Not so easily swayed… till now

One of the good things about being a not-very-girly girl is that I am not so easily swayed by beautiful jewellery. I like quirky things, sometimes almost masculine in styling with clean lines and non fussy detailing. However, I have just come across this during dissertation research:

it’s the first piece of mainstream jewellery I’ve seen that I could actually wear. It’s beautiful, appealing to my slightly more girly side but it’s still amazingly practical. A whole GB of memory on me all the time?! Amazing. It would save my life quite a few times because I could just whack everything important on there and forget about it. No more stressing about memory sticks or worrying about invoices. If only I had £105 spare in the bank…. maybe in 5 years. Possibly.

Job Prospects

Hints have been dropped left right and centre. There’s the possibility of the KTP with Sloane, which would be researching environmental materials and (potentially but people keep telling me this ia bit optimistic) helping to change the face of retail. Wakeupmakeup dropped a hint today that they might like to employ me full time, or possibly part time because they also mentioned the part time job that I am going to go for anyway with Leicester comedy festival. There’s sparkly wonderful Bulb who are amazingly supportive and like me doing workshops and things, even though I don’t have many media skills about my person. Graff I can do, and I like to think I’m alright at the group teaching part of things because I do like working with kids. But what do I want to do?

It’s going to have to come to a decision soon because after June I can’t pay my rent any more and I’m going to have to come up with a lot of money pretty sharpish in order to afford a deposit and first month’s rent in a new place. Uncertainty reigns supreme.

In other news, got a photoshoot tomorrow as apparently I’m one of the 5 people who best represents our course. Rock on. Think it’s just because I was in the room at the time they got the email though.

Knew This Would Happen

So the phase of self loathing and mental torture that is typical around deadline time is continuing. It’s slightly rubbish. Everything was going well, I was suitably sleep deprived to the point where I was really on top of everything and getting used to the surreal feeling that comes with being awake for so long but then I went to Dan’s and everything fell apart. I slept. And slept. And ate a bit. And slept. So now I have all this random energy and it won’t focus on work. Which is rubbish because the dissertation deadline is next Friday. All I want to do is watch films and poledance, is that so much to ask?

Deadline week: Competition Project

Once again it’s been an extremely busy time as I have been working flat out for this competition project and the dissertation, and have been having meetings with Sloane. Unfortunately on the day of the big meeting, where I went to their factory and really wanted to make a massive impression, I got struck down with an annoying cold. I feel a lot better today with a lot more energy, but it’s not a good impression when I have to blow my nose every 5 minutes and leave a trail of tissues behind!

Their factory is actually amazing. Not sure how much I am allowed to talk about but it was fantastic, they think the same way that I do pointing out all the common sense errors and thinking of better ways to do things. Fantastic. It was so wonderful being there with them, and they dropped massive hints about the KTP so hopefully they’d like me to apply for it and this whole competition has given me a huge foot in the door.

On the other hand, working for Bulb has been a really fantastic experience and I would love to continue with them as long as possible. This is the tough decision, but it does sort of depend upon whether I work well in the KTP environment, and also whether I am suited to freelancing with Bulb. Who knows. It’s going to be a tough couple of months as I push through.

Do feel bad for not being back down south more often, and I feel I am neglecting that part of my life but it will be sorted after this month when my huge deadlines have gone. I just hope people at home can understand that, and remember what it was like.

In other news, family is doing really well. Which is a big relief.

Have almost conquered the pole dancing fear, am going to go the lesson tomorrow with a non scared attitude and just do it. I WILL conquer this!

Dan is starting to feel a bit neglected as well, but will have to remedy that this weekend by cooking stew and having barbeques and drinking Pimms like we always do. Have really enjoyed hanging out with different people though, it’s been wicked making new friends.

Right, must get the competition project finished tonight so can print off tomorrow and rest my mind about it, then can crack on with the dissertation and get it more or less drafted out. It’s all going well so far, mainly because I am working non stop. Had a bit of a lazier day today because it was drawing sketchbook work but it’ll be back to the hard graft soon enough!

Really looking forward to the party at the beginning of next month, and Freefest. Woooohooo! Excitement!

First Lines

First Lines is a very impressive De Montfort University project, pioneered by Kate Pullinger who is reader in Creative Writing and New Media at DMU. She has been commissioned to write the text for the scrolling LED screen at the Institute of Creative Technologies on campus, with the “briefest of briefs”: The screen must not contain any information. So she asked people to send in the first lines of books and poems that mean something to them. Pretty sweet.

My subs:
“I was standing on the bank of the Goltva waiting for the ferry-boat to come across from the other side.” – ‘the night before easter’ by Anton Chekov


“Somebody came from the Grigoriev’s to fetch a book, but I said you were not at home” – ‘At Home’ by Anton Chekov

Watch out for them on the screen. I am a sucker for Russian poets and writers, even if the complexity of their language and meaning is lost in translation sometimes.

Week 28

Very quick update as am working at the same time, but today is the day of the Sloane meeting, where they will discuss the reports that they have chosen to investigate further. This is my first chance to wow them and hopefully get a foot in the door on that research position. I really want to go for it, as everything else looks so uncertain. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but I can’t pass up the chance for a free masters degree!

Work is going well but slowly, it is going to be a flat out slog now until the deadline next week, but I feel really upbeat and ready today. Kept waking up in the night panicking about work, might just give up sleeping for a while until all this is over, then crash for about a week. Woohaaa.

My camera’s finally given up the ghost after endless nights out, countless trips to other countries and a physical attack in the street. It’s a bit rubbish because it has so much history and I can’t afford another one, but I;m just going to have to live off other people’s memory cards for now! It’s all good.

I am really nervous and excited in equal measures about the Sloane meeting, but the good thing is I feel really on the ball. It seems less sleep equals more in control which is a very good sign. Anyway, off to shade in metal boxes for the Big Project.