Photos

I've been to Radioshack and purchased a USB data transfer cable for my camera, so here goes:

Aoife in our apartment.

The view from our apartment (Note - the famous yellow cab - they are literally everywhere!)

Times Square - It's mental!

Celebrate St. Patty's Day - Stupid 'Mericans

Me at Madison Square Garden for the Knicks game!

They are just a sample of the photos that I've taken. I'm worried about making this blog too slow to load if I upload many more. The full collection is available at http://profile.imageshack.us/user/chrischilvers  and on Facebook also.

Enjoy!

De-Fence!

Just in from an awesome night at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately the Knicks lost 103-108, but it was a cracking match and it had a very tense finale. The atmosphere inside MSG was incredible. This was helped by the fact that every time Philadelphia had possession, we were encouraged to shout DE-FENCE in time with the beat. It was awesome. A hugely different experience from any sport in the UK. Before the match we had to stand for the national anthem, and during the time outs the cheerleaders danced, the Tumblers did their acrobatic stuff, there were games such as Musical Chairs and other things like that. I also saw John McEnroe there which was very cool. I had an awesome evening, and it was very cool that Aoife got really into sport - a rare thing! We bought a foam finger and had a hot dog - the true 'ball experience.

We also went on the ferry to Staten Island today, which passed Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which was cool. I took plenty of pictures don't you worry, and I aim to purchase a USB transfer cable tomorrow if I can find one. We saw Wall St this morning, which is where George Washington was sworn in as the 1st president and there are millions of American flags! We visited Ground Zero which is indescribable. Breathtaking. They have started rebuilding, but they are only back up to ground level, so I'm sure they will take a while to complete Freedom Tower.

Feeling knackered now as we've walked really far today. Gonna hit the hay very soon. The plan for tomorrow is unknown, but I'm sure it'll be grand.

Loving New York - Good Night!

Have A Nice Day!

Morning all. It's a lovely Friday morning here in NYC, despite forecasts to the contrary. The plan today is to head to Staten Island to get a cool view of Manhattan, and wander around near Wall St and Ground Zero, before heading to Madison Square Gardens for the Knicks vs. 76ers, which I'm very excited about!

Have found out that the Elvis Duran show I analysed yesterday is networked across New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Cleveland, which may explain why the presenter made no reference to the music that was being played, as it could potentially be different music on the different stations, and would explain the fact that the beds crashed the end of songs! On Z right now is 'your American Idol host' Ryan Seacrest, who is also 'live' on Kiis in LA at the moment. Isn't pre-recording great? The content of the show is much more entertainment based, as the obsession with celebrity is much greater in the States than in Blighty. The music is much newer, after the breakfast show that Robin rightly described as being stuck in '2002' - today there was Like I Love You and My Own Worst Enemy by Lit, which was cool.

Anyway, enough of my radio ranting. I'm off to enjoy more of this cool city!

Laters homies!

1st Day Downtown

So we've completed our first 24 hours in the US. We've had a very busy and very long day. As I've written before we were up very early. We left the apartment at 9.30, and headed over to Times Sq. To do this we had to navigate our way round the extremely complex subway system, which is bloody hard to get around. It's pretty quick though, even if the cars themselves look like tin foil boxes! It's strange to think that Americans are supposedly not as intelligent as us Brits and have short attention spans, but can use the subway with no problem!

We got to Times Sq, after detouring past the Chrysler Building and through Grand Central Station. My initial reaction to Times Sq was 'wow' but I quickly decided that it was loud, bright and looked good, but there wasn't really any substance to it. There was almost so much there that there was in fact nothing. I have a picture of an example of it, but I didn't bring my camera cable to transfer pictures. I may look to purchase one from a Radioshack tomorrow. We went to Virgin Megastore, which is closing down, and the M&M store. We walked round some more, and then headed to Macy's. Ridiculous. It's a department store, with 8 floors, and so why is there no floor plans or maps anywhere? I got very annoyed about this and this shortened our stay. During our trip to Macy's I noticed a group of Irish clothes (picture to come) celebrating 'St. Patty's Day' - bless the Yanks, getting that wrong. New Yorkers seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Ireland. Nearly every store had something Irish in it somewhere.

We headed from Macys to the Rockefeller Centre which was very cool but by this stage we'd be out for 5 hours and were knackered, so we will head back there at some stage. I had a fantastic cheeseburger at the Rockefeller. Yum Yum.

We headed home and haven't done an awful lot since then.

I have learnt a number of things in my time here (Yep, just 24 hours)

1) As mentioned, the New Yorkers are mentally obsessed with Ireland and the Irish.

2) Every item of food or drink are sold with a calorie counter. I saw a burger today that was 2700 calories (the average man should intake 2500 a day!)

3) After 4pm, everyone can put their 'garbage' on the streets outside their house or work. So walking down the streets at about 10pm means you have to contend with lots of rubbish!

4) The toilet bowls have more water in them than English toilets - making it impossible to piss quietly - and when you flush the water empties and then the bowl is refilled. Exciting honestly!

5) The electric sockets look rubbish, and really unsafe. Anything plugged into them looks like they could fall out.

6) There is a $1 dollar note, and 2 different types of $1 coin. Silly.

7) The sirens on the emergency services vehicles are crap, really weak and pathetic sounding. If an English siren says 'Get out the way!' the American ones say 'Could you please move if you don't mind please?'

8) There is an obsession with the word 'gourmet'. We both a thank you card today that was made by the 'gourmet card company' - how can a card be gourmet?

9) The prices quoted on the shelves are without tax (which I guess is about 8 or 9%) and so you work out how much stuff costs and then there's the tax added on! Again, for a supposedly less intelligent nation, this seems strange. It also means you have bloody silly prices such as $3.34. Stupid.

