Boyreporter.ca

You’re reading it. I’ve decided that this blog needs a serious change in focus. Over the last few months I’ve been focusing strictly on issues around online journalism on this blog. So if you’re looking for funny cat photos or videos you’ll have to go to…

Boy Reporter’s notebook

This is my Tumblr blog. Like many Tumblr blogs it’s completely informal and really more of a way for me to play around with the platform. This is where you’ll find those cat videos and photos of Lionel Richie.

@boyreporter

I do a lot on Twitter and it’s where I post most of the things I find on a day-to-day basis. Expect everything from tweets about food to books to a lot of stuff on, what else, journalism.

If you’ve been reading this blog you’ll know that twitter is a huge part of my personal and professional life. On Friday, I reached a pretty big personal milestone and sent out my 10,000 tweet. Yes, it means I tweet a lot. Some of it is inane, but I try my best to keep it entertaining, informative and relevant.

I’ve had the chance to talk to journalism students about using social media to build their practice and I can’t stress how useful twitter is. So in honour of 10,000 tweets I want to reiterate the three things I’ve learned about twitter:

1) It’s a great way to ‘meet’ people in journalism

In a recent post, I expressed my admiration for the Atlantic’s online strategy. Through some odd game of six-degrees of separation, one the online editors for the Atlantic, Jared B. Keller introduced himself. I’ve had the chance to trade jokes with him and swap ideas with someone working at one of the most interesting outlets in journalism today.

I’ve also found it easier to go up and introduce myself to fellow journalists and editors who I’m already following on Twitter. Hey, at the very least you can ask them about that link they tweeted a few days back instead of engaging in small talk about the weather.

2) It’s a great way to keep up with the news

If you follow the right people and sources on twitter you’ll pretty much always have something to read. If you’re a freelancer looking for an idea, twitter can help find an idea for your next story or at least keep tabs on what other publications are doing. If you’re a beat reporter follow other people in your beat and relevant publications to have a curated stream that’ll keep you on top of what’s happening.

3) It’s a great source of breaking news *

The Mumbai terrorists attacks, the miracle on the Hudson, Toronto’s G20 protest, the Egypt revolution. I used Twitter as a news gathering tool when covering all of these stories. It’s an imperfect medium, and it won’t replace actually having reporters on the ground, but you can’t ignore it anymore.

* Except of course, when it isn’t. Hoaxes can spread easily on Twitter, so remember to verify before retweeting.

Some of the 47 books I read this year

At the start of 2010 I resolved to read one book a week. Well, the year is over and I didn’t quite meet that goal.

I read 41 books in 2010 (Update: I realized that I didn’t add my sprint read of the Scott Pilgrim series to the tally. That would bring it up to 46 47. Close, still no cigar) It’s a pretty respectable number but well short of 52. The problem isn’t the lack of time it’s simply because after a day of reading tweets, blogs, news stories and the odd magazine article the last thing I want to do is read.

My friends Sarah Millar and Emma Woolley are both trying 52 in 52 it this year and in solidarity with them I’m going to try 52 in 52 again in 2011. I’ll probably fall short again and frankly that’s OK. If you read one more book than you would’ve because you made it a resolution in January, your year is already better.

A few things will probably be different this year. I got a Kobo in early December and the last four or five books I read this year were read on Kobo. It’s actually increased the amount of reading I do because it’s let me have dozens of books on hand instead of the two or three I can schlep with me up to the office.

Anyways, if you’re interested, I list some of the highlights of my year in reading on the Afterword.

I also noticed a few themes cropping up in my reading:

1) Dad books

I read Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs, Ryan Knighton’s C’mon Papa, and Todd Babiak’s novel Toby. All of them look at fatherhood. It’s not that I’m going to settle down and start having kids next week but it’s no longer something that’s out of the realm of possibility. So you might as well try to figure out what lies ahead.

2) Animals

John Vaillant’s the Tiger, Philiph Hoare’s the Whale, Allisa York’s Fauna, all looked at our relationship with animals. As a pretty urban guy I don’t think much about animals and I really should just because  I think it would teach me more empathy and also because animals are fucking awesome.

Weirdly enough two books I read this year, Yann Martell’s Beatrice and Virgil and Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life both had taxidermy as a theme. And of course I can’t forget Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, which briefly made me think about vegetarianism, again.

3) The internet

I read, back-to-back, Nicholas Carr’s the Shallows and Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus. Carr’s thesis is that the internet is killing our ability to focus for long periods of time and form complex and drawn out arguments. Shirky argues that the internet is ripping us away from TV and thus freeing up all this free time to do things like create Wikipedia and tag photos on Flickr (and also play A LOT of Angry Birds and post cat videos, just sayin’). Jury is out which of these guys are right, probably both of them in some way.

I do know one thing…. you should probably read Tim Wu’s the Master Switch, an amazing look at communication monopolies (think AT & T, Microsoft, cable) and how they rise and fall.

