The end of the line...

Wow. I cannot believe that in over a week's time, I will no longer be a 1st year university student. Time has flown by! Only seems like yesterday that I was in college looking up universities I was wishing to attend and having a million interviews. Now, here I am, about to finish year 1 out of 3.

For anyone thinking about going to uni; do it! You will not regret it. Okay, maybe the news over the last 5 months has been a little negative regarding student loans, but forget that...You'd be earning a degree! A degree. That's right, a top of the range qualification in something you love.
Did that sound a little commercialized? I thought so too. I do apologize.

In the space of 8 months: I have completed endless amount of work, essays, assignments and stressing about housing for september 2011.
But, fear not, one has managed to gain a property...AND I MOVE IN NEXT MONTH! June 16th to be precise. New Home cards and wishes will be appreciated (aha I joke.) I'm just excited. Becoming a 2nd year sounds exciting at the moment. But, give it time (say about November) and I shall say to you all 'I hate it!' T_T

OFF TOPIC!
Okay so I am about to go off topic. Earlier, I looked at the stats for this blog and I am astonished at the amount of overseas visitors I get. US, Germany, Singapore, Russia & Iran. Wow. Please, do not be afraid to comment and say hi. Communicating to different countries is amazing. Please leave a comment if needed. Would be nice to hear (well read your comments) from you.

To end this, I will say GO TO UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE AND SUCCEED IN LIFE! Make something of yourself and don't be scared.
Speak tomorrow :) (yeah I am making this regular now)

Political nonsense

It is that time of year again when people have to come out of their houses and attend their local community centre, school or any public space with a roof, to take part in the elections.
Every year in Britain, we hold elections for local councils to see who will take hold of the neighbourhood we live in. Every couple of years a general election will happen where us Brits will have to vote for who we want to run the country. What a hassle. I am only 20 and been voting now for 3 years: I am already fed up of it. This year was probably the worst as we had the AV thing to vote for on top of the local election. I dont have a problem with this, but the honest truth is, I had no idea what I was to do regarding the AV vote. Should I of voted Yes or voted No? Luckily, I came to a decision and sorta glad I stuck to it. Not saying what I voted.

But yes, this all happened yesterday, and today the results came out. My local elections turned out well. Labour took hold of my neighbourhood (happy parents) and also the old neighbourhood I used to live in too. A few hours ago, they also announced the results on national news what the AV vote was. The winner was NO. Many happy people and many upset people. Oh well deal with it. That is what I say.

Now I am not a very political person, but I sorta have to be with the way I was brought up. My dad has had an interest in the news and politics since a young boy, so my nan tells me, and he has tried to rub it onto my younger brother and I. This hasn't worked at all. But anyway, it has sort of made me understand this all a lot more than the majority of my friends. Some are clueless as to why we even have to vote. One even said "Are women even allowed to cast a vote?" I questioned her as to what era she think we were living in. Clueless friends I have. But I did explain to her that we have been able to vote for a long time now. Don't ask me how long as that is where I get lost.

To end this, I am just going to say...Are your countries in election mode? If so, are you going to vote? If not, why?

It has been a while

This hasn't been updated in a while, I do apologise. But I am back and hope to keep this going. I have been so busy recently, words cannot describe it. Parties, learning, working, socialising and many more hectic things happening. But I am back now so no need to panic.

Anyway, I decided to restart this again (not just because it is course requirement) because I have been reading other peoples blogs. One blogger I have been reading is Xiaxue (Wendy). She is a Singaporean blogger who blogs about everything. The amount of hate this woman gets is incredible. All she does is speak her mind and she gets criticised for it. All I say is 'good on her for speaking her mind'. Last time I heard, there was something in this society that says 'Freedom of Speech'. Is this not applicable anymore?' I sometimes wonder.
Not only does she blog, but she does work, alongside Wendy, for a Singaporean internet channel called 'Click Network'. It's such an awesome channel and I deffo recommend you check it out
http://www.clicknetwork.tv
They have a show named 'Chick vs Dick' with Kay Kay & Paul, 'Budget Barbie' with QiuQiu & Xiaxue's Guide to Life.
Anyway enough of that. BTW I am not sponsored for advertising stuff (I wish I was though as that would be ace)

Radio Story #2

There is a lot of christmas spirit going around Surrey this christmas especially in Reigate and Banstead.

