Electronic Renaissance

2010-02-20T05:47:00.000-08:00

Because you have to...

2008-08-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

After reading Dooce's post on having a celebrity top five fuck list. I have considered mine for all of two minutes and have come up with the following:

 Chris Martin
 Jake Gyllenhaal
 David Bowie
 Alex Zane
 Marc Ronson

Reasoning:

Chris - Mainly because of his voice and his talent. Also I LOVE his hair.
Jake - Just because he is really tall and has the element of being able to look after you, while still having that stupidly pretty face.
Bowie - Because after I saw The Labyrinth as a child, I was never the same again.
Alex - He's a little bit crazy and has the prettiest eyes in the world. FACT. Also, his dress sense is HOT.
Marc - His face is divine and I'd love to see him on the decks! :)

I wouldn't even mind all five at once really..

Saturday evening duvet ramblings

2008-04-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have run me ragged. This is a culmination of starting a new job, going to events for said job and starting rehearsals for a new play.

My new play is called The Beguiled and is about: A wounded union soldier is discovered by a young student from a nearby girl’s school, during the American civil war. He finds refuge in the school of haunted women, behind confederate lines, with only his wit and a way with women to try and see him through. John McBurney struggles to survive. But the ladies of Farnsworth Academy are strange creatures and behind their Southern charm lies something else...Something Evil.

It has also been a film with Clint Eastwood in it, and no I am not playing his character.

The rehearsals are kind of intense, and as this is my first play, I am becoming quite worn out by doing this and work.

So today I had a duvet day and spent the entire time caressing and bonding with said duvet and had an all round unproductive day!

I am now entirely addicted to Gossip Girl , which is by the creator of The OC (which I also had to see a therapist about). I watched about four episodes today and Oh Em Gee was it worth it.

That said, it’s not as quirky as The OC, and I don’t have a favourite character. No one really stands out like Summer or Seth, they just don’t have that IT, that zing.

My addictions can now be counted on one hand-Lost, The L Word and Gossip Girl. Yes please.

Why Can't You Shave in the Toilet?

2008-04-17T04:06:00.001-07:00

It is absolute law in London that you must not and I repeat MUST NOT talk to, or look at or in any way indicate that you have noticed that there are other people also using public transport.
It is especially amusing to me that at 11PM when everyone wants to die, because they’re still sardining it in a train at THATTIMEOFNIGHT that the sound of a guitar can be heard.

People look around in horror like, ‘Wait…is that..some sort of strange creature making that noise?’

The genius behind all this chaos are two very homeless looking guys (beards, clothes that don’t look like they’ve been washed etc) singing protest songs. One was called ‘Why can’t you shave in the toilet?’ This was a protest song about shaving and public toilets and quite a spiffing way of getting your point across if you ask me.

They even had a CD! I did not buy it however, just in case it was really porn or something (which isn’t bad, but may have been a home movie of their own making).

London Calling:

2008-04-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

[Phone ringing] Briiinnnggggg Briiinnnggg, briiinnng brinngggg.

‘Hello?’

‘Hello, yes. This is London here.’

‘Oh…you.’

‘Yes, yes. I was just calling to tell you I HATE YOU.’

Ew.

2008-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have updated this and it is partly because I am bad, horrible person.
On another note, my fear of London grew to even greater extremes last week when something horrible happened.

I was innocently standing (if I could ever be innocent) and waiting for a train, and was rather petrified by SCARYBIGMANTALKINGONHISPHONEALLWEIRD, and then eyeing up the old woman who was kinda twitching and talking to herself, and so decided to concentrate on memorising a script.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw these shapes coming towards me. Have you ever got that feeling, when you just know something’s going to happen? That felt to me like a dozen magpies pecking me from the inside out.

Then of course, something did happen.The figures, who turned out to be teenagers walked even closer and then the one closest put his hands between my legs, said something really horrible and walked off with his friends laughing.

This is called SEXUAL ASSAULT and I kicked him in the balls and then got him arrested, where he’s really regretting what he did now.

Actually, if you backtrack, I did nothing of the sort. I was so shocked that I didn’t even react. I couldn’t do anything and didn’t believe that it had just happened.

I ended up sobbing my eyes out on the way home and ironically had run out of battery on my phone.

The friendly people of London like to pretend that other people don’t really exist most of the time, but when you’re crying, not only do you not exist to them, you’re not even a part of any plane that they’re working on. No one came to help and no one asked if I was okay.
I’m not expecting a Superman really, but this really is the unfriendliest place in the world.

Anyway, whilst I got off the train in West Norwood station, I was still crying and told a police officer who was on patrol. He walked me home and took all my details.

MY SAVIOUR! Right? Wrong!! He didn’t call me back as promised has not filed the incident and now it’s like it never happened.

I intend to take action though, oh yes. All sexually depraved teenagers better watch out, this girl’s on a revenge mission.

Potter Puppet Pals (Say that 10 times!)

2008-03-24T15:00:00.001-07:00

The hilarious PPP have won themselves an award (Best Comedy at the 2007 YouTube Video Awards) and rightly so. Here's one amusing, half smirking, video for you to spend two minutes of your time with:

Linked.

2007-10-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing the way that a simple incident can really make you think. A little too hard really for a Thursday morning. Don’t you know Thursdays are NOT thinking days. Our cleaner Barbara told me today that a friend of hers had died, and explained how she had come to know him.

Barbara met this man through his wife, who she initially met in an antenatal clinic. It was extraordinary how many coincidences linked their lives together. This random woman that Barbara met was called Sandra. Sandra was also pregnant, and after Barbara left that same anti-natal clinic in tears after being told she was going into hospital, Sandra too was given the same news. They had two girls, born twelve days apart. They also lived just down the street from each other. If that couldn’t be any more ‘meant to be’, Barbara discovered that Sandra used to live in the house that she, Barbara had grown up in. It seemed to me that the story was based more around their friendship, and not Sandra’s (ex) husband, the deceased. Their girls have grown up being best friends and all this because of a random meeting. Essentially it was because of their children that they had ever met.

It made me think how much of our lives are governed and how much really is just co-incidence. Perhaps there is no coincidence, but human vanity either hates being powerless and omitting to fate, or can’t take responsibility for their own lives and only look to fate. Perhaps it’s not even as closed as that.

You tend to listen to these stories more, like in terms of thinking about them afterwards, (or what I call hind-listening, the acoustic version of hindsight) when your own life is in transition. You look to how other people are dealing with their own lives, see how they get through it. It’s not all about sinking or swimming, sometimes it’s just about floating and seeing where the current takes you. I’m okay just bobbing along right now, and looking for the coincidences that fate likes to cough up every now and again. That’s enough right now.

