So, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME since I've done a video diary or indeed anything on this page, and a
lot has changed in the meantime. With a new year looming and a lot of events coming up, I thought it best to write everything down that's happened since I last recorded, as well as what to expect in the near future, so that those of you who want something to fill the missing link between February and September have something to explain the half-year gap, as well as ensuring that my next recording isn't 2 hours long whilst I struggle to clear up what's actually been going on the past 6 months.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, and probably the most serious issue,
the fall-over-a-lot-itis. I've had several visits to various hospitals and GP's (
so many that if the NHS had a loyalty card scheme, I swear that I'd have enough points for a toaster or a free X-ray by now); an EEG, where they stuck 22 electrodes to my head in a dark room whilst flashing lights in my eyes, somehow reminiscent of every brainwashing scene in a B-Movie ever; and an MRI scan, where they stick your head (other body parts are available) in a white plastic tube filled with liquid nitrogen and magnets and scan every bit of it whilst you have to remain completely still staring at either the bland inside of the tube of liquid death or, through the medium of some funny periscope glasses, your knees; which to be honest aren't that good to look at at the best of times, never mind in a somewhat claustrophobic situation.
After all this, we've managed to establish that we can eliminate the worst possible cases (Brain Tumor, Multiple Sclerosis and
various others that I had to get my doctor to repeat several times at the original re-diagnosis last September through sheer disbelief). Which in essence brings us back to square one, either stress (always seems like an option in literally any medical case) or the original diagnosis -
vasovagal syncope - so this could have all been a year long full circle. The detailed results of both scans will be explained to me when I get back to Leeds in early September, hopefully with a final diagnosis. Although the collapses have subsided, to the point where they're almost non-existent, it would be nice to once and for all find out what the root of all the problems has been and how to prevent future episodes.
However, it has not been without its effects. As a result of my condition, I have had to go on temporary leave from my degree (mainly because I was banned from labs for health and safety, and my January results were that bad due to my slight cancer scare over Christmas that I had no choice but to put it on hold for a while); and as there was reasonable doubt over whether or not the collapses will return, practical lab work would basically have been out of the picture, although the university was very co-operative in arranging a course for me that involved minimal lab sessions, but to be honest it would leave me with no practical experience and therefore my ambition of going into forensics (the main reason why I went into chemistry) went from aspirational to pretty much down right impossible; a sad thing to admit I know, but there are times when you have to be blunt and realistic, and unfortunately, this is one of them. Looking back on it though, it may have been a blessing in disguise, as there were parts of the course that just left me completely soul-less
(*cough* Organic Chemistry *splutter*).
Luckily, the university has allowed me to start a fresh in Maths; admittedly it means I will spend a full 6 years in university instead of the original 4, although that's no more than any medical student; and it allows me to go for a subject I wasn't originally confident enough to apply for. Which means a new start, a new group of people and a new set of challenges to face; oh, and not forgetting another freshers' week, probably with the usual traditions of parties every night, people drunkenly trying to negotiate bouncers into letting them in to some of the biggest venues in the city and the final years annual duck a fresher competition for which I will no doubt be targeted for a third year running (
although I wasn't technically a fresher last year, I did look like it ... and those girls don't let you get a word in edgeways, all they want is a guy or girl in the sack to gain some final year kudos...., some people, really).
I kind of left things on a bit of a cliffhanger with regards to finances in the last video diary, the student finance company reclaimed the money from semester 3, which I could have paid upfront or had docked from next year's payment; I genuinely wanted to start from scratch without having to worry about finances next year, which kind of meant having to find a job in a short space of time to be able to ensure some sort of cash flow. I applied to about 72 different places, had 12 interviews and no replies in the short 2 weeks that I had before cash would become a bit of an issue. So instead of taking the risk of staying in Leeds in the hope of getting a job, I returned to Stratford to my old job as a "Sales Assistant" at WHS, which is where I've been working non-stop since mid-April (
as much as I hate the amount of complaints from customers that I can literally do nothing about, but apparently that's retail). In the meantime, I've moved into the new house with 7 first years that I met over the few months where I knew I was leaving my course (
which I'll probably talk about in more detail in later diaries), at a considerably cheaper rate than last year's cosy flat, and much larger too.
Where does that leave us after all the illness? In a pretty comfortable situation (
assuming student finance get their act together), I have a house and a degree to go back to in Leeds as well as a huge bunch of friends who have supported me the whole way throughout, who I really can't thank enough (
I know its cheesy and soppy, but its true); and looking on to another year full of massive plans, some of them ambitious, I admit, and big events.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Illness aside, I have had a pretty intense few months, with extravagant events happening all over the place. Multiple news stories being published for LSTV and National Student Television Awards, in which I met up with some of my fellow producers from across the country, drank from a shoe(
O.o?), didn't come away with any awards personally, but a lot of compliments fired in my direction from Student TV members and industry professionals.
I've been working with both TV and Radio throughout the LUU Leadership Race, which was too tough to call this year and had controversy being brought up in various forms, and unbelievably ended up trending UK Top 10 on twitter. At LSR(
fm?.com?), The Contenders, ABROADcast and Hidden Broadcast have been going pretty successfully, and have definitely been giving me more than enough to work with for my Student Radio Awards entry (you can hear the final piece
here,
warning; ear protection may be needed).
