KC is here

It's Time for Change

2011-03-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

As some of you may already know that I have quit my job at New Sabah Times and have become a more independent reporter for Free Malaysia Today.

Despite the reasons that I have for leaving the newspaper, it would be a new and great challenge to work for an online news portal and as an 'independent' news agency, it comes with new sets of advantages and challenges.

I've been in Free Malaysia Today for about two weeks now and the ride has been revving up to a good start but my mood at the moment is in now crashed and burned. I feel that I have to relearn all my 'journalistic' skills during my time in the newspaper which is probably the toughest challenge I face when I just entered in this line of work.

No more functions, no more crime stories, no more short and simple reporting and processing statements. Those were the bread and butter that I used to live by and it can become monotonous but at the same time, it always exposed me to something new everyday.

Now it's more issue-based news, searching for leads and doing own research on topics that I was too young to understand then and don't seem to be able to grasp it as the wise old cracks of now.

The difficulty curve of the assignments that I have been given so far by my boss in KK, is way above the bar of what I'm used to do. Frankly, I think he is sending me on suicide missions to tread on dangerous waters that I have no confidence in surviving. It's sink or swim all over again but this time, there's shark if you are in the water.

Needless to say, production in the new workplace had dropped dramatically compared to the old days when I use to pump at least 1 or 2 (sometimes 3-4, and even 7 once) stories a day (and gets published), while slamming away at the keyboard after a long day out.

Now after 2 weeks (coming to 3, by my calculation), I've only had 2 stories published (out of a handful of submissions that I have handed in) and I'm not even sure if my bosses have been happy with my submissions.

It's blatant agony to see how my performance has dropped and I won't make excuses that the task in this new workplace is something much bigger than I can chew. But I have come to the conclusion that this new paradigm shift of how I did my reporting before, means that it requires a total shift in lifestyle.

Don't be fooled that I have the 'luxury' of working from home. After 2 weeks of doing this, I think home is simply the worse place on earth for a person like me to work at. Somehow, I become more timid, less motivated and my mind becomes dull-headed to think of story ideas to pursue.

Maybe there's too much distractions at home or maybe the constant annoyance and disturbance that I get just kills all concentration and discipline to make the phone-calls I should be making and going to places to meet people I should be meeting.

I really need to get out more often and my social skills hasn't really improved to the level where I can just pick up a conversation with a random person on the street and dig a story out of them. I wonder does my boss expect me to develop these skills overnight?

To me, it sounds to me like I'm making excuses of not liking this job I'm given and I know I shouldn't really be complaining but I'm now starting to appreciate having the support that I used to love and hate back in the old company to get the job done.

Nevertheless, without learning how to survive, it does not make one a better person in our given careers.

For now, I'm planning to have a dramatic change in my life and I hope it pays off since it means I'm in full control of everything that happens to myself, for good or bad, for life or death.

Hitting 25

2011-02-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

I just turned 25. Yesterday was my birthday. I 'celebrated' it with work and when everything was done, the day was almost over. So there was no cake, presents and candles this year but then again I haven't had those in a long time.

I'm officially now in my mid 20s, and it's funny to think that you are only in your mid 20s once, and any age before or after that was either early or late. Next year, I would be 26, and I would mathematically be categorized as in my late 20s. Hah.

Being at this age, I wonder if I have reached the maturity that my age indicates. I guess by some standards, being 25 means that you would have your own car, a decent job, have a girlfriend with plans of getting married and being in the prime of your physical health.

For me, being at this age means that I have reached the peak of my life and everything onwards is just going down. My physical capability (if I really had any to begin with) would start to decline, my opportunities of finding a better job or income diminishes and I'm not even sure if I'm ready to get into another relationship again. Oh yeah, I don't have a car too (just two wheels to move around).

