In a month from now, I will no longer be a student for the second time. The first time when my official student status expired I was on tenterhooks hoping I would be able to become one once more. Now that my second tenure as a student is slowly fading, I know that this time there will be no third time of university life. And I never thought I would be saying this but I'm actually going to miss it.
I remember back during the first two years of my undergrad degree I was miserable. I hated uni with a passion; I couldn't fit, I felt out of place and totally inferior. As I had opted for a Welsh langauge degree I knew it was going to be tough. But as it got tougher I just couldn't fight it and I had the urge to simply give up. in my lifetime I've never had to work so hard for something for in school, I could work and get by by not doing too much. Now, staring at the abyss of my academic career, I just wanted out. I drank myself stupid with all school friends who didnt go to uni and I was happy with that at the time. In the end, I reverted to a full History degree (as I was doing part Welsh, part Welsh history) and continued with my head down on the work. Still not truly happy however.
But in the third year, when it mattered, I finally came into my own. I finally learnt that uni was not such an intimidating place but was actually a really cool way of life. Once I got my degree I knew I wanted to do another degree in my heart, as the first did not have all teh attention I could give it. Another of life's academic challenges which I winged, just so i didn't have to put too much effort in. But once I got my desired degree place in Political Theory, I knew that I would find it tough. I reflected back to my Welsh degree and realised how much of a child I was back then. I hadn't grown up at all. Now I had the chance to do something different. Now I felt that this degree was for me - under my decision and something I could really look towards.
Reaching the end of that degree I know I have found it hard. But I have enjoyed it all. And now I know I have at least grown up a bit more. After a year too of living like a student in Cathays, I finally realise what a student life is all about and I regret leaving it now when I have just embraced it.
Concerning the diss, I am in the middle of Chapter Three, which is untitled as of yet but will analyse utilitarian arguments in the rights discourse of Tryweryn. That will put me a good half-way through the essay, and then my final chapter will discuss whether Tryweryn was a national struggle or a moral struggle. Perhaps the toughest chapter to write - but if I can pull it off, it will be the most rewarding I feel. Watch this space for further developments.
E3 MGS4 Trailer - Metal Gear Solid 4
| 15 minute E3 trailer of MGS4 - Metal Gear Solid 4 If you have some time and if you are a fan of the MGS series - you are gonna love this. I can't wait for MGS4! | |
How Orwellian is modern day Big Brother?
If you have been lucky enough to read 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' by George Orwell you will know that the very concept of Big Brother is one of an all seeing, all knowing entity which regulates everything with a strict control of fear and indoctrination. Im guessing this is common knowledge by now. But one thing has been bothering me about the game show this week - how much is the show organised to control our feelings and to create our prejudices against some housemates? In other words - does the show tell us who to hate and who to love?
Its something which has always played on my mind. I always thought that by offering a text vote to the public you would get a democratic response to who should be evicted - in effect, the one which should leave is the one the public wishes to evict. But with the media offering their own strong opinions about who is a good or bad housemate, personal judgment can often be lost into a mass of propaganda.
And if that myth about video editing for the nighty hour is true, about presenting some housemates in more positive light and others in a more negative light, arent we just being fooled into voting someone out to please some bigwig who is doing what he can to ensure a certain victor? Wouldn't that just make the whole thing a sham? Especially we have recently heard that housemates are 'bred' and trialled in the Big Brother experience before they even set a foot into the house.
My thoughts have been provoked after Mikey's departure this evening - he was no favourite to go at any point in the programme. He was presented in a bad light this week and went as a result. Now Mikey may have deserved it - but how much did the factors of the media affect the public's decision making?
The fear factor may not be prominent in the Channel Four game show. But is the brainwashing occurring right under our very noses?