Anyway, I've eaten far too much today and am off to bed. Knicks at Madison Square Gardens tomorrow! Night!

Radio: The Cultural Look into the Differences Between American and British Stylings

This morning when I got up at 7am, I decided to get myself in the New Yorker mood and have a listen to Z100 - New York's Hit Music Station (Their equivalent to Capital - same strap line as well!) Whilst I listened I decided I'd make a few notes and compare a brief listen with my thoughts and knowledge of English radio. This brief listen and notetaking session went on for about 70 minutes and would have gone on for a lot longer if Aoife hadn't made me get into the shower so we could go and do something with our lives. I had made 2 sides of notes by this stage, so I figured that was enough for me to analysis and comment upon. 

So, Z100 - check z100.com for details - it is as I said 'New York's Hit Music Station and boasts American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest as it's mid-morning presenter (networked mind you). I started listening at about 7.20 for the breakfast show hosted by Elvis Duran and continued to listen through to about 9.15. I only made notes until 8.30. The show has a zoo format, with 10 contributors talking at least once. I will now take you through what happened on air and my thoughts on some of the events.

TURNED ON

Elvis Duran says 'We gotta take a break now.'

ALL AMERICAN REJECTS - GIVES YOU HELL 

[When I heard the presenter say 'We gotta take a break now' I expected an ad break to follow, but interestingly, it was the above song. This highlights a fundamental difference between Z and Capital or Radio 1 - in Britain on most stations, the music is a key element, in fact, probably the main element, whereas, here in NY, Elvis treated this song as if it was an interruption into HIS programme.]

Straight onto a feature . Produced ident, into 'The Phone Tap', no explanation. Elvis introduces the prank by reading out the caller who has nominated his wife's original message. Basically, a guy wants to wind up his wife by telling her that their application for financial aid for heir child's education has been refused. The prank starts with the husband telling his wife that the application has been refused and that someone from the company will ring her soon. We then go into the conversation between the man from the company (one of the breakfast team) talking to the wife. It's very funny, with lots of bleeping going on where the woman is swearing. After this, we then hear the husband and wife arguing again, with lots more beeping going on. The word 'prick' was unbeeped, and this didn't seem to be a problem. It was 7.31am. Halfway through the couple arguing, Elvis comes on the line and tells her it's a prank. She laughs. 'Son of a bitch' is broadcast at 7.34. The feature ends with a disclaimer stating 'The Phone Tap was pre-recorded and used with permission from all parties.' We then go into an an break.

[There are a number of interesting points from the above feature. The main two really being the uncensored swearing at such an early time - in Britain, swearing isn't supposed to occur at any time of day, let alone at breakfast. The other interesting thing is the disclaimer at the end of the prank call. In England, although you have to have permission, and most, if not all, calls are pre-recorded, this is not mentioned on air. Perhaps, with America's tendency to sue, they have to make sure people know they aren't doing anything untoward.]

Out of a very short ad-break, we hear MVP - Rock Ya Body.

Alicia Keys - 'You Heard My Music Here 1st' Promo

Promo for full length interview with Pink available on demand at Elvisduran.com

Promo for full length Twilight interviews available on demand at elvisduran.com

Promo for full length Enrique Igleisas interview available on demand at elvisduran.com.

[This is a huge difference between the US and the UK. The presenter has his own website that he is directing people to with all his content on it. It appears to be all about the personalities and not so much the station. The presenter appears to be more interested in promoting himself than the brand of Z100.]

Sponsorsip Promo

Z100 Ident

Adverts

JA RULE & ASHANTI FT. FAT JOE - WHAT'S LUV? (3 songs in 18 minutes)

Tagged bed into link (bed crashed end of the song - not smooth)

Link about American Idol - 'crapped the bed' expression used, the team discuss last night's show.

Entertainment News (not an obvious segue into it - presented by someone we haven't heard yet, and Elvis comments on the story as they come) More reasons to visit elvisduran.com

Elvis makes comments about thinking about people you went to school with, but that you don't care about.

[The comments Elvis makes about old school friends, and the fact that he doesn't care about them, seems slightly aggressive and something you would be quite unlikely to hear in Britain (although Moyles is likely to say something like that I guess).]

More comments and discussion, including clips, of last night's American Idol.

[At this stage there have been no time checks, or no real local content or mention.]

A very casual mention of the weather and the forecast. Not easy to take in as there was no trail or introduction - he just went into it, as if he'd just remembered he ought to.

Production (head to elvisduran.com for more)

Ad Break

N'SYNC - BYE, BYE, BYE (straight into song, no ID)

Z100 ID

KELLY CLARKSON - MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU

Link (there was absolutely no reference, before or after, the music)

Discussion about what food should be eaten at Baseball games. All of the team give opinions, callers on phone too. Rude to one or two callers. This link went on for nearly 10 minutes.

Elvis says 'Into the Stupid Newsroom' and another presenter talks about some silly stories (no production to break it up)

There was then some crazy caller on the phone and then an off-hand sports result and I couldn't really follow that part of the show.

Adverts

DANIEL BEDINGFIELD - GOTTA GET THRU THIS

EVE FT GWEN STEFANI - LET ME BLOW YOUR MIND

Bed crashes end of song again.

END OF NOTETAKING.

Right. Phew. That was busy. I have a few points to make on the above.

The lack of music in the show was incredible. I was listening for about 70 minutes and there were only 7 songs in that time. When a song was played, there was no mention that a song was coming, and no back anno. Of the 7 songs played, only 2 are new, which is strange, considering it's a Hit Music Station. (Perhaps this shows a difference between what Z and Capital think this means).

The swearing and content was unsuitable for a British breakfast audience, but sounded standard for this Z100 show.

