• Hello. Again.

    Macintosh Plus In the early 1990s, there was a contest called “Apples for the Students.” Kids would collect receipts from a local grocery store and if those receipts totaled a certain dollar amount, the store would donate a new Macintosh to their school. Back then, buying such a computer cost nearly $2,000, and where I lived, most schools — or parents — couldn’t afford that.

    Well, the contest was a success. A dozen or so machines were donated to my high school’s “computer lab,” and three went to the student newspaper. It was on those computers that I learned how to write a news story, how to scan and crop photos and how to design a newspaper’s layout. Working on those computers in journalism class also helped me to land my first internship, then a job at a local newspaper. And that experience led to other jobs reporting at local newspapers in Florida, Mississippi and California.

    Apple iMac G3 blueIt would be nearly a decade before my best friend Amy and I were able to join forces to buy my very first home computer, an iMac G3 blue. I wrote the first issue of Inscriptions Magazine on it as well as dozens of stories and poems. It was a real workhorse.

    My next desktop was a gray Power Mac G4. Then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs was all about making the company’s computers more futuristic-looking and this one certainly fit the bill. By the time I obtained it, my career had advanced to the point where I was working in the media at the national level.

    Apple iBook G3 gray clamshellA few years later, I was able to afford my first laptop, an iBook G3 gray clamshell. I worked on it so much and for so long that the lettering on the keyboard disappeared. Eventually I was able to upgrade to a silver MacBook Pro laptop — the 17-inch model because I was doing a lot of layout and photo work (and because my eyesight was starting to weaken as I aged).

    Macbook ProIn the 2010s, I received a 13-inch MacBook Pro for Christmas that I mostly used while traveling, though I continued to bang away on the larger laptop at home for my day-to-day work until it finally died. Next, I bought an iMac desktop with a 27-inch screen, which I still use to this day. His name is MacDubh. Although he’s starting to struggle in “old” age, he recently helped me land a new job.

    Starting tomorrow, I’ll be working as a contract overnight editor at… Apple News (via PRO Unlimited). For the next year, I’ll be curating local news stories in 14 different markets. Which means when you wake up in the morning and open the Apple News app on your phone, you’ll probably read stories that I suggested.

    From a computer contest to a contracting gig in 30 years — that’s what I call going full circle.

  • Good news logo

    Always look on the bright side…

    The media, understandably, tends to focus on the difficulties the residents of this planet face, so it’s easy to forget that there are good things happening as well.

    But, if you’d like to read some positive/uplifting stories, consider subscribing to A Bit of Good News.

  • In Memoriam: A Look Back At Many Of The People We Lost in 2022

    hourglass.jpgSome people view obituaries as morbid, but in truth only one line in these stories deals with death. The rest of an obit focuses on the amazing lives people led.

    In 2022, these obituaries featured people whose lives — and deaths — most affected me:

