On Kosovo

I worked yesterday morning at 5 a.m. on the Newsworld ticker, meaning I write the short, snappy and hopefully grammatically correct headlines that scroll across the bottom of the screen on CBC's 24-hour news channel. The cool thing about the job is that you're normally the first among all CBC platforms to report anything breaking -- TV, radio and online all need to write scripts or stories, change lineups and either broadcast or publish the results, while on the crawl, I write out my roughly 200 characters including spaces (which, by the way, is very short) and pow, it's on TV.

This was particularly exciting yesterday as breakaway Serbian province Kosovo prepared to declare its independence and become the world's newest country. And, because of the speed and ease of getting it up I was able to update with each minute step towards independence: first the fact that it was anticipated, then with the prime minister saying they would, then with parliament meeting, then with the reading of the independence document, then with parliament voting, signing and celebrating their new Republic of Kosovo.

And, of course, it didn't stop there. From that point on, it was a flurry of activity with revellers hitting the streets in Pristina, protesters throwing rocks at embassies and a speedy international response, including Serbia saying they would never recognize the 'illegal' declaration and Russia calling for a UN security council meeting to revoke the declaration. Later, Afghanistan became the first to recognize the new country -- an essential part of actually becoming independent for the Kosovars -- and several others are expected to follow suite today, including bigwigs like the U.S., Britain and France.

The whole thing was rather thrilling, and I watched every new report from Pristina, update on the BBC and newsflash on the wires breathlessly. To me it was an obvious embodiment of one of my favourite sayings about journalism -- that it's writing history on the run.

Now of course, my newsflashes along the bottom of the ticker won't go down in history like the news reports and various stories both online and in newspapers. Students writing papers on Kosovo from this week onward will be looking for those items, but my record may fade into oblivion. I do however, take heart that I got to watch every minute of it, livestreamed online and replayed on various news channels almost instantly and in my own little way feel like some small part of it.

Feb-brr-ary

Toronto is cold. Not just like "Ok, I'll bundle up and grab a hat cold" but the "If I stand outside for more than 10 minutes, I risk frostbite" cold.

Which has put a damper on my mood. I don't like being cold. And in Toronto, the cold seems to cut right through you. And stay.

Additionally, I'm only succeeding at one of my three resolutions -- sleeping more -- and am once again fending off some sort of illness.

But, with the fire place roaring and my blanket wrapped tightly around me, things are starting to look up. I'm thawing out, mourning the demise of the Halifax Daily News and the pall it casts on the future of newspapers in general, and watching Gilmore Girls.

I've been plugging away at the wedding list of to-dos, going to work and job hunting, and things are going well. I'll be anxiously watching the confidence motion being introduced tomorrow on Afghanistan, the ensuing debates and the unveiling of the budget on Feb. 26. Not that a winter election is a must, or even necessarily the best thing for the country, but my pocketbook and political interest will be well satisfied by the government's fall.

So, here's hoping that Stephane Dion takes the Conservatives to task and that I find the perfect shoes and accessories for my summer wedding (my next key to-do).

Now, to blog on the terrible Zednik hit and the arrests in Tampa of two of my Habs.

I will hopefully have some noteworthy things to report on my next update, until then, keep your fingers crossed on my behalf for a federal election -- it's almost as good as the playoffs!