The way the presenter came out of a song (with a bed) he crashed the end of the song a few times (you wouldn't hear that on Capital or Radio 1 very often at all)!

There was no signposting or production to signal a new part of the show which I found very confusing, and hard work to listen to. Especially as radio is a background medium. This was particularly apparent when Elvis mentioned the weather.

The Elvis Duran brand seemed to be far more important that Z100. Elvis Duran himself seemed more important than the music. I agree with this, as I don't like the way that British stations deal with the balance between music and links. In England, especially on Capital, there is lots of music, and only a few links, most of which are speed links. This format doesn't offer anything different from listening to iTunes or Spotify, especially when you have to listen to adverts too. At least with Elvis' show, there was something different, you know, there was a reason given to listen to the radio, rather the just shoving your iPod on.

The lack of new music was interesting, but not important as I enjoyed hearing some songs I hadn't heard in the morning, and as I'm typing this, the drivetime show is on and the jock, JJ, is playing a number of new tunes, in what appears to be a request show.

With Americans supposedly having a shorter attention span than us Brits, it's seems strange that so much goes on for so long during the show. I would have thought that the current Capital format of 40 minutes non stop would go down better over here. I don't know.

To summarise then, as I know there is a hell of a lot of stuff up there, that probably only Robin will read, I found it fascinating listening to Z100 and it was a really enjoyable listen. They just need to tidy up segues, and perhaps address the balance between Music and Speech and they will have a great product. This is something that Capital also needs to look at. I felt that Z100 didn't have very many of the prerequisites for a breakfast show that we consider are necessary in the UK. For example, Traffic and Travel, Time Checks, Weather and News segments.

Apologies Rob, that I didn't really look at the Idents!

Comments would be welcome, if anyone has actually braved the length of this post! This has taken me over an hour to write and as such I am now tired and my arms and wrists hurt. Consequently, I haven't written everything that I could of, and therefore could amend this later on. Would love to hear your views ladies and gents!

Cheers

Good Morning America

Morning everyone. It's 9am in NYC, and I've been up for 2 hours already. The plan is to continue with our normal schedule in terms of sleeping, eating and waking and that way we should have no problem adjusting both here and when we get back. This morning I've been listening to New York's hit music station z100, the equivalent of Capital. I've made 2 sides of notes and will blog a pretty in depth analysis of the differences later on, when I have time. 

We're now off to Times Sq to enjoy the day. It's pretty overcast at the moment, but nevertheless I'm sure it's gonna be cracking. Okay, so we're off - I'll struggle with crossing the road I'm sure, and we're gonna now get the subway for the 1st time!

Wish Me Luck!

The City That Never Sleeps

Hey Y'all. I am currently sitting in my apartment on East 14th Street, Manhattan! That's right - we made it! Our apartment is great, and in a really great location. We took a wander round a little while ago and found 4 Duane Reed's, which is a pharmacy - New York seems to be obsessed with pharmacies. There is a subway station right outside which will prove very useful. We found a cool little pizza diner called Papou Pizza where 2 'slices' (more like slabs) and a drink were only $4.50. Bargain, and very filling. 

One thing I am very much struggling with is crossing the road. Now, this may seem silly but I think not. For a start, whilst the light is on to cross, cars can turn into the road from the right - what the?! So the light is red for cars but if they are turning right, then it's OK, even if that means they are going right toward a crowd of people? Only in America! Also, it is well known that Jaywalking is illegal in America - i.e. crossing the road when the traffic light says not too. But everyone seems to do it - so I'm not sure when I can cross or not! Very confusing, and I shall be making this a key area of study after the next couple of days!

Whilst I am here I am gonna say 'mate' and 'cheers' as often as possible. It's not really conscience, as I say those words all the time, but I feel I should inject some Englishness into NYC.

I've not even seen much of NY yet but it already seems awesome. Anyway, been up 18 hours now and feeling knackered. Don't wanna be too tired tomorrow, so gonna head to bed soon, even if it is before 10 local time!

Until tomorrow,

Night Y'All!

Up In The Air

All right all? I haven’t blogged for over a week, which is terrible. My apologies for this – I didn’t wanna feel like I was just blogging for the sake of it, and actually had something to say. I think I have quite a bit to talk about as I am currently sitting aboard flight VS045 half way over the Atalntic on my way to New York City! Obviously, I can’t access the internet onboard (not without a cost anyway) and so I’ll post this online as soon as I get chance in Manhattan.

 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was scared of flying, and I have to say I have struggled at times during the flight – take off wasn’t fun anyway! But, I’m pleased to report that flying on Virgin Atlantic is awesome. There are several reasons for this:

 

1)    Free alcohol – I’ve not partaken yet however, but there’s still 3 hours to go and the return flight.

2)    Virgin have a brand new kind of in flight entertainment. It has about 60 movies to choose from, 50 TV shows, 15 games and the opportunity to text messages to other passengers. Imagine how cool that’d be if you saw a fit girl across the way there and wanted to talk to her, without actually talking to her! The movies on board include Burn After Reading, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, Max Payne, The Dark Knight, and many many more! There’s 4 episodes of Family Guy, which I’m currently watching and also games such as Tetris and Solitaire.

3)    It’s pretty damn comfy.

4)    Free food and drink! (Including Choc-Ices!)

 

We were 40 minutes late taking off but it’s no problem now that we’re over halfway. There’s rather a lot ot turblence at the moment, but Family Guy and this blog are distracting me from nerves. The plane has a surprisingly number of empty seats, which means there are a few lucky people who are able to spread themselves across 4 seats to sleep! I’m jealous, as I’m knackered but can’t sleep sitting up in this position! There’s not quite enough leg room though to be honest! It’s ok if you’re small like Aoif, but I’ve got long legs and it’s not the most comfortable!

