Gaisce

When I was in 5th year I signed myself up to do Gaisce. Basically it's the Presidents Award and all you have to is five simple tasks:
1) Do 13 weeks of community work.
2) Do 13 personal work
3) Do 13 weeks of physical work
4) Do an extra 13 weeks in one of these areas.

And the last and final task all 50 of the students who signed up had to go on a hike.... Up a mountain !!
That was the part I was dreading. We had to hike up the Wicklow Mountains.

The challenges were great. I did dancing as my physical, Sign Language for my personal and helping out at a club on a Tuesday night for children with Special Needs as my community work.
I had a great time working in all of these areas and I did my extra 13 weeks with the special needs kids.
This Gaisce experience thought me alot about myself and others around me. People who know me say that they saw a big change in me when I was in 5th year ... Maybe that's because I wasn't out on the town the whole time. But I was told that I don't seem as cheeky as I used to be. Doing all of these challenges thought myself and everyone involved to think of others and to help out the elderly or disabled more often.

The mountain hike was the best time of my life! Now I can officially say that I was on top of a mountain looking down on everything... Well not really I didn't get time the winds were too strong and we all just wanted to get on our bus home. We hiked for 2 days and we stayed in a youth hostel so we weren't walking during the night. I would encourage everyone to do the Gaisce award because it's very fulfilling and it teaches you alot about yourself and you might even get a volunteering job out of it like I did!

My First Semester at DKIT

I remember my first day very very well .... before I even got on my bus to go to Dundalk there was drama.
My best mate found out the night before that her fella was cheating on her... But that's another story.
Anyway when we eventually got to the college I was like a lost child, I didn't know where I was going, I ended up in the science block... Not to say I felt well out of place!
I was grand going into all the classes not a bother on me and then when the work started the next day I wanted to scream... I didn't know if this course was for me and I didn't think I could handle the work.
Thankfully though we all got talking and I feel more comfortable in the class now with everyone and the work isn't that bad either.
I even see my friends from school and we go "creeping" in the canteen on the lunch breaks because we never skip class !
Overall, I think my first semester here was great and I'm 100% sure I'm coming back in January so I hope the rest of the year is great because I don't want to be on the doll queue in Drogheda, it's way too long!

Is there a God ?

Nobody knows for sure if there is God out there or up there ... But what alot of people have is faith. I know from my own life my Granny had a lot of faith in God and heaven and all that jazz, she used to say that she cant see him or touch him but she knows that her faith in God is there whenever she needs him and my cousin shouted out "OH LIKE SANTA CLAUSE !!" That's all that was said on that subject.

I think that nearly every person out there believes in something or some kind of religion. I believe in God but I do question allot of things about religion. I only ever learned about faith and God in primary school and even then I was like ... ehhh this is a bit over the top like! I'm at a stage in my life where I don't really care about that stuff but ya I believe it but for many people out there they want "God" to give them a break because they may have suffered alot in their lives and gave up on the whole heaven and hell idea.

Even though there has been alot of drama around the world I still believe in God as do many other people out there. However I still do question some things.

Can I have Your Number ?

The funniest thing I have ever seen on YouTube is a video called "Can I have Your Number?" From the beginning to end I was seriously in stitches ! This is the sorta thing you don't ever want to happen to you. It's about a girl in the cinema and a guy try's so hard to get her phone number but she isn't giving in to him and to be honest I cant say I blame her. Darrell, the guy, even starts to smell her and he tells her he loves her. Yeah I know it sounds like the fella should be in Ardee but it's too funny and by the end you'll want to watch it again, I can guarantee you that much ! I remember the first time I saw it was towards the end of 6th year and everyone was quoting Darrell and saying he was such a "legend!"
The character Darrell is actually a girl Nicole Randell Johnson I only found that out about 5 minutes ago.
 At the end of 6th year we had our grad party and it was a fancy dress, my friend Rachel dressed up as Darrell and recited the whole video at least 5 times and nobody got sick of it. This shows how funny this video is and I'd recommend it to everyone.
I even have a link to the video so I hope you enjoy it !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTFZyl7hfBw

Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is around the corner.I've been getting excited since the day after Halloween and now, for me, it's officially Christmas because last night I seen the Coca-Cola add ! Once I see that add on the TV I get into the Christmas mood and now I'm absolutely dieing to go Christmas shopping in Dublin.
What's even better now is that it started snowing! I didn't go into college today because the buses weren't running, so since everyone was kinda thick that we were out in the cold we all decided to have a massive snow ball fight.... Worst idea ever! We all got soaked and I think we scared all the old people that were roaming about the bus depot. On the up side though we all had a great laugh and built a snow man,"Frosty",very original.Everything will be back to normal tomorrow though I think and it'll be just another Tuesday in college... Woohoo!

Social Networking & Social Media

I remember back in the day when I never thought I`d be on a computer nearly everyday talking to friends, sharing photos, videos, links and things of all sorts. I remember when I was in 1st year in secondary school, everyone was talking about Bebo and I didn`t  have a clue what they were talking about so one day my friend helped me set up my own "Bebo Profile". I was amazed at everything that I could do on it and I thought it was great that I could talk to my mates and not waste my credit !
Then all of a sudden everyone was talking about cyber bulling and we all got talks in school about it but in all honestly I never experienced anything like that and neither did any of my mates.

Then there was a new revelation... Facebook, it`s the new and improved version of Bebo and I don't think it will die down like Bebo did !
There`s also the Social Media aspect of the internet and nowadays every company out there has a facebook page or a twitter page and it`s a way of keeping their product fresh, new and exciting for consumers. If anyone wants to talk about a particular product they could just onto their official website and talk to other consumers. It`s also a way of getting your opinion heard by the company and if somebody has a suggestion on improving the product it would be given some serious consideration. Its also a way of getting in touch with an expert if you have a problem with the product.

Online PR - First Impressions

My first day of online PR was pretty nerve wrecking because Iam no good at computers, and i was dreading making a webpage. However, when we got into it I realised that it wasn`t that hard and I actually enojoy making a webpage and adding images, hyperlinks, lists and tables.
On the first day I didn`t realise that we had to sit through a lecture of Online PR, I thought it was just all practical, but the lecure is really interesting because we learn about E-Business, On-line trading, eCommerce and the future of technology.
Now that I`m studying Online PR I realise that there are many different explanations and definations to try and explain the term but I have my own phrase that i hope explains Online PR very well.
Online PR is an interaction between a business and a consumer using an electronic medium i.e the internet.
It is also a way of getting a product or event advertised online.
I think that Online PR is very relevant to my Public Relaions course because it`s very interesting and it`s very helpful for businesses to get their product established on the market and it`s also very important because i this module you learn how do create a webpage which is vital for a business to survive in this day and age.