tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89938679732046297062024-03-14T00:20:16.289-07:00Sophie Ann Blogssophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-46378949838267300102017-11-09T08:42:00.002-08:002017-11-10T01:48:40.762-08:00Year 3: Week 6: Getting ahead<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Week 6 has been a mixed bag - I'm ready for a break that's not coming and whilst feeling very detached from everything, in terms of uni work and my assignments I'm actually doing quite well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Monday I didn't have any of my lectures or seminars but instead two tutorials - or I was meant to have two, but the first one my lecturer ran over so bad that myself and the girl who was meant to be after me left because it was a joke and I had other stuff to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My photography tutorial was much more useful, but I was very stressed about my Digital Magazine case study assignment because my lecturer, although I'm reluctant to call her that, was absolutely useless - I was so on top of it, I had my first draft finished a week in advance, she wouldn't answer my emails, I had a complete meltdown on Monday and she was absolutely useless. Even thinking about this to write it now is making me very angry. So she did not help me in the lead up to this deadline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday I had an FMP lecture in the morning, an FMP meeting after that, I probably had another meeting (writing this half a week late so the details are a bit fuzzy), I worked on trying to fix my case study to hand in the next day, then there was a seminar about radio and presenting and another law refresher which literally ran until the last minute and I wasn't very happy about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I went home and lots of people came to my house for a Halloween party. It was mental and brilliant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I'm so grateful to have not had a news day the next day. I was in uni pretty early finishing off my case study and submitting that and then I spent most of the afternoon preparing for the first Sonar Media Showcase event, which took longer than I thought. And once that was done I went to see my dad because he was visiting which was nice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday I spent the whole day with my dad - I had some time in the afternoon where I finally found a package idea for my second package hand in which was useful because it was less than a week till hand in at that point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday morning lecture was somewhat political and I'm really struggling with concentrating when I have literally zero interest at the moment - actually struggling to concentrate on anything at all, I always feel like I haven't woken up - but I'm pretty sure I got some other work done, I can't really remember.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I know I didn't do too much in the Artisan when I met up with the girls and then seminar was actually a pretty useful discussion and I felt like I knew where I'm going with my essay after chatting to my lecturer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then went to another cafe to wait for an interview for my package and I got lots done before my interview which was lovely, the interview went really well, and then I went back to uni for drama rehearsals which were less fun if I'm honest because stomach cramps were not on my side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday I had work and a nap and had Chinese for dinner and went to watch the fireworks with my gorgeous boy, it was lovely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday was a very relaxed day and actually our two year anniversary! So we went out for dinner but generally a very lazy day and I needed it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And here we are nearly at the end of another week. I feel like I've been behind on everything ever since I went back to uni. Mentally, I'm just not keeping up at all.</span></div>
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sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-29262752479689315352017-10-29T03:35:00.004-07:002017-11-03T11:42:47.999-07:00Year 3: Week 5: Still not missed a 9am<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Look at me on Week 5 actually writing a post on the week it happened. I'm proud of me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday 9am, always my favourite - a member of my Digital Magazine Publishing group wasn't there so we didn't get too much work done but I was there for three hours and was very productive in my two hour lunch break. I then went to my photography lecture and made the elected decision to not go to studio because it's not been very useful so far and going to Asda and going home worked in my favour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I tried a new recipe for dinner and I didn't like it but I tried it and that's the important bit right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday 9am was another FMP lecture that was actually quite useful - it made me think about how I was going to present my story and what I wanted to create. My FMP meeting was good because I could actually talk about these things and then I had a good five hours getting stuff done before my seminar in the afternoon, which turned out to be a law refresher that I really wish I hadn't gone to. But I got more stuff done and that's the important bit. I say that too often wow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then instead of going to drama like a usual Tuesday night, I went into London to see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/doddleoddle" target="_blank">dodie</a> and it was a weird gig - YouTube events always weird me out because it's always a bunch of 14 year olds who think they know everything and cheer when dodie asks 'who here has mental health problems' and that <i>really</i> fucked with my head. I had a panic attack and spent most of the night hearing songs that I relate to with my mental health live and it was a weird place to be. I don't know if I could hack seeing dodie live again but I was glad to have my boyfriend with me and I mostly went for the sweater I wanted to be to be honest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then Wednesday was News Day. It was my first time being a News Journalist for a few weeks and I wasn't a big fan, but with my favourite lecturer and utter legend Jon Ferrero being so overly kind and saying some really sweet things about my progress and how I handled the story I was on, I nearly burst into tears and it motivated me through the day. So it wasn't all bad!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday, my day off that is never a day off - I had a meeting with the SU and Drama and Performance with Sonar Film and that actually went really well, then I went to the gym and I went way too hard, I think I sprained my ankle but I ignored it and am continuing to ignore it. I thought when I got home I'd have a shower, make lunch, tidy my room, film a couple of videos before I needed to go back into uni.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What happened was that I had a shower and had lunch then fell asleep and had to go straight into uni when I woke up. I was very disappointed in myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reason I went back into uni was for an alumni event that the uni was running - we had a stand for Sonar Film, we got to get the word out a bit that we aren't just for students and that anyone can come (like our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sonarfilm/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> please) and I had a good old chat with a bunch of people that graduated my course last year and it was nice to catch up with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then Friday is was back to glorious 9am starts wasn't it! Though this lecture was actually semi interesting, I actually made notes which I haven't done for the last couple of weeks. It was then to our weekly coffee shop meetings with the Digital Magazine girls and as per, we got literally nothing done but we had the greatest catch up and sorted the world out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Afternoon seminar was also surprisingly useful - I had a full on debate with my lecturer and I think I made him think a little bit and it was nice to have that discussion, it was actually useful for my essay too. Then I had to go straight to a meeting with the other Sonar Media presidents to try and do a bit of event planning for next week which went well, then I played a couple of rounds of MarioKart in the university's cinema room before drama rehearsals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What I love about my FitBit is that it's not very good at recognising what kind of exercise I'm doing, so I spent the best part of three hours dancing and singing to Footloose but my FitBit panicked and when I looked under the 'exercise' section when I got home it just labelled it as 'Sport' and I for one found that quite funny. I imagine if I told that story not in written words it would make more sense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday was a much needed chill day - I'd been saying for a few days that I wasn't going to leave the house on Saturday and for the most part I didn't. I slept in till 10.30am which I haven't done for so long, I pottered a bit, I made lunch with my boyfriend, I napped even though I'd already had 9 hours sleep and then I slowly started actually doing some work. We ordered food for dinner, we wondered over to Sainsburys because I'd run out of cans of coke (I have an addition I can't help it) (to coca cola that is, not the class A drug), then made brownies off some buzzfeed recipe I'd seen and watched a few episodes of the Flash before going to bed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday night I slept really badly, maybe it was because I slept so much the night before but I didn't sleep well at all, I remember seeing 2.13am on the clock but I think it was really 1.13am (the second one) because of the clocks going back and then my boyfriend was up really early to work at the open day at uni so I've been up since half past seven this morning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But today I'm taking it slow - I'm not feeling great mentally, I haven't for most of this week so I'm skipping the gym and saving my energy for work later. My focus for next week is to really try and eat more healthily and stop snacking - it's hard to eat healthy when everyone around you is screaming for pizza and take out, particularly when the one you make dinner with predominantly lives off a diet of bourbon biscuits and will never put on a pound. I know my weight is part of the reason I'm feeling so low but if I don't try then it's only going to get work and diet is 80% of loosing weight so I really need to get on that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Maybe I'll actually call the Doctors this week, maybe.</span><br />
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sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-45740786821063389602017-10-21T13:29:00.005-07:002017-10-28T14:05:27.439-07:00Year 3: Week 4: Losing Control Again<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Week 4 - getting back on track - let's do this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday 9am was more interesting because my usual lecturer for Digital Magazine Publishing wasn't there - I actually felt like we had support and help rather than someone who would rather see us fail and that was a nice start to the day. In the break before photography I think I went to the Sonar Media office to work but I can't remember because I'm still kind of ill (I'm writing this on Saturday, yes it's been a week and half now) and my brain has had a long week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I managed to go to the lecture for Advance Photography and I got to chat through my assignment idea with my lecturer which was great but the studio seminar was too much and I needed to go home. I ended up doing a weekly shop in Asda with my boyfriend and had a nice rest before going to my first pilates class at the gym - god it was a workout but it was actually nice to be worked that hard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday 9am - I made it, haven't missed one yet. This week I actually really enjoyed because it focused more on the mechanics and giving us advice on how to make our FMP and that was nice to me, particularly because it really showed me that I had actually thought about this a lot and I know what I wanted to make.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I had my usual 5 hour gap - I had an FMP meeting at 10am, I went and did an audio interview about mental health at 10.30am and I had a meeting with another society president at 11am. Then I had to work on my first multimedia story hand in, which as per - I had left until the last minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It took me the entire break and another half an hour before the deadline to submit and I'm not massively happy with it but I know what to work on for my next package - find a story with more substance that I don't have to stretch thin and time management.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From there I had drama rehearsals and boy did it kill my throat - 2 hours of rehearsing a song from Hamilton that I barely know and then another hour or so of rehearsing a song I have lead vocals in and that hurt but it was so much fun. I love performing and I love rehearsals and this is everything I wanted but never got from being on a dance team for two years - it made me so happy even though I probably wasn't well enough to be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then it was 8am for another News Day on the subbing desk - because I covered the role for someone the week before, that didn't mean I didn't have to do my week of the role. This week was more stressful because of the hand in the day before and in total I subbed 34 stories. It was busy but more organised than the week before and I did enjoy it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also enjoyed the post-News Day Sprinkles crepe but that's not the point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I was grateful for my Thursday off - all of my housemates left the house at 7.30am for a trip they were going on and I didn't mind too much as it meant I was awake and I got a fair amount done in the morning and over lunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then went to the gym - second time in a week - then I got home and had a shower and suddenly, my brain switched off. I needed to start baking for our Sonar Media Bake Off presentation the next day but for some reason all I could do was curl up under a big blanket on my sofa and try to stay awake. Who doesn't love a depression nap when you have loads to do, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That evening we started baking and made some disastrous cakes but they were done and ready (ish) for the presentation the next day - we had fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday morning lecture was as interesting as ever - I just can't engage with this academic unit, I find it so hard to care but I attended and I got lots of Sonar work done which is never a bad thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the break I basically had a lovely catch up with my wonderful friend Becca and it was so nice - I feel like I need my weekly debriefs with her and I thoroughly enjoy them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday seminar was actually really useful as we actually started talking about the essay we have to submit in two months which is nice for my brain to try and organise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then after that seminar was the Sonar Media Bake Off results - we came a solid middle ground 2nd which I was actually very pleased with and then I took the left over cake to drama rehearsal like two hours later. In between bake off and drama I had a rather big cry on my boyfriend but I got over that and went to drama anyway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that night my boyfriend and I <i>finally</i> started catching up on the Flash Season 3 - I'm so excited to be watching it again! It's so nice to be immersed in this world again and it's nice to care about something so much. With the amount I've been struggling with my mental health recently, my passion has gone - I don't listen to music much anymore, I can't think of the last time I wrote anything creatively, I don't read, I barely watch YouTube let alone make videos or write blog posts, so to want to watch something is really quite reassuring.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I felt the same about Kingsman: The Golden Circle actually - I watched it last Thursday at Sonar Film and last Saturday with my mum and sister and then this Saturday I went to the cinema with my boyfriend (which will never be something I don't enjoy, I <i>love</i> going to the cinema) and I just love this film and how it really makes me feel. I won't spoil it but wow there's one bit that I've cried more and more at each time I've been to see it and I think I'm going to try and fit going to the cinema more often into my schedule because I enjoyed it so much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And the week is over - Saturday has been a nice chilled day and I'm sitting in the living room listening to the Kingsman soundtrack while my housemates play video games and I'm getting some work done. It's nice to feel like I have the time to work at my own pace rather than having to get stuff done ASAP.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm going to a new class at the gym tomorrow morning then I've got work in the afternoon, then tomorrow night I don't think I'm going to do any work at all. Let's start Week 5 in the right mindset - this is the week I actually make a doctors appointment to talk to someone about my mental health.</span></div>