Shoppers in Reigate, Banstead and Horley are to be given free parking over the seasonal period to help them save a little cash.

The good will which has come from the council hopes to help shoppers at this difficult ecomonic climate.

Like they say, it is the season of goodwill and fortune.

Vox pop script

Taken from the vox pops done a month or so again with Rihanne Stephen.

Man 1: I can't say I have any strong feelings about it to be honest. It's a little bit too early, you could argue its a waste of electricity. No strong feelings either way.

Man 2: Hate it. Why? Because it actually robs Christmas of the event...Yeah when you're waiting up to it to december. Thats the meaning, if you got it switched on in november, october, what's the point? You may as well have them on all year. No, no i'm generally against it.

Girl 1: It doesn't really bother me. It makes me get more excited quicker for christmas

Girl 2: I don't like it because it means companies get more money out of us because they are trying to sell gimmicky things because it's like I dont have much money. Its not fair.

Print stories

Jobless climate

Many young residents in a Surrey town were left in turmoil after a job drought. Teenagers in redhill were distraught when their town was announced to be worst hit with the recession. Workers were made redundant meaning everyone was fighting for any last-remaining jobs going.
Louisa Welman, 19 of Redhill, said: "This current time is horrible. Since I left school, all I wanted was job as I didn't want to go to college. But it looks like I might just need to. There is just nothing out here, even in nearby Horley. The country needs to sort it out."

With the recession hitting the whole of the United Kingdom back in 2009, people were losing their jobs by the thousands. This saw the redundancy rate hit records levels with the numbers being in the tens of thousands.
Welman also stated: "I just hope Redhill recovers well so I can fund my young son's future as I hate relying on benefits."

Fireworks extravaganza

Roll up roll up. The fireworks are coming to Horley again this year.
On Novemeber 5th, expect a night to remember as the quiet surrey town lights the sky with colours. The night is expected to raise money for local children charities.
Tickets are £5 each with family tickets priced at £10. What are you waiting for, come on down.

School Politics

School children take on a 'Question Time' discussion at a town hall in Surrey. 50 children from Beacon School in Banstead got to experience a political debate at the town hall on a variety of issues. They were able to question the councillor. At the end of the session, all the children recieved certificates.

1st semester

Since I started the Journalism course in September this year I have learnt quite a lot.

In Print and Online Journalism, I learnt how to use photoshop and create edits on images etc. Another program I learnt to use was InDesign. This software is used to create magazine and newspaper layouts at ease. I felt it was extremely easy to use having used a software like InDesign which was called QuarkXPress.
We got shown how to upload images and audio to certain sites to export them onto this website and we edited pictures to make them bigger or smaller.
I feel this is a subject I am really good at as I enjoy it. I think this is something I want to do next semester.

In Radio, I learnt how to operate the controls in the studio. In one lesson, we had to read a news story on air and at the end we were evaluated on how well we done. At the time I thought I had done bad but realised at the end I wasn't too bad.
I feel Radio isn't something I want to do in the future but I did enjoy it more than I thought.

In Television, I learnt how to use the university cameras, what certain TV words mean like A/B Rolls and Rushes. We also learnt how to use a software named Premier Pro. This software is something I am not too keen on as it looks like it takes a lot of getting used to. I do feel that in time I will get the hang of it.
I feel that Television is also something I am not good at, along with radio, and will not be pursuing in the future.

ITV News

London Tonight is a news programme broadcasted on ITV at certain times of the day, usually 2 bulletins in the morning alongside the main 6pm and 10pm bulletins.

The sort of shots that LT use vary with A Roll, B Roll and many more. At the beginning of the show they use a pan shot which zooms around the studio showing a picture of some of the top news. It then goes into a wide shot of the newsreaders who then welcome the viewers and alerts them into what has hit the headlines today. They always start with a shot of the newsreader(s) because they want to engage the viewer. To also not make the clips boring, they also add in close-ups and mid-shots.
When the presenter has finished reading a story out they then add a link to the news package that has been done by a fellow colleague; they usually include a couple of interviews with a few people and some B-Rolls to try and spice up the story so the viewer knows exactly what is going on.
Some of the best things about news packages is the location of the newsreader; some can be in the middle of Afghanistan reporting on a death of a solider, and another reporter could be trying to crash a student protest to try and show the viewers the devastating effects of what has been done.

