The title of the album is "What a time to be alive" - it's not catchy, witty or even original, but what it does do is encapsulate exactly what the noughties is about. Yes, we're overindulged, self-obsessed selfie takers with no hope of getting jobs but keen to splash upwards of 40 grand for a degree we may or may not use (or is that just me) but even cynics such as I have to admit, we are by far the most privileged generation to have lived.
Never has it been more acceptable to eat a whole jar of Nutella, before FaceTiming your girl best friend who has the opportunity to study in, let's say, Canada, for the same price with (virtually) the same opportunities as her fellow male counterparts. And that's exactly what our inadvertent feminist Drake has to say. Kind of. Being realistic, this album has a lot of songs which, quite frankly, won't make my shower playlist and I wouldn't stick this album on to impress my friends – It's more of a "Man I love Drake so I'll listen to it anyway" with a few corkers on it, Diamonds Dancing and Scholarships are two that stick out for me, but Drake fan to Drake fan (assuming that's who you are) I prefer his "solo" albums. If you aren't a Drake fan, I'm sad to say this album won't convert you. Go listen to Take Care. If you take anything from this co-produced album, with artist Future, if you didn't already know, "You danced all night girl, you deserve it" and that will justify your chips cravings or late evening BooHoo and PepperMayo purchases. You're welcome.
This is a blog written by a first year Journalism student. My name is Anna-Karin Sager and this is my offloading place for all things creative and reflective.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Update: Stuff, Being in third year, homesickness..
The resurrection of this blog will serve to achieve one goal: to not overload you with a boutade of posts about random selections of subjects that surface in my brain at unique opportunities.
So there are a few topics that spring to mind, having recently been on a trip home to my home city of Bath, there is one thing that has stuck with me from the beginning of my degree to this very day. My intrepid nature led me to on a whim apply for a university I had never even heard of and the one thing that made my palms sweat and heart race a little was just how far from home it was.
I am and always have been, a city person. Call me guileless, limpid or just plain stupid - I moved to a small town roughly an hour and a half from Plymouth, which is the closest "big" city to Falmouth. I know.
I'm not sure how I thought I would cope without shopping at my disposal, tall buildings and copious amounts of people ALL the time, but my intrinsic desire to be surrounded by city life got somewhat lost in my decision to move to Cornwall, of all places. but going home makes me see things in a whole new light. Walking the path I used to take every day to school fills me with a myriad of nostalgic sentiments that lead to a shameful realisation that I took it all for granted.
Sunday, 28 September 2014
News & Magazine (first thoughts)
Like opening a fresh page in a journal ready to be filled, the first day of new lessons/lectures/seminars always bring the same excitement and daunting feeling that I've had since primary school. To put it mildly, I am excited about learning online magazines and how they are assembled and produced.
Magazines are such a big part of my everyday life I can scarcely imagine my life without them, but for some reason, it never really hit home that magazines are businesses too, not just glossy pages glued together by features and lists.
So it came as quite a surprise to me that although there are many magazine producing companies, there is life beyond Conde Nast and Hearst. Business magazines I'd only ever considered as advertising, and it shocked me to find out just how popular they really are.
What is interesting to one person is boring to another, and perhaps that is the reason why there is a niche in the market for just about everything. There are so many magazines waiting to be created, and that is why this opportunity for us as students is so incredible.
Generally, the sort of writing that interests me most embed themselves in circles such as fashion, health and travel, but my first initial thoughts on the creating process is trying to find a market where there is a gap that is waiting to be filled. Who has yet to find a magazine perfectly tailored to their interests and needs? When I have figured this out, it will be far easier I think to hone down some ideas that can work positively not only for marketing but also personal fulfilment.
Magazines are such a big part of my everyday life I can scarcely imagine my life without them, but for some reason, it never really hit home that magazines are businesses too, not just glossy pages glued together by features and lists.
So it came as quite a surprise to me that although there are many magazine producing companies, there is life beyond Conde Nast and Hearst. Business magazines I'd only ever considered as advertising, and it shocked me to find out just how popular they really are.
What is interesting to one person is boring to another, and perhaps that is the reason why there is a niche in the market for just about everything. There are so many magazines waiting to be created, and that is why this opportunity for us as students is so incredible.