 

As for our trip, our apartment is in the middle of Manhattan, and we have tickets for a NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, which is well exciting! Probably the most exciting bit of the trip I think.

 

Well, I think that’ll do me for now, I’ll report later from my apartment. Talk to you soon, cheers. Take care.

Nearly 96 hours of life unblogged...

I'm really sorry, I've let the side down, dropped the ball, or some other expression for failure. I haven't blogged for 4 days. That's shit. Truth is, I've just wanted to get into bed and sleep every night, and that's when I tend to write.  It's gotten to the point that I nearly didn't want to write this blog even, due to the fact that I have a fair bit to update you on. Not that my life's been exciting or anything, I've just done a few things I'd like to write about.

Right, where I left off, Saturday morning. Work was fine, and I came home and slept through most of the day. I watched England's vastly improved performance in their defeat to the Welsh. It's become a bit of a joke in the house that Stoobie is our new rugby correspondent, due to him trying to learn the game so he can watch it with the 2nd years. The evening (Valentine's remember) was spent with Aoife watching a bit of tele, whilst eating pizza and then settling down to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (yeah, it was illegal, sorry Brad). I wanted to do a mini film review but I've left it too long and already have enough to write about. I will summarise by saying that I thought the film was brilliant. The story was beautiful and I did cry at the end of the movie. Now, whilst I appreciate I cry at a number of films, I just loved the story in this film. It was 2 hours, 45 minutes however, which was about 45 minutes or so too long, and was almost a chore to watch for that reason.

I also finally installed Spotify, although not on my PC, that's still being a pain, but on Aoife's Mac. An example of Apple being better than Windows (you won't hear me saying that often) and is the best thing I've played with in a long time. It's up there with the iPlayer - genius I tell thee. What excites me, in a geeky radio way is people's acceptance of an advert every 5 songs, which is often a reason given as to why people don't like listening to commercial radio.

Right, blimey only just on Sunday. Sunday, I worked in the pub. I started at 11, and worked until 5, and I was in charge for pretty much the entire shift. It wasn't too busy and I actually enjoyed it, which is incredible since I generally would say I hate it. Sunday evening saw Tudor's arrival at the Big Gay House along with two extra controllers for the Xbox, and a night of gaming and Wrestling ensued. We played Fifa, Madden and Smackdown vs. Raw, with Stoobie getting involved too, and Robin joined us later. It was cracking, to be honest, and we hadn't even got on to No Way Out which I was mostly looking forward too. Again, I would like to write about all the matches in detail, blog my thoughts and feelings on the outcome, but I would be here til Easter. Robin fell asleep as soon as the 1st match came on, and then when he did watch the wrestling, he found the buzzer noise used in the Elimination Chamber more entertaining than the wrestling. I ended up staying up until 5.30. I had a great night, and a big thanks to all involved, and we must make sure we do it more often!

Monday, Monday! Not a lot of interest occurred, other than I completed my seminar paper on advertising and the media which I'm due to present in the morning. I then went to work at Classic where I'm currently covering the 6-12am slot until tomorrow night. Nothing of note occurred there, and American Pie was on the TV which was a result.

I'm rushing things now just to get this done. So, on to Tuesday. I took part in Steven's focus group which was about Newsbeat and in particular a special broadcast they did back in June with David Cameron. I very much enjoyed taking part in this, and it led me to come up with the suggestion that Radio 1 should have a phone-in/debate section of the mid morning show for the listeners to discuss issues, mainly political, but other things as well. It would work in a similar way to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. The more I think about this, I think it's brilliant, well, if I do say so myself.

I also had work again this evening which was fine. I think I'm suffering from a crisis of confidence though, something I'll go into in more detail I'm sure.

Right, really rushed through that. Pity, really. I'll try and post more often. As for Wednesday, got my presentation tomorrow and work again. Wish me luck! 

Night

Happy Valentines Day to all!

Good morning to you! Hope you're well.

When discussing news items this afternoon, I appear to have missed the biggest one of the day - the story of the 13 year old father. He's apparently only 4foot tall, his voice hasn't broken yet, and he gets £10 pocket money off his dad sometimes. His 'girlfriend' is 15, and lives with her mum, and dad, who hasn't got a job, and 5 brothers. They live off benefits. The father, who was 12 at the time of conception, lives with his mum, who's separated from his father, who has 10 kids in total. Now, I have a number of things to say about this, but I'm not sure how to do so without sounding snobbish and very middle class. But, what I will say is that it's a perfect example of how Britain is becoming fucked up. Now, he isn't the youngest father we've ever seen in the UK, but it's just ridiculous. The best quote of it all comes from the boy's father, who has said he is going to sit down and explain the birds and bees to his son, so that it doesn't happen again - what a idiot. Honestly, some people should not be allowed to have kids, and I can only imagine the life this new poor child is going to have. I'm completely shocked by the fact that kids have sex when they are 12 - I'm pretty sure I didn't know what it was, I didn't even kiss someone until I was 15, and sex didn't come knocking until I was 18. Given, that I'm probably later than average, but still, 12. I remember joking around in the playground about 'humping' at around that time. Unbelievable.

Another big story is the decision by Amazon to sell a Japanese game in which the objective is to rape women. You can even play online, meet up with friends and gang rape someone. How shocking? The Japanese are mental. As for Amazon? I hope they don't get in too much trouble for this, a simple apology will do and let's hear no more of it.

I'm currently at work, and am playing out the Howard Goodall on... repeat from last Saturday. Very shortly I need to work out all my timings for Matthew Stiff's show so I hit the news from IRN on time. All geeky and uninteresting I know.

I think I've ranted for long enough and need to get back to work. Oh, and Happy Valentines day!