'Youth is wasted on the young' was a saying that I once heard and I do agree with it. Upon hitting this age, I really think that sometimes people just don't realise that they won't be young forever (though it seems forever). The time will come when they have to start taking responsibilities at their age, even if they don't act like it. I probably wouldn't say that I had a lot of things that I regretted not doing when I was young but I do know some people who just think that they have all the time in the world before they start taking any real steps to 'grow up'.

But at this point, I think I think I just have nothing to lose anymore. If this was the happiest moment in my life, then I'm going all in to make it happier or worse. It's time to have regrets and live the way I wanted to (whether for good or ill).

So 25th Happy Birthday to me and myself!

Oh, I also just want to thank everyone again who send their birthday wishes at Facebook even though I didn't put my birth date on my profile (thanks to my asshole of a brother who had to wish me there instead of just saying it with his mouth).

Also the most important person on my birthday sent me this;

To which I earnestly replied.

New Year Resolutions for 2011

2011-01-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year when we want to forget all things we did last year and give ourselves a fresh start for the new one.

To be honest, I don't really believe in making a resolutions list because not everyone has the discipline to achieve them and we start making excuses to ourselves on why we didn't make them and then when the new year comes, we just do it all over again.

So for this year's 'resolutions', I'm inclined to call them changes that I like to make for the new year. Nothing ambitious and mostly intended to be abstract and vague so that I won't have to give myself too much pressure (as I already have at work) to attain anything this year.

Work

Work Harder: I'll admit that I've been slacking off at work, punching out the first moment I get when I'm done with my stories and heading straight out for the door. Reporting really isn't a 9 to 5 job, there's a lot more that can be done other than just attending functions and writing the story.

So for this year, I'm planning to stay in the office to do some research, planning for potential features or stories and keeping tabs for follow-ups after normal office hours (as long as I make it home for dinner) on ordinary days.

I also need to be more proactive in finding stories and be more daring in asking questions.
Write A Feature: I'll admit that part of the reason why I have only done a feature since I joined the company is because I have been lazy (by calling it 'busy with other work').

So for this year, I should expand my reporting horizons and do at least one feature this year which is important if I want to win anything in the next Shell Press Awards (and also.....err....my career...yeah).

Finances

Have A Proper Financial Plan and Budget and STICK TO IT!: Since having my own income, I've been having trouble trying to budget my expenditures and savings. I just don't know how much I should spend and how much should be kept in the bank and for other long-term savings and investments. I also find myself making budgets that I don't stick to which puts all my financial planning to shits without knowing how much money goes where.

So for this year, I would try to draw up a financial plan and a budget and try to STICK TO IT for once! Spend what is meant for spending and save what is meant for saving. I know my life would be better with a balance between the two but I don't know why it's so hard to it.

Also I'm saving for my retirement........so yeah.
Overcoming Spending Fears: This is sort of tied to the previous one. I have been telling myself that I need to get some stuff to work better but haven't really dared to take out the money to actually spend it.

I think I have spending anxieties because when I'm looking at something that I need to buy, my head rings all sorts of alarms that makes it hard to even put the money down and just buy the damn thing. Am I paying a reasonable price? Am I getting the right product for my needs? Should I wait for a promotion? Do I really need this? Yeah, you get the idea.

Then again, this could also be because I have some kind of pat rack mentality and want to hoard up all my money so that I can be like Scrooge McDuck.

So for this year, I'm going to learn how to splurge, pampering myself and actually using my own money to pat myself in the back once in a while.

Personal

Get A Makeover: It really doesn't mean as drastic as it sounds but this was something I tried to do while I was in a relationship but it didn't quiet worked out (so as the relationship).

So for this year, I'm thinking of changing a bit of my usual style. Maybe new hairstyle, new clothes, new glasses etc. I know I don't have the greatest fashion sense but we'll see how this goes...
Start Some Personal Projects: I've been having ideas brewing at the back of my head for the past year that I hoped would turn into a new avenue for income and for fun. Then again, I haven't been really able to get into my passions since I started working so I haven't been able to dedicate myself full-time into turning those ideas into reality.

