Universities. Ugh.

First off, in my last post I talked about the site 8tracks.com, where you could design and share your own playlists. I made my first playlist on the site, which you can listen to here, so yeah, check that out if you can.

Anyway, this post is going to be about Universities. Choosing a University is so hard. You put it off and off untill it's too late and you'll end up on a course you hate. Well, that's what it feels like to me.
This and This are the latest University rankings for 2012, the second being done by the Guardian Newspaper. Cambridge and Oxford were given the highest rank, but I'm going to talk about some of the less known Universities on the list, and you never know, you might want to go there yourself.

Exeter

Exeter is one of the top universities near where I live, based on Three Campuses along the Southern Coast. Although not very well known around the country, it is fast becoming one of the most sought after Uni's with applicant's grades well above the national average; due to it's wonderful Campus location, and ever improving facilities.

 The Research undertaken at the University is that of a high quality, and 13 subjects studied at the University are ranked in the the top ten of their fields, including Drama, Psychology and even Archaeology.
Their students union was also voted the best of the country in 2010, and the University runs a variety of different activites for every student, for everyone to get involved with.
Best Facility:   Their main Library is one of only 5 in the country open 24/7 with over 1.2million books on any of the subjects studied in the Uni, making life there that bit easier.


Grades Required: A*AA - BBB
2012-2013 fees: The full £9000
Open Days: 17th September

To Order a Prospectus, click here.



York

York wasn't opened untill the 1960's, but is now recognised as one of the top Universities in the country, always featuring in the top 20 in the University Surveys - and also featured in the top 100 in the world this year.
York is situated just North East of Manchester, and so is a completely different place to Exeter. The Campus is on the outskirts of the city, and made from 60's concrete buildings. Despite the large lake and grasses areas, it's not the prettiest of Campuses, but it makes up for this with the quality of research and teaching in the University.
Many of it's subjects are also featured in the top ten of their fields, with History and English just being two examples.

Best facility: Not just one, but the wide availibilty of all sports facilities, resteraunts, bars and shops based on campus mean York has a great atmosphere and you can get involved easily.

Grades required: AAA(B) - BBC
2012 - 2013 fees: Not yet released.
Open Days: 1st October.

To Order a Prospectus, click here.

UEA (University of East Anglia)

UEA is another Univesity opened in the 1960's and is part of the 1994 university group. Although ranked lower on the 2012 rankings, it is steadily improving, and will become one of the best Universitys in the country in the near future; especially in the Environmental science department.

UEA is located on the outskirts of Norwich, and is one of the best looking Campuses, with over 320 acres of 1960's architecture and open area. No wonder it is highly sought after, with 6.5 people applying for every place, and studently repeatadly agreeing that it is one of the best universities around; with satisfaction ratings over 90% every year.
The main problem with the University is the lack of jobs in the surrounding area, with Norwich the only city nearby, but that is more than made up by the wonderful courses and on Campus oppurtunites to keep you engaged.
Many of it's courses are also ranked in the top ten; most notibly Nursing and Geology.






Best facility: A £30million sports park with a 50m Olympic pool, multiple football pitches, running track and other sporting facilities, meaning it's easy to join clubs and get interested in new sport; or just to relax with a swim.

Grades required: A*AA - CCC
2012 - 2013 fees: £9000
Open Days: 1st, 2nd July and1st October.

To Order a Prospectus, click here.




Okay, I'll do another post featuring some other Universities some other time, so if you want me to mention any particular ones then just post a comment.
Choosing a Uni is really frustrating. Ugh.

Music to my ears

Playlists. Everyone has them.
Each playlist for a different occasion. Maybe a party playlist, played when you want to show off your ballin' dance moves. A sing-a-long playlist, used to impress your mates by showing them you can screech every word of 'Hallelujah' in time with the music, almost. Mostly though, playlists are for relaxing, with a selection of your favourite tunes from a range of different artists, to lie back and listen to.

8tracks is a website that allows members to upload and share thier favourite playlists with their friends, or in fact the world. All range of playlists designed by other users can be found. Any genre, any occasion. Just give one a play and you could find the perfect playlist for you. Any artist can be uploaded, so all sorts of bands could be found in all sorts of playlists - you just have to look.
Unfortunatly, the playlist cannot be downloaded and then listened to away from the computer, but if you find one you love that much, you could just 'buy' the music in the playlist yourself to listen in the car, or beach.

This is one of my favourite playlists on the site. It features music from Regina Spektor, Band of Horses and Temper trap and is a great listen whilst relaxing. You should give it a try.

I'll probably start making my own playlists on the site soon, especially as my Itunes is currently broken, so i'll make another post once that starts happening. Just thought i'd give a heads up about this site, as this can be a great way to find new bands or, if you fancy, make your own playlist to share with others.

Stalkerbook, or something..

Remember that time when it was seen as ordinary to blurt out any thought that popped into your easily excited brain? I do too. It was when you were 9. So why is it happening globally everyday? Why do people believe that we’d care about their ingrown toenail, or what flavour ice cream they have after dinner? You could honestly find more sense in Gok Wan’s wardrobe.

