wordbit » writing

No rest for the dead…battery

Antoine — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:13:52 +0000

My recent article on Battery Recycling is now available in the November issue of alive. I wasnâ€™t aware of this before researching this topic, but you can recycle both single-use and rechargeable batteries in British Columbia.

Personally, Iâ€™m a big fan of eneloop batteries. I believe the batteries Apple uses in their wireless mouse and keyboard are re-branded eneloops.

New professional website

Antoine — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:35:37 +0000

I've created a new professional website to replace this aging one that doesn't even render properly in most resolutions. I bought the URL vancouverwriter.ca and put up something a little more modern. Just to be clear, I'm still happy in my present position at Vtech, but wanted to keep my html coding skills fresh, keep the portfolio up to date, and have a little fun to boot. I envision moving my professional presence away from wordbit.freehostia.com and using this new site as a more focused single-purpose portfolio site. Wordbit was always more of a mish-mash blog anyway with a business sock on one foot and a sweat sock on the other. Oh, and vancouverwriter.ca is flash free so should look great on your iPad! Now is that bleeding edge, or what?

New published articles

Antoine — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:31:35 +0000

Here are some new articles of mine that were published in alive magazine. Click on the thumbnails to view them. The first is on whether cell phone towers are safe or not. There is much heated debate surrounding this issue and I got a lot of hate mail for even suggesting we donâ€™t know all there is to know about the technology. The hard truth is that we just donâ€™t have the data spanning a human lifetime to say one way or the other, so lay off haters! My second article is less controversial â€“ should you shave your head when going bald (yes). This was a fun article to write and I got to interview P. Diddyâ€™s barber in Hollywood. Really nice guy. The art guy is an avid surfer so the appearance of Kelly Slater as the bald hunk poster boy is no surprise.

Hilarious job ad

Antoine — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:54:09 +0000

This is a real job posting. I appreciate the brute honesty because it doesn’t sound like a job I’d be that interested in. But some sicko might be. And yes, they actually are looking for a “sicko”:

We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.

We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: â€œI canâ€™t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20^th Pulitzer.â€ As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if youâ€™re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed Â office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumbleâ€¦ well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then youâ€™re our kind of sicko.

For those unaware of Floridaâ€™s reputation, itâ€™s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.

Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks.

Matthew Doig

Sarasota Herald-Tribune
1741 Main St.
Sarasota FL,Â 34236
(941) 361-4903
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com

Source: A few tasteful snaps

Why Haven’t We Finished Our Novel?

Antoine — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:58:48 +0000

via theonion.com

I’ve started numerous novels, and never gotten very far. I think I just end up disliking the main character. Sigh. We’ll see how far I get with my next project.

It pays to be paranoid

Antoine — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:48:41 +0000

As 2010 hits in full force I’m thinking of ways to schedule in more quality blog time and keep wordbit alive. In the meantime, here is my latest article on how to avoid cold and flu germs. I don’t know about you but I’ve run the germ gambit from Swine to March Madness varieties and I’ve had enough. So it’s apt then that my article recommends borderline conspiracy theory-fueled paranoid behaviour to avoid catching a sniffle.

Cheap winter thrills

Antoine — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:47:57 +0000

So, you’ve done all your Christmas shopping, and maybe scored a few deals by reading my last blog post. Now you want to have some fun in the snow but the rocky economic climate is scaring you off the slopes. Continuing on the theme of thrifty spending, check out my latest article on finding deals on winter sports equipment (while being eco-savvy at the same time).

I enjoyed writing this article because, well, I’m a SME when it comes to being cheap. Let’s just say that being a student has taught me how to stretch every dollar. And my hefty student loans will ensure the continuation of my pauper-like existence for some time to come!

Surf’s up – and so is your heart rate

Antoine — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:11:35 +0000

That’s probably the cheesiest line I’ve ever written. But for some reason, the editors over at alive actually seem to revel in cheese (One example is the title I’ll eternally shake my head at: G…I can’t believe it’s a Glycemic index). God bless ‘em though – they’re a wonderful bunch.

Anyway, here’s an article I really enjoyed writing because, well, I love surfing! And so does Scott over in the art department. He took some glorious pictures in Tofino and quite simply graced my article with them. Click on the thumbnail to hit the beach dude.

Have a laugh, have a cry

Antoine — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:56:29 +0000

Here are some recent article shorts. As usual, you can click on the thumbnails to read them. The one on the left is a feel-good piece on laughter yoga. The right piece touches on the depressing psychological and cultural effects of global warming. There’s also a teeny one in there on the dodgy air we have to breathe in airplanes (even Purell won’t save you this time).

Seeing these two articles juxtaposed like this evokes a stark contrast between Western frivolity and Aboriginal reality. Note how they’re both sitting in the same cross-legged position too. I almost wish the art department had actually planned it that way.

Want to write for Wired?

Antoine — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:25:31 +0000

Wired magazine has some interesting pieces this month. Well, every month is pretty good, but writers might appreciate this behind-the-scenes look at how an article is assigned, written, edited, and designed. You can read the email correspondence between author and editor, and get an idea of how to pitch your story idea to a magazine. Great stuff.

Also, technical writers might get a kick out of this photo essay of classic instruction manuals. What I found interesting was what Dan Winters, the photographer who compiled these, had to say: "I actually think that modern manuals are unreadable," Winters says. "Visually speaking, they probably peaked in the ’30s." What rot. Seriously – is this guy part of the MTV generation or something? End-user documentation has never been cleaner and easier to understand. In fact, most help is migrating to interactive web-based apps that even a child would coo at. I understand he’s speaking as a visually-biased photographer – not a writer, but the overly intricate diagrams in his photo essay (as cool as they are in a retro sort of way) hardly represent the peak of information architecture.