This is basically turning into a University Challenge blog, isn’t it? There will be other blogging, honestly. After NaNo.

Double bill of UC today, as I finally got round to watching last week’s show on iPlayer and then went straight onto this week’s.

First off, St John’s College, Oxford, faced off against Loughborough, eventually winning 220 to 190. I scored 290, 245 without un-starter’d bonuses, and was rather proud of getting all three questions on heroes visiting the underworld (Odysseus; Aeneas; Dante).

Then, UCL lost to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 185 to 260. I posted 275 on this one, 180 with reductions. Only round I got completely right this time round was the round on literary prizes, with Paxman giving the surnames of the last five winners (Orange; Booker; Nobel).

All in all, a pretty good evening’s worth of really damn hard trivia.

Hello there, how are you?

Today I was browsing the Internet, acquiring some knowledge if you prefer to call it like that, and I came across a posting that had the right path of creativity, therefore, I decided to re-invent it, edit it, and change it for your delightful entertainment.  Hopefully all of us girls can identify.. By all means, if you want to add another point, be my guest, this list can only keep getting better, that way we will find PRINCE CHARMING…

My Boyfriend Application and Test

First, a little about me. I’m a 26-year-old, very  good looking and intelligent Latina, with a full time Job and  attending University. I’m tired of wasting my time, so I have formulated some mandatory criteria in part A, and part B is based on points.

Part A

1) You must be born male. I’ll need to see a birth certificate proving so.

2) You must own something to wear to a formal reception. And at least a couple formal shoes.
3) You must not own or ever wear Birkenstocks, crocs footwear or wrangler jeans. Or wear your jeans so low, that  I can see the end of your briefs.
4) All your parts need to be in good working order, further testing will need to be conducted of course.
5) I can’t accept a regular drug user. Despite CA culture, I am including weed.
6) You must own at least four collared dress shirts. You need to look presentable standing next to me.
7) Your height must be proportional to your weight using the standard AMA guidelines. (fyi, I do prefer them taller than me, so you have to be at least 6 feet) .
You must have a couple photos which were  taken in the last 2 months.
9) English must be your first language. However you need to have a pretty good understanding of Spanish and Latin culture, or at least a desire to learn.

If you meet all of the requirements above then you may continue, if not, then you are now dismissed but thank you for applying to be my boyfriend.

Now: give yourself two points for each of the following criteria you meet

Part B

1) You have (or are working on) a degree.
2) You own a car and have a valid driver’s license. Suspended for DUIs: minus 10 points.

3) If your car is better and newer than mine add 5 points
4) You’ve never worn Ed Hardy, Affliction or any other Christian Audigier affiliated brand.

5) If 80% of your shoes can be described as sneakers take minus 5 points.
6) You follow at least one professional sport.
7) You have skills in bed. Not because you think you do, because your past experiences have told you.
You are not a born again Christian, Jehovah’s Witness or any other kind of religious fanatic.
9) You have been to at least three countries outside of the US.
10) You don’t need to call a handy man if something breaks around the house.
11) You know how to cook a meal for two. (Eggs, instant noodles, sandwiches, lean cuisine do not count as a meal)

12) You actually do shores around the house, like doing dishes after I cooked, help cleaning the kitchen, bringing flowers, wine etc..
13) You like stepping out of your bubble and trying new things like different cuisine, bungee jumping, salsa dancing.
14) You can make it through a romantic comedy without complaining (don’t worry we don’t have to tell your friends).
15) You have a great sense of humor. Are people laughing with you, or at you?
16) You can plan a good date without any help or advice from me. “I don’t know, what do you want to do” isn’t an answer.
17) You work out and enjoy being physically active. I hit the gym regularly, you should too.
18) You have a job that requires more than a high school diploma.
19) You read books, or at least you read the newspaper, so we can talk about worldwide subjects.  

20) You are an educated individual. You challenge my intellectual abilities.
21) You have a 5 year goal.
22) You aren’t afraid of being yourself, even if you have a dorky, nerdy side. (that’s kinda hot).
23) You’re competitive, and I don’t mean you like to battle it out on Wii with your buddies on the weekends.
24) You know how to dance.

