Okay, I totally suck at it due to time restraints.

If anyone has flicked through my website recently, it is still full of ‘updating over spring break’ rubbish. That obviously never happened. It’s still a vacant waste of space.

Let me explain what I’ve been doing…

It was a completely mad year at university, although not for the stereotypical reasons you’d think. I know I’m a horrific time waster, but I did work hard this year. I even missed out on the UMSA award night where I won the ‘outstanding achievement award’, voted by students, for my magazine work this year; I was studying for an exam. I wont lie, my enthusiasm evaporated a few times over the year. I often hit that wall of disheartenment and for the whole year I’ve felt so busy with work that any creative centimetre in my brain vanished and my writing crumbled.

On a positive note, I did get my first this year – so it can’t have been all bad. One year left to go…

Summer has been typically busy as always. I left Kent towards the end of June and took a holiday away, where my bed was so hard I couldn’t sleep, and returned more tired than when I left. I then worked the weekend at a music festival and on Monday started a work placement at the Independent. By this time sheer tiredness had crept up on me and that combined with other factors made me ridiculously ill whilst there. I still dragged myself in everyday, chucked a bit of colour on my face, and then worked the evenings in my various jobs. Highlight of the two weeks was actually non-Indy related – during the second week I attended the Castle Concerts in Rochester, as a photographer, and got a front page out of it in the local press.  After that I started at The Sun. I was supposed to be on features, but got moved to fashion straight away. Cue the laughter. Not exactly a strong point of mine, but I enjoyed it all the same. I am, however, looking forward to returning to the CfJ and slouching around the newsroom in my pyjamas and bare feet.

And now that brings us to August. Already. Urgh. And I have a cold… So once again I am sporting a husky voice. The only problem is that every time I get a cold my voice never seems to go back to its more high pitched self. In a few years I am going to sound like a 40-a-day, whiskey-addict of a man.

I am now out of my frustrated work-related mood and ready to settle down again. I have a month free to work on a new business project, my photography, my art, friends, and most of all to submerge myself into fiction books, as I can’t remember the last time I had time to read one. August is going to be a busy month, but I’m hoping by the end of it, not only will my website be all sparkly and new again, but I’ll have completed all the things I want to do and be completely refreshed for my final and most exciting year at university.

When I launched my site, with the champagne flowing, I had the brilliant idea of revamping it all over spring break. What we didn’t realise was our exams were straight after our break and typically two and a half weeks of my holiday have already vanished – so maybe you’ll have to wait until mid-August when I plan to finally have free time.

Between recharging my batteries, chugging cups of tea, painting, reading, travelling up and down the country, and trying to walk in heels without looking drunk (failed), I have perhaps done one piece of ‘work’…

It was for UACES-Thomson Reuters ‘Reporting Europe’ award. They commissioned us to make a film from some footage, profiling the nominated candidates. You can watch it below. It’s not the most exciting piece, but when we were only given some audio with matching pictures and the odd video clip, it doesn’t seem so bad.

Anyway, I need to go and pack a suitcase again as I plan to escape the world of work for a whole week and hit the water.

Oh, and if you didn’t know – David Rennie won the award.

I thought I’d share some other tips she gave us after talking to some journalism students at the NCTJ student council, who said they’d like some information on freelancing:

-       Quinn said that being a freelancer is the ‘ultimate sales job’. It’s 70% selling and 30% writing.

-       Different editors like different styles of pitching. Her most successful one is known as the ‘headsell’. It includes the headline, standfirst, lead in paragraph and body text in bullet points.

-       Make sure that the publication you’re pitching to takes freelance – quickly ring the editor to check.

-       Make sure it fits the publication.

-       Go for publications that have low levels of staff.

-       Interestingly she said ‘Stop wasting your time on regional papers who’ll give you tiny clips for no money,’

-       Pitch with confidence

-       Pitch good ideas

-       Think of the publication needs above your own

Our lecturer, Sarah Lonsdale, also said to pitch on a Friday for any weekend supplement, as that’s when they’re generally getting ideas together.

Quinn has published a book on the subject. It’s called No Contacts? No Problem! How to Pitch and Sell Your Freelance Feature Writing.

This same housemate has been sitting on the sofa all three times that I have returned home from university. She can often be found eating or playing the Playstation. In fact she often does both simultaneously.

I know that I will hear her come home, and I will still be in the same place when she left hours ago. Except, I won’t be watching endless repeats of Friends and Scrubs on E4, but furiously scribbling down notes from a book.

I could waste time and walk downstairs and plan to make something edible, but I know that I will just have forgotten to go food shopping again.

This cycle has been repeating itself more frequently recently and I find myself continuously explaining where I have been for the past month to the curious faces I once knew.