Generally, the sort of writing that interests me most embed themselves in circles such as fashion, health and travel, but my first initial thoughts on the creating process is trying to find a market where there is a gap that is waiting to be filled. Who has yet to find a magazine perfectly tailored to their interests and needs? When I have figured this out, it will be far easier I think to hone down some ideas that can work positively not only for marketing but also personal fulfilment.
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
HONY: How it makes you rethink all that you have been told by the Media
If there's something I loathe, it's Facebook. Meaningless updates about trivial things like "look at my new haircut" and a huge display of relationship dramas nestled in between advertising that could not have been targeted more incorrectly. But recently, I changed my mind.
I discovered Humans of New York almost a year ago, and probably only liked the page because it was appearing popular in my network and never paid it much attention after that, until I was extremely bored one day and clicked on the link, and I have to say I probably spent at least two hours reading every. single. post.
For context, Humans of New York, now more commonly known as HONY, was created in 2010 by a photographer Brandon Stanton. He set out with a goal in mind to "make an exhaustive catalogue of New York City's inhabitants."
Soon after, HONY evolved to become a piece of journalistic brilliance made up entirely of a single portrait photograph, and a caption with a quote from the subject. Ingenious.
Though an incredibly simple concept, this organisation has blown up so massive, it's gathered a good 8 million followers on social media, including Facebook and Tumblr, in fact, the more snobby bloggers out there might be surprised to find out that the official blog for documenting this is actually Tumblr itself.
What is it about this that is so great, I hear you ask. Well, honestly, I think you need to read it to really understand the beauty in this but I will break it down as easily as I can. This blog is about people. And only people. People in their simplest, or most complicated form. It gives complete strangers a voice, a personality, favourite colours, and annoying siblings I didn't know existed. But the most incredible part of this story only began to happen a few months ago.
What was Humans of New York, is now, HONY on UN tour. For 50 days, Brandon will travel 10 countries across the globe and do what he does best. Photograph, and talk to the people there. So far his journey has consisted of Iraq, Jordan, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ukraine, India and Vietnam. The final country hasn't been released yet.
The globalisation of this blog is not only clever, but it is incredibly brave. For a young American, he's making some serious risks by visiting war torn countries or worse still, places of past hatred for Americans and the western world alike. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see posts from Vietnam appear, not only because I grew up there for a little while, but mostly because at least a few Americans have a distorted view on Vietnam. I find it fascinating that Brandon, an American, can sit down and talk to old men and listen to their stories from their side of the conflict, which happened on their soil, ruined their buildings and crushed their homes. Iraq, also, a place we are bombarded with propaganda about how dreadful it all is and the people are there, it's mind boggling being faced with a photograph of an elderly couple from Iraq captioned, "We just want to be together and not be afraid." HONY as humanised conflict, and as such, given a flip side to the mainstream media's accounts.
One of my favourite examples is a portrait of a man, and the caption: "After they beat me, I heard shots. And I walked to the shop next door, and found my neighbour dead on the floor. He was one of the nicest men in the town. Every day he would put out food for the cats. I would tell him: ‘You must stop feeding the cats, they are overrunning my shop.’ But he would never stop feeding them. He would tell me: ‘I have to feed them. Or they will die.’"
(Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan)"
So here are a few links, I urge you to check it out and remember, we are all people. We all break bones and have lost loves and friends we like to share pepsi with. Regardless of where we are from.
http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork?fref=ts
and here is his twitter, too:
https://twitter.com/humansofny
I discovered Humans of New York almost a year ago, and probably only liked the page because it was appearing popular in my network and never paid it much attention after that, until I was extremely bored one day and clicked on the link, and I have to say I probably spent at least two hours reading every. single. post.
For context, Humans of New York, now more commonly known as HONY, was created in 2010 by a photographer Brandon Stanton. He set out with a goal in mind to "make an exhaustive catalogue of New York City's inhabitants."
Soon after, HONY evolved to become a piece of journalistic brilliance made up entirely of a single portrait photograph, and a caption with a quote from the subject. Ingenious.
Though an incredibly simple concept, this organisation has blown up so massive, it's gathered a good 8 million followers on social media, including Facebook and Tumblr, in fact, the more snobby bloggers out there might be surprised to find out that the official blog for documenting this is actually Tumblr itself.