25) You are spontaneous and creative.

26) You are secure about yourself and us. Meaning I’m not looking for a jealous, immature, insecure chauvinistic pig. People are going to check us out. Just enjoy the ride, at the end of the night I’m going home with you.

27) Last but not least, you can acknowledge when you screw up, and say sorry;  flowers and a romantic dinner might help you get some points back.

If you have a score of 40+ then please contact me immediately. If you scored between 20-35 pts, you can contact me, but I don’t have a lot of hope for our future relationship. If you did not score high enough, then please do not contact me, but if at some time in the future you are able to improve yourself and meet the minimum requirements, then you may re-apply.

You MUST respond with your age (this is a creeper free zone, 25-36 year olds only please) and your picture.

I thank you in advance for your application, however, only successful candidates will receive a response.

fyi.. I’m not trying to be rude or insult anyone..

This blog is just for fun, and to make you laugh!

With Love

xoxoxoxo Ment@l Fashion Addict

Valve, you’ve surpassed yourselves this time, rushing out a sequel to a game, and doing a pretty good job of it if I’m completely honest. But why, for the love of all that is holy, would you make a game where all your advanced features make the game a wobbly mess of doody. DOODY TO YOU SIR!! Multicore rendering, if you cant make it work, then DON’T INCLUDE IT. Anyway, other people are probably wondering what I’m going on about, so I’ll put it in simpler terms; if you bought a game, you’d expect it to work right? You wouldn’t expect it to freeze after you’ve been playing it for 30 minutes and force your face into contorted asian rage such as this?

NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Didn’t think so. Well that’s what this game is doing to me. All you smug console players are all “Oh there’s no problem for me na na na” but you can’t search google for inappropriate things on your little gamebox, whereas I can!! HA!

Oh yeah, the game is Left 4 Dead 2; I just realised I hadn’t actually mentioned the game’s name.

In other not so geeky news I had my first ever bad turbulence experience on an aeroplane last night. I was convinced I was going to die and even started to severely panic! I had to tell the old (and perfectly calm I might add) couple in the seats beside me that it was my first time fly (which you bet your ass it ISN’T) because I was so embarrassed of how badly I panicked! I feel that this adorable cat’s face best resembles my expression from the plane last night:

FUCKING FUCK OF ALL FUCKS!!!

Peace out bro’s and ho’s, I’m gona make me some Pasta n Sauce!

Some days it feels as though time is just dragging by and I count every minute just waiting for the day to be over. Then there are those days that you just dont feel as though there are enough hours in the day to get everything done.  I am currently having one of those days, although I do admit a lot of it is due to me just putting stuff off and wasting my time doing other things such as posting on here!

Anyhow back to the topic, I had an extremely busy day at work, from the moment I wake up I am just go go go, always something to be done or thought about, I made it home and made dinner which was a slight disappointment ( more on that later), I had loads of stuff to catch up with online, I still have stuff to do and I want to watch I`m a celeb on tv tonight so I need to get it done before then!

The reason I`m in such a rush is I have decided to apply to Uni for next year to do Radiography, so I`m in a major hurry to try and get my application form submitted. This means I have a personal statement to write and if there is one thing I am useless at, it is writing essays, so I`m in a total pickle. I also have to pick my choices and I am utterly clueless about all the Unis in England offering it and the towns they are in, I dont want to apply somewhere and then find out I hate the place.  I have been pondering this decision for a while and Im not sure its really what I want to do, I really dont want to go to Uni but at the end of the course it would be a job with a certain amount of job security, so I figured I may as well pop in an application while I think about it.

I`m  being tempted more and more every day by my eating disorder. Although I did cut out my supplement drinks and stopped trying to gain weight, I still followed a very rigid plan with a good intake to ensure that I didnt lose and also that I didnt screw up my metabolism. My ed now though is saying to me daily but your not trying to gain anymore so why bother forcing yourself to eat something higher in calories, you dont need to do that anymore, its ok to eat things lower.

