Nico Space

Easter holidays have officially begun and now the real work starts. I have been able to absorb myself in the activities of everyday and put my articles aside. Now it's showtime.

Last night Luke and I went to a party at a pub for my programme. It was pretty fun and neat for Luke to put faces to names.

After I had curry chips of course, but they did a little number on my tummy. How could they betray me like this? I loved them!

All is forgiven now though and the cravings for the next order have already begun.

I am having a very interesting week.

I applied for a BBC class on digital storytelling before Christmas so ten of us from my programme have been set free from our usual classes and immersed in a very digital world for a whole week.

One of the best things about it is that all of the stories are being done on macs just like mine. I get to use my own comp and  I am learning a lot about the features of the computer and how to best use all the software. How handy!

It started out quite stressful, having to write a script the first evening that would be our final script. I was up quite late worried and unsatisfied on Monday night. However, I woke up early Tuesday morning and finished it. I made a few edits with one of the six teachers that are looking after the ten of us and off I was in the studio recording my voice.

My story is about my Gran. I was really happy to have a VHS video filled with old 8mm footage of her and my family and thought I was all ready to make the story. Unfortunately and fortunately I learned a lot about NTSC (as the joke goes: Never The Same Colour) this week and PAL. NTSC is the video standard used in North America and most of South America. In NTSC, 30 frames are transmitted each second. PAL is the standard mostly used here in the UK. In PAL, 25 frames are transmitted each second.

Anyway, we had a lot of trouble capturing my video. We did manage to capture a bit in black and white (the colour just would not come through) before the VCR ate my tape twice. Anyway, my tape can be repaired but the instructor folks told me to maybe think of a plan B for images. So...at least I have some black and white video and I will mix it up with the photos I have.

I will try and post the finished product on my blog at the end of the week.

It has been a lot of fun and I am getting more and more inspired by storytelling, citizen media and digital media. It brings together a lot of my passions.

Well in celebration of post 100 I thought, like in any cheesy talk show, it is time to look at the past 100 posts and pick out some highlights!

-Monday, October 30, 2006- Chris' dance party video

-Also from Monday, October 30, 2006 my flying video, which Christos, a guy in my program commented very seriously: I don't understand your humour.
That's ok Christos, you're not the only one.

-Sunday, November 26, 2006: Chris and I talking to random dude about hockey and rugby on St. Mary's st. after the pub.

-Sunday, November 19, 2006-My happy 1 year to Luke post and the photo of him with a stain on his shirt, a handle bar stache and and my coolest hat.


Saturday, December 09, 2006
Remembering my hog on a bun. Soooo tasty:
"I was really hungry and saw a whole pig roasting with a sign that said, "Hog on a bun". I couldn't resist. I ordered a regular one and they slapped a lot of hog and some stuffing on a bun. I added some apple sauce. Delish!"

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Losing my hair and the many comments it generated.



















ANYWAY, a few memories from 100 posts. Thank you to the 30 people on average that check up everyday. My mom can probably account for 10 of those. Thanks for checking everyone. I appreciate it!
Here is to many more!

Only a few days have gone by this week but it already seems like a very long time has passed.

My mom called me Sunday night with the news that my aunty Lucia passed away. I am quite sad I will not see her again in this life.

She had not been well for a while and was never really diagnosed with anything concrete. We are still not sure why she died. At least she died at home. From what I gather she didn’t like doctors.

Despite not being well she had more energy in her than most of us combined. She was a feisty Brazilian woman. I really loved her from the start.

When I met her over 10 years ago I remember playing volleyball with her in the backyard at the family farm. My cousins and I looked at her a bit quizzically at first as she played with more gusto then any of us.

At my high school graduation no one in the crowd cheered louder then her when I walked down the aisle. She was always really encouraging and was proud of all of my cousins and I.

I am so happy my oncle Guy married her and she became my aunt. Her spark and exclamations will be missing from our family gatherings.

If things are tough I’ll just think of her and say to myself: “Oh my Godee!”

It has been nice to connect with a few of my cousins the last few days on Facebook. Sometimes things like this bring you closer together. It’s good to have family to laugh with and get through the hard times.

