Weekly Changy

A Final Note...

2015-11-20T04:47:00.003-08:00

Wow, so It has been a while.

After this post though, the Weekly Changy will end.

With 'Weekly' being the big laugh on this blog here, as quite frankly, it never really was weekly at all. I realised that one time when it came to the point where I had a dissertation to do and I was instead writing a post, I decided to carry on and I sat there, typed it up, then when I finished I realised that it had taken me around 4 hours. This wasn't even for Uni and wasn't even being marked, it was just me rambling on and for some reason, it took me that long to type up! upon realising that I kind of thought:

"Yeaaaaaaah, maybe I should concentrate on my uni work."

Then as time went on, other projects, other bits of work, or anything else that required my attention had me deserting the Weekly Changy. Considering that it was just for 1 university module, to create a blog, I had a really good run on it. Alas, I move onto other projects and other things. I have actually already done that, I just hadn't written a goodbye post.

This obviously isn't the end of me and my work. I actually have some things to announce very soon. As far as web based projects go, I can confirm to you now that I am moving my 'business' to an actual website. When I mean 'website' I don't mean something Im coding myself from scratch, don't be silly! Im not Lewis Carter.

No Im moving my web space to an actual website I open sourced and edited the code all by myself (and with some little help via Lewis Carter). Be sure to look out for my website. I can't say that the Weekly Changy will be on there but I will try and attempt to do smaller briefer posts that might suit my timing needs, just so posts won't take me 4 hours to do again.

This is the link to my new website:

Don't all rush there at once...

www.jameschang.co.uk

Further more, I have one other huge announcement to make. As a tribute to the Weekly Changy, I have recorded, mixed, edited and produced audio episodes of myself going back on the Weekly Changy to give out an exclusive read through and give out idiotic audio commentary on them. I re-read one of my first posts, and I cringed so bad I thought "Huh, It's kind of funny though, I may as well make the most of them." I will be bringing them out on my SoundCloud, which I will show on my website too.

Here's the first episode:

The Weekly Changy Tribute Show Episode 1

The Weekly Changy tribute show will hopefully be coming out with a new episode every Monday and Friday for the next 12 weeks! (Approximately).

I would finally like to thank all of you, the gorgeous readers, for your reading support. I didn't get to over 5000 views over nothing. 5000 views isn't much as far as the internet's concerned, but it is something Im very proud of, so I thank you all. I hope you enjoy my other bits of work I have coming to mainly your ears soon!

Thank you and goodbye, x.

Sneak Peak

2014-06-22T14:27:00.003-07:00

Hello Everyone

Yes I know, It's been a long long while. I feel now is a good time to update you all on my previous work. I don't really wish to speak about my current and future work, as it's all up in the air at the moment. Nothing is certain.

What I can tell you though, is that I have been busy to the point where the Weekly Changy has practically been abandoned until typing again on this post. Which is a shame to be fair as I do take enjoyment in rambling to you all.

So from finishing University, I can state the obvious and tell you that, like practically everyone else, I have been in search of work. Whilst doing that I have also been working on my major solo project, where since the last post which was posted in January, I can thankfully say that I have made a considerable amount of progress on it.

Although with that in mind, I have recently slumped in the progress of it because other work related circumstances (not my part time job work by the way!). It's still not ready to the point where I wish to announce it to you, but I can show you the progress of some of it.

So as you can see, this is only some of it. So there's a lot to go through.

Aside from my project I can confirm to you all that I have been searching for all types of opportunities, and some have come and gone. Previously about 1-2 months ago, I actually went quiet...not a lot was happening, and because of that I got this instant fear that nothing was going to happen, and so I picked up the pace in searching for opportunities.

As a result of that I received the annoying dilemma where you don't hear anything a while, and then all of the sudden everyone gets back to you wanting your services.

What also hasn't helped is that in my 'part' time job, we are severely under-staffed and so I am having to do full time hours whilst trying to fit other work around it. Recently I can tell you that I didn't have a full day off for approximately 8-9 days.

I am standing on a tightrope, juggling various jobs whilst trying dodge jumping tigers and having to jump through fire circles. Thats the best way of me describing to you what I've been like recently.

Before I stop typing and resume other work, I can also tell you that amongst all of that, I am still making music.

I haven't released any in a while, but do not worry (if you ever were). I have two complete tracks and two more that are still to be worked on.

I am sat here, pretty tired but also excited, as I am to attend Hideout festival next week and I fly out a week today. This is something else I have been preparing for. I am to go with no one better than Dave Collins, and before you ask, YES, I will be writing a review(s) of my time there, as I'm sure it will be eventful.

I can imagine the next post will be a Hideout review so until then,

I'll speak to you soon.

With Love,

James Chang

The Moonshine Project

2014-01-10T10:26:00.000-08:00

What What?

Yes.

This is the Moonshine project that I worked on with Kenneth Barnett in our final stage of University. This was one of the last projects I ever did for the University and it was for the 'Radio Production 3' module.

So, It's a radio thingy?

Indeed.

Moonshine is a radio western drama, a 20 minute episode which we had to produce for a final radio module. The aim was to produce a high quality radio broadcast standard drama, of 20 minutes no more, no less.

A project, in which we actually finished earlier last year, has been on my SoundCloud only on private for only a number of people to listen, and now I thought the time was right to fully release it for all to hear.

Of course I believe there are some things in it that could have been improved, and many of you may feel the same, but I wish to keep it as it is. I might later on down the line re-master it, add more sound effects and perhaps better dialog, but for now I am to leave it exactly how we finished it last year. If you can even count these as reviews of the episode here's what some well known people to me, thought of the drama:

Mother

"ACE!, That's really really good. Simon! Get over here and listen to Jim's radio thing."

Father

"mmmmm .... Really good."

Dave Collins

"Huh, that's dead good. Whens episode 2 coming out?"

So What is it about? Drinking Moonshine?

Nope!

Moonshine is based on a Native Indian man, living in the west of the United States in 1868.

Moonshine succumbs to the immediate tragic loss of his tribe and his family in a vicious ambush by a rogue confederate gang. Moonshine is the so called fortunate one to have survived the brutal attack. From waking up to realise what has happened, his only life goal from there, is to seek revenge.

Listen Here:

Moonshine Episode 1

The Mechanics of Moonshine

I will admit, it was difficult to simulate the sound of the west, when residing in Derby. There was always the option to simply download free sound effects to make the task easier, however in my opinion, if that is all you are doing to get your sound effects then your project isn't exactly original. Albeit there are 3 sound effects used in this that were downloaded, but the 24 (approximately) other sound effects were all done by myself and Kenneth.

All of the outdoor sounds you hear, were done on the Elvaston Castle grounds (Pictured above with a very cold Kenneth). This was due to being the best suitable location to gather 'natural' forest and animal ambient like sounds. Although the swans were being annoying as they kept shrieking every time we were trying to record.

All the saloon minor sounds such as glass handling, sipping, swigging were all done in my old terrace house kitchen. The introduction harmonica audio was also done in the house.

The horse sounds were recorded at a nearby horse riding grounds. Which I remember well because it was so cold, and for some reason we seemed to be the only males on the site, which was odd. The pair of us found also found it difficult to gather horse recordings at the time because those whom were riding were in the middle of their lessons, and didn't want to help us.

Bonus Content

Believe it or not but when it came to completion of this module, this was the first time that we finished it early and had time to create more content for it. There was an extended edition made for hand-in, a 'Next-Time' audio advert created (which was added to the end of the episode) and finally an outtake compilation of Kenneth talking. This was the result of going through all the raw audio files and finding that Kenneth had been talking and messing around in some of the files, and others were simply outtakes. My favourite clip would be the outtake of Kenneth trying to swallow water. How he managed to mess up I don't know:

Kenny Talking Collaboration

Unknown Festival 2013, What I know... Part 5

2014-01-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

So you've heard of all the stories and the happenings on the

boat parties, and now this is the last post and review of

Unknown Festival 2013.

Rovinj, as a place...

There were two factors about Rovinj that really surprised me. One of them was how historically roman most parts of the city were. Aside from the partying, you had to take a look around the town, as some of the aged architecture was really easy on the eyes. Although I will admit, Rovinj were used for only 3 things: to board boat parties, to get cheap alcohol, and to eat.

Aside from those 3 factors, Dave and myself had to sacrifice 2-3 hours of our drinking and partying to go and have a good look around the main town bit of Rovinj, as the main chapel you see above, is what you would see whenever looking out when at the beach, and curiosity got the better of me.

Although it was only 2-3 hours, I was constantly having that feeling as if your missing out on something back at Unknown. I felt this every time we went to go eat at some of the restaurants and such.

When buying alcohol from places called 'Konzum' supermarkets, it was always hilarious to go to the alcohol section to find it was the only ill stocked shelf in the entire supermarket, and for a incredible reason.

When speaking to one of the Unknown crew members, who had a bottle of white wine in his hands, he stated to us that the price of this wine was 14 Kuna, which was equivalent to £1.20 roughly. That must have been the cheapest alcohol in there, however the beer was not far behind. This 'Ozjusko' beer, in a 2Ltr bottle was 15 Kuna, so about £1.40/50. Dave bought a Jonny Walker 'Red Label' for 60 Kuna, which was around £5/6.00.

Before going to Croatia, I remember someone from my work telling me that Croatia is like Italy, but cheaper. I can see where they are coming from when you look at how Rovinj looked. There was one thought that was spiralling in my head when looking around this old part of the city, and that was when seeing the locals sat outside their houses, in closed narrow streets like you see above. The thought of them living here, in such an environment really amazed me.

A lot of the sub street/alleyways looked like this, and in fact me and Dave were struggling to find out where exactly we were and how to get to the main chapel at the top.

Our derpy logic was to 'just keep going upwards' then we should find it eventually.

So as you can see the derpy logic was working as we did eventually begin seeing the tip of the chapel in distance. Me and Dave actually emerged on to this main street from another small alleyway where the scooter is in the picture. So we had obviously taken the wrong street, but we found ourselves at last.

You see a lot of tourists here in this picture, and to be honest hardly any of them were english. If they were english, they were here for Unknown festival like me and Dave. The other tourists were (from what I could hear) mainly German, and some other slavic country (if not Croatian).

If I remember correctly, whilst walking up to this and being amazed by how old and roman this place was looking, I remember our conversations up there and around the chapel were mainly roman mythology based debates.

I can also confirm that when being inside the chapel, me and Dave were the only two people from the festival, and so we stood out from the crowd a fair bit. When wearing sunglasses, you can sometimes have the capability to look at people around you without them knowing your looking, and from this I can say that I did see a few people giving me and Dave a very odd look, from head to toe.

I'm not quite sure who this is, I was thinking perhaps it is a statue of poseidon? I don't know. This is what was on top of the chapel tower.

So instead of taking pictures of some of the roman ruins that were in the chapel gardens, I took a picture of Unknown festival from the chapel.

Food

From Rovinj restaurant food, to festival food, both were very good and in particular to the Rovinj restaurant food, very well priced too.

Not only was the food good and well priced, the alcohol served seemed to have been free poured into my glass. That in the picture is a rum and coke, which honestly tasted like a triple rum and coke, which was all the better for me. Even the beer that was served to us another time, were in massive glasses:

This seafood risotto was 60 Kuna, which is basically the equivalent to around £6.

As you can see I am fan of seafood. I find that in the UK you can eat seafood, however its not really that fresh, and also its expensive. Over in Rovinj these dishes were cheaper than the festival food, which you will see very soon what they were like.

I'm sorry if by looking at all of this it makes you hungry, I am actually quite hungry now myself. So festival food was usual festival price, but it was the quality of the food which made it more than acceptable:

This was the Croatian burger, which as 50 Kuna (£5). There was simply no comparison to burgers here to other UK festivals such as Creamfields and Global Gathering. I can confirm that the bread bun was also buttered with garlic butter, bliss.

At the times of buying some of the festival foods, there was a limited supply of sauces such as mayonnaise and ketchup. However I would always get some because I was always speaking Croatian phrases to them. I even got served quicker because of simply saying 'Opprostite' to the staff to get their attention, and the use 'hvala' and 'molim' also helped. I could get on fine by speaking this small amount of Croatian to the Croats however when it came to a 'big' conversation, I struggled and I relied on the Croat to speak in English sometimes, which is what happened when waiting for a coach back to Unknown festival in Rovinj:

One Aperol and two shopkeepers please

So the standard pass time thing to do whilst waiting for the coach would be to have a drink in the nearby bar, or look in one of the near shops, and so we obviously went for a drink. The main popular drink in most of the Rovinj bars was this:

It was an Aperol and...something. Perhaps lemonade I can't remember. I managed to finish it, however even to this day, I am unsure whether I like it.

After getting this down me (not literally) we went to the nearest shop to have a quick look. As soon as we step near the place, one of the young Croat shopkeeper guys comes out to talk to us. By the sounds of it, he does not know much English, and I don't know much Croatian. So this was a very interesting conversation.

I don't remember much of the conversation, but the main highlight was when he began asking about our queen. Random as it sounds he asked us if she was a nice lady, and amid the laughter and 'Croat-to-English' banter in which we had just invented, the older shopkeeper joins the conversation, the only big part to the conversation that I remember was the young Croat saying:

"You see him (older shopkeeper)?!, He loves your queen!

Fuck the queen! yes, he fucked the queen, yes yes ha ha!"

The conversation basically ended there because our coach had arrived. We walked past him later on in the week, and funnily enough he still remembered us and all we heard from afar was:

"Ah! My friends! *points to old guy* the queen! He fucked the queen! ha ha ha! yes!"

I didn't really understand his point in saying this, but it made us laugh a lot about it because it was so strangely amusing.

Back to the festival...

During the days and nights of the festival, one of the memorable moments for me and I think a lot of other people was not just the DJ's and live acts, but it was also the people you met over there.

I've spoken previously about the times me and Dave met Oli Bishop and Ethan Mounfield at the camping reception and on the various times for a hangover breakfast. I've also spoken previously of the people that we met whilst on the boat parties, but I state now about the people we met during the main festival nights.

