Having a job at the Federal Government of Canada has its perks. Decent wage, somewhat stable (minus the string of term positions I have been given), medical/dental benefits, interesting enough work; but most importantly for me, it isn’t a job that I bring home at night and it allows me to enjoy some of the things in life that I like best. Leaving work at 4:30 with a clear mind gives me time to work out, play on a mens volleyball team, plan my upcoming wedding, look for houses to buy, spend quality time with my fiance, and more recently, try my hand at a bit of writing. I have been posting every once and a while on this blog since August 2010. It has been inconsistent I know, but I try to get something out at least once a month. I found I was writing quite a bit about sports, and I thought it was getting a bit cluttered. To fix that problem and to get a few more people involved, I started up a collaborative sports blog, First Off The Bench, just a few weeks ago. My youngest brother and three other friends have been contributing articles, and in 15 days we have accumulated over 1,000 hits. It is better than we were expecting to say the least. On top of that, I wanted to try my hand at some semi-professional writing. I had read a few blogs and threads about a career as a journalist and the contributors did a great job of scaring me out of that idea. I will stick to my office job by day and try my hand at writing in the evenings and weekend, thank you. The one thing I did get out of the blogs and threads, other than pity for all journalists, was the motivation to try freelance writing. The bloggers said that no experience was needed and no editors ever really asked for educational credentials. Good to know, as I had neither. I had a few ideas for articles, so I emailed the editor at SEE Magazine in Edmonton and ran them by her. My friends from high school, Jon and Sean are running a site called Balcony TV Edmonton, that profiles local bands and musicians performing on Jon’s downtown balcony. They had asked me if I could blog about it, but I thought a print article would be better. And I guess so did the guys at SEE. Check out my first article on the SEE Magazine website here or pick up a copy of the Feb 10, 2011 SEE Magazine somewhere around Edmonton. The photo creds go to my lovely fiance. Thanks babe!!