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sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-13045003693831784942017-10-21T12:49:00.001-07:002017-10-21T12:49:40.952-07:00Year 3: Week 3: I think I'm in control<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I mean starting my post about Week 3 at the beginning of Week 4 is probably a good summary of how Week 3 went, but let's just jump right into it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday - Digital Magazine Publishing I could have done everything in the comfort of my own home. I don't mind getting up for a 9am, I'm normally awake at 8am even on days I don't have to be anywhere but when I've made an effort to get up at 7am and get dressed and get into uni to waste my own time is just a joke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Photography was along similar lines - the lecture was a reluctant discussion about photos and I spent most of my time on my laptop doing other work (and ordering a new sweater) and then the studio session with too many people where I didn't feel like I learnt a lot. Watching 15 people set up a studio shoot that could be done by one, maybe two or three people tops, is not exciting and I don't feel like I learnt anything at all, which is disappointing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Monday evening was so memorable I have literally no recollection of what I did, that's a bit scary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday mornings are my FMP lectures and we watched a couple of last years FMP videos and read a couple of the previous years full hand ins and it was a lot, it didn't help that feeling of being overwhelmed and I'm very daunted by the whole prospect right now, but also a little bit excited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the break I filmed a prep story about a new KFC burger, I was really proud of the video and you can watch that <a href="http://www.solentjournalism.co.uk/kfc-introduce-new-burger-the-double-down-to-the-uk/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The afternoon seminar for The Convergence Toolkit was a discussion about some of the stories that went on our website <a href="http://solentjournalism.co.uk/">solentjournalism.co.uk</a> on our first live news day and it was quite interesting and useful for us to be able to pick out the good bits and bad bits of stories we've made.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It also turned out that I'd been asked to step in to cover someone who wasn't going to News Day the next day - so I had to go in at 8am for the editorial meeting and I was Chief Sub and Picture Editor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">So Wednesday was long and stressful - the only four prep stories I had to sub and upload I spent about three hours subbing because some of them basically needed completely rewriting, then there was a lull of nothing and then it was every story had been finished and needed subbing immediately then I had to leave before I was done to go do an interview for my package that was due next week. All in all not a great day but also, could have been a lot worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Thursday was my beloved day off, because this post is a little bit late and I've had a very long week I've forgotten what I did but I probably didn't stay in bed for as long as I should have.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">EDIT: Actually - there was something I did on Thursday, there was a Sonar Media meeting where I needed to feedback to the other Sonar Media committees everything that Sonar Film had done this year, which was interesting and then I worked my first paid showing of the year with Sonar Film - I <i>finally</i> got to see Kingsman: The Golden Circle (and have seen it twice more since) and it was amazing. Actually a pretty good Thursday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Friday - 9am lectures on communication convergence history, truly thrilling. I think I spent most of the lecture doing Sonar Film work but I attended and that's the important bit. In the break I went for a nice lunch with the digital magazine girls and we decided we'd already done everything we needed to do so it wasn't a massive 'working' lunch but I had a bacon sandwich and it was very much needed before going into a seminar in the afternoon where two peoples phones started randomly beeping and there was a fire drill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">From there, I basically ran home, finished packing my suitcase and ran to the train station to make my way to Luton during rush hour to visit my sister in her new university digs for the first time. One - the Luton campus of Bedfordshire Uni is really modern and the halls are so much nicer than what I had and it was really nice to see.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It was also great to spend some time with my sister and my mum - I was in a financial position this year to be able to buy my sister something I know she really wanted and it was the first time I'd seen my family since I closed my overdraft so it was pretty satisfying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Saturday I went shopping with my mum and bought this <i>gorgeous</i> deep green long coat from Primark and then we went to see Kingsman (twice in three days - I'm proud) and then I headed back to Southampton for work the next day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">What I forgot to mention is that on the news day I wasn't meant to be subbing, I felt my throat getting worse and worse and suddenly I went from zero to really quite ill. Hence why when I went to work on Sunday I managed an hour before my manager sent me home and I spent the rest of the day napping on the sofa.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I wasn't ready for another week, but one thing my degree hasn't taught me is how to pause time, so I had to get on with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/sophiecountsclouds">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/sophintheclouds">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://instagram.com/sophiecountsclouds">Instagram</a> | <a href="http://sophieannblogs.blogspot.co.uk/">Uni blog</a> | <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">The Student Seat</a></span></div>
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sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-6130030423938389902017-10-08T10:19:00.002-07:002017-10-16T06:15:10.449-07:00Year 3: Week 2: It's going to be interesting<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the end of Week 1, I was mostly just feeling very Overwhelmed - to be given 15 assignment deadlines in one week was a lot for my anxious, busy heart to hear but I was hoping to get into this week, make a lot of lists and start to feel a bit more organised.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's not what happened. I spent most of the week with a stress headache that meant I could barely read, focus and to be honest I was struggling to form functioning sentences. Getting 7 hours of sleep a night doesn't seem to be doing anything for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday is my busiest day of classes - three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon - Digital Magazine Publishing is one of the least stressful units I'm working on because I have an amazing group with a great idea and a good work ethic so the worst bit about those classes is the 9am and the pointless activities (and the fact we're working on our Digital Magazine but not being told what we have to do for our case study that's due in like four weeks).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Advanced Photography is a really fun class - I love the studio work and I'm excited for the assignment, but I just keep forgetting I need to work on that too. I'm used to doing three units before Christmas and three after but now I'm working on five units at once and I'm struggling to comprehend that. I'm enjoying the unit and we had fun with a smaller class in the studio on Monday but I really need to read over the assignment brief and make some notes of ideas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday, another 9am that hurt my heart a bit - the morning lecture was useful as I found out more about how we're meant to structure our presentations. After that lecture I had my first meeting with my FMP tutor, we had a long chat about what I'm concerned about and what I'm thinking about in terms of my project. It was an eye opening chat and I'm feeling both better and infinitely worse about approaching my last year now - I've spent a lot of this week thinking about my mental health and going to a doctor about it but that's super scary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was our first live news day of the year - I was working on a story about Twitter upping it's character count and it was interesting. It was a fairly simple story, I enjoyed working with my team on it and with the other teams around the room - it didn't feel like my team working on my story for no reason, it felt like everyone in the room was really working together and it was nice to feel that industry standard of journalism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But Wednesday night wasn't my night. I kept hiding away in my room because I couldn't face even sitting in the same room as my house mates because I just felt this enormous pressure in my chest. Then my boyfriend, my darling boyfriend, came upstairs to check on me and I broke - I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe, nothing felt real, I felt like I was floating in a dream and somehow everything in my life was fake and wrong. It was a terrifying situation to be in, it was about 45 minutes to an hour of panic attack and it was exhausting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My boyfriend ended up calling in sick to work the next day for me because I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. But I did some uni work that day and I made dinner and I did stuff, I think that's okay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday I went to my lecture at 9, I then went straight home instead of to our Digital Magazine meeting because we were meant to be having someone from management visiting our house but they'd called in sick so I went to have lunch and get some work done and go to another seminar in the afternoon then a Sonar Media meeting then I went home and I've never been more grateful for it - I needed a night in and I had it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Saturday I only just managed to take 1000 steps in the day and I spent most of the day organising picking up some sofas I'd purchased on Friday night and hiring a van and making a lot of brainstorm spider diagrams for uni work and Sonar Film work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Everything is super busy and I think it's going to take me a couple more weeks to get to grips with a routine and putting it all together but I've asked to have less hours at work, I'm getting ahead on Sonar Film stuff and I hope I'm keeping on top of all of my assignments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But my focus for Week 3 is getting to the doctors and getting help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/sophiecountsclouds">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/sophintheclouds">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://instagram.com/sophiecountsclouds">Instagram</a> | <a href="http://sophieannblogs.blogspot.co.uk/">Uni blog</a> | <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">The Student Seat</a></span></div>
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sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-62042163693378982412017-09-29T06:42:00.000-07:002017-09-29T08:58:10.057-07:00Year 3: Week 1: Very Overwhelmed<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And how am I starting my third year? I'm pretty sure I was chatting to my mum trying to come up with a name for this blog yesterday but here I am going into my third year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wasn't sure about documenting my third year because I struggled to keep up at the end of second year and I'm already very, very busy but I really want to properly finish my documentation - I'll try and fit it in!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An update: I've been elected as Marketing Manager and President of Sonar Film, Solent University's Cinema society showing blockbuster releases at a massively reduced rate. It takes a lot of organisation and prep and money and time but I'm trying desperately to fit it all in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm behind on my bullet journal and I need to make a super long list of everything I need to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've joined the drama and performance society properly this year and I'm so excited to perform and rehearse and sing and dance without the stress of the Cheer and Dance team (so glad I'm not a Raven this year).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So let's get into it day by day:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday is the day for my optional units - Digital Magazine Publishing and Advanced Photography. In week one this was mostly an introduction to the units and assessments - Digital Magazine Publishing involved us getting into groups and picking a topic to make a digital magazine about and advanced photography is learning more about photography.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't want to just detail what my assessments are but I'm excited to make a digital magazine with my friends about something we're all really passionate about and advanced photography I'm glad I'm finally getting to learn more about photography and taking better photos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was two of my compulsory units - our FMP unit was a 9am lecture to find out more about what we have to do over the course of the year and in the afternoon we had a two hour seminar which is our package unit. We make three multimedia stories, have to log our performance on news days and log our work experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With a 5 hour gap between this lecture and seminar, I had time to go do a shift at work but that will not be happening again I promise - next week there will be naps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was the quietest Wednesday I will have for the entire year - Wednesday's are News Days. This week we just had a sort of training day talking about the changes that are happening this year and a new program we'll be using that is confusing and I wasn't in the mood for, but it was a fairly early finish and I went home for a nap and then went trampolining in the evening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was my day off uni, I thought I'd have a chance to make a list of all my assignments and deadlines and organise myself but I had work and I was too tired - and I had my last unit introduction on Friday so I wanted to wait for that too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was my third 9am of the week (4 next week, pray for me), the lecture was a big like a history lesson and I've had a stress headache all week so I couldn't really absorb any of it. Between lecture and seminar I had a meeting with my digital magazine group to work on our homework (I know, we actually got homework) and then back to seminar this afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From there I went to the office we have for Sonar Film to do some uni work then back to drama and performance rehearsal in the evening before a Saturday of having literally no plans - I do not plan to leave the house and I'm going to get so much work done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Sunday I was working and mentally preparing myself for another week of uni. This year is going to be long and stressful and busy but good year - I'm scared but almost looking forward to it being over.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm hoping this blog will help me keep on top of things and organise myself, but that hasn't worked particularly well in first or second year so we'll see how it goes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here's to my third and final year of university.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/sophiecountsclouds">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/sophintheclouds">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://instagram.com/sophiecountsclouds">Instagram</a> | <a href="http://sophieannblogs.blogspot.co.uk/">Uni blog</a> | <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">The Student Seat</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Snapchat: SophieALuckett</span></div>
sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-90401899629634779002017-05-06T17:02:00.002-07:002017-09-29T05:32:47.273-07:00Week 20-21-22-23: The Last Weeks of Second Year<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that I've finally caught up with my second week at BBC Three, I thought I should probably finish off my last weeks at uni! I thought I'd put them all into one post because it's been busy, but nothing particularly outstanding happened I don't think!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 20</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was back to uni after two weeks of being away and it was pretty average - a lot of sympathetic looks and asking about how I felt about my nan, but other than that it was a very average day (it was also about two months ago now). I had a meeting with my level tutor for about 45 minutes and we sorted the world out - we both got lots of feedback it was fab.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I went to meet my sister and we went to a concert of my favourite band, All Time Low. Yes, we saw them in London on the Friday and Southampton on the Monday - essentially, they announced the London show and we bought tickets, then they announced the rest of the tour and I couldn't let them come to Southampton without me seeing them, I couldn't do it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday, my sister went home while I was at work first thing and then I went into uni that afternoon before I went to dance. The whole day I had this weird tight feeling in my chest and even the short walk to dance completely exhausted me so dance training was a really good idea, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No I had a panic attack and was sat in a corridor sobbing on my own. Fun right? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I went into news day the next day like nothing happened! I was on the subbing team which involved sitting around for six hours then rewriting someone's story because he thinks his job at a local newspaper makes him untouchable even though he's an awful writer. Not that this angered me at all. It was a very long day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday and Friday I was at work, Saturday I went on a long walk with my boyfriend because we still play Pokemon Go even when the hype has died (lol) and then on Sunday I had my last dance competition of the season! It was in Nottingham and we put everything into it and we were so happy but then the scoring was shite and we didn't do as well as we thought so we just didn't really talk about it then I got home at 3am and I had uni at 10. Wonderful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Goodbye Ravens forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm not dancing next year and I'm not sad about it, to be honest it's been too stressful this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 21</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another Monday! This post is going to get increasingly sarcastic I think.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today I went to uni, I played MarioKart in a really big lecture theatre because why not and then we went for a late night Asda with our friends. Pretty chill day, why not?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday morning I got to go to Mettricks for the first time in ages - I got a hot chocolate, I had a great time, I might have been productive but I can't remember because I gave up on blogging at this point in my life because I was very depressed and keeping up with things I want to do is too much like someone who is having a good mental health day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After Mettricks I went to uni and then, because I only finished the dance season two days ago I got into something else that's a big commitment and lots of time? Yeah sure, I went to audition for the Drama and Performance society's musical medley.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did audition and I got a couple of small parts and I was really excited about it, but we'll get to that more later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then it was News Day again and I was on the radio bulletin and it was chill and fine, I did the 12pm bulletin. Then the Westminster attacks happened in London and the news room went insane and I helped with TV bulletins and did a two way in the 4pm radio bulletin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I feel like writing about this is really dull because I submitted my news day log last week (real time, not in week 21) so I've already reflected on this week and every news day in this semester and I'm trying not to be repetitive and boring but the only person who's going to read my news day log is Jon, maybe Kevin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But that's about it anyways.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And surprise, surprise - guess what I did on Thursday and Friday?? I was at work! Wowowowowow. I'm so tired.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday I had work again and I did filming for a package that was destined to be shite and was due next week (spoiler, I got a 2:1 in the end so it wasn't as shite as I thought it was). But my camera battery was basically dead and I got really sad about it so I had to film on my phone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, I don't know if this is obvious in these posts but I make little notes each week so when it comes to actually writing these posts up (eventually), I vaguely know what to write about, even if it's a month or two later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The only notes I have for this Sunday is just 'work and clocks change and giving up a bit'. I don't think I need to add anything else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 22</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday's are pretty standard - they're my longest days of classes at uni (I don't count news day as a class, but now that I write that I'm not sure what I do count it as) and then I went to work (volunteer) at Sonar Film, showing Kong this week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For context: Sonar Film is a society at my university that basically runs a cinema of very recent films (while they're still in the cinema if not in release week, hence Kong) and I'm part of the crew that run it. I'm part of the committee next year and I'm very excited. I love Sonar Film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday I went to Mettricks again (where some students were filming some sort of bad-first-date-film and it was very entertaining) but I also had two deadlines so I wasn't paying much attention. I had to edit, write and put together a whole package about World Water Day that I thought was absolutely awful and I also had to write a a critical report for music journalism analysing three music journalists. I thought it was horrific but apparently it wasn't - I got a first! Even though I wrote about one of the journalists as if they were female when they were, in fact, male, but in my defence - without doing the research (which, I know I should have done) what pronouns would you use for a writer called Alexis Petridis? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I finished both of these assignments at another drama and performance musical rehearsal, leaving uni knowing I'd be back for less than twelve hours for news day... yay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today I was a news journalist and I just wasn't getting into the story - there were three of us working on a really vague story that had no legit sources so we kind of blagged our way to publishing and I made an infographic on photoshop which looked legitimately awful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The end of term was approaching and I just, didn't, care, anymore. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(The commas are for emphasis not grammatical correctness - I had to say something for the sake of my heart's happiness)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that evening I got the train home for my nan's funeral. I thought I was ready - I thought I'd done all my crying and I thought I'd be the strong, emotionless one in a room full of sadness. I felt kind of numb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But then we were all there in black, I was part of a funeral procession and I saw a coffin that I knew my nan was in and then we arrived at the crematorium and I saw loads of people that I love and friends and family that were all looking at me to see if I was okay and my cousin and I went to the toilet and then suddenly I found Lucas and I was broken. There was no stimulus, there was nothing that set me off I think it just set in that it was real.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I pulled Lucas into the reserved family section of the church thing and cried silently for the whole thing then we went and looked at all the pretty flowers and lots of people told me everything was going to be okay and my dad made some very inappropriate comments about his own death and then I avoided people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I got back in the funeral car without Lucas (which wasn't fun) and we went back to a hotel cafe for the wake and then the drinking started. People bought me vodka and my family were so drunk and it was wonderful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is where Sonar Film becomes relevant again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the wake, me, my wonderful boyfriend Lucas and my best friend Nick get a message from the current President of Sonar Film (who was organising the committee for next year) sends us all a message detailing our roles in the society next year - I'm going to be the marketing manager (the elections were a couple of weeks later but I got it so it's okay) so I'm in charge of social media and stuff. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But alongside the more business like role titles, we also have to have the traditional President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next to my name was the word President. I had been nominated as President of Sonar Film. I was so excited and Lucas was not happy at all, because he was really interested in the role of President.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then my mum's friends went ham on the whole 'Lucas wanted it and I got it' thing and it was so funny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am now President and Marketing Manager of Sonar Film and I'm so excited. Just so excited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Moving on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Friday I spent some time with my dad, went for a nice lunch with the fam and my cousin gave out her wedding invites which was such a lovely way to end a very sad and sentimental couple of days and then I went and got on a train with my boyfriend because I had work on Saturday. What a surprise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Sunday I had a very lazy, unproductive day, but I found a gorgeous sofa that I absolutely adored in British Heart Foundation and I swear to god if I had £300 and space I'd have bought the set I loved it so much, it was going to be my throne. I also bought a fake plant that's very cute and a fairy light elephant ornament in Primark. I don't need any of those things but I own them now and I'm very happy about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Week 23 - last week before Easter!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Uni was weird this Monday - Lifestyle PR was really productive and my group are great and I was really happy but we were working in this area of uni that's a bit like a library but not the library and I started getting really anxious - I nearly had an anxiety attack and it was really scary so I just went and sat in one of these booths in the new building at uni, stupidly named The Spark, and continued working as if I was not freaking out internally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I went to music journalism where my shit lecturer had a WikiHow article about how to be a music journalism up on the screen the whole time and I feel like that is where he got his information on how to be a music journalist which is why he's so shit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I played Dungeons and Dragons with my friends in the evening and it was lots of fun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday I did an interview with a couple of sports journalists in the morning - they interviewed me about whether dance was a sport or not and it was really interesting, also nice to help out a fellow journo. Then I tried to get some work done before uni and another rehearsal in the afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This didn't happen in Week 23, but after the Easter holidays we had a meeting with everyone from drama and performance and it turned out we don't have a space to perform this musical or time to rehearse it properly so it's being cancelled, which is sad but I think all of us would rather not perform than perform in an under-rehearsed show, so hopefully I'll have time to go back to drama and performance next year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then, our last news day! And I was on the editorial team so rather than my usual 9am start, I had to be in the news room by 8am on that morning. However, I was on social media and it was this day that made me realise that social media is what I need to do with my life and where I want to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I went to an interview for the festival circuit three weeks later and I didn't realise I have a five year plan but I have a five year plan regarding my social media career.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But after this day of being social media assistant producer on our last news day, no one was down to work at Sonar Film that night so after 9-10 hour day at uni, I then went to work a horror/comedy/psycho-thriller film I didn't want to watch (I don't rate Get Out, by the way) but I did order GBK to uni and that was mildly entertaining.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Thursday I worked an 8 hour shift (shock horror, I just always work Thursdays) but I had to go to Sonar again and frantically organise someone to stick around with the film because I had to go to another rehearsal for the musical that isn't happening anymore and then I went and sat in a studio whilst the boys (my flatmates, my boyfriend and best friends, my boys) finished off some studio assignment thing and I got to play with a Canon 5D and it was absolutely beautiful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday I was at work again, I had a really chill evening including dying my hair purple and had a really accidental late night. Oops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm aware of how long this post is now oops.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday I did a short shift at work and I napped in the afternoon or the second day in a row and it was a bit unsettling for me because I got out the habit of it. I just couldn't get my head into doing any work because I was so unbelievably tired.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In a stunning turn of events, I had work on Sunday <i>however</i> I was not in at 9am which made me so <i>happy</i>. I had a lie in and I loved it so much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And all of a sudden it was the Easter holidays and it was manic busy with trying to spend time with my family when they were visiting but also doing 55 hours at work over two weeks (lol) and trying to do uni work (this didn't happen) and getting very tired and feeling like I had no break at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then when I came back to uni after Easter, I had my Lifestyle PR presentation and I wrote my entire Lifestyle PR press pack in one day because I had zero time after Easter (2000 words in one day, pretty chuffed).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rest of that week was spent trying to do my news day and work experience log due the following week and all that happened is I just kept formatting it and designing it and this and that but I didn't start writing it properly till it was due a week and a half later, but I wrote 5500 words in the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've had my interview for summer festivals and I got the nicest email about how well my interview went (I was so unbelievably happy). I've been making YouTube videos and blogging and planning content and thoroughly enjoying the more free time I'm getting with each deadline that passes and I'm so excited for summer, but I do have one more deadline on May 16th for music journalism then I'm done with second year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've had a meeting about third year already and it's very scary but I'm excited to approach it and finish my degree but I can't believe it's been three years and three years of my life have gone - I can't believe how fast everything is going and I went to get a grip on it and start directing my future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm still working a lot and this summer is turning out to be really good, I just need uni to be done now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My plan is to do another update once all of my results for the year have come in and I can finish off second year. I'll probably do this again in third year - in first year I was constantly behind on these weekly posts and this year I was up to date until I experienced extreme grief for the first time which I feel is a pretty legit reason and maybe in third year I'll actually nail this blog!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I always write like I'm talking to someone, but this blog is entirely for me. But thanks for letting me write. It's very late and I'm going a bit mad, I need to end this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's basically the end of second year!