Hello everyone

So following on from the last video about communication and more importantly the ways in which I communicate.

In the last post I asked people what they would like to see more of in 2012. When I asked I began thinking about the sort of answers I would receive and in honesty my assumptions were confirmed. People want more media.

People want more video and audio and that suits me just fine. However I don’t want it just to be constrained to just myself and not even to my personal site. That’s right folks, Adam has ambitions.

Moving on from that, for my next call out I want to hear from creative people with the ability to make video / audio. Im mainly looking for people with an interest in Nursing and Student Nursing to possible help out with a secret project. I wish I could got into more detail about things but it’s still at such an early stage.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in and you have just a couple of hours a week spare (if that) then please get in contact with me using any method of connivence.

Those being Twitter (@AdamRoxby), YouTube (youtube.com/timlivid), email (Contact page), phone (07960520975).

I look forward to hearing from you.

So this is all about making the work that i produce in 2012 (not only my personal stuff but the work for the Nursing Times) more relevant that the people that want it.

I hope you all had a great christmas and a fantastic new year and I look forward to reading the results of the survey and getting back to you with the findings.

Speak to you then

Here are a couple of mine. So, do you remember a little while back there was a television program that tried to show you in very graphic terms what each of us uses and consumes during an average lifetime? Well don’t worry, I’m not going that extreme but that got me thinking. I have a tendency to spend money on things and then wonder where on earth all of my disposable income went. I have tried in the past to maintain a fairly standard accounts book with no success. I have tried mobile applications and online web tools to track my spending but even that seems to be too much effort for me to partake in. So, strangely I’ve decided to do something that takes more effort than all of those combined. From January to January I intend to keep a log of every purchase I make, how much its cost and where I got it from. This way I will be out to see just how much I’m spending on different things. The reason why I am going into such extreme levels of micromanagement is because in the past I would go to a cash machine and take out £40 but then it will be spent on things for which I have no recollection of. Thus defeating the purpose of keeping track of your accounts. I mean, what’s the point of having an accounts book which lists £10 taken out of this cash machine and another £20 taking out at another if I have no idea what that money was actually spent on?
Also a another reason why I am going into such detail is that I have become somewhat addicted to writing reviews on everyday products and posting them on websites. These websites (listed below) not only keeps my writing skills up to scratch but I also get a slight financial incentive if there any good. So maybe that’s the secret, to keeping a coherent accounts book at least, it’s a financial incentive.

Thinking about other resolutions that I want to keep. There’s always 3-D generic one of wanting to look after myself a bit more. I started going to my local gym which certainly makes me feel a lot better but I have no illusion that im not going nearly enough as I should do in order to see any real benefits from it so in 2012 that needs to be stepped up.. However I think the main thrust is going to be organisational. I want to have a daily routine that obviously allows me to enjoy myself but at the same time be able to maintain my spending log.

So that’s basically it. I look forward to hearing some of your stories.

• DooYou Review
• Ciao Reviews

It’s been a little while since I made any videos and indeed any updates to my site. The main reason being due to my Uni work but also the fantastic responce to the ‘Student Nursing Times’.

I hope you all get a chance to support that site and let me know what you tihink of my work.

In the mean time I wanted to give you a breif video showing some of the water saving products I had been given a couple of months back.

Enjoy.

 

I thought I would take the time to give you another behind the scenes look at my involvement with the ‘Student Nursing Times’. I have written an article for the site that explains the process of writing so keep an eye of for that.

Over the weekend I came back from town with the smartest suit I have ever worn (maybe with the exception of my Wedding suit). This is because I have the privilege of being invited to the Nursing Times Award 2011 at the Hilton Hotel this Wednesday.

It’s going to be a fantastic experience, not only will I be attending the ceremony, enjoying the celebrations I will be there as the Student Editor which means I will be roving with my camera trying to capture all the action for the site and YouTube channel (youtube.com/StudentNursingTimes).

There will be VIP’s abound as well as the staff of the Nursing Times (I’m sure they would contest that it’s one in the same).

So keep an eye on the Student Nursing Times (www.studentnursingtimes.net) for my full report and i’ll speak to you all again really soon.

• Nursing Times Award 2011

I have just started my second year at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford doing a Diploma in adult nursing. The academic side of a university education was always something I was dreading but when I completed my first essay (a mental health module) I was rather pleased with it. It didn’t get the highest mark possible but I thought it was worth seeing if anyone would share my views on its quality. It was then that I noticed in my copy of the ‘Nursing Times’ that they accepted articles from nurses. I knew it would be a long shot, but would they accept an article from a student?

I contacted them and they responded asking if I could send an article about mental health from a students perspective. I did this and to my surprise they asked for another article (I chose the subject this time; social networking) which I dutiful sent.

The second article was a clincher, the ‘Nursing Times’ wanted to know if I would be willing to write a regular blog for them. How could I say no?! I kept this exciting news mostly to myself because I have know from past experience never to get excited about things that may not transpire.

So it was that I found myself feeding weekly articles to the ‘Nursing Times’ for a new site to be launched focussing on Student Nurses and relating issues. This continued until I sent an article about my love of donating blood. Apparently this article stood out and they wanted to publish it straight away. That moment made it all real and I had something to show friends and family.