What is it about this that is so great, I hear you ask. Well, honestly, I think you need to read it to really understand the beauty in this but I will break it down as easily as I can. This blog is about people. And only people. People in their simplest, or most complicated form. It gives complete strangers a voice, a personality, favourite colours, and annoying siblings I didn't know existed. But the most incredible part of this story only began to happen a few months ago.
What was Humans of New York, is now, HONY on UN tour. For 50 days, Brandon will travel 10 countries across the globe and do what he does best. Photograph, and talk to the people there. So far his journey has consisted of Iraq, Jordan, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ukraine, India and Vietnam. The final country hasn't been released yet.
The globalisation of this blog is not only clever, but it is incredibly brave. For a young American, he's making some serious risks by visiting war torn countries or worse still, places of past hatred for Americans and the western world alike. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see posts from Vietnam appear, not only because I grew up there for a little while, but mostly because at least a few Americans have a distorted view on Vietnam. I find it fascinating that Brandon, an American, can sit down and talk to old men and listen to their stories from their side of the conflict, which happened on their soil, ruined their buildings and crushed their homes. Iraq, also, a place we are bombarded with propaganda about how dreadful it all is and the people are there, it's mind boggling being faced with a photograph of an elderly couple from Iraq captioned, "We just want to be together and not be afraid." HONY as humanised conflict, and as such, given a flip side to the mainstream media's accounts.
One of my favourite examples is a portrait of a man, and the caption: "After they beat me, I heard shots. And I walked to the shop next door, and found my neighbour dead on the floor. He was one of the nicest men in the town. Every day he would put out food for the cats. I would tell him: ‘You must stop feeding the cats, they are overrunning my shop.’ But he would never stop feeding them. He would tell me: ‘I have to feed them. Or they will die.’"
(Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan)"
So here are a few links, I urge you to check it out and remember, we are all people. We all break bones and have lost loves and friends we like to share pepsi with. Regardless of where we are from.
http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork?fref=ts
and here is his twitter, too:
https://twitter.com/humansofny
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
So I was reminded today of something that I think about a lot, but in the last few months slowly started to forget. And what is that thing? Dailybooth.
For those of you who don't know, Dailybooth was the blog that got me into blogging, even though I'm not sure it counted as a blog. I'd describe it as a twitter with pictures, but it was so so so much more than that.
Dailybooth was a community. I was in the lucky few that managed to gather a few thousand followers during the years that I had my blog with them, and I have never felt so a part of things as I did when I "boothed".
Because, on the surface, all I did was a take a selfie and write a few pages ranting about my day or things that were on my mind or things I'd been doing or pretty much anything, but that is what made Dailybooth special to me. For me, Dailybooth gave me the opportunity to write a diary online that I could share with other people and they could feedback to me as they wished. Of course, I didn't interact with every one of my followers, but the vast majority of them I conversed with regularly. To this day in fact, two of my absolute best friends come from Dailybooth, and no, I've never met them, but without them, I've no idea where I'd be.
Dailybooth offered me a space away from my usual life and friends, somewhere to feel at home and somewhere to be appreciated. I make no secret of that all of my self esteem and self confidence was largely supplied by my lovely followers that made it their duty to keep up with me and tell me to keep writing because they loved my posts and my honesty.
In fact, I even met my boyfriend on Dailybooth. After a year of speaking we finally decided to meet and that was almost two years ago. My life as it is now would not be the same in any respect had it not been for that one website that I dedicated so many hours to updating.
For those of you who don't know, Dailybooth was the blog that got me into blogging, even though I'm not sure it counted as a blog. I'd describe it as a twitter with pictures, but it was so so so much more than that.
Dailybooth was a community. I was in the lucky few that managed to gather a few thousand followers during the years that I had my blog with them, and I have never felt so a part of things as I did when I "boothed".
Because, on the surface, all I did was a take a selfie and write a few pages ranting about my day or things that were on my mind or things I'd been doing or pretty much anything, but that is what made Dailybooth special to me. For me, Dailybooth gave me the opportunity to write a diary online that I could share with other people and they could feedback to me as they wished. Of course, I didn't interact with every one of my followers, but the vast majority of them I conversed with regularly. To this day in fact, two of my absolute best friends come from Dailybooth, and no, I've never met them, but without them, I've no idea where I'd be.
