Thursday, May 22, 2008

I'm starting to panic a bit less since I've started laying stuff out. As a team it's great and we're speeding through - it feels like we're well ahead of everyone else on our mag stuff (though I doubt it somehow). Between us we've done 10 pages between the five of us, which makes us a third of the way through the whole thing.

It might mean a few days stuck in the newsroom until it's complete but I can only imagine it'll be worth it, to have it out of the way nice and early. Most of the small pages are already done and today I finished off my '5 finest spas' piece. Tomorrow I'm working on fashion and my Mother of the Bride piece, in a desperate attempt to get some things laid onto Quark and out of the way. I also have to see Liz tomorrow about my features articles as I need to get them checked as the person I sent them to originally for feedback off, hasn't even got back in touch...and it's been a week and a half already. Grrrr. The deadline for these articles is next Tuesday and I don't have the time to faff about as I have to give one of them for my friend Kirstie to edit - if I don't soon, it'll be too late. So I have to get feedback off my tutor then make appropriate changes and check and recheck before I feel happy that I want to use it for assessment before I can send it to Kirstie to edit for her work as it has to be the original copy. Phew. That's a lot, I know.

But then it's all just laying stuff out after that so I will feel a bit better then. I'm working on my dissertation this weekend which I can't say I'm ecstatic about, but at least it gives me something to do as I might be pretty lonely up here. Unfortunately I have to stay here and do work as I want to get it all out of the way so I can have it checked by my tutor and then signed off and bound (which takes a week itself!) arrggh. Too much work I think.

I had a brilliant weekend just gone though, spent it at home in Widnes with Gary. Loads of little parcels from ebay had arrived for me which was great and I basically just spend a couple of days just chilling with Gary. I went to the new Doghouse in Runcorn on the Saturday night which was ok although not all that exciting. And on the Sunday (18th), I went with Gary and Hazy on an adventure once more to Penketh on our little trek halfway to Warrington and back. Was fun.

I chilled on Monday, ended up shopping *blushes* I know, I know - I have a bad habit of buying stuff and I probably should just stop. But it's kinda hard...

I came back to Sheffield on Tuesday morning. Wrote up my 'other' article all day. Developed a massive headache which wouldn't seem to go away all evening and most of today, in all honesty. &then today, I had my LAST EVER SEMINAR. In political communication. Which is exciting, but also pretty nerve wrecking as it now means I have to start revising, which let's face it, isn't going to happen until I get all of this coursework handed in.

I went for a stone baked pizza at lunch with Kirstie and Lou to a place called Rise, which is on West Street and does a meal deal for £5.50 for a 12" pizza and a drink. Although I just had a 6" (which I ended up regretting, believe me when my mates got the most delicious looking and big pizzas, grrrr). That was a nice change anyway.

Tomorrow I have my LAST EVER LECTURE. Gulp.

Then it's bye bye slacking.

Hello work.

For 3 weeks.


-

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Can't quite believe I haven't updated in here since February! Seems so long ago. And so many things have happened since then I wouldn't quite know where to start. But I am back (ish). I have a lot of work to do as I'm still at Uni for a good 4 weeks yet - and these next few weeks will not be easy, believe me. I have to focus. But after that I will have finished University FOREVER. Scary stuff.

I'm thinking about the future and everything in it. I had a really great Easter although it was filled with work :( and then I came back in early April and have been working ever since. On dissertation. On magazine.

To wittle it down to a fine point, here are my deadlines:

May 22nd - Magazine feature articles have to be submitted for assessment. This includes 3 magazine articles of varying lengths, PLUS one that's NOT for the magazine, a brief commissioning someone to write for the magazine and an edited piece of someone else's work from my group

June 5th - Magazine has to be submitted in its entirety

June 6th - Dissertation deadline

June 12th - Political communication exam (3 hours)

and then I'm FREE!! :D yayyyy. I seriously can not wait. One month today I will be FREE FOREVER. AARRGH. The excitement is just too much.

I had my NCTJ News Writing Exam today and it was pretty heavy going. First question was ok but the other three questions I'm not sure about. At least I'm not sure about question 3 as I had no real idea what it was getting at. I've been told the exam is very cut throat - I mean it's soo easy to fail that Liz Nice (one of the lecturers) said that most of us could end up resitting it. Which would be a bit upsetting considering we've spent about £37 just to take it! I soo hope I've passed. It means you get a preliminary certificate which employers like the look of and it means you can get more training and take more qualifications before becoming fully fledged I guess. And even though I've been put off by journalism, I do feel that I've got everything else - so the certificate would be a nice additional item to show off at the end of the day. &that sort of thing looks impressive to employers anyway as it shows commitment and dedication. Yep.

So fingers crossed.

In other news, I got my hair cut the other day. I had it reshaped and I now have a side fringe which is really very cute and I have layers sorta feathered around my face which I love. <3333 I got it done especially for when Gary came up to visit me. We had a great weekend - I made him chocolate cornflake nests and he got me a surprise - a Hello Kitty necklace ^-^ how cutee. So yes, we had a great time - went shopping, there was gorgeous weather all weekend too so we got to go out and my housemates had get togethers/bbq's on Saturday and Sunday. Was nice. And everything is feeling pretty amazing right now, although I know it will only get better.

- A