Boo

I’m still here.

It’s been almost a month since my last blog entry – apologies for the absence. It’s been a funny time – since completing the CIPR Diploma I needed to give my brain a bit of a rest (i’m not sure it is fully recovered yet!)

The trouble with not blogging for a while is that it’s hard to know what to blog about to break the drought so I thought I might just start with a round-up of what I have been upto whilst I have been ‘away’ .

• Went to the CIPR PRide Awards where the University won a gold award in the Public Affairs category for the Warwick Commission (read the press release)
• Went to see Blood Brothers at the Birmingham Hippodrome (tweet)
• Went to the inaugral Birmingham Social Media Cafe
• Went to London for Halloween/my mates birthday (tweet)
• Went to Chatsworth in the Peak Ditrict for a week with my parents
• Went out in Birmingham for cousins birthday (tweet)
• Went to London for another mates birthday – Slim Jims in Islington followed by Lucky Voice karaoke

So, that kind of brings me up to date…

Now that I have broken the drought, I will try to think of something more interesting for next time.

Funny (for geeks)

The Website Is Down: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

Gone til November

I know I go on about it all the time but I am doing the final project of my CIPR Diploma at the moment and it’s not due until 24th October so the next month is going to be a hard slog writing a 6000 word report (3000 word literature review and 3000 words of primary research). Will try and blog more about the topic soon…

In the meantime, I had a funny conversation with my colleague and friend who is also studying the diploma. We have a funny game (I say funny, I probably mean geeky) where we find songs on YouTube to convey what we think/feel about things. Today I sent her this….

(EDIT: I sent her the actual music video, not this rubbish version but embedding has been removed by request – don’t you hate when people do that)

This is the conversation we had…

Ellie Lovell: ha ha http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHHtpTwJeM
(4:32:18 PM) Julia: is this us?
(4:32:21 PM) Julia: gone til november?
(4:32:26 PM) Julia: 23 oct to be exact
(4:32:28 PM) Ellie Lovell: i know
(4:32:34 PM) Ellie Lovell: altho there wasn’t a song about 23rd oct
(4:32:42 PM) Julia: a good point
(4:32:48 PM) Julia: well made
(4:32:55 PM) Ellie Lovell: i will look for one
(4:33:01 PM) Julia: lol
(4:33:09 PM) Julia: will laugh if you find one

(This isn’t the exact conversation – I amended the typos)

I will let you know if I find a song about 23rd October.

Procrastination

Right now I should be writing a Project Outline for my CIPR Diploma Project but instead I am procrastinating and I can see a lot more of this happening over the next month before the deadline on Friday 24th October.

via Podnosh

I haven’t blogged for ages…

I hate when blog posts start with “I haven’t blogged for ages” but I feel I need to say it! It’s been almost a month but I have been pretty busy! Very poor – especially since I was given a plug on Matthew Watson’s blog – I now have something to live up to!

So the month of July mostly consisted of my CIPR Planning Assignment but it was a massive relief to finally submit it and have it out of my life (unless of course I fail and have to re-submit!). Generally in life, I like situations when you know what the right answer or direction is – but this assignment was like feeling my way in the dark. There were so many options or possibilities that the ‘right’ answer was hard to find so who knows how I got on! Well, I guess I find out in mid-September! I am already thinking about the final project for the CIPR diploma – a 6000 word research project on a topic of our choice – but I will blog more about that another time!

Apart from that I have been enjoying having my social life back and have been to a few parties including Pickle Jar Communications 1st Birthday party and the University of Warwick’s Staff Summer Party. I have also celebrated Mom’s birthday and waved goodbye to my cousin Maria who was home for the Summer after three years living in Jakarta, and has now moved on to Singapore for two years! Plus it’s my own birthday tomorrow and on Sunday I am going to London for my friends daughters 3rd birthday. Then a week today (next Friday) my cousin is having a baby! There really is no rest for the wicked!

Work has also been pretty busy lately. People think that it’s quiet at a University during the summer months when there are no students around but they are quite wrong. There are lots of preparations to be made for new students especially with A-level results, clearing, confirmation, enrolment, preparations for induction etc. The University has also taken on a new enquiry management system to assist communications with prospective students and applicants so there is a lot of planning going in to that as well as the usual ‘comms’ stuff.

