Ta Alip Daa!

Tada! My article got in on time!

Today I came into the office a bit late - last night I had a cuppa session with my sis and her gang of funnymen, went back late, slept late, yada yada. I quickly scanned for any story on the free copy of newspaper that has my byline, but I didn't see any at first.

It turned out that I was checking last Thursday's CT, while today's CT has been snatched away from my table by someone who thought I was still outstation. I went to see the Ed and asked him if everything's alright with the story I sent - he said it's alright and went on to flip through today's CT (he was the one who took my copy) and showed me the article.

There it was. On the last page. At the last column. It has my byline on it.

I quickly read it. Yup, it got chopped down to half as usual, but in terms of content, not as much as I thought it would be.

I asked the Ed if the story is alright or what, and he said it's OK. Then he asked if I can come up with another story to make the sponsor of the event happy - sure I can, I said, but I didn't say anything about the lifestyle piece that I'm supposed to hand in as well.

I guess that's the best I can do so far. I'm a bit shwalzermacky cause it was printed on the last page - but that's due to my quite late submission, remember, I only got the story in way after lunch time.

And I'm a bit shwalzermacky cause the long story I wrote got chopped down to half so it became only a quarter page thing - but that's cause most of it were about the CDMA technologies, which happens to be 60 percent of what was showcased during the event; totally irrelevant to the local interest.

I think I still don't have the nose for news. I still think I need some kind of guidance on how to do good live reporting.

I was hoping this live reporting assignment would give me some indication on whether journalism is my thing or not, whether I'm getting better or worse, whether hands-on training and as-you-go-you-get-the-experience kind of thing would be good enough to make me a good enough reporter.

Right now, I don't think I can make much of a conclusion. But right now, I don't think I'm a good enough reporter at all - but that's not to say I don't want to become one, or that I have given up on becoming a good journalist.

All I'm saying is that perhaps on certain assignments, like live reporting on a technology showcase-type of events, I still need some kind of coaching...

Sometimes I wonder, would a career change do me good..?