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(This post is nearly 3000 word lol)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-30357085617822688102017-05-03T05:37:00.000-07:002017-05-06T10:46:02.545-07:00Week 19: A week of too much / BBC Three Week 2<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just to begin: I know this post is a couple of months late, but I feel like you'll understand once I get into what happened in my second week at BBC Three. </span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday I was rearing and ready to go - I had done week 1 and I was almost excited to go back to my familiar underground route and see what the second week had in store.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The daily drop meeting with all the weekends social media feedback and statistics was really interesting and I nearly got invited out on a shoot that I had to turn down because it would have meant I wouldn't get back till nearer 3am and I had to be up at 6am to get ready to get the train.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I spent most of the day typing up all my ideas for Amazing Humans and sending them off to the film team - they were super helpful and they said they really liked some of my ideas and I got really good feedback.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then spent the rest of the day working predominantly on researching press emails for film, music and TV companies to get their releases for the next six months, to see if BBC Three could do a collaboration to promote any new releases. As well as this, I did some research into who played the original Teletubbies sun, as the show was being remade and a new baby had been cast, and tried to get in contact with her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this point, I got to go to an editorial meeting similar to the one I went to on my first day in Week 1, but this week I got to pitch some of my ideas. They really liked some of them and one idea using a new music release to re-promote an older story on social media went really well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday evening is when the week started going downhill (and why this post is so late) - I rushed through my train journey to try and make it to the last hour of dance training, I'd paid money for a taxi and literally ran to be there and then the team spent the last hour pratting around and I had no idea of the new part of the routine and it felt like a huge waste of my time and I was exhausted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, in short, when I got home my mum rung me and told me my nanny was very poorly and I needed to go home to say goodbye. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So Tuesday morning I set off into London Waterloo from Southampton and at the end of the day I took a completely different route to London King's Cross and home to Peterborough from there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During my day at BBC Three on Thursday, I worked a lot on contacting film companies and sorting their responses into a Google docs spreadsheet. It all felt really formal and I really enjoyed it - something about answering emails makes me feel official and a little bit important and especially when you've got 'BBC' in your email address.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also did some research for my story idea about the mainstream media ganging up on Zoella, based on a Guardian article that called her the reason children's literacy rates are declining because her books are too easy (don't get me started - why attack the YouTuber that runs a <i>book club</i>? Anyway!). I also researched another idea I had, using the Nintendo Switch launch as an anchor to talk about older gamers, as there's a community of gamers aged 60+.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then left a little early to get a train home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My nan and my family didn't want me sacrificing my time at BBC Three for anything (I asked probably a thousand times), so I was up at 6am again on Wednesday leaving for the train station. This morning more than all the others I was absolutely exhausted and I really struggled to engage and focus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ironically, Wednesday was the day I was asked to write something for the website - alongside finishing off the film releases and doing research for a story one of the other writers was working on, I was given a video by the head of Editorial and asked to write it up into a listicle style piece as a way to guide more viewers to the YouTube and BBC iPlayer videos that were published about six months ago and didn't do so well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This story was posted after I left, but it was so beneficial to be able to work with the writers and see how they adapted my words into their style and I started to take on their house style.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was one of the most exciting days for me in my placement - I got to go on a film shoot for a video for Comic Relief. This post has taken me so long to write that the video is now out - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw2ArmGHRos&t=15s" target="_blank">you can watch it here</a> - I'm not in it at all (obviously) but it was a really interesting day. I spent the whole day watching kit but talking to the crew and seeing how it all works and understanding a lot of what they're talking about because I know a lot of TV people at uni was just so interesting, I loved it. I'd love to do more shoots in the future and I'm hoping to get involved with this at university too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, the journey home was an absolute nightmare as the underground was manic and all the National Rail trains were delayed and I didn't get home till really late and I was really tired and not in the mood for anything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I got up at 6am the next day and did it all again - I had lost my work experience pass so I had to get a new one in the morning, I was nearly late for the daily drop meeting because one of the underground lines had completely shut down at my stop so I had to find a new route, but 90% of the office were delayed too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I started by catching up on my emails that I missed because of the shoot day, I did some more work on the listicle I wrote and carried on adding films to the Google docs spreadsheet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was my busiest day - I was given another listicle to write, I was given some factual research about videos BBC Three made last year for a variety of American sports events.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And in the evening I met up with my sister and we went to go see my favourite band on their first night of their UK tour. It all feels so long ago now, they've released two more songs since then. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sorry if this post sounds a bit formal - I'm in the mindset of assignment writing right now and writing this post is a little bit emotionally draining for me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've now basically finished second year - most of my classes have ended and I only have one assignment left, but I have notes on each week from the rest of this semester and I fully intend to write them up by the end of the month!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you for reading!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-3260887111650301422017-03-06T15:39:00.002-08:002017-03-13T08:34:31.277-07:00Week 18: Adulting at BBC Three!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If I were at uni this week, I would have had Enrichment Week, which is basically a bunch of workshops on lectures to help us with employment and other key skills and I'd have had to go to a meeting about my options for third year. Basically a week off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I wasn't there for Enrichment Week. This week was my first of two weeks at BBC Three for a work experience placement - I was commuting into London every day from Southampton (I now spend minimum four hours a day on trains and it hurts my heart, mind, body and soul).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because I have to make a work experience log for university, I've been writing a summary of what I've been doing every day which makes this blog post really easy to write (even if it is a couple of days late, sorry about that - the weekend was spent doing a shift at work and trying to catch up on sleep!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This post is probably going to be very long but it's really useful for my work experience log and if you're interested in what I've been doing at the BBC, you'll get a detailed description!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was terrifying - I had to wake up at 7 to be ready to leave at 8 and get a train at 8.30 that was delayed, so everything was a bit daunting on day one. Of course I was scared - it's the BBC, they're one of the biggest broadcasting companies in the UK and I might get something wrong and rule myself out of the industry forever!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I made it onto the train and after taking a very long winded way round, I found the building that's tucked away in a little corner. And as soon as I arrived I was thrown in headfirst - I was meeting people and being told names and departments within BBC Three and it was all very intimidating but only in concept, everyone was absolutely lovely and asked me what I did and what my favourite parts of my course were and took a genuine interest in making the most of my work experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What surprised me most was how much of what I do in the news room was relevant in this office too - they were talking about vox pops and editorial teams and SEOs and copy and everything else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was set up with a computer and emailed a bunch of information to read up on and that's what we did until lunch (if I start referring to 'we', it's because there's another girl doing Work Experience the same weeks as me so we've been doing most things together). After lunch, we went to an editorial meeting where they pitched a bunch of ideas and it was brilliant - I love meetings like that (don't know why, I just like discussing content ideas with a team) and I felt so involved even though I'd only been there for a few hours and had nothing to contribute.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Later that afternoon I made myself a list of three things I wanted to achieve by the end of my two week placement and then I worked on research for the BBC Three show Amazing Humans (it's amazing, genuinely - I thoroughly recommend it) within different themes so I spent a lot of the afternoon Googling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then it was time to get back on the underground and head home - on Day 1 I wasn't so familiar with my route so I missed the train that would have got me home about an hour earlier and didn't get home until 9pm. It was a long ass day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was my first proper day commuting - getting up at 6am to leave at 7am for the train station and a 7.30am train and the only thing I've got in my notes to reflect this are the words 'early mornings might break me' and that just made me giggle a little bit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The earlier start meant I was there early enough to attend the 10am Daily Drop meetings which made me realise three things: 1) The news room on news days at uni are really reflective of the industry, 2) the stats of BBC Three are insane like oh my actual goodness wow and 3) I want to work in this industry somehow, taking part in and leading these meetings. Yes please.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then went on to continue my Amazing Humans research from the day before, whilst also doing some research into festivals and conventions for one writer, Nick, and mapping out film, TV show and music release dates over the next six months for another writer, Cat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last thing I was told about on Tuesday was how to write up a Rights Report - I was sent the template and given an episode of something that hasn't aired yet (very exciting) and I decided I would leave this till Wednesday because I didn't want to have to start and leave it half-finished.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I sent off my research to all the relevant people and deliberately left a little bit earlier so I could make it to the train that got me home so much earlier, starting to learn the underground route off by heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was a much more productive and driven day and I could focus really well (despite how tired I was). The day started with the Daily Drop meeting and my notes say 'again, so cool to be in the environment'. Yes I am a massive dork but it's also true.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I started the day with the Rights Report like I said I would, I had a chat to the assistant producer of Amazing Humans to do more research for them - the feedback I got back from my other ideas was really positive so I was glad to have more themes to be looking into.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After the first Rights Report, I was given two more episodes to write the Reports for and it was a chilled but productive afternoon watching two more episodes of the show I was writing the report for. At this point I made a list of other teams I want to work with in the next week and a half but I'm not sure how well this is going to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday is the day I have the least notes for but probably the day I did the most - again, started with the Daily Drop meeting, but then went back to do Amazing Humans research before Cat asked me if I was busy. I said no. She asked me to transcribe an interview and I'm like yeah sure - their articles have as many quotes in as the stories we write as uni and we do five minutes interviews, it will be fine. It was not fine. The interview was 42 minutes long and about a topic that isn't exactly soft and fuzzy. So the day dragged but I finished it, six hours later, and the response I was greeted with was 'wow, that was fast' which I wasn't expecting at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And all of a sudden it was Friday and week 1 was coming to a close - I was really starting to feel the early mornings and not having a grip on what time I fall asleep at night but the Daily Drop meeting was a bit longer this morning so I had a little bit longer to wake up. It was interesting seeing them plan ahead for the weekend and decide what content was going up when no one would be there over the weekend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then it was back to working - I checked over the transcript for Cat which sounds like a quick job until I remind you that it was a 42 minute interview about a heavy topic. I had to have some breaks in the middle so it was nearly lunch time by the time I'd send it all over.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That afternoon I went back to doing a variety of research for a variety of people with a little break to treat myself to lunch in the canteen but, I'll be honest, it was not worth £5.51. I've had much better fish and chips for less but it was hot food so I'm not going to complain too much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rest of the afternoon was a bit slower - I was really starting to flag after a week of commuting into London and it has been an emotionally taxing week too; work experience at BBC Three is a big deal!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But the one fun thing I did do on Friday afternoon was talk to some of the guys that actually go out filming stuff, and I learnt all about filming with a C300 which is a bit like some of the cameras we use at uni. I've used a C100 about ('used') but it was really fun, hopefully I'll be going on a shoot in my second week but I'm very, very excited to see more of the production side of things because it's not something I've ever really been involved with before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And that was the week over! I got the train home and we made dinner and went to bed and I was absolutely exhausted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Somehow I managed to wake up naturally at 9 the following day which made getting into work for 12.45 much, much easier! I then worked a five hour shift and had a nice easy night in and Sunday was a proper lazy day with a proper lie in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Week 2 has got off to a pretty good start but I'll feedback on that hopefully at the weekend, but I'm trying not to bully myself about getting content up by a certain time on a certain day so sometime at the weekend or early next week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you for reading!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-3948020652364035482017-02-25T04:22:00.001-08:002017-02-25T04:22:39.748-08:00Week 17: What a week!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Feel like a kind of 'not' week this week - the beginning was very productive but writing this on Saturday I'm feeling very groggy and tired because another dance competition but let's chat about that at the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was a lot better than last Monday where all my lectures were cancelled - Lifestyle PR was on this week and it was brilliant, I love my tutor and she's brilliant but also I worked with my group and we feel a lot more on top of things now. Annoyingly, I"m not going to be back in Lifestyle PR for three weeks now because of my work experience but we're all going to work on it and come back together in March.