Among the hats I wear are author, editor, computer geek, cook, punster, amateur scientist, storyteller, dreamer, and Curator of Interesting Things. I like to think of myself as a generalist rather than a specialist. Since mid-2007, I’ve been living in Paris with my wife, Morgen Jahnke, and our cat, Zora. We’re expecting our first child together in June! My 17-year-old son, Ben, lives in southern California.
My Work
I make my living primarily writing books, ebooks, and articles about Macs and other high-tech subjects (with the occasional foray into unusual topics such as cooking Thanksgiving dinner). I serve as Senior Editor of TidBITS, the world’s second-longest-running internet publication, and Senior Contributor to Macworld. I’m also the instigator of Interesting Thing of the Day, which really will come back to life with new articles one of these days…as well a few other sites (all published under the auspices of “alt concepts”) that are now, for all practical purposes, defunct: SenseList, The Geeky Gourmet, and Truffles for Breakfast. In lieu of adding material to those sites, I’ll be writing lists, posts about food, and tales of life in Paris (among other things) right here on JoeKissell.com.
My Blog
My blog (“I Am Joe’s Blog”) was formerly found at alt.cc/jk (as well as at IAmJoesBlog.com). To simplify things, I’ve merged my blog with this site (importing all the existing posts and redirecting the old URLs to this domain), making JoeKissell.com the One True Home Page. In theory, I write here about anything of interest to me that doesn’t fit better on either Interesting Thing of the Day or TidBITS—although I’m typically busy all the time, so on occasion weeks or months may pass between posts. Sorry.
The blog’s name is a pun on I Am Joe’s Body, a book based on a series of articles in Reader’s Digest that described “Joe’s” (and “Jane’s”) anatomy from the viewpoint of anthropomorphic body parts (I am Joe’s heart, etc.). Shortly after my first book was published, Tonya Engst reviewed it in TidBITS and titled her review I Am Joe’s Book.
My Background
I was born in McKeesport, a small city in western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, and at various times before moving to France I lived in New York, Texas, Vancouver (British Columbia), and California. I have a B.A. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Linguistics, though during grad school my career took a surprising turn into the field of computers. I previously worked as software development manager at Kensington Technology Group and product manager at Nisus Software.
My Interests
It would be fair to say I’m interested in just about everything, but the activities to which I devote the most time include: talking and laughing with Morgen, going to movies, walking, drinking appalling amounts of really good coffee, cooking, traveling, and reading. I’m also (in theory, or historically) a practitioner of t’ai chi, though that’s become less of a priority in recent years.
I prefer Macs to PCs. I usually write in purple ink. When I grow up, I want to be a mad scientist. (I’m already halfway there.)
My Networks
I’m sorry to say I have little interest in social networking sites and rarely visit them. But, for what it’s worth, I do have pages at:
