Success ... but just barely.
At 12:50 AM last night, sitting in the only internet cafe that is open in Islamabad (the uber-expensive $5/hour business center at the Holiday Inn), I was desperately trying to upload my story on the Pakistan judicial crisis for Free Speech Radio News. Everything that could go wrong did.
My laptop wouldn't recognize the wireless network.
The man who said I could borrow his flashdrive to get the audio file off my laptop had gone home.
And, when I finally decided to buy a CD to burn the file, my normally-reliable mac became estranged from its cousin the CD Rom drive - not recognizing its very existence.
I finally got the file uploaded at 1:06AM, 6 minutes after FSRN's satellite uplink deadline with Pacifica.
I was pretty upset - had worked for two days straight with little sleep to finalize the story and, as FSRN had never told me what the deadline was, I was taken by surprise by their email saying "upload it in 10 minutes or we go without it." That email was at 12:20am...
I trudged home through the quiet and empty streets, mildly concerned that the fine folks at my nearby guest house might have locked up and written me off for dead. I went to sleep and had nasty stress dreams about how I had missed the deadline, wondering if all that time was wasted.
Didn't want to get up this morning, but woke up when exterra called me from India. I told her I was feeling depressed for missing the deadline...
and she told me that the story was up on the FSRN website. :)
Here's the full broadcast for the day. My story starts just past half way through.
Stay tuned on the situation here - the Supreme Court's initial decision on whether the suspended Chief Justice can challenge his ouster is expected later this week. It could be a turning point here, where military rule has been the norm and no elected government has ever served out its full term.
My laptop wouldn't recognize the wireless network.
The man who said I could borrow his flashdrive to get the audio file off my laptop had gone home.
And, when I finally decided to buy a CD to burn the file, my normally-reliable mac became estranged from its cousin the CD Rom drive - not recognizing its very existence.
I finally got the file uploaded at 1:06AM, 6 minutes after FSRN's satellite uplink deadline with Pacifica.
I was pretty upset - had worked for two days straight with little sleep to finalize the story and, as FSRN had never told me what the deadline was, I was taken by surprise by their email saying "upload it in 10 minutes or we go without it." That email was at 12:20am...
I trudged home through the quiet and empty streets, mildly concerned that the fine folks at my nearby guest house might have locked up and written me off for dead. I went to sleep and had nasty stress dreams about how I had missed the deadline, wondering if all that time was wasted.
Didn't want to get up this morning, but woke up when exterra called me from India. I told her I was feeling depressed for missing the deadline...
and she told me that the story was up on the FSRN website. :)
Here's the full broadcast for the day. My story starts just past half way through.
Stay tuned on the situation here - the Supreme Court's initial decision on whether the suspended Chief Justice can challenge his ouster is expected later this week. It could be a turning point here, where military rule has been the norm and no elected government has ever served out its full term.