It certainly is not cold

With yet another 3 varieties of chillies sat on the window sill, I wonder if there will be a need to ever buy chillies again?

The new varieties come as part of the jamie oliver trio from home base, so there are now 7 varieties of chilli plant within the house. I hope that once they all start producing fruit I can create a preserve jar full of all the different colours and sizes, to keep in the kitchen as a piece of decoration. Then next year I can grow even more seedlings (make sure you have space to adopt one!).

To finish off my saturday I intend to have a bbq dinner (the weather does not matter to me) and try the new variety of chilli and mint tea I have.

It is certainly not cold in this house

That’s all for now

Amy

#PrestonSocial 26th 2012 with guest speaker @3hundredand65

A brief explanation of what the #prestonsocial is about. The #prestonsocial is an event held monthly at the New Continental in Preston, it is a place for anyone who has an interest in Preston/technology/politics/culture and so much more.

This months #prestonsocial featured guest speaker David Kirkwood who illustrates each tweet that is part of 3 hundred and 65. A graphic novel created on/through twitter. Listening to David talk about how everything started, how it will continue on and what the future holds. It was a little bit difficult to imagine how much of a difference a tweet can make.

The start of the event is always good to figure out first impressions. Dave was honest about how the project started, why it started (someone close to him was diagnosed) and how he has used a skill to help.

With each element of the 3hundredand65 story came the truth that cancer is growing among the population, it doesn’t pick people because of who they are. Which is why the work that the Teenage Cancer Trust does is so good, helping those who need it most at the time when they are (sometimes) at their weakest. As with any project a lot of time has gone into it and continues to. The recruitment of tweets, dave says, took up most of his time in the first few months, then as the story developed a true community emerged and a kind of following for each character and plot line. For me it was great to see how the story gained momentum without the big celebrity names. Then to hear about how celebrities had taken time to join the project makes it even bigger, without loosing integrity.

A popular speaker and a lot of questions afterwards, ranging from curiosity about the plot and where the completed book will be on sale/when it will be on sale.

The answer was : No. A firm answer from Dave which he explained that the project would be over once the year has been completed. I also added whether An idea involving 6 tweets to write a twitter story had been considered, to create a novel opposed to a graphic novel. For me the possibilities are endless, as a way to create content for a cause. This to me is one of the best ones yet. Sofie summarises it well….

I intended this to be my 10,00th tweet as a blog dedicated to how content and community helps charity. Please check out 3Hundredand65 and volunteer to tweet and contribute.

That’s All For Now

Amy

Doomsday approaches

For those who study at UCLan midnight tonight represents a moment of joy/panic as results of the years modules are released. These are the results that help determine what future path you can take.

This will be my final year of collecting results, it will also be my most important results. The degree I have worked 3 years for will finally have a value, aside from BA Hons Advertising & Marketing Communications. This will be the degree I take with me to interviews, to new jobs, present to friends and family and overall a degree I can be proud of regardless of the result.

16 years of education will be completed and I will officially be allowed into a full-time environment without worrying about the new lessons starting in september. My graduation day is 10th July and I look forward to having a vast amount of photos of me in my cap and gown.

Until tomorrow, that is all for now

Amy

p.s if you would like to know my results after midnight do not hesitate to ask

What would a pirate do?

In my current state of unemployment I am attempting many different methods towards job hunting, my most recent being the thought process of what would a pirate do?

Aside from the occasional door-to-door salesman , I am normally only able to chat to the sea dog himself….aka the actual dog dexter. So while I travel on the high seas of the graduate job search I must first establish direction.

1. Direction – Marketing & Advertising

There is also the nagging direction of employment to get the bills paid. So there are two directions I need to steer my boat towards.

1a. Direction – Marketing & Advertising/Job to pay the bills

So my course is set, now I must navigate towards them using the stars in the sky or the compass in my hand. When I look up to the stars in the sky, I am looking at those already working within the field. By following the compass in my hand (my desktop) I can research a variety of roles and ways to get a job through multiple websites and advice sources like UCLan Futures.

Yo Ho Ho, an a bottle of rum for me

Results are released on friday, so a lot of UCLan students will be celebrating/commiserating in a true pirate fashion.  That is avoiding all fruit and singing at the top of their lungs near the local before preparing for graduation.

That’s All for Now

Amy

Saturday Night

So many things you can do with your saturday night. You could go out, you can stay in, cook, order takeaway, spend it relaxing or catching up with household chores.

The time management of any free time is always important.

For some saturday night will mean work, at a full or part time job.

For each individual this and every other saturday night will entail something different from the last.

With so many songs about each day of the week, with the moods that people feel, the things that people do. The observation of behaviour is much as key as the behaviour itself.

This evening involves a start of waitressing again, 4 hours of making sure I do not drop a plate! Balance, poise and wearing black from head to toe. I intend to finish one of my current books and publish a review tomorrow. Fingers crossed for a good ending.

That’s All For Now

Amy

Quality Content

It’s not about being the loudest voice in the room, it is about being the voice that people actually listen to.

