I must admit I am a computer idiot. When I was in China, most of the most problems I met when I was using a computer, I had to turn to my friend or technological staff.

When I began my study in UK, I knew I have to rely on myself. One of the headaches for me is to solve the computer problems.

The Lenovox61 I am using now was the first laptop I bought, just before I left for London.

Two days ago, I could not log on to Internet again. I have though maybe that’s another problem with the Internet Company.

Every time when I tried to open with my IE, it said: There’s something wrong with it.  If there’s solution, the company will inform you. I was so frustrated with trying to get to be connected again and again.

Finally I downloaded a Mozilla Firefox from my friend’s hard disc. Oh, at last, I’m online. But I still did not know what was wrong with IE. In the last two days I’m forced to use another web browser.

Until today when I turned on the radio, I knew what’s wrong. This time is not my fault; it’s Microsoft’s.

According to the report. In addition to IE7, other versions like IE5 and IE6 have been found to be vulnerable to a flaw, which on proper exploitation could enable a hacker to seize complete control over web surfer’s computer.

A computer idiot like me, has given all our trust to Microsoft and hopes that as long as we don’t open porn website we will be protected from danger.

Years later we realized that nothing could be guaranteed.

It seems now I have to change my habit of using IE.

When I first saw the course title online journalism I wondered what it like is. Soon I found out online journalism in UK is totally different from that in China.

There are online journalists in UK. They are writing news stories for the platform of internet, while in China there’s no such type of work.

In China there are people working for the websites, but they are technological staff rather than reporters. There are editors but their main job is finding news stories from newspapers and changing titles to more sensational ones to attract viewers’ eyes.

In China the websites don’t have the rights to interview or to report. One of reasons is that internet is too free to be controlled.

But there is online journalism in China, but it has a total different meaning than that in UK.

Reporters in China find news clues on the internet, and report stories happened on the internet, the heated discussion on tianya, the most popular BBS in China, that’s the online journalism in China.

Journalists treat the internet as a golden mine for news clues, because nowadays Chinese like to express their opinion on the internet, some of them would reveal interesting stories in their blog or in online forum.

Largest Forum in China

In most Chinese journalists’ minds, there is no concept of writing news stories for the search engine. Many of them have never heard of Jakob Nielsen. So it’s easy to find that on Chinese news websites all the news materials are mostly pasted from newspapers.

Has anyone considered of changing the news style to cater to viewers? I believe that’s one of things I could bring back to China. Even though as a person working in the news website we could not interview or report by ourselves, but we could begin with changing the writing style and use multimedia to prepare for the real online journalism coming to China.

I’ve got two blogs, one in Chinese, one is here. Both have the same name: Footprint of lei .

I began my blog life in 5^th Aug 2005.

Most of my work was sitting in front of the computer monitoring the news. Why not make use of the time spent sitting aimlessly before the computer; I could use the internet as a platform for my diary.

Yes, that’s my function of blog at first.

It’s a secret place to document my life. I did not tell anybody about the blog.

Gradually more and more friends joined to blog.

One of fantastic things for me is to read friends’ blog, and friend’s friends’ blog.

In this way, I could understand more about my friends and also met interesting person I would never get change to know.

Blog opened a window for me to know the inside of people.

Then I began to share my stories on blog with my friends. After I left for UK, blog became an important link between my friends and me.

I don’t’ have much time to talk with them on the internet, but they could know how I live in UK with reading my blog.

One pity thing is that I have never added any bookmarks, tags in my blog; I noticed that Chinese people seldom do that.

The things I learned from David’s class probably could help me to attract more hits if I want to.

There’s a short story I want to share with anyone who read this blog. The luminous story is from the blog of Taiwanese author Wenyong Hou.

Once a time, a friend who had got the driving licence for a long time still did not want to drive by herself.

Why? She said that she was afraid when she saw so many cars on the street.

The author answered: You just need to pay the attention to the car which is most likely to be in crash with you. You don’t have to be panic about other cars.

Why? His friend asked.

It’s impossible for you to bump into all of the cars on the streets. Why worry about them.

Several days later, the friend called this author and said his word has enlightened her. She dares to drive alone now.

Some times we are tramped with a lot of problems and find ourselves so depressed.

Why not use the tip from the author.

Concentrate on solving the problem which you worry most. You could not handle all the things at the same time, why burden yourself with worrying them.

My Chinese Blog

Society is made up of a variety of people. Someone are born with crazy thoughts, some do crazy things to attract attention.

Jay Nguyen is the latter one. When I opened MSN today, a piece of news popped up and drew my attention.

Jay Nguyen, the found of sweemo.com invited person to slap his face with a fish. Sure if you want to be the person to slap him you have to pay.

