Sample the Web

About me: I am…

…Editorial Director, Mahalo.

After a brief time as a consultant (see next paragraph), I joined the Mahalo team to help build the editorial side of the first human-powered search engine, Mahalo. This blog is my personal blog. All the opinions, thoughts, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone and not in any way indicative of the opinions of Mahalo.com, Inc.

I went into consulting after working as Lead Anchor and Managing Editor become Director of Netscape.com. I helped plan and launch the new Netscape.com while working for my pal, Jason Calacanis. I continued to manage the site after Jason left AOL, but in January 2007 decided that the site was well enough along to exist without me and that there were other opportunities out there more in line with my interests in writing, blogging, editing, and building new things.

I started working as a freelance blogger for AOL by chance when they bought Weblogs, Inc. in 2005. In early 2006, by choice, I took a full-time position with the company. I had to keep what my position was secret for several months, but thankfully it is public knowledge, and I can now talk about the fact that I helped launch a new powerful social news site. That being said, this is my personal blog. All the opinions, thoughts, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone and not in any way indicative of the opinions of either Weblogs, Inc., Netscape.com, AOL, or Mahalo.com, Inc.

…a blogger.

I’ve been blogging since some time in 1999. I’ve had several different blogs (some semi-popular, most not), including the now-retired 3650 and a 12-inch and the group-blogged my iPod blog. The majority of my current blogging is on the site you are currently reading, Sample the Web, and on The Unofficial Apple Weblog, where I am paid to blog about all things Apple. I also occasionally blog for TV Squad, Cinematical, and Download Squad. In the past, I have used numerous different blogging tools: Radio Userland, Manila, LiveJournal, Blogger, GreyMatter, and I even hand-rolled an early version of this site on my .mac space for a while by coding each new day into a template in pico. I recently switched over to WordPress and am enjoying it immensely. I am interested in both the technologies involved with blogging and the weblog format as an emergent space for communication, discussion, and interpretation.

…a published writer.

I recently authored my first book: PSP Hacks. One of my critical articles, “Life and Text as Spectacle: Sacrificial Repetitions in Duras’s The North China Lover,” was published in Literature Film Quarterly, I have contributed to several O’Reilly books, both as a freelance writer and as tech editor for iPod & iTunes Hacks, and from August 2004 until the summer of 2005, I was writing articles for AppleMatters.

My poem, “oldblackman,” was published in the 1996 edition of Sigma Tau Delta’s International Literary publication, The Rectangle and in Illinois State University’s 1997 edition of Druid’s Cave. In college, “Unspoken”, a short story and “life,” a poem were both published in the 1994 edition of The Arrowhead, Mississippi College’s literary magazine, and “The Argument,” another short story, appeared in the 1995 edition of The Arrowhead.

…a student.

I’ve been entrenched in Academia for all of my adult life. I recently abandoned working on my dissertation in English at Fordham University, deciding to take the Masters of Philosophy degree rather than prolonging my studies for a degree that it looks like will never be used in my current career path. My areas of concentration are twentieth century prose, critical theory, film studies, and biblical studies. I received my Masters in English from Illinois State University in 1998, after passing my Comprehensive Exams with Distinction and writing a thesis on E.E. Cummings’ currently out-of-print travelogue of Russia, EIMI. I double-majored in English and Art at Mississippi College, where I received a full academic scholarship, graduating in 1995.

…an educator.

I have taught a total of 18 college-level English courses, the most recent at Iona College in New Rochelle, where I was an Adjunct Professor of English during the 2004-05 school year. In the past, I have taught at both Fordham University and Illinois State University. I also worked full-time for Fordham University in the Department of Instructional Technology and Academic Computing as the Instructional Technologist in charge of the Faculty Technology Centers up until January 2006. In this capacity, I worked with professors to help facilitate the use of technology in an educational setting.

…an artist.

My mother is a painter, and, as a result, I have been doodling, sketching, painting, and sculpting my entire life. I took private art lessons growing up and one of my majors in college was fine art, where my studies were focused on drawing and sculpture. Soon I hope to have an ever-growing exhibit page of my artwork available on this site.

…a gamer.

…proud to be an American by birth (albeit ashamed of our current President).

…proud to be a Southerner by the grace of God.

…proud to have been a New Yorker by choice from January 2000-August 2007.