Thursday, March 29, 2007

Urgh, I'm all bunged up and bored.
So I thought I'd sit here and type this instead.
I AM ILL.
:(
It sucks.
Any donations welcome.

It's mainly a sore throat and drowsiness, the latter of which is self-induced from consuming too many strepsils (a whole pack) in a 24 hour period. So I really must take it easy now. But there's nothing worse than wanting to hauck it up and not being able to (sorry for the graphics). Thankfully, family members have noticed said illness and ordered I be quarantined (put to bed) for the rest of the day. To which I am to oblige, otherwise I feel the death coming upon me :( which isn't nice. Ever. But it's thrown all of today's plans into disarray. Which is unfortunate. Gary stayed over last night, which was awesome, as it always is :)...the sore throat was bad last night, but it seemed to flare itself up this morning, into some heinous throat beast, set on causing destruction.

So we thought it best I spend the day in bed and since he had to go home to do stuff, we will be spending this evening in our separate ways :( which truly sucks. Since I would've been up for going the pub and going to a real chip shop (the only real one in Widnes apparently)called Marie Barrows. But the latter will have to be pushed back by twenty four hours now. All in aid of the recovery process. *Sigh*.

The good news is that I have finished my Web Journalism (JNL 308) essay ALREADY! Woohoo. So that's yet another weight off my mind. I started it on Monday and finished it this morning, about half eleven. I think I work better in the mornings for one reason or another. Either way it must've done the trick as I've now got two whole weeks and a 3 day weekend :) ...if you try not to think of the court reports or the local government revision or the whole five stories I have to find for my website I have to create pretty shortly (in JNL 308) :P then yeah, I have nothing at all....

*sigh*.

Back to bed for me I think. I might watch a film or read or something though.

Ciao.

xo

(I'll write when I feel well). &typing this on a computer really sucks when I should be in bed, writing on a laptop which is soo much more versatile and means I can go back to falling asleep quicker...

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Today I went to a Stiletto meeting about taking on a prominent role within the women's union magazine next year (as the third years who edit the magazine and so forth are leaving soon) and I decided to put my name down for that of Deputy/Sub Editor and of features editor.

I think it'd be a really cool role to be second editor in charge of the publication. Still stressy, but not quite as much hard work as that of the editor herself. Holly has decided to take upon the role of editor. Of course, none of these are finalised...but I believe that we may well get these positions since not many people turned up to the meeting and of those positions left, I think only a few remaining will go to stuff like Secretary, Treasurer, etc. It all depends. Either way, I shall know for definite when I get back after Easter. Nice.

I'm in the process of packing right now. I always find this a difficult thing to do. The motivation to get my things together is always- non-existant :p it seems. I've done the clothes packing part. It's just everything else now. Books, toiletries, make-up etc....I might pack my books tonight, but the rest will have to wait.

I've been doing some reading for my essay, but I haven't taken my book back to the library (the other two I have though). I'm gonna take this one home instead and use it there.It has some really good quotes in it, so I'd be worried I'd be missing something out if I didn't.

Not too much else to say really. I went to Plug last night with some housemates. We had a pretty decent end-of-term night out...but we all left fairly early. Whether or not that was a good thing, it's difficult to say. I wasn't too arsed though, I guess other people just felt tired. I definitely wasn't gonna stay on my own, haha.

Well anyway, just thought I'd post this and update a little bit.


Hmm, I'm starting to get an addiction to soya milk. Haha. Just thought I'd share that tiny piece of information.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

AT LAST!
The TV project for JNL 215 is over! Yesssss.
Well that's 10 credits sorted :D
Me and my group (Dan and Holly) ended up doing 8 hours worth of digitising and editing today! From 9am-5pm! Of course we sustained ourselves by buying lots of snacks, pringles, a whole huge bag of mini eggs (We got a couple of bags each) and pasta for dinner. Not to mention crisps. Hahaha. Well we needed to keep our energies up :p

I'm so pleased though. Not to brag, but I think as a news story it's really effective and looks professional. Which is the main thing. Also, I have my own personal copy which will look good to show to family and friends, not to mention potential employers.

