Dressing the time away...

On an ordinary day - I wake up, pull on a pair of partially-torn black stockings and scrounge around for a skirt that will not fly away in Grahamstown’s ever changing weather, decide which black t-shirt is clean and head out to lectures with messy hair and no time for breakfast. On Tuesday 27th October, I did things a bit differently…

I was wearing jeans because my washing pile was almost putting Mount Everest to shame. The weather was hot. Cold. And then… hot again! Tabby and I therefore decided to walk to Steers for one of their amazing R3 soft serve ice-creams. The result of this was that we went on a spontaneous shopping expedition. Not the usual shopping, which was what I was planning on doing since I needed washing powder, but the ‘girl-kind’. The “getting stuck in small changing rooms, touching every item as you wander past isles of clothing, shoes, underwear, makeup, anything of interest, then pausing to go back yet again in case you have missed something” type of shopping.

In the magical land of Mr. Price, I came across a dress, of colours not red, black or white. Without even a thought of the journalism assignment, I decided it may be a good idea to broaden my horizons and my wardrobe, just a tad.

When I reported back to my peers in my journalism tutorial, and told them of my new experience, and the fact that I had bought a dress that was not black and was indeed a summer dress, their response was astonishing. In High School Musical unison, everyone turned to face me and said, “WHAT!?”

People who hardly knew me were perplexed and couldn’t believe their ears. I found the whole experience highly entertaining.

I now have a new dress, which took an hour to decide upon, and a story to tell many people.

Review and Spew

Blogging is an art. You have to have the right balance between visual appeal and content. With excellent visuals and sloppy content, a blog will not hold on to its readers. While if you have a blog which is over-run with text even though the content is of the utmost profound nature, people will not even bother to attempt your jumbled mess.

The layout of fellow Rhodes students’ blog, Write Side up the categories application, makes it easy to find blog posts with content relevant to the individual. Unfortunately, I was unimpressed with the overall appearance of the blog, as it lacked pictures and extra links.

The blog is far more light-hearted than the members profess it to be, and although the approach was refreshing I found my attention wandering to what the Smuts dining hall would do to make lunch unappetising today.

The blog burnt holes in my eyes with its incomprehensible use of text colour for a few of the older posts. This was to be the only impression of the blog to be left branded at the back of my brain. Not a good start.

As I paged through the blog, I noticed that there were empty posts, headlines without content and no indication as to who wrote particular posts. This blog is shabby and neglected.

Among all the negativity, there shone out a few interesting and amusing posts, an overall entertaining read.

This blog is one to view, but not one to particularly follow religiously.

Sushi Supreme - well for a Small Town

Sushi is one of my favourite meals and over the past few months I have experienced the greatest cravings for it. But what happens when you're stuck in a small town, reduced to a student budget and know that you're taking a chance by indulging in a potentially sickening experience – you take the risk any way. My parents always told me never choose fish meals from aeroplane menus and never eat raw fish from small dodgy restaurants. I guess now all I have to do is order fish on an aeroplane.

Last week Friday I decided to take the plunge. I went to a small restaurant tucked in the centre of Grahamstown called Yellow House. To accompany me on my journey I brought my ball and chain thinking it would be the wise thing to do considering I am reduced to a student budget and sushi is not the cheapest meal ever. I honestly was expecting the worst before we ordered three different sushi platters. The theory at the time was if we are having sushi we are going to have as many kinds as we could hoping at least one type would be good . After waiting about 15 minutes the platters arrived – my stomach cringed a bit knowing this could hurt tomorrow. Armed with chopsticks I picked up the first piece of sushi which happened to be a California Roll. I then in tradition covered it in wasabi and soya sauce - surprisingly it was AMAZING. After months of sushi deprivation the ball and chain and I somehow ate all the sushi leaving nothing behind except a couple of sesame seeds that managed to escape the feast. The following day I am glad to report, there were no symptoms of any kind of food poisoning.

The new experience of eating potentially life threatening cuisine from a small town restaurant proves that old wives tales are not always true – now it is time to put the next tale to the test. Fish on an aeroplane here I come.