But with the right time management, I think I should be able to pull something off and do it just for the fun of it before I can find ways to monetize it. So for this year, I should plan and launch at least one of my personal projects and make some time to run it.
Cut Down on the Procrastination: I always put off doing many things because I don't feel like doing them and gluing my butt to chair but I've learned that just getting it over with and striking while the iron is hot is one great way to boost your confidence, reduce your stress level and lessen one worry at the back of your mind.

So for this year, I'll just need to stand up and doing whatever that I feel like doing and cut down from procrastinating. I'm no longer young enough to let things wait anymore.

Okay, that's all I had in mind at the moment. Maybe I update on these as the year goes along so wish me good luck!

A Good Merdeka story

2010-09-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

KOTA KINABALU: Clad in a specially designed Jalur Gemilang dress, Amy Amanda Francis Boniface was obviously in the mood for celebration.

“This dress was designed by a friend’s mother … I like it, it has a story of its own,” said the 11-year-old St Francis Convent Primary School pupil yesterday, as she and three of her schoolmates proudly showed off the attires that made heads turn.

Amy was among thousands of people who came to show their patriotism during the Independence Day celebration at the Kinabalu Sports Complex in Likas yesterday morning.

“I woke up as early as 5am today; I did not want to be late, our school participated in the National Day parade,” she said.

Amy said that seeing Head of State Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman up close made her day.

“It is a good feeling to be able to join in the celebration; I hope it can be celebrated on a bigger scale in future,” she said, giggling.

Another 11-year-old pupil, Khairul Anwar from Sekolah Kebangsaan Chung Hwa Likas, said: “The younger generation must learn from the nation’s leaders. We have been taught about the sacrifices of our past heroes, about how they brought independence for us all.”

Khairul said he would cherish his participation at the National Day parade this year.

“This will be a good memory, at least I can tell people in future that I was at the National Day parade,” said the beaming boy.

Sabah Navy Regional Two assistant chief warfare officer, Sub-Lieutenant Ahmad Fitri Alias, who also attended the event, believed that freeing the mind and soul was a true reflection of independence.

“Failure to free our mind and soul would defeat the whole meaning of physical independence. We have freed ourselves from all clutches, so the most important thing to do now is to maintain independence so we can live peacefully,” he said philosophically.

Quirine Jipinis, 44, from Penampang, echoed Ahmad’s words, saying that the younger generation should understand and learn our history.

“We can now stand tall because our forefathers fought for our independence. We must remember the history, learn from our past mistakes to progress,” he said.

“As we reflect on the past, we must be ready to carve a new history and be part of it so that our future generation will give us the same respect as what we give to our past heroes.

“Let us all work together and make Malaysia a respected nation, which is the envy of not just our friends but also enemies. It is hoped the young will be able to bring change,” he said.

Source: The Borneo Post

Words of Wisdom: Read More

2010-08-11T04:29:00.000-07:00

I was submitting a story to my chief editor today and as he was reading through it, I was paying attention to his usual stern facial expression for any hint that he would criticize my writing as if I was a toddler learning how to hold a pencil.

'Read more,' he said while he scribbled some notes on the news.

'You need to read more to improve your standard of writing,' he continued before he send me on my way.

From the tone, I don't think he meant that as sarcasm (or my usual dull headedness failed to register it as otherwise) so it did come as quite a surprise to me that he would say something like that.

This advice isn't something that I've heard for the first time. I've been told that one of the easiest ways to improve your writing is to keep writing but reading other people's writing is just as important (and easy).

When I first started on the job, I had plenty of 'free' time (Free, as in, was very incompetent at the job) and it allowed me to pore through the news articles done by my seniors. I tried to learn how they constructed their sentences, how they managed the flow of the text, what keywords that they used to link paragraphs and so on.

I eventually tried to adapt some of their writing style and it helped but I still can't do that daily two page story which they churn out so effortlessly (or at least, they make it seem that way!).

After giving it some thought on reading more, I think it is important to also remember that the quality of what you are reading also matters rather than trying to force yourself to fill your head by the word count.