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Music journalism was another story - we were all sat down in the lecture and then someone popped their head round the door and said that Jerry was 'so ill' and wasn't going to make it in today... why couldn't he have told us this earlier? I'm now not going to see Jerry for about six weeks because he's so ill and I've got work experience. Is Jerry ill or is Everett True, his pseudonym for music criticism, ill? Because he views them as two different people and it's creepy. I love music journalism but he's the most useless tutor I've ever had.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was slightly better - it was a Mettricks morning and I waited until today, deadline day, to start editing my package today. Though, I cut the video down pretty quickly and the audio didn't take long at all, I wrote the script for the video and audio voiceover and made a start on the copy. I'd done 90% of the editing before I went into uni that afternoon but then I was given quite a lot of video editing to do by my tutor who was giving me brilliant feedback to work on before hand in and it was all uploaded with more than half an hour to go. Good job me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was another live news day, I was on the TV bulletin and I was really excited about it because I love being on the TV bulletin. I did the 3pm bulletin that went quite well, I think - I had to do a live link with someone at a university football game and I used my own package story that I'd submitted the night before about the Family Orchestra workshops and I got to talk about my dance teams which was really fun. On the 1pm bulletin I played the videos over the script and on the 5pm bulletin I was vision mixing, which means I picked which screen is live out of the two cameras, the VT videos and the outside broadcast live link - it was a job I hadn't done before and I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope I get to do it again in the coming weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday saw me leaving Southampton for the weekend - my boyfriend and I left our flat at 10am to get a 10.30am train which got into London at about 12pm, we went from Waterloo to Kings Cross by about 12.20pm and then waited to get on our train at 1pm. This is where shit hits the fan. Storm Doris ruined our day - we sat on our train for nearly an hour before being asked to 'detrain' and no train was leaving until 5pm but somehow we got on a 3.22pm train that actually left the station but took a really long as time to get to Peterborough and our three and a half hour journey turned into an eight hour stress fest. But it ended with my dad's shepherd's pie so it wasn't all bad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was fab - had an amazing lie in, very chill day, went into town in the afternoon and went to my favourite bakery and bought some new make-up and tried to do a photography project but it didn't work. Essentially, my plan was to take pictures every 20 paces and put it all together into a cute video and overlay it with my monthly covers that I make on my YouTube channel but I'm not sure how well that's going to go. I'll let you know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then this weekend is a busy one - I've got another dance comp today (Saturday) and it's much later in the day so I won't get there until about 4 and we're not dancing until gone 7.30 and Lucas and I are getting a train back very late tonight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And tomorrow I've got work and somehow I've got to prep for my work experience with BBC Three next week. I'm trying not to think about this one because I'm very scared so, again: I'll feedback next week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So in reflection, this week has actually gone pretty well but I'm very apprehensive about next week - it's just hit me that I'm going to the BBC in two days and I'm very scared, like really, really scared. But a little bit excited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-59683982897222907272017-02-20T03:24:00.003-08:002017-02-20T03:24:46.871-08:00Week 16: A Week of No Progress<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week has been a mixed one - writing it now, a week later, it feels like far more than just one week ago but this is why I document it I suppose!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Monday I woke up so ready for the day - the week before I'd been ill and I was ready to come back and smash it today, but I got an email from my tutor for my first three hours today and she was ill so it was cancelled... so I carried on getting ready, just taking my team a bit more then I got another email and my tutor for my second three hours of lecture and seminar was ill too and all of sudden - my six hour day at uni had whittled down to a sudden day of nothing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I tried to use that time productively - sitting at my desk and working through a bunch of admin stuff (finally getting the confirmation of my work experience at the BBC!) before going to see Busted in Portsmouth that evening. I wrote a review on my personal blog <a href="https://wordpress.com/post/sophiecountsclouds.com/6680" target="_blank">sophie counts clouds</a> if you're interested!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday felt more like an accomplished day - I went to Mettricks, my favourite, favourite cafe, for about 9.30am, I made a long to do list of things I needed to really focus on. It was only 7 or 8 things long (that's a short list for me) but I still didn't finish a lot of it, I'm finding it very difficult to focus right now and then I get sad and feel more unproductive and I feel even less focused, I'm working on it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did get a little ahead in blogging and write my post for Wednesday in advance and plan everything a little bit more, so I feel a little bit like I had more of a plan - one of my unfocused coping mechanisms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was News Day, I had a somewhat mediocre story that was managed to pull together, we did a live link with the TV bulletin meaning I was <i>live</i> on location, presenting to the news room which was very fun and a little bit scary. When we got back to the news room we tied the story together and I also helped with the 3pm and 5pm TV bulletin too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That evening I helped one of the third year's film an interview for their FMP package and then went to another friends house because it was an emotional day. I needed love and attention. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was a new start however! I had work during the day and I remembered how much I love my job and I enjoy it so much right now, then in the evening I worked at my uni's cinema, showing Split, the new James McAvoy film. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thoughts on Split: incredible performance by McAvoy, if it had been released a few weeks earlier he would definitely have an Oscar nomination, but the rest of the film was very disturbing, unnecessarily sexual and a horrifically negative representation of mental illness, even though it's meant to be exaggerated, almost supernatural it paints a very negative image of mental illness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was meant to be my day off - late Valentine's lunch with my boyfriend then a chilled afternoon getting on with some work before my first dance comp the following day, but I ended up going straight from lunch into work then having to rush everything in the evening. Still waiting for a day off day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday, however, was my first dance competition of the season and even though I hated most comps last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Future Cheer was so much fun, getting up at 4am actually made me feel quite good, I like being up early and then it was a busy morning of make-up, costumes and dancing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then came in the top half for our jazz dance and improved on last year's hip hop placement, though the winning hip hop team did tell us they thought we should place higher and that they didn't expect to win, but I'll keep my opinions on that to myself...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sunday was a more chilled day - stayed in bed all morning, went to Asda over lunch then spent the afternoon trying to get some stuff done (again, not to much success).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week is going to be much more productive - I've got another dance comp, I'm going home for the weekend and next week I start my BBC Three work experience. It's all looking up now!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-78278009495339398772017-02-11T13:32:00.000-08:002017-02-11T13:37:36.258-08:00Week 15: Finding My Own Feet<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been a very mixed bag this week - it started slow and self-pitying and ended on a surprisingly hard working and self-sufficient end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was a slow day - I got out of bed ready to go to uni for 10am and I managed about 5 minutes out of bed before I crawled back to my boyfriend in tears because I felt so ill and the day was done. I didn't go to uni, I barely ate and then I went to watch my dance training class because I definitely didn't have the energy to join in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I didn't blog, I didn't edit any videos, I didn't do any uni work and I didn't eat any real dinner either - Monday was a write off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday morning didn't fare much better - I stayed in bed and did my best to try and recover, slowly preparing myself to be at uni that afternoon and I managed it, 4-6 I was in university and 6-8 I went to watch another dance class because whilst I made it into uni, I'd still barely eaten in the previous five days so I wasn't going to make myself try to dance for two hours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And I was also mentally preparing myself for Wednesday - News Day, the 9-5 day that I was hoping wouldn't be too strenuous or difficult. And luckily the story I was on wasn't strenuous or difficult - I was on a story about how Southampton is going to become a dementia friendly city, we got a really good interview and then we spent a casual afternoon writing copy and editing the interview and sourcing pictures. Pretty chill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday and Friday I had two full days at work (bearing in mind I usually only work four hours a week, so it really knocked it out of me), Thursday evening I was still working at Sonar and Friday evening my boyfriend and I made pizza for dinner and it was really fun but I needed another early night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday morning was another early start because I went to a Family Orchestra Workshop just outside Southampton city centre to film, take photos and do a few interviews for my first assignment package. I now have over a week to edit it all together and that makes me very happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are going to be my chill days - I'm still getting over whatever this illness is and I'm very excited to have the rest of the weekend to recover a little bit before a manic day again on Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next week is set to be another really manic week with my new Monday with a changed timetable, hopefully I'll see the end of this illness and I've got my first dance competition at the weekend! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-15351311352595558412017-02-05T08:53:00.000-08:002017-02-05T08:54:10.659-08:00Week 14: We got a house!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's just jump into this, because I'm actually quite ill right now and I know it's a day late (will try and get back to Saturday uploads, sorry!) so I'll just start with Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday is my busiest day at uni - I went in for my 9am however my tutor wasn't going to be there till later but we got some extra work done before she showed up and then I had to leave a bit early to go to a house viewing. We'd been to a viewing on Friday of a house that we loved but we just wanted to check this house to see if it could compare to the one we'd seen but we all left the viewing on Monday saying we were going to apply for the one we saw before (trying to describe this without giving the addresses is proving difficult!) and by Thursday we'd finished the application for the house and on Saturday we were told the landlord wants to proceed with the application and we paid our deposit so we're just waiting for the house to come off the market now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So after that viewing, I went back to uni for my music lecture and seminar - still super creeped out by my lecturer, this week on 'what did he do now?': telling us about how he and Chris Martin of Coldplay talked about losing their virginity... I don't want to know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And after this seminar I had to make a visit to the council for a news day story and it was mostly a waste of time but I did it. I then went to Asda and did a weeks shop and then I had to rush dinner before I went to dance and I was very tired. I was emotionally drained and felt like the whole day was awful even though we started the process of applying for a gorgeous house and I am excited about it but I wasn't on Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday saw the return of Mettricks mornings - 10am I was ready and working and I struggled a little with focusing and getting things done but I got something done and that's better than nothing, I then took a little walk to get the rest of the footage for the news day story I was working on, I had uni at 4, dance at 6 and I really wanted an early night but I don't think I got one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was my first live news day of the semester and it wasn't too bad - we were given a story about how the Northern lights won't be visible from the UK by 2050... Yeah, I didn't know you could see the Northern lights from the UK either. But we managed to make it a story about how global warming is effecting a lot of the worlds most beautiful natural phenomenons and you can read that <a href="http://www.solentjournalism.co.uk/scotland-at-risk-of-losing-its-northern-lights/" target="_blank">here</a> if you're interested!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Thursday I was working from 11-3, I went to drop off the last of our house application at the letting agents and then I walked a very long way to my dads hotel and spent the afternoon with my dad and then I was at Sonar Film and finally saw La La Land, I wrote a full review on my personal blog if you're interested! <a href="https://sophiecountsclouds.com/2017/02/03/la-la-land-review-film/" target="_blank">La La Land review</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday I went to Sainsburys with my dad and he bought me shopping (yay) and then we picked up the boys (how I refer to my flatmates) and we all went for lunch and then I went home for a nap, then we went and met my dad for dinner and then we went to the pub and then I went home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was the day I really started feeling really ill, I kept getting stomach cramps and I felt really tired and week and this only got worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I barely slept that nice, I was up 9 times in the night because I was in so much pain and I felt horrific. I tried to spend more time with my dad on Saturday but he could tell, I knew, everyone knew that I wasn't in the right space to be out of bed. So he dropped me back at home and I collapsed back in bed, I called in sick to work on Sunday because I knew I couldn't rely on my health for the next day and called the day a write off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And today (Sunday), I am actually feeling a lot better - I slept through most of the night last night and I'm not as completely knocked out today but I definitely wouldn't have made it at work today and I'm very, very grateful for the day off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hopefully today will be the last day of whatever it is I've got and I can kick off next week with a bang, but having our house application approved was definitely a nice positive to make up for the end of the end of this week!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-10677445494607122462017-01-31T04:23:00.000-08:002017-01-31T04:24:04.139-08:00Week 13: I've finally got something to do!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So it's been a good month or so since I wrote one of these posts! And for the first time in a while, it's not because I'm running super behind or I forgot about it, I just had a really long Christmas break.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's have a catch up - at uni last semester I did three units, Concept to Commission, Producing the Package and Who's the Boss. I've now finished those three units and I ended up with a 1st and two 2:1s overall so I'm very happy and now I"m starting three brand new units, a compulsory one called Production and Content Management (which is a continuation of Producing the Package) then my two optional units that I chose, which are Lifestyle PR and Music Journalism. Now we're all up to speed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The other piece of news I have is that on January 13th I was offered a two week work experience placement with BBC Three! I'm still waiting for HR to get in contact with me and provide more details but it's all very exciting and I wanted to share (I'll be sure to document it here or on my personal blog <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/" target="_blank">sophiecountsclouds</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So let's get in to my first week back at uni!