Cheers!

Friday the 13th

Howdy! Today I have done nothing, I got up at 1, got out of bed at 2 and I will return to bed for a wee kip after writing this blog, before I head to work tonight. Exciting(!)

The big news story of the day is the plane crash in Buffalo, NY, which following last month's Hudson River experience fills me with great apprehension considering Aoif and I will be flying to NYC in just 12 days. I really don't like flying, and the silly thing about that is, that I have developed a fear of flying for no reason. I first flew when I was 11 or 12 (well I actually went to Borneo when I was 18 months old, but I don't remember that!) and it was grand. I remember my sister hated it, especially taking off, but I loved it and thought it was really cool. But now, I hate taking off, and I hate just being in an aeroplane. It's just the noise of the engine as the plane levels off, it sounds like it cuts out, and as it levels, my stomach turns, and the whole experience renders me quite scared. This is due I think to the fact that I worry about everything, and if there was one thing I could change about myself it would be the amount I worry about silly, pointless things. Despite this fear of flying, I am determined not to let it stop me from doing things, but I have to say I'm not looking forward to the 8 hour outward journey to JFK, although I've flown for 8 hours before, to Barbados and back.

Other news today talks of the Twestival that happened either yesterday, or the day before, the England test match being postponed due to a dangerous outfield, and the fact that Chelsea have lost loads of money due to sacking Mourinho and Grant, and the figures don't include the sacking of Scolari either. Incidentally, it was revealed that Man Utd are the 2nd richest club in the world to Real Madrid, but would be first if it wasn't for the weak pound. I still find it bizarre that money can change in value from day to day, maybe one day I'll get my head around it.

Something I haven't mentioned yet on my blog, is the fact that my cat, Poppy, who lives at home with Mum and Dad, is ill, bless her. She's not eaten for about a week, and if you could see the size of her you'd realise that something must be seriously wrong. She had a blood test at the vets this week (£169!!!) and had to stay over for a night, but the vet can't work out what's wrong, and the whole thing is getting Mum and Kate down rather a lot. Hopefully she'll get better soon.

I've been considering what phone to purchase next, and it simply comes down to Blackberry vs. Nokia 5800 vs. the iPhone. Now, if I had to pick my favourite, then it'd be the iPhone. But the fact that the other handsets are free, whereas the iPhone is £100, probably means I can't afford one, and I already have a Nokia, so when it comes to upgrade time, we'll see what happens. The injuries sustained to my phone are growing, by the way; the battery life is down from about 2 days to 7 hours, the wifi coverage is now terrible, and the 8 key is temperamental, and you already know about the broken 0 key. 7 months 'til upgrade. Ho hum.

Right, well I'd best be trying to get some sleep before work tonight. It's the last shift on my current hours, before my new hours which I mentioned earlier in the week come into affect. It's also my last handover with Andrew, the guy who trained me, as he's leaving the station tomorrow. I'll blog again in the early hours. Until then! 

DJing and Distractions

Good evening all. Hope you're well. I've just got in from DJing at Area 51, and it was the hardest set that Phil and I have ever done. This was down to the fact that there was no energy from anyone, and nobody seemed like they particularly cared what music was played - and not in a good way. It was above average-ly busy, after being dead for the first 90 minutes, it soon picked up around about the midnight mark. It was nice to have Robin and Stew out with us, and they seemed to both enjoy their evening, which was good, because I did sort of coerce them into coming out. Stoobie got quite drunk and therefore hopefully he won't focus on Valentines too much. He is the only person I know who gets really depressed around Valentine's Day, which I can't understand, as it is the most unromantic day of the year - it was invented, or at least, cashed in on, by card manufacturers, and for me is no big deal. The only relevance of it to me is that I met Aoife on Feb 14, 2007. 

Today I attempted to begin work on my dissertation, and although I have now gotten hold of a copy of the in and outs of how RAJAR works, I didn't get far today, as I ended up watching loads of classic clips from Wrestlemanias gone by, and also a video of Christian's much hyped return to the WWE, on the ECW brand, which I thought was strange as I thought he would have gone to Smackdown to either team up with or fight against Edge. Perhaps they are waiting for the Draft on April 10th for that one to happen. The timing of this year's Draft means when Stoobs, myself and George go to the o2 to see Smackdown and ECW, we will see the new rosters in full affect, something I hadn't expected, and neither had the o2, as the tickets were sold advertising the current line up. The date of this live event is just 2 days before the dissertation hand in. Scary.

Also today I played a number of demos of sports games: Brian Lara International Cricket 2007, which was great, NBA 2k9, which was awesome, and Madden 2009, which despite

me not really understanding, I enjoyed, and would like a play on the full game - hint hint, Tudor! Another fruitless task was my attempt to buy some tickets for a sport in New York for us to see whilst we are there, but the cheapest I could find was tickets to the NY Knicks (that's Basketball), at Madison Square Garden for £37. Pretty reasonable for what you're getting I guess, but I'm not sure they're quite affordable. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, that was pretty much my day. Tomorrow I have work and will try to do some more dissertation work, but we'll see. As for now, I'm sitting next to a very peaceful, fast asleep Aoife and as it's gone 3, I'd best be joining her.

Goodnight

Sneak Peak

So another day has passed. England lost the football, and I had a very enjoyable evening out with my lovely lady.

I had a lecture today which was not particularly interesting, about Advertising and the Media, which is the topic I'm doing my seminar presentation on next week. Don't quite know when I'm gonna have time to write that as I'm working Sunday through Wednesday evenings, as well as watching No Way Out in the early hours of Monday morning. Oh well, it's an easy 50% of the module.

