yppahpeek

As a brand new editorial assistant, I understand that I have a long way to go to really 'get' what Medical Communications is all about. I seem to have enough difficulty getting print items proof marked and sent to production. Or I get slowed down by a seemingly endless list of copyright permissions. Or sometimes I panic that I am not being legally compliant and so don't talk about my work. Today's Annual Company Meeting was great in the sense that I got to see my company as (a bit more of) a whole. There's a lot to this career I've picked. From proprietary websites to physician videos, and from good-old publications to conducting steering committee meetings via Skype-with-tassles (essentially). There really is so much that I could get my teeth into. And it's all really exciting! I think I would love to break away from the 'old-school' (but never-the-less important)publications, and into a more inventive, digital role. I'm looking forward to devel...

Yesterday, we voyaged to the Derbyshire Peak District, and knowing that there can be a lot of dry, scrubby moorland I almost didn't take my camera. After eating in a tasty tea-room we traveled to Longshaw Estate. Architecturely eye catching, with it's cubic, node-like construction, the Hall looked out over stunning scenery and would probably have made a great photo, especially with such perfect lighting conditions. However, I struggle in bright sunlight always setting the shutter speed to low, the aperture too high and ending up with a white wash! I really need to learn how to take photos in bright sunlight. I managed to get an OK picture of Longshaw Hall, using some grass in front of it to focus on. I wanted to take a rare picture of a place that will have had films and films of photographs taken. I didn't think this was a very good shot so I won't upload it, but it goes to show that it's always good to carry a camera, so as moments like this are not missed. The be...

Wonderfully challenging. But what should it be called? A documentary? An essay? A film? Why #allwatchedover wasn't trending on twitter the night it was aired, and #embarrassingfatbodies was, could possibly be due to the fact that to describe it in 140 characters would be a gross injustice. At times confusing, at other times interesting and at further times downright terrifying, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace tells the story of how 'machines' have changed us in the last 50 years. On one level it is a strangely beautiful documentary and it looks visually different to documentaries of it's type, of which I would include Horizon and perhaps even programmes like A History of Modern Britain. Rather than relying on lengthy, talk-to-the-camera pieces in exotic and/or culturally significant locations, the story is narrated by a face-less Adam Curtis and is set to the kind of stock footage you would expect to see being played in a Utopian mental asylum. As someone w...

Ant and Dec made a very poignant point at the end of last nights super-sparkly finale. "Thanks to all our contestants, to everyone who came to the auditions. Without you, there would be no show." I dream of the day that the doors open at the auditions and no-one remembers to turn up. Ant and Dec sit awkwardly on stools, the judges play music from happier times, the camera man films a pigeon eating an old kebab in the carpark. Eventually the boredom gets too much and everyone will slump out of the building. Last out would be the caretaker, who will turn the light off and say "well that's that then" before closing the door to the party forever. Britain has got so much talent. It's just that people are looking in the wrong place. Sure the next molded popstar to come through the show successfully is a reasonably good singer and I'm sure he and his family are very happy for him. But, within a year, I predict he will be sitting in a pub outside Aberdeen having...

If only science was as much fun as Portal 2! I have just finished this game and am finding it hard to imagine having fun on any other game again. Ever. From the makers of Half Life, Portal 2 shouldn't be such a surprisingly addictive, rich and fun game. Half Life provided more to gamers who were bored of blowing the limbs off of mindless AIs with the latest BFG (search for it on Urban Dictionary). Suddenly gamers were immersed in a new world, rich in both story, and real characters who popped up to carry you through the game. While the characters were all great, the science of Half Life obviously drifted into a fantastic, futuristic fantasy. However, unknown to the researchers at the fictional Black Mesa Research Facility (from Half Life), a rival company had been making break through discoveries in teleportation, and had even developed a so-called 'Portal Device'. When Valve introduced Aperture Science as a separate Science Research company into the Half Life universe they...

Leaving London feels like I've left civilisation and commonsense behind, floating away down the Thames. Since I've been "back home" a wealth of experiences has told my instincts that, actually, London is where I want to be. First of all there is the ridiculous little episode in Tesco in the centre of town. I would like you to picture the scene please. I went to Tesco with Mum, to help buy goods/carry the bags/be a great son. While there, and while walking past the beer isle I decided it would be a good idea to buy myself that six pack I promised my girlfriend. Yes, it was six pack of Budweiser, but there was no small print in the original "by the end of summer I will have a six pack" agreement, and "six pack" could mean anything ! Anyway, since I was with Mum (a respectable, tax paying adult) and since we were buying ingredients for dinner and obviously weren't going to a rave, I thought that the lack of ID would be explainable and that being s...

The towns of High Peak Junction and Dowlow are joined by a seventeen and a half mile long line. This largest of the large chalk line stretches over peaks and moors and dodges between trees, streaking past farms and ice cream factories. It is the countryside ideal summed up within seventeen and a half miles of railway-cum-cycle path. This pathway is known as The High Peak Trail and when I was 14 I rode it on a GT Palomar bicycle with one of my friends. So what? Why am I telling you this now, nearly ten years later? This bike journey has always stayed in my mind and not for the immediate good reasons normally associated with a nice amble through beautiful countryside. When I think of riding a bicycle I normally think of the discomfort; the uncomfortably damp back and the greasy hair, the flies that decide to check for tonsilitis from the inside and the runny, hayfever eyes. I remember the bicycle seat that always finds an uncomfortable place to prod, but most of all I remember how bloody...