Lou Plummer - omg.lol Interview Series

Lou Plummer

OMG.LOL Interview Series #1

Find Lou on omglol: @amerpie!

Table of Contents

The Interview

Can you share a bit about yourself with us

I’m a happily married guy with a large blended family. I have five children and 13 grandchildren. I’ve lived in North Carolina most of my life, except for a few southern military bases during my father’s military career and my own military service. I graduated from high school in 1983, which was the first class composed solely of members of Generation X. Although I have worked in the IT field since the late 90s, earlier in life, aside from serving in the Army, I also worked in a prison, doing construction, cleaning carpets, being a short order cook, and working in a Westinghouse factory. I retired from the public school system in 2020, but went back to work at a small private university a couple of years later when I discovered that being retired didn’t agree with me.

My hobbies are writing, Apple technology, and supporting my wife’s ultra-running career. In my younger days, I was an endurance cyclist and completed over 80 century (100-mile) rides. I was also a long-distance hiker and through-hiked the Appalachian Trail with my wife in 2013. I’ve been an activist since my late 30s. Some of the issues that have captured my attention were campaigning against the death penalty, supporting same-sex marriage, opposing the U.S. wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, and fighting against the creeping fascism of the conservative right in the United States.

I am an advocate for people with mental illness and for people with addiction issues. I recently celebrated 16 years of sobriety myself. I try as best I can to be an ally to people in the LGBT community, to act as an ant-racist, and to learn more every day how to help dismantle the patriarchy. I tend to be outspoken on social issues. No would have any problem figuring out how I feel about most things. Subtlety is not one of my skills.

What motivates you day to day?

As someone who has dealt with depression on and off since the 80s, I’ve got enough self-knowledge to avoid idleness. It’s never been good for me. I’m a prolific blogger because not writing, quite literally, makes me sad. I believe in inertia. Currently, I’m moving in a positive direction, posting to three blogs every single day and interacting with friends all over the world on the IndieWeb. Online relationships are real and important. I try to cultivate them by constantly reaching out to people in ways I hope are uplifting. My mission is to let bloggers know they have an audience. I send notes to people, sign guestbooks, leave comments and generally try to be an ambassador for what I want the web to be like. In my personal life, nothing makes me happier than staying in touch with my kids and grandkids. Everyone knows how much I love getting texts and photos. My phone pings constantly. Every time it does, I smile.

We are all different. Keeping in mind your context and mine (I’m a white cis-het American dude in his 40s) what is one thing you want me to know?

Enough is enough. In my life, I could have used the intelligence and energy granted to me through heredity and environment to act on ambition and the opportunities that presented themselves to earn a boatload of dough. I got into IT right before the dot-com boom. I live close to the Research Triangle area of NC where billion-dollar companies like Red Hat, IBM, and others have large campuses. Instead of constantly changing jobs and pursuing whatever the next in-demand skill happened to be, I was happy to be a civil servant in a meaningful field (education). I used my time to have hobbies, enjoy my family and travel. I drive a twenty-year-old car and live in a house that’s almost paid off. I live a very comfortable life, and I don’t worry one bit about impressing the neighbors or whether I’m winning the non-existent contest to have the largest bank account. I have enough.

What are three favorites?

1. Favorite state on the Appalachian Trail - The trail passes through 14 states, starting in Georgia and ending in Maine. It goes through all the New England States except Rhode Island. The most beautiful spots on the whole trail, and there are many, occur in Maine. The hiking there is the most challenging I’ve ever done. When you make your way to a town, you can get fresh lobster or a plate of full-belly clams.
2. Favorite Year in Musical History - I could listen to albums from a single year in rock history, 1971, exclusively for the rest of my life and still be happy. That year Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Carole King, James Taylor, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell and more recorded music that I venture was the best of their careers.
3. Favorite Fictional Character - Captain Woodrow Call from Larry McMurty’s epic novel, Lonesome Dove. Captain Call was brave, stoic, loyal, caring and flawed. He kept his distance from everyone but his closest friend, Gus McRae. He didn’t tolerate rudeness and had a horse named the Hell Bitch, which he ended up giving to the son he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge.

What is one quote that you can’t get out of your head?

“Nobody is free until everybody is free” - Fannie Lou Hamer

What is one thing you’ve discovered that someone else created that you’d like to promote?

I love the website of New Zealand blogger, Flamed Fury. It’s perfect in my estimation, full of original content and curated resources for anyone curious about the IndieWeb. It’s a real rabbit hole. I’ve discovered so many helpful tools there. I’ll owe Flamed forever. - fLaMEd fury

Find Lou also at his blogs!

Amerpie.lol is his main site and consolidates everything!

For individual blogs:

• A more personal take @ louplummer.lol
• Or his link site @ Linkage!
• Or his app addict site @ App Addict

Also check out his 100 Strangers Project!

And on Social Media:

• Mastodon - @amerpie@social.lol
• Bluesky - @amerpie.lol
• Pixelfed - @amerpie@pxlmo.com