The focus of my day was the very first screening of Dorian Gray, a film that's not out until September. For obvious reasons, I can't write about the content of the film, but I will say it's very good, and it was interesting for me to see what a film looks like half finished and how much of a film is really made in post production. It was also a good opportunity for Aoif and I to pass comments on to the producers on our thoughts and it will be interesting to see if any of our thoughts match any changes made. We then headed home where we had fantastic burgers for tea, and are now laying in bed, just about to go to sleep.

A short post, yes, but, alas, I'm feeling rather sleepy. More tomorrow...

Even Slacker-er, The Purposefulness of this, and I'm going to New York

O dear, o dear. It's been nearly 96 hours since I posted, and to those of you who think that I'm losing interest in this blogging lark, you are wrong. I think it should be stated that at weekends it's unlikely that I'll post, simply because I'm off with Aoife at weekends at hers, so I'm busy and therefore unlikely to blog. My excuse for not posting last night is that I was Djing in the Undercroft, and by the time I got in, it was after 2, and I just wanted to get into bed. But I'm here again, fighting off the urge to sleep, as my eyes hurt, to deliver an update into my life and thoughts.

I wish I was able to blog as often as Robin does, because I regularly think of something that I want to include in my blog, and then by the time I come to writing it that evening, I've forgotten what it is. It's a shame my phone is broken, otherwise I would seriously consider writing an entry on the go, where possible. As it is, I'll continue as I am.

So, the weekend. Well, work was great, and went successfully. Since my last post and my comments on my hours there, I have found out that my hours are to be extended, so as of the 21st, I'll be working from midnight to 9am, every Saturday morning. On another radio front, I've had some fantastic news from my mate Joe Rudd, who works as a jock on Heart, formerly Horizon Radio, and also at Key. I won't disclose what the news is - I wouldn't want to jinx it, but fingers crossed, as there is a chance I will get involved there. On Saturday evening, after being sufficiently rested, Aoif and I headed to the VUE cinema in Harrow to witness Tom Cruise in his latest World War 2 spectular, Valkyrie, which I have to say I thought was great. Obviously, it's difficult to really get into something when you know the outcome, but the way the film deals with suspense and tension is really something. As for Tom Cruise's performance, well, it's Tom Cruise isn't it? With the exception of Tropic Thunder and Collateral, he just does his thing. Should he have had a German accent? Probably, but I'll let him off.

Sunday saw the Bafta's, which were interesting, with excellent presentation from Jonathan Ross, as ever. I'm not too happy that Slumdog Millionaire won 7 awards, and even though I'm told it's very good, by Barry and Denis and others, I'm really not keen on watching it, although I'm sure I will one day.

Yesterday was focused around our Big Phat Party at the Undercroft, which was packed again, and Phil and I did a sterling job behind the decks, playing a wide range of songs from the likes of Artful Dodger, Five, Papa Roach, Dr. Dre and the Klaxons. It must of gone down well because we've never before had so many people say well done and shake our hands before. Great stuff. Denis was really drunk, which provided lots of entertainment, and Tudor was present, which is always a pleasure.

Something I wanted to mention briefly is the possibility that I am already unable to use my blog as much as, or in the same way, as I had originally intended. That is what I'm getting at in the title of this post. It is impossible to say exactly what I want to say here, because a number of people read this now, and I would find it difficult to be brutally honest in this blog and encounter them in reality - I'm rubbish at conflict, and very often just keep my annoyances and irritations to myself. This is something that I wanted to be able to do via this blog, express myself 100%, simply as a way to lighten the load in my mind. Simply put, there are issues that have occurred recently that I'd like to talk about here, but I feel as though I am unable. Shouldn't have told anyone about my blog should I? Haha!

Finally, for now, I'm going to New York. In 2 weeks, in fact. It's pretty ludicrous that it's taken Aoife and I this long to decide and book it, because we've known about the opportunity and been thinking about it since before Xmas, but anyway, we've done it, we're all booked up and 2 weeks today (Wednesday), we'll be often to New York City for a week. I can't wait - it just means that I'd better get on with my dissertation, and get some more hours in the pub. Oh well!

Right, that's me for now. I promise I will post tomorrow. No more long gaps
I promise, haha, see what I did there? Wasn't funny? You sure? OK, OK, I'll just go now...bye...

Wide Awake

So here I am again, at work. Just hit half way through, and I have to say my eyes are hurting and I'm struggling a bit. Every Friday before work I have asleep between about 5 and 8pm. Unfortunately, this evening I went to bed and was unable to sleep. The result of that is that this is the first week that I've been to work without sleeping, and I've been doing this shift since July. In other shift related news, I found out today that my shift start time is being pushed back to midnight, meaning I lose one hour from my shift. The good news is, however, that I've got some cover work for the week after next, so that's an extra 3 shifts under my belt. That's very positive news.

It started snowing again this afternoon, and the BBC website seems to indicate ( I couldn't understand it fully) that it will snow again tonight. I've been out on snow watch twice now, updating my twitter feed as I go, but there is no snow currently. I wouldn't mind some more snow, but I'd like to at least get home first before it settles, and wreaks havoc once more.

My eyes are really starting to hurt now, and I think I have a headache on the way. I'd best be off. Will blog again tomorrow. Probably going to the cinema tomorrow night, I think Valkryie may well be getting a watch, but then again maybe not, seeing as though Aoife hates Tom Cruise!

Night all!

I'm Getting Slack

I failed to blog yesterday, for which I apologise. The lure of bed was just too tempting, and during the day I was far too busy doing nothing. My new strategy, you see, is to bore myself into writing my dissertation. I really do feel like it's hanging over me now, and that's not a happy thought. Then again, I'm not sure there are too many happy thoughts around at the mo. Worries about all sorts of things, from the dissertation, to getting a job that a) makes me happy and b) enables me to continue to live in London, and the key one being worrying about if I'll ever actually be able to work in my chosen career, radio. All of these things and more are starting to really get me down.

