New Year's Resolutions- My Tips To Make 2017 Great

This is coming a month later because we're in February but I'm writing it anyway because its never too late. 

How is 2017 going for you so far?

Have you been sticking to your New Years Resolutions?

Let me tell you about the three most common resolutions that people fail to keep lol!

Loosing weight / Keeping a healthy lifestyle

An article from the Guardian, on New Year’s Eve 2015 titled ‘How long do people keep their New Year resolutions?’ confirmed my point. ‘Getting healthier is a priority for many seeking to make a new year resolution’. Most people see the new year as a new beginning, therefore getting healthier or losing weight is part of that. Most women want to look good for their planned summer holidays, so that they can wear that bikini they’ve been dying to show off. Men equally want to show off their abs on the beach. My tip for making the best of your 2017 New Year resolutions when it comes to being healthier is to take things step by step rather than making drastic changes to your lifestyle because that doesn’t work as you find you can’t keep to them and end up going back to your old eating habits. My second tip for living a healthier lifestyle in 2017 is ditch the gym if you know you can’t stick to it and try to do exercises at home. YouTube has a lot of great home exercise videos. My top fave is  Scola Dondo she’s a great Youtuber who gives fitness tips, and DIY healthy food tutorials. This way you save money and time.

Getting good grades

Everyone says ‘new year, new me’ every new year, especially students, because most students see a new year as a new beginning in terms of achieving higher grades than the previous years.

I think this year we shouldn’t make resolutions but rather set ourselves goals we want to achieve by the end of the year. A friend of mine said last year that ‘we should set ourselves goals, not dreams because with goals we can actually achieve them, but dreams to her means we can’t achieve them’. This quote is so wise and has stuck in my mind ever since she said it, because I realised it was true. When we dream of something we set ourselves up for failure because dreams are not real. So, in 2016 I tried to set myself resolutions that I could achieve and when people asked me what they were I called them goals. One of them was to lose weight which is a resolution I always have every year and give up on, but this time I wanted to keep to it. I managed to keep to it even though it was on and off, because at certain times of the year I realised I lost weight but then I’d have bad days which turned into bad weeks and bad months and then I gained all the weight back.

Quitting smoking and drinking

Quitting alcohol and smoking are also some of the most common New Year’s resolutions for everyone, not just university students. However, uni students consume a lot of alcohol and cigarettes and this is mainly due to peer pressure. A lot of students drink a lot of alcohol and smoke because of stress of assignments and exams. My tip for quitting alcohol is to do it bit by bit. If you used to drinking alcohol three days a week, cut that down to one a week and if your used to smoking 20 cigarettes a day, cut that down to 10 a day. Don’t do everything at once because you’ll end up craving it again. It’s all about your mind set. Most students are very determined people which means once you set yourself a goal you want to make sure you achieve it.

I hope I’ve shed a light on what I think about New Year’s resolutions, whilst also giving you facts about New Year’s resolutions to back up my thoughts. I also hope that my tips have helped you.

Tips on How To Buy Christmas Presents for Students

I know how difficult it is as a university student from personal experience, not even a student in general to buy Christmas gifts because things out there are so expensive! Especially when you’ve got family and friends with expensive taste. I don’t know about you but personally this year I’ve decided to only get presents for family friends and family because it saves me a lot of money and I don’t have to worry about giving presents to friends who may not like the present I give them. Obviously, they won’t say they don’t like what you got for them but some of my friends don’t have poker faces, so you can tell by their facial expression that they don’t really appreciate your present. But they take it anyway in kindness and love for you.

Trust me when I say that I understand the struggle and the thought process you go through to buy a Christmas present. You don’t want it to be too expensive but at the same time you don’t want to look like a cheap skate. I understand your thoughts, I felt the same way and think the same things too. I thought it was wrong to think that way but it’s not, everyone does. 