Since I went as a part of the Unknown online team, there were obviously others that I met whilst over there. One of the other online team members I met (after Oli & Ethan) was Stefania Di Ciacca, which right up until I was to meet her, I was thinking that she was to have a strong Italian accent, but turned out to be Scottish. I assume everybody does this, when right before you are to meet someone, you have your own imagining as to what they are going to be like.

Stefania was really nice and was one of the first unknown online team member that I met, and after that one time, I don't believe I saw her for another 3-4 days.

When heading to the forest stage on one of the beginning nights, me and Dave managed to meet a big chunk of the lovely unknown online team. In one massive greeting I managed to finally meet Tash Conway, Will Jenkinson, Eleri Griffith & Jessie Algar. As one big team we regularly met up numerous times during the festival, to rave it up to different acts such as 'The Sonic Emporium', Julio Bashmore and Cyril Hahn.

This clip was from The Sonic Emporium at the Forest Stage:

The Sonic Emporium @ Unknown Festival 2013

Amongst the team we had formed, there were others that we met that I cannot remember their names. There is actually a picture of a few of us on Facebook that I've been tagged in but I still cannot remember their names. Some of them are seen in the clip whilst seeing Julio Bashmore:

Julio Bashmore @ Unknown Festival 2013
The Other Acquainted...

On one of the afternoons by the beach just doing the usual, chilling out, I decide I want to get a Unknown vest from the merch shop, and whilst Im standing waiting to get it at the counter, I suddenly hear a girl say:

"James Chang..."

A rather stunned James, suddenly whips off his sunglasses to find one of the girls from the side of the counter had said it. To be honest at that exact time, she looked familiar, but alas I didn't know who it was until she said. It turns out this girl was Lucy Nolan, a girl that was from my primary school/high school. What are the odds of meeting her at Unknown festival in Croatia?

To top it off the first stumbling questions that I want say to her is "What are you doing here?" but I stopped myself from saying such a derpy question.

Shortly after that shocking greeting I was then greeted with a text from my mother about how bad the weather was back in the UK, to which my response was a picture:

This was a picture that my mother found amusing amidst the bad weather. I must admit hearing such news was good for me.

Going back now to one of the beginning nights where I will speak of a time where me and Dave stumbled upon some hammocks. This was another time where we met other people, people that I don't remember their names once again. At this time of meeting them, Dave and myself had quite a bit to drink, and across the way from us were two girls who we started talking to. Both of them were from Bolton if I remember rightly and we ended up talking to them for about 2-3 hours on these hammocks, which eventually led us to go and try a shish for the first time:

I had never tried one, and I can tell you that this was a raspberry flavoured one, tasted nice.

We met them again when seeing Waze & Odyssey at the Unit 44 stage, and this set was really something special from the DJ pair:

Waze & Odyssey @ Unknown Festival 2013

Whilst enjoying this set I also came across someone I had met many times before at all sorts of festivals. This was what I now know him as 'The Dancing Misanthrope' who I always seem to see at events and festivals:

A top guy who just likes to dance, and he honestly puts my raving to shame. During my time at this stage I also managed to shake the hands of one of he Waze & Odyssey guys (this was before I did it at the boat party), which you see in this clip whilst they play a brilliant song. I must warn you that I am drunk in this clip...

Waze & Odyssey @ Unknown Festival 2013

Memorable Acts

The final part to this post is to simply show and tell how much of a good quality some of the live acts were.

As stated previously Julio Bashmore did a killer set that got everyone off their feet, apart from the clip above, the other main highlight was this:

Julio Bashmore @ Unknown Festival 2013

I actually have only one video clip of T.E.E.D on the main stage, because my phone died, and I had to rely on my stills camera, and for some reason I have no memory of his set, at all. This is what rum can do to me sometimes.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs @ Unknown Festival 2013

I don't know about you, but that intro into his set sends chills, big time.

One act that I was very much looking forward to was SBTRKT, as I had only seen him once at The Warehouse Project, and I don't really remember it. This time round I remember a bit more of it, but not all of it. I did manage to capture this great bit:

SBTRKT @ Unknown Festival 2013

Disclosure. I could not have missed these guys, and what live act they put on, I remember their performance more vividly because I was able to capture more of it, please enjoy this small catalogue of clips:

Disclosure @ Unknown Festival 2013 Part 1

Disclosure @ Unknown Festival 2013 Part 2

Disclosure @ Unknown Festival 2013 Part 3

Disclosure @ Unknown Festival Part 4 (White Noise Live)

Disclosure Ending @ Unknown Festival 2013 (Latch Live)

Richie Hawtin here, I actually have no video footage of his set, and I'm unsure why that is. Richie Hawtin carried on playing set way up until me and Dave were back at our tent. I actually recall lying on my air bed, and the ground was shaking from the beats of Richie Hawtin from the main stage, it was pretty crazy.

I actually didn't get a lot of sleep that night because not only was Mr Hawtin creating his own techno earthquake, there were a group of people having a party in the toilets.

Yes you heard me correctly... a party, in the toilets. What surprised me is that for one, it was in a toilet, but also how much good music they were playing. They putting on classic tracks I had completely forgotten about such as this one:

I wanted to go and join them, however even their partying in the toilets couldn't keep me awake. When my body needs sleep, it needs sleep, and there's no avoiding it unfortunately for me.

When speaking to people now about the festival, people talk of some of the after parties, which I had no idea of (obviously because I had fallen asleep). I wish I had the energy to experience them, but alas my body needed sleep. I did however manage to catch the last party of Unknown which was the night pool party:

Dave and me actually got a really good spot for raving it up, as we were dancing alongside The Dancing Misanthrope once again, which was right next to the DJ booth:

What I will miss dearly

I will miss everything about Unknown festival, but in particular I will miss the amazing pool area to chill out on in the afternoons, this was sublime...

Chilling By The Pool Area @ Unknown Festival 2013

I will leave you with this final snapshot of the beachfront, which is what I will really miss. This also signals the end (finally!) of the enormous review of Unknown Festival of 2013. Here's for next year.

Unknown Festival 2013, What I know...Part 4 Boat Party Special

2013-12-08T13:44:00.001-08:00

This post is exactly what it says in the title.

The review and the story continues, however this is to only look deep into what went on at the boat parties.

First of all you may be thinking, 'He went on more than one?' and yeah your right! Me and Dave were really fortunate to have spent a ridiculous amount on buying boat party tickets the day they all went on sale. In truth we actually missed one of them. This was the 'Welcome Boat Party 2' because we were given free tickets to 'Welcome Boat Party 1' which was earlier in the afternoon, and best of all, was in the beautiful sunshine.

If there's one main thing I learned from boat parties, its that the afternoon ones are best, because (usually) of the weather. Also make sure you bring enough money for drinks with you, I would say about £40-50 with you.

So this is the second part to 'Derpiness...At Sea'

So from experiencing being in the sea, it was time to experience it at sea. From going back to the tent to get ready, we managed to ask a rep how we got to the boat party. From telling us, we found that we were to get a coach into Rovinj main harbour, where we would set sail.

When arriving at the main harbour, there were many boats harboured up, but it was obvious to find out which was our boat part boat:

With a stage on the top, it wasn't hard to find it.

The setup was really good, as they were not allowed to play any music at the harbour, this was your time to exchange your money into 'Boat Party Cupon'...yes that's right, 'Cupon' not 'Coupon' nice engrish right there.

It was also time to get your drinks in, and take a look around the beautiful surroundings:

Ironically the music properly started playing when we had got to a distance where we were not only far away from the port, but also passing the festival itself, which was fun to look at.

We can also take this time to say hello to our second photo bomber, whoever this girl is, I bid you hello! from all who see you on my post. For your consideration, you can see the main stage from this pic, which is the big greyish dome on the right. The two buildings that have dark grey roofs are the breakfast/restaurant areas.

So what music to expect on the welcome boat party? I personally was expecting some deep chill out house or something, turns out I was wrong, and what amazing and surprising music they played:

In case this video window is too small:

Welcome Boat Party 1 @ Unknown Festival 2013

This welcome boat party of classics continued. Now when being back home, I'm not the one to be listening to any of this music. But hearing it there, and at that time was right for the occasion.

Quick Note

Because Blogger has no way of embedding my other videos via URL, I have to derperly link the rest of the videos. Not what I had in mind, but you can blame Blogger's derpy video upload interface.

Welcome Boat Party 1 @ Unknown Festival 2013 Part 2

So as you can see there was not a sad or angry face in sight, and we were surrounded by beautiful landscapes.

Now whilst on this boat party, me and Dave did meet some great people, however I cannot remember any of their names. The only way I remember them was by their actions at the time I met them, or randomly remembering where they said they were from. For instance I met a tall chap from Manchester, who every time we saw him, he had two drinks in his hands...always. We also met a nice guy whom was talking to us about Hideout Festival too and I strangely remember his name, he was called Ben who was from Preston.

Your probably thinking to yourself, 'there's not a lot of derpiness here?' Yes that's true, as the derpiness at sea happened on the way back. When the boat start moving back to the harbour, things were still nice and chill, and in fact they kept rolling out the classics such as this beaut from Luther Vandross:

Welcome Boat Party @ Unknown Festival 2013 Part 3

Now following this lovely looking video, things got a little crazy. For my own safety I did not get my phone out to record what happened, although I kind of wish I had, just to show you all how mad the entire boat party went from then.

From my understanding, I assume to this day that whilst on the way back, the driver of the boat suddenly realised he was behind schedule to get the boat back to the harbour. This was because all of the sudden the boat seemed to have been put on full throttle, and to top it off the boat was driving against the current. So when all of us were drunkenly dancing on board, it began to get very bumpy for us all. Not to mention that everyone was spilling their drinks because of the bumpy waters. This eventually led to around 10-13 people to begin spontaneously fall over. It did take a while for me to fall over, because I was trying my hardest not to, alas I eventually fell over when a guy in front fell over, and then a girl next to me fell over, then down I went.

The sensible people simply went off the dance floor and went downstairs to chill out. Us drunken 'still want to dance' people stayed up on the extreme slippery dance floor. All of us still on the floor made a large opening where some of us tried to do some slippery break dancing. This led to the first guy trying it, to fall over non-stop whilst up there (until we got back).
Dave tried and failed very quickly as he fell over with a girl in which led them both to slide and roll to the side of the boat.
The top moment of this was when all of the sudden, some guy went into our man made circle and then successfully accomplished the 'worm' dance in which led us all to cheer him.
Then someone else tried and he simply fell straight to the floor, which made an outburst of laughter from everyone.

In the end, when we got back to the harbour,

everybody simply began walking off,

except the guy who kept falling over.

I wasn't joking, he literally didn't stop falling over. Every time he attempted to get back up, he kept yelling "Where's me flip flop?! , Anyone seen me flip flop?!". So in fact it was *Fall "Where's me flip flop?!" *Fall, and it didn't stop until we got back. Since I sometimes show an odd sense of humour, I was in hysterics every time I kept hearing him yelling the question.

Another reason to get the afternoon boat parties?

When we finally got off, I was pretty tired and had drank a fair bit,

and best of all, it was only 4pm. I had the rest of the afternoon to

chill, and then I had the rest of the night to party.

20 Years of Kompakt Boat Party

This was the only evening boat party me and Dave went on. This was a great boat party but alas not as good as the other two, simply because of the great sunshine, and the idea of having more to do in your day.

I did manage to catch the sun going down in spectacular fashion:

This boat party lineup consisted of Michael Mayer & DJ Koze. However If I remember DJ Koze couldn't make it because of a family member sadly passing away the day before. This boat party (apart from the weather) was very different from the other parties. It was this party in particular that had a big German presence, which surprised me a little. I don't really know Michael Mayer, nor DJ Koze. I only know of Michael Mayer because he played at the Kazimier in Liverpool and was brilliant. If they are both German, or play a lot in Germany then that would probably be the reason.

What was obviously uniquely special about this party then was that I got to meet a couple of cool German people. Predominantly whilst waiting to use the toilets. This one guy I spoke to, spoke brilliant English, in which I had to apologise by stating:

"I'm sorry, and barely know any German. Your putting me to shame here, your English may even be better than mine pal." His response after laughing was "Well we learnt it in school so, everybody gets taught it."

Which also made me confess that I was taught French in school, and knew and know very little of that too.
The pair of us could have spoken about this for ages, but he was dying for a poo, and I was dying for a wee, so our bodies made us stop talking.

T.E.E.D & Waze & Odyssey Boat Party

I saved the best for last. This was most definitely, the best boat party I have ever been on to date.

It started out in the usual fashion of boat parties (as at this point I was used to them), convert money, get a drink, chill out for a bit until the music comes on. I knew this was going to be a different boat party, as the boat was different. There wasn't much of a stage, just a big table and a large deck area, which was really great.

Partying in once again, beautiful surroundings. This scenery was about to get more beautiful though. I don't mean by the women on board when I say this, I mean the scenery got more beautiful. This was how it went for me:

I was chilling at the front of the boat, with a few people. Just having a nice rum and coke, and all of the sudden these girls from the top of the boat started screaming. I look up and think 'What the hell?'. At this point they're still screaming and jumping around. I first think 'Has TEED just came on or something?', but then one of the girls up top starts pointing ahead, so I ponder 'What the hell are they screaming about?' this was not a scream in terror by the way, it was a scream in excitement.
Then I thought 'Perhaps they've never been on a boat before and they're mega excited about it.'. They keep pointing, screaming and jumping around, and so curiosity gets the better of me, and I stand up and look ahead. There's not much to see to be honest, its very much like what you see in the picture above...Oh wait hang on...whats that...I finally see what they're yelling about. Of course no one at the front has a clue, so I was more excited to tell everyone. Im sure you can probably guess what it was...Giant sea penis' were swimming around in the sea. Hah, no it was indeed Dolphins.
This was the first time I had ever seen dolphins swimming around in the wild, which is apparently rare to see nowadays. So what was the best and most derpiest way of announcing to the people at the front that Dolphins were there? "Oh shit, Dolphins!", as to which everyone gets up and leans over rapidly.
It was very much like the scene in Titanic when they see dolphins. Now the dilemma I was having at this point, was deciding whether I wanted to capture this on camera. Of course I had been drinking, and it was bumpy. Whilst the Dolphins were putting on a beautiful natural performance of jumping around, I derperly attempt to carefully get my phone out to capture it. Of course when I finally decide to record it, they stop jumping and you can barely see them on my camera:

Just in case this video window is poo:

Trying To Spot Dolphins @ Unknown Festival 2013

So I was unlucky to capture it, but I do remember it vividly. My luck would soon change though (not with Dolphins I mean, just in general). So after the warm up guy Dom Chung played his set, wouldn't you know it he came over and sat by me and Dave which is where his mates were located. From briefly speaking to him and his mates and laughing at one of his very drunk mates who could barely walk, I was already thinking of how lucky we were just for meeting Mr Chung, it was really great.

