I am a dork and I am utterly offended.

A while ago I wrote this here article about the abhorrent concept of "geek chic. I mentioned club nights that until now I haven't had the misfortune to come across. Now i'm disappointed in the newest club in Lincoln... Tokyo. I love the place. Though I mostly frequent Sugarcubes, everybody's favourite rock dive, I have been going to Tokyo more and more.

I saw this on their Facebook page.

"GEEK GLASSES will be available on entry to get y'all in the mood!!"

"Geek glasses"... now how exactly are geek glasses any different to any other glasses? And "in the mood"? The mood for what exactly? I am, of course, expecting the "geek chic" theme to continue throughout the night. Tokyo's team have developed a new technology that without the Geek Glasses™ makes everything blurry*. As we all know very very well bad eyesight = intelligence. Entry will be £3.14 but free if you solve a variety of mathematical problems, £1 off if you fix the doorman's computer and £2 off if you submit a short essay detailing the research you went through to decide on Tokyo above the other clubs in Lincoln.

Now which genre of "geek" are we looking at? Will there be books to read around the club? Will each room have a different console? Will the drinks be served in receptacles from scientific experiments? I like to think the staff will be dressed as various film and game characters. I think Leeloo, Ezio and Mario should be doormen. Doormen have moustaches, right?

Are we counting down the days until "hipster night" or  "emo night"? Is it a new trend that club nights alienate certain groups in society? What music would you even associate with "geeks"? I'm not entirely ungeeky and in my circle of "geeky" friends there is certainly no trend in music taste. And anyway... are real "geeks" wouldn't be there anyway, surely? I love Monday nights at Tokyo but there's no chance I'll be there on that night.

It'll be full of slutty schoolgirls and too many fake glasses. It just sounds horrible and ungainly.

Dick move, Tokyo. I love your faces, but dick move.

*A source from Tokyo Lincoln denies a connection between this new technology and alcohol.

Charity begins at home.

I've ever really understood that phrase. Is it trying to persuade you to give to charity because some day it could help your home? Or is it there to be used as an excuse to keep otherwise charitable donations to yourself? Hm. I don't know. It's an odd phrase which I hear to often and yet am still baffled by. Phrases that I don't understand should be banned.

The point that i'm meandering slowly towards is that I love charity shops. As I'm not one for following trends (I'm currently brewing a blog on this matter ready to be written when I can be arsed) and never really in the money I've always enjoyed perusing charity shops for some nice unique little bargains. It's not as if I get all of my clothes from charity shops but I do have a handful of stuff from them.

Today I bought a really pretty top, a red shirt and a polar bear. I've gained new things (most excitingly the polar bear) at a low price and that goes to charity.

I'm not quite sure what my point it. Basically... I like charity shops, there's no reason to stick you nose up at them because the stuff's second-hand. I hear this too much. Do you really know what happened to your stuff on the way to the shelves anyway? It's a great way to get good quality stuff at a crazy-cheap price.

And I bought a really cute cuddly polar bear.

I'll finish with a free opinion on charity in general.... I'm not for all this monthly giving to charities, I always worried where the money actually goes with those Big charities and I hate being stopped on the street by people. I'm not sure how longer I can get away with saying that I'm 17. I already give to charity and I'm clearly a poor student. Don't bother me with your antics.

OHNOES I HAVEN'T REVISED FOR MY EXAM TOMORROW!

Oh wait... we're not meant to?!

Experimental silliness as always from the School of Journalism and we've been given a strange new exam format for our one lonely exam this year. It requires no revision more than a good read of the pre-release as it's focused on our knowledge, research and critique of two news stories in the papers on the day of the exam.

I think I like the idea however I can see myself cursing it tomorrow in the 6ish hour sprint to the finish. Yes we don't have any revision but we still need to cram in a lot of prep and research into one day.

However after this hour and a half of scribbling myself and my writing knob on my middle finger will be free to enjoy the Summer. It's mid-May and I'll be finished! Cue assorted dancing gifs...

Yeah... I do GIFs now.

Less than 24 hours until second year is over. Good lord.

