I'm ok.

After a week of not posting anything, not even links, I've started getting e-mails from people with subject lines like "are you ok?"

Yes, I am. For a while I wasn't though. I lost my voice, was diagnosed with "acute laryngitis," and was generally flattened for the better part of two weeks. I have never taken so long to recover from something like this. Nearly three weeks after I first started to get sick, I still wake up in the morning feeling weak and nauseous - and no, I'm not pregnant, that is absolutely, completely, impossible given my general lack of a personal life for the past year. I wonder if the excessively polluted air in Hong Kong lately has something to do with it.

It has been a pretty exhausting few months since I moved to Hong Kong, I must admit. I've been over-committed on pre-existing projects and writing commitments that I brought with me. My teaching load has been heavy. People say that the first semester teaching full-time is always a ton of work under the best of circumstances - let alone when you're the only person teaching anything related to "new media" to both undergraduates and graduates in a journalism program. Plus the pressure is already on to churn out academic research ASAP...

I feel bad because there are lots of people here in Hong Kong who I've been wanting to be in touch with, who I've failed to even contact since I arrived. I'm months behind on returning a lot of e-mails from people who I really need to respond to, and I've failed to spend quality time with visiting friends and colleagues. So if you're one of those people, please accept my apologies and don't take it personally.

Comments

[Beijing Loafer]

Take good care of yourself. Remember - Health is the capital for any revolution (身体是革命的本钱）!

[mahathir_fan]

Btw, how easy is it to get the name "Rebecca MacKinnon" into the 2008 Presidential ballot?

So far I am only reading about a handful of candidates for this job: Obama, Hilary, Mccain, Guilini.

Do not tell me that for the world's most prestigious job that there is only less than 10 Americans interested in it. That BS.

If "Rebecca MacKinnon" does not want to be listed as a 2008 Presidential hopeful, then let's get one of the American bloggers to do it. Failure to get any grassroot candidates into the 2008 Presidential race would be a sign that the political market in the US is monopolized by certain groups and that it is time to reevaluate if America indeed qualifies as a democracy.

[mahathir_fan]

An important American document once claimed that "all men are created equal". Yet racial discrimination was in existence in America for nearly 2 centuries.

In the same manner, some documents claim that America is a democracy. But it is really a democracy?

So, given that there are so many causes you are fighting for, why don't you run for the Presidential election next year? You will then be able to use your position as the President of the US to force some things you want to see happen in this world.

In fact, I want to challenge every American who is reading this to submit their name for next year's Presidential election and prove to me that America is indeed a democracy where there is freedom to run for political office. Otherwise, I am thinking that perhaps the phrase "America is a democracy" is just a colourful phrase which does not reflect reality, similar to how America believed that "all men are created equal" yet practiced racial discrimination for nearly 2 centuries.

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

MF you never cease to amuse and entertain.

[eoin]

Welcome back. Let me let you into the secret of academic life: there's never enough time for the writing projects - unfortunately. Get well soon.