Name Change

I had to change the name of the blog.

It's not that I didn't like the name "The Mid-Twenties," but I'm getting older. That's right: I turn 27 in three months so instead of just changing the name to "The Late-Twenties", I went for something that I felt encompassed what this blog is all about.

See, I first started this blog in 2007 when I moved to California. I've used the site to write about my adventures, to put unpublished stories up somewhere, and to advertise my published articles.

As I moved to San Francisco, Loma Mar, back to Michigan for a while, New York City, Accra (Ghana), back to NYC, and now rural New Jersey, one thing has remained constant: I'm a boy from Michigan exploring this great planet of ours. My moves have never been very calculated, so to say I'm "wandering" about sums it up.

Thank you to everyone who read my stories when I first started "The Mid-Twenties are a Bitch" (I realized that name was a bit sexist) and followed me when I changed it to "The Mid-Twenties [in Africa]." I hope you keep reading!

CNN iReport: Part 2

Well, it turns out that CNN iReport works out pretty well.

After publishing my article a few nights ago, I got a call from CNN that they wanted to use my story. I just had to answer a few questions and emails. Then they put a nifty CNN iReport badge on it.

I wasn't sure to think about all this, and I was a bit upset that CNN ruined my chance to hang out with my friends in the Comic Book League. That was until I checked how my story was doing today that night.

Then came the real shocker: It was over 2,000 views!

I'm not really sure how many people have read my articles in the past, but this had to be some kind of record. As the day went on, more and more people were reading the story and then CNN.com put it on the homepage. I was ecstatic.

The only real downside was a few negative comments about my figures used. So, I just went into the comment section myself and explained all my sources.

Then, the comments started getting a bit racist. Some moron wrote this:

"Current Americans of African ancestry fail to realize how good they have it in the USA."

Of course, then the rest of the comments just ended up battling that one dumb thing. Oh well, I guess this was my first chance to write for a huge website, besides the Daily News, and this comes with the territory.

As the day went on, the amount of views reached over 10,000. I was in shock.

To make things better, I got a call from a paper in New Jersey that they were hiring me as a full-time reporter. They had no idea that I had the story on CNN, but it was more of just icing on the cake for a really great day.

As of this moment, the CNN story is at 12,828 views and has been shared 17 times. God bless getting the job in Ghana and having an editor catch my story on iReport. What a day.

CNN iReport: Elmina Castle

I recently heard about this thing CNN was doing called "iReport" where everyday people - not just those with a master's in journalism - could upload stories.

I think it is very smart of CNN to do this. They get sources easy, a few scoops, and maybe even a good story. Of course, it sucks for actual reporters because they don't get paid and CNN gets a free story. But, like an unpaid internship, you get paid in clips.

So, while I apply for jobs and sit on a few stories that might never get published, I threw this Elmina Castle story on there: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-378837

Still not sure if it was worth it, but I think it is a good travel story and worth a read.