Redtops and jesus socks

I'm currently writing an essay critiquing health and crime reporting and this ended up in my trawling tabloid websites for examples of irresponsible journalism.

It was highly useful when the Express whacked me
in the face with this frankly ridiculous headline.

However I've now had to take a break from my essay and get back to packing for my Easter week at home (hurrah for my little village being away from all this awful killer smog) because it was chipping away slowly but steadily at my belief that there's good and intelligent life in the world. Urgh.

The other day I happened to bump into an old "friend" from high school who asked me how I was getting on. After replying with "busy, journalism degree, lincoln, blah blah blah small talk" her friend said something that saddened and irritated me.

"When you finish your course do you want to work for The Sun?*"

Not, "a newspaper" but specifically The Sun. Yes, I get that people enjoy that redtop trash but it's not really something to aspire to, is it? I guess people must want to write for the redtops but surely people can see that the quality press is refered to as the quality press for a reason. The writing quality is better, everything is better.

There's a chance that I'm being a bit... er... "socially mobile" here but really. If I get stuck reporting on "celebrities" and socks with heavenly aspirations then my career has gone down entirely the wrong path.

*She seemed the type that if she'd have written it down she'd have used the wrong "your".

Is anyone really surprised at the £9000 fee hike?

Right now do I hate the Government more or The Inbetweeners for giving us so many ready made self-loathing headlines? "Second-rate education" "shithole"... fuck off, okay? Was anyone calling Lincoln this before the goddamn Inbetweeners? Lincoln is a gorgeous city, a tourist hotspot and the university isn't bad at all! We're not fantastic but for a relatively new university 72 in the league tables isn't too shabby.

All I know is I don't hate my university. What other option did they really have? It's not the university's fault that David Cameron wants to bugger our universities and strip the UK of quality education. The government are taking away all funding for universities... is it really any surprise that when they didn't have enough funding in the first place they'll opt to get all the money they can?

People have been complaining that the university announced they could afford £7500 fees yet still opted for the full £9000. I mean, wouldn't you? Would you be happy with your university unable to afford any improvements? I think my course is pretty good, yes we don't get a huge amount of contact time, and the computers are a bit dodgy but I know many people doing Biomedical Science at Lincoln, a course that seriously needs better funding. They have no lectures theatres meaning that 2 or 3 hours lectures that frequent their schedules have to be split up in hour sections where they're shoved into whichever lecture lecture theatres the media and humanities buildings can spare.

Why are people asking "Is the University of Lincoln even worth £9000"? How do you define what university education is actually worth? The dickhead politicians who are bringing in these higher fees got their degrees for free. At the time would they have happily paid £1000 for it? "No!" they cry in outrage, "Free education is a right! Why would I pay for something I could get for less?!"

Why would I pay £9000 for something I could get for £3000? You wouldn't! No-one would! Just like if you could earn £9000 instead of £7500 you bloody well would. Define worthiness for me. If this were as simple as how much the course is worth then £9000 wouldn't be such an infamous figure. It's all political. It's not the universities fault that they've been put between a rock and a hard place. The government took away their funding so they have to find it somewhere. Even with the government funding they didn't have enough so why not get as much as they can?

Stop blaming the universities. It's the government that's made this happen. And all of us foolish Lib Dem supporters who didn't foresee Clegg's arselicking tendencies. Politicians are at fault here.... as fucking always.

My current state of mind...

Damn you group work. Damn you.

Urgh. Urgh. And urgh.

I hate group work sometimes. Trying to wrangle a group of people into the same place (even a virtual place) at the same time is seemingly impossible. My group were due to have a Skype meeting at 8pm, due to my abysmal internet connection at home I came into the newsroom (yay 80 meg internet). However, this afternoon I felt ill and not wanting to skip this important meeting I made myself a packed tea (foil + sandwich) and soldiered on to the newsroom at about 4 so I wouldn't just go to bed.

6 hours later and though I've done some work (set up the website for print, edited/rewrote some articles) I've spent a lot of time just enjoying the internet connection and staring into space. Two people arrived on Skype, one of which was sat next to me in the newsroom. And we could do absolutely nothing. Wonderful.

What a waste of an evening when I could have been getting some shut eye and trying to ward of this cold.

