Hey folks! You've met Richard and Jason, so let me round off JA's Content Team by introducing myself. You can find the rest of our Meet the Team posts here.
What's your role at Just About?
I'm a Content Manager, so I'm writing and awarding bounties, turning your excellent bounty submissions into curated content, and generally keeping an eye on our Communities and Spaces. Mostly, you'll see me in JA EVE, Nightingale, Film & TV, and Tech, although I get involved in all of them bar sport because I haven't exercised since 1997.
Why did you join JA, and where did you work before?
Before JA took me in, I was in the wild west of freelance writing and editing. That's given me a jack-of-all-trades knowledge of lots of industries, from topics I'm passionate about like politics, travel, and the environment to more esoteric ones like computational chemistry and the use of Bluetooth in theme parks. I've also done some narrative and dialogue writing for games, but mostly I've been in games journalism. My last long-term role before JA was as Chief Editor of the now largely defunct MMO Games website (it wasn't my doing, I swear). I joined Just About because I was looking for a new role where I could either be creative or help to build something positive; in JA I found both.
How did you get started in this industry?
Back in 2013, I was teaching English as a foreign language and writing journals and fiction on the side for fun. My then-90-year-old grandmother had lived a life of trailblazing travel, but was suffering with dementia. We decided to take her on one last adventure to Kenya, and I wrote an article about the trip. After some prodding from friends, I sent it into The Guardian who published it. That was my real 'I can do this' moment, and I've been chasing stories ever since.
What is your favourite game, film, TV show, book, and band?
Games: Horizon Zero Dawn, Mario Party 1-4, Bioshock, This War of Mine, Civilization, Darkest Dungeon
Films: In Bruges, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Into the Wild, Les Mis, Interstellar
TV Shows: Malcolm in the Middle, Firefly, The Sopranos, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Detectorists
Books: Siddhartha, Call of the Wild, Blood Meridian, The Magus, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Grapes of Wrath
Musicians: Bob Dylan, Jake Bugg, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jim Croce, Gerry Cinnamon, Blondie
If you could live anywhere in the world, where and why?
Thanks to my gallivanting grandmother and her four intrepid daughters, I've got travel in my bones. I've lived in Jordan, Vietnam, Germany, Turkey, and Argentina, and I'm trying my best to visit 100 countries before I'm 35. If I could live anywhere, it would be Japan, Nepal, or maybe back to Hanoi - that city still calls to me every day. The photo above is from a trip to Mongolia last year.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be an actor. I was even in a little Cornish film called Field of Fish playing a kid called Ian Scantleberry in the Witchy-Eye gang. Over time, I lost my confidence for being on stage, and now I just fulfil that part of myself through my dangerous addiction to Dungeons & Dragons.
Share a hobby you currently have.
I've never been particularly musically talented, but I've been learning to play the mandolin and harmonica since lockdown, and I'm loving it.
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