That's the goal here and that's what I see growing and evolving every day in this community.  Thanks for the opportunity to do this and for participating in it.  Cheers.