Waze & Odyssey do their set which was uniquely genius, as was TEED's set. They were hitting all the expectations of the boat party, and eventually it led to them both playing alongside each other which was great to witness.

My luck got better as when you see how close I managed to rave to them:

So even at this point I was pathetically starstruck at how close I was. As the massive joint set went on, Me, Dave and the crowd were really loving it as you can see by all of these happy people:

There was actually a guy on the boat that I had met on the first boat party. This was the Manchester guy who always had two drinks in his hands every time I saw him...and guess what? He was stood right in the corner with two drinks in his hands whilst trying to dance. It was a funny sight.

Surely my time can't get any better?

Yeah It sure can:

Not only meeting Orlando, but I also was privileged to meet his whole team including the dancers. From this my response when meeting them all was: "Yeah Im actually your hired clubber, Im just here to rave it up...on minimum wage too!".

Although I only had the time so say that and to thank Orlando for a brilliant experience into his set and also meeting him, he was as you can imagine very occupied with his team trying to talk to him, and with everyone else practically on the boat.
From amazing luck in getting the chance to meeting Orlando, I was then determined to meet Waze & Odyssey. When finding one of them whom had just had glitter thrown on him, I gathered his attention by saying:

"Excuse me my glittery DJ, I don't suppose I could get a picture with you could I?"

From there I got talking to the big tall chap next to me, I am unsure which of Waze & Odyssey he is, but what a guy. I managed to speak to him a lot more than TEED, as Orlando was seeing to the rest of party people. I was truly blown away at how nice he was, as when it comes to my luck in meeting other DJ's, its only very very brief. A quick "Great set!" and thats it. They were both so great to talk to. I do remember letting them know that 'Bump 'N' Grind (Waze & Odyssey Mix) was the tune of the festival, and thanked them for making it.

This has been a very long post, I will admit. If you have read about 20% of it I thank you for reading. If more than 50%, well done!

If you have the read the whole thing, then my god I applaud you!

I will finish off with a lovely photo of the photographer of the

boat party. I thought he should have been included in the

main picture so I took a picture of him.

End of part 4.

Unknown Festival 2013, What I know...Part 3

2013-11-27T07:53:00.003-08:00

Previously on part 2:

Me and Dave were almost not allowed on the coach,

Me and 23 other men all peed against a tall bush,

I took lots of pictures of Italy,

We went past lots of pizza places,

I had to say 'Im on the Guest list' over 10 times,

Dave's luggage kept flipping over by itself,

I used derpy Croatian,

and Dave broke my torch whilst setting up our tent in the dark...

So let's continue shall we? Here's a look at the aftermath of the derpiness and drama of setting up the tent:

The tent looks fine right? I was surprised like you are when I first looked at it in the morning...

In case your wondering, as to reference from the events from last night, I will answer some of them now:

That big rock in the bottom corner was NOT the rock the torch landed on, it was actually a rock behind the tree.

The 398 or 390 slab is behind the tent, which is why you can't see it.

All of our luggage was in between the two trees when we got there.

What you CAN'T see in this picture was that between to other trees close by, we actually had a line to dry our towels. We also had, complimentary, absolutely FREE...ants. Ants that seemed a lot bigger than ones I've ever seen. You also can't see the 1-2 trees that had coloured paper stapled to them to represent the camping zone.

When I woke up, it was actually fairly early, considering that we were exhausted from the other night, and considering we eventually went to sleep at around 1:30am. I woke up very tired to be honest, so why did I wake up? out of the following options what do you think woke me up? ....obviously before I tell you what actually woke me up...

A) Ants were in the tent

B) Dave was touching me

C) I needed the toilet really bad

D) The heat was unbearable

E) There was a spider on my face

F) Someone told me to wake up

There's a lot of options for you to choose from, so which do you think? the truth is was that all of them happened...at once.

...No not really, that would have been funny for you to read and would probably be the most dramatic wake up for someone ever.

In fact it was D, I woke up sweating. If you smell your arm pit right now... go on do it, anyway it was worse than that. It was so bad as soon as I woke up I tiredly crawled out of my tent to get some air, and to unzip the vent at the back of my tent.

It was similar to the scene in Ace Ventura, when he is stuck in the elephant robot without ventilation.

After finally receiving oxygen from outside, I also received a fully injection of happiness and excitement...why? It was because it was then when I realised, its the first day of the holiday/festival. Why wouldn't you be excited for whats ahead? knowing that I had 2 possible welcome boat parties to go on in the afternoon/evening and apart from that, we had most of the day to explore and do whatever we wanted.

For those who know Dave the rave, he is difficult to wake up. I mean even the extreme heat inside the tent didn't wake him up. One time back in Creamfields 2010, I got one of our camping neighbours to wake him up, and turns out she punched him to wake him up...and it worked. This time however, a simple shout woke him, and I also pointed out how hot it was in the tent.

Breakfast Time

For 60 Kuna, you could get an all you can eat buffet breakfast at the Amarin resort restaurant. Something which I've never witnessed at any other festival.

More derpy croatian was used that morning. 'Dobro Jutro' was used to greet the staff, in which resulted in them looking surprised. There were some simple pleasures I enjoyed that morning. For instance, the orange juice you see there, was from concentrate, and it tasted really sugary which made it taste amazing. That pear, was chilled, really juicy and soft. The 'milk' bit in the 'Coko milk' spread was odd, but nice. It was this location where throughout the week, you would see people you saw the previous night that were really drunk, and you would see them looking and acting like zombies.
It was always a nice atmosphere there. The breakfast space was all shared between the event organisers, local and british staff, festival goers such as myself, Dave Collins, The Dancing Misanthrope, Ethan Mounfield, and Ollie Bishop whom became a fan of the bacon and sausage..from what I saw anyway, to be far the bacon was nice.

When walking back to our tent, there was one thing everyone seemed to be doing in the campsite, can you guess what it was?

Bare in mind that we were looking around a lot as this was the first time we had properly seen the campsite areas as we arrived in the night. We saw a lot of people queuing, for the showers. This was a regular morning start for practically everyone. At the campsite toilets, they have 2 hot showers on the inside for men and the same for women. I will have you know the queue was a lot bigger for the women. Anyway there was also an outdoor cold shower, which obviously had no queues.
There was one time where I actually had the chance to use one of the hot showers in the morning, as I had found one that no one was using, however when you see it, you can understand why I did not use it too:

For most mornings I can confirm that I mainly used the cold showers (sometimes the clothes cleaning station. Sounds weird right? however it had a hot tap and was large enough to submerge half of yourself in nice warm water.). The cold showers brought me a new definition of cold, it was almost like it was chilled just to be cold. However, if there was any hungover, dirty, hot or tired feeling in me, they would soon disappear with the cold shower.

This was my method for drying off. I had a towel, but mainly used that for the beach and the pool. So from getting freshened up, and the adequate lotion on, what better to do then head to the pool/beach area? This was one of our routes we would take from our tent location:

Derpiness...at Sea?

Yeah you read that correct. Me and Dave were derpy in the sea and at sea. Here's the first part:

We arrive at the pool area/beach. We see this beautiful pool area, and its really chill and hot. Im sure I have a picture of it somewhere let me look...Oh yeah here it is:

What you can't really see is what the sea was like when we got down to the beach. First day, and of course me and Dave are wanting to swim in the sea, however the sea is rough. Some people are swimming in it, but not a lot. The sea looked like this:

Just to clarify, the photo of the pool area was taken on another day. The weather was like the photo above...in the morning it was anyway.

So without any thought and with an instant impulse me and dave made a run for it into the sea, as you do. From doing this we failed to realise just how strong the current and the waves actually were, as for me personally, I was taking a battering by the waves. I knew Dave was incurring the same as I kept hearing what I thought was Solid Snake growling behind me. We were only in the shallow area as well, which must have looked pathetic for the pair of us. When trying to stand up, notice how I typed 'trying' as you couldn't as all the rocks were really slippy.

What took us a mere couple of seconds to get into the sea, it must have taken us around 3 minutes just to try and get out, and get out without looking like you were desperately trying.

After this experience in the sea, we were later told by some nice people that there were actually sea urchins in the sea... Our experience could have been worse.

We did take a break from the sea, as we had to dry off and head to our first boat party, which is our second part of derpiness at sea and also a special part 4 of the review, which will be just about mine and Dave's experience at the boat parties.

P.S For the next post, You may be seeing MORE than just pictures...

Unknown Festival 2013, What I know...Part 2

2013-11-01T14:04:00.001-07:00

So you've read up to where myself and Dave Collins had just oddly ran/quick walked with all of our luggage, to the coach area where we were going to simply get on the festival coach to go to Croatia, but even this was confusing...for us.

By the way if you are reading this and your wondering what the hell I'm talking about, do note that this is part 2 of my review of my time in Croatia at Unknown festival...So I would advise you to read part 1 to fully understand what the devil is going on.

The end of part 1 saw the picture of the photo bomb guy, with our coach in the background, that me and Dave were assuming we were getting on. Here's how it went...

We joined a fairly large queue from practically everyone on the flight to get on the coach. As the first coach leaves, me and Dave have our transfers checked. As I am typing this right now, I am looking at my transfer ticket....and the first bit of confusion for us was that on our transfer e-ticket, it simply says:

'8th September 17:45 - 20:15, Trieste TO

UNKNOWN FESTIVAL (2 people)'

So when finally greeting the coach driver to assist with our luggage, he asks us with poor english:

Driver

"Amarin? Valdaliso? Villas Rubin?"

"Erm, Unknown Festival...Camping"

Driver

"No no, no coach"

As odd as this sounded to me and Dave, Im sure it sounds pretty odd to you, I turn around and ask the rep what was going on, he then tells me that the camping is at Amarin.

"Amarin! Amarin!"

Driver

"okay, okay."

As we got on board and waited for everyone else to be checked, the rep comes on board to greet us all. The rep then goes on to tell us that the coach ride would be around an hour and a half, and there was only to be one pit stop for the toilet, and so anyone wanting to go now, should do so.

At this point approximately 23 of us men get off the coach, run across the road and strangely align our selves along side this tall bush, where we all simultaneously pee. What we didn't know was that this was the main road in which all vehicles come in and out of the airport, and so various cars and vans were driving past us as we were doing the business, which I could not help but laugh at the same time. Once we had done that, we finally set off, and I was immensely looking forward to the coach journey, knowing that I was to see various bits of Italy and Slovenia and of course, Croatia.

I assigned myself a task whilst on this coach journey, and that was to find and capture the beauty's of the landscapes. Although I learned that this was quite difficult to do when on a coach.

It was a shame that the sun was to go so quickly. When on the coach with everyone from the flight, it was surprising that everyone was not in high spirits and singing and already partying when on the coach. Before I went I had this thought that everyone would be getting to know each other and partying and singing all the way there, a coach drivers nightmare to be honest. We were all fairly quiet to be fair, and this was predominantly due to the flight and the early morning wake up's everyone had done I think.

Okay so this is Trieste from afar, and what I can tell you is that this was not what I thought Trieste was going to look like. I mean do you ever do that? right before you go to somewhere new, you kind of imagine what the place is to look like, but when you actually see it, it's completely different to how you imagined. I mean I actually thought Trieste was going to be small. I would never of imagined it to be so large harbour and industrial looking. Still impressive though.

Whilst on this journey I remember listening to my iPod, to Richie Hawtin's DE9 Fragments set in Copenhagen, and I remember thinking how far I've travelled in one day. From that me and Dave met a nice couple that were across the aisle from us, whom were from L.A. Turns out that they had been travelling for 24 hours...and this really shut me up. I was stating to them of how tired I was from travelling and that It was crazy to think how far I had travelled in one day, and then they come out with that statement, thats true commitment to the dance scene right there.

You know how everyone says 'It was better if you were there to see it for yourself'? this was very true as for some reason, when looking on the coach, the big windows were giving off an effect as if you were viewing everything outside in widescreen.

Our time in Italy was actually very short, 45 minutes I think. Before we knew it we were already in Slovenia. Now if someone was to ask me:

"Hey, you've been to Slovenia, what's it like?"

My review of the place would probably be inaccurate, but from my point of view, when going through it, there were some lovely looking hill landscapes and woodland. There was also a few houses around, some derelict and some abandoned during construction.

I couldn't help but feel there was sense of repetitiveness when on the road. You know when in old cartoons they use the same background that keeps repeating when the characters are in a chase? where the same things in the background keep going past? well that's practically what Slovenia was like for me. Everytime we would go past a roadside business/building it would have big sign saying 'PIZZA' and every corner you went around, there would be pit-stop places where there would be big signs outside saying 'PIZZA'. Almost everywhere you looked, pizza was the only word/food being advertised to travellers. there were no other signs Ill have you know, just 'PIZZA', thats it. There was a time where I thought we were just going round in circles, as a lot of the buildings had similar architecture, so they all looked exactly the same.

So this was my failed attempt to capture the official sign stating 'Welcome to Croatia'. I can confirm there was a small cheer as we passed this sign.

So as you can probably guess, apart from the things to see and the small conversations me and Dave were having, there was not much derpiness to report, but don't you worry there's more... not really from us though.