Mmmmm academia...

For the first time I had a discussion today about what to do after university without feeling utterly terrified. All other discussions have ended up with my inner self whimpering and mumbling about debt and jobs and my outer self is focusing intently on the ceiling or a nearby squirrel.

A few days ago I was first tempted by the possibility of doing an MA. Myself and Kirsty had a mooch around the possibly MAs at Lincoln, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent. Looking through the courses it became clear that a lot of the journalism MAs (I was looking at print and magazine ones) crossed over with my BA. However when I came across the creative writing course I was intrigued. This is perhaps an option I could look into. I was thinking part-time MA with part-time work.

It's nice not to be terrified about AFTER UNI for once.

How to hide mediocrity behind a veil of pretty colours and vanity.

No matter how many different colours they projectile vomit onto a page Bullet is still nothing more than an SU toy with a budget it doesn't deserve. Well done, you have glossy pages but you seem ignorant of your audience and you treat your staff like idiots. Three members of staff have left in the last few weeks, it's like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

If you shove enough colours on it everyone will love it.

This month's copy was the last straw for my good friend Crystal. As entertainment editor you would think she would have a little creative control. However out of the 4 pages (one double page feature, 1 single page article, and 2 shorter articles) what ended up in the print edition (not to the knowledge of the so called entertainment editor) was the single page article and one of the half page articles with a page each then an article written by the editor about some microsoft software that came out months ago.

The article claimed to be about software that helped students but it only mentioned microsoft's windows live mesh and so just looked like a pr piece. If the article had been well researched she would have talked about Dropbox, the new Facebook groups feature, Google docs, and the fact that students can get cheap software. That's what that feature should have been.

I find it strange that with the SU promoting democracy so much it's publication is such a dictatorship. One editor asks everyone else to do the leg work then ignores it all and does what she wants.

This edition has just been the last straw. The contents quite good, Jamie's got a couple of good articles, and I can personally vouch for the two articles by Joe and James. But there's yet another article about clothes sizes/body image, do all Lincoln students think they're too fat and constantly think about clothes? And the photos are ridiculous. Almost all images in the issue are pixelated and dreadful. The front cover is badly photoshopped and makes no sense. Not only that but the subbing is frankly lazy, instead of subbing properly they've just deleted spaces after punctuation.

I know it's such a tiny thing by they've done it many times in the issue. It just not professional. The whole thing looks like it's just been cobbled together at the last minute. If you're going to do something, do it right. This is not a publication I could be proud of, I'd never publish something I didn't think was perfect. Not even as an assignment.

Oh this silly magazine enrages me. Silly silliness.

Home comforts, cosiness and a not-quite-relevant video clip.

Sometimes I wonder how I would define "home comforts". Unlike most people I know in university I wholly consider Lincoln to be my home. Wombourne is just my other home. Is it possible to have two homes? It must be... Wombourne is my family home to Lincoln is my own city where I came to out of choice rather than the geographical location of my Mom.

I think there's two kinds of "home comfort". First there's the material type; a washing machine that I don't need to go to another building to use for a start. Then there's the distinct lack of loud students in Wombourne. If there's loud noise on my street in the wee hours then I'm usually the one making it. I also get woken up by laughing children outside my window rather than the strange squeal of something being done to a tyre at Tanvic (your No. 1 tyre centre) that seems to start at about 7am. Add to that the busy main road outside my window and I don't have the quietest accommodation.

Every time I think of washing machines...

Then there's the flat itself. By student accommodation standards I'm pretty lucky but due to the letting agent's incompetence with maintenance we have a rotting bathroom floor (ooh bouncy) and radiators that don't work properly (damn knobs). It's only now (after living here for 6 months) that we have extractor fans in the windowless/ventless bathrooms.

One thing (for once) I can't blame Lighthouse for is the lack of "cosiness". For a home to be "cosy" is a desired characteristic. Only the British could turn "small" into something so positive.