High Five News!

2007-08-26T03:33:00.001-07:00

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!

Inmemorial (4 days ago) Show Hide

(Reply) (Spam)

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.

2007-08-23T11:45:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-03T14:45:00.001-07:00

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.

Talking Potter my generation

2007-07-24T12:20:00.001-07:00

“I belong to the Harry Potter generation. Before the movies, the fame and the merchandise, came us, reading the books before bedtime.”- Vhari Leishman

(There are no spoilers in this post).

There were a lot of people, and when I say a lot, that may be an understatement, waiting for the Harry Potter book on Friday. Yes, I know everyone is talking about it. I also know that it is massively hyped in the media and some people may be sick of hearing about it.

I am not in this post going to talk about the book, but instead the reaction to the book. As I was saying, there has been a lot of waiting going on. I have been reading these books since I was 13 years old and I really have grown up with them. In those years, Harry Potter became more of a media storm, as we all know, when the movies started coming out. Of course the whole thing is going to get back lash, you can’t have good press without the bad press. There are people that argue that Rowling cannot write that the whole thing is a scam and a complete waste of time. In other words, of course there is negativity about the books. I wouldn’t think it would natural if there wasn’t.

On Friday 20^th of July I was standing outside of Waterstones on Oxford Street along with thousands of other fans. I was not waiting for the book, because I hadn’t bought a tent. I wanted to see instead the reaction of these people who to love the books as much as I did. Some people had made a real effort; spend literally hours on their costumes. I think the creativity that went into some of was genius. These people were really loving coming together and celebrating a mutual love of something that is a solitary activity; reading.

So I get highly annoyed when people are posting videos of themselves running around shouting spoilers that were leaked onto the web, just before the book was released

Why on earth do people think it is funny to go out and ruin something that people have waited for, for as long as ten years? Those few seconds they shouted spoilers in the book store, ruined all those years of waiting to see what had happened. It’s simple, if you don’t like HP, then don’t read it.

I am not arguing for the books, but I am arguing for people’s rights to not want to know what is going to happen, until they have read it. Of course people also have the right to go out and ruin something if they choose, that’s not what I am debating. But they should not be ALLOWED to do it. You can argue that the Harry Potter media frenzy, all of it, wizards, magic and all is immature and pointless. Well so then, is what these people had done to ruin the collective enjoyment that thousands of people were getting out of this. Perhaps when they had finished, they went home to their one bedroomed sad and pathetic lives, where they could think of other ways to ruin people’s enjoyment in a sad attempt to try and make up for the fact that don’t get any other form of communication from people. I am very glad I didn’t run into them personally, to those that did, I am sure that like me they still enjoyed reading the book in bed. Here’s to the Harry Potter generation.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

2007-07-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Ah Boris, so lovable, how could it not be possible for him to create a smile when he announces his candidacy to run for London mayor?

The thing is, it’s not just smiles you want coming from a mayor. Everybody knows that Ken Livingstone is a strong candidate for the title of mayor if he were to run again, so does Boris has a chance against him? That remains to be seen obviously, but from a shallow perspective, Boris looks like a much more enjoyable mayor.

I know a lot of people who have reacted positively to his announcement, but I think this is mainly because of his persona. He is en entertainer essentially, after being on programmes such as Have I got News for You, but that maybe that’s all there is to deal old Boris unfortunately.

I don’t think so though, I think he has a steely intellect behind that bumbling exterior and that he calculates all this chaos that surrounds him in the form of a disorganised personality. Perhaps he will surprise everyone by his abilities that he keeps hidden. Yes he may have a reputation for not voting on anything important. I believe this is a choice, not because he is lazy. I do believe that he seems passionate about becoming mayor, and so I think perhaps when he is driven by something he will work for it.

Amusingly, he is highly popular with young people after he became the Shadow for the universities; several large Facebook groups are dedicated to him.

These include:

Boris for King

Boris for Mayor

Boris for Pope (this may be in fact taking it too far)

And the Boris Johnson Appreciation Society.

He has fans in his droves, you see?

Potter magic takes a tragic turn

2007-07-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen the fifth film of Harry Potter yet, then do not further than this. This post contains spoilers.

There is obviously a lot of hype about the new fifth instalment of the Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I like many other people awaited the films with much excitement (though of course not as much excitement as I have for the books). I have been let down by the previous four films, I just could never separate the book from the film. I used to take them way too seriously, and get annoyed when they messed bits of the plot line up.

The first time I got angry about this is when Harry’s eyes were not green in the film AND YES IT DOES MATTER. There is a huge emphasis on this in the books, quite important to the main character’s appearance. But whatever, with therapy, I got over it.

The 5th film was a huge surprise to me, when finally I could just enjoy the film for being what it was a film. I couldn’t even criticise much of it. Oh come-on, this post wouldn’t be any fun if I couldn’t criticise anything!

The first thing that annoyed me or two things were Emma Watson’s eyebrows. They look like they are having a seizure every time she speaks. My God girl, can you not control the furry little beasts? I don’t think Emma is a very good actress in the first place, she showed more promise in the 4th instalment, but went down hill from there. It’s like she puts all her efforts into the wiggling of those eyebrows to compensate for the fact she has no other expression at all. That said, she is still very pretty and that was almost enough to keep me pacified.

Rupert Grint was not given nearly enough lines; instead he seemed to look fundamentally depressed for most of it. When he did smile though, so did I. I think if he were given more to do, it would have been better for all of us.

I thought Voldemort was quite amazing, and as Kelly pointed out in a conversation, he was quite hot in the suit. This is wrong of me to think, as he resembles a cross between a snake and piece of white marble with eyes. He was quite menacing in the way he talked so softly, and was easily one of my favourite characters.

New faces emerged in this film such as Helena Bonham Carter as an immense Bellatrix and did the part justice. You gather from the books that this character is slightly unhinged and she really portrays just how crazy the woman really is. Evanna Lynch was a very amusing person to watch, because she was just so good as Luna Lovegood. It was obvious that she was a fan of the books, as the way she came across as Luna really allowed you to feel there was much more to this character, which Evanna knew too. Old faces such as Gary Oldman as Sirius Black and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape are as always fantastic to watch in their subtlety of acting.

The scene between Dumbledore and him fighting was incredible and was my favourite scene of the whole film. It’s easy to see why Dumbledore was the only wizard that Voldermort ever feared; they are very equal in their power. I think the reason that Harry can destroy him and Dumbledore can’t, is because as the film reveals, Voldermort chose Harry as his enemy. When he tried to kill him, he created his equal.