You may notice that in the last pictures you saw, it was getting dark, and from when we were in Croatia, it went dark pretty quickly so we didn't see as much of Croatia as I had hoped. We actually arrived in pitch black, but I was very excited at this point when finally arriving.

Derpiness & Drama...When 'checking in'.

So when arriving, the information pack stated us to collect our festival wristband, then our accommodation wristband, which were in two different stages. Whilst getting these wristbands, the info pack also stated us to collect our cashless card thing.

Myself and Dave get off the coach and we both rush over to the check-in. When we get served by this Croatian girl, Dave presents his ticket, and then I state:

"I'm on the guest list, I don't have a ticket."

Croat Girl

"Erm, guest list? ... what guest list?"

"Yeah, I did online promotions for this festival, and I was put on the guest list as part of payment, my name is James Chang."

Croat Girl

"Erm...I don't know, let me go get someone."

From here, me and Dave had to wait another 15 minutes until we were eventually seen to by another Croatian girl.

Croat Girl 2

"You on guest list?"

"Yeah, under the name James Chang. My online team leader was Pasquale Chiavetta of Sound Channel if that helps."

Croat Girl 2

"Erm...We have no guest list. Go to next tent."

So as we were told, we went to the next tent where they were giving out the festival wristbands. When we got served it turned out that in this tent, all the staff were english. I stated my case, again and:

*After repeating myself*

English girl

"Okay...*typing on ipad* yeah your here, cool."

In that instant I finally receive my wristband and we are then told to go to the next stage which is the cashless payment card. Bare in mind that me and Dave are still lugging around all of our luggage, which is taking it's toll with Dave, as at this point his wheelie hand luggage had a dodgy wheel which kept making the case flip over.

There was no real derpiness to report when obtaining our cashless card. What was good for me was I was able to test out Croatian, which at this point was derpy Croatian. Phrases such as 'Dobro Vecer' and 'Hvala' was used.

After getting the card we were then in need of getting our accommodation wristband. This meant me and Dave had to further lug around our luggage down a tarmac hill and join another small queue at the accommodation tent.

After a small amount of waiting we are to be served by Croatian staff again. Communication went like this:

Croat Girl 3

"Hello, how long you stay here?"

"Till Sunday 15th."

Croat Girl 3

"And you have your own tent?"

"Yeah I do."

Croat Girl 3

"Okay, can I have your ticket reference number?"

"Erm I don't have one, I'm on the guest list."

Croat Girl 3

"Guest list?"

*sigh*"Yeah, I did online promotions, and I'm on the guest list."

Croat Girl 3

"You have no ticket?"

"No, I wasn't given one."

Croat Girl 3

"Hang on let me ask someone."

10 minutes later...

Croat Girl 4

"You say you on guest list?"

"Yeah thats right, under the name James Chang."

Croat Girl 4

"Which guest list?"

"There's more than one? I don't know, the online team guest list perhaps?"

Croat Girl 4

"And you have no ticket?"

"...No. I wasn't given one."

Croat Girl 4

"Hang on, I go get someone."

During this interval where back then I was waiting to be seen, again, I shall take this moment to confirm this is 90% accurate to how this went for me. Only some of the wordings may be incorrect. Why do I remember this so clearly? because it was annoying.

Dave was just literally waiting around with me. Bare in mind we had already gained our festival wristband anyway to prove that we had gained entry into the festival.

At this point I am waiting around for more than 15 minutes as the other Croatian girls serve other people waiting in the queue. Whilst I am waiting I am greeted by a girl whom is also waiting around. I obviously had no idea who she was, but she was slurring her words when asking me these random questions:

Queue Girl

"From Leedsssss? you from Leedssss?"

"Nope, are you?"

Queue Girl

"Yeaaaaaah, Mark, Mark...dya know Mark?"

"Mark? nope, who's Mark?"

Queue Girl

"Ah, everrrryone knows Mark, he runs it, runs it mate"

After this statement she suddenly turned around to chat to someone else about this Mark guy. After a further waiting of approximately 10 minutes, a Croatian guy comes to speak to me instead.

Croat Guy

"You say you on guest list?'

"Yeah thats right, under the name James Chang"

Croat Guy

"Oh, we have no guest lists here...hang on a moment."

The Croat guy then begins to look on his laptop. From my perspective, it looks like he was on Facebook. He then begins ringing someone at the same time. After some browsing on his laptop the Croat guy then puts his laptop away, and hangs up the phone.

The man then gets on a scooter and then drives away...I assumed to this point he was going back to the first checkin. I am then told by one of the Croat girl to wait alongside the tent, where there are two other guys waiting to be checked in.

It is here where I learn that the two guys waiting with me and Dave are no ordinary festival goers, they are also apart of the online promotions team. It was here where I met Ollie Bishop, and Ethan Mounfield (which for the majority of the festival, I was calling Ethan, Matthew because I forgot his name, and thought it was Matthew.).

From feeling stressed, and annoyed I felt a sense of ease and calm, just by simply knowing that I was not the only one having really bad trouble checking in. We begin chatting about ourselves, joking about the Croatian staff and also complimenting there efforts made us all feel better about the situation.

The Croat guy returns from his journey with his scooter, our knight in shining armour returns to then give one of the Croat girls a piece of paper. The Croat Girl then asks us for our names, and it was right there, where we were finally given our On-Site wristbands.

The girl also gave us other bits of paper confirmation and information. She also goes to tell me and Dave that were in Green camping zone, marked area 398.

So, were walking down one of the camping road lanes, Dave's luggage is still tipping over by itself, were both pretty exhausted, and we have yet to setup our tent, and also find our allocated space.

Green camping area right? there should be signs for it surely, wrong. Instead there were A4 pieces of coloured paper stapled to trees, which weren't exactly lit up either, and so we had to rely on my torch to see whereabouts we were.

How do we find 398? turns out that this was marked on a concrete slab on random areas of the grass which we had to find in the area.

As you can imagine, this proved a difficult task, as it was in the dark, and what was typical for us, was that we kept finding areas such as 399 and 397, it was driving us mad, eventually we found what was either 398 or 390, but at this point we had given up.

So after all of that, it was time to face our next task, which was to setup our tent...in the dark.

We begin by moving our luggage to an appropriate place. Dave rests my torch on top of his suitcase so we can get a wide shine of light on our area. Once getting the tent laid out, this next part went like this:

The tent was a little too close to the luggage,

so I ask Dave to move his suitcase.

He grabs it by the handle,

and yanks on the handle to swing it out of the way...

*Konk, Thud*

What was on top of the suitcase?

My torch... It falls and lands on a rock,

the light goes out, we can't see.

*Facepalm*

I remembered this moment, as it was like I saw it in slow motion.

There was nothing I could have done, it was already too late.

I just watched, it happened, I face palmed.

As I'm pacing back and forth, whilst resuming to move our luggage, Dave then attempts to fix the torch, which takes him a few minutes. It was here where Dave told me that by variously smacking the bulb area would eventually make it turn on.

So we actually arrived on time, which was 8:15pm.

We actually finished everything, checking in, setting up camp at 12:20am.

Our initial idea was to go for a drink once we got setup, however we didn't realise It was going to take so long. So what we simply did, was went for a walk, and it was great. It was the best part of the day, and we found this sign area (below), which is what I will finish on.

End of Part 2.

Unknown Festival 2013, What I know...Part 1

2013-10-18T13:23:00.003-07:00

This was actually in early September, and so you may be wondering to yourself:

"Why have you taken this long to review this?"

Well, if you live in the UK, you may notice how the weather has finally started changing into wintery weather, and so now is a good time to reflect on our summer as it is a thing of the past. It's never a nice time to see the summer go away for another year, that is, if you don't like autumn/winter. I don't really like these seasons, as the UK only ever sees the same type of weather throughout, which is the weather you see when Frodo and Sam are in Mordor in the Lord of the Rings.

This may sound like a bit of an exaggeration, and to be honest I would say it is short of realism, a more better use of words to describe autumn/winter weather for you would be; dark, cloudy, rain, grim, dead/dying plants, rain, gloomy, no sunshine, rain, miserable, depressing, rain, cold, windy, rain, dull and finally rain.

The only place I have seen that looks nice in Autumn is New York, am I right people?

So now you know (if you didn't know already) what the weather is like now and soon in the UK, now to tell you about the adventures and the lovely weather that occurred in Croatia... I could go on and go into detail about the miserableness of the British weather, however I don't want to sound old.

I still wear the Unknown festival wristband today, and it can get annoying sometimes though, such as when your making a coffee in the morning and whilst your stirring you find the end of the wristband is swimming around in your mug as you stir. Other than that I can't complain, for whatever I'm doing, I'm always reminded of this glorious festival...which actually I haven't stated to you yet...which by the way, this festival was absolutely brilliant, and the best festival I've been to, to date. It's time for the main event of this post, strap yourselves in...or on.

Derpiness & Drama...before we left.

So as you may have guessed, it was not just me heading to Unknown festival, I was to also to be accompanied by Dave Collins, and so the original plan I had in mind was for Dave to drive to mine, and then we would finish packing, grab something to eat and then simply get an early night, ready for our departure.

This did not happen.

What actually happened was that we didn't really pay attention to the weight and dimension restrictions that Ryanair imposed, which by the way, was our first time at flying with them. So in a derpy manor, we packed all of our things (something I personally should have done earlier but didn't), and found that our main luggage was around 5-7Kg above the limit. This was due to us deciding to bring our tent, in which Mr Collins then stated the idea of buying one when we get there, so we reduce our luggage weight, as the festival had this service available. I email them a request to get one for the next day, in which 3 minutes later I had a reply stating that they had sold out.

The solution to this dilemma was that we found that my hand luggage was 7Kg under, and so was Dave's, and so we had to cram all of our clothes and other minor things into our hand luggage and we were hard at work trying to get the weight correct for around 3 hours. In fact this took so long, we went on a break half way through to get something to eat. So the first trip of the holiday was to McDonalds. Eventually when we got back to continue derping around with the luggage, we finished up at around 1:30am, and we were due to get back up at 8:00am...the derpiness doesn't end there.

Derpiness & Drama... When We Left.

Departure day, everyone's favourite day. Knowing that there is holiday ahead of you, and that you are leaving your troubles behind. Departure day is also a very important day, because it's all about remembering all necessary paperwork in order to even get onto the flight. So from not having my usual good lengthly hours of sleep, getting up and going was surprisingly smooth. Derpiness began when arriving at Birmingham Airport.

We had a long stay 1 car parking space reservation, and so like most people that don't know what they're doing, we looked for signs for long stay 1. We found it and when speaking through the intercom at the entrance they said to go to the Drop & Go car park.

Once there, we noticed signs stating this area of the car park was for dropping people off only, max stay 15 minutes. So we asked the intercom person again if were in the right car park, which they then told us to go back the way we came, to the long stay 1 area. So we went back and simply drove in and eventually after around 10 minutes, found a space for my car. Whilst getting a transfer bus to the terminal, I was re-reading my printed reservation, and then I discovered a small print paragraph on the bottom stating:

"Leave your car with one of our courteous and professional drivers in the Drop and Go car park adjacent to terminal. The NCP Official Valet Drop Off point is located on the right as you enter the Drop & Go Car Park, immediately behind the Novotel."

This was not where my car was parked.

At this point not only was I stressed out, but we were also running short of time. Now when remembering back to that time, I remember I wasn't actually calm about our departure, as I was worrying about all the 'what if' situations, such as what if our luggage is out again? what if Im going to get a fine for my car? what if we take so long checking in we miss our flight? what if I've forgotten something? ...those types of what if situations.

Anyway check in was remarkably easy, as we had already checked in online, and thankfully I can confirm that our luggage was spot on accurate. Upon finishing check in, there was a lot of relief released from within me.

The next stage, like at all airports was the security, which was also surprisingly easy and quick, which further helped me calm down. The strange thing about our pre-departure was that it wasn't very long, at all. We had time to pee, time to randomly browse alcohol, and electronics for approximately 20 minutes, and then we were already able to move to our gate. Boarding was also pretty quick, as Ryanair staff, for some reason, seemed to be in a rush, not sure why. We seemed to have experienced what the military may go through when boarding planes, it was something like:

"Move straight down to the middle of the plane,

go go, straight down, sit down and make sure

your hand luggage is not in the way, hurry,

sit down in any available seat, and put your

seat belts on, quick...MOVE IT PRIVATE! GOD DAM

IT MOVE YOUR ASS AND PARK IT, PRONTO!"

Okay so the last bit was fictional,

but they may as well have said it.

Now since I was 5 months old, I have been on planes. I can't really count how many times I've been on flights, but believe it or not, Im not 100% comfortable with flying. Long flights actually, are better for me for some reason, but I feel that short euro flights are bumpy, which is something I don't really like. I am actually fine with flying apart from the following:

Turbulence (Rough ones)

The feeling as the pilot decreases acceleration just after take off (know what I mean? I don't know If I've explained it well)

Side wind (during the flight, and when landing)

Thankfully there was no side wind to report, nor bad turbulence. So all in all the flight was good. Once landing in Trieste in Italy, I couldn't help but notice how much warmer it was, even in the late afternoon...this put a smile on my face.

If your reading this and your wondering 'Why is he in Italy? I thought he was going to Croatia?' please have a read of my previous post, as this will detail our travel itinerary.

So without the use of your imagination, you have seen a picture of our plane, and now, a satisfied Dave Collins:

As much as I was just wanting to chill out in the sun at this point, especially after the morning derpiness, we had to go in, and go inside and to security, and by security I mean 'The look at your passport and receive a nod of the head by an Italian guard area'.

I find that the security was more easier getting into Italy than getting into The Warehouse Project in Manchester. Anyway we began the glorious stage of having to wait for your main luggage to come through the conveyer belt via magical portal, and I was hoping (almost like everyone else) that our luggage was to come out first. Im sure Im not the only one that hopes this when at that stage.

I mean you've just landed, and your holiday has officially begun, so why wait around for your luggage? You just want to go grab it yourself and get out there, but alas we all must wait.

To be fair, our luggage was pretty quick, we only had to wait approximately 5 minutes.

