This can't be good...

I think it's probably safe to say I am not going to 'get' shorthand. It's not that I'm not bothered about it and don't think I'll need it, which I'll explain in a bit, but the point is it just looks ridiculous in my notepad and I don't understand a 'word' of it! Today we had a quickfire test and this is what my piece of paper looks like:
1._____ 11._____
2._____ 12._____
3._____ 13._____
4._____ 14._____
5._____ 15._____
6._____ 16._____
7._____ 17._____
8._____ 18._____
9._____ 19._____
10.____ 20._____

Why bother 'writing' during an interview anyway when you can always use a Dictaphone!? Have they died all of a sudden!? And professional interviewers aren't going to be very good if they are concentrating with there shorthand because a lot of interviews aren't just 'question', 'answer', gap to finish off, etc... how unprofessional does that sound?
Right. So back to my point. The reason I went on this course was to be a radio presenter. There didn't seem to be a radio specific course so I picked this one. How will shorthand be relevant to me when I will be working with music etc etc... So basically, shorthand is pointless for what I want to do but it's a compulsory part of the course. And it's farcical! Shorthand would be good for someone sat in a courtroom but that's not where I'm aiming to be! I am, however, trying but I could have sworn she showed us a longer way to write 'because' than the one I already knew... Anyway, enough whinging on... I have about an hour left in uni today, to learn about why people study media... then I have two days off! Every other Thursday it is seeming that we get paid to go into uni just to watch adverts for two hours which is fair enough but it's irrelevant perhaps. Enough of me going on!
I'd leave you with a music video but can't be bothered so head off to Sunday's blog and enjoy the sounds of Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Mintage.

Back to business

For those who know me, since I was 15 I wanted to be a Radio presenter and whilst at college I got involved with the student radio there. Since coming to uni I have applied for hospital and uni radio and had responses from both. So I guess you could say I've got a step up to the career I want. Both are just voluntary but it'll look great on my CV when I go to do local or national radio. Today I have radio voice training for a news bulletin (which is basically practise for the assessment for which a two minute radio bulletin of six stories is required). So I'm pretty darn excited! At the end of the year we get to watch The Boat That Rocked which is probably the best film ever. I even went to see it twice whilst it was at the cinema! The US are getting a cinema release of it next month (November 13th) but for some reason they are calling it Pirate Radio. There is nothing, of course, wrong with that (seeing as I'm used to the Americans changing all our film titles anyway), but what was wrong with the original title?

LOST: Season 5 came out in shops today and HMV have a special bonus disc. I think the full thing was about £34.99. Yet again, a new boxset has been released with all the seasons in so far. That's about £80.

I've decided Noel Fielding is a perfect replacement for Bill Bailey on Nevermind The Buzzcocks. He's strange, and humourous.

Heroes.... I appear to be catching up. I'm almost half way through series 3 and it's fantastic. I can't decide whether I like this or LOST most. It's a very close call.

Right, I had better set off for that voice training!
Adieu.

.....

Neglectance again!

I should be using this thing as practise for my course but I don't seem to bother with it as much as I think I should!
I started playing Farmville last week and am obsessed a bit much. Eeeeek.
I got a job so I've been a bit excitable about that also.
Today I started to learn Kendo and had much fun, I got to hit people over the head!! They were wearing helmet things and gave their consent so it's all good.
Gonna head back to my farm. Tatty bye bye....

Lazy weekend indeed!

Was at Franz Ferdinand on Thursday night which was much fun (I need to update my Seen Bands list! (LOL I've seen 69 bands)). The support Music Go Music picked up where Blondie left off but weren't really a hit with the crowd which was a shame because they were actually quite good. That followed on from a job interview for BHS (which I haven't heard back from yet :( but they told me this weekend... watch this space). Then after that I queued up for the gig and Franz were amazing. They surprisingly played quite a bit of their first album as well as B-Side Van Tango which they have played for years now.
Now I'm home for the weekend which is nice. I've just finished my sister's birthday present which I hope she likes!
I've been tweaking my review for uni (The Cribs review yes) after getting my original one completely torn apart which was lovely.
Anyway, not doing much, I'll be off. Bye-de-byes.

