Let me set the scene of this post: it's Christmas Eve, there's 45 minutes to Christmas Day, I'm in a bright green dinosaur onesie and I've spent the day preparing food, baking and hunting for reduced goods at Waitrose. Overall, it's not been a bad one.
As I sit here with a gin and tonic, a cat and a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies - yeah, I'm treating myself, okay? - I realise that I'm getting ridiculously sentimental in my old age, and the fairy lights aren't helping. You can't be bitter when you're surrounded by strings of tiny lights that make you look more attractive than normal, it's just rude.
So as I've been too broke to buy presents this year, I bring you all some happiness and sentimentality in the form of my words. After all, you're all very hard to buy for, and some of you I just didn't want to make the effort for at all.
2012 has been the year that has made me. I've found what I love doing most and managed to bag myself a place on one of the top courses to do it properly - and if I ever end up working for News Corp or the Daily Mail/Express, I want one of you to kill me, okay? - and I've had some amazing experiences while I've discovered it. Yes, student journalism might not be the top flight of fancy that you expect from the media world, but it's some of the most fun I've ever had. Despite the stress, the hard work and the frustration of trying to get a newspaper out every fortnight that doesn't have too many errors or legitimate grounds for civil action, joining The Waterfront has been the best, most rewarding thing I've ever done and I'm incredibly sad that I'm going to be leaving next year. I've been plotting my leaving speech for quite some time now, and I think I've now managed to get it down to 20 minutes with only two offensive jokes.
Technically, this has also been the year where I've had the chance to make a fresh start in terms of dysfunctional relationships. Instead, I chose to develop more of them, so here's a big shout out to every boy who has been a part of it: you've taught me the true value of cats, gin and watching Bridget Jones' Diary on repeat until I can recite it word for word. However, there's a lot to be said for but not having to shave my legs for a month and wearing my comfortable, boring knickers because no one will be seeing them. This is of course before I see a romantic couple and I remember that love is a sham sold to you by card companies. Oh boy, I do hope that 2013 is the year where I'm whisked off my feet by an incredibly strong, short sighted man who doesn't mind cats and my disgustingly black humour! (I like biscuits and being sent flowers. Preferably lilies).
It's also been the year where I've had to deal with losing someone incredibly close to me who I miss constantly and I wish was still here every day. It's been a shock to the system, but I've gotten through it with the support of a lot of other people around me and I can't really thank you all enough for that.
Essentially, this has been the year where I've learnt who my true friends are; some of which has been another surprise. There are people who I thought would be here for years to come, yet have seemingly disappeared. I could be sad about it, but in a way, it's just taught me the lesson that sometimes things change despite you not wanting them to. It's also taught me that one or two people are owed some bad karma very soon :)
This may have been the strangest year I've ever had. It's been punctuated with good bits like meeting people I'm going to cling to forever, formulating my escape plan back to England, and meeting Derek the weatherman from BBC1. It's also had the occasional bad bit, highlights being people being sucky, basically being bankrupt, and one day on the walk to uni my tights fell off, which meant I probably flashed about six people, I'm glad that I've actually gotten through it without going too crazy.
So in short, this is a big thank you to a lot of people for helping and supporting me, whether it be through the medium of listening, getting me drunk or just telling me to shut up at the appropriate moment. I can only hope that 2013 is going to be as bizarre as 2012; although preferably with less death and shitty people :)
Monday 24 December 2012
Friday 7 December 2012
It's been a long time...
I know, the gaps between my posts are getting bigger and bigger, and it's all thanks to my dissertation. However, I'm cutting down on my extra-curricular activities, so I might actually get around to writing more often.
It's just as well, really, seeing as this week I got offered a place on my dream NCTJ diploma course in Manchester. Not only is it one of the best in the country, but it's only three minutes walk away from a Gregg's. It's the DREAM. Not only am I finally going to be able to fulfill this journalism dream of mine, I'm going to be able to do it with the aid of steak bakes and toffee apple slices. Paradise.
Anyway, here's a brief mention of everything I've found interesting lately. I'll be writing one of my usual posts soon enough, probably whinging on like the lefty tree hugger I am about the nasty Tories or the price of bread or unemployment figures or something.
Do your research and stop hating on the poor:
Did you know that the vast majority of those who claim Housing Benefit are actually employed? These people are part of the 'working poor': people who are in low-paid employment, struggling to make ends meet, usually entitled to in-work benefits, and most probably reliant upon them to exist.