I am glad that they showed Ginny being sad when she saw that Harry was waiting behind with Cho, this is giving subtle clues to the audience, which is clever. Though the actual romance between Harry and Cho seems to distinguish almost immediately and the film does not pay it the attention that it should.

There were many things I loved about the film, and I am not going to make a huge list of them here. You will have to go and see it for yourself. I did and what’s more, I am going to see it again tonight.

Glastonbury is second best to Secondfest

2007-06-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Sick of hearing about Glastonbury and all that mud? Tired of hearing people complain about wet they were, despite the fact they saw all those amazing bands? You could tell them to put a welly in it (instead of a sock, it’s more fitting) or you could check out Secondfest.

I first heard about Secondfest through my friend Ruth’s band Mama Shamone. We had originally interviewed Mama Shamone for our journalism magazine project Six Degrees and they are now playing at the virtual festival.

According to it’s MySpace Secondfest describes itself as:

‘A virtual three-day music festival inside Second Life realised by The Guardian and Intel, featuring live music from offline and online performers, theatre, ballet, cinema, animation and general chaos. It kicks off Friday 29 June at 6pm GMT (10am SLT) and rocks and rolls until midnight (GMT) Sunday night.’

The lineup includes:

The Pet Shops Boys

New Young Pony Club

Hot Chip

Simian Mobile Disco

Mama Shamone

It’s sponsored by the Guardian and Intel, which have collaborated to show each other in a technologically favoured light. I am going to be there for the three days of the festival, because I smell one hell of a story for my magazine. The best thing is, I don’t need a tent, wellies or a guitar. Sounds like my kind of festival.

They came in their virtual droves

2007-06-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

For the magazine I am creating, I have decided to write a confessional article on people who have either been ‘cheated on’ or vice versa on Second Life. Of course, this was never going to be easy. How can people cheat on their real life partners with someone in SL, if we are all but pixels in SL?

Anyway, back to the story. I posted a question on the forum at http://www.secondlife.com to see if anybody would like to be interviewed.

The response was INCREDIBLE; I was so pleased, something like 1500 or more views and 75 replies. My momentary pleasure however was soon abated. Why you ask? (I am giving you no choice in the asking by the way.) Because these people wanted to discuss amongst themselves the very nature of my question, not to volunteer for interviewing.

Here are a few of the more interesting responses:

Apple Pinkney

'Is there anything wrong with telling you this is none of your business? You sound like one of the way too many reporters who can't think of anything original to write so you come up with another way to slam the Internet'.

Well I suppose that’s all fair I suppose, but slamming the internet? Sounds like you wanted to slam someone else Apple.

Conifer Dada

'I'm a bit of a flirt sometimes and am not averse to wearing my birthday suit from time to time in public but I'm just having fun and being a bit of a tease I'm not looking for any close relationships in SL just friends and fame!!!!!'

It’s nice that people volunteer this information.

Conan Godwin

'Bumping pixels isn't sex, and I feel sorry for anyone with such an unsatisfactory real life sexlife that they would equate the two together. So the answer is no, no one has ever cheated on their real life partner in SL because that is physically impossible.Cyber "sex"( for want of a better word) is more like co-authoring a porno script together than actually having sex as such.'

That’s that then Conan, clearly the discussion is over.

All in all, I had a lot of brilliant feedback, and some people have offered to talk to me regarding the issue. I think I am going to interview quite a few people to get a few different perspectives. I do think am gonna use this forum from now on to get people for interviewing. It’s much handier than walking around for hours in SL, that’s for sure, my virtual legs were beginning to hurt.

Third Life

2007-06-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

It has come to that part of the journalism course, where you have to decide whether you’re going to get a job, or take on the immense final project. A few people I know have decided to get jobs, or jobs seemed to have found them unexpectedly. I am quite jealous in some ways, as it means you’re actually getting paid for what you’re doing, and that really does make all the difference after a year’s intensive course, and many unpaid placements for some.

Despite my mild green eyed monster (I would say the shade of green is similar to a pastille shade), I have the advantage of a summer I guess. Yes of course, there is work to be done, (as if my conscious would let me forget that!) but that’s interspersed with sunny mornings lying in the grass and my own deadlines.

The project that I have taken on consists of 12,000 words in the form of articles and a 3000 word critical assessment of said project. I have decided to do my project on the infamous Second Life, only it took me about 2 and half weeks to narrow my ideas down for it. I was originally going to do three 4000 word articles, on various aspects of SL, such as:

1) Journalism-with Sky News and Reuters moving into SL, is this the future of Journalism?
2) Children and SL- How beneficial or harmful to children is SL?
3) How SL has changed the lives of people in real life, for better or worse.

Strangely, this all changed when I met a woman in my virtual meanderings , who I began chatting with randomly. This woman, in the shape of a child avatar (your character on SL) started to tell me all about her real life and how awful it is. This then went onto how SL has helped to distract her from a lot of pain, and is helping her to build social connections. It all reminded me of a confessional interview, and then PING, the idea of doing my own magazine came to me.

Narrowing my ideas down more and more, my magazine is going to be a cross between Glamour and Timeout, and it’s going to be all about SL for the people in SL. It’s going to be in a PDF format, and so people within SL will be able to read it straight from their virtual world.

Of course, the hard bit I think is going to be the design. Oh and the fact that it is going to have to be many smaller articles, instead of 3 big ones. The next step is to start attending more events on SL, and interviewing more people. Finding the right person can take several days in itself, so I am going to start advertising on the SL community boards.

That’s it for now; there will be more updates as my magazine progresses!

Myspace Anonymous

2007-03-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

My name is Sarah Andrews and I am Myspaceaholic.

I hold my hand up, there’s no point in even denying it, I am truly and utterly obsessed with Myspace.

Rupert Murdoch, you have A LOT to answer for. He is the equivalent of my drug dealer, albeit one I have never met or spoken to, but the likening is still relevant.

Beginnings of An Obsession

I became a member of Myspace sometime in 2005 I think? I was not obsessed at this point, I was not even really aware of what it was. I then logged back in about January 2006 and realised that all the people I knew in real life (or a lot of them) had added me on there.

This added a whole new dimension to it! You could spy on the people you fancied, peep over at what your nemesis was doing without adding them as a friend!

But the obsession became much worse than that. It came to the point where I was changing my profile layout every few weeks, just so it looked variable. How sad was/is that? I still do it. The main point is so people don’t get bored and will keep looking at my profile! I should of course not care if people look at my profile or not, but then let’s face it, I wouldn’t be a member of Myspace in the first place if that were true.

Vanity

Many people make fun of the people on Myspace, like they can’t understand the whole concept of it. What is the point truly of it? Perhaps it is that it allows us to be a different person than we are in real life. One that is judged as quickly, but the online persona is one that has time to think of replies, can define themselves in the genres of music/films and ‘About Me’.

I am sure many people spend hours wondering what to write in there. It is a way of saying to people ‘I am interesting, really!’ I don’t mock this of course, because I AM A PART OF IT. I am as guilty as the next person.

What I am really guilty of is the picture taking. The ‘Myspace’ posing. I suppose there is a disdain of people for people like me who pose for photos. It is however through Myspace that I discovered I really like photography, and so started taking photos of others things besides myself.

The Enemy

Recently, I have discovered that people are also getting addicted to Facebook, which is a every similar concept. The one thing that I don’t personally like about Facebook is that you can not design the layout of your page; you don’t have any songs playing. Everybody’s profile is the same!

The advantages of Myspace:

1) Discovering new music

2) Networking

3) Finding out about classified things such as ‘Extras wanted’ and ‘Singers wanted’.

4) Making fun of your friends dodgy photos.

Disadvantages:

1) The need to prove yourself through your profile.

2) The feeling of self worth you have when you receive comments.

3) Emos

4) Ex’s stalking you.

5) People obsessively positing bulletins with questionnaires that no body cares about.

There you go, I have admitted my obsession. I do not have any shame and I know there are millions like me! Does that make it okay? No, but we are guilty in numbers and I say that Myspaceaholics should unite!

23 Pieces of Orange Plasticine

2007-02-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

I am such a big fan of the Orange 241 Wednesdays, what a great way to go and see the films you want to see without paying huge amounts of money.

Plus if you’re bored and can’t afford to do much (which often happens as a student which I am sure most of you know), then it’s a great way to kill a few hours.

These two that advertise it are GENIUS; I bet no one can avoid laughing at the advertisements in the cinema before the film comes on. Sometimes I wonder if I only go to see them and not on the film (which I don’t really).

That said, it is also a very strange way to kill a few hours (Why would people kill hours? They never did anything to anyone).

Staring at a screen is the weirdest thing if you think about it. I wonder how many times people blink whilst watching a film. Probably all of twice.

Television is even weirder, because you can go for whole hours staring at a screen. I suppose the cinema is just communal screen staring. Although it does have the disadvantage of people slurping coke and munching popcorn.

Tonight I am going to go and see 23 with Jim Carrey. It is about a man who becomes obsessed with this number (perhaps he can’t deal with aging?) and eventually it becomes his downfall. On the plus side, I do find Jim Carrey quite attractive for some unbeknownst reason. I think it is the fact that he can be realllly weird and all plasticine faced, but is really moving when he takes on more serious roles like in The Truman Show. We shall see how he does in this film, I think it should be stated that I am not attracted to him with the number 23 all over his face.

Pictures:

Picture of Jim Carrey from The Number 23: http://www.myvue.com

Orange tickets: www.activemediatech.com/

Picture of Orange men: www.visit4info.com/moredetails.cfm?adnum=15917

Sunday bloody sunday.

2007-02-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

My family came down this weekend-this consisted of my mum and dad, my aunt and uncle. Their main purpose was to see the Blue Man Group which I have wrote about in previous posts. But of course, they wanted to generally see London too.

So Sunday’s main objective was to go on the London Eye, and I could not tell you how excited I actually was. I was bouncing around more than the children in the queue.

I was expecting the Wheel to be a dizzying experience, but it was a lot less scary that what I thought it would be. The views of London are of course amazing and nothing quite compares to the sensation you have when you’re at the top of the wheel.

I realised that instead of taking photos of the 360 degree view of London that we had, I did in fact take about 25 and a half pictures of the Houses of Parliament. I am comfortable with this and will not show you all 25 or the half. But perhaps just this one:

However others did not enjoy it as much as I did, my boyfriend was so scared whilst we were up there that he had to read a magazine. I did not see this coming and wondered why anybody afraid of heights would do something like the London Eye in the first place, is it a type of masochism?

My mum, ten minutes after various exclamations of me yelling ‘We’re at the top of the wheel now!’ wanted to know if 'We had reached the top of the wheel yet?', as it seemed to be taking an awfully long time. Ah, mothers, consistent comedy value.

After the London Eye, we had time to kill and so we went to (wait for it folks) THE AQUARIAM. Oh yes, 6 months I have been waiting to go here. All my dreams come true!

Did you know that in the Aquariam they have fish? No? Take a look at some of the fishy folks I made friends with!

These are jellyfish. They do not like it when you take pictures of them with a flash. They rebel by turning green, how very rude.

This is a fish, he wished to remain anonymous because of his face. So we will call him Victor Mildrew, he is a very happy fish, but due to genetics and his life generally sucking, you can never tell this. Ever.

Ah the great shark. One of natures misunderstood animals/fish/mammal/what ever the hell they really are. This shark did not help his cause as he declined to talk to me.

So all in all, it was a jam packed day and I realised as my parents were down here that they were tourists in the place that I live in, but it also meant that I am a permanent tourist. It made me feel ashamed that I had not seen things like Buckingham Palace and the London Eye in the 6 months that I have lived here. On the other hand, it does make it more enjoyable doing it for free! Turns out that parents do have their uses (besides creating me and all that jazz).

Doorway to Heaven.

2007-02-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

Living in student halls is a beautiful thing, all the new friends, parties and living so close to the university.

Oh and getting the fire door kicked down by strangers at 4am. That’s always a bonus. It happened on Monday night in the deep, dark depths of the morning.

You see Monday night, is the ‘student night’, where a lot of students go to the Union bar, which is called ‘The Undercroft.’ So obviously, you expect rowdy people in the wee hours, hell, I have been one of them several times, but damaging doors for the sake of it?

For about a half hour, I had been in bed listening to the drunken ramblings of some people who don’t even live on my corridor.

Enough was enough, I was getting ready to go and tell them where they could go, then BOOOOOOOF, BOOOOOOOOOG BANNNNNNG. I was scared witless, I didn’t want to open my door after that.

The door had obviously been knocked down, and then we heard footsteps running through the corridor and that’s the last I remember.

The next morning, the door was absolutely trashed, the glass knocked out, the handle RIPPED OFF, how does anyone do that?!

Right now, there are drills going off (my brain is vibrating) making new windows in our shiny new door. On reporting it to reception, I found it had happened on two other floors.

What annoys me the most is the fact that people can get in and do that? It says a lot about the security of our halls, where I think more security than say in a house is needed. The doors are obviously inadequate and serve more as an obstacle to drunken louts than a way of leaving the building in a fire.

We only have one security guard on, and he is certainly not up to the job in my opinion. Yes that is defamatory, but they the alternating guards all seem to be old, with little English and did I mention old?

With all the students in campus, you’re telling me that we have ONE security man at night? Well I do feel safe now.

Sore fingers.

2007-01-30T06:07:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Guitar, you can slice it apart quite easily, but learning to play it is another matter.

I have had my guitar Lola, (Yes I named it, mainly because I couldn’t play it) for a year and a half. I have tried on and off to learn to play it, but to no avail

This time, oh yes, this time will be much different.

You see the guitar as a beautiful thing; it is one of the clearest ways of expressing yourself. You can instantly tell when someone is annoyed, sad or just plain ol’happy. Except in air guitar, because let’s face it, that’s just weird.

It is all about learning how to express yourself on the guitar though, through learning chords and tabs and where the hell you’re supposed to put your fingers.

I am making progress however. Through things like this:

I don’t know if it is best to teach myself or to get a teacher. Guitar lessons are very pricy though, and I am but a lowly student.

Eventually, Lola will no longer be my nemesis, and we will become friends. Until then though, my fingers will be sore and red and eventually crusted.

Photos are taken from:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/guitaracoustics/guitar_graphix/guitar_anatomy.jpg

http://www.guitar-lessons-central.com/image-files/cheatsheet.jpg

All the world is a stage.

2007-01-27T04:16:00.000-08:00

I got into the play in the drama club, which is called Howard Katz, it is about:

Katz. Howard Katz. “Father, son, husband, brother, showbiz agent, fifty and furious: Howard Katz throws his life in the air to search for his soul...’’

I didn’t just get one part. Oh no! They gave me three. I do not understand the significance of this, only that I am going to be schizophrenic until April.

Meet my new personalities:

Jess: a 40 year old. Obviously, I am going to need a lot of makeup (agree with me on this and I’ll be your best friend) She is the wife of Katz. I don’t know if this makes me a main character or not. I have never been a main character before..Ooooohhh ‘Citing!

Tina: is an agent in the same company as Katz. I know no more.

Linda: A transsexual. With an addiction to oranges. Actually, I don’t know anything about this one, only that she’s probably an extra or something?

They have the nicest names ever. It’s not like they’re exotic is it? I wanted to be called Antoinette or Fleur, or like something that isn’t the female equivalent of TONY.

But as a newly dedicated actress, I will no longer answer to you as the Sarah you all know. I am going to be one of the three lovely ladies.

Watch out, Tina bites.

Don't kill the Freedom of Information Act!!!

2007-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

Ash has been working on the Press Gazette, who support the following petition to save the FOI act. I think as journalists, it is so important that we sign this petition because it could affect our very livlihood if the FOI is taken away from us.

Sign the petition!-Send the following with your name, occupation and organisation to dontkillfoi@wilmington.co.uk

"We, the undersigned, urge the Government not to undermine the effectiveness
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by passing into law the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2007.

According to the Government’s own independent review – the proposed changes
will result in more than 17,000 FoI questions a year being rejected by
local, regional and national public bodies on purely financial grounds,
irrespective of the public interest.

We are particularly concerned that the rule changes will, according to the
independent review, have a disproportionate effect on journalists and
therefore undermine the vital role they play in British democracy."

Talking Genitals

2007-01-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

I decided to join the drama society the other day. So the first test was-THE DREADED AUDITION.

And I didn’t even know what I was auditioning for!

Now I have only ever done one other audition in my life and that was for the ‘Black’ version of The Wizard of Oz-conveniently called-‘The Wiz’

Audition was successful-I was the flying monkey people! I adapted him to be a Jacky Chan meets Chris Rock gangster monkey.

That takes talent you know. Or a lot of imagination on the audiences part (more likely.)

So today was quite nerve racking. I got in the room (Lecture Theatre 4) and there are two people reading from a script.

This is normal at auditions I take it.

The people behind the auditions had two separate plays in mind. One the Vagina Monologues, two-some other play.

The second play was not memorable.

I read from both, but by far enjoyed reading from the VM more.

Apparently, they are going to do it in the undercroft, sit the speaker on a stool and the audience sits on couches around them.

How intimate! So, wish me luck!

Pubs, spit and boredom.

2006-12-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

Pub quizzes. Who needs them? They make me feel so stupid, I never know anything! Every Wednesday at home (Not London), my friends go to the pub quiz. I think it is entirely the dullest thing that I could think of to do. Sometimes though, I go just to see them.

I understand that pubs are obvious places where people go to socialise, to escape the confines of the home etc. But what happens when the pub itself becomes the same entrapping four walls that your house represents?

Pubs scare me because they remind me the horrible prospect of going to work, coming home, going to the pub then bed. Isn’t this how people talk about becoming trapped by routine? It seems to be as boring as a 9-5 job.

Of course, it does depend on the company, how everyone is feeling and so on. But I find that pub quizzes really limit the conversation. A lot of the time, there are so many people screaming conversations at each other that you don’t really get to speak to the people closest to you, you find yourself listening to other peoples conversations.

I was so excited about seeing my friends tonight, and then I got there and was utterly bored after answering random questions supposedly related to Christmas. I suppose however that you only really get out of something what you put into it. And only boring people get bored, (so they say) but I really can’t fathom going somewhere night after night, nor perhaps once a week.

I would much rather go out for a meal, where you can hear people speaking. Or go and see a film, if you don’t want to go and see a film. I just don’t appreciate smoke filling my lungs and drunken people spitting on my face when they speak to me.

Although I have never really understood the concept of pubs myself, I do see why people do enjoy them. They are an easy concept. They are familiar and comforting, like a second home almost. I do get that, but I don’t desire it.

Bedroom antics.

2006-12-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

I was afraid of my bedroom for eleven years. It was noisy, dark and full of monsters.

I did not move into this current bedroom until two years ago, the monsters always kept me away you see. My childhood was spent in the bedroom directly below, where all the twittering and laughter of night time critters could be heard.

This bedroom is an attic, and three of the rooms have been converted. One is a bedroom, the other a train room and the final a storage room. The 4th was never converted.

To get to this room, you need to go up an extra set of stairs. The stairs laugh at you creakily as you venture upwards.

The knocking used to come from the then unconverted train room. I used to bring my dog Pepsi upwards with me. He pretty much offered no protection.

The knocking of course never continued once I was brave enough to confront the monsters.

The only other person, who has ever witnessed/heard this, is my best friend Faye. It never happened around anyone else. It is enough to make a girl think she’s crazy. However, it did stop when the room was converted. Go figure.

