gair rhydd: Columnists

You know who your bullies are

People complain about adverts on TV, but sadly, they’re here to stay. Luckily, there are a few that raise enough of a smile from the viewer for them to forget it’s the nineteenth bloody commercial in a row, you’ve grown stubble since the first and all you want to do is watch old Scrubs repeats without being sold something.

Whatever happened to Annie Mac?

Cardiff University’s official Summer Ball warm-up party, held in Solus last Wednesday, suffered a significant blow when Radio 1 DJ and English Literature Master’s graduate Annie Mac, scheduled to be at the mixing desk, was forced to pull out. Rumours abound that she was kidnapped by spurned Xfm DJs, or that she was sacked after suggesting that mixing Song 2 into a set is not a sign of musical genius (someone should tell “our favourite Union DJs” that before they play the Summer Ball).

We’re ready for you now

Last week I went for my first job interview since finishing my degree. And suffice it to say – bloody hell. Perhaps it’s three years of learning about semiotics and moral panics, maybe it’s working at gair rhydd or just maybe it’s something to do with Fun Factory and £1.19 doubles at Metros, but I’d forgotten how terrifying the prospect of talking to someone for a short while could be.

In the papers: The Times

I was furious to hear two academics at Nottingham University – one an employee and one an MA student – had been arrested under the Terrorism Act for possessing an al-Qaida training manual, essential to the MA student’s research.

In the papers: The Guardian

So the government is looking to crack down on smokers. Again.

Cigarettes are going to be brandless, more expensive and kept under the counter alongside hardcore porn, pointy objects and other social taboos.

A sham of an exam

It was revealed recently that pupils sitting a GCSE Music exam were surprised when they found the answers to some of the questions printed on the back of the paper. To me, the shock there is that they were surprised.

Whatever happened to... this column

The time has come, I think, for me to apologise for the sheer awfulness of this side-column. Fortnight after fortnight, I struggle to think of anything applicable to the title, and rather than lamenting the passing of something once brilliant – “Whatever happened to…?”, in fact – I find myself musing/ranting/quoting The Thrills at length/writing limericks.

Enough outrage – engage

U nless you’ve been holed up in your room slaving laboriously over notes, Powerpoints, and the more classic ‘revision cue cards’ in preparation for some form of assessment (I don’t know, like exams) – and even if you have – you’d be hard-pushed not to have heard that change is afoot at the Union.

... I digress

It may be shamelessly self-indulgent, but this week I’m forsaking news to state my case as to why The Apprentice is currently the best programme on the box.

Bland designs

Discuss this article [11]

Hear that rumbling through the Students’ Union building? No, it’s not from the train line. It’s the sound of change, and soon it will be the sound of a bulldozer. Plans are afoot to renovate the Union, and – ironically, given their focus on aesthetics – they’re not pretty.

Whatever Happened to... The Union?

...is what people will be saying in years to come if these plans go ahead. But by now you’ve probably made up your mind that either a) it’s the end of the world as we know it (and you feel fine), b) it’s the end of the world as we know it (and you want to kill someone), or c) you couldn’t care less.

Cardiff, Disability and me

Discuss this article [19]

I apologise; after two of my most diverse and risqué columns I feel like a barren desert where inspiration is water. My god! Was that not a beautiful simile? I should be an English student. Oh, hang on… I think I am! Yes, that’s right; I’m sure those lecture things I go to once or twice a week are based on Language and Communication. You know? That subject which medics, engineers and science scholars feel the need to routinely rip into, saying that it doesn’t merit a full degree; blah, blah, blah. It’s a fine and valid joke between pals, but gets rather tedious when included in the paper. I read the co-editor of this wonderful section’s letter about Piers Thompson’s rant on graduation and how he thinks us Humanities students are unworthy.

Thanks be to Gok

Ordinarily, posing naked in a shop window in Central London, being watched by unsuspecting members of the general public, and being filmed for a hit Channel 4 show would not be something that comes easily to a middle aged woman. Let alone one who had had previously little or no self-esteem, and is not what we would call, if we were being honest, a flat-stomached fitty.

That’ll be the day...

I know it’s a little premature (hehe), but May 7 is National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. So how do you prevent teenagers getting pregnant?

...in the papers

The Guardian

I welcome the housing minister’s decision to review laws surrounding student housing.

Caroline Flint has announced she wishes to tackle the growing problem of ‘ghost towns’ during holidays.

Graduation trepidation

It’s meant to be the pinnacle of a student’s time at university – at least the academic pinnacle – but the only thing that comes to my mind in the run-up to graduation is dread and a high degree of stress.

Gair Rhydd

Columnists