At this stage as you are reading this, you may think that there has not been a lot of derpy events since the morning, but Im afraid more derpiness follows. So as we have our luggage, and we have to wait for our coach transfer. Our flight ticket stated that we landed at around 4:20pm, and our coach transfer was at 5:45pm. So whilst we waited, we thought of indulging in Italian food.

So I decided to have this, which was called a 'Contadino'. I still don't know what was in it, I believe it had melted cheese, some sort of ham, and something else. I can also confirm this was obtained using derpy Italian. The next derpiness, was by me...and it was a colossal derp by me. The conversation went like this: (as we were eating our contadino, waiting around...)

*Chewing sounds*

Dave

"Hey Chang, when is our coach again?"

"Erm, at 17:45"

Dave

"Wait wait, hold on...Chang, were in Italy."

"Yeah...I know, duh."

Dave

"As in, were not in the UK anymore?"

"Well obviously"

Dave

"So...what dya think this means?"

"What are you on about Dave!"

Dave

"Time difference?"

"Oh shit!"

I can tell you, there was a mad rush then, as the time in fact,

was actually 17:35pm.

This really was an annoying rush, as I did that motion where you want to run, but your lugging all your stuff, so you have to do that odd looking run/walk, whilst sweaty faced, and not being able to wipe it because your hands are full. Then to make matter worse, for me, there was no escalator going down, only one going up (to where we were).

So I then had to proceed in oddly rushing down the stairs whilst having the main luggage swinging around taking most of my weight with it. Im just glad there was no one walking up, as my luggage would have rammed them back down the stairs.

We rushed outside, to see a gathering of young people surrounding some coaches, this was our destination.

So as you can see, my main luggage was a big squashie bag, which mainly contained the tent, the air beds and all the liquids we had. May I also point out, that I was wearing jeans whilst oddly rushing around in warm weather, so this was a tad unpleasant.

Ladies and Gentleman this is the end of Part 1.

I don't know how many part there are to be, probably

3, maybe 4.

I will now leave you with the last picture of this post, which was supposed to be showing you all the coach we were riding on, instead its an excellent photo bomb from some guy, well done sir, whomever you are.

End of Part 1.

A Journey Into The Unknown...

2013-09-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

My understanding of a festival, in my experience is you go to somewhere you've never heard of, and find that there is not much there, only green fields and all year round they seem to have okay weather until the certain festival starts and then huge amounts of rain thrashes down on your time there, and the only good aspect you get out of it, is that you get to see your favourite DJ's and Live acts.

At the festival you have to put up with rain, mass amounts of different variants of mud (yep there is more than one kind at festivals), smelly people, and overpriced drinks and food.

Unknown, is a festival that is truly unknown to me. This is a festival that, as you could probably tell by my depiction of a festival, is not in Britain, this is in Croatia.

Unknown, is located on a split terrain of forests and beaches, not just muddy green fields.

"Getting to Unknown is Simple"

I would not agree with that. Getting to Unknown is not simple, its is an adventure.

How are you getting there?

Now when it comes to asking people at festivals I've been to before, the most you ask is "Where have you come from?"and most people respond with various different parts of the country. From that you just assume that they have just came here by car on the motorway. Not the eccentric adventure in my opinion.

For Unknown however, everyone is to have a truly incredible adventure to get there, and with that will come an amazing story of how they got there. Myself and Dave Collins are to go partially by plane. However we are not getting a plane to Croatia. We are getting a plane to Italy, and then getting a transfer from there.

Sound pretty straight forward?

It's true, we are getting there by simply getting a flight to Italy, and then getting a transfer from there. However its how we get there, that makes a truly incredible journey....for me, the type of person that has only gone to UK festivals.

GO.

From the word go, Dave Collins is to stay over at my flat in Derby, and then from there we are to drive to Birmingham Airport where we will travel by Ryanair (which will be an adventure in itself) from Birmingham Airport to Trieste FVG Aeroporto. This airport, is not actually in Trieste. It is on the very outskirts of Trieste, in between 2-3 other Italian city's.

From here, Italy is a new experience for the pair of us, as neither of us have been to Italy before. Once were there, we wait a short while for our transfer to Unknown festival to arrive, and then we set off:

As Dr Thornthwaite described it to me:

"You go on the Italian motorway from the airport,

where you will see some of the Italian coast, then you

will go through border control into Slovenia. From there

you will have to go through a Slovenian mountain pass, which

looks pretty scenic from what I can see, and then you go through

more border control into Croatia, and then you go on a Croatian

motorway through some of the countrysides of Croatia before

eventually turning up in the coastal town of Rovinj."

Before Dave knew of this travel itinerary, this was his main concern:

"What so, when we get to Italy, we're probably gonna have to take a cab, and we'll get in, and the cab driver will say 'Where you goin babada bupi?' and we'll say 'Unknown' and he'll say 'What?! You don't know? Mamma Mia!'." - Dave Collins

So telling that to someone will feel like Frodo telling someone what he did when he travelled to Mordor. I'm feeling very excited for this adventure and it will be a great sign off for the summer of 2013.

The festival itself...

Comparing Unknown festival, to other festivals Ive been to,

you have a main stage(s) and big tents, and thats about it.

I always prefer tents, because it keeps you out of the rain.

At Unknown however, the rain shouldn't be an issue.

At Unknown you have stages, in such unique ways:

So this stage comes with fascinating art from Kid.Acne, and also includes BBQ's...Something I have never witnessed.

The Main stage, when your there, apparently has glowing forests to your right and open sea to your left. Something I have never witnessed.

Straight outta' Ibiza. I have never been to Ibiza, Ive always wanted to, and people have spoken about amazing pool parties in Ibiza, So I can't wait for this one.

The forest stage. Once again, an area of terrain I have never witnessed. Ive raved in fields before, but never forests.

The other stage...which I have no idea what to expect, apart from mirrors. Your guess' to whats going to be happening at this stage is as good as mine, looks very interesting.

The awesome reflection of Moroccan culture, in a stage area. Im just going to state two things about this stage. 1. Hammocks

2. Shisha

Oh my lord.

If that doesn't amaze you, the icing on this crazy croatian cake is this:

Ibiza clubbing partners and parties always boast that they have boat parties. Well, now Unknown does too.

I have never been on a boat party, always wanted to too.

It will be hard however to be put on a boat and sailed away from these beautiful stages that lay there.

Seems like a big place?

Here's a map of the Unknown festival land:

If your going, I'll see you there. If not, why not come next year?

From Liverpool Down to West Ham as Downing signs on.

2013-08-13T10:07:00.003-07:00

*This is post is an example to show evidence of sports journalism article writing skills.*

West Ham United have announced the signing of Stewart Downing from Liverpool.

The England International has signed a four-year deal with the club, believed to be in the region of £6 Million.

The former Middlesbrough youngster, now 29 years old will wear the number 23 shirt for the hammers. Downing had this to say on his arrival to the club:

"Very excited, it's a great opportunity for me here, the club, and a good manager to work under and Im really excited to get going now."

Talking on the West Ham Website, Downing could be having his debut against Cardiff City on the 17th of August.

"Im ready, Im fit, Im well, I've played a few decent games for Liverpool in pre-season so there should be no problems on that part."

With Downing now apart of the West Ham squad, that makes Downing the 3rd Liverpool player to make the switch to the Boleyn Ground this year.

Various Liverpool fans have responded to the move as a good change the merseyside club:

References:

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Stewart_Downing_Liverpool_vs_Bolton.jpg/220px-Stewart_Downing_Liverpool_vs_Bolton.jpg

Downing Quotes:

http://www.whufc.com/page/Home

Twitter Quotes:

https://twitter.com/search?q=Stewart%20Downing&src=tyah

Other Parts Of Media

2013-08-13T09:06:00.001-07:00

So, going on from the last post, you may have read that I was not doing too well in terms of creative thinking and inspiration.

I can confirm that I have began getting out of this (I'll call) 'mood' and I have now started to resume almost where I left off. This 'mood' is still somewhat affecting me still, but not as much as it was.

Strangely enough, as I walk on the thin line that is my degree to career path, I can't help but notice my interests are beginning to set in motion other media interests I assumed I was not going to go into or be bothered, and so this path is starting to have multiple different paths now.

The meaning from my 'trippy' description is, that I am starting to get interested in other parts of media I thought I wasn't going to pursue nor even try to work under.

Although I type posts in my blog, I've never really seen myself pursuing any type of job that would require me to type posts professionally such as journalism. I always thought of the Weekly Changy to be more of something to do and report to you in my spare time, but Ive never really considered it to be a job. Now that university is over however, I can't help but think, whether I could type up articles for a magazine or something? just to get the ball rolling.

I wouldn't say Im a literate person nor would I say I am a grammar master to be able to type up articles all the time, but who knows.

Another completely different side to what I've been taught in my degree is music making. To the delight of Dave Collins (aka Ion Daemon) when he eventually reads this, I have recently found the urge to begin music making. By music making I mean attempting to make dance music tracks.

What genre? I have no idea, whatever Im good at I guess. The only problem I have with this notion of making music, on the computer (through ableton) is that I don't have a clue as to what all the music technology terms mean and what they do. I've only recently learnt what the 'filter' does and what the 'Gater' and 'Flanger' does to tracks, as for practically everything else, I haven't the faintest idea. One thing I do know though, is the piano. I have learnt that I can create new chords and synths very easily, but I just can't can't carry on from that.

In terms of equipment, I have my mac, and a 49 key MIDI keyboard. I am unsure whether this is all I really need to begin making tracks.

If I am to work on my first track, whatever it will be, If I can make one, that is around 3 minutes +, then I will be satisfied and will go on to continue. I have more ideas and plans that surround this trend, but it all depends on whether I can make the tracks that I audibly envision in my mind (if audibly is a word). I know everyone has their own way of 'getting there' and their own way of making music, but to be honest I feel that I am dipping my toe into the pond of music making, and so far have found nothing for me to go on, apart from being able to make chords and synths spontaneously and easily.

Other News:

JAK'D Union Closes It's Server.

As you may have or may not have known, I wasn't only typing posts for the Weekly Changy. I was also part of the JAK'D Union, that was a FTB Server and I was typing articles and PR's for the players and events surrounding the players on the server.

However due to a large time period of inactivity, the JAK'D Union have cancelled and closed the server.

During my time of being in Skiathos, moving to the flat, and having no Internet for a while, there was also a large patch of post inactivity too. Over this period also saw a mass decrease in players signing onto the server, and so all members of JAK'D Union felt the closure of the server, to be the best decision.

So for those who never saw such extravagant constructions such as Hudson1911's naval vessel, RamothV's tower, Piceas1's Bank (and maze but I never even saw that!), Ionzor and Hudson1911's prison, then Im afraid you will never see them.

The Fear of The Decline Into Working Order

2013-08-01T07:23:00.003-07:00

If there was to be a new horror film to come out in the cinema's now, a horror film with this as the subject would terrify me, as it is scaring me right now.

As I stand on the edge of the cliff, I look up through the kaleidoscope of my future, and I can't help but notice that I could fall off the cliff into the future of working order.

As University has practically finished for me, my supervisor at work instantly noted this, and increased my hours by 35-40 hours. This is something I didn't want, however because of the increase of pay fortnightly, this has helped in getting new furniture for my new unfurnished flat.

The big problem for me because of this, is the decline of creative ideas. My working order from work, home, back to work and home again, is killing my creative thinking. I seem to be doing the same things when I get back to the flat and my time to think of ideas and work on my personal work has diminished.

There are two certain factors about my situation that are to blame for this issue I have between me and my brain:

Virgin Media

Since I have moved into my new flat, I simply wanted to transfer my internet services from my old house to the new flat. I found out however, I had cable services from Virgin, and at this new property, I could only go National (through the phone line basically). From this, I got on the phone to Virgin Media about this and setup the switch, they then told me about receiving a text on the 'confirmation' of the switch being successful and the services being 'activated' so it was ready to use.

"So how long will this take?"

I said on the phone, her response:

"You will receive a text on the date, it usually takes between 7-14 days."

"Oh, right, okay" (hope its only 7 days) I thought.

Then I finally received my text on confirmation, then as you will see, I received another text after the long wait to hear more annoying news:

Do take note on the dates the messages was sent.

So, I was without internet for this long, and some might think 'Huh, thats not too long, surely you would be fine?' WRONG!

Without internet for this long almost drove me to insanity, and so with no Internet I was not online with the world, and so my working order routine was started from not having any Internet. I would also like to clarify that this screen shot was taken as I am typing this post, and so I have Internet now, that is why you can see the WiFi symbol at the top.

On the 17th of July, once my services had finally been activated, I then learned that my new flat complex does not have Fibre Optics yet, and so having internet through the telephone line means I have been receiving 3mb Internet, which is scandalous since I was paying for a Superhub that meant I was receiving 27mb (supposed to be 30 but oh well).

2. Work

As you've already heard, my hours have rapidly increased which has led me to be doing 2 hours under full time status. Obviously this is primarily to blame. In this section of blame, I would like to state of the way my hours have increased to develop this problem. Because I thankfully had already booked time off for festivals and general holidays, they couldn't stop me from not going to work, however this was the same for everyone on my department. So with this in mind, our department began (and still is) getting understaffed.

So my hours increased dramatically, however before heading off on holiday and festivals, because we were/are understaffed, this led to me having to work 7 full days straight, and another 6 days straight.

All mixed 8 hour shifts, from 6am to 2:30pm, 8am to 4:30pm, 12:30pm to 9pm.

This style of working, mixed in with no Internet at the flat, has been the recipe for the decline into working order, and the diminishing of creative thinking.

A light at the end of the tunnel?

So from having Internet back into my life again, my creativeness is extremely slowly crawling back. It's strange, my creative thinking stretches from my own personal work, to games I play on, such as Minecraft/Tekkit/FTB. I mean Ive started playing it again since the return of my Internet (I know what your thinking right now, you don't need Internet to play them? WELL I have my own Tekkit Server that I am preparing) When returning on to it for the first time, there was no creative thought for what to build, my mind was blank, and that was scary.