With all my photos and random objects and (cause I'm actually a small child) cuddly toys, my room does have a certain amount of cosiness but only so much clutter can try and cover up the bland furniture that's identical to every single room in the entire building. Then there's the kitchen, no matter how nice "open plan" seems, having a kitchen with a pile of washing up in your peripheral vision ruins any kind of pleasantness a cheap faux leather sofa, a tv and a pile of DVDs can achieve. It's not a living room, it's a kitchen with a sofa and a fridge that's far too close to the tv.

Our living room next year is big and square, it has an old, well-loved suite and carpet that isn't from the B & Q basics range. There's a chunky coffee table... (though I'm not sure it will ever earn the legendary status of my own coffee table that is current stored in my bedroom back in Wombourne.) We've got a hatstand people... a hat stand. Lighthouse would never provide a hatstand! If they did it'd probably be held together with tape and allergic to hats.

Next year I just have a feeling that I won't want for material home comforts. I'll have my washing machine, everything in the house will work, I won't need a code or a key fob to get home and i'll have somewhere to put my hats. When I travel back to Wombourne I'll be going to see everyone rather than to see everyone and also do as much washing as I can fit into my suitcase. I'll have the proper home comforts, a mom-made meal covered in cling film in the microwave, year old christmas chocolates in the fridge, and evening on the sofa with the mom discussing the latest drama at the Co-op, that long walk up Ounsdale road to see the group or go to my Aunt's. Damnit, I want to go home for family and friends not appliances, my mattress and a nicely decorated bathroom.

Gosh darn it studenthood, why aren't you cosy?

Mmmm... Luke warm water, so refreshing!

Is a hot shower actually too much to ask for? Since coming back after Christmas instead of the hot water from the hot tap and the cold water from the cold tap coming out and making a happy union I seem to either get a cold or luke warm shower. Out of nowhere the hot water will disappear entirely for no reason what so ever. I want to step out onto the (spongey and rotten) bathroom floor feeling refreshed, not grumpy.

On top of all this our (sexy sexy 0.4 meg) internet disappears for several hours now and then. It's bad enough that it's barely usable at the best of times but Lighthouse have the cheek to claim "high speed wireless broadband" on the FRONT OF THE GODDAMN BUILDING. We would literally be better with dial-up.

So I'm officially adding "I want a working shower!!" to our long list of complaints including the extractor fans have never worked, the bathroom floor is rotting, the radiators don't work, the windows don't close properly and there's no light in the oven so I can't see my noms.

Basically, fuck you, Lighthouse, fuck you.

Re: Jeff Bridges broke my laptop.

My wee netbook.

This is now my current set-up. I've gone from a thousand pound Macbook to a netbook and now comically oversized mouse. *headdesk* Please may I have my loan now for I wish to buy my new harddrive?

Jeff Bridges broke my laptop.

I have decided that Tron Legacy has just concluded inside my Macbook. The hard drive hasn't broken, no. There were light cycles, bad guys and Olivia Wilde. The hard drive certainly did not break. Either way I kinda need to buy a new one and considering my current funds will just about allow me to eat this week I guess I have no computer until I get my loan.

So I do not have a laptop, just a very expensive paperweight which has the sole function of bonging when you attempt to turn it on. Oh, and there's a picture of an apple on it. And a sticker.

*le sigh* If I knew what I know now about computers (which still isn't a incredibly large amount) I don't think I would have bought this heavy white box. It's not a bad computer, it happily runs Quark, Photoshop and Chrome all at the same time and would gladly make you a cup of tea as well (if it could*). However the case cracks every couple of months, when the battery inevitably dies it'll cost £99 to replace and at the moment it's a very expensive "thing that goes 'bong' when you press a button.

Though saying that, it's never had a virus, the incompetent Vista was the competition when I bought it and both the
machine itself and OSX are beautiful.

Oh do the pros and cons and the Windows/Mac arguments never end?

I used to be a Mac fangirl, now I'm a confused lover of my mac and admirer-from-afar of Windows 7 and my only computing power is now a netbook using Windows XP. Oh dear.

Essay blues and an extensive post script on the subject of fried chicken.

 was so positive walking to the library earlier today. For once I was actually keen to do an essay. I found the subject interesting and I felt I could get it all done and dusted in time to chill for a couple of days before heading home. All I wanted to was to eat, drink and be merry. But no, why did my subconscious have to lie to me? All this confidence (so I thought) but secretly my subconscious was running round in circles, having no idea what to write, whimpering something about Christmas puddings and cheese.