Dailybooth offered me a space away from my usual life and friends, somewhere to feel at home and somewhere to be appreciated. I make no secret of that all of my self esteem and self confidence was largely supplied by my lovely followers that made it their duty to keep up with me and tell me to keep writing because they loved my posts and my honesty.
In fact, I even met my boyfriend on Dailybooth. After a year of speaking we finally decided to meet and that was almost two years ago. My life as it is now would not be the same in any respect had it not been for that one website that I dedicated so many hours to updating.
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
How school uniforms enhance rape culture - an overview
So, there are definitely upsides to having a uniform. This is universally recognised, and believe me, I see these upsides but personally, they just don't cancel out the detrimental side. I attended a very conservative school, where it was a bigger sin to wear socks that weren't black or white than to not attend lessons, where we were banned from wearing ankle boots despite the school being located on top of a hill which was deadly when icy, and finally, where we, the girls of the school, were told showing shoulders, legs or worse was "distracting to male staff". So is this the fault of the students? Definitely not. The fault is definitely with your archaic attitudes and your over-sexualisation of normal body parts.
I think it's important to say that I haven't attended said school for over a year now. Things have undoubtedly changed, however, that doesn't mean the past should be forgotten. The reinforcement of the uniform was ,to put it mildly, vigorous. It was a regular occurence for our lessons to be interrupted for random uniform checks, where boys were virtually ignored and girls taken outside the classroom to stand in a line and teachers, male and female, would walk up the line pointing out things that were right or wrong, and if wrong, you were taken to one side and told to remove said article of clothing/make up/piercing etc.
"You aren't going to a nightclub, you're going to school." which is fair enough, were any of us dressed appropriately for a night out, however a pleated skirt and pump shoes are hardly the hottest trend for such places, and if they were, they probably wouldn't be worn all in navy blue. Besides the point, however, in a bid to get girls to stop wearing make up to school, my school actually removed all the mirrors from the girls changing rooms and toilets. To prohibit girls wearing skirts "too short" they changed them THREE times in my school career of seven years. More than once, I was threatened to be sent home if I had bare shoulders or no tights with a skirt. Fundamentally, their reasoning? Because "it harms the school's reputation, and your own." So I ask you, dear reader, why does it harm the school's reputation, if a body part of mine that have existed in our biological existence for millions of years? And more importantly, why does it damage mine? Because society says so. Who is society? Us. Who teaches society their values? Parents and teachers.
So we come to yet another problem. If girls are constantly being told they aren't good enough, by the opposite sex, their own sex, peers, the media, and what's more, by their teachers, how can we expect girls to feel about themselves? Not only is it simply impractical to wear black tights in 26 degree heat, but also entirely unnecessary. If girls were made to feel comfortable with their own bodies, without the fear that someone might god forbid find them unnattractive or unpleasant to look at, or on the contrary, sexually appealing when they are simply warm, a lot of time would have been saved that could be used to teach a valuable lesson of self-worth. There are some lessons that aren't meant to be on a timetable. And self worth is one of them.
But it is not the girls hearing this that are the greatest problem. The bigger problem, is that the boys who hear this adopt this mindset, and the idea that if a girl is showing her skin or "dressing inappropriately", that it is her fault and therefore he may treat her as he may wish. It implies that it is the girls responsibility that men do not look at her or treat her in a sexual manner.
With that said, something needs to be made abundantly clear: It is not trashy to bare your arms. It is not unnaceptable that people know you have legs and see them. It is not embarrassing for the school you attend if you admit and show the world that you have shoulders, and there is nothing wrong with them being there. It is wrong to teach girls and boys that their bodies are to be hidden away, that they are in some way shameful, that showing your body ill lead to you being taken advantage of in some way. If my body makes your male staff uncomfortable, it is not the fault of my body for being here, but rather the morals of your male staff if they can't look at a 16 year old they are supposed to be teaching and choose to see legs or shoulders or arms for what they actually are. Body parts.
I think it's important to say that I haven't attended said school for over a year now. Things have undoubtedly changed, however, that doesn't mean the past should be forgotten. The reinforcement of the uniform was ,to put it mildly, vigorous. It was a regular occurence for our lessons to be interrupted for random uniform checks, where boys were virtually ignored and girls taken outside the classroom to stand in a line and teachers, male and female, would walk up the line pointing out things that were right or wrong, and if wrong, you were taken to one side and told to remove said article of clothing/make up/piercing etc.