So after that re-cap, I think I need to change my approach to blogging and try a more little-but-often approach as this entry is far too long and boring…!

Looking ahead…

So I have resigned myself to the fact that, like April, July is going to be pretty much…

Where is my sunshine?

We received our CIPR planning assignment on Monday 30th June and progress so far has been slow. It’s a pretty tricky assignment and being busy with work I just haven’t made much headway with it so it’s time to knuckle down!

I have lots of things to look forward to in August so that should keep me motivated. I’m making a note of them here so that when I am struggling with the assignment and feeling miserable I can remind myself of the fun to come!

• Saturday 2nd August – Leaving Party for Sam and Mark (colleague and her husband who are moving to Brighton)
• Wednesday 6th August – Pickle Jar Communications‘ 1st Birthday Party
• Thursday 7th August – University of Warwick Staff Summer Party
• Saturday 9th August – Nottingham for final CIPR Diploma teaching session
• Tuesday 12th August – Mom’s Birthday
• Wednesday 13th August – Mom’s twin sister (Mag) coming over from Dublin
• Saturday 16th August – My Birthday – there will be a whole weekend of celebrations for this but I haven’t got round to planning it yet!
• Monday 18th August – Going to see Mary Poppins at Birmingham Hippodrome
• Friday 22nd August – Cousin Laura having baby (if not earlier!)
• Saturday 23rd August – Casey Leaver’s 30th Birthday
• Tuesday 26th – Friday 29th August – CASE Annual Conference in Brighton

EDIT: this list is not exhaustive – I shall be adding to it!

So, bring on August when I will feel more like this…

I can do anything if I try

EDIT: I also feel that August might need a theme tune so am open to suggestions…preferably in the form of links to YouTube please!

Social Networking Wars

Via prgeek.net

I’m a loving Leo lion

I realise that my last three blog posts have been a bit heavy going about my CIPR Diploma so here’s a bit of entertainment…

I recently discovered “The Astrology Songs” by Harvey Sid Fisher – “twelve hits describing the special qualities of each sign in the Zodiac”.

You can hear clips from all of the astrology songs on YouTube and they are very entertaining (although I can’t say that they are necessarily accurate!)

Lyrics:

I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
BORN UNDER THE SUN
I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
I CAN DO WHAT CAN’T BE DONE
CERTAIN TO SUCCEED CAUSE I’M A SPECIAL BREED
EVERYTHING ABOUT ME IS RIGHT
YOU KNOW I AM THE FUN SIGN YOU KNOW I AM THE SUN SIGN
YOU KNOW I AM THE LIGHT

I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
DON’T PUT ME IN NO ZOO
I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
I WON’T DO NO TRICKS FOR YOU
MY ROYALTY CAN SOMETIMES BE A LITTLE TO RICH FOR MY BLOOD
I ALWAYS AIM SO HIGH I WILL BE REACHING FOR THE SKY
AND I’LL GET STUCK IN THE MUD

NO WITTICISM IF THE JOKES ON ME
SHOW CRITICISM IF IT’S COMPLIMENTARY
MY VANITY LOVES FLATTERY

I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
A WINNER WITHOUT FAIL
I’M A LOVIN LEO LION
FROM MY MANE DOWN TO MY TAIL
A FLAIR FOR FASHION AFFAIRS OF PASSION
SOMETIMES IN SECRET AND SHAME
I NEED MORE SEX THAN MOST IT’S JUST A FACT NOT A BOAST
AND IF YOU LOVE ME WE’LL DO THE SAME

I’M A LOVIN LEO LION…

Full lyrics and audio clips can be found on Harvey Sid Fishers website. Let me know whether his description of your zodiac sign was accurate…

My recent discoveries

These musicians aren’t necessarily ‘new’ but they are new to me so thought I would share.

Hope you enjoy…

I’m Yours by Jason Mraz

Another Day by Jamie Lidell

The Quest by Bryn Christopher

The University of Thick?