Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

Today was a research day. I did lots of counting and sorting and calculating percentages and whatnot. I found out some interesting (to me) things about the playlists of Lyric FM, Radio 3 and Classic FM. And I rang my new landlady. But none of that is particularly interesting to talk about on my blog so I'll have to think of something else.

So let's think about media. I'd really like to see Seren become a fortnightly newspaper next year. At the moment it's sort of in limbo: it has news stories in it, but it doesn't come out regularly enough for the news to actually be new. And it has features, but they're mixed in with the news fairly randomly.

It'd be an awful lot more work having a fortnightly issue, but I think it'd be worth it. I haven't examined the internal politics of Seren in detail, but I understand that two competent people are running for editor next year. What about having a joint editorship? One person gets to be editor and the other deputy editor in the first semester, and they swap for the second. That'd make the workload more manageable.

Also, people might be more enthusiastic about putting work into this sort of thing if they could earn credits for extra-curricular activities. I know Andy's looking into a volunteering module, but why not make it an all-round extra-curricular module, like DCU? I'd like it because it'd mean people would be professional about societies. Frodo'd like it because it'd mean departments recognising that involvement in sport is a good thing. Andy'd like it because it would encourage people to volunteer. And the University'd like it cos it'd forge better links with the local community.

I suppose I've been thinking about what Andy was saying about the protests in France, and wondering how we'd communicate proposed action to each and every student if something like that happened here.

Because that's our problem: the University is so spread out that it's hard to communicate with everyone. Seren can't reach everyone, Storm can't reach everyone, and most people just blank half the stuff on the Inranet. But we have to try to make each medium as far-reaching as possible, so we at least increase the likelihood of everyone hearing what's going on.

And I'm going for a run in the morning. I need to destress: I'm clenching my teeth in my sleep which is making my jaw hurt. Also, Race For Life is approaching fast so I'd better at least try to get fit.