Summer Antics

It has been three months since my last blog post. I hope you enjoyed the silence! A lot has gone on, good and bad, but I will save the negative bits for a later date. For now, a round-up of the good bits is in order...

I got my results at the end of June, and I'm delighted to say that I passed my first year with a 2:1 grade. I also got Firsts in a couple of my second semester modules, which I'm really pleased with. It's so nice to be able to look back on my work for the year with satisfaction and to look ahead to second year. I have to register in a few weeks and choose my modules, which I'm looking forward to. I've pretty much decided on everything I want to do this year, so hopefully my choices will work out as planned.

I've been to a couple of concerts this summer. Back in June, I saw The Who at the O2, performing my all-time favourite album Quadrophenia. I was so excited because I'd been hoping and praying for them to perform that album live for years. A couple of years ago, I saw Roger Daltrey solo performing Tommy and it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to, so to see Quadrophenia as well was something truly special. It was such a perfect night.

A few weeks later, I went to see Brian May and Kerry Ellis perform an acoustic show at the Olympia. I went with my friend and Multimedia comrade Adele, and we had a great time. It was such an intimate show; you could hear a pin drop. Kerry, for those not in the know, is a former cast member of the Queen musical We Will Rock You (which I have been lucky enough to have seen on more than one occasion) and she's an unbelievable singer. We bumped into her on the way in, and she's a lovely person. Afterwards we waited outside for ages hoping to meet Brian, but alas he'd already taken off, so that was disappointing. I met him a few years ago in London when I saw We Will Rock You, and that was an amazing experience. He's truly my number one guitar hero.

I was supposed to be seeing Blur a couple of weeks ago with my sister, but unfortunately I was sick so my ticket had to be sold. I'm still gutted about that, so moving on...

Last month, I went to Leicester for a few days to visit my best friend Mona. I had a great time. It was so nice to see her again, and to explore the city she now calls home. It's a lovely place; I was very impressed. We went shopping and sightseeing, and one of the most interesting parts was going to the Richard III exhibition. Mona is a History student, and I'm a big fan of it myself, so it was an enjoyable time.

I must mention that one of the highlights of my summer has been finally getting to see Monsters University at the cinema. As a huge fan of Monsters Inc., I was unbelievably excited about this, and it didn't let me down. While in Leicester, I ran into the Disney shop and bought myself my very own Mike Wazowski! Here he is below with his Minion friend, acquired by Mona on our trip to McDonald's.

As it's my 21st birthday soon, I have some nice trips to look forward to. My lovely mother and I are going for a spa treatment next week, and then I'm going to Manchester with my dad to see United play Chelsea at Old Trafford. It's David Moyes's first home game as manager, and I can't wait.

My living arrangements are all sorted for the coming year too. I will be living closer to town this year, which means that I will have to get the bus in and out of uni each day, but it's only about a ten or fifteen minute journey depending on traffic. I'll be living with family, so that will be nice. Living on my own last year was a great life experience, even if I wasn't Larkfield's biggest fan. I can cook without poisoning myself or anyone else, and I can look after myself convincingly. It could be a bit lonely at times though, so being surrounded by people I know and love will be nice.

I can't wait for second year to start.

The End is Rapidly Approaching

Believe it or not, I'm into the last two and a half weeks of first year already. I think everyone is in a state of shock that it has passed so quickly. As expected, I am extremely busy with work. I have a 'creative biography' essay to hand in (I chose to do mine on Spike Milligan, and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it), a video project to work on, another website to design and several articles to write for it. I have to say, though, there are times when none of it actually feels like work because I'm enjoying it so much. Well, most of it. I had a group presentation last week which I am only too relieved to have finally got out of the way...

Aside from having two and a half weeks of lectures left, I also have only three more radio shows. It's been great fun. As I've mentioned before, DCUfm has undoubtedly been the highlight of my year, and I hope to continue presenting The Rock Files next year. One way or another, I'm incredibly excited to be involved with the station for another two years.

Speaking of which, this week I also won a free pizza for a piece I wrote about my time at DCUfm so far. You can read it here if you wish: What do I love about DCUfm?

As for my summer plans, I'm about to start applying for jobs, though I'm not overly optimistic to be honest. I'll also be working on a radio documentary, the details of which will be revealed in time, and will be doing a bit of web design, both for myself and for other people. I'm trying to save up enough money to go and visit my friend in Leicester, and then I'm also going to play lots of guitar, as I have sadly been neglecting it since I started university. Terrible I know.

So that's pretty much the plan for the next four months of my life, and then I'm a big second year. Scary!

Food, Glorious Food

This week I have overdone it a little on the junk food front. Okay, that's an understatement. I have actually been overdoing it all my life.