Maybe some hideous creature wanted letting out, but that meant me going in. It was only when the trains replaced the darkness that I could finally sleep in the room that was supposed to be mine when we first moved in here.

Since then, the only weird thing was when Jack and I on a stifling summer night heard whispering of lots of voices, all at once. No one was outside; our neighbours do not join onto us.

Maybe the monsters like to check up on my every now and again?

Pet Peeves: This gets on my last nerve!

2006-12-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

There are two main things that drive me mental:

1) When people cannot eat properly, and you have to hear the sound of them gestating their food. It is wrong, and I think it should be made illegal. I do not want to see what they are eating similarly; the thing that separates us from animals is that we’re supposed to have manners. That should be number one on the manners list!

Also when people chew gum, and they make ‘that’ sound. You know the one I mean, where you can hear the chewing gum being squished with saliva around their mouths. Particularly highlighted on the tube, when you HAVE to watch them doing it. Seriously people, there is absolutely no point in chewing gum.

2) Packets. Of any kind. I cannot bear them. This might actually be more of a phobia than a pet peeve. But when I have to sit next to someone who has a packet of crisps, I start squirming; I just don’t like the sound. I think putting food in something as stupidly noisy as a foil packet is ludicrous. Perhaps it is a form of advertising? Like ‘why don’t we see if our packet can make the loudest sound, and people will look at it and see our brand name?’ This is actually quite a clever strategy.

I just think I don’t like the inconsistency of the noise, especially somewhere like in the cinema. When you are really getting into a good film and all you can hear is the rustling of a million packets. My God, that is my idea of hell, cause then you have to hear people eating as well!

This is my rant over for now. Pet peeves are a fun way to start to get to know a person, then try and annoy the hell out of them. I encourage you all to go out and do it this week J

Books from my childhood.

2006-12-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

There were several books when I were younger that used to make me very happy. I thought I would list them here.

Even now, thinking about them makes me smile.

The Hungry Caterpillar

I think that everybody has read this book; I can’t even really remember what it was about now. Except a caterpillar that was hungry. I have very vivid memories of loving this book though.

Beaver Towers

Remember when at the end of the day, your teacher used to read you a story? All the curtains would be closed and you’d all sit on the floor cross legged. This is what Beaver Towers reminds me of. As for the actual story, I remember a boy on a kite flying out of his window. That’s about it. I spent about 5 years trying to remember the title of this book.

The Hobbit

I think everybody should have read this if they did not read it as a child. I did not read Lord of the Rings till in my early teens and even then it was a challenge. I have since read The Hobbit and LOTR’s about 5 times each. I remember loving the character of Gandalf straight away; I have always liked the idea of wizened old wizards with personality, shame that it is a stereotype now. The dragon was a very good character too, guarding his stolen treasure jealously. This book might be the reason I started reading seriously as I grew older.

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

Okay so I read this when I was about twelve, but I have really fallen in love with this series. I cannot wait for the seventh book to come out. This series of books has to be my favourite so far, apart from maybe Orson Scott Card’s Ender series.

It's back on the stands baby!

2006-12-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

After closing last week, a lot of journalists were sad to see the demise of the infamous Press Gazette. But it is back!

Press Gazette has been bought by specialist information group Wilmington and is back on the newsstand.

Wilmington, the specialist information and training group, has acquired assets from the administrator of Press Gazette Limited and is resurrecting the business by applying the skills and resources of its specialist Business Communications division.

Tony Loynes, the new editor-in-chief, said: "Sadly Press Gazette has missed an issue, but we will be making that up to the loyal subscribers of the publication. We intend to develop the print, the web presence and events side of Press Gazette.

The future looks bright for the Gazette then. I am happy to see it back after we learnt how much it really does help us student journalists with jobs and information on the world of journalism!

Rock on the next issue.

Secret London.

2006-12-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

Well, well well… Blogger certainly messed up this time. It lost my blog for a week of my life.

Moving on, last night I went here for an open mic night.

Safe to say that I definitely was not the one singing. They value their windows too much I expect.

It turned out that there were only about 6 people there, but the room was small and if you squinted and saw double then it filled the room out more.

There are places like this that I am really unaware of in London, really small kooky places where you can avoid the masses.

I met a guy who was telling me about ‘Secret London’. This is a microcosm full of hip young things who know where all the quirky hideaway places lie.

How come I am unaware of this? I am constantly hearing about little vintage, record and book shops that are slotted away behind all the commercialism of everything else.

For instance, Alexis mentions a poetry café in Covent Garden, where his poetry magazine ‘back to the machine gun’ do readings. I expect that it’s all by word of mouth really that you find out.

But I find myself wanting to live more and more in Secret London, void of flashing advertisements and people ramming you into the road.

It sounds like an enchanting place.

12:05 at Westminster University.

2006-11-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

On the tube from Northwick Park

'Ka chum bum bum bum, ka chum bum bum bum.'

A dull combination of red, grey and blue hurtles towards an unknown destination. Ka chum bum bum ka chum bum bum. A metallic worm making tunnels in the heart of the city.

'Bruuuum 'it complains, the train set’s off. Bodies are thrown towards the wall. ‘That happens every bladee time.’

The windows show a blur of shapes, whizzing past.

“I can’t really remembah…yah I can’t really remembah.”

Rustle; rustle of a lime plastic bag talking to itself.

A woman chewing on gum like a cow. Rustle, rustle as she leaves.

The train’s stomach rumbles as it stops, waiting to eat more of it’s willing victims.

'Chh, chh chhhhh shooooooooo.' A man with earphones on. His head is involuntarily jiving.

'Whoooosh' into a black hole, the eternity of London lost for a seconds at a time.

'Da dad a dum da dum.'

Faces stare back at themselves in the black windows. The dull ache of the colours in the train straining themselves, pushing themselves into the eye.

‘HUMPH’ as someone exhales angrily, “I down’t now Jake, I down’t now…” He doesn’t know, he doesn’t know.

Heavy Head’s droop downward, gravity pulling them towards the pigmented speckled floor. Like London has always been dragging them downwards.

The speckles look like ants, staring back at the people looking down at them, glaring up their noses.

A million or more triangles populate the seats, pieces of a puzzle that has not been solved yet.

Outside cloned houses reproduce themselves and sickly looking trees cluster together, vomiting their leaves to the ground. Telephone cables stretch their wired fingers towards one another . Connected in a way that no one in the tube is.

Silence, bum bum ka chum, silence ka chum ba bum bum bum.

The doors screeeeeam as they open, people leave. Entering into new worlds, new lives.

The journey is punctuated by black prison fences which keep people from escaping the tube platforms.

Men with lined faces wait with hunched backs.