I am happy my family came together so quickly when they heard the news. The family from St. Louis drove down immediately and everyone hung out at Guy’s house all day. It seems that everyone is coming together to help out.

Lucia’s daughters have a lot on their mind I am sure. Gislaine just had a baby three weeks ago and Helen is due in a few months. Lucia’s mom also just died a few weeks back. There are now 11 of her brothers and sisters still alive from the original 13 and some are flying back this week for the funeral. It has been a really hard time for all of them.

Lots of love to oncle Guy and all the family.

Justin Lewis spoke to our class this week and argued that sometimes polls are more accurate at getting the true opinion of the masses then elections because a more representive sample of society participates in polls than in elections. Isn't that fascinating if it's true?

Wa!

Oh well I don't mind, you don't mind
Cause I don't shine if you don't shine
Before you go, can you read my mind?

The Killers are making me stop in my tracks these days. When I hear one of their songs come on the radio I need to stop, shiver a little and continue on. I think it's because one of their songs made me really happy one day when I was walking home and since then that emotion comes back every time.

Positive response.

It's all I really talk about these days, what will I be doing next year? I like having a plan.

I was really stressed in Ireland when I didn’t know what was going on in September. Then thinking about coming here to do a degree. I comforted myself in thinking that it is only one year and it’s a good opportunity.

Now I am back to square one. What’s next?

Part of me wants to go back to Saskatchewan and find any job. I am sure it would be fine and I would be satisfied and happy but part of me feels like there is only a small window of opportunity for me to get more international experience. Of course there is a lifetime of travel ahead but it’s harder to get up and go when you have a mortgage, 5 kids and you’re on the community social committee.

Not that any of these things are going to happen tomorrow but I know things change fast.

Luke and I were walking to the laundry on Saturday morning and we stepped off the curb to cross the street. Suddenly I saw the car parked facing us start to move! I screamed at the top of my lungs "Luke!!!” Tears sprung to my eyes as I tried to pull him back out of the way but it was too late. The car bumped Luke.

Luckily it did not hit him hard. He said it did not hurt at all. It was mostly just scary. The driver pulled back again into his spot and got out of his car asking Luke over and over if he was ok. The driver said he just wasn't looking cause he was focusing too much on the traffic. He seemed like a nice man.

We have been extremely careful crossing the street since then. Although it was not our fault he got hit.

School was a bit stressful today. I am doing radio now for two weeks. My prof asked the first presenter, to read the news and take care of all the technical stuff as well. I was the first presenter. Surprisingly it went off without a hitch! I was bright red and my hands were shaking all the way through. What a rush!

It was a great start but there were a few downers. When I was doing sound for my team later I neglected to turn up the volume for the sports presenter and screwed up on the last jingle of another program. I really learned lot today.

I bought a few tickets on another grad centre trip to Warwick castle on the 24th of March. This coming weekend is our trip to Cadbury world!!

I'm like Billy Elliott. When I walk it's hard not to skip or polka or something. I think it's the aerobics curse. Once you do it regularly the movement doesn't leave your body and you just have to move all the time. It doesn't help that I am quite a hyper person.

I think I need to take a bit more time to just kick it. I don't mean a lot more time because I would be extremely unhappy if I hung out too much. Just a little more time. I think it would improve my social life to just relax into social situations and not be thinking of the next activity. That is if I had a more active social life.

I get soo excited for breakfast club and things like that. I really miss you people back home. You're so much fun.

My writing is so full of hyberbole it's not even funny. In the last two paragraphs I had to delete two uses of the word always and one of the word everywhere. Jesus. This needs to be corrected. I suppose it is being corrected.

I spend too much time on Facebook. Do others have this problem? I need to kick it more often with humans and less often with my computer.

I like saying kick it.

It's friday and I love Fridays. I cleaned the kitchen up a bit. The urge to clean came over me. That doesn't happen often so I gotta run with it when it does.

Luke comes back from Swansea today. It looks like they will going ahead with the 7 week accomodation. But probably not next week. It sounds like it's right by the beach. I may start spending weekends there. I dream of living by a beach and I looked at pics of the mumbles and it looks like southern France. Ooooh la la