Everyone knows I have a passion for chocolate. An all-consuming passion. You can imagine my delight, then, when I discovered the chocolate brownies served in the DCU canteen. These brownies have been my comfort food for the past few months. I can't resist them. When I see them, I buy them. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of real food. When my friends are eating their curries and steaks and fruit salads (not all together, obviously) I'm busy tucking into my brownies, with a bottle of Club Lemon on the side. It's terrible.

I've always had what you might call a sweet tooth (more like a head full of sweet teeth) but I'm convinced I've become steadily worse over the months I've been at university. When I'm at home, there is no way I would have a fizzy drink every day of the week. When I'm here, it's another story. Take this week for example. On Monday I walked into the shop with the intention of buying toilet paper and nothing else. I walked out with my intended purchase, plus a bag of Haribo Starmix and a four-pack of Cadbury's Wispa bars. Never mind that I already had a giant Aero bar waiting for me back at the apartment. Disgraceful. As my mother is forever telling me, it's a wonder I'm not diabetic.

Seriously, I think the only reason I'm not diabetic is because I have an extremely fast metabolism. I probably expel calories from my system quicker than many people, because I seem to lose weight rather than gain it. Sure, I play football once a week, but I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

Anyway, when the full realisation of my behaviour hit me, I decided to set myself a challenge. I would not buy a chocolate brownie this week, and I would limit myself to one bottle of Club Lemon. It was bloody hard, I can tell you, because willpower doesn't exist for me where sugar is concerned. But somehow I managed it. This afternoon after my lecture, I bypassed the brownies and fizzy drinks and headed straight for the apple juice. I also bought sausages and chips, which ain't exactly bursting with goodness, but at least it was hot food.

I worked out that buying a chocolate brownie today would have meant sacrificing my bus fare for tomorrow, so as well as the obvious health benefits of cutting down on the sweet treats, I get to save money too. And students, as we all know, are obsessed with saving pennies. How long will it last though? I'm not too sure. This time next week, all my hard work could well come undone. Meanwhile, there will be pancakes to enjoy when I go home tomorrow...

Home Away From Home

First week of lectures done! If that statement seems a little premature, it's not - I have Fridays off. Lucky me, eh?

Already I'm beginning to feel at home here. Isn't that great? Don't get me wrong, I'm not Larkfield's number one fan or anything. What I mean is that I'm starting to feel like I belong at DCU. The vast majority of people I have encountered have been really nice and friendly. I've started to make friends with people on my course, not to mention a Journalism student as well. Hopefully this will continue with clubs and societies, though most of the people I've been hanging out with are joining the same ones as me anyway.

So, what's it like being a Multimedia student? Pretty good so far! I'm studying four modules this semester: Multimedia Studies, Photography and Design, Authoring and Introduction to Social Studies. I'll explain a bit about each of them. Multimedia Studies is a weekly lecture which I have on Monday afternoons at 4pm - and that's my one and only lecture that day! It's basically theory which covers loads of different areas relating to graphic and lens based media forms. It seems pretty interesting, though at the moment we've only briefly touched on it. Photography and Design speaks for itself. We're learning how to use professional cameras and software like PhotoShop, and as well as the practical element there's also a lecture covering things like the history and evaluation of photography. I'm not sure how good I'm going to be at that, but we'll see how it goes. I must admit I'm not looking forward to my photography projects and presentations. Social Studies is a lecture that we share with students on two other courses - Communication Studies and Contemporary Culture and Society. As its name suggests, it's to do with sociology and concepts such as Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism and Structuralism. It's pretty interesting stuff and reminds me of some elements of studying history at school, but I'm not sure it's going to be one of my favourite parts of the course. Finally, Authoring is a module in which we learn to combine different media forms (such as sound or video) to create animations, interactive programs and menus.

So far, the most interesting module to me is Authoring, which is ironic considering the second year Multimedia students who spoke to us last week led us to believe it was horrible. It does seem challenging, but that's what you would expect from a course like this. We're currently learning to use Flash, but unfortunately we haven't been able to use the software ourselves yet because in the Mac labs we were unable to log in. Our lecturer has been showing us how everything works, but I'm looking forward to actually being able to try it out myself.

Next week I'll be able to join clubs and socities. Exciting! First on my list is the Media Production Society (known as MPS) which consists of the radio and TV stations, DCUfm and DCUtv. I've always had a huge fascination with radio, especially since I did my work experience in a station in Waterford while I was at school, so I'm dying to get involved in that. In fact, yesterday I made my debut on the air! I went to a meeting with MPS in which we were shown around the radio and TV studios, and a few of us were interviewed about how we'd like to get involved. Pretty much everyone on my course, and indeed the other courses in the School of Communications, seems to be joining MPS. As they point out, if we want careers in the media (and obviously we do, otherwise we wouldn't be on these courses in the first place) getting involved with MPS is essential. I'm also planning on joining the Music Society, as I need an outlet for my guitar playing while at university! As for what else I'm going to join - who knows!