I kept on submitting articles ready for the launch of the site as well being involved in some of the other features (like the ‘Nursepedia’ that is on the site). It was then that they asked if I wanted to be the Student Editor? In essence I would write my blog, maintain and foster the community while the actual ‘Nursing Times’ staff would maintain overall control, as you would expect.

On it’s launch, my first article was published welcoming users to the site. At the same time I made a YouTube video showing some of the features. This led to the creation of the SNT YouTube channel (YouTube.com/StudentNursingTimes). I also Tweet every day (@AdamRoxby) for this site and the STN (@studentNT). I also have to respond to the comments that people make on the articles and as the site grows in popularity that’s getting more and more important.
It is extra work, but I’m immensely proud to be involved and hearing the positive comments of others really helps.

This article was written and published exclusively using my Apple iPhone. Which is why I am genuinely saddened at the death of Apple founder, Steve Jobs.

I don’t write obituaries, but I want to say that Apple products and their accessible technology have enabled me to do what do despite my dyslexia.

From one crazy one to another, you will be missed.

Steve Jobs, 1955 -2011

I know I have been silent for a while but I’m sure you can appreciate just how busy I have been recently. As part of my duties for Friends of the Earth I hosted a very successful film screening in Harwich last week but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about.

As you can probably guess from the title the brand-new ‘Student Nursing Times’ has been launched with great fanfare. In fact you can barely move on the NursingTimes.net website without hearing about it. This is the semisecret project that I will have been working on for the past couple of months so now that it is up and running I thought I would take a few minutes just to explain my own involvement.

I am the Student Editor and I will have a weekly blog on the site. This is free to access and mainly contains opinion and commentary. As well as my blog I will be choosing my favourite article from the site and putting that on the front page is part of the editor’s picks section. I will of course be responding to comments as well as interacting with forum users. I take part in the live chats that the site organises with interesting people and professionals and this also means that my twitter account now has a lot more content coming out on the subject of nursing and student nursing. The nursing encyclopaedia (dubbed the ‘nursepedia’) which I have been working on has been published. It is clearly far from complete but hopefully it will grow organically from suggestions and contributions from the readers. I am thinking of weekly poll questions to ask the site visitors and finally I have set up a new YouTube channel (user/StudentNursingTimes) where the first video can be seen below.

So what does that mean for my blog here at Optical-Minefield? Well I still intend to keep this space as an area where I can not only tell you about developments within my own life but to inform you of some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ stuff that goes on with the various different projects that I’m involved with. Obviously I want to encourage you to get fully involved with the Student Nursing Times in all the different ways that you can but most of all I want to find out your opinions. We’re clearly not making it just for our own satisfaction and if there’s any way that we can make it more interesting, more relevant, more informative or more enjoyable than I would love to hear about it.

So please have a look at the video, take a look at the site and let me know what you think and speak to you all again really soon.

Just a quick video to let you know what I am doing. This is in part a response to a question I received through YouTube but I thought I would take the time to address some other issues.

Take care and i’ll speak to you really soon.

In celebration of their 40th anniversary, Friends of the Earth has been featuring 40 campaigners who exemplify their  commitment to environmental campaigning. among the celebrities like KT Tunstall and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is yours truly!

The rather snazzy picture that went along with the article was taken by freelance photographer Charles Glover and an exhibition of his work with Friends of the Earth will be unveiled at the 2011 Local Groups Conference in Nottingham. There are still places available and booking for the event closes on 9 august. I would encourage everybody to attend the local groups conference and you can book online by visiting the site at the bottom of the page.

I would of course encourage you all to read the original article, but thanks once again to everybody at Friends of the Earth for this recognition and here’s to another 40 years of excellent campaigning.

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• Original Article
• 2011 Local Group Conference Booking Form
• Charles Glvoer’s portfolio site.

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The hour-long documentary takes a very personal and in my view respectful investigation into the choices that people make about death and how they decide to end their lives.

The documentary follows Terry Pratchett (who announced in 2007 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s) where he examines the choices of two individuals. One is Andrew, a young man who is in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the other is Peter who is a 71-year-old man who has motoneuron disease.

I’m not going to do a complete rundown of what happened in the programme because I think enough has been said about it. I do think that the documentary should be used to raise the issue again in this country of the legality and ethics of a person making the decision when to end their lives.

I have in the past written for the Nursing Times about the tendency for modern documentaries to become even more shocking and stark in their dictation of death and dying, however I feel that in this case it was of course necessary to see the journey through to the end. It was all done very respectfully and without the sort of sensationalising that could of reduced the sterling effort of the documentary conducted by the previous 50 min into a tabloid style outlandishness.

I was really comforted to see the sheer level of dignity that Peter and his wife displayed throughout the entire procedure. In some way I found that to be the most disturbing aspect of the whole documentary and while I am used to witnessing the final moments of life it still never fails to have an impact and each time is a unique and emotional incident.

Unfortunately the documentary is no longer available to be viewed on the BBC iplayer but I have made it available here for you to view. I look forward to hearing your own comments.

“I was in the presence of the bravest man I have ever met.” Sir Terry Pratchett