    * Sidney Poitier, Oscar-winning actor

    * Bob Saget, comedian

    * Meat Loaf, singer

    * Howard Hesseman, actor

    * Ivan Reitman, director

    * P.J. O’Rourke, satirist

    * Ned Eisenberg, actor

    * Emilio Delgado, “Sesame Street” star

    * Madeleine Albright, first female secretary of state

    * Dagny Carlsson, world’s oldest blogger

    * Gerda Weissmann Klein, Holocaust survivor

    * Joanna Barnes, actress and novelist

    * Collarwali, tiger

    * Elaine Brumberg, fairy godmother of bowling

    * Colin Cantwell, designer of the Death Star

    * Ray Liotta, actor

    * Ann Turner Cook, Gerber baby

    * Betty Rowland, burlesque queen

    * Woody Williams, last remaining WWII Medal of Honor recipient

    * Charlie Milan, candlepin bowler

    * Muriel Engelman, WWII nurse

    * Dr. Randall E. McNally, plastic surgeon

    * Raymond Allen Murray Jr., one of the nation’s first Black marines

    * Nichelle Nichols, “Star Trek” star

    * Roger E. Mosley, “Magnum PI” star

    * David McCullough, historian

    * Olivia Newton-John, “Grease” star and pop singer

    * Marty Martin, snake expert

    * Janice Bluestein Longone, cookbook collector

    * Roland Mesnier, White House pastry chef

    * Anne Garrels, war correspondent

    * Queen Elizabeth II, British monarch

    * Al Siegal, editor

    * Ilse Nathan and Ruth Siegler, Holocaust survivors and sisters

    * Nancy Hiller, woodworker

    * Loretta Lynn, country music legend

    * Patricia Marvin, Butterball Turkey Talk-Line operator

    * Angela Lansbury, actress

    * Mehran Karimi, the Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and loosely inspired the film “The Terminal”

    * Allen Kay, ad exec

    * Bob McGrath, “Sesame Street” star

    * Dorothy Pitman Hughes, pioneering feminist

    * Don Christopher, Garlic King

    * Frances Hesselbein, Girl Scout leader

    * Ali Ahmed Aslam, credited with inventing chicken tikka masala

    * Dave Whitlock, fly-fisherman

    * Barbara Walters, pioneering journalist

  • Quote of the day

    “Buy more books. Read more books. Give more books as presents. Get more books from the library. More books is always a good thing.” –Gabino Iglesias

  • 2022: The Year In Review

    Each December, I always take the time to examine the ups and downs I experienced over the past year. What follows is my personal and professional review of 2022. I:

    * Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the global coronavirus pandemic, the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 2022 election cycle, the fall of Roe v. Wade and the transformation of U.S. women into second-class citizens, the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the rise and fall of British Prime Minister Liz Truss, the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Hurricane Ian, numerous mass shootings, outbreaks of the bird flu, monkeypox, polio and the return of influenza and many celebrity deaths.

    * Promoted to deputy editor at HuffPost.

    * Relaunched A Bit Of Good News.

    * Penned at least 20 journal entries. Must do better next year.

    * Sort of maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.

    * Read 61 books and completed the 2022 GoodReads reading challenge

    * Read numerous magazines, including Cook’s Country, Cooks Illustrated, Bake From Scratch, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, The Saturday Evening Post, The Writer and TeaTime Magazine.

    * Watched at least 73 TV shows and 64 movies and listened to many podcasts.

    * Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild, the Writers Guild of America East and the Silent Book Club, Manchester, NH chapter.

    * Made 10 bottles of vanilla.

    * Planted a large container garden, three bushes and a tree.

    * Spent months searching for our next home. Alas, between the rising interest rates, the lack of available housing stock and the increase in prices, we had no luck. The search continues.

    * Mourned the death of my friend, author/editor Bev Walton-Porter.

    * Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.

    * Had our cat Pepper fixed.

    * Continued to wear these damn braces.

    * Decorated the front and inside of our house for Halloween and dressed up as a handmaiden.

    * Decorated the front and inside of our house for Christmas and mailed more than 35 Christmas cards.

    * Tried many recipes. New favorites include: Sheet pan buttermilk pancakes, fried banana bread bites, a new version of pumpkin pie, mini caprese salad bites, cranberry cream tart, spritz cookies and Richard Sax’s cloud cake.

    * Wrestled with perimenopause, in all its hot-flash glory. A winner has not yet been determined.

    * Suffered from at least 20 migraines and lost 44 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 52 hours. Began using a Cefaly treatment, which surprisingly, helped.

    * Worked my 32nd year as a journalist.

    * Celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.

    * Turned 49.

     


    End of the year

     

    Goals for 2023

    * Purchase a new home with several acres of land.

    * Improve my baking/cooking skills.

    * Work on my fiction.

    * Read at least 50 books.

    * Sleep at least 7 hours a night.

    * Win the lottery.

    * Focus more on thriving rather than just surviving.