I guess with that in mind, it's important to make the most of the little opportunities that I get to do fun things. Take yesterday, I was bored from doing nothing all day, and Phil thought we should go down to the Undercroft for a couple of drinks, which was a good laugh. Denis came with us, Stewart was at work, and we invited Robin to join us, which proved to be great fun! We spent rather a lot of time on the itbox playing Bullseye or Pub Quiz, which resulted in a lot of fun, some of which can be seen here!

I'm getting slack with blogging and Twitter, and even Facebook to a certain extent. I think it's just because I'm not doing anything at the moment, so I don't really have anything to write about, particularly on Twitter.

But I am still keeping up with the technology, the latest geek gadget that I've heard of flying around, is Google Latitude, which is basically Google Maps, but if you sign up for it, it can track your every move through your phone, which is pretty cool. Especially, if you want to know where your mates are. Aoife advised me against installing this software, in case 'bad guys want to find me'. Now, I'm sure that's a risk but it does raise the point of privacy and it is slightly scary to think that people can find you wherever you are. But with Latitude you are only visible to your chosen friends, and you can select whether or not you are visible on the move, or just at home, so I think it's pretty damn safe. Thanks for the concern though, baby!

As for today, I will make tracks into my dissertation by attempting to set up a meeting with someone from RAJAR for next week, so I can actually make some progress. Denis is now getting distracted by playing the now rather old skool GTA: San Andreas which looks unbelievably dated considering it's only 5 years old. Technology, and it's speed is scary.

I'm working again at classic overnight, so I'll head to bed again in a little while, and then I'll blog from work.

Until then, take care!

The Death of Fantasy Football

Evening all!

Another rather late post, and I'll tell you the truth, I nearly forgot to do so. My eyes are now hurting and I'd like to get into bed, but I'll write this here blog and be gone.

Today consisted of not an awful lot. I had another Advertising lecture today, in which, I was surprised to see Mr. Phil Landers, who, as a rule, does not attend theory lectures. This may have something to do with him having to retake a number this year! The lecture itself was interesting enough, but the seminar was dull beyond dull. Phil did his presentation, on the history of advertising, which was good and ticked all the boxes. He then ended on a question that had nothing to do with his presentation, but about the situation in Gaza and controversy with the BBC not showing the charity appeal, at which stage, I burst our laughing because it was ridiculous! Bless him! He then had to leave to work on three Trevor Nelson Radio 2 shows, leaving me, Steven and Denis to endure the following presentations - which was not fun, although Denis and I did find a way to entertain ourselves through the last one. I won't say how for fear of damaging our reputations.

After this, I got a marrantz out of stores so that I can conduct one or two interviews in the coming week, and get transcripts for them for my dissertation, which I really need to crack on with. Denis, the mentalist, is in the library now doing some reading for it. Crazy! It was good to see Steven today, as I don't very often get the chance, and so was nice to catch up. We discussed, amongst other things, using a focus group for our dissertations, which I hadn't thought of before, but I think I may well give it a go now. Just get a few mates round, have a few drinks, chat about RAJAR, and then watch a film or play singstar or something. Simple.

Great news! I found out that extra time and penalties does not count in this online Fifa league that I mentioned yesterday, meaning I didn't lose to that annoying kid yesterday, instead I drew 2-2! I played 2 more matches today, winning one 2-1, and drawing the other 2-2 again. I've also made £67mill by selling 3 of my strikers, including my best player. I now only have 1 striker, and am in desperate need of picking up some decent players. Oh well, I do have £117 million to work with.

This league prompted Barry to compare it to fantasy football, and how it's far better than doing it in a national newspaper, or online as we do, as you get to interact with other managers, and play the games themselves. This got me to thinking that, with the xBox now so readily available at £120 and Fifa only £25, for under £150, anyone can now set this kind of thing up and play online with thousands of others and have many many enjoyable hours of play, all the while chatting with people, transferring players and generally having a laugh, which is surely better than picking 11 players and watching how they do each week, largely helpless to your fate. I wonder, maybe, as this kind of thing is becoming more widespread, that the traditional fantasy football as we know it, may well be beginning to come to an end. Interesting thought hey?

As an aside, Twitter is getting even more popular now, as I see Chris Moyles has now joined it, and interestingly, I now know that he tends to go to bed at 11pm every night, and only sleeps for 5 hours a night. Fair play to him for that.

Anyway, Aoife is asleep, and has to be up in 4 hours, and I'd best be getting into bed as well.

Until the morning, where I promise I will try to blog more - honestly, I have a list as long as my arm to get on with, but I'm too lazy to do anything! Good night!

Lazy Day

I did it again, I missed a day of blogging, my apologies. I have no particular excuse - snow, sleep and general laziness have prevented me from writing. But I am here now, although there's not much to tell of the last day or so.

Yesterday was a busy day with the snow to enjoy, and Rock Band to play. We made a snowman, called Dev Patel, and had many a snow ball fight at uni with Annabel and her mates, and Jay and Colin joined us too. Robin was pre-occupied with taking photos, but in fairness he's got some great snaps.

After we got in from the snow fights, feeling rather wet and cold, I watched Sky Sports News as it was transfer deadline day, one of the most exciting days of the football calendar, for all the latest comings and goings in the premiership. More Rock Band occurred after this until Robin, and then Tudor left to go home.

Yesterday was a chilled evening with not a lot going on.

Today has been a wonderfully lazy day; I got up at 12 and have pretty much sat at this chair all day, playing games on my Xbox and PC. As for tonight, the plan is to watch a film and then head to bed.