Aside from playing that, my creative thinking is slowly returning, but it's absence has really hindered my drive to do anything, so as you can probably imagine, I haven't really been great in the past 2-3 weeks. The only true release from working order and all troubles was the glorious return to the festival Global Gathering.

Instead of the usual company of Dave Collins and Dr Thornthwaite, I had the pleasure to have Abigail Armstrong, Lauren Armstrong and James Hamilton along side me to witness such great live acts. If you went then I hope you also enjoyed yourselves, as I did. Although it rained for the first time. This did not hinder our spirits. The top live acts I witnessed had to be as follows:

5. Orjan Nilsen

4. Richard Durand

3. Disclosure

2. Zedd

1.Arty

All YouTube highlights will be available on my channel, soon...Once I finish uploading everything else that is in the queue (it appears I am behind):

The James Chang YouTube Channel

Weekly Changy Joins Forces With JAK'D Union.

2013-05-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

This isn't actually breaking news, as this occurred on the 21st of April, but still its news alright!

"But what does this mean?"

Do not fear, Its not as like the Weekly Changy is going away, its just my typedy typing is also going to be typing away for JAK'D Union.

"What in the world is JAK'D Union?"

JAK'D Union is a Feed The Beast community server that has been founded by myself, Alex Thornthwaite, Kenneth Barnett and Dave Collins, and ironically JAK'D as you may have caught on now, is the beginning initials of the four founders.

"So what the hell is Feed The Beast?"

Feed The Beast is a multi-modded minecraft client...which to put it in simpler terms, is minecraft, but with loads of mods already installed, and this modded game is called Feed The Beast, which has it's own launcher.

"Feed The Beast is like...minecraft 2, NO! minecraft 3! caus tekkit is like minecraft 2...yeah" - Kenneth Barnett

"So if I want to play it, what do I have to do?"

So what you would do is download the FTB client on their main website: Download Feed The Beast Here Reader!

Then once you have installed it, and got it all setup, you simply join our server by entering our server address into the multiplayer tab: JAKDUnion.nn.pe:25583

What JAK'D Union Offers...

Whats great about joining JAK'D union and playing on our server, is that first of all, its free. Secondly whatever you build, can be shown publicly with others on our Facebook page AND our server website, so you may get fame for a glorious build!...that is if you want it, if you want to remain a secret then thats also fine.

Donations

If you really love it that much and want to contribute to the running and maintenance of the server, you are more than welcome to donate to JAK'D Union, and in return you will receive some excellent incentive items as a donator, more information on that will follow.

The Weekly Changy University Awards

2013-05-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Guess What?

Yep! I have finished University.

And what a better way to round it all off with my official Weekly Changy University Awards.

You may think to yourself: "Golly! three years has certainly gone fast right?" I do sometimes think this, then I look back at some my own posts, where I discuss the stressful times and comical times of University life, and I then think "Wow, that was ages ago!"

"So what or whom are you awarding? and what for?"

I am awarding people, past projects, past social and lecture events, from my personal opinion, beliefs and experiences.

Let's get started!

P.S The more important awards are last.

Working Part Time During University

Most stupid question from a member:

Member

"What time dya shut?"

"Half past 8."

Member

"And, then what happens?"

"..."

This had to be the most stupid, I mean I do get other stupid questions but this wins it.

Most awkward moment with a member:

The award goes to the moment an oldish man was exiting the warehouse, and as I greeted him as usual, his response was:

"I'm better now that I have seen your beautiful face..."

Totally was not expecting it, and all I could do was just hand him back his receipt and simply say thanks. Must of looked odd, as I didn't look at him after that comment until he left.

Most helpful employee:

Lisa Towers, my supervisor. Lisa has always helped me out with giving me extra time off to finish work and has been able to meet some of my needs for time off for university work and to attend night outs.

Clubbing Events During University

Most eventful clubbing night:

This goes to the Godskitchen Halloween Special.

This was not really for the event itself, more of the post events. This was the night where in the morning I awoken to a lost wallet, a spare bedroom that had sick in a box and Nuclear Physicist sleeping inside, a Dave Collins encampment in the living room, and sick in a pint glass in the kitchen. Later that day I also received an angry phone call from a cab driver in Birmingham, because I booked one and never showed. Bad me.

Most drunken clubbing night:

The award goes to the OTR 5th Birthday in Sheffield.

Unfortunately there is video evidence to prove how drunk I was this night. The video explains it more that what you read now, lets just put it that way.

Most surprising great clubbing night:

Not very well explained, but I will none the less.

The award goes to the Chibuku night at The Masque.

This starred 2manydjs, Felix Da Housecat, Roni Size, Shy FX & DJ Hype. What made this night surprisingly great was the last minute news of knowing that the good ol'Bond brothers were attending with their team of creative interesting friends. What topped the night as a great, was to have met (briefly) Felix Da Housecat after his set. A night to remember.

Lectures Throughout University

Worst lecture to turn up late:

This definitely had to be awarded to History & Industries, with mostly Rhona Jackson.

I think it was called that anyway. This lecture was in 1st year, and had more than 50 students inside this lecture hall, and I recall turning up 5-10 minutes late 2-3 times, and all you get when you would enter, is the sudden shock of 50+ glaring eyes and then for the obvious statement from Rhona which would be: "Your Late.", Duh.

Most tiring lecture:

The award goes to...Photography in the Media. Simply because it was not really practical and it was a late evening lecture. The day of this lecture would also see me up very early for work and so I was constantly tired when attending this lecture.

Most boring lecture:

Digital Publishing 1.

ONLY the 1st year lecture, the 2nd year lecture was a lot better for me. This was another late lecture, that always had the lights off and the room was lit from all the computer screens. This was a lecture that wouldn't get through to me, and every time I attended, I was just waiting to finish.

Most educational lecture:

This is tie! the two lectures go to: Media Law & Media Ethics.

Not only was these lectures entertaining, but I also found to have learnt a lot from them amongst other lectures that I attended. Both gave me interesting insight into another side of the Media industry that must be known if to work in this field of industry.

Lecturers in university

Most intelligent lecturer:

Nathan Hunt.

Whenever I would speak to him in tutorials and even in lectures, he seemed to come across as the most intellectual and the most intelligent. His constant use of terms such as 'Notion' and 'Context' and 'Media Text' and best of all "Contextual".

Most laid back lecturer:

Andy Martindale

By far the most laid back. Andy's Monday morning lectures of Radio Production Skills were by far the most easiest and most relaxing and easy going lecture. Most discussions in the lecture were off topic of radio and more debates on technology, culture, social policies and sexual innuendo's.

Most oddest & complicated lecturer:

Tie!

Double award goes to: Colin Dyter & Michael Dyer.

Colin Dyter

Introduction into Professional Writing. This was in the 1st year, and my god was it strange and comical. Colin attempted to lure some of us into pursuing professional writing lectures in the following years. Indeed he did succeed with some students, however from my perspective, all he did was teach off topic subjects and have terrible hearing when anyone spoke aloud. What made him more odd, was his looks. To describe, only using words, his legs, torso and arms were small, but his hands, his feet and his head were abnormally massive.

Michael Dyer

Mike lectured the Television Production 2 module, and he can be best described as marmite. Some people liked him, others hated him, and like marmite, Im strangely half and half, which was what my opinion of Mike was. He was very nice to talk to, and funny when discussing off topics such as the Gaza Strip, but when it came down to the work, he was often not entirely helpful.

Overall Best Lecturer:

Award goes to Tony Delahunty.

For his lectures of Media Law & Media Ethics, two modules I thought were going to be awfully boring and long winded, ended up to be very educational and he made it very entertaining in almost every lecture.

Students in University

The awards everyone reading this has probably been waiting for, lets get to it. The awards that aren't on very serious subjects but oh well, enjoy:

Top student swearer:

The award goes to... James Dye.

A chap that stated every swear word since I've known him, even the word that my mother hates, but I will not state it.

Best sounding laughter:

Lewis Carter.

Just make him laugh and you'll find out for yourself!

Best impersonations:

James Chew!

With his multiple American accents and old man voice, this man is made radio.

Most social student:

This is a double award, the awards go to: Nathan Rodger & Steve Simpson.

Two guys that, from my perspective, got a long with everyone and anyone, and not a bad word from me to speak of them.

Top student that made you contemplate reality:

Henry Gorse... enough said.

Trendiest student:

Award goes to Stevie Greaves.

A chap that at anytime, would always look his best, no matter what lecture.

Best student drinking partner:

The award goes to Kenneth Barnett.

With him even spiking my drink, the drinking sessions were most memorable.

Most student seen out in a Derby night out:

Marcus Bonnick gets the award for this, 2nd place (if there is one) would be Natalie Pelling. Upon seeing Marcus, he would always be more drunk than me every time, and always happy to see me.

My final award does not go to one person, but to many, as this is my award of: (Don't take it by offence if you don't see your name here...just prove me wrong instead!)

Most likely student to be successful/get a media career:

Marcus Bonnick

Azz Mohammed

Natalie Pelling

Stevie Greaves

Tyrone Wright

Danielle Lee

Henry Gorse

So if you didn't see your name....Challenge accepted, right?

A Cry For Your Participation

2013-04-05T15:39:00.003-07:00

Long time no speak my friend, I would like to catch up, however I am in the middle of University work at the moment.

I would like to say that I am working hard on my last module, known as 'Independent Research Study', however I am not working as hard as I'd like to be.

Anyway long story short, I am in need of your responses to my questionnaire which I am conducting. It shouldn't take you too long to fill out, and your responses will be collated into various summaries which I will be using in my study. The subject is about TV advertising, which I'm sure you all have seen a TV advert before.

Anyway the link is here:

Your help in this would be greatly appreciated, and would be an indication that the Weekly Changy readers are not dead, and they are alive and well.

Much Love x

Will Return...

2012-11-17T14:33:00.002-08:00

Dear Reader

I apologise for the lack of posts in recent weeks.

Do not worry, it's not because I have fallen out with you, it is just I have been very ill for 1-2 weeks, I have so much going on, and so typing up a post takes too much time for me.

Weekly Changy Will Return.

Want to know why? Because I have so much to tell you...

Goodbye for now.

Chang: "Im An Idiot, for this."

2012-09-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone, the very very first thing to report to you is how bad I feel for not updating recent events, that have happened to me.

This is mainly because, when it comes to deciding to blog, you have to be in the mood to type out the events of yourself. For me, I have to be 'Feelin' it' to be able to report to you.

As you have probably guessed I have not been 'Feelin' it' for a while... there have been reasons, reasons you may not think qualify for not having your dosage of Weekly Changy but they are my reasons.

Whats really been taking my full attention away from the outside world is a game... Sounds pathetic right, but you know, this can happen to some people. I have been fully addicted to playing Tekkit. So much so, that I had (until recently) fallen behind on the basics of stuff that needed to be done. If you are reading this and you have ever been addicted to a game, you will know how it feels, at least this is a type of addiction that is not as harsh to my health as drugs or alcohol.

This is not the Tekkit mod, but this is/was also what was taking away my full attention. What your looking at right there an aerial picture of the town that is known as 'Arivia' on our multiplayer server on Minecraft. This was partially one of the main reasons for the lack of posts.

Tekkit is Minecraft, but with several Mods pre-installed. Often known as 'Minecraft 2', Tekkit takes Minecaft to the next level. With lots of more interesting items and machines and 'things' to do. One highlight is the introduction of the Nuke. Upon hearing that there is nukes on the game, Dave Collins had the need to do some research on this item, and this is his findings:

So to conclude his research, they make big holes... and there fun to use.

Now Ladies and Gents,

this next bit is in relation to the title of this post.

This is the first of three events to report to you. This event happened about 1 & 1/2 weeks ago, and to best tell you, I am not only going to tell you what I did, but also what I was thinking at the time, because this event was so crazy, I still remember it now.

I am in my house, playing on Fifa 12. The End...

Jokes, anyway there I was, I was all alone in the house as Abigail had returned home to Wednesbury for a couple of days. It was about 9:05pm.

I head upstairs to begin another session of Tekkit to ease my addiction, and to chat to Kenneth Barnett on Skype. I receive a text from Abigail, stating that she is going on a night out in Wednesbury/Walsall at 10pm and so on, Im about to start gaming until I remember that I wanted play some music files that were on my USB to Kenneth through Skype, I turn around and look in my bag but theres no sign of it. I think to myself of where I put it last or when I last saw it. If you have memory like me, you won't be able to find it by yourself, you'll have to have someone else look for you, because I am simply terrible at remembering where I put things and always need someone else to look for me.

Anyway all I can remember is that when I last got into my car to drive, the USB was around my neck on a lanyard. So I decide to go and have a look in the car.

Without gearing up for going outside, I simply just head to the door, because the car is right outside on the street. Since my house on a main road, I was cautious of leaving the door open whilst I am getting something out of my car, and so I open the door to see no one around, and I step out to my car.

Just so no one randomly looks in, I swing the door so the door won't look like it's open, as I pull it I turn around and go to unlock the car door. I hear a slam.... I look back around, and the door is fully closed.

I then murmur "Oh Shit."

So... In an instant, I begin thinking of different options of getting into the house.

House Keys?

Nope, didn't have them on me when I went out.

Any Windows open?

Yes only one, and that is the bathroom window, but it is on a lock. Also the window would be suitable to climb through if you were 20cm in height, but not any bigger.

Back door open?

Nope, locked.

Ring landlord... at 9:00pm at night?

Nope, didn't have them on me when I went out.

In total I did not have the following:

House keys

Phone

Wallet

Shoes

In total I did have the following:

Sufficient clothing

Car keys

What now?

I then thought of the options...

I could sleep in the car?

Nope, can't do that as I need to get back in the house the next day to get my packed belongings for Creamfields, and Abigail won't be

back in Derby until after Creamfields.

Stay at a Hotel for the night, then sort it in the morning?

Nope, can't do that as I have no money with me.

Ring Abigail and see if she has a good idea?

Nope, can't do that as I have no phone on me.

Drive to Wednesbury to get Abigail's keys?

Nope, can't do that as I didn't know the way there.

My last option was to drive to Kenneth's house and explain my situation. At this moment I do wonder if anyone saw me. I must have been just standing there for about 3 minutes just thinking/panicking. So I get in the car and drive, with no shoes, to Kenneth's house.

When getting there I explain the situation, and state that:

"Im an idiot, for this."

I manage to ring Abigail via Seon's phone, and ask if it would be possible to come and get her keys. With a yes, I also had to get there before 10:00pm for she was going out. Since I did not know how to get there, I was kindly able to print out directions, and acquire shoes, and a passenger, Kenneth Barnett.

We set off at 9:20pm from Derby to Wednesbury. What made this drive interesting is that we were going in the dark, and we were both going somewhere where we had no idea how to get to, and because of all the chatter, we missed 1 or 2 directions. This proved costly as (even to this day) we do not really know where we went. At some point we were driving through Walsall, noticing a lot of children out on the streets for reasons unknown. After 10pm we were still in progress of getting Abigail's house, we managed to see a sign that said Wednesbury, and so this eventually got us close enough to Abigail. After a phone call from her we managed to find her house.

When it came to finally arriving and greeting Abigail and her friends we then realised that there were no directions for getting back. So we took directions off Abigail once again to get onto the M6, which would be enough to get us home as I knew my way once on the M6, the only consolation was that it was a longer route. The rest is all history... as in the end, I got home eventually, at 11:50pm.

Morale of this?

Just don't get locked out of your house.

If your going outside for anything, always take your house keys.

The End.

Everything's Around The Corner.

2012-08-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

For this past week and a half, I can tell you that the majority of talk, thoughts, feelings and planning have gone into the coming weeks and months(and I guess other things on my mind).

What Im going through is what everyone goes through. The waiting stage. You plan something in advance, and once it is planned, all you do is wait for it, and throughout this stage, you find yourself doing the exact same things every week (or day) until the time comes for the event. Which generally is work, eat, sleep. Then occasionally you get play, eat, sleep. Now I don't know whether your pattern is similar to mine, but I do know that these similar patterns in motion can make your week(s) slow down so much it is at the pace of a slug. Only the strong, inspired, last minute, and creative ideas pull through to make the week more entertaining and quicker.

Celebrating the birth of James Chew was an inspired but not really last minute event in which made the week more entertaining.

Directed by James Chew, and Produced by Hannah Foley.

Photographed by Abigail Armstrong and featuring some A-listers such as :

James Chew

Harvey Brown

Kenneth Barnett

'Muzz Buzz'

Matt Damon

Hannah Foley

James Dye

Seon Kwak

Stephen Hawkins

Palmino Mercuri

Abigail Armstrong

And those two other guys who I mistakably cannot remember their names to save my life, if you were their and I missed your name leave a comment!

A night that saw interactions with Sourz, Jack Daniels, Desperados, Malibu, Budweiser Budvoir, and cake.

This event made the week go quicker, but now the week has now slowed down to pace where I look at the next events for me to enjoy and endure and I find that everything's around the corner.

And now, a message, to all of the past and future customers of Costco.

When you see the 'Extended Opening Hours on Sundays' notice,

Take note that its states '10:00am to 18:00pm.'

and that '18:00' does not mean 8pm, it means 6pm.

Relaxing trading hours on Sundays?

This relaxation on Sundays, relaxed in attempts for businesses to make more profit during the Olympics, now may be relaxed all together. This swift news that the Government are considering this has left multiple unions angry about it. I personally don't mind, and nor does Dave Collins as he has expressed his opinion in the past about this matter, however it seems it is only Dave Collins that I know, that agrees with relaxing Sunday trading hours. By the way Dave if your opinion has suddenly changed about this subject do tell me.

People that I know, completely refuse to work Sundays and they feel that they have the right to have every Sunday off all year round. But none of these people are in no way religious, so what makes Sundays such a ritual driven day for people not to go to work? Commitments? to see the kids? to do those 'chores'? can you not do that on any other day?

I leave you with that, if you like not working on Sundays then thats fair enough I do not mean to offend you, I just find it puzzling.

What Else?

2012-08-08T16:08:00.004-07:00

Everything is back normal.

By this I mean with the Internet back into my vains, and back into my new household, the usual time spent surfing the web is back to the way it was, is it a good thing? who knows, and with Internet usage back, this means my services on the web are now up to date.

Milestones

Looking at statistics on both Weekly Changy & the James Chang YouTube channel, turns out that I will be reaching 3000 views on the Weekly Changy soon, and I have now gone over 1000 views on the new-ish YouTube Channel, so it's all good online. Going through more digging on viewers, I found that the YouTube Channel is a lot more global. Viewers from Egypt, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore, Morocco, India, Hong Kong and many more. These regions haven't never viewed the Weekly Changy. Why Im stating all of this to you? I don't really know myself, Im just amazed at how small the world is.

At this moment in time, apart from right now as I am sitting on my computer chair typing one sentence at a time, pausing, staring, reading back at what's been typed, and continuing to type, this has been a partly relaxed and partly worked 1-2 weeks. The worked bit surprisingly, is the good bit. Not at my part time place that is, for you see, I have recently and finally got myself some work experience. Trying to get work experience (in my experiences) is almost as hard as trying to explain what Dr Thornthwaite works on everyday at his University (which is difficult). Finally getting this, I dream of the manager grabbing his assistant, pointing at me and state the following:

"Hey! That guy, that guy right there, find him, and hire him!"

A man can dream though, a man can dream.

This work experience excites me, and the upcoming festival Creamfields, also excites me. A festival that was (apart from the acts) terrible, because of the performance of the weather, and the extreme bad luck that myself, Dave Collins and Dr Thornthwaite received, made the festival smelly, muddy, wet and ...bad, a time where when it ended, I swore NEVER to do it again, or at least never camp again. Guess what Im doing for Creamfields?

This:

I will camp in a Tauntaun. It will be easier,

I can ride it, with all of my stuff on it,

and then kill it, and camp in it,

just like Luke Skywalker. By doing this,

I will have a better time than last year.

On a truthful note I will be camping again but in a bigger tent, from the last one. I didn't want to do it, but unfortunately I had no choice. This time it shall only be myself and Dave Collins. Dr Thornthwaite will not be joining us for this year, I sincerely hope for good weather, but I very much doubt it, if it at least doesn't rain as much, I will be satisfied. All year I have not really been looking forward to it, because of last year, but now the time is near, I am actually looking forward to it, regardless the events of last year. If you are going to Creamfields this year, I shall hope to see you there, most probably in deep mud.

P.S Whilst at Global Gathering, I noticed 2-3 camera operators in the Lucozade Yes Arena, so I wanted to get into the background, unfortunately I am not in the background much, only one side of my arm and torso. Dave Collins' face and arm is seen in the background, but it is Dr Thornthwaite, who takes the gold for background shot, with his entire upper body, right in the middle of the background, which is a perfect shot of him.

08:44-08:52 is our measly mini clip of us all,

on this program known as Summer Daze

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/summer-daze-with-blackberry/4od/

Hello World.

2012-08-04T10:18:00.002-07:00

Hibernation time is over for me and for the Weekly Changy. I must confess, hibernation time has actually been over for approximately a week and a half, but I have been busy working on a few things and so the Weekly Changy was left untouched, until now.

My full time without Internet was approximately 3 weeks. Yep, 3 weeks, if any of you have lasted longer, I salute you. These past 3 weeks, were not too bad, but doing everyday things that you would do on the Internet, you had to do the 'old fashioned' way, if you can call it that.

3 weeks without Internet? What did I miss the most?

Everyday I would wake up and turn my computer on, and this is what I would see in the top right corner of my screen. It's not the greatest thing to look at to be fair, but it just meant what to do on my computer was limited.

If you think about what you do personally in your life, how much of it revolves around the Internet? For me it would be banking, emailing, social networking, chatting on skype (not often some may argue), downloading, uploading, blogging, listening, watching, keeping informed, gaming, updating and finally staring at Kenneth Barnett's photos for 3 hours. All of that Internet activity, disappears for 3 weeks.

If you were to ask me, "what did you miss the most?" you may think, out of all of those activities it would be staring at Kenneth Barnett's photos for hours on end, but it wasn't.

On a serious note what I missed the most was the social networking, when having the Internet, you can keep close contact with loads of people over social networks, and because of this easy instant access, there was sometimes not a need to even socialise (as sad as it sounds) because you can always find out what people are up to. Without this access, you have to resort to other ways of communication, like text messaging and phone calls, but I find that people communicate like that when the recipients are very close to them. So being without this access wanted me to catch up with people, that I haven't spoken to in a while.

I must admit, seeing this again in the top right corner feels very good, and the feeling can be summed up in one sentence: "Hello World."

"But, But you said you were doing things whilst you had no Internet?"

This is true, I cannot fully remember what I mentioned in the previous post, but I mainly remember it being something about music making. I can tell you that I am still at it, its been fun making music to be fair, using Ableton Live. Throughout this random music messing, I have concluded, that when it comes to making tracks, I can only either make synths for a track, or the beats. For some reason, I cannot put the two together to save my life, I have tried, but the two I want to put together, just never go together. Ive gone through a few lessons, but not enough to say I can work Ableton. My recordings are no way near completion to a point where I can post them on here, sorry.

Global Gathering 2012.

So as you may or may not know, Global Gathering 2012 was on Friday and Saturday (27th & 28th of July). If you went then you will know how good the weather was and how lucky we all were to have such good weather.

My report starts with the wake up call of my alarm (which reluctantly was Abigail coming in from work) at 5am. Dr Thornthwaite, sleeping in the spare bedroom, was eventually woken up 30 mins later. When we hit the road it was approximately 6:20am. Not bad timing, we drive all the way down the Stratford Upon Avon, and didn't manage to see many people heading in the same direction. When getting there, at about 8:34am there was only a handful of people here before us, like in this picture above. I would go off by saying there was about 150+ there when we arrived, when it came to letting people in at 10:15am, yep that's right, this was the queue behind us:

Inspecting this image now, it doesn't look like there's as much people, but there was. When getting in, we head to the very nice, big, open, non muddy, campsite. Myself and Dr Thornthwaite engaged in construction of my tent, and after approximately 30 minutes:

Of course when it came to having camp set up, the best thing to do is to socialise with the people that are around you. The people you can see in the picture were a group of nice people from Barnsley. The tent to the right of this picture were 3 guys who were also nice guys, and the 2 guys in front of us were not English, I think they were either Polish or Russian. When taking this picture, I was standing on a pile of hay. This pile of hay was great for jumping on, diving on, lying on, sitting on, and drinking on, and eventually socialising on. Because we had a mound of hay to sit on right outside our tent, we had a few people come and talk to us. So morale of that? bring hay to boost socialising.

The next bit that happened, I do not have any pictures of or videos to show you.... Because from 11:05am to approximately 16:30pm I got very drunk, Dr Thornthwaite and I got very hungry, we went and got food, and by food, I mean the meatiest sandwich known to man, which was like meaty cocaine for someone that was very drunk:

After this god-like sandwich, we went back to the tent (I think) and I passed out. Now when it comes to going on night's out, and festivals, usually I mention Dave Collins in my posts, and If you were wondering, He did go to this festival, but had to work in the morning and so he arrived around 17:30pm, after I woke up (kind of sobered up) and me and Dr Thornthwaite were in the main festival area.

With the geek team assembled, what followed was long lovely rave.

*Catch all of the Video Highlights on my YouTube Channel*:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk_nWaz_ntZ8L7Hv46vXI-w?feature=results_main

'Summer'rising' Global Gathering 2012

You know when you go somewhere and you find it amazing, and when you go back you find it wasn't as good as the first time you went? This was not the case for this years Global Gathering. 2011 Global Gathering was amazing, and Global Gathering 2012 was equally amazing.

The top 3 highlights that made the festival were:

3. All the booze I got in.

2. The Meaty Cocaine Sandwich.

1. The Weather.

The top 5 live acts that I saw (In my opinion) were:

5. Armin Van Buuren.

4. Funkagenda.

3. Mat Zo.

2. Above & Beyond.

1. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.

I didn't know what to expect from T.E.E.D, but I found each track trippy, different, creative, inspiring, and beautiful. I will definitely be going to see him again.

*To Reiterate, look up the video highlights of these acts on my channel, because its better quality than these little 'peep holes' on my blog:*

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk_nWaz_ntZ8L7Hv46vXI-w?feature=results_main

Hibernation Time

2012-07-07T08:12:00.001-07:00

Right now I want to tell you a million things to report to you right this instant, but the thing is I cant.

This will probably be the shortest post ever, but that's because I do not have much time.

Very briefly, I report to you not in my new house, but in the University Library, and if you are reading this whilst in the Kedleston library I bid thee hello!

My main announcement for this post that the Weekly Changy will be going into hibernation for a while. Not because I have nothing to say, but merely because of the new property that I have moved into. The new property is very nice! but like I was concerned in the previous post, I would be without Internet for a couple of days. This is not the case unfortunately. I have set up a new broadband with a company that will not be named, but they tell me that the earliest time to install my landline and set up my broadband will be the Monday 3rd September. Yep, you guessed, a long time. As chilling as that may sound, I am pleased to tell you that I have not gone insane yet. The next few weeks/months will be incredibly testing for me.

Having no internet does things to you. Your less informed about events around the world, and the people in your life. I mean just ask Dave Collins, when he had no internet for a couple of days he ended up watching every single Harry Potter film in one day, and that was just in one day.

There is light at the end of the tunnel

Yes I may be in a situation where a lot of you reading this would not like to be in, and would be terrified in thinking what else you could do, however I have been blessed with being virtuous.

As previously stated, I was going to be working on a track, but I also mentioned being heavily distracted by many other things that involved using the Internet. Now that I have no Internet, all I have at the moment is music, and music making. So ladies and gents, it gives me great pleasure to announce that I am back on track with making music, so much so that I am on course to make more than one track. It is unknown when I will be finished, but hopefully round about the time I receive Internet. So in my final last words I bid thee goodbye for now, and I shall speak to you all in September.

