Archive for the ‘Portfolio’ Category
All Kinds of Train Travel
In planning to go home for Thanksgiving I’m having to think about which Amtrak train will have the least chance of delay as well as the least amount of passengers… good luck. I would rather be planning a trip on the Glacier Express, the Swiss train that traverses the Swiss Alps. Read more about it in my article over at Been Seen.
Interview with Tim Patterson
Finding out what other travelers and writers think about their chosen trade is always interesting to me, which is why I was excited when Tim Patterson agreed to do an interview with me for Written Road. An avid travel writer and contributing editor at Brave New Traveler, I’ve worked with him on several of my own articles, and although we’ve never met in person, I can say that he’s a pretty interesting guy. Thanks Tim for taking time out of your busy Southeast Asian schedule do answer my questions!
Read the interview here.
Fall issue of Wend is out!
After a summer of hard work, the fall issue of Wend is finally out! The funny thing about working on a magazine is that you spend so much time researching and writing articles, then editing them, then proofing the pages before they go to the printer, that by the time the issue arrives in the office, it feels like old news. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t love this issue!
There’s an amazing story by Gregg Treinish and Deia Schlosberg, the first two people to hike the entire length of the Andes, as well as plenty of other stuff to inspire you to get out and do something! You can preview some of the articles here.
Classic road trips: The Oregon Coast
I finally managed to get my thoughts and photos together for a feature post over at Gadling on road-tripping the Oregon Coast; it’s not extensive, just a quick and dirty guide to good stuff to do and see. That gave me a good chance to go through pictures from the late summer coastal excursion, which was an excellent mood-booster for a gray fall day… not that I am complaining, but there is something to be said for reminiscing over summer adventures.
Read the article here.
10 adventure gear companies you should know about…
Check out my most recent article over at Matador. It’s all about the adventure companies you should be buying your gear from. Why? Because they all stick to their environmental and social morals and even in a consumer society are trying to make positive change. I’ll tip you off to the top 3: Patagonia, MEC, and Marmot. For the rest, read it here.
Keen on quinoa…
I finally went for it and started a food blog; I had to do something constructive with all of those food photos I was taking. But it isn’t your average food blog — it’s solely devoted to quinoa. I know there are plenty of my friends out there contemplating whether or not I have lost my mind because I seem so obsessed with a grain, but I like to think of it as a way to come up with a lot of new and creative ways to play with the hard-to-pronounce food.
Hopefully there will soon be many recipes and lots of colorful, Bon Appetit-esque photos to enjoy. To check it out, click here.
Too much time online?
I’ve gotten overwhelmed lately with the amount of work I have to do online. So overwhelmed that I ended up writing about it on Written Road. An excerpt:
Because of a trip down to San Francisco this weekend, I didn’t get online for a whole four days… four days! Well, that’s not entirely true — I did have to check my work email and send some things out Monday morning — but for the rest of the time I didn’t do any blogging, I didn’t check any RSS feeds and I didn’t even scope out what was new on the New York Times front page.
My mother would say that I am crazy and internet dependent, but after thinking about it, being on the internet has become a part of my livelihood — I research, I blog, and I craft articles. Unfortunately, I am starting to feel that becoming a slave to the internet is taking a toll.
While driving back from the Bay Area, I thought about how long it had been since I had taken the time to actually sit down with my spiral notebook and write with a real pen (last week’s interview notes for an article that I am working on don’t count). How long has it been for you? When we start to work in the online media industry, it’s easy to become lost in the blogosphere. Extensive ideas are reduced to sound bites and experiences are forced just so we can have something to say. Eventually our creative spirit fades and gives way to producing quick content. How does one going about changing that?
Read the whole post here.
Print vs. online media: how about both?
Working in the magazine world has made me so much more aware of how much great — and bad for that matter — print media is out there. But as the internet becomes more and more integrated in our everyday lives, even excellent print magazines have to make an effort to have an online presence. Nothing will ever replace sitting down on the couch to delve into your favorite magazine, but here are my two favorites whose online content is just as good as the printed version, giving you the best of both worlds.
Good Magazine
Good Magazine’s whole premise pretty much stays true to its name. Spending just 5 minutes browsing through an issue makes you feel like you too can make a difference. Published every two months, 100% of your membership — you choose the price — actually goes to a non-profit of your choice. In the online world, their blog is one of the most comprehensive, bringing you news from the worlds of culture, environment, politics and art.
Plenty Magazine
Ok, Plenty Magazine is another green mag, but this one has solid and informative content on a regular basis. And it’s not just for the devoted environmentalist; there’s a good about of green celebrity gossip and fashion tips to keep us from getting too down about the world state of environmental affairs.
And of course there’s always Wend Magazine whose blog is updated frequently with the best of the outdoor and environmental world… but then again, I’m biased… and don’t have a problem with shameless self-promotion!
Back to the grind
A three day weekend means it’s been a little hard to get back in front of the computer and start attacking real work once again. Despite a three hour drive to get back to Portland in the morning, and a full day of Wend work, today was still my day to post at Written Road… fortunately I remembered that the deadline for the Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing are coming up soon!
With a crazy summer I haven’t put aside any time for personal writing (I know… that’s bad), but the deadline for the awards reminded me of last year at around this time when I was putting together my own submission. It ended up winning Gold in the Family Travel category… which reminds me that I probably should be committing more time to crafting decent narratives (where does all the time in a week go??) So in honor of sitting down with pen and paper and elaborating on travel experiences instead of getting stuck in the daily grind of the blogosphere, and to give myself a bit of writer’s encouragement, here is an excerpt from Everday Parisian Theatrics:
Theater and film are almost as essential to the romantic Parisian image as Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. Acting has always played a revered role in French culture, and from grandiose theater productions to cinema classics, the rest of the world has had the chance to taste the artistic delicacies that the country is known for. We have all been seduced by French film. Some of us are drawn to the amorous sounds of the French language spoken between young idealists, dressed in black, their souls engaged in debates on existentialism. Others glue themselves to the screen to consume the simple oddities that paint the picture of Paris street life, infused with the character that the city is so well known for. And some are merely enticed by imagining that such a world actually exists beyond the screen. We fall in love with French cinema, because the screenwriters that the country is known for magically bring together everyday simplicity with cosmopolitan complexity.
Read the rest here.
Sometimes you need a break
Today has been a long day of computer and technical frustration, making me look quite forward to a weekend away at my parents’ quiet house in the forest. Writing in this day and age entails a lot of time on the internet, and sometimes I am frustrated how much less time I spend with an actual pen in my hand a piece of paper in front of me. Today was definitely one of those days… I needed a photo series to remind me of the wonders of summer, and here I share it with you. A little juxtaposition of city and country life. Here’s to a weekend away!
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