Work: Journalism

Profile
Attention spans are shrinking. If you want readers, you need to be quick, clear, and precise. I craft sharp, compelling copy to nab readers before they flitter off.

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I’ve been a professional writer for more than a decade. I’ve written for newspapers, magazines, blogs and leading tech companies and retailers. I also produce videos. I specialize in case studies, success stories, website marketing copy and promotional videos. I’m also well-versed in SEO optimization and marketing strategy. My clients include Apple, FileMaker, Logitech, Digidesign and B+H Photo. I’m available for full-time or freelance work. My resume can be downloaded here: http://www.dustindriver.com/downloads/driver_resume.pdf

A snoring man can reach 85 decibels, making as much racket as a vacuum cleaner or a blender mashing margaritas. Sleepwalkers have been known to cook and eat full meals and even have sex during sleep. Narcoleptics can nod off at any time — during conversations, meals and while operating heavy machinery. Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare brain-wasting disease, throws people into a fit of wakefulness that eventually kills them.

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The allure of a safari through the Serengeti or a trek up Kilimanjaro may inspire you to strike out for the heart of Africa, but before you make like Hemingway, there are a few things you should know. The huge continent is teeming with bug-borne, water-borne and human-borne diseases. Malaria poses one of the greatest threats to travelers, but yellow fever, cryptosporidiosis and African sleeping sickness are real dangers as well.

They started on the track, rocketing around velodromes at high velocity; then the bike messengers snatched them up, looking for light, fast, uber-reliable bikes that could withstand hellish urban war zones; then the hipsters caught wind, drawn to their clean lines and vintage looks. Now you want in on the action, and you’re eying your first fixed-gear bike.

Infants learn the rhythm and tone of their native language before they’re born. In fact, newborns from different countries have different cries. My mom brought me home in a 1970 Austin America. I can’t consciously remember it, but it burned an obsession with tiny, quirky hatchbacks into the synapses of my brain.

The Delta Wing Racer Indy car concept soared into the Chicago Auto Show this week riding currents of outrage rising off Indy Car racing fans. It’s been called heretical, toy-like, Batmobile, and just plain ugly. But I think it’s amazing. Here’s why:

1. It looks like a spaceship.

I’ve been waiting for a chance to fly a Wipeout-style antigravity racer since the ’90s and the Delta Wing is probably as close as I’m gonna get. And those spectacular spaceship looks serve a purpose. The thing is designed like an aircraft for extremely low drag and tons of downforce just where you need it. See how the back end is shaped like the space shuttle? That puts maximum downforce on the middle of the car, providing supreme stability at speed. The shape is so slippery and stable it can conceivably hit 236 miles per hour at Indianapolis Speedway.

Photo by Dustin Driver

Published in Solano Magazine

The night air is thick with heat and the sweet smell of fried beaver tails, a Quebecois confection of fried dough known as queue de castor. The St. Laurent River is alive with light, its waters reflecting the nonstop nightlife of Old Montreal. The narrow cobblestone streets teem with people-street performers, musicians belting out jazz, and locals drinking at sidewalk cafés. There are children, college students, clowns, old men with accordions, jugglers, sketch artists and street vendors. Smiles, snickers and laughter are everywhere. This is summer in a city that’s buried under snow for half the year. This is a celebration that will last until autumn, a kind of subdued, down-home revelry that only the Quebecois can pull off. Continue reading →

Published in Solano Magazine

Dating is difficult. Sure, you can peruse the magazine rack at Borders, hoping to strike up a conversation about the latest issue of “GQ” or “Nintendo Power.” Or maybe mill about in the produce department squeezing fruit until an attractive person asks you about tangelo ripeness. You could do those things, but they’re not likely to land you a date. You’ve got to be proactive. You’ve got to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and dating services. Or at least you had to—until now. Today I’ve done it for you, endured three types of assisted courtship: speed dating, professional matchmaking and online dating. Admittedly, I haven’t conducted an exhaustive study of each, but I’ve done enough to help you decide which service is for you. Continue reading →

Photo by Dustin Driver

Published in Solano Magazine

It is dizzyingly hot. The sharp smell of new clothes, perfumes, rubber and strange food marry to form an intoxicating fume that hangs in the air like fog. Bangkok’s Chatuchuk weekend market is a vast labyrinth of more than 15,000 cell-like stalls. It buzzes with the combined voices of more than 200,000 shoppers. Their eyes scour the endless shops for bargains. Their hands tear through mountains of T-shirts, racks of knock-off jeans, piles of watches, lacquered dishes, rice-paper lamps, cell phones, compact disk players, everything imaginable. Merchants scream at the crowds through megaphones at a speed and pitch that makes me wonder if even the Thais can understand them. Food vendors deep fry, sauté, boil, peel and serve everything from cocoanuts to noodles to grasshoppers. The insanity sprawls across 35 acres of land. More than $750,000 will change hands in just under two days of operation. The Chatuchuk Market is the largest of its kind in the world, humanity’s best impression of a beehive. Continue reading →