“I’ve had a lot of work on.” The pub population will then nod in agreement, except many have not been into lectures today, or even the day before. I smile politely and wonder if they really have a clue.

Other times I find myself gazing around our law lectures, which we share with law students, and wonder where they all are. They have very few lessons a week, why can’t they make it in for their one-hour lecture?

I have friends scattered around the country, being taught by lecturers who don’t know their names and others who grumble because they have one 10am start in their three-day week.

In many ways I envy them as my early morning alarm goes off, five days a week, but then realise that they are paying thousands of pounds for some half-arsed degree.

I don’t see how a degree, which involves spending more time drinking and sleeping, is going to enhance the economy. Except in regards to alcohol sales.

So whilst the lecturers’ University and College Union have said fewer graduates would not benefit the economy, I don’t think half of your current students are going to improve it either.

Organised by Kent County Council and Medway Council, it involves using the web and other technologies to improve your area.

You can read more about it on Simon Wakeman’s blog. Simon is Head of Communications and Marketing for Medway Council.

Might be a perfect chance for the CfJ to plug an idea for a hyperlocal website which will incorporate any ideas raised at the event..?

Anyone want to come? If only to get a story for your portfolio…

Unfortunately this time, Little’s visit was declared ‘off the record’ by the gods of journalism at the CfJ. This therefore ruined my planned blog for the day. However, Little did advise never giving excuses for failing to get a story. So whilst I won’t report on the more topical issues discussed in a Q&A session, I will point out five of his top tips for student journalists as his talk was largely covered on the BBC College of Journalism website anyway:

1. Have something to say. He recollected a time at Edinburgh University when he wrote an essay without doing any background reading. He received it back with a note from his teacher saying “You have a pleasing turn of phrase, but nothing much to say.”
2. Read. He highlighted the need to read more than just newspapers and online. You need to read books, fiction and even poetry. Poetry can be a brilliant example of short words creating powerful meaning.
3. Add up the number of words in your work then divide that by the number of sentences. If the average is more than 15 words, then your sentences are probably too long.
4. Avoid using metaphors if you don’t understand exactly what they mean.
5. Always have a notepad on you because often things people say off the record are the most important. Jot things down; don’t leave it in your mind.

You can watch Allan Little give more advice on ‘good writing’ on the BBC College Journalism website.

You can also watch highlights from his first visit to the CfJ below:

Men’s Fitness magazine.

Multimedia Intern at The New York Times and a summer intern at DNAinfo, NY City

The Centre for Investigative Journalism is looking for interns – scroll to the bottom of their front page.

Interstingly enough, 6 Music are looking for summer interns. Turns out they’ve had their “highest ever audience this quarter”.

In case Paxman is your hero and you’re worried that he’s going to run off to the Independent, take an internship with Newsnight.

For any Kent students having a nose around – take note:

“We are looking for applicants with a demonstrable interest in and preferably some prior experience of journalism. This could be working on… a student newspaper.” Now contribute something to UMM.

Wired UK are always advertising for interns.

The Economist is after a summer intern for its section on Britain.

You can win yourself a paid internship at Vogue with their annual talent contest.

Thomson Reuters, Financial internship.

You can view the CfJ’s coverage on our website.

And you can read my piece on Journalism.co.uk too.

If you scroll to the end of the Cover It Live section you’ll find Ian Reeves’ question unanswered. Seeing as the CfJ itself hasn’t actually enlightened you on Thompson’s answer – I will. However, someone seems to have taken my notebook, thus it will be from my rusty old memory.

Thompson started by posing the rhetorical question of whether or not BBC executives should expect to get a smaller salary than commercial equivalents.

He then went on to explain that they apply a 50-80% discount to the corporation’s executive salaries.

So let’s do the math:

Mark Thompson’s current salary = £834,000

If this was a 50% discount, Mark Thompson believes he should actually be on:

£1,668,000

80% discount:

£4,170,000

Now for a summary:

Mark Thompson thinks his salary should really be somewhere in between £1,668,000-£4,170,000.

Shocking. I could pay my monthly rent somewhere between 4830-12087 times with that salary.

Grab yourself a cuppa, have a look and drop me a comment.

It’s officially going live on Monday 8^th to coincide with International Women’s Day, but I’m posting now so that it doesn’t look all empty.

I’m planning on making it into a media related blog, but you know me, it’ll probably drift.

Bear with me whilst I battle through the next month – got a mass amount of deadlines and silly meetings – which will probably mean that this will remain fairly quiet.

I will sort it out over spring break when I’m not internetless up in the Lakes. They haven’t figured out the World Wide Web yet.