Grrr, I can just never win, I terrified to gain weight and Im terrified to lose and I`m annoyed I`m maintaining at times. I worry constantly about feeling hungry, I am scared to feel hungry. This sounds bizarre coming from someone who is recovering from anorexia but its like when I feel hungry I dont know how to cope with that, I cant tell if I truly am hungry or if its an emotional thing.  So to stop myself feeling hungry I tend to fill up on lots of healthy options and now I am scared that I have got my body used to expecting always being fed these amounts and frequent meals. How will I ever manage to cope on maybe the same amount of calories but in less volume?

I think I get scared to if I`m hungry, I`ll turn to binging on nuts and stuff. Sometimes if I drop my intake out of guilt I`ll eat some nuts and then that ends up being alot and I feel guilty and the whole cycle goes on again. I`m always so fearful of that and I think thats partly why I am so rigid with my eating, I`m so scared of that happening.

Ugh, I dont know if any of that made sense. I guess what I`m really after is just wanting to get back to a normal relationship with food, how I ever get there I dont know. How do you ever stop counting? Balancing? Pre-planning? It sounds almost impossible!

So now for my disappointing dinner, I finally decided to try my pumpkin. I was a little lost as to what I should do with it. I tried tinned pumpkin once and wasnt impressed but this was a proper one. So I decided to chop it up, blast it in the microwave and then roast it in the oven. I then stir fried some chicken in sesame oil with a mixture of veggies and adding the pumpkin in at the end and covered all in soy sauce.

Hmm, well it looks pretty and colourful! Sounds quite tasty and everything was, I loved the mix of the veggies since I dont normally eat that sort of mixture: cabbage, sprouts, red onion, carrot, leeks etc. The problem was my pumpkin just tasted so, well bland?

I had it sitting in my kitchen for ages so maybe that had something to do with it but overall it tasted really bland. So if anyone has any tips or advice on pumpkins please pass them on!

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The long, dragging lectures by professors, inconvenient and humid classrooms, and rising as the rooster crows for a 45-minute drive to school are some of the many hindrances which prevent people from going to school. If these are the only things preventing you from going towards your goal, studying online is highly recommended for you.

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An accredited christian online college allows the parents to impart God’s Word to their child in an indirect way.

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I thought I’d better post about something librarianship-related, seeing as I’ve been getting way off-track lately, with cats and marriage and general blether.

Today we had a teaching session on professional ethics. It was a fascinating topic to get into, because obviously, so much is involved. The CILIP Ethical Principles document, though simple at first glance, is a very complex thing once you start thinking about it. For instance, Point 4: “Provision of the best possible service within available resources” is wide open to interpretation; what is the ‘best possible’? What do you mean, ‘available resources’? So much is down to budget allocation and priorities that it might be far too easy to dismiss the allocation of money to something a bit out-there but potentially valuable on the grounds of budget constraints, even if that’s not necessarily the case.

Which got me thinking about an essay I’m researching for at the moment, about ways public libraries can be made more accessible for people with disabilities. It’s a huge topic, but one of the recurring themes is the thought that not enough is being done, even though it doesn’t cost that much money. I mean, of course installing lifts and changing old, crumbling buildings to accommodate people with disabilities is costly, but in terms of cheap or free ways of making what you’ve already got a lot better, like knocking up some big signs pointing to where things are, letting people know about what is already stocked (the library I’ve worked in a few times has a huge number of large print books, but hides them in a corner and doesn’t tell people they’re there, for example) and shifting things around so people are more able to get around the place, doesn’t cost anything, but it does require some thought. It seems that libraries are put off even thinking about what they could do to improve things because they presume it will break the bank. Obviously there are other issues, like the lack of money to actually pay for staff who could think about these things and then implement them, and it goes further back than that, but it frustrates me.