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday is my busiest day for seminars, with both of my new units on those days - first was Lifestyle PR which was brilliant, PR is definitely an industry I'd love to get into in the future and I'm really excited that my assignments involve presenting a PR campaign and designing a press pack. My group are doing a campaign based on a new hotel resort opening in the Maldives so I get to write and make content regarding travel as well, which is really fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Music Journalism I'm in two minds about - the assignments and the unit itself seems fine but the lecturer is so creepy. In our first lesson he gave off the impression that he loves Donald Trump and teenage girls, he refers to his pseudonym as a separate person, he swears all the time and he was talking to us about when he lost his virginity and it all just feels a bit inappropriate. I'm focusing on the assignments - which are an assessment report (analysing the work of three critics and comparing them to each other, to my understanding) and producing a portfolio of music journalism content.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then Tuesday was actually my boyfriend's birthday, so I spent the morning with him as I'm not in uni for Production and Content Management until 4pm (in future, most Tuesday mornings will be spent in my favourite cafe doing work, just like now when I'm writing this post).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Production and Content Management is fine - the lecturer is absolutely brilliant and I'm really motivated to keep improving as I started to at the end of last semester so I'm not worried about this unit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was the only kind of 'chilled' Wednesday I'm going to have for a long time - it was a News Day planning day, so we were given stories to work on before a live News Day next week and eight more live News Days in the weeks after that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week I get to do a story about how bin collections might be changing from weekly to fortnightly and students aren't happy about it. I volunteered to do the video and pictures on this story so I'll include a link to the story when it goes live in next weeks post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm very lucky this semester in that I get a four day weekend and I'm using this to the best of my ability - at the moment, I'm trying to organise and secure a house for the next academic year so I spent the end of the week at house viewings, I did a couple of home workouts and I was baking for the little birthday party we were having for my boyfriend on Thursday evening, alongside doing a few bits and bobs of uni work in the odd hour or two I had spare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then the weekend I was working - I have a job now! It's in the clothing store Saltrock and so far I'm really enjoying it and it's nice to have a little extra money coming in, especially when my money situation is so tight at the moment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also uploaded a new cover to my YouTube channel - I've been making weekly content again for four weeks consecutively now so if you'd like to have a look at my YouTube channel it would mean a lot!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My amazing friend Nikki also wrote a post on my student blog 'The Student Seat', called '<a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/10-ways-to-help-your-mental-wellness/" target="_blank">10 Ways to Help Your Mental Wellness</a>' and it's brilliant so I thoroughly recommend giving that a read!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today, I've just uploaded a blog post called '<a href="https://sophiecountsclouds.com/2017/01/31/top-4-tips-for-starting-a-health-kick/" target="_blank">top 4 tips for starting a health kick</a>' because of the diet I finally got myself on so I'd recommend that too, but I may be a bit biased.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These posts will go back to being uploaded on a Saturday from now, with being back at uni, haven't lots of dance training, a job and a fairly busy schedule I need to manage my time to the best of my ability but with starting a bullet journal this year I'm finding ways to make this as easy as I can for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm excited for second year and can't wait to see if it ends as brilliantly as it started!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-64661485468462389962016-12-17T11:53:00.001-08:002017-01-13T09:39:13.687-08:00Week 12: End of Semester 1!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just a short one today I think because uni this week started and ended with Monday but I wanted to write a post none the less.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was a struggle - I woke up very anxious because I knew how much I had to submit. But I went to my 11am lecture (mostly to do some work) and I was the only one there for a while but got the first draft of my features done, I then went to town for lunch with my boyfriend (time I could have spent working but I definitely needed that hour just to chill a little bit) and went back to seminar. I got some feedback on my features and finished the final draft and this is where the intense work regarding the essay that was also due that day began.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wrote the whole thing in 8 hours and it was all very close, you can tell the exact point I gave up on citing things and just kept writing, my bibliography probably wasn't laid out right and it was barely proofread, but with it being submitted with one minute and forty three seconds before the deadline, I definitely didn't have time to do any of that!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then my eighth and ninth assignments were submitted and semester one was finished!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I still went to meet my friend for a work session at 9am the next morning and got some blog planning done, then went into town with some friends, went to one of those trampoline room things, realised how unfit I am then went on a night out. Tuesday was a very busy day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday and Thursday I chilled a lot, I barely left the flat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm slowly catching up on Pokemon. Then on Friday I finally came home for the first time since my birthday in September - it involved a seven hour journey with a drive into London, a train from Gatwick to Kings Cross and another train from Kings Cross to Peterborough then a drive from Peterborough to home via the Chinese.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm home now for two weeks then about another week at my boyfriend's house, but I'm very excited for some time off and some real relaxation - it's been a long semester!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't go back to uni until the 23rd January, so I'll resume then with what I think is week 16 or 17. Have a good Christmas and see you in the New Year!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-21133658816372999732016-12-10T13:31:00.001-08:002016-12-10T13:33:07.729-08:00Week 11: Lead up to Last Deadlines!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week has been a difficult one so let's just start with Monday - always a manic day with little breaks, but managed to get a fair amount of work done and get to dance on time <i>and</i> remember to eat at regular intervals. I'd call that a fairly successful day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was a Mettricks morning, went and did a couple of hours of work in there, finishing a log workbook and submitting my seventh assignment before going to uni for a meeting about being on a social media team for open days and it was really productive, so at least I've got that to look forward to in the New Year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I then got an email from someone at Campus Society regarding the student blog I run '<a href="http://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Student Seat</a>' about working with them and promoting their social media so that was quite exciting. And then I went to a pointless lecture at 4pm that literally made me want to claw my own eyes out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Wednesday I didn't have News Day, so I was planning to go to the library and spend the whole day working and I didn't do that. But I did go to the library to get out a few books and I did some research work at home and not too much else, productivity has been minimal. This week I've really struggled with motivation which is annoying because I have two massive deadlines due next week and I really need to be productive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By Thursday I'd given up on forcing productivity - I went with my flat for a group road trip to Asda to buy food for our Christmas party at the weekend and then a quick trip to KFC before uni, where I did very little and chatted about YouTube and mindless gossip for two hours before returning home to do some work and then go to work at the university cinema in the evening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was even more lax - I went Christmas shopping (got nearly all of it done and finished the rest by placing an Amazon order that evening!) and then it was evening and I did a tiny bit of work but not enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did write a blog post that I was really pleased with and uploaded my favourite Vlogmas video so far, so there's that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So today has been very work heavy - I've done a lot of research and I'm ready to start writing but for some reason, my brain just can't function productively at the moment - I tweeted earlier about feeling like I'm looking through frosted glass, I just can't focus on any of the words on my screen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Which is really inconvenient because I've not written either of my features or started my essay yet but I still can't bring myself to do it and I've only got two days left.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes, it's okay - I hate myself too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next week will either be 'my assignments are done I'm so happy' or 'my assignments are done they were awful' and at this point it could still go either way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-17148806492059885732016-12-03T07:56:00.000-08:002016-12-03T07:57:28.416-08:00Week 10: News Week...<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hello!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week has been manic busy and a stark contrast to last week, so let's jump right into it! I've also been watching a lot of Phillip DeFranco.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was the only day I had 'normal' uni this week - I had a lecture at 11, that a total of four people showed up to and then a seminar at 1 where there was only three of us! Such a great turnout, but more people showed up for my 4pm seminar and we all worked on our assignment deadline and it was stressful and I was nearly late for dance and then I uploaded my assignment and mentally prepared myself for news week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was both excited and dreading News Weeks, Newsdays have been really fun this year but also it's three very long days alongside me being very stressed right now about a variety of deadlines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For context, I do multimedia journalism at uni and part of that is newsdays - where we essentially recreate an industry style news room where we have TV bulletins, radio bulletins, social media producers and news teams going out and making a full story package all inside of one day. News week (deceptively called a week) is three consecutive news days. I'm glad it's not a whole week because we would definitely all be dead by the end of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So Tuesday saw the beginning of news week and after just submitting my package on the new Pokemon game for my assignment, I was put on the story about the new Pokemon game! But it was okay - we found a different angle and we did an interview in the park and it felt like a really good package, probably better than my package. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But then I went to HMV to go to a Busted signing and I made a full package all by myself and I was so pleased with it, it all came together really well and the next day, apparently my lecturers and the third years were talking about how impressed with me they were, I was very happy. I put a lot of effort into going out of my way to do a extra work this year so it's nice that apparently it's being noticed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Wednesday, I was on the subbing team, which means I was proofreading other peoples work before it was being uploaded to the website which I was actually quite excited about, but there were five of us trying to read about twenty five stories and it just wasn't enough work for us. But I did get some other assignment work done, I wrote a blog post and I edited a little bit of my monthly vlog. So all in all, a nice day but not necessarily doing the job I should have been doing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then it was Thursday and we were having our last News Day of the semester! It was the first day of December, I was wearing my Christmas gingerbread dress and I donated my tree to the editors table and it was super fun. I worked at first on a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them review, which I <i>really</i> enjoyed (more than I anticipated actually) and then I was on the radio bulletin team so I had to write a script and present the bulletin at 4pm and I really enjoyed it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Friday, I had a lie in and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I then got up and made a to do list and planned some Christmas videos because I'm doing Vlogmas on my second channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/sophieisalwayslate" target="_blank">spoofaloof</a> (if you're interested), then I went into uni to collect some Amazon packages with Christmas presents which is very exciting, then I watched a lot of YouTube videos (I'm so close to catching up and Vlogmas videos are starting to pour in... I'm getting there!) and I convinced myself that having my computer open is the same as getting work done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm working on it and the weekend is looking to be slightly more productive - my boyfriend and I slept in really late and it was blissful. Then I put my pyjamas back on, came into the living room and starting writing this blog post. It's been a very slow day but I've had YouTube videos on in the background and I'm only a couple of days behind now but so many people are uploading more in December that it's still a lot of videos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next week is due to be a quiet week at uni but an intense week of frantic assignment work so I'm not sure how next weeks post will go!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-85767473249148819832016-11-19T14:45:00.003-08:002016-11-26T15:35:49.368-08:00Week 9: The 'Not' Week<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">This week has been a very unusual one in terms of uni, so I think this post will be quite short!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">As I said last week, I went to a concert last Sunday in London and I was really excited about it - and rightfully so, it was so good and I got to meet two of my favourite YouTubers and I loved it, but the journey home was a nightmare. Luckily it was only 2am rather than a possible 4.30am return home and a massive favour owed to a friend (thank you Maria!) but with being ill and having throbbing headaches as well, Monday was a completely write off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't get out of bed until my second seminar had started and I spent most of the day half asleep and blowing my nose before going to dance that night and desperately trying to breathe through intense training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Tuesday was slightly better - I went to Mettricks for a 9.30am start to get some work done with my friend Nikki and proceeded to spend three hours working on planning my blog posts for the next month. Yes, I hate my priorities and myself too don't you worry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">But I <i>did</i> go to my lecture at 4 and even though it was pointless, I actually got some work done which is the important bit. And I made it to dance that night even if I couldn't breathe very well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Wednesday was another blissful day off uni. I'll be honest I have genuinely no recollection of what I did.