Looking back and moving forward

I almost forgot that the year has changed and that a new decade is beginning. 2009 has been a busy year for me and while there have been a number of things that had happened here and back home, there was not much time to stop and blog about it. For me, this made me think more about this blog. There were a lot of things—very big things actually—that I failed to document. One way or another, it was not much of a problem as I was too busy with the real world living my life and trying to cope up with its challenges. However, at some point, it made me think—am I a selfish bugger? I usually read from other blogs to learn from the experience of other bloggers—be it in life, academics, photography among others.

One thing is certain though my blog did not live-up to its name. Whether this year is any different, we (if there’s any reader left out there) just have to see. In the meantime, please visit my photoblog which I’m also trying to revive. Thanks!

Tale of Two Leaders

This week prominent leaders here in Australia and back home in the Philippines made headlines. One could not resist noting the parallelism between the two events despite seemingly to be unrelated.

Philippines: The most dangerous place for journos

Australian journalists have a lot to be thankful for. They live in a relatively safe and free environment. The violence that they will, at most, get will probably be a bashing from their news subject. And yet the government will protect them even if they run after government personalities, not for witch-hunting, but to deliver information on the politician’s performance to the public.

Election here and at home

Last Saturday, the electoral district of Willagee had a by-election after its MP, who was the former State Premier, resigned. The campaign and voting went well despite seemingly unnoticed. The campaign mainly consisted of print ads in community papers and distribution of leaflets in letter boxes of residents. If there was some exchanges between the candidates in media outlets, the topics will mainly be on policy concerns and what they can offer. Voting is also compulsory here in Australia, anyone who fails to vote risk paying a fine. I think the fine is to cover the cost of the materials and preparations allocated for each voter. Voting started from 8:00am to 6:00pm by 7:00pm votes have been counted halfway and before 9:00pm the winner was already known.

Lessons learned from liveblogging

As some of you might have learned, I’ve liveblogged the Pacquiao-Cotto fight. It was fortunate that we recently subscribed to a cable provider and our issues with our internet connection were resolved prior to the scheduled fight. I was so excited because this was my first time blogging an event live. I was all ready–drinks, laptop, iPhone for the quick photos among others.

Live bloggin

Live blogging the fight between Pacquiao and Cotto . You can follow me on:

• Twitter
• Plurk

When Journos spill the beans

Journalists are trained to be as objective as possible, however, there are inevitable times when a journalist’s bias or emotion about a story shows. There are cases when a journalist will inevitably show emotion especially if he/she is covering a human tragedy. It is inevitable, sometimes, for journalists, whether broadcast or print, to show some emotions

Time is running out

For climate change stakeholders—both sceptics and believers—the recent natural calamities in Asia and the Pacific is a point of discussion. For believers, this is a case of “I told you so” while for sceptics, it is just what is–“natural calamities.”

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Viral marketing

The advent of internet has spawned a number of new approaches in reaching a greater number of people. Whether it is for advocacy, activism and, yes, marketing, the internet could be a viable tool.