My Event

As you may or may not have known for my second year Event Management course, our assignment is to put on and run an event. This event will be about 40% of my grade and on the night I'm being assessed by my fellow lecturers too so with the help of five others (who are great!), it will all run smoothly.

Get ready for: SATURDAY NIGHT - BORN IN THE 90'S!!!

Yes, that's right, a 90's night. Forget Calvin Harris' Born in the 80's - it's always been about the 90's!

So it got me thinking about the 1990's in general. And so, I've come up with a whole bunch on things fantastic and not so good about the 1990's:
Now, we all remember getting up early on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons, reading Goosebumps, playing either Playstation Sega or Super Nintendo. We loved CD players, danced the Macarena in our school discos, we would spend hours on the stairs with slinky's, Space Jam was the coolest movie you'd ever seen and then Cool Runnings came out and now you're torn forever.
You probably owned a Furby, a Beanie Baby and a Tamagotchi whilst drinking Sunny D and putting the alien thing in the fridge so it would have a baby - it never did.
You remember your parents owning a brick of a mobile phone or, the grey huge boxes we called computers playing solitaire.
Pokemon cards were not allowed to be played at school anymore, but we did it anyway because Pokemon was cool!
You may or may not have kicked your younger sibling in the head trying to imitate Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles but you'd run behind the sofa when 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' came on.
Before a time where we would just press the record button, we owned a hell of a lot of VHS tapes (Lion King being one of them), you literally had to jump on the bus and it cost you 20p to get somewhere.

Going on a bit ain't it?

Anyway, here is the low down to the 1990's:

News:
Nelson Mandela was freed and Apartheid in South Africa ended
The case of O.J Simpson
The Channel Tunnel opens
Prince Charles & Diana divorced
Princess Diana died - okay, that was horribly sad and the whole nation mourned
Michael Jordan ditches Baseball for Basketball - but then retires from basketball
Aryton Senna is F1 champion twice - later to die in the San Marino Grand Prix with Rolan Ratzenberge
Michael Schumacher take home the first F1 title twice
Gulf War starts
EuroDisney opens in France
The World Wide Web (or the internet) goes public
George Foreman is still winning titles at 45
Deep Blue is a computer that won chess match against a human
Dolly the Sheep - who can forget the first ever clone!!
We kinda went mad on Mad Cow Disease
Mike Tyson bites off his opponent's ear
Bill Clinton's sex scandal
Google!
Hurricane's Andrew and Mitch rear their heads
Napster is created and uploaded
oh! in 1999, the 6th billionth person is born
Tiger Woods goes from strength to strength

Movies:
Pretty Woman was released along with Ghost, Kindergarten Cop and Home Alone. Clueless, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Father of the Bride, Addams Family, Hook, Boyz N the Hood, Thelma and Louise (introducing Brad Pitt to ladies around the world).
Sister Act, Wayne's World, Unforgiven, Basic Instinct, The Bodyguard, Aladdin, Batman returns (Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman).
White Man Can't Jump, Schindler's List, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sleepless in Seattle, Indecent Proposal, Cool Runnings, Jurassic Park, Lion King. Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Four Weddings & a Funeral, Natural Born Killers, Shawshank Redemption, Santa Clause, Toy Story 1 & 2, Pierce Brosnan as 007, Jumanji, Pocahontas, Se7en, Casper, 101 Dalmations, Independence Day, Jerry Magure (you had me at hello), Scream and Trainspotting.
Edward Scissorhands, Austin Powers, Men in Black, The Matrix, Titanic, The Full Monty, The Fifth Element,  I know what you did last summer, Good Will Hunting, My Best Friend's Wedding, Armageddon, Mulan, Dr. Doolittle, A Bug's Life, Godzilla, Blade, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Rush Hour, Truman Show and The Wedding Singer.
Blair Witch Project, Sixth Sense, Notting Hill, Tarzan, Star Wars (the one with Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor) and Cruel Intentions.

