One of the blessings of technology is the option to do your job even if you don’t report to the workplace. Thanks to the Internet, online editing is possible, enabling editors to perform their functions just as efficiently.

A quick overseas trip has pulled me out of the workplace to attend a planning conference for the  holding of a biennial conference for Asian educators late this year. With access to the Internet and emails, the preparation of this issue appears just as routinary although I have to admit a couple of articles were edited way ahead of the usual deadline.

This week, in our calendar featured on the opposite page, Commonwealth countries are initiating a global campaign encouraging people to stop smoking. The figures speak of more than one billion persons hooked into smoking today, with more than five million of them eventually becoming part of the mortality statistics. In the next two decades, 80 percent of the deaths will take place in developing countries.

Doing our share in instilling greater public consciousness on the dangers of smoking, either first-hand or second-hand smoking in public and work places, we are running a sidebar on one of the biggest public threats in the world – smoking, considered a high-risk factor in, among others, cancer, lung ailments and cardio-vascular diseases.

On Saturday, Negros Occidental will select its representative to the nationwide Miss Teen Philippines search which will be held in Davao end of May. We are featuring the local hopefuls, two of whom will advance to the national finals.

For those who like travel and adventure, there’s another exciting experience to explore. It is known as ‘white water rafting’, which is popular in many parts of Canada, the United States and Europe. White water rafting is experienced  in rivers with a significant number of rapids, usually caused by gradient drops that result in the formation of bubbly and frothy waters.

DAILY STAR writer Nida Buenafe experienced the thrill of white water rafting when she recently went to Cagayan de Oro City for a journalism training. And what better way to forget writing about the seriousness of peace and reconciliation initiatives, which was the thrust of her training, than an outdoor trip to the river and discover its thrills and shrills.

And still on travel, there’s a place in exotic Bali whose name is literally translated as “a place of meditation”. The sprawling seafront destination offers lush gardens and scattered cottages to ensure the privacy of guests who treasure reflective moments when they’re not exploring the long stretch of the coast which is just a stone’s throw away from this quiet place. Join us as in this sojourn to that “place of meditation” on this relaxing StarLife Sunday.