Christmas Number 1

I actually can't believe that out of the two contenders for number one, the worst act actually won, Rage Against the Machine are actually number one? With this rather boring, monotonus song!




A band that has had their chance in the early 90's and blown it has become Christmas number one. To be honest I am too young to actually remember their music, only being born in the early 90's myself.

I do think that Simon Cowel isnt the most perfect man in the world, but what i don't agree with is the fact that people are punishing an 18 year old boy, who has an amazoing talent, for his mistakes. I would also like to point out that it is not Joe's fault that the PUBLIC vote for an Xfactor winner to be number one each year. It is up to the public vote not Simon Cowel, and so all the people who keep saying, it is just a statement to show that we will not be told what to do anymore, are rather stupid, considering they weren't being told what to do in the first place. Silly people.

Anyway, I must admit I fell in love with Joe on the Xfactor and think he has an amazing voice and a sweet personality, although I'm not sure about the song chosen by Simon Cowel but Joe still manages to perform it well :)

Christmas Shopping News report :)

Our assignment for the TV part of our course was to create a news report about Christmas shopping. I was put in a group with Hazel Pace, Laura Battle, Heather Newland and Matt Mansfield.

We were sent out into Farnham with a camera and a microphone to investigate our topic. We started by delegating roles, Matt was chosen as the cameraman, as he seemed to understand the equipment the best. Laura was the camera assistant and helped to write the scripts for the piece to camera and voiceover. Hazel was the director and a presenter as she felt the most comfortable in front of the camera. Heather was the second news presenter and helped with the editing of the finished piece.

I was in charge of the sound for the production of our News report. This involved me holding the microphone and editing the sound for the piece. I also helped to edit the finished product.

The first thing we did was to record Heather doing a link to Hazel in Farnham. We filmed this in the radio studio as this provided a different background, keeping the two reports separate. We then searched for a shop window, which had Christmas decorations in it in order to record Hazels piece to camera. Hazel then introduced herself and introduced the report.

We then made our way to the sweet shop in search for some people to interview and met a woman who was very co-operative and agreed to let us interview her about whether she had finished her Christmas shopping or not. We also interviewed the owner of the sweet shop to see if the recession had affected the sale of sweets over Christmas.

On our way back to the university we filmed certain parts of Farnham in order to use them in our voiceover, which we recorded in the radio studios using the radio equipment.

Overall I think our video was a success, we worked well together as a group and therefore managed to produce a well-filmed and edited piece. I enjoyed the part that I had to play in the group and felt included and that I had a vital part to play.

Remembrance day vox pop

Remembrance day Vox Pop evaluation:

Our challenge for radio, set at the beginning of November, was to go out in to Farnham and ask people the question, what does remembrance day mean to you? And what do you think of the government potentially scrapping the day?

I was in a group with Hazel Pace, Laura Battle and Matt Mansfield. We each took turns in asking people our questions and surprisingly most of the people we asked were pleased to answer our questions. The person I asked was a painter, who also just happened to be an ex soldier, and so he had very strong views on the subject. The majority of people that we asked thought that it shouldn’t be scrapped, that the people that have fought for our country should be remembered.

We got the chance to speak to a World War 2 veteran, who enlightened us as to why remembrance day is important to him and all of the survivors of the war as it gives them a chance to remember their friends and family members that were lost during the wars.

We managed to gather a good range of age groups ranging to the old to quite young in order to make our conclusions more balanced. However, when we tried to ask a couple of people from other countries, they preferred not to comment, one girl even saying on tape ‘I don’t know, I’m Danish.’

When we got back to the classroom we had to edit our recordings and create our vox pops. I used Sound booth to edit mine, I found it easy to use and managed to edit my piece well, however I had to cut out some people in order to get it down to 30 seconds. I decided to cut out the world war veteran due to the fact that he didn’t really answer our question, although he gave us rather insightful information. We then, once the recording was edited, had to use the website SoundCloud to upload the piece to my blog.

Overall, our project was a success and I had lots of fun working with my group. I was quite surprise how at ease we were with the equipment and software we had to use and would be able to use it again.

Radio News report :)

Me (Radio news report) by Laura balls

Well this is a recording done in the radio studios at Farnham :) It was a rather interesting lesson actually, we even got left to control it ourselves, or sort of as we did call for Maaartin quite a few times! I must say I am not very technologically minded :)

Jordan and Peter- The Battle!

I can't believe how much press coverage Jordan and Peter have gotten through just their divorce. They have managed to hit the headlines through their battle over their children but also through their sudden hate for each other.

There is just one thing i dont understand. The main source of their hate for one another seems to have stemmed from a fight that was shown on ITV3 in an episode of their tv series 'Katie and Peter: The next Chapter' where the pair move to America in order to enable Peter to record his new album. All of a sudden after this fight was shown their divorcing of one another was brought to light. Bit of a time lapse there, it doesnt really add up if the programme was filmed months before it was shown.

Just to also give my opinion on the situation, i believe that Peter Andre should gain custody over his two children with Jordan. The way that Jordan has acted over the past few months with her new boyfriend, Alex Reid, has portrayed her in an extremely negative light, all of her partying and wild antics have made people believe that she doesnt really care for her children. I have not once seen her in a picture with her children, not even one with Harvey, who as a disabled child needs the prescence of his mother.

