ZOMG!

I've been asked to produce a promotional video for a new political party, the Trades Union and Socialist Party, for which Rail Marine and Transport Official Peter Gale will be standing against John Denhams in next years general elections.

Members of the party saw the documentary on the Fords Plant that I produced for my university course last year, and from that have decided to ask me to also produce their video.

This is the documentary:


So, watch this space!

Behind The Scenes of WINOL

Winchester News Online is is an independant online newspaper and weekley bulletin produced by journalism students at the University of Winchester. Last week I went behind the scenes to show you what goes on in our newsroom, gallery and studio on the day of a live bulletin broadcast.

To view the website, please visit www.winol.co.uk

Choreography

Turns out my dance teacher was 'relieved' of his position recently and I have put myself forward as a replacement dance teacher. Although I'm a qualified dancer, I've never had any experience in teaching a class. However, I have helped choreograph a few shows here and there. But it got me thinking 'how do I choreograph something that other people will really want to learn?'. I have a rather strange habit of videoing myself dancing when trying to choreograph, just so I can watch what I did and see if I've produced any good moves whilst flailing around absent mindedly...and I thought I'd share them with you today.

Just Dance!

I started dancing when I was about 6 years old. I have been trained in Disco, Freestyle, Latin American, Ballroom and Cheerleading. When I was about 13 I moved onto Street Dance, which I found was definitely my favourite style of dancing. But unfortunately I had to give up dancing at 16 because of an injury I'd suffered during the City Athletic Championships.
I started getting back into keeping fit around 4 motnsh ago when I joined my local gym. I was purely using it to tone up and start to look healthier. I wasn't really interested in attendign any classes and stuff...I just did my own thing. However 4 weeks ago I found out about a Street Dance class held at the gym, which was just awesome. So I went along and I've been going twice a week since.
It turned out that it wasn't just Street he was teaching, but also breakdance and popping - two styles of dance that I have always wanetd to learn! Anyway
I am now helping to teach the lessons, which is just such a cool experience, and my dance teacher has invited me to be in his 'crew' (haha it sounds so 'down with the hood') and hopefully I'll be going to London next may to compete in a dance off competition at the O2 Arena.
After my injury I never thought I'd ever get back into dancing, but now I don't think I've ever enjoyed it so much.
At the moment I'm trying to master a one handed back flip, and although Ali says its easy, I think I'm gonna have to get some muscles before thats EVER going to happen!

WINOL goes live...

Last weeks edition of WINOL was our first proper launch of the website as a fully functioning student journalism website.

I was asked to be the presenter for the live bullitin, which was an absolutely great opportunity, however, I'm not going to lie, I was absolutely crapping my pants.

I felt like I received a lot of support from my fellow students during the preparation for the live bullitin, especially from James, Richard and Cliff. Also Kay Oliver was an absolutely priceless source of knowledge and advice for me. She went through my questions for the live interview with me and showed me how I should present myself infront of the camera in terms of posture and where my hands should be etc. They seem like insignificant details now retrospectively, btu having that extra bit of help was very comforting. Also Claire, who had been the presenter for the two dummy run weeks gave me some encouragement and advice about what she had experienced whilst doing it.

Now, watching it back I can see so many things I could have improved on. For example, I stuttered a lot, but unfortunately that couldn't really be helped because it was down to nerves. Also, I didn't realise at the time that I'd said "ok" after every question in the interview, and thats definitely something I wouldn't do again because it came across as if I were saying "yeah ok whatever". When in actual fact the reason I was probably saying it was because it was extremely difficult to concentrate on the interview with Leane and others in the gallery constantly talking to me through my ear piece. They say that women can multi-task - it's not true!

The only thing that really went wrong was right at the end when I sign off, I couldn't see the auto-cue because it started so much later than it was supposed to and I had to quickly refer to my script. However I should possibly have been following my script along with the autocue the whole time and that would probably have provided a quicker fall back plan, but unfrotunately there is a gap where I realise I need to be speaking because Leane was saying "Cue Catherine"...and I kind of paniked. Although I'm not sure how obvious that is to others when they watch it.

In terms of features, they seem to be posted up days after the bullitin goes live, which is fair enough because I understand that the production team is VERY busy. But this concerns me for next semester when the third years will no longer be working with us and we will have to run the show on our own.