So then my desire to save public libraries in England gets put on the back-burner because I get annoyed at myself for having all these hopes and dreams and realising I can do little to change anything, and I concentrate on getting trained in something that might give me more job satisfaction than banging my head against the brick wall of the local authority headquarters, like music librarianship. I’m going to the British Library at Boston Spa on Thursday to attend a Music for the Terrified course. I get special student rates, hurrah, which makes me glad I didn’t go last year when I was a graduate trainee. It was recommended at the IAML UK & Irl study weekend I went to in Edinburgh last April (which was absolutely brilliant and very helpful!) so when the opportunity came up to go this month I snapped it up. Although I’m a (relatively, ish) classically-trained cellist, I only have a GCSE in music and it’s been a while since I played in orchestras (apart from a dalliance with the Sinfonia of Leeds last year) so I know I need to brush up on my terminology, and now from a librarian’s perspective, the sources of information section will serve as useful advice, I hope! I’m very much looking forward to seeing the British Library too, because I’m ashamed to say it will be my first visit (but not, I imagine, my last).

Anyway, here are some things I have been thinking about. Blah. As you can see, I’m still no closer to deciding what direction I’m going to point myself in come the end of my course.

I chose to photograph the statue of Sir Tom Finney outside Deepdale, the home of Preston North End Football Club.

Presented in its original size, the photograph doesn’t fit comfortably on the screen, and the impact of the image is lost by having to scroll around to look at it.

400 by 300 pixels

I feel that this is the optimum size for the image. The picture was not distorted or changed by the adjustment, and it manages to give a sense of action to a static subject. I tried to take the shot from as low as possible, without getting my camera wet, in order to capture the stadium in the background, as well as give the impression that the statue is sliding into the frame.

200 by 500 pixels

By cropping the sides of the photo the statue immediately looks very different, the perspective makes it look as though the figure is nearly as tall as the stand behind it.

100 by 100 pixels thumbnail

A shot this size loses all impact. There is no depth to the picture and any detail is hard to pick out. It would perhaps be best used to accompany a short article appearing in a matchday programme or local newspaper.

The variety of pictures found on Flickr show how the statue can be brought to life and presented in many different ways, with shots taken throughout the day, across the seasons and from every possible angle. The range of impressive results are a fitting tribute to a North End legend.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tom%20finney%20statue&w=all&s=int&referer_searched=1

Monday November 23, 2009   By Kevin Morrow

What a day I had yesterday. I played in an all day tournament at the University of California Irvine, I had a lot of fun. There was a lot of action during the day, from the interesting mellow drama of my transportation, to the mini series of events during the games. Throughout it all I learned a lot of new things about myself and about reality.

I began the day on a journey from Corona to San Bernardino then back to Irvine. I really didn’t know where the ARC (Anteater Recreation Center) was but I had a general idea of where the school was from memory. As I left to Irvine from San Bernardino I ended up in a construction area that had the freeway narrowed down to one lane. Normally I would be worried and panicking, because I was supposed to be at the gym at 9Am, and let’s just say…”I wasn’t going to make it there by 9Am.”

So instead of worrying, I kicked back, put on some music that reminded me of happiness, and I went with the flow. After I made it through the traffic it was straight coasting all the way through. Time flies when you are having, fun, or maybe it doesn’t exist. I eventually arrived at the campus of UCI and I had no idea where to go.

This was yet another example of how worrying would get me  nowhere. The cool thing was I just felt my way to the center. I had no directions and I had never been there before. I was tempted to ask these two ladies where it was but something told me to go with my gut. As a backup plan I would ask someone, because there was no shortage of people walking around, but I decided to go with my instincts.

Somehow by listening to my inner compass I found the ARC without a problem. Which was a huge relief, instantly I began to realize that maybe I know things that I don’t think I know. All of this goes well with previous things I have blogged about. But anyway, back to the subject.

The tournament ends and I have to go back to San bernardino, which is about an hour or more from where I was. It was dark outside and I found myself lost. Not really lost, but confused I guess you could say. I didn’t feel a knowing for where I was. Plus I didn’t know the street names. All I knew was I needed to get back to the 73 freeway.

So I head out in a direction and I feel like I am headed the wrong direction on a street named Culver, but I second guess myself and keep going. I decided to stop at a gas station and admit to myself that I didn’t know where I was. I go inside of the gas station in an attempt to ask directions.

