That’s me facilitating a journalism ethics workshop at the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City last November 8. I think this picture clearly reflects my preoccupation in the days and months to come.

Today (November 28) is the last day of the three-day writing and editing workshop I conducted for 15 officers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

What will keep me preoccupied in the immediate future?

I will travel to Lucena City on December 2 (yes, a Sunday!) to speak at a regional journalism convention on two topics: Journalism Ethics and Column Writing.

I also accepted an invitation from the Third World Studies Center (TWSC) to be a discussant to a forum on the proposed amendment of Republic Act No. 53 (Shield Law). This will be held on December 3 (Monday), 1 to 4 p.m. at the conference room of Balay Kalinaw in UP Diliman. I think the invitation for me to be one of the speakers is due to a position paper I submitted to the Senate early this year. ABS-CBN Interactive actually uploaded a news story in February 2007 which heavily quoted from this position paper.

On January 25 (Saturday), I will travel to Sorsogon to give two seminars at another regional journalism convention, this time on Online Publishing and Column Writing.

I apologize if, for security reasons, I cannot disclose the venue of my two out-of-town lectures.

Aside from these confirmed speaking engagements, there is a two-day writing workshop I am supposed to conduct within the second week of December for public and private sector employees, but the organizers have not yet confirmed if this will push through. A Catholic high school within Quezon City is also requesting a one-day journalism workshop but we still need to agree on the date and topics.

I have also accepted editorial consultancy work for a government agency, at the request of a former student who is now an officer there. An international human rights group has also requested me to write a paper on media and the Human Security Act.

Will there still be time to sleep? I sincerely hope so! Thank you for reading and I’m sorry if this post borders on shameless plugging.