too long at the crossroads... time to decide!

despite several attempts to continue blogging i've never really got down to seriously doing it. i admit though that i do have a lot to share. somehow 'procrastination and priorities' have slowly become my worst enemies. no more, i say, it's now or never... lest my visit here becomes nothing more than a mere ritual as i journey into nothingness...

a random thought...2 years later

been thinking of reviving my blog..can't quite decide when or how to do that..yet. but fingers are itching to continue where i'd left off in beautiful stockholm. important decision to make, especially if i'm gonna be travelling more often from now on.

well, let's see where this leads me...

online publishing world

check this out - intelligence reports on the latest developments in the online publishing world. very informative and insightful with heaps of relevant and current information. tried to upload a screenshot of the site but failed miserably, still trying...

sveriges tv, radio tour

well, well, well... we're really lucky i must say, the sun is still out. this morning george strachal took us for a tour of sveriges television (swedish tv)... and we'll be off to sveriges radio shortly. learnt some interesting facts about how the station functions, etc... and although my work is solely online publishing, a guided tour of a tv station was enlightening and i look forward to the radio experience.

the bad, and the better sites

won't claim these are the worst and best sites i've come across in the course of my work. fair to say that these are categorised as bad and good based on a brief tour of the site mainly focusing on layout, colour scheme and the usefulness of the contents/links therein.

bad sites:

suaram > belongs to a kuala lumpur-based human rights movement. the main theme colour - a bright lime (or is it apple?) green - is simply off the charts... i need to wear shades! it used to be red and yellow-green on the previous site. it is basically functional and informative but feels rather cluttered and scattered.

information ministry > malaysia's official information, more like state propaganda, channel... but that's another story. no content in content, which to me is ridiculous given it's role and function of disseminating ALL government information not just for the home audience but also international. is minimally interactive with lots of blank space and the layout is old-fashioned, has a sort of sluggish feel to it when surfing.

good sites:

malaysia central > pretty good and very useful site. a bilingual (bahasa malaysia and english) one-stop gateway to thousands of malaysians sites. although the homepage - a box overflowing with links - is nothing to shout about, it's a joy once you're inside. it has almost everything a visitor needs to know as sorted by categories ranging from muslim prayer times, links to major webmails, the current buzz and world news brief.

malaysians aids foundation > colour schemes are neutral and the layout is classy and easy to navigate. contains useful links to various related organisations and agencies, making a quicktake on the subject that much more easier. visually-pleasing as it uses lots of well-positioned photos conveying positive messages to visitors, precisely what the campaign is all about.

JMK/Sida course - Week 1

this is a brief overview of the first in a four-week programme organised by the stockholm university journalism department and sponsored by the swedish agency for international development cooperation (sida). a group of 24 working journalists and related professionals from malaysia, indonesia, bangladesh, china, thailand, the philippines, burma, laos, cambodia and sri lanka arrived at arlanda airport in stockholm on oct 1-2.

well, what can i say. i'm in stockholm... and it's autumn! i'm enjoying the bright, sunny days (so far, so good) and breathing lungsful of crisp, fresh air. we're staying at the acapulco hotel, a neat quaint-looking place in sodermalm, near the skanstull tube station. definitely excited...alas! i've only captured images on film but no worries, managed to get some nice digipix, thanks to my dear fellow coursemates bunga, neuf and chu.

the course took off with the usual round of self-introduction and familiarisation trips to places of general interest and official addresses such as the parliament and the international press centre, conducted by no-nonsense mark comerford. the city walkabout included a stop at the sida office. indoors, mark and roland stanbridge took the group around the jmk library. a small welcome was organised by jmk/sida staffers and students complete with a traditional swedish smorgasbord.

For the duration of the course, participants were granted 24-hour access to jmk and the computer lab which was specially reserved as a classroom throughout the course period. mark shared extensively on research and publishing tools available on the internet (also available on his blog). roland complemented that by sharing tips on retrieving digital information, a necessary tool to obtain the best results given tight newsroom deadlines. häkan lindhoff later briefly outlined the 500-year historical developments of the swedish media.

the group's first assignment was to prepare a 20-minute presentation for a seminar at örebro university on oct 14, a friday. The group split into south asia and southeast asia regions and participants agreed to prepare a skeleton country report for collation. monday's exercise was to create a blog, which a few participants were already familiar with. unfortunately, mark had to leave for home early due to a bout of flu and the onset of fever.

programme coordinator åsa petersson was most helpful since i landed from day 1. gifted with a bright and sunny disposition, she showed participants useful places such as specialty asian foodstores and pharmacies. the city's public transport - metro, tram, boat and bus - was a boon too, thanks for the pass card each received. by the way, öppet (i think) means either open or entrance... or something along those lines. one thing really worth mentioning and which is the most striking feature of the tunnelbana (underground or subway system) commonly-called the metro - distinct and unique artwork found in each of the 100-odd stations along the blue, green and red lines.

sunday was spent outdoors. took a boat ride to skansen, walked around the zoo admiring the beautiful trees and many animals not found in asia. the view from the nearby hills was breathtakingly beautiful and the weather was absolutely gorgeous... couldn't have asked for more!

more tests...

adding a link..hope this works...the online news org website i'm currently attached to.

sweet smiles

hej! chu and i at a junction on the way back from skansen yesterday. wasn't too cold outdoors although it was a very windy day. great outing, good memories...

test post

i have arrived! my first blog and post, at last! this is certainly exciting. stay tuned...