I’m literally waiting in line for ten minutes behind this guy who is having a full on conversation with the clerk. I was tempted for a second to get angry, but then I calmed myself. I thought to myself, “What’s the point in being upset, I’m here this is happening right now so just chill and relax. Stop worrying there is nothing you can do to change it, so change your attitude. Enjoy this moment, maybe you will learn something. Besides your anger is in your imagination anyway.”

As soon as I finish that dialogue in my head, another clerk comes out from the back and asks to help me. I slide myself over to him and explain that I somehow got turned around and I’m looking for the 73 freeway. The clerk looks at me and has no answer, he looks at the other clerk, who also has no answer. Before I can even think, the same guy who was in front of me starts politely explaining to me where the 73 freeway was. All I had to do was turn around on Culver and keep going until I ran into it.

I thanked the gentleman three times and left him with a “Have a great night!” This was really cool to me, because I realized that without worrying everything worked itself out. But wait, there is more, this is were the story gets even better. I go all the way down Culver for what seemed like forever and I get to the 73 freeway.

Now before when I came up the 73 I didn’t have to pay a toll, and so I wasn’t event thinking about having to pay a toll. It was the last thing to cross my mind. I’m not paying attention to signs, I just hop on the onramp because I’m already late as it is getting back to San Bernardino. Then I start seeing these lights and a sign that says toll. I’m like “uh oh,” because I have no money on me. All I have is my debit card which is in the negative at the moment.

Naturally I start getting worried because there is this big sign that says $500 fine for people who go through the toll without paying. So for a brief 30 seconds I get worried. I mean how do I turn around on an onramp? So I start to calm down and I decide that I should just back up slowly with my hazards on because at this point I’m the only person on the road. I actually found 20 cents in the car but the toll was $1. So I’m calmed down and start telling myself not to worry because there is always a solution.

Then I see the headlights of a car, they pull up right behind me. Im sitting there, I look back in the rear view, they look at me, I look at them, they look at me, I look at them…I thought to myself that I was in a good situation because the young lady behind me was a pretty one and I could feel that she had a genuine care for others. All materialistic things aside however I thought to myself it would be awkward if I got out the car and asked for her help.

“So I looked back and said “Would you mind if I backed up and turned around?”

She said  “No I can back up, do you need me to?”

I was like “Yeah I’m a little lost and I wasn’t aware that this was a toll, I don’t have any cash on me.”

This young lady says not to “worry” about it she has a dollar in change to spare me.

I was like wow.

All I could say was Thank you several times, and I wished her a great night.

Out of all the people to run into at that time when there was nobody else on the road.She even told me she only hops on this part of the freeway to go down a couple exits.

And that my friends is how NOT worrying saved me from a $500 Fine.

During the last year, I´ve been quite emotional. It´s hard to get trough the daily life. Sometimes you aim for certain things and you reach your goal, but then, you realize that that goal is reachable for a short instance, later goes further and further away from you.

Now I feel weird. I love what I´m doing, it´s not that. I just have so many feelings I don´t know what to do with them. They´re all bugging me at the same time.

It seems like everything is non-reachable right now. I know I´m doing parts of my dreams, yet, they´re so far away. The University is good for me, my program is excellent, it´s one of the best, but the uni itself has a very poor reputation. Something we tried to research before deciding to get here. This university doesn´t participate in yearly rankings. At first I thought it was good, because they don´t want to get involved in stuff, I thought, but now I know that´s it´s the opposite.

It´s getting harder and harder. Again, I love the career I chose and the education is very good, our teachers are teaches at Drama Schools. Everything with the homework, essay, assessments etc, is filling my time up.

Recently, I tried out to be in a 3rd year production and I got it. Since it got delayed, all my things got kind of on top of each other and I can´t put on more responsibility than the ones I already have. Today, I had to write to the director and tell her that I can´t be in her scene. It sucks, because I wanted it, but right now, I´m not strong enough to put on too many things upon what I already have. I need to get into my life and start it over, since I really haven´t done that yet with all the shifting´s in my life – changing countries, schools, chasing dreams etc.

Anyways, I know I´ll work it out. I have to build up a strength for next semester so I can deal with all these thing in a better way. What gives me strength now is that I´m going home to mami for Christmas, I really need her to hug me, give me a kiss and tuck me into bed. Miss you so mamita.

xoxo

Via Indybay

A thought occurred to me today when I was gazing out of the kitchen window waiting for the kettle to boil and, of course, for a big wedge of cash to fall from the sky.
Why do I pay all this money to be stressed, poor and ultimately approximately £25,000 in debt?
It’s not for the social aspect, surely? I have met about 4 or 5 people through uni who are worth staying in contact with after I graduate. That’s if I graduate.
I don’t live on campus, I live with my parents so… it isn’t for the ‘experience’. Although I think living with my parents at the age of 21 does contribute somewhat to my stress-levels.
The 6 months that I actually spent living in a house with half a dozen girls sent me in to a deep depression which solely conduced me into dropping out of second year.
It took 3 weeks of living in the Middle East that Summer to make me realise how lucky I am to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts, let alone receive Higher Education and consider heading back the following September.

I should spend almost 10 hours a week learning but the rest of the time I usually just worry about implementing what I’ve learnt into something useful. However, during those 10 hours, I’m fully aware of steely eyes boring in to me and hellish glances that survey my every move and choice of clothing.
Why do I bother? I have grey hair and a twitch in my eye already. Who knows what I’ll be like when/if I ever get out alive with a degree.

Yesterday was a wholly bon day though. Those gruesome twins were voted out of the X-Factor thanks to Danni Minogue who, I shouldn’t say this but, is gradually catching up with Cheryl Cole on my scale of likability.
I also won an essential auction on eBay which I was sure would solve all of the world’s problems. Now I’m just worried about integrating the item in to my wardrobe.
Before you say anything, yes I have just been moaning about money issues but, you see, I am due a very small but very final paycheque from my former employer. And I would like it known that I don’t want their money. Therefore, the eBay item will forever be remembered for that reason.
It’s like exorcism by eBay.

Somebody told me this yesterday – “Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good. ‘If you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain.’ Do you know which “philosopher” said that? Dolly Parton.”
Granted, it was followed by, “And people say she’s just a big pair of tits.” But it’s still poignant.
And yes, I know it’s a quote from The Office, but it’s stuck in my mind since yesterday. And you know what? Dolly’s right. I’ve just been in a trough. Maybe I’m climbing out.

Howdy folks. Sorry I’ve not been too hot on the blogging front of late- uni and work have been tying me down. One of my assignments was to interview a professional journalist and write up a short article on it

Here it is for your reading pleasure. Try not to let the criticisms rain too hard….

~~~~~

‘I never wanted to be a journalist,’ says Gordon Tait, 32, news reporter for the Sun, ‘It just turned out that way.’ Graduating from Glasgow University in 1999 with a BA (Hons) in management, Gordon went on to get a placement as a management trainee at Newsflash, a freelance press company. Little did he know that a turn of events would turn his future career plans on their head.

‘As part of our training we were required to work a few weeks in each individual department of the company, just to see how things worked.’ Sampling everything in the business, from accounts to marketing, Gordon realised there was one department which he particularly enjoyed. The press department. ‘During the placement with the press department we were required to write a few articles, nothing special, alongside the professionals.’ Lucky enough for Gordon, his writing skills shone out from his fellow trainees and got him noticed. Within a few weeks he had transferred from the managerial department to the press and became a junior reporter. ‘The thing I love about journalism is it’s so varied. You never have the same day twice.’ His passion for his job was evident in his work and soon enough his pieces were getting published in the papers. From the Daily Mail to the Independent, everyone wanted a piece of Gordon Tait. ‘It was amazing getting my articles published in such big papers; I never thought everything would happen so fast.’

A few months later and Gordon was headhunted by the Daily Record Group. Although only working part-time, Gordon was expected to learn on the job. And fast. Writing regular news reports for both the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail, bosses advised him not to worry too much about his writing technique but instead focus on his interview and people skills. ‘You must make people feel at ease, that’s key to the job. All that matters is getting the story and you do that through meeting other people. You need to get people to speak.’ Centring on his people skills on the job, Gordon decided to take up a shorthand night class to improve his recording skills and buy a copy of Scots Law which he studied in his own time.

His work paid off and Gordon joined the Sun in 2004, where he has stayed to this day. His workload increased considerably: ‘You always have to be prepared to be called up to report a story. I remember I was on holiday in the Borders playing golf when the Glasgow airport attack happened, I had to drop everything and return to Glasgow. Just for one story.’ In spite of this, Gordon still loves his job: ‘I’m extremely lucky. There are very few jobs out there like the one I have. No two days are the same. There are always new people to meet, new facts to research and new stories to find.’

‘Do you have any tips for young, aspiring journalists?’ I asked. ‘Read all newspapers,’ Gordon revealed, ‘not just the broadsheets and quality papers but the tabloids too.’ ‘Also, bear in mind that stories can come from anywhere. I’ve been inspired to write articles after watching TV and films, even after playing computer games.’ ‘And be prepared to work under pressure. I’ve had phone calls from my boss at 9 o’ clock where I’ve had to drop everything and start writing. You really need to motivate yourself.’

So where’s next for Gordon? ‘Editor would be great.’ He revealed, ‘but that might be a while off yet.’