Hey, who says Storify has to only be used for “serious news.” I’m sure those guys like zombies as much as the next guy.

And because that’s not enough reading, a gang of us are tackling Colum McCann’s gorgeous novel Let the Great World Spin over at the Afterword Reading Society.

About 40 years ago, my father’s older brother, Lian Hie, left Indonesia for medical school in Germany. Over the next few years two other siblings joined him. None of them ever came home, deciding to stay in Europe instead.

Shane release

• Hairspray video

Saludos Amigos

Three Days to Vegas movie Angels Over Broadway divx

Along the way, they all got married, had kids and carved out pretty great lives for themselves here.

• The Naughty Nineties hd

Lian Hie ended up marrying an American exchange student from Missouri (my aunt Becky). Kiong, one of his brothers became a doctor and Siok San, his sister, also went into medicine  but opted to do acupuncture instead.

The Guardian full

Still Waiting… movie download

If there’s anything I’ve learned from this (other than the fact that my many of my cousins are pretty damn good-looking) is that migration is in the Tan genetic code.

Home Alone film

We move around, a lot. More importantly, no matter where we end up we don’t just survive, we do well. There’s a lot to be said for that.

• Jaws 2 ipod

I can deal. 11 degrees? What the hell?

The Skeleton Key film For all you Americans, that’s in celsius. Why haven’t you switched to Metric yet? Really?

Also, as a preview for my upcoming spring mixtape here’s Jens Lekman covering Paul Simon. Enjoy.

• The Four Musketeers hd

  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film

Kenny full Smother video

Lords of Dogtown rip

Cabin Pressure trailer

Shall We Dance trailer Excess Baggage This is kind of how I feel this morning. Nobody’s Fool Scars of Dracula The Bellboy movie

Here Comes Mr. Jordan dvd

From the always fun Manna from Brooklyn.

Postal divx

Learn how to bake The Maiden Heist video
I’ve been cooking a lot lately and grown to really like it. A lot of the credit has to go to the lovely women at Good Egg, fellow home-chef-in-arms Jodi,

co-worker Karen Hawthorne, and my friends for eating all of the food I prepare. But it’d be nice to bake up some cookies or muffins or something. It’d also be nice to be able to cap off dinner with a dessert that wasn’t store-bought ice cream.

I’d also be really curious to try making a loaf of bread at home and there are apparently foolproof recipes kicking around. (seriously 14-20 hours sitting time?)

Learn how to record a podcast
I actually have all the equipment so I’m annoyed at myself for just diving in and doing this. The work schedule hasn’t helped much, but I can’t really blame that for everything.

Deja Vu buy Forfeit hd Secrets of an Undercover Wife download

Take up a sport
I got back to playing basketball in the summer after a very long hiatus and I completely forgot how much fun it was. It doesn’t hurt that I’m playing with the wackiest and nicest gang of journalists, artists and architects.

Squash could be interesting and I think the Y has courts.

A Viking Saga movie

Six Thugs No Through Road movie Learn a language
Despite the fact that I was an absolute whiz at learning English (I moved to Canada from Indonesia when I was seven), I haven’t actually been able to learn another language.

I could try to learn Chinese AGAIN and trying to learn French would be useful, but what about something wacky? Latin? German?

Travel somewhere
I’m tempted to hit up Europe for a couple of weeks in the fall. My aunt and uncle in Germany are some of my favourite relatives and I haven’t seen them in years. Also, it’s been far too long since I went to Europe, so I think that’s that.

Learn an instrument
I have a shitty, shitty, shitty sense of rhythm. Anyone who’s seen me clap along to a song at a show can testify to this. I figure learning an instrument might be one way to rectify this? Guitar? Mandolin? Banjo? Xylophone? Something that’s cheap and I won’t feel too guilty about if this falls through.

Blog more
Yes, this blog has had its stops, starts and lulls. In 2009, this blog will languish no more. I will tend it and love it and feed it tasty things and make sure it grows up to be the blog I always wanted it to be.

Write more (and getting it published)
I miss writing for print publications. I do a lot of writing for the website, but I do miss the whole process of pitching, researching, interviewing and writing. It’s also nice to see your name on actual pages and on the newsstand.

The Withdrawal Method, Pasha Malla

download Women

A collection of short stories by former Toronto author Pasha Malla. A nice guy, I’ve met him a couple of times and a few of my friends speak highly of the work.

Revolutionary Road

Othello film , Richard Yates

Because who knows when I’ll see the movie.

• Mask of the Ninja ipod

The Show That Smells Kindergarten Cop move , Derek McCormack

The Lion King ipod Torque divx

So I can finally tell the lovable schmuck that his book is actually not that bad at all.

Fear of Fighting

Tripping the Rift: The Movie full movie

, Stacey May Fowles and Marlena Zuber

Because they are fabulous ladies and I should’ve read their book already

Blown Away full movie

When I’m through with all of this I will probably want a couple of really good hits of non-fiction.