I'm definitley looking foward to what this week has to offer, however I feel my input for fashion this week won't be as strong as it previously has been purely because the exciting interesting stuff I have booked is in the weeks to come.

Lizards rule the world...say the voices in David Icke's head

The moment you start hearing voices in your head, your rational thought should be 'I need to see a doctor pronto!'. However David Icke ignored any rational motion he may have had and instead chose to share his crazy rants with the world.
Icke's theory is almost on par with Scientology, and are both suprisingly money making theories.
The 'religion' of Scientology takes donations, and is tax exempt in America. Its followers actually have to pay money to become privy to the secrets behind the religion about how aliens came to earth 75 million years ago from a Galactic Federation called Xenu. In the same way, Icke's followers are paying money to read his books and attend his talks, meanwhile feeding his fortune.
Icke is either god damn insane or a very intelligent, exhibitionist conman. Personally I believe he's the later. He started out his career as a sports presenter, ie. he likes performing for the camera. Acting like a crazy man claiming the he knows about a supposed political conspiracy simply attracts him more attention, which he obviously enjoys. As it was said in Jon Ronsons documentary 'The Lizards and the Jews', Icke's argument is all plusible right up until he hits the punch line. So why go and ruin his well thought through, credible conspiracy theory with "and...they're all 7ft scaley lizards".
He knows that a little bit of craziness will bring in the crowds and therefore create revenue. Its the money he's interested in...its got to be!

Just a thought...: War

Just a thought...: War
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/074758589X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254935232&sr=8-1

Catherine Hayes Photography

I am currently working on getting a website for Catherine Hayes Photography up and running very soon. I will post a link on my blog once it is set up.
For those of you that don't know, I run my own photographic studio from home. I do portrait/fashion/beauty shoots, both in the studio and out on location, and I will hopefully soon be moving into the world of wedding photography.

If you are interested in having a shoot done, please have a look at the prices below. The prices include the shoot, plus images on disc, allowing you to purchase your own prints from a local photography shop such as Jessops. My prices are very reasonable compared to other photographers.


PRICE LIST:

INDIVIDUAL SHOOTS-
(price includes photo shoot plus up to 30 images on disc)
Studio shoot (3 hours)- £60
Location shoot (3 hours, around Southampton)- £70
Studio and location shoot (4 hours)- £75

GROUP SHOOTS-
(price includes photo shoot plus up to 20 images on disc EACH)
Couples (4 hours)- £90
Group of 3 (5 hours) - £120
Group of 4 (6 hours) - £150
***each person coming for a group shoot is entitled to a 30 minute individual shoot as well as the group shoot, hence why the duration of each shoot is extended according to how many people are attending. Maximum of 3 outfit changes per person.

EXTRAS
Full make-up - £20
Images (on top of what you already receive)- £3 each

STUDIO ADDRESS
63 Avenue Road
Portswood
Southampton
(off road parking available)
***My studio is set up at home. Nice welcoming, friendly atmosphere. Food and drink available.

I can do all kinds of photography including portraiture (including family shoots), fashion, prom, underwear, expectant mothers, new born, infants, etc. You name it and I can probably arrange it.

Please feel free to give me feedback, it would be much appreciated! :)


A little bit about me:
I studied photography at A-Level and now I'm doing a degree in Journalism.
Before setting up Catherine Hayes Photography I had done photo shoots for friends and compiled a modelling portfolio for a friend which got her a modelling contract. Other friends have also asked for shoots with me. So, instead of doing to odd photo shoot here and there, I have decided to set up a business and spread my wings further ( as they say).
At the beginning of May 2009 I pitched this idea to my Mum (actually I just mentioned it) and she has agreed to fund me to get me started out :).
Can't think of anything else to say...
Oh yeah...I have recently bought a shiny new Canon EOS 450D (yay!) so your photos will be taken on one of the latest models out at the moment.