Let me tell you a little story and an example of where I had to do this. So, last two years was the first time I had to properly think about Christmas presents for my immediate family. I literally did it so last minute, just a bit over a week before Christmas day, so I was panicking, going around Argos to look for everything for all three members of my family which wasn’t easy, because they have different preferences. I don’t know how but miraculously I managed to find presents for them in an hour. I luckily put a bit of thought into what my family would want and looked them up online on my phone. I didn’t need to put so much pressure on myself but I had to go to another Argos location which is almost an hour away by bus.

The moral of that story is don’t give yourself such limited time and make sure you don’t have to travel too far to purchase Christmas presents. I shared that story because it might help you reading who’s never really shopped for Christmas presents, with your own money. I should mention this was also the first time I spent my own money on Christmas presents as it was my first year in uni and obviously, student finance loan helped a lot.

Once again, thank you for reading this blog and I hope this helped you who might be new to shopping for Christmas presents. I also want you to be relieved with the fact that it can be stressful but you don’t have to make it stressful. You can make the process a lot easier. Just please, please, please plan ahead of time!

My faith with God. How has my faith changed over a period of time?

So my blog has started in very personal way. I'm rethinking whether it should stay that way because they don't seem to be getting the right feedback or reaction that I was hoping they would.

This blog is gonna be about my faith with God and how I struggled with it at times so it's not as personal as my other blog posts are. I'm hoping that this touches and helps someone one there struggling with their faith with God to know that you're not alone. I've dealt with this several times and I'm steal dealing with trusting God fully and knowing that he knows what's best for me.

I've always been a Christian all my life and my family were born and brought up as Christians. However, I'm human and sometimes I get challenged and conflicts where my faith is questioned. For example, when I was younger I always used to wonder why my friends would always be going out and partying and be cool and I wasn't. Also I wasn't really allowed to because parties meant me potentially getting up to bad things like drinking alcohol or even smoking. I would never do any of those two things at that age. I'm talking around 13 years old. I personally didn't even want to be drinking booze or smoking because it just wasn't my thing.

Aside from the fact that my religion frowns upon getting drunk or even drinking at a tender age and smoking was even more of a no go area. Another thing I battled with and even thought about getting involved in because I just wanted to fit in was dating. As in getting into a relationship with A BOY! First of all the sight of boys made me sick and I highly disliked boys when I was around 13, with exception of my brother. I loved my brother and I still do but I just didn't like other boys. That's probably partly because I went to an all girls school until I was 16 so I just wasn't used to being around boys. It was so bad that I even told my babysitter at the time that I wanted to be a nun when I was about 11 or 12 which horrified her because she'd make jokes about hooking me up with her son.

Anyway, so I was a very innocent and naive child and didn't know much about those 'worldly' things I just mentioned. I was of the belief that I'm not of this world and I'm precious and holy and a child of God and therefore I shouldn't be getting myself involved with what most kids my age would see as normal.

Then suddenly when I turned about 14, from then I started being rebelling a little bit and that was pretty normal because teenagers do rebel. I started going to parties and talking about boys and being interested in boys. At some point I started thinking there was something wrong with me. This is because I'm from a culture and background where rebelling as a child isn't something you're allowed to do. At least for me personally.

Progressing onto currently how my faith has grown, as I'm now older and in university my faith has been challenged even more. Because of the influence of friends who drink, smoke and hook up with different guys which I've had to realise and come to terms with the fact that its normal at least in a university environment. That's what is trending for students and its a sad thing to admit but that's the reality of it. I did at some point go completely crazy and I mean I started getting on the band wagon and also doing these things. I went crazy! Even more than I did when I was a teenager. I mean, that time it wasn't even that bad. It was just normal teenager strops but this time it got to the point where I needed prayer, like I needed deliverance. I won't go into details of the specific things I was doing but it was bad. Really bad! I knew it wasn't me and those things I was doing weren't me but I still kept doing them.

That's when my family literally delivered me. Like I had to have deliverance from someone from church. That's how serious it was. I think you guys reading probably think 'oh it can't have been that serious!' Nah it was because it was as if I was possessed by the devil or at least some kind of satanic being because it was too bad.