So a not very exciting day or so has occurred in the life of Chris Chilvers, but it's been enjoyable nonetheless.

The biggest annoyance in my life at the moment is the fact that my phone is indeed broken. I touched on it in a previous post, but unfortunately it looks like I will be having problems with the zero key for the next 9 months until I can get an upgrade. It's not too bad, and could be worse, but I was just getting into twitter and facebook on my phone on a regular basis and Nokia Maps as well, so it's a blow to not be able to write a space, or to have hundreds of zeroes suddenly appearing. It also means that my text messages_look_like_this_from_now_on! Irritating, to say the least.

Something else that annoyed me today, and is rather painful and nearly resulted in me having a reaction similar to this! I've entered a Fifa league on Xbox LIVE! and today I played the first fixture. When listening to my opponent talking, he must of been about 12. He was crap at the game, and to make matters worse I heard him singing 'Breaking Free' from the High School Musical soundtrack (grrrr!). Now, that doesn't seem unduly annoying - until I mention the fact that I lost on penalties. I am ashamed and I nearly cried, because I dominated possession, hit the bar twice and had about 8 golden opportunities and only drew 2-2. He only had 2 shots by the way. This made me very angry, and I haven't fully recovered yet. Back to the training field I guess.

Right I best be off now, gonna watch a film, not sure which one, Aoife is picking tonight!

Cya!

Rock 'n' Roll, Snow and Superbowl

What an evening. It kicked off at about 8pm when Tudor arrived with the full Rock Band kit (drums, bass, guitar and mic) and the band was formed with Denis taking vocals, Tudor on guitar, Stewart on bass and me, of course, taking the role of the drummer. I was aggravated that the drums were not realistic at all - the main problem being that as a drummer you play to what you hear, not what you read (well in my case anyway) and so when I tried to play on the hard mode, I got something like 40% because I was trying to read, interpret and play all at the same time, rather than just playing. Still it was fun, and there will be many more enjoyable sessions of this game, particularly tomorrow (today) with Tudor set to stay all day so we can rock out.

As I spent a lot of time in my room and playing Rock Band I didn't really notice the snow until 11pm, when a large amount of snow had settled, and it continued to snow pretty much up until now. We had a number of snowball fights, during which a funny, but painful moment occurred, when Denis ran out of the house with the words 'I'm in the mood for a tackle, having watched all the football!' He ran straight at me, but as soon as he got onto the step of our porch he slipped, went flying and fell on the floor, ripping his jeans and cutting himself. Funny, but painful.

I wasn't too impressed with the Superbowl itself, until the last quarter which was very exciting and about as tense as you can get in any sport. I'm not sure if I've been converted, but it was an enjoyable experience all the same.

Having seen the Steelers winning the match in very late on, we then decided to have a snowball fight in the garden. We then somehow turned it into an England vs. Ireland snow war with Barry and Denis in the bathroom whilst Phil and I attacked them from below. I think that they won with 3 direct hits to the face.

Robin then got a call from Lottie informing us that her, Alice and Spike had found some untouched snow on Kenton Road and we should come down. Tudor, Robin, Phil and I all headed toward them and this resulted in an all out war, in which it was safe to say that Lottie lost. She'll never learn. I am, at this moment, concerned that I've broken my phone due to the snowy and wet conditions, as the '0' button keeps pressing itself and going mental. Hopefully it'll sort itself out.

As for the future of Britain, I think tomorrow will be a stand still and nothing will get done. I'm sure the tubes will be closed and all chaos will break out. I worry that Aoife will have a nightmare trying to get to the BBC tomorrow where she is scheduled to start 4 weeks of work experience at BBC Films. Here's to hoping that she's ok.

Right, I'm now nearly warm enough, I'm gonna get into bed.

Goodnight.

Strange Sleeping Patterns

It's been a while since I posted: I neglected to post for nearly 48 hours. What would Robin Blamires think of that? My apologies for the delay, the truth is I've basically been either at work or asleep for the entire time. I left things on Saturday morning, that I was at work and would possibly post again. Well, I didn't, obviously. Work was textbook this week and went well, and I also stayed in the studio until around 10.30, meaning I was there for nigh on 12 hours. I wasn't getting paid to stay there for the next 2 shows, but it's something that I'm gonna do a lot of in the coming weeks - sitting in on shows, and just generally hang around more, and get to know people, in an effort to learn more and to meet lots of different people.

As a result of this 12 hour stint, I went to Aoife's, who was already awake, and slept until about 5pm. I then spent the evening in the Undercroft, DJing for Sarah's 21st. It was a tough crowd, mainly consisting of rock and indie types and therefore presented quite a challenge for Phil and me, but we played some great tracks, and our set went down very well. If I told you we played Rage, Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Feeder and the Macarena, you can see how we pleased the crowd. There's something beautiful about seeing a group of people doing the dance to the Macarena - really fills my heart with joy.

I got to bed at around 4am, after watching more Hustle, and slept through until 3pm. I haven't really done anything since then, so it's been a very lazy weekend thus far.

This should change though as tonight is of course Superbowl Sunday, and the plan is to stay up with Tudor, Robin, Barry, Denis and Phil to watch it. I don't know why, I couldn't care less about American Football, nor do I understand it. But it just seems like quite a cool thing to do, we're making an event of it and should be a laugh. The best bit of it all is undoubtedly the fact that Tudor is bringing his Rock Band gear along and we shall have a laugh in the run up to the big event. It's also the 2nd Sunday running I've stayed up to watch sport, following the Royal Rumble last week.

Just found out that Alan Carr is replacing Russell Brand as the permanent host of Saturday nights on Radio 2. Not sure about that, but better than Alex Lester that's for sure.

Right. until the next time,

Take care!