News to Amuse

Working in a newsroom requires a hyper-awareness of current events. I've never felt quite this plugged in to what's going on in the world, from cambodia-thailand border negotiations to knife violence in england to street eats in seoul. I spend a lot of time surfing various news sites to see what's getting the most attention. I was amused to surf over to BBC News on Monday and see the bottom right corner:

The juxtaposition of "spiritual desert" and a review of the next Lara Croft videogame is kind of classic.

I continue to gather sports scores for the print edition of the International Herald Tribune. Yesterday, I had a true "web producer" assignment. My web boss asked if there were any good stories in the world of sports. I pulled this story on the Federer-Nadal rivalry from the AP, rewrote the headline, found photos of the two of them, created the split shot for the article, and then published to the web.

While it's interesting to have so much leverage in news judgment working on web production, I much prefer doing actual writing and reporting. It's good to find that out now.

Photo searches continue to be fun. Images are so powerful in conveying information. I wish there were a slideshow for almost every article posted. It's especially interesting to see the multitude of photos of world leaders. You get to see who looks stiff and uncomfortable all the time versus those who ham it up. Bush and Sarkozy are prime examples of the latter. I also don't mind going through tons of photos of hot athletes. Bring on the Olympic swimming events...

THE WEEKEND: This past weekend, I did the classic Hong Kong excursion-- the junk trip. Many of the expats head out to beaches via boats (junk=Chinese for boat). I went with an IHT colleague and a mix of lawyers and financial folks to a beach in Sai Kung. I even got to water ski, though we had to avoid huge jellyfish while in the water.

I also checked out HK's club scene. The dance club Prive was fun, though all the music was from three years ago. Saturday, I checked out Dragon-I, which is super-chique. I'd recommend visiting both if you're looking for a good time in Hong Kong.