It's good to expose yourself to various writing styles because each writers' is unique in its own way and it also varies by the format of the text. When reading other people's writing, I try not only to just read through the words but also dissect the things I liked and didn't liked about it as my own and see how it was presented.

Reading more also helps to increase your knowledge about stuff and it's always nice to learn something new. It also helps you to prepare for times when you are suddenly thrust to pursue a story which you absolutely no idea what is it about.

So it was nice to get a reminder from my boss (unless he had other meaner things to say about my writing) and I will try to read more.

Add Human Value to Your Crime Stories II

2010-08-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled upon this news article from a friend on her Facebook account and after reading it, it has the elements of what I meant about adding human value when writing crime stories and thought that I should post it here for posterity and self-reference.

KUCHING: It was the worst news a young woman could have possibly received after calling her boyfriend’s handphone early yesterday and learning he had been involved in a serious road accident.

The 20-something woman immediately rushed from her house in Green Road here to the accident site at Mile 9 Penrissen Road near here, but arrived only minutes after her 29-year-old boyfriend had been pronounced dead by paramedics.

The fatal accident occurred around 2am when the car driven by the victim, identified as Law Eng Pang, slammed head-on into a tree by the side of the road while on his way back to his house at Taman Beverly at Mile 13 Penrissen Road.

The seriously-wounded Law was pinned to the seat of his wrecked car, and was in the midst of being extricated by firemen when his handphone rang.

The call was immediately answered by one of the rescuers who, upon learning it was the victim’s girlfriend, notified her of accident.

There was no final goodbye for her, however, as her boyfriend succumbed to serious head and body injuries moments after he was removed from the vehicle.

Law’s mother also rushed to the place after being informed of the incident and was inconsolable at the sight of her son’s lifeless body.

Despite being informed that her son had been certified dead, the middle-aged woman seemed unable to accept what had happened and repeatedly called out to him to wake up.

Traffic police officers were present to investigate the crash and later transported the victim’s body to the mortuary for a post mortem.

Source: The Borneo Post

Writing a Feature Part I

2010-07-23T11:34:00.001-07:00

So I've been 'challenged' by my news desk editor to write an entry for next year's journalism award, which I don't really think I stand a good chance of winning but I thought that it may be a worth a shot to brush up on my writing skills.

I've been giving some thoughts on how to write a feature after working for more than seven months. It's funny for me to think that the one and only feature that I've written was when I first started.

Now to be honest, looking back at how nervous and lost I was at the time, I think I was writing it more out of desperation than it actually being a properly planned and researched piece. The subject matter was easy to access and I was quite surprised that my editors decided to accept it as a feature. So I guess that was a fluke shot for me.

Since then, I've spent most of my time just learning the ropes of how to do proper reporting, getting thrown into the wild sometimes makes you learn fast when you are forced to adapt, though other times you just sink to the bottom and learn from your mistakes.

As I chased more and more stories day by day, the very idea of writing a feature just took a very far back-seat of my mind, that it wasn't important than filling up my quota.

Now, I'm starting to feel that my writing has improved somewhat and my interviewing and information gathering is a bit more focused than it was before, so maybe attempting to write a feature could be a test of how far I've come.

My plan for now is not to take this feature writing business too hard for myself and just going with something simple but can show some effort.

I'm just going to do a feature that introduces something new that I, and hopefully, everyone else has never seen, understood or knew about before. My job is to introduce hidden things in our society or just to shed some light on things that people have never even heard of before. It could be something that we see in our everyday lives but never truly understand it in depth.

My plan of action is to bring along the 'six faithful serving men' of Rudyard Kipling for the next subject matter that interest me. I think just by being able to answer each of them, it should be material enough for a feature. I don't think it's going to be something ground-breaking but I think I will be able to learn the ropes while doing it.

It's time to plan...

2010-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

I went back to the office one day and my news desk editor came up to me and asked me if I had anything in mind for next year's journalism award.

