My decade in review – Going global, falling hard and a personal redemption
A lot of bloggers are just listing their favourite films, gadgets and games of the decade to round off the 2010s. Instead, let's take a different route.
For those who are curious about the above – film of the decade is A Quiet Place, game of the decade is a toss-up between Reigns: Game of Thrones and The Last Of Us (for very different reasons), and gadget of the year for sure has to be the iPhone 4 (it defined a decade of smartphone design).
What I’d prefer to do now is take a look back at what has been an immeasurably impactful ten years of my life and New Rising Media. They have been so inter-twined that it many of my proudest moments have come to fruition because of it.
Yes, I have been quiet on the blog recently, as my life has been consumed by a 2019 following my dream of being a fully-fledged tech journalist.
This pause has given me time to reassess and rebuild my expectations for this place going forward. But to do that, you have to look back and reflect on what has happened.
DISCLAIMER: to anyone reading this who personally knows me, all of these favourite moments of mine throughout the decade fall firmly in the professional side of my life. If these were to include personal ones, of course there are many more to discuss (meeting Laura and managing to not blow it instantly with some corny line, meeting my nephew for the first time, etc).
Setting the site live
I’ve told this story from several different angles over different anniversary pieces, so should come as no surprise that I bought the URL for newrisingmedia.com way back on 22nd September 2011 – jumping on writing about the iPhone 4S launch.
I had been blogging as NRM on tumblr for a while leading up to this moment, as part of a uni project. But this was my vision and I didn’t want to give it up.
Thus, I built my home online and have resided here for a while since. I’ve had a few big moments, but none quite as emotionally big for me as clicking “buy” on the URL.
An interview with Marc Laidlaw – writer of Half-Life
This almost didn’t happen. It was a product of nearly six months of bugging Marc and his team, so for that, if you’re reading this, I can’t apologise enough.
But one of the games that made the biggest impact on my life was Half-Life, and I wanted nothing more than to sit down with the genius who wrote it and get geeky with him.
And in November 2012, I got that opportunity. Read my interview with him here.
At that point, I was happy. NRM could have been shut down the next day and I still would’ve been overjoyed at the fact I got to speak to one of my heroes.
However, there was a certain question... One where I ask him who would make a good Half-Life film, to which he listed directors like Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro, that was picked up by the world’s press.
An interview with Jack Olesker – writer of Power Rangers
Almost as if this year of huge advancements in my dream refused to let up, just one month after I got the chance to interview the write of one of my favourite childhood programs.
Check out my interview with Jack Olesker here.
Again, my main takeaway was the sheer bliss of being able to look into this man’s mind and see how he came up with the magic he created. I went to bed happy, but that changed quickly...
I was tucking into a BLT at work from the cafeteria downstairs, checking my emails and doing blog work (because what even is free time?), and I came across a legal notice from Jack and his team of LA lawyers.
Overnight, a reader had posted a comment accusing Jack of not being the writer of Power Rangers (something which under current media law and common sense, I’m not legally responsible for the comments of another person – YouTube would go bankrupt in seconds if this law changed for example). But Jack didn’t get the message as I received my first attempted lawsuit against me.
Truth be told, I’m not sure what he was expecting New Rising Media to be. He may have expected an office with a couple of people – not some guy who almost exclusively posted content in pyjamas in bed. But as one journalism lecturer said to me “if you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not doing your job well.”
It was a big lesson for me in media law and maintaining integrity in the face of scare tactics. Something that would come to be very useful to me over a fair few different moments.
Off to CES Las Vegas I go
In the years running up to 2017, CES was just this show that I’d watch livestreams of late at night, seeing what the future of technology looked like.
Much to the annoyance of my partners over the years, they kept me up well past 2am on certain nights. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get the opportunity to go along.
...you already know where this is going. One of the biggest moments of my short life on this planet so far. I was invited to go, travel and accommodation paid for, all because of the work I had put into the site.
All those sleepless nights and hours spent writing, filming, recording and networking had paid off in what was a culmination of six years work.
You can take a look at all the coverage I did of CES 2017 here.
The freelance dream begins
As I’ve been knocking on the door of nerd journalism for a while now, it goes without saying that I’ve applied to many many jobs in this field.
Out of these, I’ve been massively lucky to get a couple of interviews – both of which are shot down for a key reason. I don’t live in London.
Luckily, to gain experience outside of this, I’ve been very proud of my portfolio of freelance work created so far. Pieces for Kotaku, BBC Science Focus and Stuff Magazine – including an investigative piece into the world of gamer energy supplements.
My work for Stuff continues to this very day (including a trip abroad to Norway to review Battlefield V, with a couple more ideas I’m exploring along the way for other potential articles. All of it was going well until...
Then I went into therapy...
There’s one thing I haven’t really address through this piece so far. All of the above was done while also balancing the commitment of a full-time job alongside it.
When I was younger and living at home, this was easy enough to do. Just head downstairs, grab another coffee and carry on.
But as I’ve grown up, hitting the final years of my 20s, responsibilities expand to taking care of me and Laura, taking care of the place we live, and that selfishness of always striving to improve my site has given way to a simpler mission – leave this place a bit better than when I found it.
With more elements consuming my time, paired with that same hunger to drive things forward (and a toxic job at the time), looking back, I can see why it was just a matter of time until something imploded.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has immeasurably helped me break down those barriers of seeing myself as “weak” when things do not go my way. It helped me compartmentalise the time spent on NRM and admit that maybe my life is not defined by the work I do.
As my girlfriend kept saying for years until I finally got it – you work to live, never live to work.
To the next decade and beyond
What started small, turned into a passion project that I will fully admit I placed higher on my priority list than my wellbeing, my love for others and my own health.
It became an obsession, and much like any drug, I felt personally in pain if I did not commit most of my time to it.
But with that said, I’m turning 30 soon. My life. My personality. My reason for being is not defined by a blog anymore.
And now, with New Rising Media not defining who I am, I feel far less pressure to commit every waking breath of my time to my hobby – meaning I should be able to enjoy it more.
Regular blogs and streams will return in January 2020.
