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October, 2011

  1. Student Union Elections

    October 29, 2011 by lallyd

    So a few weeks ago I blogged about my efforts to be elected as student union HE Communications Officer at my college in Blackpool.
    I found out on Monday of this week, that I was elected with a majority of 47 votes to 2, who voted to re-open nominations.
    I’m really pleased with the result. Even though it doesn’t seem like a great deal of votes, I actually didn’t do much to get them, other than contact some of my tutors and encourage them to let their classes know that voting was open and to put up a handful of posters around campus.
    My duties start on Monday really, when I’ll be getting my class rep training and meeting a few more of the union executive committee.
    I’m nervous about what my responsibilities will be, hopefully nothing I can’t handle! Equally excited though to see what challenges lie ahead.

    Lally.

    Category Education, Ramblings, Student Union | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. Arts & Crafts

    October 25, 2011 by lallyd

    Recently I’ve been thinking about making things to sell online. The thought occurred to me a while ago when my Mum asked me about how much her lavender bags (little heart shaped pockets filled with lavender we grow in our garden) would sell for at a craft fair. I told her that people would probably pay anywhere between 50p and £1.50 for something one off like that, depending on the area and the type of customers you get in. Since having this chat over the summer, I’ve started noticing lots of little things that either her or I make that could be making us money on the world wide web, as opposed to being gifted to relatives who put them in drawers and forget about them!

    So, I’ve opened a Folksy shop. It will hopefully be a place where I can sell a few odds and ends that we already have floating around, but also where Mum and I can start selling the things that we’re making more recently. I for one am thoroughly invested in making hama bead things in an array of geeky 8 bit styles, thanks to Catherine at Barcamp Blackpool!

    20111025-140826.jpg

    So anyway. I’ve gone with oo-de-lallyd on Folksy as my seller name. hopefully I’ll get some pictures and stuff up there soon and my selling adventure can begin. So far I’ve just made a few fridge magnets and a couple of badges which I’m hoping to upload by the end of the week.

    Eventually the plan is to churn out these badges/magnets and maybe expand and make a few bigger pieces, such as coasters/mousemats. If you’d like to see anything specific, just leave me a comment and I’ll see if I can make something up for you. Next, I want to try and make a Princess Peach & a Link! Geeky, I know.

    Lally.

    Category Crafts, Ramblings | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Barcamp Blackpool 2011!

    October 17, 2011 by lallyd

    So this weekend I attended the third Barcamp Blackpool, held at the Pleasure Beach and I have it say, it was awesome!

    The weekend started for me on Friday night, trying to get myself into town where a few of us were meeting up for a bite to eat and a few beers, which turned into a 3am taxi back to the hotel after 3 pitchers in Revolutions on the prom!
    Saturday morning was not a good look for me at 9am. I plastered on a tonne of concealer to hide my vampire eyes, arrived at the venue and the first comment I got was “You look like shit”!
    I powered through it. Went to a range of talks, from the future of the web and development techniques (hosted by one of my college tutors) to how to make 8 bit hama bead badges. As well as the awesome content being generated, there was food, drink, cake, swag, rock and much more. However, of all the stuff that was going on at this year’s Barcamp Blackpool, what I enjoyed most, was the conversation.
    For me this year, I went to a handful of talks, but I talked to so many more people about everything from how I’m getting on at Uni, to what I want to do in the future, and how I can map my path over the next couple of years to get there. I found so many people inspirational to talk to, and what I took away from the weekend as a whole, is how awesome our community is.

    This year I tried to encourage some of my classmates from college to come along and unfortunately I failed. However there was one guy from my class who was working at the venue on the day, and I think he was pretty amazed by the sheer number of people coming and going all day long and the range of topics covered. In lieu of turning them into barcampers, I’m definitely going to get them to come down to Gillespie’s for Geek Up on the 24th October, so they can get a little taste of what a barcamp can be.

