High Five News!

When I was at Sky News recently, I helped Five News put together a package for Second Life.

I helped reporter Jason Farell to navigate his way around the virtual world. The footage here of his avatar in the world is my work.




It feels weird that even though I didn't appear in this video, the work I did IS in there!

I am writing one of my dissertation topics on my time with Five News and Second Life, as it is very apparent to my topic.

Just thought I'd share this with you. Some people didn't seem to like it on YouTube though!

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I don't know why people are playing in game in which the are normal in normal world? Because they can dance?

I will still play in World of Warcraft... and when i would like a life i will meet with my palls and go on a party.

Not everyone can like it obviously. As for me, I am going to continue my love affair with Second Life!

Home is where your heart sits in its trees.

I am getting ready to move into my first big girl house in London.

I came across it quite accidentally when I was looking for houses in Gum tree (okay so not THAT accidentally). But it was accidentally perfect.

When I went to look around it, I just fell in love with it and prayed the other house mates would like me enough to ask me back.

It’s going to be nice living in a real house after a year of living in halls at university. I will appreciate small things like having a bath and a living room.

The area is gorgeous too, there are pretty polka dotted cafes and used book shops.

Importantly, there are also a lot of trees! I like trees, they make me feel safe.

It is a village and so has this cosy feeling about it that makes you feel like you’re not in London, which I like.

The thing with working in London is that sometimes you need to escape it and living somewhere like this is the perfect thing to combat city stress.

We’re also planning on getting two cats, a mum and a baby if it goes through with the adoption.

Cats have a way of making a home feel like a home. The way they lounge around the house and eye you lazily when you walk through the door.

They also always seem to know when something is wrong.

I move out in a week, so I am tres excited about having my first home here.

Going Green

In this modern age, everything is so easy for us. I don’t feel challenged in my daily life any more, at least not by anything I can control.

I decided that I wanted to give something up for a month, to see if I could do it.

This has previously been alcohol (which lasted once for 2 days, the next for 7 weeks), chocolate ( That last 45 seconds) and now I wanted to try being a vegetarian.

It is not for moral reasons, it is also not permanent. I know a lot of people will think it stupid only doing it for a month, when some people choose it as a lifestyle choice or because of they feel about animals. Or because their dad gave them food poisoning with a sausage.

But then the key word in that is choice. This is my own.

I want to write an article on the life of someone who loves meat (that would be me) to go without it.

This is harder than you think, I had to go shopping and found out how expensive Quorn is! I decided to do without and mainly eat veggies.

I also went to a Chinese last night with my friend Bea. Who knew hot and sour soup had meat in it?! I didn’t, so I had to eat it without the prawns or whatever else was in there.

The key is, you have to ask before you eat at restaurants!

This is only day 3 and already I have nearly messed it up.

Update: Friday 24th Aug:- Last night I also botched up by using beef stock cube in my veggie soup. Apparently this isn't allowed :D

Sky's the limit!

The last week and a half at Sky News have been amazing and a lot of hard work.

I am absolutely amazed by the whole place really, it is just really busy all the time. The hard bit has been getting up at 5 am each day, as there is a news meeting each day at 7.30 am. But once you get through the dragging yourself out of bed bit, it’s not really so bad.

I enjoy the news meetings in the morning a lot; they are my favourite part of the day. Hearing people’s ideas for the day ahead really gets you going.

I have been involved in writing quite a lot of articles, which is more than I could say really for the experience I have had in the past.

Volunteering ideas in the morning really works and the thing I like about Sky is that they really do welcome their work experience people. They are willing to give you a chance and it’s ace.

Today I got involved with Five News and they were doing a video package on Second Life. BINGO! Perfect for me because of my dissertation. Basically Five are doing an introduction to SL because they want to do a piece on SL and terrorism, but their viewers or some of them may have no idea, hence the need for an introduction.

I was working with the reporter Jason Farrell, who is the crime correspondent for Five. My role was to move his avatar around SL and change the camera angle with the world so that the viewer could be given a better view. Our activity and navigation in SL was being recorded and was then edited into the overall package.

I watched the programme afterwards and my footage was on there and I had actually helped with something that went on television. What was more I got to interview Jason afterwards and I am going to use that for my dissertation.

What’s more, they are saying I can do an article soon for them on Second Life, so things are looking good.

First article on Sky News!

Women And Beer? A Question Of Taste

By Sarah Andrews
Sky News Online
Updated: 21:50, Tuesday August 07, 2007

I was sitting on the grass having a bit of Bishops Finger and wondering where all the women were.

The Campaign for Real Ale Festival did not seem to have attracted too many females and I was feeling a little out of my element.

Ale is not a male preserve

This may also have been due to the fact that I was in fact sitting in Earl's Court on a patch of fake grass and that I had discovered that I really did not like Bishops Finger ale.

When you think of a real ale festival you think of groups of bearded men with matching t-shirts.

They were definitely present - but I was here to see what the experience would be like for a woman.

There were many bars serving beer, lager and ale from all over.

Some of the bars had made a particular effort; one even had a double-decker bus you could sit in.

The Bishops Finger stand was decorated in a stereotypical chauvinistic advert, which had a woman, legs spread, adorned with medieval dress, with the slogan, 'Nothing satisfies me like a Bishops Finger'. Charming.

So, of course, there is a male stereotype here because that is who the advertisers aim at.

The effort to appeal to women was being made elsewhere, though.

My favourite - like cherryade

Camra caught onto the fact that women don't really like pint glasses. Elegant little 1/3-of-a-pint glasses that meant women could drink without feeling crude.

I was determined to find a beer I liked to prove that this was not all about men.

I tried three different types: The first was Blond Witch, which was a very feminine drink and I was attracted to it just because of the name. But I couldn't drink a lot of it.

I wasn't alone after all!

Then I tried Welsh Black, which to be honest, tasted like medicine.

The last was my favourite, a cherry beer - Kriek, to give it its exact name. It was a little like drinking cherryade and I think it would prove a hit with the ladies.

I learnt that there was more to ale than the dark, bitter substance I associate it with.

There was a vast array of lagers, beers and ales in a spectrum of styles and flavours more varied than wine.

It really just depends on your taste and if you women out there have any, I'd recommend trying the Real Ale Festival for yourself.

(You can find this on http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1278999,00.html)

There's newt to it!

This is Newton Faulkner. Everyone loves him, including me.

He is a singer song writer, and his album Hand Built by Robots is becoming very popular!

I went onto his website and applied for tickets to go and see him, but I didn’t think anything would happen, because I never win anything ever! (Mainly because I never apply for competitions, but this is besides my point dear reader.)

So I got a missed phone call from Sony today, never even occurred to me what it was about. But thanks to modern technology, (not toilet brushes) they e-mailed me!

So on Monday, I am to attend the recording of the Album Chart Show for Channel 4! It’s going to be filmed at the Koko club in Camden and I am going to be in the audience.

Performing will be Calvin Harris, Katie Tunstall, and Kate Nash also! I am rather excited and will update on how it went.