With LT, some of their packages could be live or pre-recorded. There are a lot of differences between the two. One of the first has to be lighting; this is because with a live package you need to make do with what lighting you currently have. If you miss up in a live interview/package you need to make do with what has happened. The advantages of having a pre-recorded package is that you can add extra lighting. You can also cut bits out or do a retake if you think you could have done better.

Lastly, when the news finally comes to an end, they will introduce the weather and then once that is done they will then turn back to the newsreaders who will do a link out and say goodbye to the viewers. In LT, it is a one person close up which then turns to a wide shot of both readers and then a long shot which then fades.

Introduction to TV

So yesterday afternoon's class was a little different from the other classes we usually have on a tuesday afternoon. Instead of learning about Radio or Print...We were introduced to Television.
Our teacher for this subject is a man named Sean Walsh. He introduced himself to us and told us we were now studying TV and that we have to go out onto the campus of our university that we had to get peoples opinions about the royal engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Before this vox pop session started he asked us a few questions like What is A Roll and B Roll, what are rushes and what P2C is?
A Roll is Interviews etc
B Roll is General Shots
Rushes are unedited footage
P2C is Pieces to Camera

Once we had done this, Sean made us watch a news show which the 2nd years had created...At the end of the video he went round the class and asked for our opinion. I stated that the P2C about motoring was a little odd as the person shouldn't have put the question in as it didn't make it look right. Oh, and it was also very cheesy with odd jokes. This was the general comment from everyone.
He then picked 7 girls (including myself) to stand up. We were made team leaders and this meant we had to each choose 2 people to be in our little team. I picked Emma and Matt. As team leader, I had to fill in a risk assessment and found out that I didn't need to fill in the noise box (oh well). We were then sent out onto the campus and made to interview 3 different people about how they reacted to the news. Once we had got their views we had to introduce the topic so when it was edited people knew what we were talking about.
Once finished, we went back into the classroom to plug the camera into the computer. This was a long process as none of us had used Premier Pro(I think that was what it was called) before.
Before we had even got the footage the class had ended.

What I had learnt in the class was TV is a very stressful subject and you need to do things in realtime and not stress about everything. I feel it is something I cannot do and will hopefully leave it once the christmas holidays start.

What I could have done better in this task was contribute more to the vox pops because Emma was the person who asked the people to stop and speak to us. I also could have done more for the editing.

Christmas Lights vox pops

Christmaslightsvoxs by Amandajane349

Myself and Rihanne scouted the streets of Farnham and asked the general public their view on the christmas lights being switched on earlier each year. Here are some of the responses above that we managed to get. Enjoy :L A lot of editing had to be done to get it to the recommended 20/30 seconds.

Train blogging

There is something slightly weird about blogging from a train...Well, for one, I am currently doing that. Don't ask me why. Let's just say trying to type this out whilst squashed in a tiny 2-person cubicle is proving to be difficult (And no one is sat in the next chair)

I am not a huge fan of trains, especially this one I am on, because I feel as if they are constantly dirty and there isn't much 'personal' space. I, for one, would very much like a bit of personal space.

And now someone is sat next to me....Great -_- Goodbye personal space.

While I am sat here writing this pathetic excuse of a post, I am trying to chill with my Ribena Blackcurrant drink and somehow take in the 'oh-so beautiful scenery of the Surrey/London countryside which I am breezing past at supersonic speed *I wish it was a little more supersonic*

Im going now, the person is staring at me. Nosey woman. Bye

Wow

Just 'wow'

So today I thought I'd browse the stats of this blog to see who views it and how many hits I get in a day...Wow was the first word to come into my head when I saw it. I only expected people from the United Kingdom to look at my lame attempt of blogging. I was wrong. People from Singapore & United States of America are viewing this page. I'm stunned.

Hello viewers from USA and Singapore. I would love to travel to those countries so much. Hang in there singapore as I could be there next year (well as a stopover when I head on over to Hong Kong to visit family) and before you ask 'no I am not Asian. I have a 2nd cousin who lives out there with his American wife Kelly. (Lucky Andrew and Kelly). To be quite frank, I didn't even know they lived in HK until I saw them at a family party in Kent back in August of this year. I still thought there were in Buffulo, IL (Correct me Americans if I am wrong...I'm guessing it is in Illinois) Yay if I am correct.