Anyway, thank God and I'm so greatful to the good woman of God who helped me and didn't judge me like everyone else because now I feel I'm at a better place with my faith than I've ever been. My faith has definitely grown even stronger. I can now be real with God and actually speak to him like yoiu would to your father or your friend, knowing that He is always free and open to listen and will NEVER judge me for my mistakes because I'm human, I'm not perfect.

Thank you guys so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and I hope this has helped someone out there who's going through this right now.

Love,

Roberta

Sharing my insecurities

Hey guys disclaimer- again this is very personal.

I just wanted to share with you all some of the insecurities I have and how I've actually been feeling lately. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, it's not meant to at all. Basically my first insecurity is I feel like everyone judges me because I'm big, my weight for me is a huge insecurity. Excuse the pun. I've had people in the past in primary and secondary school actually bully me because of my weight so that's probably one of the main reasons. I'm not gonna go into too much detail as to what they actually say that makes me feel insecure about my weight because that's too deep and I feel like I'm already sharing a bit too much with you.

I'm sure some people have the same insecurity about their weight. There are some people who wish they were bigger, or at least curvier so in fact what I see as a bad thing someone actually wants and sees as beautiful. There is a message to this whole story and blog and I'll come to that soon.

My other insecurity that I don't think I even share with my family or friends is the fear that I'll never find 'true love' because I'm not good enough. I know that doesn't really count as an insecurity but for me it does. The reason I say this is because it stops me from getting to know a guy I like who might actually like me back because of the fear that he'll never love me. First of all, you should never go into any type of relationship whether friendship or romantic expecting them to fall in love with you straight away or love you straight away, because most of the time they don't and that take time as they get to know you.

My other insecurity is I don't like my arms at all. There's any actual logical reason why and there's a real sign that everyone can see as to why I don't like my arms but I don't think I need to go into that.
Also, believe it or not guys I have the fear that everyone I meet judges me on my looks and that's why some people don't like me. First of all, I shouldn't even be thinking that. Everyone at some point judge first on a person's look. It's something we all do and don't mean to do but it shouldn't stop me or you from making new friends or meeting new people because if they like you it's most probably because they like you for who you are and not what you look like.

This isn't really an insecurity but it's something I've been feeling lately. I've been feeling like my housemates have been talking about me. Like bitching, saying horrible things about me like I smell and I'm really unhygienic. One of the reasons I think this is because they never use the downstairs toilet that I mainly use. Because my room's downstairs it's just easier for me to use that toilet. However I think one of my housemates was using it and then for some reason stopped usin it. I believe he thought it was too stinky and dirty for him. I know that's a horrible thing to think but it's a thought I've had. Yes I know you're thinking why should I even be thinking that way? But it's something I do all the time. I always feel like people talk about me behind my back but I forget that their bound to. Their human too but I shouldn't let that stop me from being myself and living uni life to the fullest.

So yeah, those are a few insecurities I have that I wanted to share with you and I just wanted to let you who's reading know not to let your insecurities get the better of you and to just be yourself, and to love yourself despite your imperfections. To be honest I'm still working on applying that to myself but I'll get there and you will too. I've learnt that in life if you want people to love you or your future husband or wife to love you then you need to start by loving yourself.

Thank you for reading this blog and I hope it's helped you if you've got the same insecurities as me or at least some.

Love,

Roberta

Putting my emotions out there

Hey guys so this is my first proper blog. By that I mean not educational, its going to be very personal so if you don't like that then this isn't the place for you but if you do please keep reading.

I've actually been thinking about starting a blog for a long time but I just haven't had the courage to actually do it. I love sharing my personal experiences and emotions with strangers on the internet. You're thinking 'how strange!' Yes it sounds strange but I love it. It's like therapy for me. So today I want to tell you all reading about my feelings about the guy I really like, I mean I never really talk about guys with strangers but I'm going to because I feel someone will get something out of it. Who knows? Maybe you're going through the same thing and this might help you.