If you consider the internet as a pub/restaurant/location for a gathering/sports club a large group of people are chatting away happily. Bringing up topics they are interested in (or searching to find out more about), when you are learning about a new subject the basics are not the part that catches your attention. It is the understanding further of the subject, if you had never heard of a cat before. When you have heard the basic description of 4 legs, fur, eyes, flat nose and tail. A cat sounds quite ordinary, the details then elaborate more. The variety of colours of cat, variety of sizes, different breeds then allow opinions to be formed and a discussion can be sparked from relevant experience or preference. It does not matter if someone is shouting loudly about dogs, the information about cats will be drawing you in.

When writing content it is ideal to be informative and be interesting. The content you write wants to inspire others into a discussion, a quick fact that can be dropped into conversation when allergies are brought up or a health statistic about food.

Yes it is important to make sure the key information is presented, the way it is presented can have more impact than the fact itself. We have all seen the image of a starving child in africa and the amount of money they would need to survive. The distance and resistance to believe we can help has been built up over time as we have got used to the image. When you show a different element of what is going on, that is when the content becomes of a higher quality.

A piece of quality content for me, captures my attention visually as well as creating curiosity as to why should I care about this information.

A catchy title will help, a quote from a person currently in limelight will certainly catch people’s attention but if there is nothing to follow it up with. They will just leave your page and look somewhere else before you’ve had chance to get your message across.

That’s all for now

Amy

Persepolis – A Black & White story

After reading Fun Home, I felt I should read the book it was being compared to in its reviews.

Similar in the fact it is an autobiography, also it is about a girl/woman and the experience of childhood within a family that is different from the norm.

For me that is where the similarity stops. The artwork is astronomically different, with Persepolis being more black and white than Fun Home was. Clearly defined lines with little to no shading. The actual issues being debated are vastly different, from sexuality to politics I was amazed at how the heavy topics that take hours of documentary were phrased clearly and concisely through a few frames.

My understanding of some of the politics discussed in Persepolis is limited, something I would like to understand further before picking up the book again. Even so I was not left behind in not understanding. For every political issue raised there is an element of everyday life presented and contrasted enabling anyone to read and understand the struggles going on.

The part that struck closest to my heart was when Marjane had returned from Austria back to the room she grew up in, looking at the walls you adored and realising how much has changed is the same way I felt when I recently visited home. My posters that I had taken pride in, now seemed the least of my priorities.

For me Persepolis is a book that should (and will) be read more than once, for me it was the perfect way to be immersed in a culture that is not my own. Without being invasive. I look forward to watching the film.

That’s All For Now

Amy

Fun House : A Review from an Addict

Previously I have only read Batman graphics novels/comic books and the odd manga books. I picked up Fun House by Alison Bechdel as a way to ease myself back into reading graphic novels again. I figured something of a different genre would slow down my reading speed, it didn’t.

The novel is autobiographical and covers the first 20 years of Alison’s life and her relationships with her family.

The plot is in depth, without over complicating the subtle hints towards what is revealed to Alison whilst she is at College.

What got be turning page after page was the way as a reader you are expected to read between the lines, no spoon-feeding in this book! For my second black and white graphic novel I was surprised how I didn’t miss the vibrancy of seeing the colour detail in the restored house. Looking round the room now and at the screen, frankly I feel it would be more visually appealing if instead of actual depth and distance what I could see was 2D with  thick outlines and Black and white. The discussion of sexuality is not forced upon the reader as a “this is the way I feel and How you should feel about it” more of a matter of fact approach to what happened and the effects it had upon Alison.

Very few books have left me craving more from a plot, I will be looking for more of Alison Bechdel’s work. I recommend you also do the same.

As for my graphic novel addiction, after a 3 year hiatus, it has gripped me again.

That’s All For Now

Amy

P.S I am now off to read either Batman – Dark Victory for the first time or Arkham Asylum Living Hell again

Healthy Eating, Counting Calories or a Balanced Diet?

As the summer starts to show its face (well for all of one week). It brings the new exciting recipes that can be tried in the warm(er) weather.

It also leaves a substantial amount of food that will be forgotten for a few months such as pies, stews and casseroles.

I enjoy food, a lot. Cooking and eating new versions of my favourite dishes and learning how to prepare dishes I’ve never even heard of before either. The difficulty with this is try to maintain a healthily diet.

I currently use My Fitness Pal as a way to track calories and other information such as protein, carbs and calcium. Although it is brilliant for keeping an eye (roughly) on how many calories I consume, it does have some flaws. I could live on a diet of toast and cream cheese, the app does not alert me that this is not good for me, it will only alert if I am under my calorie count.

I want to know what meals are healthy? As well as how you maintain a balanced diet?

That’s all for now

Amy

When seedlings grow up

Sunday has always been a day of household jobs. Today has involved re-potting my 2 sweetcorn plants, 4 courgettes and a new variety of chilli.

The advantages of growing from a seed is that you know how strong/weak a plant is, if the roots are extremely fragile or if you can afford to be a bit rougher with the pot. The sweetcorn is fairly easy to re-pot although previous I have snapped the main stalk of off the root system (R.I.P). The chilli is a new plant to me so I am unsure of how well it will develop after re-potting.

The courgettes are a new plant to me though, I wish I could plant them outside in a plot. The concrete stops me from having a vegetable bed and the Preston weather makes it difficult to judge as to whether they would survive or drown.

That’s all for my gardening dilemmas

Amy