On my new gig

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve started writing for The Daily Dot.

I’m utterly stoked about this, since I’ve been a fan for a while and I’ve been itching to write about the Web again. 

It has a lot of great writers who are doing a ton of excellent work, and everyone’s been a pleasure to work with. It might only be a couple of days into my tenure there, yet I already know I’m going to love it. I hope to do some great things with the team.

You should like us on Facebook, follow on Twitter, follow on Tumblr and, of course, read our articles.

I have a few other things going on, such as working with a company that hasn’t officially launched yet. Busy days for me, and I’m looking for yet more projects. I must be daft.

One step backward, five steps forward

2011 was a mixed bag of a year for me. For the most part, things were good. I had a job I liked very much and was good at, enjoyed an excellent week in New York and am now living in a great apartment.

There were a couple of hiccups on the professional front. They were disappointments more than anything, and they were not things I could do anything about, so I can’t be too downbeat. I’m not one to whine and complain though (especially on the Internet), so I’m looking ahead and creating a plan for 2012 and what I want to achieve in the upcoming calendar year.

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The Take Over, The Break’s Over

Since Scribbal came to an end a few weeks ago, I’ve not been writing as much as I had been. I’ve been doing bits and pieces, but after pumping out 8-10 pieces on a daily basis, I’ve kind of taken a break from writing thousands of words per day.

The break actually came at an opportune time: I just moved into a new apartment and I’ve been able to devote lots of time to organising and fixing up the place. Now, I’m absolutely ready to delve back in to writing lots and lots of quality pieces on technology, startups, the Web, film, TV, pop culture and all kinds of other topics.

I want to write for big-name publications and tell the stories that are often left untold, while giving a fresh spin on the ones that may already be known. 

There’s a ton of knowledge and skill I can bring to the table. I’m fast, I’m accurate with my facts and I can spel reel gud. I know a ton about technology, gadgets, startups, the Web, entertainment and a bunch of other topics. 

That’s why I’m setting my sights on getting work at publications I love, and I’d love to see my byline on. I have the skills. I just want to be given a chance. There are a few seeds that have been sown in that respect, and I’m hoping they’ll bear fruit very soon.

I love writing. I like to think I’m pretty good at it. I’ve grown a lot as a writer over the last year. I’ve learned to write quickly and get my thoughts on the screen without much hesitation, but still tell manage to tell stories rather than having disjointed sentences that don’t flow well. I can add context appropriately and know what tone to write in depending on the subject. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Honestly, I love doing what I do, and want to keep doing it for as long as possible. I hope I can do that with publications I’d be proud to have my name attached to.

P.S. Apologies for quoting Fall Out Boy in my title. It seemed appropriate, somehow.

Originally posted at Google+

My digital legacy, and why I will strive to write more often

I have to admit, I’m a little sad. 

Through a link posted on Roger Ebert’s Facebook Page (well worth a Like, even if you’re not a film buff), I spent a good chunk of time browsing Pen Machine last night. This is the website of Derek K. Miller, a Canadian who passed away this week at the age of 41 as a result of complications from stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. I’m not afraid to admit I got choked up while reading Miller’s last post, as well as several other posts which dealt with the subject of his impending death. Miller’s blog makes for an upsetting read, and it pains me that the only reason I was able to discover his engaging writing was because of his death.

However, I have been inspired by Miller. Between this and Google’s Dear Sophie ad (yeah, I know — it’s a cheesy ad, but the basic sentiment behind it is important), I started to think about how I would like people to remember me — off the top of my head, I would want people to remember me as someone who was a good person, whose heart was mostly in the right place, and was a good writer. 
Whether I have kids or not, I hate the thought that I might be forgotten or have people struggle to think of something to say about me, whether or not I become the most famous writer/film director/actor/author/musician/whatever on the planet (I’m 25 and have no idea what I want to do when I grow up except that I will work in entertainment. Or the media. Or ethical business. Or education. Or… all of these, maybe).

So whether it’s here, at Rival Robot, Scribbal, or whereever else (such as a personal website that I intend to be the hub for the vast majority of my online activity — something that I plan on setting up in the near future), I will strive to record more of my life and thoughts though words, pictures, video and audio and ensure that I create a strong digital legacy for myself. 

I love being able to hold things in my hand, so I would have loved for my life to be recorded in something a little more simple like a diary or scrapbook (hey, who knows? Maybe I’ll write a book someday). However, the easiest way to let as many friends and family members into my life as possible is through online services. Besides, I would get lazy or forget to write something each day by hand (I’ll try really, really hard to write something each day). 
Writing is perhaps the most natural form of expression for me, so the written word will make up the bulk of what I create. I’d like to branch out into video, music and photographs, but I’m not getting too ambitious just yet. I have to start considering which online services I want to bring attention to/archive when I start my website, but I have a basic idea of how I want this website to work.

Right now, I know that I will continue to use Posterous as my main personal blog (at least for the time being) and will do something about the crappy layout in the future. Creating good content (especially writing) is of the most importance though and I’ll focus on that rather than getting hung up on the background colours. 
My personal Facebook account will remain shuttered (that’s the only social network I’d like to keep private.), but anyone can view my Facebook Page (which is a little more for professional purposes); Twitter feed (which I use for pretty much everything); musings on film, TV, music and other entertainment at Rival Robot; work stuff at Scribbal; and see other things elsewhere. I’ll integrate all of this stuff (or as many of ‘em as I can) into my website when I start to piece it together.

What writing more often for myself means for the rest of my goals (which I have generally done little towards, I am ashamed to admit, but that’s a different story), I don’t really know — I’ll have to reassess those goals soon. But taking half an hour out of my day to write about something that matters to me (or anything else, really) is something I will strive to do. From now until the day until I can no longer do so. It might be 20 words per day, it might be 2000 words, it might simply be a photo. I just don’t know. But as long as I write something (or post a meaningful photo/quote/anything else) each day, I’ll be happy. 
It might not be every day — real-life things do happen, after all — but I’ll certainly be posting more than once a month. I promise that.

This is a bit rambly and disjointed, but that’s my writing style. I jump back and forth between paragraphs as I scramble to write down new thoughts before I forget them and then return to finish others. But I guess that’s something else you might have learned about me though reading this post.
My digital legacy will not only be for me (so I can look back in 10 years and know what I did or thought about on any given day), but for anyone who wants to be a part of my life — a Twitter follower I don’t know in real life is just as welcome here as my blood relatives. 

So join me, won’t you?

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