Recent writing: Jack Black’s YouTube, Black Mirror, tech+health and purging, comic’s return and more

“He’s blogging again? I thought blogging was dead.”

One of the predictions I made for myself toward the tail end of 2018 was that as the year wound down, things were going to get really quiet and really slow.

This was going to be my first holiday without a full-time job since… before college? Wow. That’s weird to even wrap my brain around.

I’ve been extremely lucky with freelance assignments and my ongoing gig on the radio thanks to Texas Mutual, but around October, it wasn’t certain that my contract for that work would be renewed for another year and how busy I’d be in November and December. I figured things would slow down to the point of worry; that I’d be stressed about money going into that shopping season and that everybody would stop answering their emails and I’d be left with an extended, unproductive hiatus.

That really didn’t happen. My contract was re-upped for another year of Tech Minutes, so I was working on scripts for that through the holidays. I’m still doing weekly segments for “Texas Standard.” And I’ve found a really nice home for weird, pop-culture article ideas on Book + Film Globe, thanks to the wonderful writer-turned-benevolent-editor Neal Pollack.

I also got involved in a few others things I’ll list below. This was a very different holiday season than years past, and with all the shifts and changes, it was nice to have some steady work going, but not be so swamped that I couldn’t take some time off to enjoy a little travel, our first real Christmas tree ever (I really gotta recycle this thing soon), and to catch up on some movies and books.

It was just last week I was saying how grateful I’ve been for how things are going and I keep feeling the need to reiterate it. It’s only because of the people who care about me and those who’ve been kind enough to keep me writing and making stuff that I’m able to sit here comfortably on a January afternoon and say that things are just fine, great, in fact.

So here’s what I’ve been working on that’s out in the world already:

I’m probably having the most fun doing stuff for Book + Film, where I’ve recently gotten to geek out about the most recent season (22!) of South Park, advocate for a forgiving re-watch (but only in 3-D!) of “Avatar” and break down the highly anticipated choose-your-own-adventure episode of Black Mirror, “Bandersnatch.” I liked it OK, I think? Or maybe not? I had mixed feelings about that whole thing.

Originally, the idea with Book + Film for me was just to do the occasional movie or book review, but given that I don’t go to the movies that often, it’s been refreshing to be able to write stuff about TV and other things that don’t quite fit neatly in a box. My most recent article is a review of Jack Black’s new video-gaming YouTube channel, Jablinksi Games, and I got to have a lot of fun with it. And bonus: free curse words! I feel so giddy and unrestrained!

Right before Christmas, the Statesman / 512tech ran a piece I wrote on holiday tech purging. You could also use it for post-holidays spring cleaning. This is one of those articles that has a little do as I say, not as I do.  I don’t always follow my own rules for eliminating clutter, but I swear I am trying to sell/donate/trash as much old technology as I can. I feel like it would be a lot easier if Marie Kondo would just come to my house and do it for me.

I’m still doing more pieces for the newspaper; a family column about taking my kids to see Paul McCartney in concert is running this Sunday (update: it’s been posted online!) and I have another one about what to do with digital family photos publishing sometime in the future.

Speaking of newspapers, I was quoted in a New York Times piece about the changing tech culture of Austin. It dovetails nicely with something else I’m working on, so I had already been thinking a lot about what we lose in a city this size when housing prices soar and it gets too expensive for a lot of people to stay.

On the “Texas Standard” radio show I recently talked about cryptocurrency regulation, whether Alexa or Google Assistant is better, how to save money online when you shop, more on year-end tech purging and what predictions I have for 2019’s tech world. This week, I did a thing about what’s new and weird at CES, the big electronics trade show.

I really should be wearing a costume for these things.

Also wearing the Omarstradamus seer headdress, I appeared on the TWiT TV’s Tech News Weekly to discuss what I expect for 2019. Two words: Folding phones! It’s gonna happen!

The other very cool development was that my brother Pablo and I revived our long-in-hiatus comic “Space Monkeys!” for a couple of new strips.

You can find our meditation on the word “Swole” here and a special Christmas comic over here. And we have a brand new one about Netflix and “Bird Box!” We’re having fun with it, so we will probably keep doing more.

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope you’re doing just fine and making some time to enjoy your life.