Well, I'm not gonna actually mention his name but I really like him and he goes to my university in the same course but in the year below, so his second year. Now I'm very aware that this does narrow it down a lot as to who it actually is so I might not say more than that. However, I've known him for a while now, almost a year and as I've gotten to know him I realised that I developed these strange strong feelings towards him and I couldn't understand why. I couldn't understand why because we're friends, getting quite close as friends as well so I didn't think I fancied him but I started realising I did and it felt weird. Every time I saw him and he smiled at me it was like I was melting into the ground and I got butterflies. Really?! I hardly feel that way towards a guy so it must have been special.

I tried not to think about it and forget about it but those feelings kept getting stronger and stronger as we met up more. We met up in a group of friends but every time me and him were talking it felt as though it was just the two of us. Is that weird or do you know what I mean by that? Basically where I'm at now is getting to know him more and getting to the point where I know if he feels the same way and finally telling him. I'm scared because I've been in quite a few situations in the past where I thought I really liked a guy and wanted to be with and he felt the same way and I'd tell him but it turned out he never felt the same way and it's been so awkward since then. That's why I've promised myself not to make the same mistakes again. I'm gonna take my time, not rush and make sure that I know he feels the same way before I make a move or better still, he might make a move. Thus saving me from embarrassment and our friendship being ruined.

Thank you for reading this blog post and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Love,

Roberta

Implications of media ownership and conglomerates

Discuss the implications of media ownership and conglomerates relating the points we have discussed to film
Media Ownership refers to companies that can own resources that are able to produce media texts.
Conglomerates are the companies that own lots of these. 


The media world is dominated by media conglomerates and the following are the top six and most popular media conglomerates:

• CBS
• Tine Warner
• News Corporation
• Viacom
• Disney
• General Electric

These are the 5 biggest film conglomerates:

• United International Pictures (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol)
• Warner Brothers (Harry Potter/The Dark Knight)
• Buena Vista International (Pooh's Heffalump Movie)
• 20th Century Fox (Avatar/Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
• Sony Pictures (Men in Black/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

What are the implications of one company owning lots of different mediums (in terms of film)?

• Because they have lots of power (money) so some companies are more successful than others.
• Some of the conglomerates are biased, for example www.rottentomatoes.com because it is owned by Rupert Murdoch and they would make all the films look very good in their reviews when it may be a very bad quality film.
• Some film conglomerates draw customers away from smaller companies so the larger conglomerates get more from it, for example more profit and more public attention.
• Possibly offer similar genres. This can sometimes make people bored of the conglomerates and focus on a different film conglomerate.
• There is less competition because people tend to stick to the same film conglomerate.

What are the implications for audiences in the UK?

• Recognisable brands-People don't like change.
• Less competition-Complacency because people are unaware of some media conglomerates, for example See-saw because they are non-mainstream 

Task for film marketing and distribution

1.) Over one weekend, how many separate screenings are there?
There have been hundreds of separate screenings in the weekend in London, let alone the UK, from premiers of new movies, and film festivals across London.


2.) How many films in total are being exhibited?
There have been many films in total exhibited. The movies that are common and know worldwide is a total of over 30 films. This includes The Adventures of Tintin, The Three Musketeers, Transformers: Dark of  the Moon, Dolphin Tale, The Smurfs, and Final Destination 5, which are all movies in the year 2011.

3.) How many films are being screened several times at the same cinema?
All the films listed above would have been screened several times at the same cinema which is the Odeon

4.) Of these, how many are being screened at more than one cinema at the same time?
Most of the films are filmed at the same time, but with films that are certificate PG and over 12 for example The Adventures of Tintin and Final Desitnation 5 would probably be watched at night so not a lot of children could be able to watch it.


5.) Express the number of unique screenings as a percentage of the total screenings





6.) Express the total number of films in relation to the total number of screenings.