Lookbook

So today I was reminded of an old hobby I used to have. Now that I am officially training to be a journalist, I think it's just as well I share this on my blog.

 

I started Lookbook sometime in 2009. This was when I wanted to pursue a career in fashion journalism, and I thought starting a blog would get me out there. Some followers later, and I've slipped out of the habit. This is something I want to pick up again, now that deadlines are out of the way and I have time again, I really want to restart my passion for blogging before I had to do it for my degree.

Here is a video made by a Norwegian animator a couple of years ago now, named Lasse. I rediscovered this after watching it with my dad, and it just reminded me how much I liked it and I thought it would be a good idea to share it.

We hear so much about how romance has entirely disappeared, chivalry is dead etc,  but this is such an accurate reflection of how even though times will change, we're basically still the same, definitely still learning, and also that we can learn so much from those older than us.  Also that I think Norwegians sound adorable.

University implements “blanket fort” to combat exam and deadline stress

FXU, Student Union for Falmouth and Exeter University, have built a blanket fort to help students who are stressed the during exam and deadline month of May.

The fort was built on the 5th May in the main foyer of the library building on Penryn Campus. Approximately 3 metres by 3 metres in size, the fort contains mattresses, pillows and blankets.

 The fort provides students with a place to nap, take time out from study or just a place to get some quiet away from the library.

Inside the fort, a “Do not panic” guide has been issued for students who need help preparing for exams as well as do’s and don’ts in the exam season. Students also have the opportunity to collect a snack pack containing refreshments.

20 year old student, Jed Bullock, said: “We’re very fortunate. Working in a relaxed environment is easier to revise in.”

The main focus of the FXU this year has been targeting mental health issues in a bid to minimise stress and help students who suffer from mental illnesses. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1-in-4 people between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental illness, the most common being depression and anxiety.

Meet the blogger

Recently saw a post going a little viral in the blogging world, and if you aren't a friend or aquaintance of mine you must be fairly confused when I reference things, so I have decided I will do a meet the blogger. Feel free to entirely ignore if you are uninterested in the ramblings about myself.

To start with the glaringly obvious, my name is Anna-Karin. I was not named after Anna Karenina. Karenin (a) is her surname.
I am 19 years old, and I study Journalism at Falmouth University.
I like to read books and play Sims 3. I prefer to build houses than play with actual families.
I love Lego and Harry Potter.
 I am left handed.
 I am the only person in my whole family that I know of to have green eyes, accidental mutation of my parents genes - sorry mum and dad.
 I speak Swedish, German, Danish, Norwegian and I somehow secured a B at GCSE French.
 If I hadn't gone into Journalism I probably would have done languages instead, it's probably my greatest strength.
I like foreign film and love putting the subtitles on.
I prefer ice cream to sweets.
I am allergic to mosquito bites.
I can hula hoop for over an hour.

I do yoga every day for at least half an hour in the morning and sometimes evenings too.
I know all the words to over 10 movies.
I listen to everything from Beatles' B sides to Drake. I like everything and nothing when it comes to music.
I have never eaten unmelted cheese or eggs.
I have been known to not wear any shoes all summer.
It really upsets me when people misuse their there and your and you're.
I was nicknamed "gangbang girl" at school because in PSHE some kids in my class read that Swedish people have the most threesomes in the world.
I have a real obsession with cats. My cat is called Prof. Meowington. (Legit. That is her name. No hate.)
I am a tumblr addict - http://trueatfirstlight.tumblr.com/

So now you know a bit more about me.

Things I wish they told me about University before I got there

I saw some student ambassadors showing around some potential students today and I was thinking to myself what I would want to know as a potential student for the upcoming year. So I have compiled a little list for anybody who hasn't been to Uni yet and is wondering what it's like, or, for those who have been who may agree or disagree as you please.

1. Despite paying 9,000 a year, you will never be quite sure where that money is going. Especially when you want to study, and the IT suite is full, the library is full, the coffee shop is full, the canteen is full and you're wondering why on earth you pay so much to eat your lunch on some stairs by an ant's nest.