"You aren't going to a nightclub, you're going to school." which is fair enough, were any of us dressed appropriately for a night out, however a pleated skirt and pump shoes are hardly the hottest trend for such places, and if they were, they probably wouldn't be worn all in navy blue. Besides the point, however, in a bid to get girls to stop wearing make up to school, my school actually removed all the mirrors from the girls changing rooms and toilets. To prohibit girls wearing skirts "too short" they changed them THREE times in my school career of seven years. More than once, I was threatened to be sent home if I had bare shoulders or no tights with a skirt. Fundamentally, their reasoning? Because "it harms the school's reputation, and your own." So I ask you, dear reader, why does it harm the school's reputation, if a body part of mine that have existed in our biological existence for millions of years? And more importantly, why does it damage mine? Because society says so. Who is society? Us. Who teaches society their values? Parents and teachers.
So we come to yet another problem. If girls are constantly being told they aren't good enough, by the opposite sex, their own sex, peers, the media, and what's more, by their teachers, how can we expect girls to feel about themselves? Not only is it simply impractical to wear black tights in 26 degree heat, but also entirely unnecessary. If girls were made to feel comfortable with their own bodies, without the fear that someone might god forbid find them unnattractive or unpleasant to look at, or on the contrary, sexually appealing when they are simply warm, a lot of time would have been saved that could be used to teach a valuable lesson of self-worth. There are some lessons that aren't meant to be on a timetable. And self worth is one of them.
But it is not the girls hearing this that are the greatest problem. The bigger problem, is that the boys who hear this adopt this mindset, and the idea that if a girl is showing her skin or "dressing inappropriately", that it is her fault and therefore he may treat her as he may wish. It implies that it is the girls responsibility that men do not look at her or treat her in a sexual manner.
With that said, something needs to be made abundantly clear: It is not trashy to bare your arms. It is not unnaceptable that people know you have legs and see them. It is not embarrassing for the school you attend if you admit and show the world that you have shoulders, and there is nothing wrong with them being there. It is wrong to teach girls and boys that their bodies are to be hidden away, that they are in some way shameful, that showing your body ill lead to you being taken advantage of in some way. If my body makes your male staff uncomfortable, it is not the fault of my body for being here, but rather the morals of your male staff if they can't look at a 16 year old they are supposed to be teaching and choose to see legs or shoulders or arms for what they actually are. Body parts.
Friday, 20 June 2014
Some weird little phobias of mine
Okay, so arguably everyone has a "phobia", be it spiders, chewing gum or sharks, everyone has something that they can admit makes them a little bit scared. Here are some thing that really really freak me out:
1. Tall grass.
So I realise this is a little strange, but I spent my summers as a child in the archipelligo of Sweden. And up until a few years ago, there were less than 20 people on my entire road, and we're surrounded by woodland. Tall grass = tics, mosquitoes or worst of all, snakes.
2. As previously mentioned, I have a bit of a food phobia. I have been known to research menus in advance just to make sure there will definitely be something I like at a restaurant and yes, I am the irritating person who asks for with or without this or that. But one of the main ones is smelly food. If it smells, get it away from me, otherwise I will go into major panic and start wretching. That is not a joke. Note: Cheese and cucumber are two major ones in this. I have got better as I've got older, however.
3. Stemming on from this, mould. Especially mould on food. Do not let me see this. I can't even bring myself to Google a picture of it, I hate it that much.
1. Tall grass.
So I realise this is a little strange, but I spent my summers as a child in the archipelligo of Sweden. And up until a few years ago, there were less than 20 people on my entire road, and we're surrounded by woodland. Tall grass = tics, mosquitoes or worst of all, snakes.
2. As previously mentioned, I have a bit of a food phobia. I have been known to research menus in advance just to make sure there will definitely be something I like at a restaurant and yes, I am the irritating person who asks for with or without this or that. But one of the main ones is smelly food. If it smells, get it away from me, otherwise I will go into major panic and start wretching. That is not a joke. Note: Cheese and cucumber are two major ones in this. I have got better as I've got older, however.
3. Stemming on from this, mould. Especially mould on food. Do not let me see this. I can't even bring myself to Google a picture of it, I hate it that much.
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