About Winston
It’s a little embarrassing, in 2009, to be admitting that I’m only JUST NOW setting up a blog. For the last couple of years or so, the die-hard print journalist in me sneered at blogs as unpaid writing. Why would I do that, I reasoned, when I should be spending that time doing a better job at the writing I’m moderately compensated to do?
I was wrong, it turns out. There’s value in blogging as a supplement to the reporting I do at The Register-Guard and occasionally for Newsweek.
But to be perfectly honest, I set this page up mostly as a marketing tool, at this point. I’m on a job search, not because anything’s wrong but because I think it’s time to explore some new pastures and broaden my experience. Please ignore the chaff that follows this post and focus on the categories and pages on the right-hand side.
The second reason I started this blog is because I have an idea for a new beat at newspapers, magazines or web sites that focus on news and analysis: social networking. There’s clearly no shortage of experts in this field who routinely chronicle the various trends and stats and battles between Twitter and Facebook and the ever-diminishing Myspace. But there are still millions of us who want to understand why we should care, why these web sites are anything more than a time suck for teenagers. I have a ton of story ideas in this category and I’m working on a piece right now for Newsweek on Craigslist. I will keep this stuff posted in the “social networking” category, in case you want to check back from time to time.
Thanks for checking me out. You can email me if you have any burning questions.
Or, follow me on Twitter at whinstuhn. Just keep your expectations low.
CARROLL SCHUELER said
I enjoyed your essay re your brother … food for thought for me. I am 81 years old and spend probably too much time on the net.
Wawan said
yeah, like carroll, i do enjoy your article on your brother’s “untreated” addiction. what’s the latest news about him? did you tell him about your article?
winstonross said
Not much has changed. He read the story and thought it was fine, he said. I talked to him about treatment at length, and he’s not interested. So it goes….
mumsview said
Thanks for your article. My 17 yo son is starting to sleep rough,and try and find net access / cash for net cafe’s at homeless shelters, rather than come home where I have stopped access. The mental health system in Australia has yet to come to grips with the impact so I cant find anyone who is prepare to try and engage him to try and recover. I love him to bits, and hes always welcome home, but hes stuggling to find himself in the addiction and cant face me.
Keep writing, its so important clinicians see the adult affects of internet addiction, as they keep saying its just a teenager being a computer nerd. The mental health worker said i needed to ‘pull back’ and let him be himself. But my son then sat for 16 hours straight gaming and didnt eat. If undisturbed and has been known to urinate in his chair.
But no one takes this seriously, and parents blame themselves.
When he was in primary school was told by teachers to give him unlimited access to a computer as he was dyslexic. Now we realise its developmental issues made him more vulnerable to addiction. Thanks Tracey
Kelli said
Hello Winston!
We just wanted to thank you for coming to our hot yoga studio yesterday- you did a wonderful job! If you are part of Facebook, we’d like to invite you to friend us if you are so inclined. You can find us at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/ZenSpot as well as follow us on Twitter at ZenSpotMBS.
Namaste!
Kelli & Michael
ZenSpot, Inc.
Bernie Valcourt said
First time writer (blogger) here. First time reader of an article by you. I was fascinated by your piece on the washed up feet in your waterways so I put on, for the first time, my Agatha Christie head-wear.
This is the sceeniero I see as possible, only possible.
There are numerous suicides by jumping off bridges in that area.
There is a soul there who feels quite grief-stricken that people reach that point in their lives. This person does not want to be ID’d and wants to stay in the back-ground but also feels the pains of the victim’s families. The person has taken upon himself to watch for “jumpers” – in an area that does not have any witnesses and when spotted, the person will somehow retrieve the body. The person’s motovation is to bring a sort of closure to the family as to what has happened to their family member. The person has found a way to extract the bottom of a leg or legs, that would show that no foul-play has been done to the passed away person. It would show that the victim actually did drown. The legs are put back in the waterway as they will float for a time because of the footwear and be discovered by someone. The remaining part of the body is left in the river to decompose hopefully — or maybe be used for other purposes, hopefully not. The person has the good feeling that he has helped the family, that they have some sort of closure. The person remains a secretive person. The person can read about the results of his enddevours to do good in the newpapers and he feels better.
Just thinking.
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