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| DEEP: I feel like under one of these already! |
IT HAS been a long summer, probably a bit too long – but the first week back at University was what I thought, a relaxing week back into the swing of things. Ha! Dream on. Instead, I now have a pile of work that leaves me feeling like the celebrities in 71 Degrees North; buried underneath an avalanche!
First day back and it was my 23rd birthday. The timing could have been a bit better, but at least I got to spend the day with my closest friends from my journalism course at the University of Northampton. I got many happy returns from colleagues and some lovely cards from the really close friends that I have. You know who you are, so I’m not going to mention you in person. First day back began with a 9am lecture on radio. I’m no fan of radio journalism and think it is quite out-of-date. If I listen to radio, it’s for sports commentary on Five Live and sometimes will have it on before I go to sleep. However, I don’t listen to it, their evening programmes are so bad it just helps me get to sleep quicker. Radio journalism went out-of-date in around 1994 and I can’t help think that, especially when we live in the technological, social networking age of today. However, it still might be interesting to find out a deeper background into the subject at least. For the first hour, I sat on my own, just feeling slightly nervous. I don’t know why; guess I just didn’t want to be the centre of attention.
In the afternoon, we had our first group session for a very interesting project on motor racing. People who know me will understand my strong passion for motor racing (see F1 and MotoGP reports), but I’m only into the racing side of things. All the technical malarkey does not appeal to me and it is only F1 and MotoGP that I follow very closely. I used to watch rallying, but got bored when the same guy kept winning every rally, have never been a big fan of sportscars or racing in America (Indy 500, CART etc) and as for national motorsport, what championships are they? Our project is based on the final round of next weekend’s title decider at Silverstone for the British Touring Car Championship. Five drivers can still mathematically claim the title and the BTCC is an okay racing series. I watch a few rounds on TV, especially when nothing is on the box on a Sunday afternoon, but it isn’t something that has passion to me; just another racing championship. The project involves a trip to the home of British motorsport on Friday and that does excite me, no matter what. It will be an interesting day and an interesting project. I already reckon that this year is going to be tough, no doubts.
Thursday morning bought the sad news of Steve Jobs death. The Apple figurehead (I will do a tribute on here in the next few days) has had a massive influence in the way we talk, communicate and appreciate the technological gadgets we have. I’m not an Apple person; I don’t eat the fruit and have had regular problems with their software, especially on the iMac’s. Nevertheless, I use iTunes on a regular basis to listen to my music and no-one can doubt the vision that Jobs had for Apple and the world. His death is very sad and although I reckon the company will survive without too many issues, they will miss his leadership. The world is a poorer place without him.
As for my dissertation, (yep I have to do one of them this year), the early beginnings are looking good and I just wish I had more books I could buy. I now have an official question title in place and I am probably less than a fortnight away from beginning to type out my first chapter. Although I won’t reveal the topic on here, the clue is that it is to do with broadcast journalism. Broadcast journalism is an area where I don’t like doing it, but I seem to end up with better results than the traditional strength I have; print journalism. If that’s the case, it made my topic fairly easy and sensible to choose. I have already had a positive meeting with the tutor I will be working closely with, so early signs suggest that although it will probably take me to the brink on more than one occasion, it is something I’m going to enjoy researching, without wanting to do something else.
One of the presents I got for my birthday was F1 2011; the new racing game on the Xbox 360. Actually, I’m finding it a real challenge to play, which is great for any racing simulation, as I normally find them too easy to play. I have achieved a second place finish with Williams in the Barcelona event and have a habit of making great starts from solid grid positions, but it is very realistic. The days of winning the championship in your first year with Virgin Racing are a distant thing of the past.
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| HAPPY: Posing with fellow blogger and close Uni friend, Farida |
My lengthy birthday celebrations came to a conclusion with another trip to the Balestra nightclub on Thursday in town. More people came than I had been expecting and it was a great night, even if the music was a bit naff. It was a lovely night and a great way to finish the week off with the majority of my closest buddies. As much as I was hoping to make it a regular feature this year, the workload will determine that and if week one is anything to go by, it is more likely to be a monthly rather than a fortnightly basis.
So, week one of my final year at University has finished and there is bound to be plenty of emotional rollercoaster’s along the way. It is great to be back around people who mean a lot to me, but the gauntlet has already been thrown down, so I’d better start trying to dig myself out of this avalanche!
Welcome back everyone!
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