I now feel the need to end this blog post because I have run out of things to say. I just wanted to say hello to all the readers and let you know the stats so far. Thank you for reading this blog and until next time.

Peace out homies (LOL I fail at my ghettoness)

xoxo

have a peek at some old stuff

So I thought to myself an hour ago "I should post an old review" and here it is. I wrote about 2/3 months ago *before I started university* and I linked it to the people who I based the review on and they loved it. I was utterly impressed by the comments they left me regarding the piece I wrote on them and decided to show it to you *The review that is* I will show the comment later.

Okay, so we are all familiar with YouTube right? Well I am hoping everyone is. Recently, I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time on the popular web page watching vlogs from a variety of people. Whilst giving these people some views on their videos I found a couple of people who stood out for me. Todays post features the talented;

Wong Fu Productions

This YouTube sensation consists of 3 Asian American guys going by the names of Philip Wang, Wesley Chan and Ted Fu. They all met at University and shared the same interest 'making videos' and decided at the time, for fun and educational purposes, to make videos. At the time, YouTube didn't exist so they added all their videos onto websites which would let them post videos. These videos were basically university projects which they needed to do. When YouTube finally came about the moved some of their work to the site. Their most popular video at the time was 'Yellow Fever' which they made in 2006 which explores the topic of interracial dating between Asian Americans and White Americans. Another famous video of the group's success was a short named 'A Moment With You'. This was the groups first proper feature-length film and was screened at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Since the success of both of these videos, Wong Fu Productions has created a mass amount of videos including a few music videos with Singer/Songwriter/Producer David Choi and At Musing's End (another Short Film). Their most current work is a webseries called 'FunEmployed' where Philip Wang stars in the series and works alongside Kevin Wu (KevJumba) and is based on two friends who are unemployed and try and make a profit by making online videos.

Wong Fu Productions attracts a whopping amount of viewers consisting of over 4.9 millions channel views and has an amazing 340,000 subscribers.

Although most of the videos posted on their YouTube page and official websitehttp://www.wongfuproductions.com are mostly music videos and shorts they have created, they also create vlogs to update the fans on what they are currently doing. Also, they have started to create a vlog called 'Wong Fu Weekends' where every weekend they will upload a video of what they did at the weekend. They are currently on the second series.

Since joining the internet world of YouTube they have also opened up an online shop for fans to by T-Shirts, DVDs and stuffed animals. Here is a few of the items on sale onhttp://www.areyouaniceguy.com/

Awkward Turtle; $25.00

NG Guys $22.00




The shop ships to people all over the world with a shipping fee set in place. Although they say the sale of the goods makes them a bit of a profit, they also donate a portion of the money earned in a month to charities.

To end this wonderful blog post; I hope you all decide to go and check their videos and subscribe as the amount of talent these three guys have is incredible. Not only do they create inspiring videos...They also storyboard them, write them, film them, edit them, promote them and upload them all for us to enjoy. So the least you could do is spare a few minute and watch one (or two, maybe even three) of their videos.

And on that note I would like to say THANK YOU Wong Fu for bringing such laughter to us and carry on with the ace videos and thank for for reading.

*I did have the videos here but blogger wouldnt let me. If you would like to check out their stuff: head on over to youtube and type in WONGFU PRODUCTIONS

A lot of apologising

Thats what I feel like i am going to be doing for a while.

Anyway, I have decided to come back after all this time after reading a Xanga account by a guy I've been following on youtube and facebook for nearly a year now. His blog really inspired me to write a heck of a lot more on my own.

On his Xanga he always spoke fondly of his love for shooting short films & his family and it made me think 'I should be expressing my love for Journalism & my family. To be honest, I don't do enough of that. Now is the time to start.

I say time and time again to myself, I could never ever lose disrespect for my family. The number of things they have done for me is countless and I don't show enough love to them for that. Things like bailing me out of trouble when I have done something wrong which I didn't mean to do or helping me when I fell over (I was a clumsy child). Its taken me 13 years to say this and I feel really bad now.