Photographer: Catherine Hayes
Link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85492077130

SEO

Horrie is today teaching us about the wonders of search engines such as Google.
We started off the lecture by looking at a website called Alexa, which is a Web Information Company that provides an 'unparalleled database' of information about websites, including statistics. By searching a particular website on Alexa - such as the website for the University of Winchester - we can view its traffic statistics, the search words driving traffic, where it's users come from and where it ranks around the world. As it turns out, www.winchester.ac.uk isn't very popular, and Horrie predicts that this is because of it' poor SEO - Search Engine Optimization. It's keywords are rubbish and it doesn't have any links, etc.
For my blog to incur lots of traffic, it is essential to improve my SEO.
Search engines such as Google do not 'search', instead they are a filing system. This filing system is compiled by special software robots called spiders (a process called web crawling), which build lists of words from websites in order to index them. Once spidered, your website will appear on a search that hits any of your keywords. To improve your ranking on the search (SEO) you can:
1. Use your keywords in your domain name
2. Make your content relevant to to the search results
3. Update your content regularly, which will increase how often your website gets 'crawled'
4. Link your pages internally to ensure all your pages get spidered
5. Get others to link to your site - this will improve your ranking as Google perceives sites with lots of back links as high quality
6. Research what keywords are searched when people search fr your product/subject of interest
7. Keep your code clean
8. Avoid using flash (spiders can't read flash)

Photograph: Tube Spider
Photographer: Catherine Hayes
Link: http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/arachnids/tube_web_spider/4271/index.html

Hope Dies Last

I have just started reading a book by Stud Terkel (Hope Dies Last). Just reading the introduction reminds me of the 2008 Socialist conference I attended in London. The book talks of activists and how it is they are who bring us hope, despite the fact that change rarely ever takes place in this country. I couldn't help but feel almost embarrased when I sat in that lecture room and listened to socialist members speak about how they were going to change the world and about how Socialism is the way to go. All I could think is "You haven't really thought this through, have you?". Fair enough, their ethics and policies sound great, but how do they expect to be able to completely change the system that our society runs on and make it work?
Who really wants to be equal anyway? If I was subjected to earning the same amount of money as everybody else (due to socialists wanting to tax high earners the majority of their money) I'd be left with no hopes, no dreams, and no determination to do anything with my life. You'd get out of education and it would be like "This is it...this is all you have to look foward to!". At least with Capitalism you have a chance to get to that level where you can earn shit loads of money, and look at everybody else and laugh (that sounds harsh, but it's true). You'd start to question the point of your existance.
And what would be the point of even going to University? Yeah sure you'd be more intelligent than everybody else and you could get that job that earns you more responsibility, but for what? For the government to take it all from you and share it out between everyone else? Bullshit.
Of course, if you're on the other end of the spectrum, and you have absolutely no chance of ever reaching that big pay cheque, socialism sounds wonderful. In fact the majority of socialist members are suprisingly poor students. Ones who have spunked all their loans on shit they didn't need and now think "Oh crap, if only we lived in a socialist society, then I wouldn't have to pay for University at all".
Anyway, back to the book. My Dad recommended this book to me, and I can now see why. My Dad is a left wing 'activist' (or so he likes to think). He was recently involved with the protests and campaigns against the closure of the Southampton Fords factory. However, I think he's now wondering why he ever complained as he's just received a £70,000 redundancy package, plus a pension. Just three pages in to the introduction the book mentions how autoworkers sat down in the General Motors plant in Michigan for 44 days, and reading that i thought "Oh here we go...".
I don't know if I have the patience the continue reading it. My hope has already died. If I do continue I'll let you know how it goes :)

Post Office Queue?!

Recently there have been mentions of a new system that could be brought into action in the bars and clubs. This system would involve customers queuing at the bar in single file in order to control the amount of alcohol consumed by each individual. Thats fair enough because it's true that young people these days drink far too much. But think about it this way...if you have a single file queue, only one member of staff is needed to serve at any time during the night. Now that fact worries me because I work in a bar and that means that I could possibly lose my job! There's enough bloody problems at the moment with unemployment due to the recession that it would be stupid to bring in a campaign that just loses more people jobs!
Not only does that make me question this post office style queuing system, but also it would kill business for bars and clubs. Who on earth wants to spend half their night queuing in an orderly line? You might aswell be back at school. It would be impossible to enjoy a relaxed night out with friends when you get treated like you're 10 yrs old again every tim you get a drink. Punters are only going to go to the places which don't have this silly system in place, and the places that do are going to suffer finicially.