If I'd had prior warning of my impending writer's block, I could have prepared! I could have done more work on Saturday (instead, I nearly ate a chicken's spine*) and maybe I wouldn't have been so confunded today when faced with a blank word document.

I suppose I'd still be in the blasted library now if it hadn't been so cold. I suppose if I'm not doing work, it's better to be not doing work with a duvet and christmas lights, than on my own in a cold library. But hey, this is why I find myself writing a blog at this time. Once I get writing this, I get to writing my essay. At least, that's the plan.

*Cue anecdote: So, myself and the Joe went to KFC yesterday evening, because y'know, everybody loves fried chicken. After ordering a mahoosive pile of chicken we tucked in. Only for Joe to find, within a few minutes, a complete and miniscule spine within his fried chicken wing. Rendering it inedible and a waist of chicken. After investigation we discovered that my chicken had the same er... affliction. This of course, was not meant to happen. Damn creepily small chicken bones. *shivers* Damn kfc for being so tasty... I was certainly not as disturbed enough as I should have been on finding a teeny tiny spine in my tea. o.o And I could go for some popcorn chicken right now. :/

Damn those "lazy" protesters!

Lazy, binge-drinking students should be working, not protesting

Hilarious headline from the Halifax Evening Courier that I found during some casual Googling. Quality local journalism they've got there in Halifax. This man is incredibly stupid. He blames the current economic climate on the fact that the people to blame (business men, politicians, yadda yadda yadda) used to be students.

According to Mr David Regan the current protests shows "the poor standards of some of the students attending universities today." I'm sorry, what?!

Mr Regan also asked some very (air quotes) "important" questions:

• "Does Britain need all these universities?" David can't be doing with these new-fangled university things!
• "Do we need all these students?" Nah, uneducated morons like you are all we need
• "Are the right type of courses being provided?" I'm just gonna go with "yes". Maybe you should try one.
• "Are too many foreign students being taught in Britain?" This is clearly relevant to the point you're making. Gotta love some casual racism in local news.
• "If students are concerned about their money for education and all their other costs, who paid for trips to London etc to demonstrate?" It doesn't cost and extra £6000 to get to London, my dear chum.

A final warning to those students out there not wanting to offend Mr Regan. Please do not appear to be "dressed inappropriately for supposedly educated people". He gets awfully annoyed at this.

Urgh. there are some frightfully stupid people in the world.

Read the full article here if you can stand it.

Photos from the London Demo

Click to go to my Flickr

My Millbank Experience (UPDATED)

I've now been up for 13 hours. 13 hours of coaches, fast food and one hell of a protest.
A/N: By the time I got home to edit this it was 17 hours and counting. Disorientated doesn't even cover it. I'm not good at this not-getting-sleep malarky.

52,000 people attended the protest in Westminster but the rioting that was all over the news was a tiny minority of people. Don't get me started on how many of those were actually students. Probably about 1000 people were assaulting Millbank Tower. And how do I know? I was bloody well there. Right in the middle of it. Purely as a journalist of course.

When I heard about the riot at Millbank the journo in my heart only wanted to be in one place. I headed straight to the building.

The rioting itself was in the centre of the courtyard, the outer area of the courtyard and the road was populated with non-violent protesters.

With a lot of ducking and diving I managed to make my way near the front, around 2 metres from the entrance. Next to the entrance was a huge glass door/window thing that was completely destroyed by the rioters. They got into the lobby and caused huge amounts of damage. It didn't take long after the entrance was breached for a few renegades to make their way to the roof of the building. The chaos continued on the ground floor though. A bonfire burned away in the middle of the courtyard and police were swarming through the crowds to reach the violence.

It was so exhilarating to be right in the centre of such a massive news story as a journalist. I got brilliant footage an images and saw things I'd only ever seen on the news before.