Also headed up to Durham, on an unofficial basis, to Assassins varsity; let's just say that most of what happened in Durham should stay in Durham (
yes, even I have to keep secrets). Overall it was a marvelush
(© David Tipping, 2013) experience, with some
"interesting" events taking place and I am looking forward to Sheffield hosting it next year.
Back in Leeds, I've been getting much more used to LARP as well, some people may call it my guilty pleasure
but there's not really anything to be guilty about, it's basically improvised theatre but with a minor set of rules, and it allows me to be creative and imaginative whilst writing my own character's storyline and affecting that of others.
In terms of where things stand with societies for next year, I went for various committee positions in 3 of the societies that have taken up the majority of my time this year. I wanted to go for something at the TV station but I went for Head of Training at LSTV, not really through any thought of my own, but more because I had so many people saying that I should go for it, that it would be stupid not to...
unfortunately, I lost out by a small margin, but there's always the next 3 years.
Then there was Secretary at Assassins, which I only went for due to necessity, as the society is unable to run without one, and no-one else was running for the position, and went through election uncontested.
Finally, there was Head of Speech Programming at LSR... I simply wanted to get on the committee at LSR, and as Speech Programming has been one of my major focuses this year, it made sense for me to go for it, and I went through uncontested, and already have big plans for next year... (see
here). (
It's kind of weird how I can't win against real people, but when I'm against R.O.N., it's no problem...)
----------------------------------------------------------------
What else? Whilst I've been working at WHS I've been keeping my radio skills brushed up by taking my weekly Contenders show back over to HFFM, as well as releasing several pieces of new content (or at least trying to). I've started publishing things over at Spreakr as opposed to Soundcloud, mainly because it's more orientated to radio and has its own broadcasting facility; but there are plans to archive everything over at Mixcloud once upload limits become a problem. Work has begun on two weekly podcasts on New Releases and Chart Update, although more are planned for the future with Box Office releases, Gaming releases and various other things.
Plans were in place to make them all as videos on YouTube on The HitList channel, however, despite 4 months of constant contact with pretty much every record label I could think of, copyright is still an issue. After posting the first few videos I received automated content ID matches from pretty much every record label involved, which resulted in the videos being blocked globally. Once I'd used YouTube's reply system to declare that the videos were deemed "fair use" most of the record labels made no further complaints, except for EMI. The latter had filed a counter complaint, which I'm fairly certain was automated (honestly a bit of a pain to not really have any human contact at that stage) as any human would have evaluated the complaint, watched the video and if they had filed a counter complaint, given a lot more detail than just "contains this music video .... which is ours so *blows raspberry*". This all leaves me in a spot of bother, because there's only two ways around it, either going through YouTube again, which if they counter a second time will result in legal proceedings, and although I'm fairly certain I'll win, and even if I lose there's nothing they can actually gain from it, plus I really don't want to go through all that bother; or I can get them to retract the complaint, which requires me to actually be able to get in contact with them. I've sent several e-mails, spoken to one representative and then every call after that has resulted in ridiculous waiting times and basically being ignored. All I've stated to them is that the reason I feel that it constitutes fair use under European and US Law is because its a commentary or report on the music as opposed to the music being the focus of the piece itself, not only that but I only use 30 seconds of the piece and I feel that isn't enough to detract people from watching the full video themselves. I've linked every video included in it, and added links to download the singles in the descriptions of all the videos. I wasn't going to do the smarmy "Well it actually brings more traffic to your video" argument, because let's be honest as I'm just starting out, whatever views I get on my videos combined won't even have a dent on what the music video itself will be achieving, and it just makes you look like a little bit of a smug, up yourself deluded YouTube celebrity wannabee. So as it stands, TheHitList will only be in podcast format up until the point that EMI start to actually prove that they are human, and not just made of automated phone numbers and Content ID bots.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Where do we go now? The answer to that question is kind of unclear at the moment, however I have loads of ideas for the next 12 months and beyond. Video Diary, honestly, needs a little bit of a reboot, and the best way to do this is to start a fresh when I restart university; all the way back to Day 0, this time trying to keep consistent with at least one diary entry per day, in the same style as the original vlogs, just hopefully a bit shorter.
I'll also be trying to do some more news comment based stuff, which will be a lot more heavily edited and concise. I'll also be trying to get The HitList back off the ground, although that's all pending EMI actually doing something rather than just saying "We've received your e-mail" a full month after I sent it.
LSTV extra content will be going up on the channel as and when it's produced, as well as links to the broadcasted version. Planned projects for this year include a 10 years of LSTV documentary and hopefully bringing some of my larger blueprints from first and second year to a close.
LSR will be bustling with new content, including hopefully a live XBoxOne and/or PS4 release show to see the Tech Show out in style, more details on all that closer to the time though.
Assassins will be as crazy as ever, with an extravagant cross city chase in the process of being made into a reality, along with a plethora of freshers events.
BUT TO KICK THE YEAR OFF with a bang, Day 0 will be a livestream in which you can
Ask Me Anything, potentially to get to know me better before you stalk my life for the next 4 years or more or just to embarrass me and make me look like an idiot across the internet.
Join the Facebook event and get your questions on the page and I will be answering them LIVE absolutely truthfully and with no pre-preparation.
