Its a website which offers you somewhere to store you’re cycle adventures, and encourages you to share the experiences you have whilst cycling. With a mapping facility for your routes, photo uploading, and other cycle specific information, sharing knowledge can be really beneficial to all users.

Im almost finished my last year of University, Handed in my Dissertation a few weeks ago, professionally bound. The title being : How did technology change the political significance of media activism in our western world, in particular the war on Iraq? I actually rather enjoyed writing it, and have a sense of achievement upon completing it, but it was hard to sit yourself in-front of the computer day after day and write continuously 9-5 for like the last 3 weeks of so. Hopefully ill get a good grade for it, i think its worthy of a 2:1.

Recently i have been developing my u-cycle graduate project, a website which offers you somewhere to store you’re cycle adventures, and encourages you to share the experiences you have whilst cycling. With a mapping facility for your routes, photo uploading, and other cycle specific information, sharing knowledge can be really beneficial to everyone who uses it. Its taking ages to produce, and quite frankly Im struggling to get it done, but Im sure ill pull through in the end, I have up until now.

I’ve got to produce a promotional video for my project, which will also act as something i can show at the Uni and London grad show’s we’ve got coming up. My House-mate has lent me a neat little camera called a MUVI camcorder, which is really small, and will fit perfectly on my bike so i can capture some footage while I’m out riding.

The main goal after doing all this work is to obviously get a job, I’ve got a fantastic job opportunity coming up later in the summer, which will be a permanent position in a design team, which if i get, ill talk about here later.

Ill try and make a conscious effort to post more regularly, amongst the work I’ve got to do…

I recently got my media and activism essay back and received a mark of 72, a first. I was happy because i was struggling to find some really good case study’s. My mood the same day changed considerably when i heard that a placement which i thought i had nailed down for months, was now not available for me. So i am yet again on the search for one to complete over the summer for 6 weeks…

I have referred to online guides for help re-writing my CV for the media industry, as well as help from University guides. Hopefully it, along with some personalisation techniques will help get me another placement.

Im also currently designing a new website to host my portfolio so it will be easy for my prospective employers to see an example of the work i have produced.

I have a cycling trip to France planned with 8 friends at the end of June, i’m trying to get as much cycling in as possible before then so i can be in my best form to kick their ass…

Over and out!…

Here are some screen shots from one of the latest group productions we produced for university. It is a game designed for age 8-10 children to co-inside with their key stage learning at school.

We gained a 2:1 for the project which we were fairly happy with. i think we gave it a pretty good go.

I designed the 3D character using cinema 4D software, we exported it in a series of images and put it into a flash game. I also designed the mini drag and drop game.

‘In what ways can media activism be used to create new ‘realities’ within public spaces? Your answer should analyse 2-3 media activism case studies in-depth, through a specific research methodology introduced during the unit (i.e. historical analysis; marxist analysis; discourse analysis; spatial analysis).’

I am an avid cyclist and usually cycle between 10 and 30 miles each day commuting. I Have a race bike which i ride with friends in the summer and winter and am hoping to race later this year, and i was lucky enough to be invited to ride with the new TEAM SKY british cycling team earlier this year in London. i love it.

But this morning i was a little annoyed…

i cycle the same stretch of road everyday to and from university. This is what happened this morning around 9:15am : I cycle from my front door towards the first hill on my journey, last night was tiring playing volleyball until 10pm (and winning the league), so i get off my bike and walk it up the hill on the pavement. A jogger then runs up the opposite side of the road and carries on up the hill, i then reach the top as the road flattens out and jump back on my bike(on the pavement) for the 100 metres or so before the T junction and cycle lanes start.. I notice i have caught the jogger just before i approach the T junction, and he turns behind to check for traffic knowing that he wants to cross the road onto my side of the pavement. We make eye contact and i smile politely, he crosses the road and we are on the same side of the pavement….. Although he is about 30 odd metres in front of me, he knows i am there because he saw me just a moment earlier….

I approach slowly and cautiously on his left because he has drifted to the right leaving what i thought was room for me to pass on the opposite side of him. As i approach him he suddenly changes course and leans in maliciously toward me as i pass and shouts “F**KING HELL”, as if he had no idea i was behind him and was trying to knock him down or something…. I just couldn’t believe it, i was shocked….

What did i do to deserve this?? is it just because i’m on a bike?? If i were an old lady on a bike would i have been treated differently??

People go on and on about the problems between pedestrians and cyclists, its a real shame because ive never had any problems on my journeys before, i always go out of my way to be as little nuisance as possible. Its a shame this individual had to ruin the start to my day…. hope yours was not as bad….

Our event was also a great success, over 30 bikes were repaired in the day, with over 50 being safety checked and advice offered for other repairs. 

We handed out 500 badges and 350 flyers on the day which helped promote our website and provide people with information on cycling in the area. The Bournemouth Echo also covered the event, posting a small article a few days before to promote the event and the web address, and then a larger article with a photo of the whole team explaining the event and the things that we were doing on the day. 

The presentation went very well with the channel 4 representative  offering only positive feedback.

my photoshop, flash and dreamweaver skills are improving with having these resources easily at my disposal. 

really enjoying working with my group over this summer project. we have done a really good job so far and have achived alot. 

www.cycleforsummer.co.uk is up and running. we are currently running some more updates which we havent put up yet. 

we have conformation of our event in bournemouth town square on the 23rd of May to promote cycling for the summer. i will be repairing bikes all day 9 till 5 and offering advice to everyone. it looks like we are teaming up with the ‘big green weekend’ which is happening in the lower gardens on the same date. 

ill post back soon