Music:
We had music like Madonna's Vogue, New Kids on the Block, B-52's, Vanilla Ice and Kriss Kross.
Deee-Lite, Mc Hammer, Snap!, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Massive Attack, Salt-N-Pepa, Nirvana, Bryan Adams, TLC, En Vogue, Genesis (goodness..).
U2, Beastie Boys, House of Pain, The Cure, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, UB40, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Rage Against The Machine, Toni Braxton, Tori Amos, Beck, Green Day, Soundgarden, Rednex, Mariah Carey.
Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Shaggy, Coolio, Seal, Spice Girls, Oasis, Tupac, Chemical Brothers, Backstreet Boys, Take That, Fugees, Jamiroquai, The Prodigy and the original Puff Daddy.
Blur, Erykah Badu, Smash Mouth, The Verve, Hanson, Aqua, Fatboy Slim, Placebo, Foo Fighters, Brandy, Monica, Lenny Kravitz, Areosmith (I know which song you started to sing), Celine Dion (again, do the actions with the singing), Lauryn Hill.
Limp Bizkit, Sixpence None The Richer, Britney Spears, NSync, Korn, Sugar Ray, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Bloodhound Gang, Lou Bega, Ricky Martin and Destiny's Child, and Blink 182.

Television:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Rugrats, Live and Kicking, Dinosaurs, Baywatch, Jerry Springer, Home Improvement. Pokemon, Fresh Prince, Barney, The Real World (when reality TV was new and people didn't really watch).
Diagnosis Murder, ER, Friends, Ren & Stimpy (I still don't know what animals they were: red body, blue nose big eyes. long ears/ small body, pink out-y eyes.), Ricki Lake, Blossom (so good).
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Moesha, Saved by the Bell (top 5 TV shows ever), X-Files, Doogie Howser - M.D, Ally McBeal, Simpsons, Boy Meets World (my ultimate favourite).
Buffy, Will & Grace, That 70's Show, Dawson's Creek, Charmed, the Powerpuff Girls (!!), Dexter's Laboratory, Spongebob Squarepants, Family Guy, Futurama and The Sopranos.

Fashion:
Grunge is born (think baggy), Boob jobs were acceptable, the 'Rachel' haircut, Floppy curtain hair, Doc Martens, sheer clothing, fluffy cuffs, pointy kitten heels, pigtails, lots of plaits.
Goth came alive, Fanny packs, tank tops, really baggy trousers, jean cutouffs, a load more tattoos (around the bicep and around the belly button), short skirts, the supermodel was born (Naomi, Helena, Christie, Kate, Cindy).
The short crop for girls, coiffed hair for boys, glorious hand through your hair look, Nike ticks in the hair, the 'Caesar' (think pre-grey George Clooney in ER), the goatee (Kurt Cobain), beach blonde hair, showing off the midriffs, belly button piercings, lots of black and lots of flowers.


How long was the 1990's?! - you'd probably answer well, ten years long.. (oh. ha. ha. very funny) but seriously, maybe one day someone will do a blog on the 2000's or the 2010's - but let's face it, let's get real... 1990's was an alright ten years to have entered the world in (especially that 6th billionth kid).
So if someone decides to disagree, just start singing the Spice Girls, put a hand in their face (you know, 'talk to the hand') and say you obviously weren't a kid growing up in the 1990's (but just in case they were, give them a slap and redirect them to this blog).

Oh! the whole reason for this blog was to try to get people to come to my event! So the 11th Feburary 2012 at the Old Fire Station, Bournemouth. There's no other place to be on that night. No excuses.

I'll blog about it all when it's over. :)

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It's a new term!

Right now, Jezza Kyle is playing in the background, living room is an absolute mess, I'm wearing lots of layers with a hot chocolate by my side. Tuesday already.

I've been staring at my laptop screen for the past hour and a bit trying to write more covering letters! It's highly frustrating.

January is a weird period for students - Students have to get back into the routine again, you've been away from university for a whole month - back to your parents cooking for you, washing done, saving every penny possible, all your mates back again, its great! You miss university life but you can do with the relaxation and the liver could do with it too!