However, Peter Andre, although being pictured more with his children, could be criticised by the public for even putting his children into the spotlight and through such an ordeal, especially as they are so young.

All i can say is that this situation is very confusing. At least their divorce is finally finalised...

x

Competitions

I usually refuse to enter competitions, and advise most people not to. I dont even vote for anyone on the Xfactor, just incase ITV cheat me of my hard earnedmoney!

However, today my opinion might of changed slightly, due to the fact that my boyfriend checked his email only to find he had actually won a competition he entered months ago and had forgotten about. He won tickets to go and see one of his (and steadily growing my) favourite artist, Kesha!

This has therefore changed my opinions of entering into competitions, they cant all be bad :)
You do sometimes win the actual prize you entered for :) and it cant be bad to enter one competition every once in a while :)

x

Zoo!!!! :)

I went to Marwell Zoo yesterday with my boyfriend. It was a really fun day, we got to see the Penguins, Giraffes and even baby Hippo's, which were very cute. However my favourites were the Marmosets, which are small monkeys, as they come in a vast array of colours and have extremely cute faces and make a lot of noise.

It cheered me up after being ill for most of the weekend.

Stephen Gately

I was in deep shock this morning when I found out that Stephen Gately had tragedly passed away. He was my favourite member of the band Boyzone, the one i felt had the biggest talent, even ahead of Ronan Keating.

Investigations are being carried out into his mysterious death. He was found by his partener Andrew Cowles, he had been out drinking the night before and never woke back up again.

I remember bopping along to Boyzone's hits when I was younger, dancing around the living room with my sisters. I even saw him in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, mastering the portrail of the evil Childcatcher.

My heart goes out to Andrew and Stephens family, as at only 33, Stephen seemed to have a lot of life left in him, and had a lot to look forward to with the reforming of Boyzone, and going on tour. Stephen will, I'm sure, be missed by many of his millions of fans across the globe.

Being ill :(

I really hate being ill. Not only do you end up feeling wretched but you have to be cooped up in your room, with no one to talk to, not even being allowed a hug. In my case I have a virus that is attacking my stomach, subsequently causing me to be sick. Not a nice feeling.

And so I am making the most of my time, by sitting at my computer loading up itunes and writing on here :)

Fashion let down!

I must say I haven't been able to find many clothes that I like recently. It seems that boring colours are back, bring on the beige, black and grey colours associated with Autumn and Winter. This is why I don't like winter. It seems people feel the need to banish colour from the world, the colours of summer are gone, and are replaced with miserable colours, whereas I feel we should be wearing bright colours in order to combat the miserable weather here in England, such as the bright fuschia coat i found in Miss Selfridge the other day, it was the only bright item in the whole shop! The type of Clothes that I wear tend to identify what mood I am in, and as a happy person I don't feel the 'in' colours portray my moods.

I have also noticed that more quirky shops have started to appear, which I am rather happy about as I like my clothes to be a bit different. However, the sizing in these shops tends to be a bit strange and I found myself leaving one the other day in distress after only fitting in one dress, my mother told me that it was only the cut of some of the dresses, but it still left me upset and puzzled as I am not large, but a size 10, an average size. I realised afterwards that any shop that made me feel like I needed to go on a major diet was not worth worrying about, and was obviously just wasn't made for me. I think I will be sticking with mainstream stores even if it means I turn into a clone.

Anyways, rant over :)

Today :)

Hello again :)

I must say today was a rather fun day :) My boyfriend and I decided to go to Kingston for the day, and although it was miserable and raining I still spent most of the day with a smile on my face :) Although I didn't really manage to buy anything :( sad times :( as according to most shops i seem to have a wierd body shape, which i don't quite understand :S Well i suppose I also didn't really find anything that I liked (Autumn colours are soooo boring! I really don't like brown, grey or beige unless there is a bit of colour added in a pattern or accessory), but it means I have more money to spend through the month :)

However, I still ended the day with a smile on my face :) thanks to the loveliness of Mr Jonathan Knight :) who still tells me I'm beautiful when I wake up all groggy and with a major bad hair day :) hehe :)

Anyways, uni tommorrow :) yay :)

Heyhey :)

Omg have had the best day ever with my little baby Nephew, Oliver :) he is the cutest thing I have ever seen, and giggles when you call him a cheeky monkey :)

I have also found a new really catchy song! It is by Kesha, and is called 'This Love' and is one of the best songs I have heard for a while :)

I discovered white chocolate covered Oreo's (or well my boyfriend did) and they are actually amazing :)

Anyways, that is the excitement of my weekend :)

Following Fashion

I must say that I do like to follow fashion, I tend to read the fashion sections in magazines before anything else, identifying new trends. However I do object to wrapping myself up in what seems to look like tin foil, which seems to be the style at the moment.

I get weekly updates on style from www.asos.com, and I opened this weeks only to behold the monstrosity which is the shiny skirt, behold the picture below :S

now you cant say that anyone possibly look good in that?

Hey,

I dont really know what to write here, the blogging world is all a bit alien and new to me, but I suppose I could start by introducing myself? I am Laura Jane Balls, born on 29th June 1991, (yes that would make me 18) I have lived my whole entire life in Woking, Surrey and now go to UCA Farnham where I am studying journalism, which is why I created this blog :).

Erm... yeah that is basically it :) or well all you really need to know :) ooo and that I might be putting some rather random posts up here entailing whatever interests me :)

:)