'Bum bum ka chum, bum bum ka chum.'

Oh and the train has stopped.

Rape used as a weapon in war

2006-11-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

I found a gruesome story in the Guardian today. It told of how hundreds of thousands are raped in the Congo wars in the past decade.

It seems to me, that as horrible as rape is, it is almost a common occurrence to hear of it in the news. It always seems to be reported in a blaze manner.

But this story affected me like no other newspaper story has done before. These attacks are not just being noted ‘for their scale but also their brutality.’

One 54 year old woman was attacked by people from a group called Mai Mai. This is an ethnic militia who are recognised by their wearing of animal skins and amulets.

After being raped several times over, and lay bleeding ‘the attackers thrust the barrels of their guns into her vagina.’

Rape is being used as an act of war. By one group named the interahamwe (an extremist Hutu Militia that fled to the Congo after the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda) rape is used as a tool of genocide.

They tell women that they would bear Hutu children and how that would be the end of the Tutsis.

A doctor told the Guardian how some women are raped so severely that they can be raped by up to ten men. Others have their vaginas pulled out.

At this I was quite distressed. I do not think I remember reading something so graphic before and yet the horror of it has not left me.

Normally, I read news stories and forget about them. I admit like the rest of the world, when one day’s news is done, I look for what else is new.

What else that is terrible has happened in the world now? We almost come to expect it.

I do not think I will be forgetting this story so easily.

It’s not what you know…

2006-11-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today we had a Journalism networking event, which was organised by the Careers Service. It was brilliant. There were a panel of people from the world of journalism and media.

These people were:

Becky Hogge from Open Democracy
Amar Singh from The Evening Standard
Jim Latham from Broadcast Training (BJTC)
Siobhan Curham, who is a writer and freelance journalist
Gina Antchandie from the Arts Council
Maxim Ford who is a documentary film maker.

Each of them gave a small talk on how they got to where they were in the world and gave general tips and pointers to anyone wanting to enter into the media world.

The people I found most helpful were:

Becky Hogge, who was a personality; I found her talk really interesting. She was easy to relate to because she was quite near to our age being just 27. It was good listening to her story, as although she works in the media world, she does not have an NCTJ qualification or a journalism degree. In fact, she took a degree in linguistics.

From starting out as a dance music journalist, to a business journalist, she said she started writing about her passion which was technology. She now works for Open Democracy and has a weekly column in the New Statesman.

Her three tips to us were pretty simple:-
1) Use your contacts, people you know. Tell their story.
2) You need a lot of confidence in this business.
3) Not to get caught up in your own ego and take criticism.

The third is something I really need to do; I take criticism far too personally. Instead, I need to listen to what the person is saying and take it on board. It’s not always a personal attack. Becky also said what David and Chris have been saying all along, that if you have a blog, then you’re already a step ahead in the journalism world.

Amar Singh was very helpful. I really like what he had to say. He told us that journalism is not always a straight path, and definitely not predictable.

Amar actually went to Westminster University and graduated in Broadcast Journalism. I love the fact that he now works for a newspaper, because as a print journalist I would one day like to do some broadcast work.

He started out by being a runner for a film company, which is terrible pay apparently! But he said you have to learn from your experiences, and although he was only making tea for producers, he made a lot of contacts.

He’s worked on Asian magazines and newspapers including Eastern Eye and Asia Weekly. He became an editor for the latter, but decided he did not want to just be hiring and firing people as a career. Through contact with the Evening Standard, he became a journalist and has not looked back since.

His tips to us were:-
1) When looking for work, be persistent.
2) When freelancing, always be networking (make business cards, hand them out)
3) Everyone is a contact potential. You never know when you’ll need a person’s number.

Maxim Ford

Maxim was a student at a polish film school, and so learnt all about the culture and language of the country. He made a film on the political situation in Poland , but said that this was not so much because of his film making talent, as much as it was because he spoke polish.

He said the money available for making films and documentaries has decreased. When Channel Four was first starting out, he got £100, 000 pounds as a budget. Apparently it’s not that easy to get so much money now.

It was also mentioned that developing film used to very laborious and now the media has moved on. A high definition camera (about £3-4000) is available along with editing machines, which leads to a lot of individual film making.

I talked to him after the presentation and asked him a few questions about how to get into the industry of documentary making. He told me that you need to:-

1) Find out what are of film making you want to go into.
2) What aspect of that you want to do, i.e production, presentation of.
3) Find out names and contacts for people in the area of documentaries that you are interested in and approach them.

He made it sound quite simple really, I wonder if it so?

Siobhan Curham started off as a freelance journalist. She does not have a degree, but told us a weird story about how she got a diploma in freelance journalism.

Basically, she applied through the back of a newspaper, to ‘The Morris School of Journalism’, she told us she had not heard of it either. She got her diploma by sending off a cheque and completing various random assignments.

Although graduating with a distinction, she wondered if that was just what part of the money was for, to guarantee it. I am sure she is being very modest.

Siobhan told us she got her first article published in the magazine ‘That’s Life’. It was about pregnancy. She told us to write about something that related to ourselves, but to slant it differently. She made her story different by writing about the fact that she did not enjoy her pregnancy.

Siobhan has now written four books, and writes articles for the ‘Wolverhampton version of the Evening Standard’. I was amused when she said she considered herself similar to Carrie Bradshaw. (make link here)

Jim Latham from the BJTC explained the role of the BJTC to us, and warned us about some of the implications of work experience.

These were:
The fact that we need to be careful about people exploiting us when on work experience. He explained that a girl recently was working for a company and was sent to find a place in London that would allow a party with hard drugs. Of course people are willing to do mostly anything for that first chance he said, but if the police got involved, who do you think would immediately get blamed?

This was something I had not thought about before if I am honest, but I am glad he made us aware of it.

If you do a work placement, if it is longer than four weeks than the company has to pay you after that time.

He also explained to us the issue of ethnic and social diversity. Four years ago, 96% of journalists were white and middleclass, today this figure has decreased to 90%. Jim said that it needs a continued effort to get a proper representation of people who represent this country.

I think he is definitely right, Britain is multicultural and is a real shame that this is not more represented by journalists who write on behalf of the public.

Over all

I think that the whole afternoon was a major success. I really did learn a lot, I am just quite angry that it was not publicised more to say it was quite important.

To say we were on a journalism course, with such a precedent placed on the importance of networking, nobody told us about it. We were only given the time off this afternoon because somebody mentioned it at all. But we did get to go, and it’s been one of the most informative afternoons I have had about general journalism. I wonder if the university will arrange more of the same. Perhaps if we suggested it to them, it would happen again? I hope so.

Something Wicked This Way Comes.

2006-11-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Well after many months of waiting, I finally got my dream come true.

I got to go and see the musical Wicked! I have waited a long, long time for this and it really was worth it.

I went adorned with a pointy hat, stripy socks and ruby slippers. Of course, I ended up being the ONLY person dressed up.

But never mind, on with the show.

Wicked is based on the book by Gregory Maguire, it is the untold story of the witches of Oz.

I have recently started reading the book, but apparently the musical is somewhat different.

The story centres on Elphaba (The Green Witch) and Galinda (‘With a Ga!’ [the Good witch]).

It tells of how the witches came to be known as the Wicked and Good witches. There are quite a lot of politics and surprises in it, which I will not give away here.

Idina Menzel is such a brilliant Elphaba. She was in the original broadway version of the show and won an award for this role. She is Elphaba. The sarcasm and the wit are spot on. And after the show your hair will be windswept, her voice is that powerful.

Wicked answers a few questions that the original film of Oz did not, such as:

1) Why is the Wicked Witch Green?
2) Why does Dorothy decide to trust in the Wizard so easily? Is it only on reputation?
3) How and why did the Tin man, Lion and Scare Crow all end up the way they did?
4) Why on earth does the Wicked Witch want the ruby slippers so much?

After such a good musical, the ending disappointed me, but perhaps I am not one for happy endings? They're too easy.

101 Stropping Things to do Wickedly in Prison Naked

2006-10-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Short hand and Stropping

Last night I had a massive strop about short hand. I was doing the home work last minute, and I could just not do it. Nothing was going through my head.

I had also been doing my presentation all day, so my head was screwed. Sometimes things just get on top of you, and all you want to do is stomp your feet.

Funny how this isn’t allowed.

Why aren’t I allowed to scream at the top of my voice and lose all composure if I am not happy? It’s not the done thing I suppose.

It wouldn’t be ‘grown up’ now would it? So I did it anyway, and it made me feel much better.

This morning, I came back to doing it and it was all fine, I just needed 8 hours sleep. Ho hum.

I also find the last half hour of that class the worst half hour of maybe the week. My head is fuzzy, the letters all join together and become one huge blend.

Wicked
I have wanted to see the musical Wicked since approximately forever (timing might not be an accurate assessment of the wanting).

And when I entered the Junction on Tuesday night to start the nights drunken procedures I heard ‘SAAAAAAARAAAAH’.

I did not turn around. There are normally far too many Sarah’s for it to me that’s being called.

Anyway, it happened again, so I turned around and a huge afro full of Nicola (my arts editor) ran towards me.

She told me that I was going to see Wicked for FREE next Wednesday. It has made my life.

Prison
I am finding my room in halls, to be a prison when it comes to working. I need to find other places to work. I think I may go and work underneath the trees in Northwick Park today.

Perhaps being one with nature might help me to become Einstein! I could even become a nudist. If you happen to see a nekkid person stomping on their short hand book, well I’ll say no more.

101 things
I have been reading The Dice man by Luke Rhinehart and decided that my life is not nearly random enough. I have a book called 101 things to do before you die. I am going to pick a number at random from it and then do it.

Of course if this involves anything illegal, then all the better. One of the options is travelling around the world, I might avoid this for now. I will keep you posted.

Birds, smoke and sponges.

2006-10-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

I moved to the big smoke about 6 weeks ago.

Life has been much the same and very different since.

The journalism course that I am doing is the thing that is most different. When I did English Literature in York, there was very little contact time with the lecturers and class time was even less.

It is a weird and gratifying experience to have so much contact with the people teaching you, who also have a lot of time for their students.

I realise the hours of the classroom are needed because we are on an intensive one year course to teach something completely different (in some cases) to what we have done before. We are being taught a profession.

I sometimes feel very dazed by all of it; it is easy to become overwhelmed with the information being given to us. All of it is essential, and more importantly it is actually worth knowing. I couldn’t always say the same for Eng Lit.

It’s slowly beginning to seep in though. Learning short hand is becoming easier. At first all I saw were random symbols.

Then I saw images like birds and trees (if you’re pushing the imagination) in those symbols. But now I am beginning to see the formation of words with the birds and the trees.

I am not entirely sure about the writing side of journalism yet. I realise that I must have a niche for writing to some degree or I would not be here. Ho hum.

Sometimes though, I do feel a little out of my depth. Especially when our lecturer Chris Horrie is teaching us, there is a lot of information to absorb. I must become sponge like.

I feel like there is a lot of history and general culture that I have to study as well to maintain a realistic grasp of today’s news. You can’t really have one without the other.

Back to the books then.

Review

2006-10-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

For my 'News Agenda' class, we have to review a book, so I decided to do one I had recently read:

Review of the book We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Kevin Khatchadourian killed seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher, shortly before his sixteenth birthday.

It is the mother of Kevin, who narrates the story, through a series of letters to her separated husband.

Eva informs the reader of the life of Kevin, through these letters and wonders how much she is to blame for her son’s ‘flawed’ character.

Shriver explores the theme of Nature versus Nurture and it’s relation to the human psyche. This makes the reader question the motives of the youths who commit high school murders.

It is a frank account of a family’s life through the years, and how we don’t always like the people we love.

It is a great risk to write about something so prominent in the media, especially in America. Yet Shriver pulls it off with her own satirical view of American culture.

The characters are all complicated, layered and trapped within their own personalities.

Shriver investigates her characters limitations and their relation to one another in the confined space of the family home.

Who actually needs to talk about Kevin? Maybe we all do.

Little Blue Men

2006-10-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

I saw these little guys last night:

At the New London Theatre in Convent Garden. They're called 'The Blue Man Group'. I think the best way to describe it is performance art. This is how they started off, as street performers.

The show mainly consists of percussion, drama and comedy. There's a huge audience participation happening in the show. At one point, we were all passing masses of toilet roll from the back of the audience to the stage. A stream of the stuff everywhere!

When I looked around everyone's grinning like a loon at the blue dudes, and at everyone else. Pretty much how I must have looked.

At another point, the three of them leave stage, and a TV screen just floats down onto the stage! (perhaps suspended on strings, but hey let’s pretend.) Then a blue face appears on it. Watch for yourself!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsdTeCnnRO4

It’s this and much more that makes the whole show bloody brilliant! It’s about the basics of human communication, bringing in modern and ancient forms of it, using paints, drums, lots and lots of music.

On the way home from this show, I was left with a stupid grin on my face. They make you feel like children because this is exactly how they act! It's brilliant.

You have to see this show!

I am interviewing them this Thursday for the student magazine. Wheeee.