2. Uni can be a very lonely place at times. When you ask some people how uni is going, they will gush about it until the world ends and how awesome their new friends are and the weird new experiences they've had. But I think I'm right in saying that the vast majority of people at one time or another has felt alone or secluded for whatever reason. It's important to make good new friends.

3. You will meet some absolutely ridiculous people. From people who can't tell you enough about their crazy weekend to people who are simply too good to associate themselves with you aside from their drug taking, there is every kind of person at Uni. But if you want some advice, if all someone can tell you about is how high they got last night and how much they like alternative bands, unless you're also into that kind of thing just let them ramble and pay no attention.

4. Following on from that point, before I came to Uni I had never really been exposed to drug culture. I grew up in a small town on the edge of a big city, and STILL I never really came into contact with drugs. But it seems at Uni, that's what everyone is up to - and it will always smell pretty funky around campus. Don't be afraid to say no, either. It gives you a bit of an edge - weirdly.

5. Some people have too much money, and others have none. I have no idea how Student Finance work out who gets what, but I will tell you the system is so flawed in my opinion it may as well not exist. When you are having your third bowl of plain pasta that week (and it's only Wednesday) try not to feel bitter when someone tells you about how they've just done an ASOS shop and they're getting Dominos. Again.

6. If you've just left school, leave the "teachers don't have favourite students" mentality behind. It will be glaringly obvious that lecturers definitely do have favourites in some cases. And try not to be annoyed if that person isn't you.

7.You don't appreciate normal every day things until you come to Uni. For instance, my accomodation only has plug-in internet. TV lisences will magically be the bane of your life. Nobody is there to do your washing up for you. You can't remember the last time you weren't hungry. Your bed feels like it's made of nails, and you've got a bad back again. It's all part of the experience.

8. Don't expect to do well without putting the effort in. If you don't turn up to lectures, miss deadlines, prefer to rock up late or not at all - don't be surprised when your lecturer gets offended and gives you a bad grade.

9. If you genuinely believe that "first year doesn't count" you're fairly delusional. Anybody who says this is a.) lazy or b.) naive. Or both. If you want your lecturers to think you're lazy and incapable, go ahead and waste time and money. Worth baring in mind that the lecturers you have in first year are more often than not the lecturers you have in second year - it's probably worth showing them the best you can do rather than the best you can do hungover and twenty minutes before the deadline.

10. This one only applies to Falmouth University, but you will miss your car, your parents car, ANY car... everything in Falmouth is on a hill. With steps. Steep steps. And when it's raining (which it quite often is) you will probably feel a little like Jordanna Bevan in Submarine:

What Journalism do I want to go into?

In short - I have no idea. I don't even know whether I'll end up a journalist after my degree. Not for a lack of want, but you don't know where you might end up, and I like to just kind of jump into things and hope I end up somewhere good. I have wanted to be a fashion journalist as long as I can remember, but in reality, it's a very competitive industry with no room for self doubt. Which isn't much of a problem, I'm fairly confident in my abilities as a student, I work hard and I aim to deliver the best that I can offer. But is it what I really want?

Which is when I came across this documentary. I love Swedish House Mafia. It saddens me greatly that I never got to experience sensation white just because I was under 18 before they disbanded. But this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do. Documentaries, though I have no experience with them whatsoever, interest me massively. I love watching documentaries, and doing a documentary on something you're really interested in, like your favourite musicians, models, inspirational people, controversial topics, isn't that the dream?

Feature Writing

I have been an avid reader of Vogue since I was fourteen. I've collected them since I turned 14, when my aunty subscribed me, and I have not yet stopped that subscription. My room is home to a stack of just over four years worth of Vogue magazines, as well as a couple collectors versions from the early 90s that I found in our loft that my mum had read and hidden away. And if there's one thing Vogue is full of (apart from advertising) it's features.

 

And so I was absolutely thrilled to find out we'd be doing feature writing this term. FINALLY a chance to express some creativity. Confined to the chains of news writing for the first term (Yes, I think of it in such brutal measures) I was so happy to finally be let off the reigns and extend my interests a little bit.

