With the headmaster of Simakakata school. And a 3G laptop. Sums up my writing career so far. Pic by the lovely Brenda Veltman.
Hello there.
If you’ve not come across me before, I’m a 35 year old freelance journalist currently living on the narrow border between the West Country and civilisation with my wife, daughter and cat. Geographically, that puts me somewhere near Chippenham, a place so remote we don’t even have Google Street View yet.
In my day-to-day writing I cover most aspects of technology, from gadgets and PC hardware right through to hosted IP-PBX deployment in the enterprise space. If you don’t know what that means then frankly, I envy you.
Right now the majority of my work tends to head towards Stuff.tv, PC Gamer and Comms Dealer, but I also contribute on a regular basis to many other print and online outlets. Oh, and then there’s PC Format – a magazine I used to edit and still write many, many words for. Happy days. This year, I’ve also been cultivating a healthy CV in international development issues, including travelling as a reporter for an NGO and being shortlisted for the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition (the winner hasn’t yet been announced. These things have been well documented in the blog pages.
My first job in journalism was over a decade ago taken because I’d run out of cash to support plans to enter the theatre. Anyone who’s tried to live on a staff writer’s salary will understand what a misguided that notion was, but all the same, one struggles by. I used to write about games, but sacrificed all credibility there by playing World of Warcraft far too much. Nowadays I’m more likely to be found hanging around tradeshows like CES or explaining the latest developments in cluster computing than opining on gaming culture, but I like to think I haven’t completely lost touch…
If you want to know more, there’s a more-or-less full CV here.
I’m a big fan of Linux, and currently run Ubuntu 8.10 on my main desktop, with the Jaunty 9.04 Alpha on an EeePC 901. I used to edit a digital camera magazine back before everyone had one, and still enjoy the occasional sojourn with my now-aging Nikon D70, and – as I never tire of telling people, usually in a last ditch attempt to sound cool – my degree was in English and Drama. The latter, as described above, I tried to turn into a career for a while. Lots of creative stuff happened, and is slowly starting to happen again. One of the many reasons for finally getting around to starting a blog.
I try not to work on Tuesdays. That’s because I like to take my daughter to a local sing-a-long class for toddlers. The emphasis here is on ‘try’, although I think the organiser may kick me out if I sit at the back with a laptop. Again.
- Adam Oxford (96)