War

I am currently reading a book called 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' which tells a story of a young girl growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the Taliban rule.
The first time I became aware of the war in Afghanistan was on September 11th 2001, when Al-Qaeda terrorists hi-jacked and crashed two planes into the Twin Towers - before that moment I was oblivious.
Earlier this evening I was flitting around the house, tidying, with the news on the television in the next room. I caught the sound of a name that sounded familiar - Abdul Rashid Dostum. Dostum was a leader who fought as part of the Mujahdeen in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the late 1980's. There were many other powerful leaders in the Mujahdeen, and once the war was over they no longer had a common enemy and instead turned on eachother. These honorable leaders (as they were once seen as in the eyes of Afghans) became warlords, who marked their territory with guns and bombs. This is the kind of violence that still goes on everyday in Kabul; the kind of violence that is killing our troops. And Afghanistan hasn't changed for the last two decades, as they were just discussing on BBC news.
And how do I know all this? My wonderful book told me! I recommend this book to anyone that wants to get more of an insight the the history of Afghanistan and their culture. It really helps you understand the current state of affairs...

Death

Death is all over the news everyday. People thrive on stories of disaster and tragedy, like its some kind of sick entertainment. In fact I think we are almost immune to feeling emotion in response to these terrible stories because bad news is all we hear.
Madelynne Butcher, 18, died after contracting the H1N1 virus last Thursday. Initally I was really worried about swine flu, but after friends and family got it and recovered from it I began to assume that all the massive fluster about it being deadly was just nonsense. I went to the same school as Madelynne, and she was a friend of a friend. To see a familiar face pop up on my TV screen and to simultaneously hear the words "died from swine flu" made me catch my breath. It made me realise that these horrible things we hear about everyday actually break peoples lives apart, where as to the moajority they might aswell be fairytales of a far away land.

Philosophy and the existence of a supreme being...

In my last politics lecture, my lecturer, Chris Horrie has asked us to write both an a priori argument and an a poteriori (empirical) argment. But what to argue about?...I know, the exisitance of GOD!

There are two conflicting arguments for the existence of God: Descartes' ontological (or a prori) argument, which arises from clear and distinct ideas, and St Thomas Aquinas' design argument.

Descartes argument is fascinating, and also seems slightly crazy. The main points of his argument are:
1. I have an idea of a supremely perfect being, ie. with all pefections
2. I clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary existence is contained in the idea
of perfection.
3. Therefore, God exists.
Obviously this is the simplified version, but still you get the idea.

So if I were to have an idea of a supremely perfect island, with all perfections, it is fair to say that it's existance follows from the concept of perfection (as Descartes said)...so I guess my perfect island exists right? So where the hell am I going to find an island that has an unlimited supply of alcohol, a nightclub that never closes, with performing monkeys serving drinks and loads of hot guys? I have a feeling that no such island exists...much to my disappointment! This was exactly the argument that Gaunilo used in objection to Descartes' ontoligical argument.

People that use a priori arguments, as Horrie said in our lecture, are very hard to prove wrong because their main argument is: " I think it, therefore it's true".

The design argument (or teleogical argument) is a posteriori (empirical), meaning 'from direct experience'. In our lecture Chris Horrie said that religion is a concept rejected by empirical arguments. However, this argument from St Thomas Aquinas is used to prove to existence of God. An analogy of the argument was given by William Paley (1743 - 1805). It is the watchmakers argument and it follows: If you found a watch in a field , you would logically conclude that the watch had been designed rather than a product of random formation.

The full argument for the existence of God is:
1. Human artifacts are products of intelligent design.
2. The universe resembles human artifacts.
3. Therefore the universe is a product of intelligent design.
4. But the universe is complex and gigantic, in comparison to human artifacts.
5. Therefore, there probably is a powerful and vastly intelligent designer who created the universe.

This argument seems to me to be more creditable than the a priori argument from Decartes. However, I wouldn't call myself an empiricalist because after having studied philosophy at A Level, I have found that some empirical arguments sound like absolute nonsense and so can rationalist arguments, as I have shown with the argument for the existence of God.

All that aside, I don't actually believe in God. So, I don't have an idea of sumpreme being with all perfections. Without perfection there is no existence. God does not exist.