Oh, and the oven seems to be a little bit kinder to me now. Maybe MasterChef isn't such a bad idea after all...*

 So that's it for this week. Now just wait til the projects get going! I'll barely have time to breathe.

*Nah. Still a bad idea.

Judgement Day

It's here! It's finally here! The wait is over! At 6am tomorrow morning my future will be revealed. I have a feeling that it's going to be a very restless night! I don't intend to pull an all-nighter like many of my friends and peers did last year, but I can't promise myself I will get much - if any - sleep. One way or another I will be sitting in front of my laptop bright and early, logging into my CAO application with trembling hands to see if I have the offer I so badly want.

At this moment I am trying desperately hard to be positive, but admidst the excitement there is also a lingering feeling of fear and worry, bordering on nausea. My parents will both be up; my mother especially for the occasion even though she has the day off work. That's love and support for you! Honestly, my parents have both been brilliant these past few months. They have calmed me down when I've been having minor panics and reassured me when the self-doubt kicks in. I would quite literally be lost without them. My best friend has also sent a much-appreciated message of support, and insists that I text her as soon as I find out. She doesn't care about being woken up at six in the morning - now that's friendship!

I don't know what I'm going to do after the event. Go back to bed? I doubt it. I probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway. I suppose I'll decide tomorrow. Right now, I'm contemplating what time to go to bed at so that I can attempt to sleep. I'm thinking eleven at the latest. Maybe I will sleep after all... when I got my Leaving Cert results last year, I had a good night's sleep, although I did have two different nightmares about failing all of my exams!

I sense that I'm becoming a little incoherent now, so I'll sign off. Verdict to follow tomorrow...

Introduction to my World

Hello, howdy, welcome etc. This obviously is my first post to a brand new blog. I'm no stranger to blogging, but the difference here is that I fully intend keeping this one. Basically my life is coming up to a major change, which calls for a fresh blogging experience.

So, first things first, I'd better explain a bit about who I am and what I'm all about. As you will no doubt have gathered from the little box in the sidebar to your right, my name's Sarah. I'm 19 years old, though will be 20 in a few weeks. I'm from Dublin, but am currently living in Wexford with my parents, my two younger sisters and my dearly beloved dog, Jake. I will, however, be moving back to my lovely home city very soon. At least that's the plan (fingers crossed).

In a little over three weeks' time, I'll be hearing about my fate from CAO. I applied for a place at Dublin City University to study an Honours Bachelor degree in Multimedia, and if all goes well, that will be the beginning of a new life for me. I finished school last year and so already have my Leaving Cert results; now I'm just waiting to see what this year's points will be. It's been a pretty horrific waiting game, but it's almost up now.

To cut a long story short, I spent the past year trying to get my head together and figure out what the hell it is that I want to do with my life. The funny thing is, for the entire six years of my secondary school life I was absolutely certain about my career path. But I have come to the realisation this past year that it's not the right path for me at all. When it comes to career choices, I am still no closer to knowing what I want to be. But I am sure of what course I want to do, and it's such a broad subject area that I know once I get into it (provided I get there in the first place) I will start to figure out the direction I'd like to go in.

I'm going to use this blog as an outlet for that aspect of my life once it begins. But I'm also going to occasionally blog about other stuff too, such as my hobbies and interests. So what kind of person am I? I'd describe myself as a deep thinker - in fact, I probably think too much about stuff, to the extent that I am the world's worst worrier. I worry about everything. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it. I'm a good listener and also quite a shy person. That said, I can talk people to death when I feel like it. Mention something in which I have a nerdy interest and I'm off. I have a good sense of humour and love to laugh. I have a creative mind which is constantly whirring away and conjuring up ideas for something or other. I'm also a huge nerd - in a good way, I think!

My main passion in life is music. I love to play guitar and go to as many concerts as I possibly can. I'm a huge fan of Alice Cooper, The Who, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Beatles, Cheap Trick, Rush and Queen, to name but a few. I could go on all day. Next on the list of interests is comedy - particularly British comedy, and the older the better. I absolutely adore Morecambe and Wise and Monty Python in particular. I have a fascination with music hall, variety and vaudeville. That's one of the things that activates the nerdiness in me.

I also love reading, writing, art, football, tennis and history. I'm really into genealogy and in fact I have another blog which deals solely with that. Hmm... what else? I love to travel and see other countries. And I love chocolate... mmm. I get to blame my late grandmother for my sweet tooth.

There's much more to me, but I'll leave it at that for now. This isn't supposed to be my autobiography, after all, and I'm pretty crap at doing bios for fear of sounding pretentious. The rest you will find out as we go along. Thanks for reading!