Alex Harries's diary

I've been employed by the Union in one capacity or another for one month short of the last six years, so it's quite strange to think that yesterday was the last time I'd be poking around the place as an employee. In my time there, I've learnt to pull the perfect snakebite (although I've probably forgotten how to, as well) as a bar monkey, put together and run a sound system and lighting rig as an ents monkey, been involved in designing, building and running the website as a pixel monkey, and - for the last year - been the media officer, looking after the Union's student media output.

I've made a few friends, upset plenty of people, and been given some very cool opportunities, so really this is a thankyou from me to everyone who's made the last six years - and especially the last year - as fun, interesting, and challenging as it could have been. To all the staff and students I may have upset with my git-like behaviour, please remember it was never personal (if it was, I would have told you explicitly!).

I'm not sure what's next for me. I have a one-way ticket to Ibiza booked for this Saturday, and I'll be out there looking for a job and a flat with next year's Pugwash editor Steph Hall. We might only survive a week and find there's nowhere to live, or we might get lucky and make it through the last two months of the summer season - I really don't know. If you fancy laughing at me, join the Facebook group and I'll keep you updated on the latest stupid thing I've done...

Anyway, I'm off properly now. I'll be over at Greyhead.co.uk and no doubt in the news soon for being involved in some embarrassing scandal involving a goat and a nudists' beach in Ibiza.

Rena, Elle, Mike, Steve, Jaf, Fraggy, Tom, Jacob, Tallie, Laura, Pete, other Pete, Ben, Darby, other Steve, Jo, Karen, Tracey, Cherelyn, Sharon, Graeme, Wayne, Cat, Gamel, other Tom, Aakash, Caroline, Gina, Fred, Maz, Sloppy, Carl, Clive, Jim, Ryan, Rob, Hannah, Bex, Shrey, Rich, Alex, Scott, Janet, Stuart, John, Mario, Adrian... ok, «everyone» at the Union: thanks :) 

Good luck Tom, goodbye everybody and, of course, bloody cheers :o)

/al

It is strangely encouraging to see that, about the same time that Pugwash News was suffering its own dramas during issue 9 this year, Imperial College Union's Felix newspaper was suffering as a result of non-editorial pressure to censor itself.

This isn't going to be a rant - or any kind of discussion - about the role of independent student media within a parent students' union institution, but it is interesting to read the following comment:

Just a quick note to say that I'm blogging elsewhere now - over at greyhead.co.uk in fact.

I'll probably still copy work bits and bobs on here in parallel with Greyhead over the next couple of weeks :o)

Rejoice! As my time at the Union draws to a close, I've actually managed to get myself organised and have moved my blog over to a new interwebsite - none other than Greyhead.co.uk. Huzzah!

So, apart from a few work-related bits and bobs on here, if you want to keep up with my Fascinatingly Interesting Life, you'll need to come over to the new website.

Huge thanks go to Clive at Meteoric for providing the hosting for the new website (as well as UPSU.net) at a great rate.

And, just as soon as I can figure out how this interweb malarky works, I'll be putting up some podcasts of my latest mixes.

(Please note: everything in this post was written tongue in cheek. Apart from the thanks to Clive - he really is a top chap. So please don't think I actually think my life is interesting. It isn't. Apart from the bits where I get to hang out with wild llamas. That's pretty cool...) 

Mini-update time:

• Ibiza: Steph and I have booked our flights back to 'beefa for the 2nd August. We're outta here, baby!
• DJing: new mixer arrived today. Nothing spectacular at all - just a (very) cheap 'n cheerful Behringer mixer (with an instruction manual featuring a late-80's photo of the German chap who runs the company complete with a very shiny comb-over, saying "Hi, I'm so-and-so and I'd like to thank you for buying my mixer", etc etc etc). Fun times.
• New website: Greyhead.co.uk has its own hosting, courtesy of the amazingly Clive at Meteoric. You want super-fast, reliable web hosting with a personal touch? Go speak to Clive, and tell him Bob sent you... I'm currently tweaking a Wordpress installation and working out how to get it to automagically generate podcasts. Wee!
  
• Mixes and podcasts: to kick off the new website, mixer, Final Scratch's resurrection (I finally got it working again on the Mac - woo), and my impending trip to Ibiza, I'm going to knock together a few mixes and podcast them from the new site. If you fancy some free tuneage, I'll stick a big "get the Greyhead house music podcast here" link in the side-bar of the blog once I've figured out how to use the incredibly good Podcast Maker from Lemonzdream.com
• Photos: the Nikon D50 is lovely - very fast, very easy to use, and produces great photos. What more could you ask for? :o)

Sadly (for my colleagues) I'm back to work next Monday - boo. Still, it's only 2 1/2 more weeks left before Ibiza - yey!