He thought that I should give it a shot to win something which he says will be a great boost to my career. I had thought about it but going against some of the senior reporters who are far more experienced isn't going to be an easy task.

He gave me some advice to go for something new or original, something that would shake the foundations of society.

But that isn't the real problem for me if I wanted to write something for next year. I think at the moment my biggest challenge is to find the time to actually sit down and focus on it.

Juggling between assignments and crime stories that can happen at any time is like throwing a wrench into my brain gear. It's really hard to get the thought process going and sustaining the momentum when I don't even know when will I be able to find the time to work on it.

I think this will take a readjustment of my priorities, whether I want to continue spending most of my time doing crime stories, which is slowly becoming the major proportion of my daily stories, to fill the quota or focus back on general writing, which will hurt my daily submissions, and put some quality time on writing something meaningful.

One of my colleagues has also be warning me about spending too much time on doing crime stories that it would eventually drain all my energy to do something else, like a feature, and I'm already starting to feel the strain.

Other than that, my mind is currently blank on what feature do I want to write which is something that I haven't done since I've been reporting. I've only managed to pull one feature and still haven't really learned the ropes of writing one smoothly.

Somehow I have to try and find a balance and I've only got about another six months to come up with something...

Words of Wisdom: Add Human Value to Your Crime Stories

2010-07-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

When I was preparing for the Kinabalu Shell Press Award 2010, I ended up having a drink with a reporter who has been in the field for 16 years. She has done quite a bit of time in crime reporting which is somewhere I find myself doing nowadays. So it was really interesting to hear what she had to say and she was quite willing to share them with me.

I really enjoy listening to these senior reporters (she's not that old) because nothing speaks better than experience in this line of work, anyway I disgress.

The advice that she gave me for crime reporting is not to always be straightforward and try to add more human value if possible.

To me that sounds like conflicting advise because I was taught by our crime reporter that crime stories have to be a quasi-accurate report of the situation that can be used in court, which is why it is best to stick to the facts. The lead is always the cold hard facts first; what, where and when.

She gave me some examples where she started the story off by drawing on human reactions or emotions before leading into the hard facts of the story.

I think by doing so, it becomes the turning point from news to a story. Stories are always more interesting to read because it draws the attention of the readers from start to finish, rather than a piece of news where readers can get the gist of it just from reading the first paragraph.

As a crime reporter, it does feel a little hard to write crime stories sometimes in a straightforward manner because we run out of details probably by the fifth or sixth paragraph, depending on the length of the situation.

We're rarely bothered with the human emotions that were involved. Either because we don't want to become too emotionally involved with the situation (some of them can be very depressing) or maybe we become very indifferent about the countless numbers of fires, murders, robberies, rapes, accidents etc. that we have encountered throughout our careers.

But maybe that's where it changes everything. Emotions should be noted because it makes a difference between 'just another crime' and 'the crime' to the readers.

She told me that one of her stories made a reader cried and she felt proud that the story had made an impact. A crime story that is able to stir emotional response from a general reader is really quite a feat to emulate, considering that it belongs to general stories.

However, turning emotions into words can be a really hard thing to get during the crime scene especially when the victim is suffering from a tragic lost (either property or life of a loved one).

The key she told me was to have patience and from my experience, I think she meant A LOT of patience because it can take a long time for the victim(s) to recover from shock and takes an even longer time trying to make sense out of the uncontrolled stream of information that people spout in that kind of situation.

Maybe with more practice in interviewing, I could learn how to ask effective questions in delicate situations.

I'm going to try and find more human angles to my crime stories and see if it works, how will I know? I really don't know yet at this point but I do want to write stories than news.

Words of Wisdom: Be Skeptical.

2010-07-10T08:38:00.001-07:00

At work today, I bumped into one of my colleagues who had recently won the award for Business Reporting from the Kinabalu Shell Press Award 2010 and after congratulating him, I asked him to teach me a few things about reporting.