~~~~~

It was great to actually get talking to  proper working journalist for the first time. I only did my interview over the phone but I managed to yap away for about 30 minutes! He was a really nice guy and even offered me some work experience if I wanted it. Who knows, I could be working for the Scottish Sun before you know it!

To be honest, I’m not that happy with this article. I realise it’s my first one ever but I didn’t really put any exciting angle on it. I picked the quote for the first line specifically because I knew it would capture reader attention- it caught mine at least! But all in all I feel I probably should have thought about it a bit more (or just a bit full stop) before I started writing. Oh well, lesson learned!

Stay tuned for more amateur articles coming soon…

While looking at the website for Underexposed Creative a Chester based agency specialising in Branding and Corporate Identity I came across this section:

We Listen:…
We Think:…
We Create:…

I thought this way of approaching any project is fantastic and just could be produce great results.
Listen to the brief, Think about a solution and create the solution.

These were designed by Michelle Lam in Canada.
“Graphos Playing Cards are designed to inspire other designers, and also lay people to be more attuned with design through an increased awareness of the importance of typography in a fun and easy-to-understand way.

Each card from the deck of Graphos Playing Cards will tell the unique story of a specific area of focus in typography. All spades highlight on the importance of “anatomy”; hearts on “classification”; clubs on “glyphs”; diamonds on “type setting”. Fonts are focused on sans serif, serif, script and decorative.”
I think these cards look amazing, they use the simple colours of white, red and black to attract the eye to certain areas of the card and you notice something new every time you look at them.
Michelle designed them to inspire other designers and emphasise the importance of typography and she certainly has with this work, if only I could get my hands on a set.

I attended a session run by the ZONE @ Glyndwr, up at the main campus and was set a project in a group with another graphic design student and other students from other areas of the university.
The project was to design a real ale beer in the spirit of Glyndwr University and Owain Glyndwr the person to appeal to university students. The finalists would then be sent to controversial Scottish Brewer BREWDOG who would pick a winner and may even produce a batch of the beer for the winners to sample.
The team I worked with produced the brand 1412 after the last year the Owain Glyndwr was seen before going into hiding from the English. I found this very useful as it involved working with people outside of the Art School and it upped the tempo to produce a brand and product in just one day.
We presented the design in front of the camera for the judges to view and we were one of the finalists to be sent off to BREWDOG

“Development of an identity and packaging for Nanokote, a surface treatment product that repels dirt and water when applied to glass or ceramics, metal, timber and fabric. It uses nanotechnology to create sub-microscopic self-arranging particles that are measured in nanometers (billionths of a metre, or 10-9) to create a protective layer which inhibits dirt and water from attaching themselves to a surface.”

