Lot's to be thankful for!

Week ending November 28, 2024

Hello! For those of you in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! For everyone else, hey, why not take this moment to be thankful for what we have, no matter where we are? I’m currently with the family in Palm Springs for the holiday with some great friends. We ate lots of great food and watched the uncharacteristically dominant Detroit Lions almost lose to the Chicago Bears. (As I told my wife, who is from Detroit and has watched the Lions break hearts throughout her entire life: “You can never count the Detroit Lions IN.” They almost always find a way to squander right when it counts. Not this season though!) Earlier this week, we checked out Joshua Tree, hiked the impressive and unique Ladder Canyon, and had plenty of pool and hot tub time. Heck, I might make my way out there after I hit send on this. Needless to say, plenty to be thankful for.

Say, I have a new gig to announce! A few months back, I received an email from my friend and CNET colleague from back in the day, Dan Ackerman, now Editor-in-chief at Micro Center News. It turns out, he’s building a mighty team of ex-CNETers to write about topics that are near and dear to their heart as authorities in their beat.

I suppose this means I’m an authority in podcast and media production because that’s exactly the kind of stuff I’ll be writing about for Micro Center News in the months ahead!

And to prove it, here you go… My first article for Micro Center News: Essential Podcasting Gear

I plan to dive into what it takes from a production standpoint to produce content. My first article is exactly that, taking a look at what is needed to do a simple audio-only podcast. Soon, I’ll also drill into different aspects of production technology, more from an “explainer” standpoint. What exactly IS an audio interface, for example?

I’ve been toying with the idea of sharing my knowledge in some way after 20 years in the industry. When Dan came knocking, it seemed like the perfect way to share what I know and grow my writing skillset.

I’ve done a ton of writing over the past two decades. Most of my writing, though, has been of the rundown or script variety, specific to podcast or video production. Writing for the page is a whole different ballgame. During the pandemic, my friend and former TWiT colleague Megan Morrone enlisted me to write for Debugger at Medium. That was my true beginning in writing for the page, and though I only wrote a small collection of articles before Debugger went away for good, I was very proud of my writing.

Since the launch of the Android Faithful website earlier this year, I’ve begun taking my video product reviews and turning them into written reviews for the site. That’s been a cool experience as well.

For example, my most recent written review of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

Needless to say, I’m very excited to write for the team at Micro Center. It’s a wonderful opportunity to solidify my knowledge of these topics. It also helps position me as an authority in the media production space. And of course, it sharpens my writing abilities which could be incredibly valuable to me as I continue to do whatever is needed to make my self-employment viable into 2025.

And the best part? There’s more to come on the new project front. I can’t quite talk about it yet, but the outlook for 2025 is looking brighter, and soon enough, I’ll be able to share why that is. So stay tuned!

In the meantime: If there are any topics that you think would fit my new Micro Center writing gig, please share them with me! I’m all ears. Gotta feed the beast, so any ideas are appreciated!

What else have I been up to these past few weeks?