I wrote an opinion piece for The Linc

Littering with leaflets? Leave me alone | The Linc

My current state of mind...

Damn you group work. Damn you.

Urgh. Urgh. And urgh.

I hate group work sometimes. Trying to wrangle a group of people into the same place (even a virtual place) at the same time is seemingly impossible. My group were due to have a Skype meeting at 8pm, due to my abysmal internet connection at home I came into the newsroom (yay 80 meg internet). However, this afternoon I felt ill and not wanting to skip this important meeting I made myself a packed tea (foil + sandwich) and soldiered on to the newsroom at about 4 so I wouldn't just go to bed.

6 hours later and though I've done some work (set up the website for print, edited/rewrote some articles) I've spent a lot of time just enjoying the internet connection and staring into space. Two people arrived on Skype, one of which was sat next to me in the newsroom. And we could do absolutely nothing. Wonderful.

What a waste of an evening when I could have been getting some shut eye and trying to ward of this cold.

Review: The Adjustment Bureau

From the film's official website:

Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Matt Damon stars in the thriller The Adjustment Bureau as a man who glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he's ever loved across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York.

David (Matt Damon) and Elise (Emily Blunt) look at the notebook that chronicles their fate.

WARNING: Possible spoilers...

Retro vs. Modern Gaming: Arch enemies or father and son?

So you’ve just bought yourself a shiny new PlayStation 3. It’s stood proudly on your desk boasting high definition graphics, motion gaming and some of the best titles on the market. Your old PS2 is discarded on the floor amidst a flurry of cables awaiting its fate. Will you trade it in and grab yourself a few second hand games for your latest toy or will it be destined to gather dust in the loft with the Sega Megadrive and an army of old teddy bears? Is it worth keeping your old consoles or does newer instantly mean better? If that’s true, then why do people keep going back to retro games?

A/N: This article was originally destined for Bullet magazine but as apparently the entertainment editor has no say here it is for your reading pleasure.

Classic games are now being rebooted for the modern market. Characters such as Mario and Pikachu, who first appeared on Nintendo 64s and Gameboys are now enjoying their time on the latest consoles. Now 25 years old, Mario is actually older than most of his target audience. Solid Snake, famous in the Metal Gear Solid series originally hit the mass market on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) but since then he’s been seen on each generation of the Sony PlayStation. Are games developers giving the people what they want, introducing a younger audience to the classics or are they simply running out of ideas? I think it's the former... Only this morning I got out my Gameboy colour after I had the urge to go out and catch a few Pokemon. Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold are the latest incarnation of the Pokemon series and they're as popular as their predecessors.

Beautiful day in Lincoln

Photo: Me

Beautiful clear skies in Lincoln today. It's cold but delightfully sunny which is a perfect day in my view. I arrived in Lincoln on the train from York earlier and is was a nice change to be faced with pleasantness. I love Lincoln but stepping out of the train station on a grim day is just nasty. Today however is beautiful. For once I look forward to the summer, momentarily forgetting the humidity and sweatiness that my British constitution doesn't like.

Want-to-see film of the week: The Adjustment Bureau

With a seemingly dull title I wasn't particularly grabbed by The Adjustment Bureau until I actually watched the full trailer and read about it in Empire. How often do I need to tell myself "Don't judge a book by it's cover"?

As it didn't hook me straight away I failed to notice it had several aspects that I enjoy in a film...

• A Philip K. Dick inspired storyline.
• A secret organisation that is controlling humanity.
• Trilbies and suits aplenty.
• Matt Damon and his face.

With a storyline that Empire calls "Inception for romantics" this sounds like just my cup of tea.

Hopefully off to see it on Wednesday and I'll give you a full review then.

Mmmmm academia...

For the first time I had a discussion today about what to do after university without feeling utterly terrified. All other discussions have ended up with my inner self whimpering and mumbling about debt and jobs and my outer self is focusing intently on the ceiling or a nearby squirrel.

A few days ago I was first tempted by the possibility of doing an MA. Myself and Kirsty had a mooch around the possibly MAs at Lincoln, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent. Looking through the courses it became clear that a lot of the journalism MAs (I was looking at print and magazine ones) crossed over with my BA. However when I came across the creative writing course I was intrigued. This is perhaps an option I could look into. I was thinking part-time MA with part-time work.

It's nice not to be terrified about AFTER UNI for once.

D'awwh, look... a baby iPad.

Well done, Apple. Just well done. For the first time I like something you've done without hating myself for it. The iPad 2 is still what the first one should have been but they haven't put the price up, it looks gorgeous  (except the white one) and even better, they've put the old one down in price by £100.

For once Apple aren't touting an overpriced cigarette case. The iPad is the leader in the market and it's actually good value for money. For once! Other tablets are more expensive and Android is still trying to catch up. I know I sound like a fangirl but hey. I actually think they're doing something right for once. Let's ignore the overpriced iPhone 4, the shattering glass, the pointless re-branding of video calling, antennagate and this wanker...

How to hide mediocrity behind a veil of pretty colours and vanity.

No matter how many different colours they projectile vomit onto a page Bullet is still nothing more than an SU toy with a budget it doesn't deserve. Well done, you have glossy pages but you seem ignorant of your audience and you treat your staff like idiots. Three members of staff have left in the last few weeks, it's like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

If you shove enough colours on it everyone will love it.

This month's copy was the last straw for my good friend Crystal. As entertainment editor you would think she would have a little creative control. However out of the 4 pages (one double page feature, 1 single page article, and 2 shorter articles) what ended up in the print edition (not to the knowledge of the so called entertainment editor) was the single page article and one of the half page articles with a page each then an article written by the editor about some microsoft software that came out months ago.

The article claimed to be about software that helped students but it only mentioned microsoft's windows live mesh and so just looked like a pr piece. If the article had been well researched she would have talked about Dropbox, the new Facebook groups feature, Google docs, and the fact that students can get cheap software. That's what that feature should have been.

I find it strange that with the SU promoting democracy so much it's publication is such a dictatorship. One editor asks everyone else to do the leg work then ignores it all and does what she wants.

This edition has just been the last straw. The contents quite good, Jamie's got a couple of good articles, and I can personally vouch for the two articles by Joe and James. But there's yet another article about clothes sizes/body image, do all Lincoln students think they're too fat and constantly think about clothes? And the photos are ridiculous. Almost all images in the issue are pixelated and dreadful. The front cover is badly photoshopped and makes no sense. Not only that but the subbing is frankly lazy, instead of subbing properly they've just deleted spaces after punctuation.

I know it's such a tiny thing by they've done it many times in the issue. It just not professional. The whole thing looks like it's just been cobbled together at the last minute. If you're going to do something, do it right. This is not a publication I could be proud of, I'd never publish something I didn't think was perfect. Not even as an assignment.

Oh this silly magazine enrages me. Silly silliness.