I'm getting incredibly tired of hearing people go on about those living in homes 'that they would never be able to afford myself'. Moving people from more affluent areas to others due to the housing benefit caps is not a wise tactic, it is tantamount to cleansing our cities of poor people. Those in favour are incredibly short sighted, and I can't wait to see how they cope when there are no longer people able to make the commute to their low paid, menial jobs in the places that they used to live.
Regulating the press is not a good idea:
Let's me try and get it into your heads: everything that has been investigated by the Leveson enquiry was illegal, and those involved within it will be brought to justice, if they haven't already. No press watchdog is going to make it more illegal, it's just going to make it incredibly difficult for a free press to exist in Britain.
As it stands, it can actually be quite difficult to make sure a piece of work is legal and fit for press. Even within student media, there are hoops and rings of fire to jump through before we can go to press on even the most banal of stories.
What we actually need is a stronger union, and a conscience clause within it that will allow journalists to whistle blow any editor who demands we do something we don't want to do. Currently, doing that will just about land you on a 1940s-esque McCarthy list.
Forgetting the fact that victims are not the people to be making the regulations in the first place, further press regulation will only suffocate us. People fought for the right to a free press and free speech, don't let 2013 be the year that it dissolved.
It is not Christmas just because the Coca-Cola advert is on television:
Come on, people. Think with your heads, not with your wallet. Christmas is a time for being disappointed with the lack of snow and eating until you think you might be sick, but eating a little bit more anyway. Also, if I see the ASDA 'there's a mum behind Christmas' advert one more time, I'm going to write them an angry letter about the diversity of the modern family unit.
A normal service will resume just as soon as I've enough time to stop worrying about my essays and the fact that I need to find somewhere to live in Manchester.
Until then, go forth, question everything you see, and remember this fact: bumblebees refuse to go out in the rain because if they get wet, they're too heavy to fly. Poor little soggy bumblebees.
It's just as well, really, seeing as this week I got offered a place on my dream NCTJ diploma course in Manchester. Not only is it one of the best in the country, but it's only three minutes walk away from a Gregg's. It's the DREAM. Not only am I finally going to be able to fulfill this journalism dream of mine, I'm going to be able to do it with the aid of steak bakes and toffee apple slices. Paradise.
Anyway, here's a brief mention of everything I've found interesting lately. I'll be writing one of my usual posts soon enough, probably whinging on like the lefty tree hugger I am about the nasty Tories or the price of bread or unemployment figures or something.
Do your research and stop hating on the poor:
Did you know that the vast majority of those who claim Housing Benefit are actually employed? These people are part of the 'working poor': people who are in low-paid employment, struggling to make ends meet, usually entitled to in-work benefits, and most probably reliant upon them to exist.
I'm getting incredibly tired of hearing people go on about those living in homes 'that they would never be able to afford myself'. Moving people from more affluent areas to others due to the housing benefit caps is not a wise tactic, it is tantamount to cleansing our cities of poor people. Those in favour are incredibly short sighted, and I can't wait to see how they cope when there are no longer people able to make the commute to their low paid, menial jobs in the places that they used to live.
Regulating the press is not a good idea:
Let's me try and get it into your heads: everything that has been investigated by the Leveson enquiry was illegal, and those involved within it will be brought to justice, if they haven't already. No press watchdog is going to make it more illegal, it's just going to make it incredibly difficult for a free press to exist in Britain.
As it stands, it can actually be quite difficult to make sure a piece of work is legal and fit for press. Even within student media, there are hoops and rings of fire to jump through before we can go to press on even the most banal of stories.
What we actually need is a stronger union, and a conscience clause within it that will allow journalists to whistle blow any editor who demands we do something we don't want to do. Currently, doing that will just about land you on a 1940s-esque McCarthy list.
Forgetting the fact that victims are not the people to be making the regulations in the first place, further press regulation will only suffocate us. People fought for the right to a free press and free speech, don't let 2013 be the year that it dissolved.
It is not Christmas just because the Coca-Cola advert is on television:
Come on, people. Think with your heads, not with your wallet. Christmas is a time for being disappointed with the lack of snow and eating until you think you might be sick, but eating a little bit more anyway. Also, if I see the ASDA 'there's a mum behind Christmas' advert one more time, I'm going to write them an angry letter about the diversity of the modern family unit.
A normal service will resume just as soon as I've enough time to stop worrying about my essays and the fact that I need to find somewhere to live in Manchester.
Until then, go forth, question everything you see, and remember this fact: bumblebees refuse to go out in the rain because if they get wet, they're too heavy to fly. Poor little soggy bumblebees.
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