Interesting Tweople: Ben Karpinski

Today’s Interesting Tweople section features @followthebounce (Ben Karpinski). He was born and raised in Cape Town, but has made Johanesburg home in recent times. His 9-5 (or 8-6) job is being a copywriter at a really cool Johannesburg Advert Agency called Ireland-Davenport. When he’s not writing about sexy cars, sexy banks, sexy cell phone companies or sexy travel he adds a fair amount of sexy sport onto Twitter.  Okay – maybe there was one too many ‘sexy’ in that sentence, but he generally loves how Twitter is a hotbed for humour in so many forms. He has been  fortunate enough to build a good following and have done so on a very simple philosophy of tweeting things that always have the ability to inform as well as entertain. According to @followthebounce “Sure this isn’t always possible, but if someone has made the effort to follow you, the least you can do is tweet stuff worth enjoying.” You can check out his blog at http://www.thebounce.co.za/.

Running Wolf’s Rant recently had the opportunity to ask @followthebounce a few questions. This is what he had to say:

What do you do when you’re not tweeting about Sport?

I pretty much play all sports on a social level so I’m always around some sort of ball or finish line at any stage. Well not so much over the past 6 months as I incurred an unfortunate injury, so that pretty much sidelined me to other interests such as beer and red wine and the places where it is best to consume them, making sure my iPod is the best in the world and getting through a whole chunk of TV shows. Like my iPod, I aim to have the most entertaining hard drive known to man. Oh and I write about 3 million words a month, that is rather time consuming.

How long have you been blogging?

Just short of two years. I started blogging when I changed careers and took the regrettable career path into advertising…

Would you say that Social Media has changed your life? And why?

Ya. I’m really not ashamed to admit that it has either. I spend a fair amount of time on Twitter and did get a lot of stick about it from certain mates, but that all stopped when they discovered that I get cool stuff and sports trips paid for because of the following I have built up and what I do on the platform. I have met so many cool people through it, in real life, not just offer 140 characters. I have been able to expose my blog to a decent sized audience, and above all else I really enjoy having the endlessly flowing tap of entertainment at my disposal. I can’t imagine watching live sport nowadays without the banter from the great people I interact with.

What is the funniest thing that you’ve experienced on Twitter?

Tough one. I have 4 or 5 mates that I really enjoy chatting to on Twitter. Sports guys like myself, but with such unique and intelligent senses of humour. One mate in particular (@SportBilly101) and I love a good # topic to get a joke rolling, with each of us trying to out do the other with each tweet. I guess the funniest (there have been so many) would have been the recent Peter Davies incident. That was a day of laughs that still dish up the odd pearler at any moment.

What are you currently working on?

Making The Bounce full time. What started as a bit of fun has now become a real passion and something that I am even more enthusiastic about than Genevieve Morton’s cleavage. The Bounce has become a way of life I guess as it is pretty much all my loves rolled into one. It would be silly to not make it all that it has the potential to be.

If you could feature any international girl on the Bounce Girl section, which one would it be and why?

Super hard question, so many come to mind, but a girl that has always stood out for natural beauty and unmistakable wholesome appeal (the elements of the perfect Bounce Girl) has to be Keeley Hazel. Put that girl in a modified Springbok kit and I would probably lose the ability to speak English for about 6-8 minutes.

Running Wolf’s Rant would like to take opportunity to thank @followthebounce for taking time to do this interview with us. We wish him all of the best for the future. Watch this space for more interviews with Interesting Tweople and more posts in the Technology category in the near future. Feedback is appreciated and welcome here, so feel free to comment on this post if you’ve enjoyed the interview.