Have a Lovely Summer.

Weekly Changy, x

Weekly Changy Moves Location.

2012-06-26T14:43:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone...

After gazing into space, biting my fingers and wondering what to say I've finally thought of something.

So for the past week and a half or so, I have been ferociously busy with my time. Once again I am on another deadline, but this is not a deadline for handing university paperwork, this is a deadline to get all of my things out of the house before I become homeless for approximately 24 hours, and then I will be moving into my new temporary home for the final year of University.

As you may have guessed, I have yet to pack away the exact device that I am using to type this post away into it's box. Im going to do this on the last day to be honest. 1 or 2 days ago, 'me bird' Abigail asked me:

"Are you nervous about moving in?"

At the time I said no, which is true, I've done this twice before so I am not nervous. As spectacularly pathetic as this sounds I am more concerned at the fact that I may be without the Internet and the Web for more than 24 hours. Seriously, turn around right now. Now look left, then right, then up and down and where ever else you have not looked... Do you see it? Of course you don't, its Wifi (and 3G if you like). It's just there, and almost everyone is dependent on it nowadays, this is what I can relate of it:

"The Force (or Wifi in my case) is what gives a Jedi (you) his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Now can you tell me what this quote tells us? ... Yep you guessed it, Obi-Wan Kenobi, invented the Internet.

For approximately 1.3 seconds I got excited, reason being is that the next post will be in the new house, new room, new desk, new ideas? who knows. What is exciting me a lot lot lot lot more at the moment is that it's 5 weeks to go until Global Gathering 2012 kicks off. The festival that I have been looking forward to all of last and this year, ever since it ended last year. With my YouTube channel up and running, expect lots of coverage at the festival. Which reminds me, the rest of this post will be dedicated to my very late report of the night 'Digital Society Presents Full on Ferry'.

Full on Ferry - Leeds

The actual day of this event was a specific day where there was no way of me getting out of work, and so the usual Sunday 6:30am wake up for work was the beginning of the day. Boring work came and went. My next task was rush home, grab my gear that I had prepared the night before, and rush to the train station to catch a 1h 48m train ride straight to Leeds. I am pleased to report that I did actually manage to get that train and was in Leeds at 19:07pm. A city where I had never been before.

If I can give any advice to someone that has never been to Leeds, and are getting a train there, the advice is this: Do not create any litter, because there is no bin to be seen, not anywhere in the train station, nor outside. I don't know whether it was just me but I could not find one anywhere.

I arrive at the hotel with precision timing. So nothing to do but wait for Dave Collins and Dr Thornthwaite to arrive at the hotel, becuase Dave had the room res'. After 30-35 minutes of waiting they arrive, and in style. I do not have a picture of what Dave looked like but picture this: Adam Jensen with a wooly jumper and a back pack. Dave looked so good, that Dr Thornthwaite had to rapidly create a black hole in the lobby to suck in the girls that were trying to grab Dave's face to suck it and to engage in intercourse with him.

Moving along now. Got ready. Went out:

These were the scenes at Full on Ferry. Not bad considering I got my ticket for free.

I am not always a believer of VIP, when it comes to nightclubs and night outs, however I was the competition winner for the event, and so very luckily I got 2 free VIP tickets. What I was really impressed with when it came to VIP at this event, was the exclusive bar, with very little queue's, and the toilets. For once no one was in the toilets to do drugs, which I was surprised with. To top it all off was the incredible view we had when it came to having a time out from all the raving.

...I have just looked at the content I got from the event. Turns out I have more video content than pictures, which means these videos will eventually wind up on YouTube on my channel so keep a look out.

Get Out, Stress Out, Get In, Pack Out, Relax In

2012-06-12T09:12:00.002-07:00

I don't know whether I use the phrase:

'It's that time of the year again.'

But I feel that I use it too often, and so I

would like to announce that I will be using it

for the introduction of this new post.

Here we go.

It's that time of the year again. Like lots of University students, your all preparing for the same mother nature occurrence that shifts us all from one hibernating ground to another. The random adjective jibberish I speak of is moving out time is upon us. To pack all of your things and get out of your hole, your ground, your hiding place, your sanctuary, your hell pit, or quite possibly your temporary home.

Some of you may be feeling relieved to be moving out, others may be annoyed, others may be horny. Whatever emotion you feel, you must all think one similar thing, and that is:

Do you not think it's gone fast?

I actually remember the first day I moved into the house that I am currently inside right now typing this post up. A very hectic day as lots of different things were happening all at different times in the day, for instance, being at the agency office at 9am to pick up the keys and pay the top up rent, going to collect the van with all of our belongings on the drive of the old house. Transport the van to the new house which was probably the most difficult driving job I have ever had to do to date. Then to literally throw everything into the new house, race the van back before 12 or 11, then get a cab back to the new house, unpack a little, get ready for work, then get to work for 12:30.

I find that you do not just take your belongings with you, but you take the memories as well. The top five things I remember are:

Being sick in the toilet and to have Kenneth Barnett Laugh at me as he is lying in the bath tub laughing, unaware that later on he could not get out, because of his alcohol levels.

Waking up in the morning to have learned that I had vomited on the wall of my room, partially the landing floor, and parts of the toilet due to a heavy drinking session.

Testing out walking up the stairs whilst looking through a floppy laptop glass thing.

Wanting to go to bed around 5am after drinking in the living room with Kenneth Barnett, with him being unable to function his limbs and flopping around on my bed like turtle on its back, saying statements that he had previously stated 20mins ago.

Attempting to kill a wasp that entered my room, and hitting over 10 times with a Dj-mag. I assure you this was in self defence.

P.T.O

New subject now, for I must ask an open minded question. When I was recently in work, one of the morning staff, was asking me about my University work and what I do. Upon telling him we got into a discussion over Ethics. He believes that your own Ethics is precious and easily manipulated, which I agreed. What made the discussion more interesting is that he also believes, to this day, that pursuing any professional career will harm his Ethics and the way he views the world, which is something that he does not want, and so that is his explanation for not pursuing professional careers.

I quote:

"You know, in that sort of industry (media), people will tell you what to do, how to think, Im not the person dya know what I mean? I will still be the same through out, no one can change me, if it's wrong in my eyes it's wrong, I won't do it."

My question (or argument against this if you like) is that surely where ever you work your Ethics will be altered in a way you will think differently of the world and of people?

Everybody has a different build up of Ethics as a child, but from birth your Ethics have been constantly altering in the way you think, so why stop? Is it bad?

I did ask him this, but our discussion was disrupted so I never got a answer to it.

Ladies & Gentlemen.

May I have your attention please.

In the previous post I was detailing my personal work that I am still currently going through. It has been a long winded task, not exactly difficult but none the less, long. This is not finished, but it has come to the stage where I can reveal what it is. I introduce to you all, My new YouTube Channel, known as what would have been the 'Iwas There' Channel, but Google does not like this so it has to be known as the 'James Chang YouTube Channel'...Oh well.

What's on it?

Well this new YouTube Channel holds an archive of clubbing event highlights, from the past 2 years. This is what I like to call it, you on the other hand, may interpret it as me yelling a lot on lots of different content on the channel. Interpret it as you like but that is what the channel is for.

Ever wanted to go to a clubbing event but never attended?

Want to see what happened?

Check it out!

P.S I would rather you go on YouTube and look at this introduction video as the screen width is better than this little peep hole.

Next Time on Weekly Changy (If I remember)

I'll report to you about this event:

Taking A Look Outside The Semester.

2012-05-30T06:45:00.001-07:00

Time is fascinating. I am not going to talk about how time is relevant though, because that would need a Nuclear Physicist, a Dave Collins and a Kenneth Barnett.

What I mean is how when you have your full devotion and attention on getting your work done for the semester, a lot of other events outside of University work, get by that you may not be aware of or you only hear snippets of, but you do not have the time to find out all of the news or gossip if you can call it that.

Im sure you may feel the same if you have ever been through a university semester. I can best relate it to going into hibernation.

If you actually know me through college, high school, or even university, I can bet some big news has happened to you or someone close to you, that I may not even know about because I have not seen or spoken to you for a while, and it has taken me till now to realise how many different events have happened around the people I know. Time particularly fascinates me when I see people now from when I last saw them.

Some great highlights of what Im talking about is events such as:

My brother, whom obtained another Job, at Armani. When I last saw him he wasn't very far into his job at Next, which I hear he was doing well, but not giving him enough hours that he wanted.

My 2nd elder sister, getting another job at Ralph Lauren. I last saw her work for a clothing line in John Lewis, which she had not been there long either.

An old friend from high school, Kim Bushell, getting married. I last saw her when I was 16, when I didn't even know what Blogger was, when I was working for my father. Now she is married and going on a honeymoon.

My brothers old friend George Thompson, whom I last saw when I was in high school, when I was approximately 14. Thinking back hard enough, I remember last seeing him on the school field playing football. Now he's in the army.

His brother, Jack Thompson, another old old friend whom I also last saw in high school, back when I was roughly 15. He now is a Father.

My eldest sister, who recently did the Race for Life. I last saw her when taking part in a charitable cause was just not for her, but from when I last saw on her donation page, she had received 106% over her target, and did well in the race.

My high school drama class group member, Daniel Moss. I last saw him back in high school when I was around 15 years old. I would notice on various occasions of him rapping to music. Now he is a rapper, professionally known as Mossy.

A friend from college, Colm Melarkey. I last saw him in Chester fairly drunk a year ago. He is now the world's strongest millionaire.

Thats all that I can think of at the moment, but I am sure there is more that I am unaware of. Oh yes, and one of the events there is fake, but I bet you cannot guess which one. Im sure this may be a similar case to yourself, ask yourself, what has happened to the people around you?

The discovery of a New Sanctuary.

There comes a time where you get so angry and so stressed out, you just want to get away from it all, or just possible get away from a city. Well for me, I would personally leave the country for a bit, if I had the money and the time, but I cannot. Instead I find that going to peaceful relaxing places where I can relax and deeply thinking about general stuff and plan for the future works well to calm myself down. For other people you may have different tactics, or different places to go, or different things to do, but for me, this is it.

That up there is Elvaston Castle. and these are pics of the massive park/gardens/forests that are apart of the castle grounds.

I would say that this is not the only place I enjoy going to get away from everything. Back home my ideal location for me to get away would be Eccleston Forest, which is not very far from Chester city centre, but is quite remote and a relaxing place.

Previously on Weekly Changy

Yes previously I remember using the last bit of my post to tell you how inspired I felt, and that I felt like producing a song. Well I am pleased to tell you that I am still on course for doing so, has been a bit of a struggle, but I am still on it. There are other projects that I am working on at the moment though, which has made the song creating be pushed into a queue of different things I have to do.

My current project that I am doing is a long winded task, but that is running smoothly at the moment, but is not finished yet. I can imagine it will be finished in possibly a month, so I will let you all know soon what it is and where I am up to with it from now to then. Further more the song creating will be taking longer as I am also attempting to learn the software to make it, because I want to do it right, instead of messing around with it in general.

In the meantime I will leave you with this track that I am loving at the moment:

Common Sense & Finishing Lines

2012-05-18T05:10:00.004-07:00

Here you see what I see when handing in my work. This glorious yellow slip of paper, is the signifier of completion of your module. However this is not the end of University work. No, there is still more to do believe it or not. As for the majority of other students, they have finished for the year, in which you may notice that they will be contacting you, asking how you have been, because they have not had the chance to socialise to you because of the semester.

If you wonder why your friend in University is not talking to you, it may not be the fact that they do not like you, it is because they are nearing the end of a semester. So socialising gets thrown out of the window. Socialising, is the one to go first from the student. Socialising is the crew member wearing the red shirt in Star Trek.

What you see there, is the completion of the following modules: Television Production, Media Ethics, Media Research Project and New Media Production. I am not going to lie, but this semester has been one of the toughest semester's of my entire University life. Emotionally straining, Stressfully straining and time straining.

What about Radio Production?

To really test university work stamina, is to go through all of that, and to go and complete one more module... Just, one, more. James Chew, Marcus Bonnick and myself, have to march back into Markeaton Campus, and get back to it. As I sit here and wonder, I wonder why after working on harder modules, is it harder to even think about doing this module. It is to re-produce a 30-minute radio programme. Why so hard? Here's why:

Not because of work of course, because that is where this was taken. But because of the beginning of summer. Throughout the spring semester, when doing work, I look to the right of my desk and there is a window, and 97.999999999% of the time, there is bad weather happening outside, which makes me think: "huh, well there's clearly nothing for me to do outside, better carry on with work, derp." but now, seeing beautiful weather outside, its very tempting to put everything down, stop everything, and go do something entertaining that you want to do, I mean after all, lots of work has been completed now right? but there is still one more to do....

Common Sense?

Yes, common sense, the ultimate thing some people lack of, and to be fair, I have limited supplies of this common sense. Your probably wondering what common sense has to with this post? I'll tell you right after you finish reading this sentence, you finished yet? oh come on! hurry up! you done? not yet? okay well let me know when your done. Okay anyway this blog has got more common sense. This is because I have readers from other countries, and they visit my blog, bringing along their language, and where is the use of reading someone's blog if it is not in your dialect? Now blogger has implemented Google Translate! I have not tried it yet, however now, all of you people that have read my blog numerously from various places such as Russia, Germany, and France, you may now read what I have to say in your language now, Yay.

What now?

With most of university work done now, with just one more to do, what are you going to do with the rest of the summer Changy?

When riding along the university semester, there comes various times where I think of personal stuff for me to do. Stuff that I want to do to make me a better individual in the specified industry, or just long personal projects that I want to begin planning or working on for the future, or just work on stuff that I think will be fun or just because I feel like it. I am sure that I am not the only one reading this that feels the same way, and I say the summer is a great time to do it, and that I support you in doing so. It takes inspiration for everyone to do something. For me at the moment, I feel inspired to make a song. As sad as it sounds it is because of Deadmau5's new song, 'The Veldt'. As sad as it sounds but some songs inspire me to work on something.

I'll Leave you with that.