Activities Overflow

This is week is shaping up to be an exceptional one here in Aston. The societies in uni have definitely made an effort to bring enough events to keep us busy all week.

First and foremost we have RAG week 2 kicking off today. Assuming you don't know what Aston RAG is, it is the Aston Student Guild's official charity society. RAG stands for 'Raise and Give', thus, the society organises and takes part in all types of collections and events to try and raise money for charity. Some of the events that the RAG society holds include a Hitchike to Dublin, project work in Uganda, Freshers Ball, Movember, Relay for Life, Christmas dinner, Ladies and Gentlemans Night, and many more, including the RAG weeks.

This RAG week is, essentially, a week of events the proceeds of which all go to charity. The current RAG week is kicking off today with the Apocalypse pub crawl. A mammoth of an even starting at the Arcadian (with buses ruining from the Guild all night) and finishing at Oceana. Then Tuesday, a B4 pub quiz; Wednesday - Silent Disco; Thursday - Comedy Night; and Friday - the closing night, a fancy dress party at Gatecrasher. (for more details check http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186613851372636&index=1)

In addition to RAG week we have the Cinema club projecting Wall-E on Tuesday. The Aston Triangle Cinema Club, as it is officially called, has been created in order to put on high quality and interesting films from around the world for the benefit of Aston staff, students and alumni. The series feature some films you have seen, some you haven’t and others you probably won't even have heard of with the emphasis on films which open our eyes to different cultures. Expect some more info on the Cinema Club soon, as it is definitely a society that needs to be noted.

Just to make this week even more interesting, the Aston entrepreneurs society presents the Apprentice Week, a 3-day event consisting of exciting tasks adapted from BBC's The Apprentice. From Wednesday 2nd until Friday 4th March, teams of 3-6 people will compete against each other in a variety of exciting Apprentice style challenges. The first challenge - Sales - designed to measure the team's salesmanship, or the society says, they're taking business back to basics; teams will compete against each other to make the highest amount of money possible. The second challenge - Negotiation - testing the one's purchasing skills as teams compete against each other to find, negotiate and purchase some very unusual items. The last challenge - Marketing - takes it up a notch as the teams will have to launch their own special beer brand; they will be responsible for creating a taste, type and brand of beer with the best one getting made and stocked in B4 bar!

So get ready, Aston, for a week to remember!

Valentines Day hits the Aston Campus

This week I am writing from the place to be, the podium of the Great Hall. It is incredible how you can just walk in when it is empty and just observe the details of this mammoth of a lecture theatre.

Anyway, I should not get distracted from the main purpose of this post and it is to share with you the experience that is Valentines Day on the Aston Uni campus. Whether you like Valentine’s , hate it, or just don't care it always ends up being pretty much a big deal.

For me, personally, the upside of Valentine’s is that whether you are single or in a relationship, you do always spend it with the people you care about; either bitter single friends, or the person you share a romantic relationship with. However, I do think that there is a downside to Valentine’s, and it is the commercialization of the holiday. The amount of cr*** that is being sold as gifts is overwhelming. It seems like any shop that is selling any product tries to squeeze the romance out of Valentine’s to make a profit. That is why I was amazed at the brilliant ideas that the Aston students came up with to not make money but rather give back to society.

There were several charitable activities going on on Valentine’s that were extraordinary. First, there was a group of students that would charge a wildly insignificant amount (and donate to a charity after) to sing a romantic (or other) song to your loved one. Just imagine hearing the door bell and as you open the door three people start singing "I Will Always Love You"; hilarious!

Then there was a flower delivery desk. Situated on the ground floor of the guild there was an improvised flower shop that would for the mere amount of 2.5 pounds deliver a rose with a card to you valentine's door. I didn't really have a valentine this year (Oh) but since the money goes for charity this is a great way to make a donation and at the same time make your friends feel special. So, I went to the desk and asked if I can send three roses (Sure!), to three different people (Huh?), that live on the same address (Huh?). My logic was simple, I get my improvised valentines in one room and sit them down to wait for their roses. This would save the deliverer's time and I would not have to coordinate three people to be home at a certain hour.

Well, my mates had a laugh and this just proves that whether you hate Valentine’s, love it, or just don't care, you can make a donation to someone in need and make someone happy with one simple walk to the guild ground floor.

Astonbury 2011 (update)

Everybody's talking about...

Uni vs. Long Distance

Every year thousands of young souls flee the parent nest and join the Aston uni community. They come from all corners of the world, hopeful and eager to start four (or three, depending on the course) character-shaping years of their life. Unfortunately, every person has emotional baggage; whether it's unresolved father/mother issues, self-esteem problems, [blank for adding own personal issues when reading this post], or, and this is the worse, a long distance relationship.

You must have heard it a million times but let me say it once again - long distance does not work - and I shall not use the boring arguments that other "wise" men use, instead let me tell you what you will miss out on whilst sitting in front of skype and waiting for your beloved to answer:

• new friends (from new cultures, speaking new languages, having interesting stories, etc., etc., etc., you get my point)
• sports - we do have a club for essentially every sport that exists (and if we don't, creating one is a piece of cake, and a piece of cake that you will have plenty of help with eating)
• social gatherings - there are enough social clubs in Aston to fill up every night of your stay
• nights out - come on, every day I get countless flyers and FB invites, and if I don't, my friends do and let me know (again, you get the idea)
• academic work - do you know how many chapters for my Financial Accounting Class (that I failed) I could have read for the time gullible young me spent sitting in front of skype and chatting with my soon-to-be-ex girlfriend.
• part-time work - duh! Developing your CV, Aston uni Job shop assisting you with doing that; do these things ring a bell?
• volunteering - I bet that all the people I could have helped volunteering would have been more grateful for the time spent with them than my, well, same soon-to-be-ex girlfriend
• basic human needs - do eating and sleeping ring a bell? (especially sleeping)
• travelling - there are so many opportunities for travel and I am talking cheap student travel; the kind of travel you will be jealous of when you graduate because it is biggest bargain ever!
• and there is so much more [blank to add own dream since it is most likely possible to complete within the four years in Aston]

When I look back at my uni life I see a pool of amazing memories, time well spent with new friends, satisfaction from well earned marks, and loads of new experiences. I am grateful my long distance relationship ended only three months into my first uni year when after loosing so much of could-have-been-spent-better time talking to my dumped-me-before-christmas ex-girlfiend. Long distance does not work, try experiencing Aston uni life instead!

ISA + iPhone = Webmail @ all times

I have regained faith in the excellence of our ISA helpdesk. I, usually, detest the long queues and endless FAQ reading, thus, most IT desks are not my favourite place in the world.

I have only been to the ISA desk four times

• to get my ID issued
• to add printing credit (back when we used to do it offline)
• to get my lost (and found) card cancelled
• to get a new card re-issued (after breaking the old one)

So, you can imagine that I know extremely little of the pool of services that the desk offers. And by extremely little I mean, I don't know and don't care! But as I was strolling along the corridors of MB fourth floor today I decided, today I actually do have time to ask a question that has been bothering me for ages. How does one add one's Aston Webmail Account to an iPhone Mail App?

So, I walked into the ISA and received instruction to simply google "Aston Mail iPhone". I thought, "Alright, is this guy taking the p***?!", said thank you and skeptically went to the adjacent lab. After following my "instructions" I ended up reading three lines instructing me to access the following link from my iPhone: http://webmail.aston.ac.uk/ios

I was asked to input my Aston username and password and voila I am looking at my Webmail as we speak! Apparently the ISA desk have designed some kind of a extremely simple to use software that does all the work for you. GR8 JOB!