Plane Stupid?

So, ex-Sussex students are still up to the activist tricks.

Dan Glass, who was president of the Students' Union when I was editing the student newspaper, has hit the headlines after his protest at Number 10. Sticking yourself to a Prime Minister as unappealing as Gordon Brown is a sign of a pretty dedicated person.

But Sussex was a university rife with people campaigning about all sorts of things, from occupying the library to protest the commodification of education, to getting Coca-Cola banned on campus. There were always people handing out leaflets or shouting about something.

Even I was once the subject of a leaflet, arguing about how the student newspaper was being run. (It was quite exciting being the subject of a leaflet and my favourite part was when I got referred to as a Bliar - as in I was a Blairite and a liar.)

I'm really glad that people are still protesting - even though it got a bit much at times, there was always something going on. And compared to other universities which seem to have got a bit apathetic, at least people at Sussex were always passionate.

Well done Dan!

Summer plans: a review

So, its a month since I last wrote, give or take and last time I posted I was full of vim and vigour about what I would achieve.

And, in a rather unsurprising turn of events, I am wholly not on schedule with my dissertation!

However, I have done freelance work in Northern Spain with NATO. Here's Alyson Grant's blog of our time away - she's a journalist for the Montreal Gazette ans she talks about the value of the Simpress (which is the fake media group I was working for). I met her on the Castilla, but I also was on the Toronto my first night. As anyone who knows me will realise, this was a big deal for me. I spent a year living in Toronto and am now obsessed with Canada. To spend my first night away partying with the Canadian navy was like a dream come true!

I've also done some freelance work at Southern FM. I've already done some work experience with them, and now I'm qualified they invited me back to cover a holiday for a couple of days. I got to go out and speak with council workers striking over pay, which was really interesting.

And I've also (fingers crossed) landed a bit of job starting in August, which is probably the kick start I need to complete the dissertation. Fortunately I'm doing it about women on the web, so if you catch me looking in Facebook or reading blogs, just remember: it's all in the name of research!

Why am I obsessed with Gray's Anatomy?

It's trashy, sentimental, melodramatic slush. But I have to confess that I love Gray's Anatomy.

The show, now in its fourth series, centres around trainee surgeon Meredith Gray (whose whining self-reflections dominate every episode and drive me mad) and her fellow interns. Seattle Grace Hospital is full of the pretty people you would expect from a prime time American television programme and the gory injuries and tragic illnesses serve mainly as a metaphor for how the regular cast are feeling that particular week.

They run around having affairs with one another, people die in exceptional circumstances and all the while I can be found with tears streaming down my face as the tacky dialogue manipulates my emotions.

It's not just me that feels this way either. Alison Graham in the Radio Times writes:

"No-one believes their lives will turn out kind of just OK," simpers the tedious Meredith Gray as this mighty sickbag of a drama rumbles on. And I love it, heaven help me, even though it's a treacle machine. Yet it's all done so brilliantly that it's impossible to resist.

And despite the fact that it is complete and utter drivel, I have watched every episode with zeal. I love the extreme ailments that people come to the hospital with - men encased in concrete, two people impaled on the same pole, a patient with a bomb inside his body; what more could you ask for?

And this isn't the only show that lends itself to binging on an entire box set. The USA does TV drama really well - 24, Lost, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, House, CSI. The list just goes on and on. And the UK just doesn't compete. The last British box set I bought was This Life, and that's a decade old.

Dissertation Plans

In the spirit of productivity that has permeated this blog over the last few posts I thought I would write about my dissertation plans.

I've finally settled on a topic (so don't all rubbish it at once - I don't know if I can stomach thinking up another idea) and I think its got enough substance to warrant the 15000 words.

Basically I want to analyse the women and the Internet in terms of "space". Does it grant women a space? What kinds of people get to have a voice on the Internet? Who controls how, when and where women use the Internet? How do women present themselves online?

I think the Internet is great for providing a forum for people to communicate with one another and for providing the tools to get previously silent voices heard. But its not a neutral space and like the real, tangible world, gender roles have a big part to play in how the web is run and used.

I'm at the point that I love in big projects like this; standing on the precipice, with a great vantage point, teetering over the edge before you fall into the reality of the hard work and misery that is doing a dissertation. I want to crack on before the novelty wears off, I crack and it starts to become hard work.