And that is what feature writing is to me. The interviewing process is so much more relaxed, it's a conversation that I have to pay close attention to. I am proud of the work I've produced this term, especially feature writing, I put 100 % into getting the perfect angle on my profile piece and really getting all I could out of the interview.

All I can say is, it's definitely more my thing than news writing was.

Sub-Editing: the ins and outs of why compliments are not complements, but are they complimentary?

 This term has focused on two things in my Writing For The Media module: feature writing, and Sub-Editing.
When we first started sub-editing, I was like:

   
 aaaaaaaand then I learnt that basically everything I had been taught throughout my entire school career was basically bogus and entirely incorrect and there was in fact a whole other way that journalists use grammar in their writing. So then I was like:

And then it continued, and despite getting the hang of it quite quickly, I was forced to take a step back, listen properly, and then admit to myself:

Vikings review

Another review, and I wasn't going to do another, but I simply HAVE to share this series with you. Whether you know anything about the Vikings or not, this is the most historically accurate and amazing television series I have seen since The Tudors. And yes, I loved that too.

So, the Vikings is a series written by Michael Hirst, a Canadian. Despite being filmed in Canada, I can confirm that they have done extremely well making the set and generally Scandinavian landscape look realistic. The only slip up I saw was the colour of the sea, the Baltic tends to be a little darker than the North sea but if you don't know, you wouldn't notice.

The Vikings, as you probably guessed, is about Vikings. It follows Ragnar Lothbrok on his journey to England for the first time, and a story unfolds as the clans begin to separate and fight amongst themselves back home in Scandinavia. The King of Wessex too is less than pleased about Ragnar's arrival, and even less pleased about Ragnar's love of pillaging villagers and destroying land. But it is so much more than just a few family feuds and battles.

The best thing about this series, as mentioned earlier, is the accuracy. I am so fed up of wishy washy rubbish television series becoming fads that people cling to as a conversation starter, and believe me I was reluctant to start watching this. But the actors do an amazing job of pulling off real Viking tradition, behaviour and even manner. As far as I am aware, only a very small portion of the actors are native Scandinavians, (not to name drop but Gustaf Skarsgård is in it) but they all pull it off SO well. The accents are impeccable, I was expecting something nearer to the guy in Woody Woodpecker who says "Sveedish Meatballs" all the time but I was pleasantly surprised.

This is gory, it's ruthless, and sometimes quite disgusting. But it has to be. The Vikings weren't fairies and they didn't hang about, and this depicts their lifestyle and journey to England exactly as it would have been. I was so impressed by this I have gushed about it to every friend that will listen to me, and now, dear followers, I will gush about it to you. WATCH IT.

The inner feminist in me absolutely loves how kick-ass the women in this are as well. They don't beat about the bush, and they don't attempt to combat the Swedes-love-sex myth, they embrace it. In fact, there's a comical bit where a young English duchess is commenting on how the Norseman love their sex and "treat their women right", which I found to be very amusing.

Some Tumblr stuff that was useful and funny

I'm a proud internet addict. My main addiction is Tumblr, because I am not a typical whiny teenager of the '00s (note the sarcasm). But actually, I would just like to defend Tumblr for a minute, because despite the lack of punctuation, obsession with kittens and NSFW content, I have learnt so much from it. So when I came across this post, I had to share it. (http://ggeowizard.tumblr.com/post/75631561967 in case the link is broken)

Not only is this incredibly powerful, but it's so simple that it reminds you that we take the Google search engine for granted. Not only has this been a massive part of what I've been learning this term in terms of sub-editing (using keywords in headlines, etc) but what the search engine provides is a brief look into what people are searching for and the fact that there are answers to some of those questions/statements astounds me. But then again, it is the internet. 

To end on a lighter note, I also found this yesterday:

A bit of a satirical view on the rubbish headline and news today. I hope if I ever end up with a job describing whether I can see Rihanna's nipples or not I will write a headline as hilarious as these.