You need to subscribe with the website and bid on the auction of slap Jay’s face.

It’s easy to understand that Jay wants to promote his website through this weird auction. The thing I could not figure out is someone who is stranger to Jay and does not have grudge against him would like to pay for slapping him.

But when the bidding closed yesterday afternoon, there’s a guy from Texas showed up and paid 401 pound and won the bidder.

The only explanation I could find for the Texas guy is that he could make use of this opportunity to pay a visit to London, and slapping Jay by the way. Because Jay will pay the transportation fee and two night hotel for the person who won the bidder no matter where they are from.

I visited Jay before the bidding closed several hours later. At that time the bidding price is still as low as 212, he said that he hoped the price would jump quickly in the last few hours.

Jay:Please smack me with fish Picture taken by Lei Yang

The Australian once worked as an engineer. This year he launched this website and hoped that he could make money from it. A website offers people to exchange experience in the form of auction. Jay said his ambition was extremely high for this website.

The concept of this website reminds me of a film once quite popular in China: The Dream Factory.

Four unemployed person carried out a project to help common people to realize the dream they would never have opportunity to get close to.

But the dream is not as beautiful as people previously imagined. Once they’ve been put in desirable situation they’ve always hope for, they find out that’s not what they want.

People always living in a dilemma, a fortress besieged.

Should we cherish what are in our hands rather than weltering in dreaming?

Maybe a website providing us an opportunity to experience what we once dream for could help us to know what we really want.

BBC and VOA were the two radio stations strongly recommended by our teacher when I was studying English in the University six years ago.

BBC has become one of symbols for UK in my mind.

Although it is not a place of interest for common visitors, it’s a must-see for me.

For visiting BBC Broadcast House, first I had to book the ticket one week before because the visiting time was once a month.

On the sunny Sunday Morning, my friend and I are on our way to the mysterious sacred place.

BBC broadcasting house hides behind the All Soul’s Church, it is a building not as grand as I’ve imagined.

Broadcasting House Picture taken by Lei Yang

You could even say the building is too plain, but that was the first building in UK to be built for the purpose of radio. In the world the first building built for radio is in German, the tour guide told us later.

The Broadcasting House was built in 1932 by Colonel Val Myer, and was badly bombed during the Second World War. In Oct 1944, seven BBC staff died in the most serous attack. Then it went through reinvention again and again during the 1950s and 1960s.

Right now Broadcasting House is undergoing extensive redevelopment. By the completion of whole project, the new Broadcasting House will become a BBC village, with about 4,500 staff working in it.

At this moment Broadcasting House is only the home for radio 3 and radio 4. I have hoped that I could visit the studio of Today Programme. Sadly, the tour guide told me that all the news programmes are not produced here.

On the front façade of the building, there are two statues. They are Ariel and Prospero, from Shakespeare’s last play, the Tempest. Ariel represents the spirit of air.

Once stepped into the Broadcasting House, we are forbidden to take any pictures.

Breathing sculpture picture taken by Lei Yang

Only when we arrived at the top of the building, we are allowed to take pictures of the terrace.

Opposite the building, there’s an artwork, called Breathing sculpture. The sculpture is a memorial to news reporters and crews who have lost their lives.

If I was asked to recommend an inspirational film to a friend, the movies at the top of my list would be little Miss Sunshine and The Shawshank Redemption.

I still remember after I watched The Shawshank Redemption, I was too excited to stay still on the chair.

A lazy person like me began to clean the room for releasing the emotions accumulated while I was watching the movie.

In the later days I learned that in that year’s Oscar Award, The Shawshank Redemption earned numerous nominations but was finally defeated by Forrest Gump.

Another movie I would recommend is Little Miss Sunshine.

I watched it long after it had won enormous praises from all fields. I was afraid that the movie was not up to its fame. The truth it is worthy of the name.

Yesterday I watched it again, finally found myself cried with laughter, smile with tears.

.

Strictly speaking it’s not an inspirational movie as The Shawshank Redemption, it’s an alternative one.

It teaches me to look at life from another angle. It challenges me to reassess my definition about success and failure.

There are several witty dialogues in the movie.

The most impressive one is the dialogue between Uncle Frank and Olive’s brother Dwayne.

Dwayne: Sometimes I just wish I could go to sleep till I was 18, and skip all this crap – high school and everything – just skip it.

Frank: You know Marcel Proust?

Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.

Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he, uh, he gets down to the end of his life and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, those were the best years of his life. ‘Cause they made him who he was. All the years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18, ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean, high school? High School – Those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.

Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. You know, school, then college, then work? Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I wanna fly, I’ll find a way to fly. You do what you love and fuck the rest.

I wrote down the interesting script to remind me of always treating the torture as a treasure.

Sufferings make us grow more quickly. It’s easier to forget happy moment than painful memory.

Another sentence should also be paid attention to , is Grandfather’s encouraging words for Little Olive:

Losers are those who are afraid of failure, and never give a try.You are already a winner.

Although Little Miss Sunshine is a movie full of losers, it does not lack of spirits of striving for success. And the attitude toward success is healthier than the traditional value。

Should not we live in this way, calmly accept results if you’ve tried your best.

The most fantastic thing is that you would never expect where the news story will lead you to.

When I carried out my first interview on the Kenmore Clinic, I met a lady from that area.

She expressed strong opposition to the close down of the clinic and invited me to visit her women’s club on Wednesday evening.

When I arrived here, I found a group of old ladies gathered together for women’s talk. Meeting each other on Wednesday Evening is their routines since 1960s.

kenmore women club picture taken by Lei Yang

While because of the news I brought to them, the close down of the clinic, they have to find another place for meeting.

I’ve never expected that my first news story could play such a role in common UK people’s life.

And I fortunately and sadly witnessed the whole incident.

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As a student studying journalism, we are assigned to find news resource by ourselves.

One of good ways to find news clues is following local newspaper, Harrow Observer is one of the two local newspapers serving the people where I live.

The following is the first story I found on the newspaper.

I took part in the Council meeting and talked with local people for their response for this news.

kenmore clinic face the fate of close down picture taken by Lei Yang

A Clinic serving the local people over 50 years is to be closed.

Kenmore Clinic, a single story building in East Harrow, has to see off its patients transferring to nearby clinics due to a report on its poor conditions and hygiene problems.

“From today I am going to send the statement to my staff and surrounding residents about the closure of the Kenmore clinic,” said Chief Executive of Harrow PCT Sarah Crowther.

The PCT’s decision was based on The Health and Safety review carried out in Aug 2008. The problems for the Kenmore clinic site included: poor state of the windows, doors and floors; inadequate heating provision and hygiene problems.

The Harrow PCT was challenged by the local councillors yesterday evening with its de-cant plan for the Kenmore clinic site.

Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee doubted the inconvenience the de-cant plan would bring for the locals. They suggested the Harrow PCT consulted local people first and designed a more detailed plan for de-cant and redevelopment of this site.

Sarah reassured that she would send message to the local people: ”Don’t worry. We are committed to re-open the clinic. ”

There are still concerns arousing among the local people.

“We can not wait for them to redevelop this site, because we will be dead by then.” Beryl Carden said.

The lady admitted that the building needed closing. She described the chairs in the building were “disgusting”.

She hoped that the PCT would find somewhere close for them if the knocking down of the building were inevitable.

floating heart

16-Year Old Song
an old song by a has been singer Jiang Yuheng , who was once famous from UFO culture communication company in Taiwan moved me into tears tonight.

I’ve never imagined after 16 years, when this old song resonated in my dorm, suddenly , it seems I was hit by the lyrics , and I found myself already in tears.

It’s not only about love, it’s more about nostalgia.

English Version

Although there’s an English version for this song, the lyrics was not fit with the original one.

I’d rather to translate into this way:
I have thought that my life is one journey after another
life is made up of all the tickets from one station to another
Everyday I lived in a differnt place other than home
where I thought there is always an adventure for me
after days of waftage, after years of loneliness
I returned to the starting point
then I realized that
I missed the people I met along the way
floating heart wants to take a rest now

Cyberspace Security

After Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Campaign on 5th Nov, he was hoped to bring dramatic changes to American people who had voted for him.

At the same time one of changes he has to make is probably giving up his habit of using Blackberry once he comes to the White house, according to New York Times.

In consideration of cyberspace security, the president-elect Obama was advised to abandon electronic communication afterwards.

Blackberry Picture taken by Lei Yang

It is true that to be a great man is not an easy job.

I could not imagine that if I was forced not to use e-mail or mobile phones any more, the basic tools I use everyday to contact with my friends, how life would be.

Oval Office With No Computer

It’s more amusing to read the story on.

Three days before George W. Bush ‘s first inauguration, he sent a message to 42 friends and relatives to explain that he could not conduct private conservations with them through E-mail anymore.

And Bill Clinton never sent emails during his presidential term.

The details revealed by this story totally shattered my imagination about oval office.

I have thought that the office of U.S president is equipped with the most advanced digital products, it turns to be that on the desk there’s even no computer.

Obama has expressed his wish to be the first president to have a laptop on his desk, while that’s still waiting to be decided.