Orwell's Message

Now I was going to leave all my blogs on the reading until the New Year and enjoy the Christmas break but whilst at midnight mass last night with my gran and great gran I was reminded of the main theme's in George Orwells ground breaking book, 1984.

Most merciful God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
We confess that we have sinned
in thought, word and deed.

Kneeling in church the people around me were praying to God for forgiveness for not only deeds they have done and things they have said... but also immoral thoughts they have had. In religion not even your thoughts are your own. This ties in heavily with Orwells themes in 1984. Orwell suggested that by 1984, (he had written the book in 1948) that the government would control our thoughts by changing language. He suggested that if you take a word away then you not only take the word but everything associated with it. In 1984 if you thought about something that had been 'removed' then you were commiting a 'thought crime' and in time you would be killed... no wait not killed... also removed! Anything to do with sex was a "sex crime".

It seems that today in a way, Orwells predictions have materialised after all... for those who attend church regularly, albeit very few. The people in that church were begging to be forgiven for their unpure thoughts which shows a sense of fear of a higher figure, in this case God which contrasts with the government in 1984. I once suggested that some people go to church to give themselves standards and morals to live by but now I wonder if this is somebody elses intention. I will leave you to come to your own conclusions of what I mean by that.

Anyway... it's Christmas Day and on a lighter note, my father went to put the turkey in the oven earlier and the oven had broken! He refused to see the funny side like my mum and I. I can't help thinking it's the ghosts of the turkeys I saw being killed on BBC's Kill It Cook It Eat It, making a stand. At least this is a Christmas we won't forget in a hurry. Our next door neighbour Joyce, (pushing 80, swears like a trooper... envision the nan off of Catherine Tate) has put our Turkey and spuds in her oven, so it won't be Christmas beans on toast like my dad joked about. I love Joyce... yesterday she asked me if I had a boyfriend and when I answered no she told me "Good girl, have sex and stay f***ing single!!" I would like to end this festive blogpost on those wise words from Joyce!!

* Merry Christmas 2009 *

Looking Back...

2010 is approaching fast and here I am trying to think of one thing I would change if I could... and for once I can't think of anything! I'm not saying I've had the perfect year but 2009 has seen me make new friends, a new job, good memories, a couple of regrets and a lot of baked beans on toast and I honestly don't think I could have had a more colourful year. Perhaps there are some situations I could have handled differently but in general it's been great!

If I have spent some time in 2009 with you whether it be; watching disney, playing frisbee at Southampton Common, Chinese Buffeting it at the Water Margin, playing tennis until the pros came and showed us up, watching Hairspray in London, spending the day taking pictures in Bournemouth- laughing until our sides ache, fishing for caffe latte jelly beans, playing roulette in the casino at 4am, dancing at Lennon's on a friday night, GO APE... then you have made a part of my year! I learn a little about myself through every person I meet and befriend... each and every one of you, I appreciate you all! :) I hope to make many more amazing memories in 2010.

MERRY CHRIMBO AND A HAPPY NEW YEARRR <3

Euthanasia

I would like to talk about something that has touched me this week. I phoned a friend from home to check in like I do every now and again and when I asked the standard opening question "how are you?" I did not get the standard reply I expected. She was not in a good way. It turned out her auntie who suffered from Motor Neurone Disease had come to the end. For those of you who don't know, Motor Neurone Disease causes all your muscles to stop working until eventually your vital organs shut down. It is also the main cause of euthanasia (which I will come to later). When this disease takes over, your brain is the last thing to go so even after victims speech is gone they can feel every bit of pain but can not communicate it to those around so often family are faced with a situation where the patient wants to be taken away to die, as 'unethical' as that is... you would not allow an animal to live in excruciating pain would you?

Anyway back to my story, my friend's aunty's heart had stopped but they managed to resuscitate her long enough to take her home and have her oxygen mask removed around all her loved ones, so they could all say goodbye in turn. She had already told her family several months earlier that when the time came she did not want to be kept alive.

It made me wonder how I would handle such a situation. Would I selfishly want a loved one to be kept on oxygen and have their painful life prolonged for my own benefit or would I allow them to pass away when the time had come. I hope the latter but it must be heart-breaking and I can't bare to imagine myself in those shoes. 

The long winded point I am trying to make is... if I was in so much pain that I could no longer even tell people. I would want to die. No question. I believe that a person has the right to die with dignity and I believe in Euthanasia. Any thoughts?

End of WINOL.... for now!

I'm in the newsroom right now... and the first time I have made it in for 9am happens to be the one time I didn't need to be so I am the only one here! But it has given me a great opportunity to write a bit about WINOL and to reflect on the last couple of months gone by.

As recently as the end of October, if you had given me a Sony shooting kit I wouldn't know what the hell to do with it. Last year we had some camera training but it was so sparse and in between that none of us really got a chance to become confident. 

However... the best thing that has happened to me at Uni so far is being thrown in at the deep end by being given the role of a news reporter, forcing me to learn quickly. My very first news package was filming the firework procession going through Winchester which Colin from the 3rd year kindly assisted me on. My framing was already ok but I wasn't up to scratch on all the technical stuff so by watching Colin closely and following suit I managed to become quite confident at filming by the end of the semester. 

My second demon was editing. Editing was all just too scary for me. I couldn't pull myself together to get my head around it but slowly I started to learn and now I can do that too.

So the third years are off to work on their innocence project now and the studio is going to be taken over by us. This means all the senior roles that they did so far, i.e. editor, production manger etc, will be taken over by us... are we up to the challenge? I don't know... but I do know we have all overcome every hurdle so far so here's hoping!! 

Behind the scenes of Winol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_XOrUp3gw