I love the combination of simply typography and interesting visuals to create an interesting brand and packaging line.

“For: The Institue of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephens University, Essentials Green Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.”

I must first of all say I am thoroughly enjoying doing the Essentials Course in worship studies. I have found their materials so thought provoking and yet so balanced and mature. Definitely check the course out if you have a heart for worship!

Anyway back to what I wanted to say…In the church I grew up in there were often differing opinions on worship, and some pretty strong ones at that (I see those heads nodding ). One of them was on “cultural relevance” and “accessibility”, i.e. we were dealing with issues of how do we make the “church” cool to other people and maybe even to ourselves because even though most “religious” people won’t admit it, they are bored out of their minds.

It sad to know that these “wars” still continue today, when really the problem isn’t with the other guy who wants to rock out or sing hymns. The problem was us all along. (Swallowing bitter pill). The way I see it the problem has never been should we sing hymns or not or should we sing the latest songs off the Worship Top 40, the problem is about who we are serving.

We all know that worship is about us (wait quick double take, what did he say?) Or at least if we are honest with ourselves. Even us worship leaders make worship about us rather than first God and THEN others.

I think worship should be directed towards God but we should also be serving each other by choosing actions, meditations, prayers and songs that help others to connect with God. Far too often worship leaders under the banner of “cultural relevance” choose the songs they want to sing instead of the songs the community in front of them need to connect with God. As  leaders we need to keep at the front of our minds the question “what is going to help these people connect with Jesus today?”

The other issue goes a little deeper. I have always found that in these churches where their are struggles in worship it is because choosing the right song has become the focus. It’s sort of like if you choose the right song (or my favourite song at the moment) then worship will be awesome, but if you don’t then worship will be rubbish.

That’s also not the point, I mean isn’t this about God and His presence? What God wants isn’t a song or sacrifice (depending on which Testament you choose to live in… jokes) he wants people who will come to Him in faith (Heb 11), He wants people who will worship in spirit and in truth (John 4) and He wants people who are humble (Psalm 51).

I once heard Graham Cooke say that as long as God’s presence is manifesting, that people are getting saved, that miracles are happening on a weekly basis and the poor are being looked after, you will always be relevant. Pretty powerful stuff hey. I think so often we hide behind “being culturally relevant” and choosing cool songs so we don’t have to own up to the fact that God left the building a long time ago.

As always I welcome any comments

Could Twitter help you find a job?

A recent lecture with Joanna Geary, Web Development Editor at The Times, gave us an insight into how she got a job, and how she’s arrived at where she is today.

I must say, since starting this course online journalism has taken centre stage. I did not realise that online journalism was as big as it is, you may call me naive, but since wanting to be a journalist i always thought that i would be working for a magazine, writing stories and i’d get to see my stories on paper in front of me. But my ideology of the business has now changed, i understand that i have to train up in the online community, and may have to adapt my way of writing for online. This was the same for Joanna Geary, it’s clearly worked in her favour, being the Web Development Editor at The Times and all.

Starting in the newspaper world, The Birmingham Post. Joanna stumbled across the blogging community, although it wasn’t an instant attraction, it caught her attention to how many people certain bloggers were reaching, and the amount of times they were able to blog in the time it took to print the newspaper and publish her stories.

She set up a blogging community alongside the Birmingham post, with a community of 35 bloggers helping to bring stories right to their website, it worked really well, as no other newspaper had tried anything so original.

So, The Times (Tom Whitwell)  got wind of her blogging community and contacted Geary via…Twitter, very professional to say the least, but it got the message across twice as fast as an email. And so her is where the story concludes for now, but i look forward to seeing what Geary has in store for the future.

Geary said, “I asked the questions no-one else was asking.” This helped to develop her online journalism, and create a new wave of blogging, and lets not forget…landed her a job at The Times.

Many of the speakers we have had lectures with such as, Rory Cellan-Jones and Adam Tinworth explained that having a specialty within a certain area would help in developing your career.  Joanna Geary is started in at the business sector of the newspaper industry, and is now an online specialist, she learnt her speciality as the online community was developing.