Yes, this is the worldwide frenzy that is Facebook. Of course you’ll have heard of it already, unless the last 10 years of your life were spent locked in David Cameron’s pleb cellar doing nothing but polishing his forehead. But for those of you who don’t have a clue what it’s all about - here’s a little run through of the absurdity of it all.

 Every user has their own ‘wall’ where they can write a status to tell everyone ‘what’s on their mind’. This is like a little diary only everyone see’s it.. This idea of saying ‘what’s on your mind’ really shouldn’t be taken literally, because if everyone spoke their complete mind we’d end up with a giant, orgy filled world war 3 to contend with. It’s usually the mind-less people that share the most anyway, producing dim-witted updates every hour of the day, until the typing wears away their fingers and they have to take a short break – only to afterwards comment on the break. It’s never ending cycle of useless twallop.
All of these statuses end up on a person’s feed, where you view all the statuses and comments from your friends. Hardly anything constructive can be seen here, just dozens of pointless polls and funny-but-not-actually-funny-‘cos-they’re-kind-of-racist group pages. The intellectual level of the poll questions border on grasshopper, whilst the groups are just another way of posting a status… Yay! I don’t know what sort of feed this is, but I’d prefer a bacon sandwich.      

And you can’t just fill someone’s feed with garbage, oh no - you can poke them as well. This is almost as pointless as battery powered batteries. You press a button and it tells the other person that they’ve been poked.

…

Moving on.

There is Facebook chat option, for the people who are far too cool to spend an extra minute logging into msn or skype, to talk privately. This would be a lifesaver if it was used more often. Maybe then we would not have to hear comments such as “OOOOOHHHH guess who rang” “Awww I’m soo upset” and the almost instantaneous replies of “what’s wronggg babee xx” “bbm me myy beautt”. Comments that are filled with more hearts than a pack of cards and enough X’s to win every noughts and crosses game ever played. If everyone’s feed is like that, it’s a miracle that we haven’t all died of facebook food poisoning.

Another feature on this wonderful site is the ability to post and share your photos. Whoever embedded this feature had obviously drunk too much vodka the night before and was letting his imagination get the better of him; seeing photo albums of landscape art and family photos. Instead we got albums full of nausea, pain and regret. You also get the inevitable photos of girls posing in every single way humanly possible without actually destroying the camera in a heap of push-up bra’s and makeup. They might even make a duck lips pose and push out their chest, mimicking   “Oh look at me, I’m so pretty I can make a silly face and still look beautiful, don’t you just love me”.

No, you look like a duck. Get over yourself.  

However my favourite photos has to be the shameless self-photos. If you are going to take the time to be a cam-whore then at least do the job properly. When the camerawork is worse than Gordon Brown’s personal photography, It’s not going to end well. It’s not just awkward for you, but for us too, having to look you in the eye and say you look great, while in fact the photo of you looks like it was a drawing by a 5 year old. Of a seal.

The best ‘self photo’ of the lot is the “future pedophile” look, usually taken by an adolescent male. Not only can’t the boy get a friend to take a picture of him, but also he can’t even be bothered to take a proper photo himself. The result?  A rather eerie web cam picture of him in a darkened room only lit by his computer screen. Yum. Of course, the boy cannot take his eyes away from the WoW game and/or porn that he is quite obviously watching long enough to even look at the web cam. With some people you can immediately tell.. - so just keep the kids away from him.

It’s as though facebook is a gateway for the socially inactive to worm their way into peoples live. View their photos. Stalk them. Poke them. Like them.

All of these features that make up ‘the facebook’ are just reducing further the dwindling faith I have in the competence of human kind. Why should we need to communicate our idea’s hidden behind a screen, upload photo’s to gain self confidence, like comments to try and fit it. It’s a farce.

So, if you’re socially inept with the need to express yourself to the world - use facebook. You can virtually “poke” whomever you want, and I sure if you comment on someone’s “wall” enough, they might eventually talk to you in real life. Be friends with anyone in the world, if they’ll accept you. They’ll definitely want to hear your opinion on channel 4’s ‘A place by the sea’ as much as the next person.
Well, I’m not sure about that, but Akhmed from Pakistan, with 0 mutual friends, will enjoy your opinion anyway.
 

Stoney

The beauty of a photo.

I've always enjoyed Photography, because there are so many beautiful things in the world; both places and memories. The beautiful thing about photography is that you get to capture that moment, and can then keep it for the rest of your life, not just as a memory but also as a picture.
I don't have the best of Cameras, but that doesn't discourage me, and I like to take photos whenever possible. I've just sorted out being able to share these photos, and hope they bring enjoyment to other people too.

This is a sample of some of my work, and the link to the Photobucket account is here

Please feel free to have a look, and leave comments if you like any photos. I'll add to it often, and probably play around with a few photos and post them on here too, so do check back.

Stoney.

Up and running.

Just about, anyway..
  I've never really tried blogging before. I've seen a few people do it, and it seemed like fun, so I thought I might as well get in on the act.  Writing isn't really my thing, but it's an easy way to express opinions and share ideas; and hey, it could be fun. I've always enjoyed Satirical writing so I might give that a try. I'll probably start for real a bit later, because I really need to revise the formations of glaciers - or something like that. Well, we'll see how it goes.

 Stoney.