It's Holly who should really take most of the credit though. She organised the interview, did most of the editing and piece to camera. Not to mention, she took home the equipment and drove us to the Hallam arena and the nursery! But we all took our parts equally in contribution, discussion and evaluation. So we all equally deserve the praise. Kudos to Dan for keeping a steady head in the face of chaos during the Sheffield Steeler's game, when they scored so quickly! That took us all by surprise.

I helped with the equipment, filming, interview questions and cue, as well as guidance in editing. So I think we all had about an equal task within the group. It's hard to say really, we all had a turn. But- it's OVER now. So at last, I can relax for Easter (kinda) knowing that is one less thing to worry about once I return. *Phew*.

A huge weight off all our shoulders! :)

We went for a drink afterwards in The Cavendish, a very student based pub just outside of Minalloy House. We thought we'd go for a quiet drink to celebrate...how wrong we were. The place was teaming with rowdy Hallam students who seemed to delight in yelling and roaring anti-Sheffield Uni chants at everyone in there. It was kinda funny really and I wasn't riled at all, haha. But it would've been nice to actually hear what my friends were saying. Instead of just loud screams. Then some other group of Hallam students came in wearing army uniforms (fancy dress I took it) and started shouting chants at one another, bouncing them back and forth. Then being idiotic and ...among other things....flashing...and the chants got more vulgar...and yeah, they started pretending to be dead on the floor. It was highly surreal! Clearly they were on the lash, hahahah. So we only stayed for the one drink. We were strangely energetic, but I think the whole scene put us off and we just went home instead. We only went for one drink anyway.

Tonight, I'm treating myself. No work. Just casual relaxation :D (haha, not to imply as though I do work every night) :p but, I won't be doing it tonight. Nope, not for me. Just leisurely reading, music, chatting, drinking Kopparberg cider and the watching of Coronation Street :D obvs.

That's about it really. My whole day was spent editing. We learnt how to do captions, which is a bit tricky. But nothing sublimely hard.

Also, we've now handed in the project- a month before it's even due in! :D How ace.

Alas, I felt a tad bloated from too much food before. So I need to rest that off before I do anything else xp

Woohhoo, 3 days until I come home for Easter! :D

Yerrrrseeeee..


xoxo

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The past two days have had their fair levels of stress. Yesterday because of the filming we had to do. We drove all the way out to Richmond, an area of Sheffield...where we went to find the nursery called Handsworth Community Nursery and drove past it. We asked directions from this lady- who told us to drive out towards Asda or someplace, only she mislead us and by the time we realised, we drove back and we found that she was walking out of the damn place having just dropped off her kid! Damn liar. Haha. Anyway at least we found the place. The sign outside had been knocked down due to vandals, we later discovered...hence why we were searching in vain to find the place.

From the outside it looked a bit of a small shed. But actually it was pretty large inside. The children were soooo cute. Very very adorable. We could only film three of them though as they were the only ones who had given their permission. Nevertheless, we got the exercise done and we got the shots we needed of them playing in the sandpit and outside in the kitchen. 'Pretending' to cook. Awwwh bless. We even bagged an interview with the chairman of Amy's project,Morris Littlewood, who helped us out a lot. As did some other lady highly involved in the proejct called Pam. Morris seemed real friendly and even said he'd help us out again if we ever needed it :] awh. He said anything to do with the advancement of young people's careers is good by him and he's happy to be involved. What a nice gentleman.

We left with enough clips and headed back. Handed in equipment. That was about it really. We're editing it all and finishing the whole product off tomorrow though. Soo...a whole day of editing awaits me. So I best be off to bed soon.

Today was filled with a lecture, two workshops and plenty of reading. I'm finding out I have soo much to do. It's quite scary. Hence the workshops are semi-explaining everything. Apart from Quark Xpress, which is just weird and the lecturer rushes ahead all the time, so we often get left behind. Not a good sign.

Anyway, I'm sleepy so I best be off.

Night night
xoxoxo.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Another week over. It's been fairly eventful. I met up with my broadcast group (Holly and Dan) yesterday evening and we drove down to the Hallam arena to film our broadcast project. We kept on getting stopped every five minutes by the authorities who seemed to delight in asking what we were doing and as to whether we had any permission (Which we did, and we have the letter as proof damn it). They liked to fuck things up for us so much. They had to find a place where we'd be allowed to film, which took an age to sort out. We were grateful we got seen to though, believe me. But then just as we thought we were getting some decent shots in they'd come over and tell us to 'move out of the way'. One guy even told us to film in the disabled area as we'd be out of the way more. So we went and did that, only to be told five minutes later that a disabled person wanted to sit there so we had to clear off. How annoying. But we did get some decent shots. It all worked out in the end.