Note Pads and Deadlines How Quaint

By: Ashleigh Beddow

There are plenty of rublogs afloat on the internet but it is often difficult for a reader to find a sharp needle in the hay stack. Few lack the zing that Note Pads and Deadlines boasts. Note Pads and Deadlines is an entertaining and fresh blog that cleverly concerns itself with issues that are relevant not only to first year journalism students but rather anyone who reads it. The blog follows four students from Rhodes University as they document their thoughts on issues that impact and concern them. Each post clearly paints a picture students personality and point of view.

The content of the blog ranges from how the students came to choose to study journalism, to well thought out opinions on local and international news and issues. The posts are easily read and understood accompanied by highly attractive, creative headlines and relevant links. The collaborative efforts of all the members enable the reader to engage with the blog and its authors.

The blog layout is craftily set out to match its name along with writing fonts on note pads that give the reader an impression of hand written notes. The blog is unfortunately lacking flair in colour and widgets together with a hefty degree of spelling mistakes within the posts. Once looking past these minor errors Note Pads and Deadlines is an impressive blog that takes the reader on a journey exposing life as seen through the eyes of students.

Aspiring jounos on the spot

It’s amazing how one’s perceptions change after they’re read or seen something, it could be a movie, a book or anything. I gave myself time to view my fellow journalism students’ blogs, something I don’t usually do and I was quite impressed by the way other people write. I browsed through all other blogs but I found the “wanna b journos” blog quite fascinating. Their layout template was unique and I’m sure I didn’t only grab my attention but every single person that checks out their blog as well. The first posts were quite boring because they were personal and totally irrelevant to journalism however as I went on reading the rest of their posts started getting more absorbed to their articles. Their choice of words is will certainly draw many readers’ attention not forgetting the pictures that accompany every single article postedThe first few posts are quite personal, that one may be disappointed by their content but as you go down to read other posts you’ll find them very powerful and significant for example there’s a post about abantu basemjondolo (people from slums) and the way they are denied their right to peaceful life by the government who want to move them every now and then because they don’t see the them appropriate enough to be situated in certain places yet the majority of south African citizens occupy informal settlements. http://wannabjournos.blogspot.com/2009/10/victory-in-settlements.html

cathedral caters for all

There’s one place many people forget to visit more especially when they’re working under pressure…church. Many people pass by and don’t even take notice of it and yet it’s the only place that connects you with God, where you can find peace of mind after a long day or week. The cathedral of st Michael and st George situated in high street was built in 1842. This building is said to be attracting many tourists but there are people who’ve been in grahamstown for more than five years but have never set their foot there. I chose to visit cathedral firstly because I’ve never been there myself however i've always wanted to visit  it but always told my self that i don't have the time. after my visit which took me a couple of hours i became aware that i need such calmness and spiritual and physical healness in my life no matter how busy iam three hours of visiting wouldn't hurt because it helped me find time to relax and stop thinking about deadlines, meetings and all that. If you’re feeling distressed, hopeless, or simply tired of doing the same thing or visiting the same places don’t hesitate visit the Cathedral and you won’t regret it as well.

Evolution of the Spectator

I can’t seem to tear myself away from the man I love and therefore I find myself accompanying to his favourite local spot, the gaming centre. Until recently I just sat there chatting and trying to make time pass quickly but then I was faced with the task of doing something out of the ordinary for an hour, well this hour turned into four. I set myself in front of the computer and clicked on the ‘start game’ button-the name of the game I chose was Dota- the next step was to choose my character, and wow what a tough choice that was considering all the diverse options I was faced with. After eventually picking a character the game had already started, I felt extremely disadvantaged being a ‘noob’- computer lingo for a ‘new gamer’-and not being at my starting position like everyone else. I fought the temptation to start over and began casting fiery balls at the opposing team when suddenly I could no longer see my character on the screen. To my disappointment I learned that I had died, ALREADY! My disappointment faded on my revival and I found myself focusing more intensely on avoiding the spells cast by my opponents. Four hours later and I could finally pull myself form the screen with a satisfied feeling of victory as my team DOMINATED! Phew, what an intense experience and what fun playing a game with and against your friends, you really could call it a team sport. I walked in a bored spectator and emerged a victorious ‘nerd’.