Hello!

Some fun news today is that my studentbeans.com article is now live! It’s all about some new ideas for toast-toppers. I’m doing a fair bit for the student web world at the moment, what with being a studentbeans contributor, and I’m also signed up to write for Kettle, and I am also in the process of putting something together for The Student Page. It’s quite a simple niche for me, because I’m a student in two senses, so I have twice as much to say. It’s also very very easy to draw inspiration for pieces from uni, because there is such a diversity of uni-related topics. Accommodation, lectures, London…

My next ideas are to write some reviews I think. Possibly some book reviews. I’ll see.

Shorthand has been up and down recently. It’s gone from the chronically difficult (for me) in the F-blends, to the delightfully easy (the MR, LR and WR blends). I have really mixed feelings about it most of the time. It’s an achievement when you get it, but when you don’t, it’s THE most frustrating thing. I promise the early/recent shorthand comparison post will be up soon.

Tomorrow we’re off to a council planning meeting, and on Thursday we’re having our first taste of video journalism. Crown Court is, I think, next week, and next Tuesday we have a session on interactivity, i.e. blogging, polls, reader interaction, which sounds like it’s right up my street. I’m massively looking forward to the features sessions too. I think features are more my thing than news. I’ll obviously let you know how everything goes, but I’m just telling you this now to demonstrate that the NCTJ isn’t just a dry old slog through a series of bland lectures (not that any of them are bland anyway); it’s very practical and hands-on, and I like that. It’s important to see how things work in the real world, rather than at school, or even uni, where it’s all just theoretical, and you never really get to experience anything for yourself.

Anyway, I have a million things to do, so do them, I must.

Kayleigh