I LOVE YOU MUM AND DAD! (and my brother even though you wind me up at times):)

I don't think I could live with myself if i ever lose contact with them in the upcoming future. I would kick myself a heck of a lot if it were to happen.

Enough of the family love though. Another thing which inspired me from Wesley's blog (yes his name is Wesley) was his dream of meeting a woman and wanting her to not be self conscious. Reading in his words about how he wanted his future wife to love having her picture taken when she least expected it and then her not going into a frenzy about wanting it deleted. It made me go 'aww how cute' because that what I'd like. I'd like to be able to take pictures me and a future boyfriend/husband without him whinging about it and making me delete the picture because it looked 'ugly'.

"WES WHERE ARE YOU IN MY LIFE' jokes. Anyway, would be nice though but he is all the way in Los Angeles which is a heck of a long trek from London.

Oh well, off I pop. Shorthand calls. This is so off-topic like usual.

Ta-Rah

x

Sorry

Apologises for my absence over the last week or two as i have been such a busy bee. I will exclude the fact I was ill last week meaning I felt too sluggish to create a post.

TBH I am not the sort of person who you'd expect to blog because I find I cannot say much to discuss it in a blog. I am more of a twitter blogger where you are given 140 words to less to express yourself. So much easier.

Anyway, I have been celebrating my brother's 16th birthday which happened to be yesterday and he throughly enjoyed it (I just think it is because he got his blackberry) He has been waiting for that phone ever since I got mine back in April this year. Before you ask, yes I am still hating on my blackberry. Let me elaborate on that a little more.

My last post mentioned how i hated my blackberry and that I was getting frustrated with it freezing all the time. It got to a point where it froze altogether resulting in me having to go back to Carphone Warehouse to get it repaired. I have now got a 'fabulous' standby phone called a Sony Ericsson K800i. Well technically, the shop gave me a crappy Alcatel phone which I think is worth 20p and I just couldnt deal with that so have borrowed my brother's old phone which looks a little nicer than the other one. I now won't see my blackberry until mid-November. Thanks Blackberry for creating a breakable phone. Cheers. ¬_¬ My life has officially ended (pun).

In other news, I am glad the Chilean miners are successfully being rescued. Seeing them emerge from this tube and their family member embracing them into a heartwarming hug warms my heart. To see them look so well after being trapped down in the mines for 69 days is incredible. If I was stuck down there I would probably lose my mind but they all looked so calm whilst being there.

Well that is enough from me for today. Buh-Bye :D

x

Blackberry nonsense

Okay so I admit it; I own a BlackBerry (The lilac one if you must know) and yes I mainly use it for the emails, easy texting courtesy of the qwerty keypad and of course the BlackBerry Messenger. But I am not doing this blog to support BlackBerry. Oh no...I am joining the 'HATE' bandwagon. Before you start, no I am not moving to the iPhone. I will leave that for a separate post.

Let me go into a bit of detail for you as to why I have gone from 'Love' to 'Hate' with this so-called 'must-have' gadget.

1. If you are a speedy writer BlackBerry will fail to acknowledge your speed and then freeze on you for about 432435455 minutes.

2. You constantly have to update the software for the slightest things. For example, BB messenger not working or handset constantly freezing when you try and unlock keypad etc. The list could go on.

3. This mainly depends on your service provider; you will get 'SOS' mode when you are in a public place but then find your friend (who is on the same network and has the same phone) has full signal.

I really could go on all night explaining the negative facts about owning a BlackBerry but I really do not want to bore you or even myself.

If you are considering at buying a BlackBerry then please think twice before making that purchase.

David Choi's music video

Audio Tester

TheRecruitingSargeant by amandajane0591

Random Moments

So, I was asked to 'create a post' which is impossible if you ask me because I find I can only create a post when something comes to mind. Lets just say it isn't here yet.

Well, I started the course officially today so I am waving HELLO to the next 3 years of studying; but this time it is something I will enjoy. Although I feel I am not getting the 'whole package' of university life...I still feel like it isn't a matter to me. But, knowing me, I will most likely hate commuting by next year or probably even sooner. At the moment I do commute with my classmate Sarah which, at times, can be a struggle because it involves leaving very early as it is via the M25. On Tuesdays we get the train because we fail at finding a parking spaces.

Yeah I am going to go now. I feel like I am boring you.