The ice hockey match looked like sooo much fun!&we got in for free :p (bonus!). Only thing is, we didn't get a free press pass :( which was unfortunate, but nevermind. Anyway, we got some shots of the match - mainly the teddy toss and people throwing them all onto the ice rink, which looked pretty impressive. Then we got shots of the teddies themselves as they were collected and shots/CU's of members of the audience which we can use as convenient cutaways. Pretty good all in all I do believe. The Sheffield Steelers scored really quickly too so we managed to get those shots first. By 7.30 we had finished in the stadium and the only job left to do was to do a piece to camera outside the stadium to use as a back-up if all else failed. Holly did it beautifully, even though the security/admin people from within the stadium came out and asked us what we were doing/who we had permission from etc and that they'd have to check. But then they buggered off, so we just did it anyway :p and left fairly promptly. After all this, we drove back and were at home again by 8pm. Handy...

Today I have mainly been laying about, been on here a lot...erm, I've been trying to do more work on my cross stitch for my Mum but it's such hard work when I'm stressed/bored all day. I keep on needing breathers, haha. Unfortunately those 'breathers' soon turn into hours :p Oh how time flies. *Sigh*.

I've developed a mouth ulcer since about Thursday. It's highly annoying and very painful! I've got some gel for it but it seems to be doing fuck all. I think it's just gonna have to heal itself over time. When that will be I don't know- but touching it is starting to freak me out. I don't like it. All I know is, every time I have a cold or somewhat salty or sugary food, it starts to flare up with pain. Ouch. It better heal itself soon- I've got one mega busy week ahead!

Tomorrow I have to be up early on to hand in the tripod and Holly has to take in the camera back to Minalloy House at 9am sharp- so we can get a new camera out and change the battery. This is just part of the whole booking system rules that the Journalism department has when it comes to lending out equipment. Unfortunately, it means getting up at the crack of dawn. 7.30...urgh.

Then me and my group are filming at the Amy's House nursery in Richmond. Which we will have to find. So again, another mission in the car. We have to get there from about 1 until...whenever...we'll probably only be two hours max though (or so we said). So fingers crossed it all goes to plan and we get it all sorted!

Wish me luck.

Goodnight.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I tried to update this thing yesterday but IE was having none of it and kept on closing itself, just to annoy me it would seem. Meh.

Today has been pretty jampacked. I was up early'ish, then I had my Quark Xpress workshop at 10am until midday. I once again learnt how to do lots of page layouts with the programme amongst other things. I returned home for lunch about 12, whereby I made some carrot and coriander soup and some hummus on rice cakes. Yummy. I've started reading 'Violin' by Anne Rice, which so far is err...interesting?? I'm not quite sure how to put it, I like it, but it all seems very reflective and not entirely straight forward. Meep.

In the afternoon I had to go to court with Holly and we met up with Dan (from our TV project group) on the way there. We thought, with it being Magistrates court and a fairly dull Wednesday afternoon...there would be no stories. But oh how wrong we were! We only went and hit the gold! Some guy was facing a charge of possessing 11 kilos of heroin- £44,000 worth of smack! Fuck. Haha it's mental to think...and he was caught at Doncaster Airport with it down his underpants! hahaha. What a story. So that was definitely worth it. The story we originally came for (a flasher) was barely even given a mention. But at least we got a major story out of it. At last!

We walked back and by about 5 or so, I was back in the house. I went shopping to get some chocolate icecream and cookies, since I was dying for a choccy fix, haha. So I got them from the co-op (shame they had no luxurious ones :( ). I chatted to Naomi and Laura for a little while in Laura's bedroom and then I made myself a curry for dinner. I used lots of fanciful ingredients too - onions, yellow pepper, babycorn, brocolli, spring onion, quorn style chicken pieces, rice and tikka masala sauce! It was well yummy.