Now I'm back home (finally) I've had chance to watch the news. Some of the pictures are incredible. I find it strange that the crowd was so chaotic that though I was in the middle of it all I didn't see any of it. I just heard it. The sound of that glass breaking really chilled me to the bone. But more importantly than any of that I want to know... did it make a difference? Or did a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel. I think the news coverage kinda tells that story.

Dang nabbit, imma gonna get ma protestin' boots on!

Do I like having to pay student fees? Of course I don't. Especially on a day where one tutor rambled is way into a corner prompting me to tell him that "the EDL aren't a rock band" and another demonstrated such a complete smorgasbord of incompetence that I wanted to cry and bang my head repeatedly against my desk. And don't get me started on the god-awful computers in the newsroom that froze every time I had the temerity to click on something.

I didn't feel like I was getting my value for money today. But at the same time, surely the logic goes that if I'm suddenly paying triple the price for my degree then maybe I'll get better tutors, better computers and better sandwiches in the Atrium. Maybe if I was paying £9,000 a year for my degree my only issue with the facilities would be if I accidently orgasmed at the sight of a whole newsroom full of fast, magnificate and most importantly competent(!) Macs?

So why am I getting up at 5am tomorrow morning to wave a placard at some Tories? To report on it? Partially, I am a journalist afterall. To have a free day down in London? No, I have more morals than that. In order to skive off work? 5am, my dears, 5am is no laughing matter.

No. I'm going because of the principle. I know this protest won't do anything for our cause. I know enough about politics and economics to know that it's stupid to think the country can afford to keep spending this. It's a necessary evil. Necessary, yes.... and CERTAINLY evil. All I really want to do is let the government know, "you're spoiling the gosh darn fun of it all!"

Woah woah woah....... I live like on my own now?!?!

Okay, so maybe not "on my own" but my Mom's not across the hall. She's across the country. Which means she can't text me from across the hall asking for me to make her a cup of coffee. Though she also can't clean my kitchen. (Which is currently covered in glitter.)

And after over a year of this situation I think I just realised that I was in it. I've lived on my own for a year! I buy my own food. I mess up tidy my own room. I control my own money. I do my own shopping. And something that I think is certainly a self-improvement: I don't spend my whole day watching tv shows and perusing the internet. (Sometimes I go outside now)

On the other hand, I'm not here celebrating a year of choosing my own bedtime, making my own food and coming home at crazy hours. I had all that before. There must be some people who didn't have the independence that I had during sixth form who were chucked out into the wild world no knowing how to rustle up a pasta bake and rejoicing at the ability to not get up until late afternoon if they so choose to. I think my tiny brain may have crumpled if I'd gone from mothered luxury to being sat baffled in front of my cupboard wondering why I couldn't make a roast dinner out of some Jaffa Cakes, a mouldy crumpet and cheap schnapps.

I wonder if any people have come out of first year still not feeding themselves on anything more complicated that beans on toast, being miles into an overdraft they've got no hope of paying off without a job and getting their Mum to do their washing. I hope these people don't exist.

Kinda makes me sad.

You can't call yourself a fresher in second year.

Good lord, is it that time already?!

It seems only weeks since Christmas and not long at all since I was sat in a McDonald's in Westminster reading an email that told me I had a place at uni. And yet tomorrow's possibly the most poigant day of my year. Tomorrow is my final exam for level one. Just like that! A mountain of assignments, a handful of essays, a dvd or two, 3 metric tons of takeaway food and a third of the world's supply of alcohol and here I am. Finishing level one of my degree. Oh my. I'm a third of the way through!

So much has happened this year. I've grown up. I've had ups and downs. I've learned a few life lessons. I've hurt. But I've also had some of the best times. I've made the best of friends. I'm in a proper relationship. (which makes my face do this: ^^ and this: :3) I've also enjoyed the cheap thrill of a one-night stand (or two). And learnt that that thrill gets old quickly. I've actually learnt stuff about journalism! I can now budget myself. I can also take (average quality) notes in a lecture. My god, I can even walk up Steep Hill without dying.

So now what? I've got one exam left and then a whole summer in which to frolick and play until second year comes around. With all the learning and the reading and the note taking and the oh-so-much awesomeness. It's all quite exciting isn't it?

Now to concentrate on my first hurdle. Revision!