Upcoming gigs

Viva City are supporting The Chapman Family on 15th October but that night's coverage will be of Franz Ferdinand at the O2 Academy. Apologies to Viva City at this time. Their next show, though, will be on October 29th at Dazed & Fuzed as a single launch party for Behold which is due out on November 23rd. Anyone who was at the last party will have enjoyed the atmosphere. It was all a bunch of underage kids like but this time it's 18+. I don't know where to get pre-show tickets yet but it's £6 on the door, on the night.
The new vid is canny, I think I might post it here for your viewing pleasure, you lucky things!

New modem

Got my new modem last night. Am officially back online and wireless which is nice. Talk soon x

(Draft 1) The Cribs – Newcastle University Basement 30/09/09

I had seen The Cribs live a total of two times prior to tonight and had experience of what to expect from them. However, there was a slight change this time in the form of an additional forth band member; Johnny Marr. Whether or not this was a factor, or the reason being that the venue literally warmed to the band, but in comparison to the other times I have seen The Cribs this was one of those nights which is going to be hard to top.
The new album ‘Ignore The Ignorant’ was prominent in the set list being just two weeks since the release so a lot of the songs were quite new to me and have raised my expectations of what the album sounds like in full. The lack of older songs such as ‘Martell’ and ‘You’re Gonna Lose Us’, which were crowd pleasers at past shows, didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the show itself. Although it was sad to some to see them go, tracks from the new album such as ‘City of Bugs’ were deemed just as good.
As usual, drummer Ross mounted the drum kit various times during the show and it amazes me how it is humanly possible to still drum whilst in that sort of position. Stuff like this turns the ‘gig’ into a ‘performance’, something The Cribs have picked up on through the years.
An excellent example of this was ‘Men’s Needs’, from the third studio album, which certainly got the crowd going. This was the song which sparked interest and broke them into commercial success. Played towards the end of the set, by which point a lot of people would usually be tired from jumping around, the crowd’s excitement seemed to rise as though everyone had been force fed Red Bull.
Being a Northumbria University student, I felt biased against the venue, caused by the rivalry between Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. I really wasn’t expecting it to be all that great so I was completely surprised at the sound and lighting during the show as well as the venue itself, which heated up very soon, which was apparent to the band. “This is the hottest venue we’ve ever played in”. Last time they played Newcastle was two and a half years ago, promoting the third album and it was back then they first experienced Newcastle University’s Basement, thus they decided to play here again.

Evening homies

Hey all. I'm sat in the uni library because my modem at home has managed to break itself, somethign I can't understand. But anyway, it doesn't seem to be send a signal to any of the computers in my house so therefore no internet at home. Apparently we're getting a new modem sent out in a couple of days.
So, yeah, I'm sat in the library.
I went to two shows this week, one of which was my third Cribs show. That was fun. I'm actually using that event for my review project so I'll have that up here at some point.
Saturday I went back home and we went to see the new Bruce Willis film, Surrogates which was set in a parallel timelime in which people have robots that respond to their thoughts and send them out. The way it's looked at is that disabled people can have a life and others can be protected because they can stay in their homes all day. Before seeing the film I had heard nothing at all about it so I had nothing to think on before hand. It actually turned out to be quite good.
The Stepford Wives was a film in which everything in a village seemed too perfect to be true as everyone seemed to be a robot. In Surrogates it seemed this way to start off with but soon changed to become more action packed as there was the small minority of people who were against the surrogates and were doing all they could to defeat them.
If you get the chance to see this then go, it's excellent.
Top 5 films of the year (so far):
5. Bruno
4. Inglourious Basterds
3. Surrogates
2. Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince
1. The Boat That Rocked
A lot of the films I went to see were those cheesy American rom-com thingies which I'm not really a big fan of, I like comedy but not like that.
Anyways, I'll be back...