I'm going out tonight to Coporation (a rock club). It would be good except it's School Disco night. So it'll be all pop tunes. Not that I mind too much though, it's free entry in school uniform and tie. Also, drinks are fairly cheap and it's an easy night out generally. I'll just get bladdered. The only thing I'm worried about, is that I have 10am tomorrow and won't be able to get any sleep, so will be knackered. Also, tomorrow is a busy day overall. I won't be coming back until about 4.30'ish. Hmmm. I hope I'll be alright. It should be ok There's a group of us going out so I'm sure we can all look out for one another.

I wrote up one court report last night, which I'm glad about. I was starting to stress a little, but I just let it flow and magic began to happen. (Or something similar).

Oh and why is everyone on my course so damn eager?? I was looking for books that I can get out of the library to use on my essay I want to write up over Easter- and there's practically no copies left of anything! It's really annoying. Damn. Perhaps being at a 'redbrick' University isn't all it's cracked up to be after all.

I came back to Sheffield yesterday afternoon. Well, I got the 11am train back, but I didn't get back into my room until about 1pm. I spent loads on food shopping, which should last me right up until the end of next week. I got loads of fresh healthy stuff and a few pre-made meals which should see me through.

Right, I'm off to get all dressed up and wasted.

I'll let you know how the night went tomorrow.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Good news. The weekend has been BRILLIANT.

Even though I spent much of the anniversary on my own (during the day), I still had a decent time, I went to Speke Retail Park in the day and me and my Mum went shopping. I ended up buying quite a few books, Bill Bryson- A Short History of Nearly Everything, Iain Banks - The Crow Road and Will Self- The Book of Dave. Books that look pretty interesting :)

I dyed my hair that mahogany colour in the evening and cut my fringe, which needed a much needed trim. I then went out with Gary to the Golden Phoenix, a chinese restaurant in town where we had a fine meal together and enjoyed each other's company.

On Saturday, we got tickets to see TYPE O NEGATIVE! Yeassh. I can't wait!! The gig's at the Manchester Academy in June. I'm so excited about that!! Errm, we went to Liverpool to get the tickets and then we went to see two films at the Odeon. OUTLAW and GHOST RIDER. Both of which I thoroughly enjoyed :)

Sunday was a day of major relaxation by in large, which was fine by me. The day was spent just chilling in bed, hehe. We went out to get some veggie bacon at one point- but to no avail. But we still got to have our veggie fry up as per usual :)yay. Then later on, we (me and Gary) went to my house, where we indulged in pear and apple Kopparberg ciders and watched BORAT. I love that film, I find it highly amusing <3 hehe.

Oh, this weekend I have earned £25 through giving indian head massages :) yay. Which of course, is getting saved up, for who knows when ;) It's been a great couple of days.

&a fine way to celebrate mine and Gary's one year anniversary.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Well, I passed all of my autumn exams!

Here are the results:

* JNL 206 - Media Law - 60 (2.1)
* JNL 214 - Broadcast Journalism 1 - 58 (2.2)
* JNL 217 - Alternative Media - 63 (2.1)

So overall I am very pleased with that! It means I now have 60 credits already this year, so only another 60 to go! hahah. Some of those sound like I only had three exams...but there was a lot of work for each of those modules. Media Law was in fact two exams (not to mention the dreaded NCTJ, of which results I may never know...yet). Broadcast Journo was part radio, part tv. Radio involved going out and doing vox pops and cues, the other part was getting a radio interview. The TV part involved editing a news sequence (something I was appalling at) and working a camera in order to shoot enough material for a news story (I had to act, so this is where the easy marks came in, hahah). Alternative Media was infact, two parts as well. I had to do an essay of about 2000 words over October/November. Then I later had to a case study (I did mine on Schnews)over Christmas. So as you can see, it was actually a lot more work than it first seems!

I'm glad it's over though. Onwards and upwards to the next part now. Which is court reporting, filming a TV project,creating my own news website with stories and learning all of the relevant software such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Quark Xpress. Also bung in an essay and a radio news day of bulletins (that comes after the TV project in the JNL 215 Broadcast module) and that takes me pretty much up to the end of the '06-'07 academic year. Nice.

I'm going home later. But I have soooo much to do before then! I'm in the process of packing my things together now, but then I have to hand out flyers for two hours this morning/afternoon (from half 11) and then I've got to rush to get lunch (come on Subway...) before going to my workshop where we're learning how to edit sequences again, it's some kind of edit refresher session, which will be fun! :s and then I've got to rush back to the house, get my bag and go to the train station.

