I had about 12 hours from interviewing Evan Gregory from the group to having to send the piece into my editor. A bit nerve-wracking since I haven’t written anything since July but it went exceptional well.

Recent months have seen a ramping up of my writing activities, something I’m happy to see joining my photos in various outlets, or even standing on its own.

My lack of distinction between a busy, underpaid freelancer and a semi-busy, way underpaid general assignment reporter was exactly what got me the interview.

Too often I find that no matter how I try to shape a story, or what I want to include, it forms organically and something good gets lost in the mix.

Shooting video is something I’m trying to make a routine part of going out on assignment, even if I’m just supposed to be taking photos or writing a short article.

And look Dave, more underpaid writing opportunities!

I wanted to survive on freelancing, even if it meant only eating rice and hot sauce and creating a permanent ass imprint on my couch.

That’s when I became a sweatshop worker.

In his gym shorts and Army shirt, Sinh Tho Nguyen appeared out of place in the front row of a veteran’s memorial ceremony. But, sitting among dozens of servicemen and veterans in uniform, with various buttons pinned neatly to their caps, Sinh was the guest of honor…

The Atlantic just came out with an epic piece of multimedia journalism. Nadya Labi profiles Gus Zamora, an ex-army ranger who hires himself out to go grab kids who were illegally snatched and taken out of the country by one parent. Nadya follows Gus down to Costa Rica to observe the “rekidnapping” of kid number 55 and is actually in the car the child is recovered. Nadya gets the audio of the rekidnapping and takes photos just moments after the reunion. Partially because of the story matter but also because of her story telling, my heart was pounding while I read the article. Wow wow wow. Inspiration in word, audio and photo form. Read it here.

Got some extra time? Like to write? I just heard about a few opportunities for all you bloggers out there, which could help you gain experience and exposure while you’re in between jobs, freelancing or trying to figure out what to do with yourself.

Change.org is hiring full-time bloggers to write about social causes from human rights to environmental issues to social entrepreneurship. Best of all, positions are paid and your posts would be viewed by over a million users. Check out the ad here.

MediaBistro also recently launched a user-generated blog “We the ‘Bistro” which allows any one to submit posts via email to a large audience of fellow media professionals. You can submit photos, video or anything relevant to media workers. I just sent in an old Meridian post to the email address post@mediabistro.posterous.com just to get my name out there and see how it works.

I hope to open up Meridian in a similar fashion so that readers can email posts containing their work or musings on issues facing young