My latest pieces of work

Well i got to do another contribution to one of my features in the student newspaper. Look for Top Ten things to do before the snow goes:

http://issuu.com/salford123/docs/issue122010/1

And i also did a film review for Unitown.co.uk of the latest Harry Potter so enjoy :)

http://www.unitown.co.uk/articles/626/48/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-one

Over and out.

Gemma

What is all the hype about?

I have learnt a few valuable lessons in the past few weeks:

1) You cannot rely on a woman whose just come off maternity leave, even if she does sound lovely on the phone.

2) Twitter is NOT private and is therefore very dangerous!

3) Watching TV is not necessarily just pleasurable- it can also be a foot in the door for a job.

4) Time does not fly when you are having fun- it flies when graduation is at the end of third year! AND

5) Twitter is actually very enjoyable and informative!

So. For my music feature assignment i finally settled on an idea that i was happy with but having left it to until the last minute (a week before deadline) i didn't have much time to get the interviews i wanted. So when a friend suggested trying to get an interview with Sir Jimmy Savile and gave me a phone number to call at the Yorkshire Evening Post for a contact i panicked! After ten minutes of freaking out that i might have to interview a national treasure in the next week i rang the number (a big step for me, i used to be so scared of phones and strangers!!) and instantly hit a wall.

Bit i drove round the wall and tried a different tact, got the office number of a woman who had interviewed him several times. Sounds great right? The problem was she was on part-time because she was just coming off maternity leave. I managed to talk to her a few days later, she promised to ring him then and get back to me. Sadly never did, despite countless calls and emails, and suddenly the Jimmy Savile dream was over. Luckily my back-up choices were more available and i gave the piece in on time and on the most part happy with it.

What is the worst way to find out that Twitter is not private? Abuse your teacher to a friend then have him email you to inform you that you are in fact wrong later in the day? Correct! My God i was mortified! Thankfully he's a DJ with a very thick skin (apparently) and didn't take it to heart. Or so he says... we'll find out when i get my final mark back i guess!!

So it turns out that TV is a huge talking point for Twitter and therefore a great way to voice an opinion to a celebrity or journalist. This week everyone is talking about Coronation Street. I admit i used to watch it with my family and it got very hard to quit when i came to university so now i get back into it every holiday. So i know the characters and a few storylines well enough to watch the 50 year anniversary episode without being totally lost.

It was quite a spectacle wasn't it?! Living in Manchester i was naturally curious about how much i could see if i went down to the Street's set. They had big screens up blocking the view of most of the big incident but you could see the Metro train hanging off the bridge and that was enough to entice me into watching it when the day came to see four deaths on the Street.

So Monday comes and i switch on TV along with millions of others across the country. The actual explosion was done well, but we know that soaps are great at big explosions. What was new for Soapland was another disaster moments later and this came with the very stricken-looking Metro driver. He was extremely frightened wasn't he?? The head of the tram coming off the broken tracks and into Dev's i can understand and it looked spectacular.

Sadly i think that Corrie bosses pushed it ever so slightly too far when the back end of the tram then decided to lift itself off the tracks and land on top of The Kabin. It looked like a child's train set had been picked up by the five year old and plonked on top of the Street. But for a soap on a soap budget, as oppose to a Hollywood budget it wasn't terrible!

I am so happy to discover that watching a soap i have loved since i was 8 years old could get me noticed on Twitter and maybe one day even hired! From now on i watch anything that is getting a lot of attention... So come on Britain give TV a lot of attention this Christmas because then i have an excuse- sorry, reason- for slobbing out day and night!!

Graduation is looming and it is all i can think about! I keep thinking about what i will wear under the gown, will i have my hair up or will that ruin the position of the hat? And what if i only get a 2:2? Worst thing in the world? And what if don't graduate with my friends? What if i don't graduate at all? Most of me desperately pushes that thought to the back of my brain because it is terrifying but a little tiny part of me secretly hopes i fail just so i can put off the real world for another year!

I am new to Twitter so am yet to understand all the networking capabilities, the trends and the hash tags but i am trying. I had always sworn i would not sign up because it is legalised stalking but it is not JUST legalised stalking. It is also a huge network of potential contacts, a web of flies for me to feed on!

One day i will look back at the day i signed up to Twitter and thank God i did because i am certain it is more likely to get me a job than if i hadn't joined. I cannot emphasise enough how great it is. I almost prefer it to Facebook... give me a few months though!

Over and out!

Gemma