The Writers Workbench: Holiday Gift Edition

Every year in December since almost the beginning of time (if by "time" it is defined as beginning in 2011), I've been publishing my Holiday Gift list, based on tech products I've reviewed during the year.

Well, 'tis the season.  And this year, we actually got it published early enough in the month to make a difference for those people who actually might like to give tech as a holiday gift.  And the "we" that helped make it possible is Dexter Kim and Kristin Allen of the WGA who are the people stuck with the job of formatting my Writers Workbench to digital for the Writers Guild website.  They actually have other real jobs to do besides just this, so I much appreciate them pushing this up on the "to do" list and getting it posted a couple weeks earlier than its usual schedule is.

As I mention each month, after I then do the formatting myself of the column for the Huffington Post, it's just too convoluted to re-do it all for these pages here, so instead I provide a link.  And that means you can find the column here.

While I always suspect that there are people in the world who like to look at tech gift lists for the fun of seeing what's out there, I always wonder if anyone actual has bought something based on my annual column.  In my musing about this to Dexter, he surprised me saying that he actually bought one of my gift suggestions last year as a stocking stuffer for a family member!  And he was intrigued by one of the items on this year's list and might get that, as well.  So...hey, at least I know now that somebody has bought something from it.

I also know that earlier in the year, my friend Chris Dunn told me that he bought one of the items I reviewed, the Energizer Cup Inverter, and actually uses it and likes it.  (Whew...)  And yes, it made the Holiday Gift list.  This is a product you stick in your car's cup holder and plug it into your cigarette lighter.  This then lets you use a device that requires an AC plug in your car. It's particularly useful if you get caught during a power failure, but also if you're going to be on the road (literally) for a long time, you can plug your laptop in and work without fear of draining its power.  (You can also plug in USB devices, of course.)

Anyway, here again is the link to the column on the WGA website.  I'm using this rather than the Huffington Post for three reasons.  1) The WGA version includes bonus TWW Notes at the end, 2) the column is originally written for the Writers Guild website, and 3) I haven't published on the Huffington Post yet...