I had asked him before when I just came into the office but this time he seemed more willing to teach me a thing or two.

One of thing that stuck my mind after our little chat was this line he told me,

Always have a question. Be skeptical

At first I thought that he meant that as a reporter, we should always go for a function with an angle in mind. That was something I learned after I did my first interview. At the time, I went in just rapid firing any questions that I could think of and went I got back to the office, almost 80% of what I asked wasn't usable for a story.

But I misunderstood him. He explained that we should always ask for clarification and not be satisfied with simple answers, especially when something can be ambiguous.

It is better to take your time and ask for the subject to repeat his statements than to misquote him on paper.

Sounds too persistent? It does but from how he looks at it, the reporter is doing is the subject a favour.

I think he has a point. Sometimes when I'm interviewing someone without my recorder, I really wished that they would repeat what they said but I become too afraid to do that more than once or twice because it might get annoying and gives the impression that you are not listening.

In fact, it might work the opposite. By asking the person to clarify or repeat what he or she said is indeed showing him or her that you are interested in what they have to say, that's why you want to be sure that you heard them right. It's is showing that intention which counts, so it's better to let the subject know directly.

One other thing that he added was that it's better to ask for clarification because the subject may be saying it from a position which he knows it but readers (and most other time, the reporter!) don't understand.

If the person doesn't or seem able to clarify then you are walking on a tightrope. He thinks that a person that can't clarify on his position is not worth it to be put on paper.

On being skeptical, I think he meant it as the attitude that as reporters we should have, which I agree. We should ask for evidence or proof when there is any doubt about a piece of information we are given.

However after giving it some thought, I think some people don't realise the difference between skeptical and cynical. When people don't believe everything they are told even with supported evidence, that's being cynical. A skeptic, on the other hand, is open to the possibility of believing (in good faith) that the piece of information given is trustworthy when provided with proper evidence.

This is something I wished that news readers could adopt. I get irritated when readers start making comments about news and dismissing the facts that the reporter had worked so hard to find. I think it's perfectly alright to be skeptical about pro-government news but not to the point of treating everything they say as pure propaganda.

So two things that I want to take away from his words of wisdom are;

Never be afraid to ask for clarification or repetition from your interviewee because you are doing them a favour. If they can't, then you'll have to reevaluate their worth on paper.

Be skeptical but not cynical. That means being open to the possibility of believing that the information is true when supported with the proper evidence(s).

Off Days

2010-06-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to my off days from work because it is a time when I get to rest mentally and catch up on sleep that I have been lacking for the past week.

I've been on the job for six months now and working at odd hours and feeling jittery all the time in between can really tire our my brain. Normally, when I reach my off days, the last thing that I usually want to do is look at another blank screen and create something out of it.

Today feels a little different. Maybe it's one of those days when I'm suffering from a brainstorm of ideas, things to say and things to write about. It keeps me awake at night when I'm trying to sleep. I'm just a nightcrawler.

Every time when I'm having my off day, I just want to do the things that I've been wanting to do for the past week. Read a book, watch TV or movies, daydream, contemplate my current position in life and blah blah blah. But what I really want to do on my day off is sleep as much as I want and stay at home.

I don't mind the occasionally calls to go overtime especially if it's a big story so that I can stock up for those dry days. But if I had it my way, nothing beats curling up in bed till you wake up naturally and doing the things I love (or try to at least).

Everyone loves the weekend but Thursday nights and Fridays are my weekends. When everyone is just starting to have fun, my rest time has just ended. It's quite a sucky arrangement since I don't get to spend the time with friends but on the other hand, it's a good break from just meeting people for a while.

I need to recharge my batteries. Have a time when I can be left alone and just wander around in thought on days when I'm writing a post like this (I'm amazing myself at just how smoothly I'm typing this, I'd normally crack my head on the desk just to write my stories in the office).

Just living one day as myself and be free of the constraints and burden once a week.

And to top it off, today's off day is a nice, cosy rainy day when I'm not chasing down accidents (not today, at least).