Travel plans

Well I leave tomorrow evening. Flying first to Sydney and from there to Amsterdam. I think I'm going to be able to see the countryside of the Netherlands also. A surprising tack on - that I only found out about a few days ago, is that we're also going to California for four days before heading home. Well, I'll try and write another blog entry when I get to Amsterdam. See you then. :)

Travel plans and uni.

This semester I'm doing a journalism subject. One of my assignments is to do a story on my local area. My local library recently introduced an online book group. I thought this may be good to explore a little further. Yesterday I interviewed one of the librarians who is the moderator for the group. I'm also trying to set up and interview with staff at the council to find out what sort of other Internet groups there may be in the area. Through searching I found a project that provides the Internet for a disadvantaged community through a housing estate. I thought I could maybe juxtapose the story with what I've been learning in my sociology subject. We have been looking at issues of identity and community online. Also, I'm hoping the story will be able to promote the online book group in the library as well.
Well I leave for Holland, Amsterdam on Tuesday. We will be in Amsterdam for nine days and I found out just last night that there are four days in California as well! I haven't been to either of these countries before so I'm looking forward to it. I'm planning on writing my article whilst I'm away. The deadline for the story is the Wednesday 12 October, and I return only on the Tuesday! I'm going to try and get a week's extension.
I'm on mid-semester break at the moment. I thought it would be really quiet. Catch up on reading for uni and the fiction I've been wanting to read for myself. Organise my assignments for the rest of semester. Do some excercise - this usually falls by the wayside during semester! It was going to be time to chill out. Of course I still have to go to work, but because this is part-time I don't mind going. It breaks up the week. Now I've got some travel to look forward to as well. :)

Well, I've had an interesting week........

It is amazing what can happen in the space of a few days. On Tuesday morning, I was asked if I would like to do a radio show on my University radio. This came about when I was telling another fellow student about the Book/film discussion group I was organising. Well, it turned out he is really involved with the campus student radio. So for the rest of that day and night, my mind was going a million miles an hour, thinking about how it would work, how would we present the content etc. I called another friend who is really into books to ask her if she would be interested in doing this with me. There are three microphones in the studio, so our thoughts were to perhaps present together and then try and get a guest in each time and we can all sit there and talk about books!
The next day, my husband, who is in Brisbane this week for work, rang me. Over the phone he told me that work was sending him to Holland week after next for two weeks. So, the question was: what was my schedule like? Luckily, mid-semester break begins next week, so I worked out that if I went, I would be there for the last week of break and then I would miss one week of uni. Now I just have to organise time off from work. But it's all looking as though, Holland here I come! If you had told me on Monday, that by Thursday I could potentially be participating in a radio show and then be flying off to Holland in a week's time, I would never have believed you.

Identity, Community and Blogs.

I've got three essays due this week. For the past two weekends, that's all I've been doing. Essays. It's now approaching mid-semester break, and believe me, I really need a break. I haven't even found the time to post! One of my essays is worth 50% of my mark! If I don't do well in it, then the other 50% is from an exam. And I'm dreadful at exams!!!
I'm doing a minor in Sociology. One of my subjects is called eSociety. The assignment is to find an electronic resource of some sort and apply sociological theory to it. We could choose a website, a MUD, an online forum, a chat site, anything we wished. Guess what I chose? Now I'm going to horrify some of you. I had to choose someone's blog to evaluate sociologically. The concepts I chose to examine were identity and community. I think I chose this person's blog wisely, because quite frankly there was a lot of golden evidence within to support my examined theories. Have you, as a blogger, ever thought about the identity you portray on your blog? How different is it to you in real life? Are only positive aspects about yourself emphasised? The community part was really interesting. Do you consider yourself part of an online community just by participating on Blogexplosion? Well, the essay's due on Thursday. Cross fingers I'll do ok. I feel very cheeky writing and saying I've chosen someone's blog for my essay, but really I couldn't resist.

I forgot my name!!!!!!

I have had my first piece of fiction published. It's a short story and I submitted it into my University Magazine. Yesterday I saw the latest publication, and eagerly opened up to the contents page. There I saw the title of my short story and with a sense or pride I flicked to the relevant page. Then, to my horror, I read the words: unfortuantely there was no name submitted with this piece. Next time please remember to submit work with your name. I had emailed my story, and stupidly (and naively I might add), I assumed that my name on my email would be attributed to the story. Obviously the Magazine must get hundreds of items sent to them, and obviously they print them out and there they sit awaiting publication. I had to go away and drown my sorrows in a mocha latte.