The new term is greeted to you by assignments deadlines, assignment marks handed back, exams, deadlines approaching sooner than you think and hopefully, your timetable has gotten very very better or a lot worse!!
For me I have three/four deadlines around the same time but my timetable is great which means more time to do work and more team meetings.

I have a 'enjoyment window' where I can go out and enjoy myself for two weeks (I'm not happy) before the hard work really kicks in and I have to actually do some work - not saying I haven't been doing any work now, I'm just easing myself into it. If this has been written down on this blog, it means that I have to keep to my word (huge sigh).

So to the first years who read this blog, I thoroughly wish I was you and I want to stress to you how much jealously I hold for you.
For the second years, go out and enjoy yourself for however long you can before every weekend and every spare time you have is spent in the library or locked away in your bedroom furiously typing. I salute you.
Oh, and for the third years/fourth years, what can I say... how do you do it?!! Tips?


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Placements

Universities try to help you get placements - which is great, however, when you try and get your own... what the hell do you do?

Yes, talking about placements now is a little late (but only a tinsy teeny bit late) but I'm just one of hundreds of thousands who are applying around this time (so don't judge me).

Again, yes, I am a twenty year old, second year student maybe I should have a handle on this kind of stuff, but that doesn't mean I know most of the answers.. it just means I'm asking more questions.
You know what's going to happen, don't you? I'm going to know what exactly to do AFTER my placement. Brilliant.

So what I'm doing is writing a email to Whatsonstage.com (apparently they're brilliant, my friend loves them) and Twickenham, Wembley, and maybe other festivals, oh! maybe restaurants/ hotels.
But I don't really have the courage to do it and if I have no courage on email, how can I do it face to face? (See how my previous post about Networking is slowly going down the drain).

Wish me luck.
I'll be maybe, hopefully, planning draft emails to send off tomorrow to companies.

Oh goodness.


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LinkedIn, You joined yet?

So  LinkedIn  is the newest social media to be on. It's the world's largest professional networking site with over a 135 million members from over 200 countries, and it started in a living room in 2002.
You won't see any of these guys on Facebook posting their pictures of them bring sick inside a taxi.  LinkedIn  is for professionals; directors, managers, people looking for jobs wanting to get to know more people like them to network with.

What is up with this word network?
University drums it into you, lecturers are definitely drumming it into me and lord knows, I do need to know how to network. But, it's a silly word and my class mates and I shiver at the word now.
Net working. NET  WORKING.  N E T  W O R K I N G !!!
However, it works. If you know the term: 'It's not what you know, it's who you know.' Then networking sums that quote into a perfect symmetrical circle. And if we took it one step further and put it onto the internet, then  LinkedIn  is that and 135 million members cannot be wrong.

According to Belbin apparently, I'm good at networking. I have the personality for it. That definitely took me by surprise, yet I do have my glorious moments of being quite sociable. I like knowing what's going on and where. But we get shy in front of new people and I struggle to ask questions so instead I smile and try not to create an awkward silence.

So, anyway, back to  LinkedIn , I've joined it - to help with my networking. I'm doing well on my contacts (thought I've been told it's not a competition); I've joined all the groups I should, following the companies I should and started rambling on to my friends about going on it too. The problem is, I haven't got the courage to post anything into any of the groups.
I have a really good idea too, that if I put a sentence about trying to get companies to encourage more placement students that maybe, just maybe, someone will take me on. Because quite frankly, I have NO idea what I want to do as a placement yet.
I need something unique, interesting and since the last company I applied to rejected me I'm a little stumped.

LinkedIn with their 2 million Company Pages and people signing up faster than two members of staff joining a company every two seconds. It's got to lead somewhere hasn't it?
If you haven't joined yet, why not? There are 14+ million graduates and students joining and if that's on the 'About Us' page on LinkedIn then that's got to mean people are taking into account that students actually have a purpose and we're not always getting drunk somewhere (even when we are).

So LinkedIn, network with people we know, post something, network with people we don't know on the group discussions, get a placement.. Deal. Deal??

Any ideas? Maybe I should just keep blogging about this type of stuff and then I might get a placement.. Well, I can dream, can't I?


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