I give myself two days.

More Lists!

Things that are making moving back to Maidenhead more bearable:

1. Discovering episodes of Grey's Anatomy Series 4 that I haven't watched.

2. Rediscovering Regina Spektor who is awesome.

3. Delicious food that Mum has bought from Waitrose (who I seem to plug a lot on this blog), especially Burt's potato chips.

4. The new dress and sunglasses that Mum bought me from Primark today.

5. Facebook chat: keeping me in touch with the outside world.

6. The fact that in about 5 minutes Balls of Fury will be finished and I will have managed to watch the whole thing, despite it being one of the worst movies ever made.

7. The nice gym up the road is doing a special cheap summer membership for students (whether I actually go remains to be seen).

8. My aunt is making me a special dinner on Thursday night - unlike my Mum and I, she's a fabulous cook.

9. On Sunday I'm going to Spain with some people from the University of Westminster to do some media training (OK technically being in Spain doesn't do anything to improve being in Maidenhead, but at least I'm not at home for a couple of weeks).

And that's all I can think of. You didn't seriously think I would make it to 10 did you?

Summer plans and more resolutions

It would seem that I like a good resolution - regular readers of this blog will note that about a month ago I promised to turn over some new leaves.

But now my PGDip is over and I have moved back home, it seems like the change in my circumstances offer the ideal opportunity to make some plans for the upcoming months.

So, in order that I commit to fulfilling my aims, I'm going to declare them publicly - so that you, my faithful audience, can ensure that I stick to them! (Unlike last time, when I failed miserably.)

1. Get an awesome job. Preferably one that uses some of the skills I have learnt during my degree and post-graduate course. Failing that get any job so that I can...

2. Move out of Maidenhead. Having moved back home about 36 hours ago I can safely say that I have already been here too long. It took me a long time to get used to living in London and now that I enjoy being there I'm gutted to have had to move away.

3. Get rid of the vast majority of my possessions. I simply have too much stuff that I keep carting from house to house (I've lived in nine different places in the last five years) and it would be good to only have the stuff I really need. If its not useful or beautiful then it's going!

4. Visit the library often. Much as I dislike Maidenhead it has a pretty decent library and I have a really long list of books I want to read. Think I'm going to kick off with either The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck or Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Any other recommendations would be gratefully received.

5. Improve my German. I studied it until I was 18 and although I didn't do spectacularly well at A-Level, the older I get the less I know. If I don't do something about it now I'll have forgotten it completely and all my work will be wasted.

I think I'm gonna stick with five aims for now. It's a nice round number and I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed by all the achieving that I have to do. Once I've got a few of these tasks under my belt then I can begin on the novel.......

Reverend Death

Well, that made for pretty creepy viewing.

John Ronson's documentary on Channel 4 last night was at first bizarre and surreal, before becoming rapidly disturbing

It followed the Reverend Exoo as he devoted himself to his "calling". This basically consisted of him assisting non-terminally ill people to die.

While I think for the most part I support euthanasia, as one expert said, it must be carried out by a doctor who is fully trained in appropriate methods and can be assured of the diagnosis.

"Susan", Exoo's one time patient, then assistant, then business rival, seemed to prove that people who ask for death, aren't necessarily able to lead full lives. Claiming extreme allergies (she's apparently able to eat in only one restaurant and only travel on planes the last day before fumigation) and physical impairments, she is shown on film leaping about, flying almost on a whim to New Zealand and eating at a different restaurant.

Clearly her self-perception and reality are sometimes at odds, supporting the idea that only people with real expertise and education on the topic should assist suicides.

While I agree with Ronson that Reverend Exoo was capable of being a pleasant and charming man, his seemingly irritable approach which confronting people hesitating about their suicide revealed something of a bully. And when someone is deciding whether or not to take their own life, even a little bit of pressure must have some effect.

Ronson made for an interesting documentary maker and came across completely differently on camera than he does in print. He seemed less confident and self-assured and although his dry sense of humour did come across, he definitely seems to be more adept at the written word.

But this documentary was clearly a labour of love, charting a number of years and various different twists in the life of Reverend Exoo. And although I can't say that I enjoyed it, I think it made for fascinating watching.