    A massive thanks to Gemma for organising the event this year, and to Les for being her wing man. Thanks to Joe, Caius, Tim, Steve, Catherine and many more for the great conversations and the learning! But the biggest thanks of all to the sponsors, who enabled the guys to put on a great day for all.

    Lally.

    Category Events, Ramblings | Tags: ,,,,, | 1 Comment

  4. The Stairwell at The Prince Arthur, now on facebook.

    October 6, 2011 by lallyd

    Recently I’ve been observing my Mum and a friend of her’s endeavour to bring live music to Fleetwood. Whilst this is great, and I blogged a few weeks ago about the brilliant talent that is Alex Hulme gracing our small town with his presence, they seriously need to move into the 21st Century.
    To date, they’ve been using traditional media methods, such as having adverts & articles printed in the local papers & putting up posters around town. Whilst this has shown some success with most of the gigs being pretty well attended despite the lack of any web presence I had to step in and get them set up with a facebook account!
    I’ve been spouting the virtues of advertising via facebook and twitter to them for the last few weeks, explaining that it will encourage a broader range of age groups to attend the gigs, not just the over 40s that take the time to read the “events” section in the newspaper.
    I don’t know anyone that reads the Fleetwood Gazette or weekly news around my age group, either a physical copy or online. However I do know what’s going on in Fleetwood that might interest me, because my friends on facebook post about it, or add an event or photo, or whatever!
    So here we are, with our facebook page, which needs much more content in order to drive people to the site, I know, but it’s only 24 hours old, so forgive me! The direct URL (which thanks to facebook, I no longer have to wait for 25 likes to get) is www.facebook.com/thepastairwell

    and here’s my little widget thing, that facebook generated the code for! It’s all very clever, as I keep trying to tell my Mum.

    So anyway, I’d love it if you could bob along and like the page for me, but even better than that if you could actually turn up to one of the gigs and enjoy some free live music, then like the page on facebook and tell all your friends about it.

    Next step, twitter!

    Lally.

    Category Events, Music, Ramblings | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  5. Communications Officer – Poster

    October 5, 2011 by lallyd

    So as part of my quest to be elected as Communications Officer, I had to create a campaign poster to put up around the college, alongside a manifesto in order to try and get people to vote for me.
    Votes are being cast between 17th and 21st October, so hopefully I’ve enough time before then to spread my name about and get people behind my cause!
    I’ve included a copy of the poster for you have a look at. Any feedback would be warmly welcome. I’ve also added the copy from my manifesto for you get have a look at. Hope you like it! Please leave a comment letting me know what you think, positive or not :)

    Lalita D’Cruze – Communications Officer Poster

    My manifesto:
    “My name is Lalita D’Cruze, most people call me Lally. I am standing for the position of H.E. Communications Officer.

    I am a second year BSc IT student already involved with some activities happening both in and outside of the college. I believe there are a lot of great things going on around campus that not everyone knows about. There are loads of activities and groups already running at the college, as well as discounts and special offers for students which aren’t being taken advantage of simply because people don’t know they exist.

    If elected I will do as much as I can to help any society, student or faculty in promoting their activities or events to the student body. I will do my best to ensure everyone knows about what’s happening at the Student Union and how they are working with the college to constantly improve your time here. I will try to keep the information relevant and easy to understand, whilst continuing the great work already being done by the Student Union, by communicating with students through Facebook, Twitter & around campus.

    I would be happy to take on any feedback about the current communication system at the Student Union and will strive to improve it to make sure your voice is heard by the Student Union and college where possible.

    I am really passionate about sharing and communicating and I recently completed a level two certificate in British Sign Language, which helped me to understand the challenges some people face with communicating on a daily basis. I have also spent time working with organisations in the local community to promote music nights, conferences and technology events and maintain two blogs and a twitter account covering these topics and more.

    I believe the more people are involved in the student community; the better it can grow to be.

    Vote for me via Moodle as Communications Officer and you’ll never be out of the loop.

    Lally”

    Don’t forget to leave a comment!

    Thanks,
    Lally.

    Category Education, Ramblings, Student Union | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments