In addition to the writing and editing I do at CL, I try to work on outside projects whenever I have the time. Since I haven’t run it down in a while, here’s a list of the stuff I’m currently using in the execution of, well, everything I’m doing professionally when I’m not drinking wine with the wife, hanging out with friends or trying to catch up on a little sleep.
COMPUTER: I’ve got two 13-inch MacBook Airs (circa 2012), one I bought to be my main machine while I was still working for a marketing company—with generous help from my wife and friends who pitched in with some gift cards for my birthday—and one corporate machine I inherited when I came back to the paper last year. I’ve gotten into doing more basic image optimization/manipulation, and the work laptop has InCopy and Photoshop on it, but both still run fast enough for my needs. There’s also an ancient (white, pre-Retina) iMac in my home office that I still use regularly when working in the paper’s CMS, doing research or using Google Docs.
PHONE: HTC One M7 (2013), the first year HTC went all-out and released this top-notch flagship with the brushed-metal chassis. I side-loaded the Google Now launcher, and keep it as close to stock Android as possible without rooting. There have been two new iterations, but mine’s still plenty fast. I’ll probably upgrade soon anyway, however, because A) I’m leaving my carrier of more than a decade, Sprint, because I’m dissatisfied with their coverage and B) The ONLY thing that sucks about this phone is the camera, and I’ve been needing to use my phone camera a lot more lately for work-related social media stuff, which has gotten me in the habit of using it for personal social media stuff (my Instagram account is, like, a month old). Plus, I’m toying with the idea of going bigger, to a Note or Nexus 6, so doing blog stuff without opening my laptop will be a little easier.
