So I designed a website....

I'm used to running websites, especially with Entertainment Newsline, but designing them was another matter altogether.

The software I was using was Adobe Dreamweaver and it is a very good programme for getting what you want. For me, though, it was hard to get used to. I mean, when you first look at it, it's very overwhelming. So many options, so many bars and so many things to do. It took me weeks to even get used to it all, never mind do much with it.

But when I got there, I think I did a pretty good job with it. Yeah, it's basic and not very special, but it has stuff about me and my work and, hopefully, it follows all the criteria Steve (our NEW Online tutor) set for us. If it doesn't, hopefully he doesn't notice.

The main idea behind it is that I base it on the name of this blog and the columns I write from it but also to talk about what I have planned beyond those and to also let people know about me in general because, honestly, I don't have enough places to do that. ;-)

So the $64,000 question is this...when will it go online? And it's a very good one seeing as that I am not sure myself. I mean, I like it and I enjoyed making it, but I am not sure if it's quite...done. Like I might need a bit more work fine tuning and making it look like it belongs on Web 2.0 and not Web 0.5. Along with that, finding a good host is pretty crazy right now and I'm not sure whether I want to slap it on a free server or get a .com. And then there's that factor of Ricky Leone hanging above my head. Entertainment Newsline had the Leone Treatment and I'd expect if I put the site up, he'll look at it with very close eyes.

So until I decide, I'll give it in the way it is and I'll also hope that somehow I'll find a solution to what would be a very small problem.

A Review of a Blog...weird, I know.

First off, I want to apologise for everyone who reads this (which pretty much lowers it down to my mum and all the relatives she sends it to) for taking so long with this blog. The thing is, I have been extremly busy with Uni life.

Might as well start off with how everything has gone first. Which pretty much has been great, really. I've got to know my flatmates, which is cool and I got to know alot of my classmates, which is just as cool and very very soon, I shall have a brand spanking new laptop to use so that my slow cruddy waste of space laptop can be shoved deep down in my desk drawer

The only problem I have right now is this thing in my ear. It's basically a little thing (not an ear infection) which is only there just to drum pain into the left side of my head every so often, and I don't mean 'random little nudges' sorta pain, I mean 'Trapped in the Beartrap thing from Saw' pain. As a result, my mum had to come down which was actually really good. I hadn't seen her since the end of August/right beginning of September, so it was like a mini reunion as such. It wasn't good it had to because of some really stupid thing in my ear, but it's better than a tragic accident where I broke my leg or something.

But very soon, I'll be doing video blogs as well as these written ones since I have just put my first vlog (video blog) up on YouTube which, as it stands has been seen by a HUGE.....23 people. Yeah. But hopefully that will grow when all the people who read this watch it and post comments and subscribe...not saying you will, but it would be nice. :D

Anyway...Jim is looking at this so I better look like I'm doing my homework. :P

For Online Journalism, I have to review a blog from a list that was put up on his blog, which you can access right here. The blog I chose was one called Collision Detection. It's produced by a man called Clive Thompson who writes for various different magazines and newspapers, including Wired and The New York Times. From first perception, the idea of this blog is to discuss happenings in technology and science, considering he is a computer games and technology writer, but it's alot more then that.

Since he is, in principle, a writer, his articles are placed on his blogs but not only that, his ideas for articles are placed on blogs. What that would mean is that if he gets ideas and inspiration, he basically puts it up there and sees what people thinks. Sort of like a Reality Show for nerds, but not quite as popular.

His most recent blog is an article that expresses his views on why geeks and nerds will help save the world, which, to put roughly, sort of says we're great with numbers and not as good with human suffering and emotion.

I wish someone told me that, that E in Math that hangs above my head pretty much strips me of my nerdiness.

Overall, this is a blog people should read. Mostly because of his in depth discussion and experience but also, and for an extra bonus, he loves Squids. So if you are into squids and want to know the inside scoop, he is your man.

Now, until the next time I put a blog up (hopefully not on the 23rd of October), enjoy yourself and remember, don't get stupid nits in your ears. They may be small, but they can pack one heck of a punch.

Eoin

Prologue: What the @?&! am I doing?!

5 Days left until I pack my bags and go to Surrey...and this is probably the best time to say how friggin' scared I am about it.

Alot of people are probably looking at this now and thinking 'You don't need to be scared, you are hopefully prepared and sorted' etc. Which is all well and good, because I sort of am. I havenew things like my Grill and Toaster Oven, my clothes are almost ready to be packed, I need to get my accounts sorted out and such. But the thing is, no matter how much stuff I get ready and all that, I just don't know if I mentally am ready.

This will be the first time I've lived on my own for longer than a week. The last time was about 2 years ago when I stayed with a family in Surrey while I was helping out at a activity week where we looked after a great group of kids. The major difference being that I was being fed helped out by the family and Karen, who's a great mentor for this sort of thing. I won't have anyone like that and even for the first week, I'll probably have no one else with me in my house-cottage-smallflat-thing because everyone else is moving in a few days after me.

It's like this whole new adventure where I'll be living on my own, doing my own shopping, doing my own washing and cleaning, doing my own meals and to be quite honest, I don't know whether I can do that. For 19 years, I basically had my mum help me with almost everything. What looks good on me, what I should do with my hair, where I should go to get cheap yet good shopping. It wasn't like I couldn't do any of it by myself, but she was just there to guide me.

I know she's still there for me, but most of the decisions will be made by me. What I have for dinner, when I eat, how I manage my money, where I go out, how much I spend when I go out etc. And in the past, I've never been good at making those decisions. My reputation with money, for example, makes Michael Jackson look like Donald Trump.

So I'm absolutly petrified. It's like in The Truman Show, where Truman basically has been living in his world for all his life, then leaves it to go on to a whole new world. The only difference being, I'll know how I get on in this 'real world' senario. But I don't know whether it'll turn out good or bad.

I'm probably overreacting on all this, but for me, it's justifiable. This is the first time I'll be looking after me. I'll get support for my classes, a new laptop etc which is what I got in my other schools, but what I am worried about is how I'm going to survive and sometimes, I just don't think I can.