I can't wait to go home, I need a well deserved break. These past two weeks and two days have been sooo stressful and rather miserly. I've missed Gary soo sooo much.

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary. We're gonna celebrate in style obviously, go out for a meal :) which should be rather special. It's such a great feeling to be in a relationship, I can't describe it sometimes. It looks like we're going to get the weekend pretty much to ourselves too- I did have a driving lesson booked but my instructor is ill, which is grim. Her son or husband (or some male relative) called my parents' house and said she was in hospital. Which has shocked me, I hope she'll be alright. She's a lovely lady.

So I'll probably make up this time by reading/sleeping or something inbetween.
The world is my oyster and all that jazz.

Right, I best be off- I'm a busy bee!!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The Indian head massage course I've been on over the past two nights has been lovely! Sooo soo relaxing. The bonus being that I can now perform a basic indian head and facial massage :) so I can give them out for free, hehe. Also, I got a little certificate to say I passed the course, but it's more of a certificate of attendance above anything. It's nice to have anyway.

So, I had my Quark Xpress workshop this morning. It was sooo long and technical for my little mind. But I got through it, I just counted down the minutes until lunch time...then I met Holly and we ate lunch together in the Interval. Was real sweet :] we had these vegan burritos/flatbreads. It was pretty intriguing- The Interval food is sooo damn yummy. Then we hurried ourselves off to court. We were hoping for a different case to cover, which from what we could read on the court list, would include a guy who flashed his bits at some woman in the street and maybe a mugger/someone who committed ABH. Instead, we got a guy who stole two beef joints, 3 bottles of spirits and a chocolate milkshake because he 'couldn't afford anything at the time'. With his benefits being low, etc...and a guy who drove down a one way street the wrong way at 2am.

Still, they have potential to be decent stories. So they will be used.

Oh, the recent additions to the download line- up is now: (announced 6/3/07)

* Evanescence - Wouldn't mind seeing, I like Amy Lee's voice
* Motley Crue - Hahah, only when drunk :p
* Gallows - Hadn't heard of this band until yesterday, but maybe
* Enter Shikari - Yes, have heard lots of amazing stuff about them
* Bowling for Soup - No, just no
* Machine Head - Yeah, I would like to see these
* Thirty Seconds to Mars - I dunno, I like Jared Leto though, not sure of his music? Ahh well, we shall see.

So with 20% of the line-up announced, what do I think? Well it's not the best, but there are some bands worth seeing in there. I'd still love to go to Download, just because...well, I've never been to a proper festival before and I just have a feeling the atmosphere will be awesome. So yeah, even if the next 80% aren't incredible, at least I could use it as an excuse to get mashed =)

I'm going home tomorrow. Back to Widnes for a couple of days. I can't wait- it's been too damn long already! Sheffield is good don't get me wrong, but there's no place like home.

Exam results for me tomorrow! I'll keep you updated on that one. I'm trying not to worry too much, but I know I'll probably be ok...I suppose. I'll survive,if worst comes to worst.

Right, I have loads to do at the moment, so I best be off.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Last night was...weird. Yet fun.
Did anyone see the lunar eclipse? I did- it was so beautiful. It made me feel all humble and small and insignificant.

Pop Tarts came and went pretty quick. I was really drunk on a bottle of red wine, pretty much all I drank. That and one or two cocktails. I went to a house party afterwards- but I didn't stay there too long before I came back home.

I've got to meet up with my group to discuss our TV project tonight. It's an emergency meeting because the chairman of the disabled children's nursery, called up Holly today I believe and said that all of the kids' parents had refused permission for their children to be filmed...so now we have to decide what we're gonna do, whether we're going to work our way around it, or abandon the idea altogether. Which would be tragic as we've come so far with this now.

So we're just going to have to pull together and sort this out.

Had a bit of a hangover today- didn't wake up until nearly noon or so and the day seems to have flown by ever since! Probably because I'm doing nothing...which sounds unusual, but seems to be the case.

I went to see Borat at the union's cinema yesterday afternoon. It was very funny, I was surprised how good it was actually. Obviously some parts of it were very risqué, but it's nice to know that people can still laugh in the face of political correctness. They understand it's funny, it's not safe humour...that's what makes a comedy, in a way.

Anyway, just thought I'd give a small update.