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I take that back - Pokemon Sun and Moon came out that day so my boyfriend and I were playing that all day. I bought snacks, I had a nap and then we played Dungeons and Dragons in the evening. Wednesday was 'full on nerd' day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Thursday was slightly more productive - I had to go to a Student Ambassador retraining session and it overlapped with a seminar so I prioritised the one I'm getting paid for. Probably shouldn't, because one of them costs me £9000 a year but here we are, I can't change my decision now. I then played more Pokemon that afternoon and went to work at the uni cinema in the evening and got to see Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them for free because I worked it and it was amazing, I loved it, I'm obsessed with it, Eddie Redmayne is a blessing among humanity and I still haven't done any work because I've got to a point where I just hate myself a lot and I keep putting it off even more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Then on Friday, I went into uni to pick up some equipment I needed for the weekend, tidied my room, did the washing up and then went to Asda with my dad who is visiting for the weekend. So then I went for dinner with him and my boyfriend and then we played Pokemon till 2am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">And then I went into town super early because my Dad bought me my Christmas present really early and we wanted to get to town whilst it wasn't too busy because Southampton on a Saturday in the run up to Christmas. It's not fun. There are many rude people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">But I have a new camera! It's so beautiful! Look at this photo of ice cream I took!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">I like it a lot. Tomorrow I have a pretty busy catch up day planned because of how little work I've done this week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Next week is super busy, so I'll have more to say next week. Thank you for reading!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-70089033462234068352016-11-19T14:45:00.002-08:002016-11-19T15:25:17.766-08:00Week 8: being ill at uni isn't fun<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I mean, I could give it a really clickbaity title or I could just say it like it is - death has come for me. Probably not but my head pounds when I stand up so I'm pretty sure that's a sure fire sign I'm going to die soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure how well the sarcasm comes across but it's there - I know I'm not really dying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday! I've realised that Monday's just make me really sad - I have my busiest lecture and seminar day at uni then I have no time before dance and then dinner is really late and I always end up feeling really sad on a Monday. So the week got off to a good start right!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now realistically, Monday had been this difficult for a while - I was just starting to get ill and I spent most of the day choking because my throat wasn't very good at being a throat. I struggled to see the relevance of the lecture and the seminar was the same as last week except only six people turned up which makes me feel so good about actually making the effort to go to uni. The Producing the Package seminar was just another two hours of doing work but in a MAC suite at uni. So thrilling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was so officially ill on Tuesday that when I tried to write 'officially ill' in my notes for what happened on Tuesday, I typed 'officially in'. Sign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Usually I go for an early morning Mettricks but I made the decision not to push myself and let myself have a couple of hours longer in bed. I got up about 11 and started work on my 6-point to do list. At this point I had it planned that I would have everything on my weekly to do list done by Thursday and then I would spend all weekend playing Pokemon. Spoiler: that didn't happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I started by writing up my Newsday log notes into a proper log so I can just add the information from News Week and submit it in December, which is dangerously and painfully close now. I also edited music for my dance team. And then I didn't do anything else for the rest of the day and I didn't go to uni because I my head was literally throbbing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was so glad I didn't have Newsday on Wednesday because I definitely wouldn't have made it and I'm just very ill at this point. I didn't go to voice coaching because I couldn't talk, I did some sofa Christmas shopping, I helped my friend with her fashion photography, I stressed a lot, I nearly had a migraine and then I stayed up really late working on my script for my assignment presentation the next day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And then on Thursday I went in a little early to finish off the script and rehearse and then we went and did the presentation and I think it went really well, we didn't go over time and we felt really comfortable asking questions. Then I went home and did a bunch of work (like, really slowly), then I went to work at the cinema at uni and watch the new Jack Reacher film (not my cup of tea).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Friday I slept a lot, I spent a very long time very slowly working on one work experience application (but I did it!) and I spent a surprisingly long time questioning how long I need to cook two tins of spaghetti hoops for lunch. It was a very slow day but not in a nice relaxing way, in a 'I want to be motivated and get lots of work done but my head throbs if I stand up too fast and all I want to do is sleep and be sad'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I found out on Friday that someone that was in my form at school passed away and it really hit me and I didn't even know her that well, but I saw her basically every morning for a year and she was so lovely and I know people who knew her really well and it's just really surreal. Especially with watching Children in Need that night it just really hit me how short life is and I was really sad on Friday night (and most of this week) but I just wanted to write something here - just, make good decisions, be careful with drugs. I'm feeling very spacey right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today, Saturday, I had the biggest lie in I think I've ever had and slept until the afternoon, I then had a little Asda trip to pick up some fresh veg to make a roast dinner tomorrow then I tried to be productive but I felt like death outside so I'm actually a little bit worried about going to London tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm meant to be seeing Panic! At The Disco tomorrow and I'm really excited about it but I also feel like death, so I'll update you on that next week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sorry this week has been so rubbish, I get really sad when I can't be productive and I'm trying my best and it's not going very well. Too much thinking, I'll get back to you next week where there's no deadlines and hopefully less disease.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-12901120681024431122016-11-12T14:21:00.000-08:002016-11-13T16:49:45.071-08:00Week 7: running out of steam<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week has been a long one, it feels like months since I wrote one of these posts when it's only been seven days. So let's go back to Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have a new lecturer for our Concept to Commission lecture and seminar and he didn't use a PowerPoint for the lecture, which make a Monday morning after a week off much more difficult to concentrate on. I actually did quite enjoy the seminar - we were given a sheet with a bunch of information on it and we had to write a 500 word feature in two hours in between chatting to our lecturer about our assignment due at the end of the semester. It wasn't particularly useful but I enjoyed in none the less.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Producing the Package we got our results from our first package hand ins back - I wasn't massively overwhelmed with a high 2:2, but I know exactly what areas to work on to pull the grade up in the next package and I've already got the go ahead for my next package idea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday morning I went to my favourite cafe Mettricks to sit and do some work with a hot chocolate. I then went to Spoons with some friends, went and tried to book a tattoo and then started a discussion with the tattoo parlour on Facebook to try redesigning it. I then went to HMV to pre-order Busted's new album Night Driver and get a ticket to the signing they're doing at the HMV in Southampton. I'm going to meet Busted and it's going to be a childhood dream come try. Then I did some work at home, went to a really shit lecture, went to dance and then came home and sat on the sofa for a really long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was another Newsday and this week I was on the TV bulletin team - I had to write the script and present for the 5 minute long TV bulletin at 5pm so it was a really long day but really satisfactory - I had an awesome team and it was so much fun to work with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you want to watch my bulletin, you can do so here: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Thursday I had a slightly later start because I no longer have InDesign sessions as that assignment has been handed in. So I went to Who's The Boss at 1pm, luckily we didn't have to have a debate because not many people were there and our assignment hand in is less than a week away (not that our lecturer didn't try). So I worked with my partner really well on our PowerPoint presentation - it worked really well that both of us were in the right place and on the same page about what we wanted to do because we made massive progress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And Friday was my much needed day off, not that I took it - I met my partner about midday and we worked for about five hours putting together both the PowerPoint and the script and we're nearly at a point where we can hand in the PowerPoint on Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Friday evening I was given a complimentary ticket to see the World Premiere of Wind In The Willows at Mayflower theatre (post to go up on <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/" target="_blank">SophieCountsClouds</a> tomorrow!) and it was amazing - seeing 'press' printed on the ticket is something that made me inexplicably happy and is something I'd love to do again!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This morning, on wonderful Saturday, I had another lie in and went into town for an Asda trip, I came back to make a bunch of lists of stuff I need to get done and then I spent the evening being an actor and helping my friend film her documentary for her course. Having got back at ten, my boyfriend and I have just ordered take out because we're too tired to cook dinner!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tomorrow I'm getting my fourth tattoo (and I'm so excited) and then going to meet my partner to finish off our presentation for next week and then I'm going to have a really chilled evening and finish catching up on Flash Season 3.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week's been jam packed and I'm running out of energy for sure - I need just a little bit of time off and I keep saying 'after this deadline' and 'after this hand in' but each of my assignments are due in less than two weeks after each other, which makes it a little bit more difficult to find 'down time' and chill out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But I'll manage it. Somehow. Or if not; I'll blog about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-7185438647970729822016-10-29T12:02:00.001-07:002016-11-05T15:24:05.285-07:00Week 6: Enrichment Week<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hello!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week has been enrichment week, which means I have a week off uni that I'm using to catch up and get a little bit ahead but also to chill out and not work at 100%. Not being at uni might be an excuse to take a week off from updating this but I've still been doing some stuff and technically it is Week 6, so I thought I'd talk about it anyway!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was still kind of uni-heavy because my workbook deadline was that night, but it was all fairly chilled - I worked in the morning, we went to Asda, I uploaded it about half past eight which was a little bit later than I anticipated but I was actually really pleased with the final product (hence why I included it in my <a href="https://sophiecountsclouds.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/october-favourites/" target="_blank">October Favourites</a> post on Sophie Counts Clouds!). If I'd started earlier I definitely could have been more creative and perhaps made it longer, but a 41 page workbook submitted makes me all done!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was a super productive day for me - I made a list of things I'd like to accomplish this week, I made a daily list of what I wanted to achieve on each day and I got everything on my Tuesday list by 1pm, good day! I tried to dye my hair but by bleaching it I got rid of the black and green in my hair and brought back the blue in my hair, but that got sorted later in the week (the convenience of writing on a Saturday about the past).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It seems that a productive day is always followed by a flop day - Wednesday I slept in too late, I bleached my hair again, tried to put pastel purple on my hair and apparently it's not pastel purple but pastel blue. It upset me more than I thought it would, but I'm going to try and get rid of the colour without putting more bleach in my hair and then add the purple in maybe in a few weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was a new day and another productive one! I did the washing up, I cleaned out my wardrobe, I did my hair and make-up (I actually did my make-up, it's a miracle), I thought of another package idea for my next Producing the Package deadline, I did a few uni bits and bobs and got the result from my presentation and workbook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I got a first, like a really good first. I was so pleased that all my work had paid off and I really hope I can maintain this throughout the year and keep up that level of grade but I can't imagine I'll get a first on every assignment. Either way, I'm very happy. So many happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was where the 'chill' part started - my mum and my sister came to visit and I had a lie in, went into town and bought the Krispie Kreme doughnuts they requested, showed them the flat I'm living in this year and then we went to Asda and I stocked up on a lot of food and spent far too much of my mothers money and I'm very, very grateful. Shoutout to mum because you're the best ever. After that, we tetris-fit everything in the fridge, I had a nap then got changed and went for an anniversary meal with my boyfriend. We've been together for a whole year now, it's fab! I also wrote another blog post. Just to finish the night off y'know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saturday was our actual anniversary but he was working at a TEDx event from 8am-8pm, but we had Chinese this evening and it's all very chill and really nice. But for the rest of the day! I went into town about 11am, I mooched around with my sister and my mum, my sister went and got her nose pierced, we had McDonalds for lunch (I was so happy), we then went to my favourite cafe to show them where I go to work sometimes, we went back to the hotel and had a drink and then I showed my mum how to use InDesign. When the boys got back, we got out Chinese and had a good time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The plan for tomorrow is to go see my family before they leave, go to the gym and then do lots and lots of works in the afternoon!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been a lovely week off, but it'll be nice to get back to uni on Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-47153051393931627112016-10-29T12:02:00.000-07:002016-10-30T07:52:41.885-07:00Week 5: Stress, then more stress<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Normally when I write these blog posts, it's off a set of notes I've been writing throughout the week so I don't forget anything. I feel like that fact I've not made any notes this week summarises the kind of week I've had.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday and Tuesday were always going to be stressful - I had to do a Pitch Presentation, pitching three feature ideas to three different publications to a lecturer and someone else I didn't know who is an industry professional, or something. So my Monday lecture and seminar were cancelled because of these ongoing presentations but mine wasn't till Tuesday, so I used the time to work more on my pitch and also the full package story that was due as part of another unit, also due on Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">See why I was stressed? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So Monday was a lot of prep working from home - I managed to get quite a bit done for the pitch, then I went in early to the package seminar that was still on to work on editing my package before the hand in the next day. Then I had dance and had an early night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday morning, I was up and in my lovely little cafe spot at 8.30am to start working. I had to edit the video for my package and that took a solid three hours, but from there I made the final notes for my pitch presentation, went to a tutorial meeting with my level tutor, went to Asda, started writing the copy for my package and went to do my presentation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They were running so far behind on presentations that I had to wait 35 minutes and miss my lecture but it was Who's The Boss so I really couldn't care less. So I came home, carried on working on the copy for my package and then prepared to submit everything - video done, audio edited, pictures edited, copy written - assignment submitted before I went to dance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now <i>that</i> was a nice feeling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And after all that, Wednesday was another Newsday. I wrote a story about a 48 Hour Film Challenge that is happening this weekend, you can read all about it here: <a href="http://www.solentjournalism.co.uk/exposure-filmmakers-host-48-hour-film-festival-this-weekend/" target="_blank">Exposure Filmmakers Host 48-Hour Film Festival This Weekend</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was a good day actually - two hours of InDesign was really useful because I got to make a start on the workbook I really should have started on Tuesday and is due on Monday - about five days from now. I'm actually getting into and enjoying making the InDesign workbook, it's a way of virtually making pretty designs and I'm quite enjoying the process of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was a bit of a day off - bit of a lie in, then going to the SU with my friends (taking my laptop to work on the workbook, obviously). I then came back home to work on the workbook and had a break to go for a free drink and pancakes, before coming back to... work on the workbook! I didn't work hard and fast all day long but I worked kind of consistently and had YouTube on in the background and I got way more done than I was ever anticipating to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today hasn't been so successful - after staying up till 3am working and the boys playing GTA, we all slept in pretty late and then went into town for some things we needed to pick up. From there it was back to working on the workbook, watching the Flash with fish and chips and a spontaneous trip to see Doctor Strange at the cinema. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm hoping to get some more work done this evening when we get back from the film and then tomorrow will be another day of work before a Halloween fundraiser for dance that I'm taking a bunch of my friends too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next week is enrichment week so not a lot will be going on at uni because whilst I'm sure there's stuff going on, I don't know about any of it. I'll probably still write a post because I'm working on my blog re-design next week so I'll keep you up to date!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-84249746702829097082016-10-22T16:16:00.000-07:002016-10-29T09:44:28.504-07:00Week 4: Creeping Deadlines<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week, it seems like two deadlines have snuck up on me completely out of nowhere to stress levels are sky high. But lets take it back to Monday, where stress levels were only at 30,000 feet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Monday, my Concept to Commission lecture 'scared the shit out of me' (thank you Past Sophie for those eloquent words of wisdom) but the seminar time was actually really useful in terms of getting some research done and really ploughing on with the assignment. My pitch presentation is now confirmed to be on the same day as my first full package is due, which definitely helped the stress levels that's for sure... No one missed the sarcasm there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However the Producing the Package seminar was actually pretty useful - I chatted Jon through my idea and he approved, he thinks it's a good idea and as the event I was filming wasn't until later in the week, he approved of me leaving a little bit early which is always nice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday began with a 9am cafe work date with my friend from my flat in halls last year following a very successful six-hour session on Sunday. We stayed for a few hours, had hot chocolate and lunch, went into town and then to uni to go make the most of a printer. I then went back to my flat, had a nap and went to dance in the evening. This is the beginning of my decline to the mess I am now writing this at the end of the week! It was a slow day but I know I was going to have a super long day on Wednesday so I was mentally preparing myself for that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'll describe very briefly what Wednesday was:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>8am start</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes, I know a lot of people will say that that's a normal work day and I need to grow a pair and start complaining but it was a very early start. I was then at uni until 5pm and had people coming over for a games night that evening. I was a very tired girl at the end of Wednesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite all that complaining, News Day wasn't actually that bad - I was a Social Media Assistant Producer for the day so I got to tweet and make Facebook posts all day. That sounds like an easy day but it was actually a lot of making sure we didn't miss any content, thinking of creative ways to keep content varied and up to date and I actually did enjoy it. I probably posted about 50 tweets over the course of the whole day alongside a bunch of Facebook posts and scheduling even more posts that I think have been removed since then because they have not been going up on Facebook. But it's not my responsibility any more so it's fine!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also made brownie and that went well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was a fairly easy day - I went in for my two hour InDesign session but that was really just another environment to work on my research for the Concept to Commission pitch but the Who's The Boss seminar was cancelled (reserving comments on how I feel about that) because our lecturer was written off as ill this week. I then went into town for some retail therapy (and took most of the clothes I bought back), went home for a shower and back to uni to pick up equipment to film for my package story!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My new story, after the gig at Notes Cafe fell through, was a vintage clothing line launch at my university's shop Re:So - I got my boyfriend to help me film the event, I took photos and conducted both video and audio interviews as well as doing a piece to camera that was 90% improvised. Looking back, I think the whole event was a success both for Re:So and for me in terms of recording it but my anxious mind told me then and is still telling me now that this package actually counts as part of the marks for my actual degree grade and nothing is ever good enough and I'm a failure. But that's just how my brain works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I went to a dance social and I hated it but that's not a post for this blog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday is my beloved day off but even that was busy - I had to return all the equipment I'd used the night before, tidy my room, go to the halls I lived in last year to pick up a parcel Amazon delivered for me, go to the train station to pick up my sister who's here to visit for the weekend, go to the SU to see my friends and have lunch, come home, go back into town to go to Asda, then collapse for the night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This weekend I should really be doing a lot of prep for my two approaching deadlines but with my sister here, I'm having to be very creative (and a lot of late nights, hence why this is 'technically' going up on Sunday... sorry) with how I get my work done. I'm sure it'll all get done in the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My primary anxiety right now is that all of this counts - all of these assignments actually count towards my final degree and I feel like I should have put a lot more effort in than I have but I don't know where that effort would have gone because I also feel like I've put everything I could have into these assignments but part of me really wants that First but I really know I'm not going to get it and it's crushing me a little.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My crumbling mental health is showing. Hopefully, with two deadlines surpassing this week and a Halloween dance fundraiser with all my friends next Sunday, Week 5 should be better!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-207000558250544402016-10-15T14:14:00.000-07:002016-10-17T03:49:21.996-07:00Week 3: Freshers Flu<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I feel like I need a week off between every week of uni just because every week is so busy but that's not how it works, so here's to week 3!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was a difficult day - since Thursday the previous week I've been feeling increasingly more ill and after an 8.30am Asda trip, the rest of the day was feeling like a bit of a push. After my lecture first thing, I felt a little bit like death and didn't go to the seminar (obviously emailing my lecturer and getting the work I missed out on, obviously) and I did go to my package seminar in the evening just because I needed to talk to the lecturer - being ill can't stop anything at uni because if you stop you'll miss something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm working on a package story about Joe Fox, who's performing at a cafe in Southampton but has a pretty cool backstory. Have a read on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/325992401088094/" target="_blank">event page</a> if you want to know a bit more. I'm not sure this story's going to go through because I'm still waiting for people to respond to me but I've got back up stories in the running just in case it all falls through. But I feel like that's just the story of a journalist!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday was another Who's the Boss lecture, my least favourite. They're always rubbish. This week we learnt all about how things can be interpreted differently by different people. I know right, I'm so glad I'm paying £9000 a year. So glad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was a News Day planning day and this one was a little bit different to every other one I've been to - today, rather than being a News Journalist I was being a Social Media Assistant Producer. I had to go to the editors meeting in the morning and I felt like I was actually useful! I've been making and uploading content to the SSU Journalism <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SSUJournalism/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/ssujournalism" target="_blank">twitter page</a> so if you want to see what I've been up to have a look there, I'm really pleased with the little teaser <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SSUJournalism/videos/529638180571979/?__mref=message" target="_blank">video I made from planning day</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday was a pretty slow day, still feeling pretty under the weather but the InDesign session was really useful because we actually started working on our assignment workbook and I actually started making some research notes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Who's the Boss on the other hand was a different story entirely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We debated whether marmite was good or bad. Yes, the yeast based product marmite. That only one member of my class liked. It was the most pathetic 45 minutes of my life and the only thing I really questioned was whether it was really worth £9000 a year. <i>Nine thousand pounds</i>. It hurts my heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday was a nice lazy day for me - I needed it to try and recover from this cold I couldn't shake and in preparation for working an Open Day at uni on the Saturday. So I went for lunch in the SU with my friends, went for an Asda trip where I bought a lot of baking supplies and Halloween glitter but then had a chilled afternoon, desperately trying to shake the coughing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But today has been super busy! I was at uni for 7.45am this morning and then working the Open Day at uni till about half past three. I'm absolutely shattered and have spent the rest of the afternoon napping, eating the most amazing stir fry the best boyfriend in the world has ever made and watching The Flash. It's been a good night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And tomorrow I'm going to a cafe with my friend to get some hardcore work done and then finish the Flash season 1 and start the Flash season 2. It's going to be a very exciting weekend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/">https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds">https://www.youtube.com/sophiecountsclouds</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8993867973204629706.post-14929876680055015672016-10-08T09:42:00.003-07:002016-10-10T03:28:08.084-07:00Week 2: Back to Uni Life<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Week 1 of being back at university really knocked it out of me - being in uni four consecutive days a week and going back to being a lot busier than I had been? I definitely wasn't ready for it and week 2 has definitely been a bit of a struggle. But overall it's been a good week!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Monday was another lecture in the morning which was actually really interesting - I learnt a little more about the industry and how it'll be for us going in as graduates and also telling us more about the presentation we have to do in a few weeks. The seminar was a bit slow and a bit patronising but I suppose it was useful in the end. I guess?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The second seminar of the day was actually really good, there was loads of useful tips for filming video and it was nice to chat to the lecturer on his opinion on things. The discussion about pandas needing to be extinct was questionable but was clearly poignant because it's stuck with me nearly a week later!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tuesday is my quiet day - I have one lecture that starts at 4pm and is meant to last an hour but today I was there for half an hour being told that the internet has censorship. It's a shocker right? There are restrictions on the internet? I'm glad I'm spending £9,000 a year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wednesday was our first live news day of the year! I ended up being in uni for seven and a half hours, working on a story about a potential HIV cure. This week I made an infographic (which is a video with pictures and text rather than footage of an interview or talking to the public) and got to use some of my animating skills in photoshop (and by skills I mean, I know how it's done, not I know how to do it well). If you'd like to have a look, you can read the story here! <a href="http://www.solentjournalism.co.uk/hiv-virus-becoming-undetectable-in-blood-of-british-man-sparks-hope-of-cure/" target="_blank">HIV hope as first patient cured</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thursday is my other long day - I had a two hour InDesign session which was okay, other than the fact I was really beginning to feel quite ill but the seminar that goes with the shitty Tuesday lectures was, unsurprisingly, horrific. The way the lecturer (who never fails to remind us about his pHD) arranges our debates is stupid, none of us know why we even have to debate anyway - as journalists, we see arguments from both sides so we can then produce content equally and honestly. I hate debating when the arguments made are weak and especially when someone makes a really long point that is actually defending our side of the argument. It's all ridiculous, and my partner for the presentation had bailed after InDesign anyways, so I had no reason to stay that afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Friday is still my day off - I fully intended to be super productive and get up early and go to the gym, but what I did was get up early-ish with my boyfriend so we could do our laundry, then when he went to uni I curled up bed surrounded by my clean laundry and watched YouTube... then we went into town to browse shops we didn't need to be in, went to the SU for lunch and didn't do much in the afternoon because I was feeling increasingly more and more ill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So whilst I do have a to do list that I really wanted to complete this weekend, I have a funny feeling that I'm not going to make the dent in it I intended but looking at it positively - maybe I'll wake up tomorrow feeling much better and have a really good day! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do have try outs for a couple of dance teams on Saturday, but I'm not entirely sure how that's going to go... I'll fill you in next week!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Personal blog: <a href="http://sophiecountsclouds.com/">sophiecountsclouds.com</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Student Seat: <a href="https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/">https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/</a></span>sophiecountscloudshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033722023934226069noreply@blogger.com0