Hello there. Here is an update of my work placement at homeless charity shop Emmaus Leeds, documenting my fifth week here.
At this point in the placement, I’ve got a pretty routine set up in terms of the tasks I do. New Items will come in, and I will take photos of them, then uploaded them to the shop’s Facebook, Twitter and the Pinterest account I made for the shop. I do various other regular office tasks for the shop as well. For example at some point this week we needed to measure the area of the car parks (I’m not really sure what for), so I did that.
All I can say that’s new about this week is that there seems to be more interest in the shop or at least the shop’s online presence. The Facebook page is getting more and more ‘Likes’ by the day, the Twitter is getting more followers and best of all there are customers communicating to us on both about items we have in shop. They’ll ask us if we’ve still got items I’ve uploaded pictures of, or they’ll ask if we’ve got certain items in shop. This is good because it shows they have interest in the shop and interesting giving the shop business. Likewise if we don’t have an item they want, it saves them the effort of coming to the shop and being disappointed it’s not there anymore, if we can just tell them online. The Pinterest account is still in its infancy, with little followers, but hopefully if someone keeps using it after I finish, it will become more useful to the shop.
Hello, here’s my latest update of my fourth week of my work placement at homeless charity Emmaus Leeds. I can’t believe it’s nearly over.
On Monday I started a Pinterest account for the place, as I’d been using Facebook and Twitter to promote the place I thought I might as well use another platform to promote the site. I’d read some articles saying that Pinterest was a really good website such as http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/feb/02/pinterest-market-business-social-media. With a new social networking website to use, I had another one to fill up, therefore more to do with my time. On Monday I filled up Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest with what the shop had in, because I’d not been in the previous two days because it was the weekend and because I wasn’t going to be in the office the next two days. I was going to be in the workshop Tuesday and Wednesday.
The person in charge of me wasn’t going to be in most of this week due to being on a business trip to London, so she put me in the workshop so I could be occupied for a few days. As I’ve mentioned before there’s a workshop at Emmaus Leeds which fixes and freshens donated items. In the workshop for these two days, I helped sand, varnish and wax some tables, as well repaint a chest of drawers, fix a coffee by reattaching it’s top and screwed in some hinges on a door. These were a very enjoyable two days of woodwork and craftsmanship, and it made me appreciate the blood, sweat and hard work that goes into Emmaus’ products being good enough to belong in people’s homes. It also made me realise the business knowledge that is required for working in a workshop. Time is money and the woodwork team know how much time and money went into each item, so they’ve got to determine how much to sell it for in order to make a profit on it as well as having made sure that their time has been well spent.
For the rest of the week I went back to my usual work of promoting the page online. I’ve also been getting testimonials for the shop’s café. In case you don’t know a testimonial is basically a compliment, but in a more professional sense and a compliment which can be used to advertise something. Emmaus has a café which customers can get a bite to eat in while they shop. I’m getting testimonials that will hopefully soon be on the website in order to make it known how good the café is from the customers.
Hello there, Happy Valentines Day. As you may have seen, last year I did a blog post in honor of this money making scheme/day to celebrate love where I listed ten unconventional love songs. I don’t know much about regular romance, so I wrote about some songs I like that I guess come close enough to being love songs, but would probably no way ever be in a film like 500 Days Of Summer. Well guess what, I’m doing another. I’ll try think of something different for next year, but for now here’s some more songs to alienate your Valentine with.
Nine Inch Nails-Closer.
I was once drunk randomly asking people their favourite love songs (probably with this list in mind) and someone replied with this, to which I just laughed and he said “it gets to the point”. There’s no denying that Trent Reznor’s ode to sex doesn’t beat around the bush and of all the songs in this list, this is probably the crudest and least romantic. “I want to fuck you like an animal”, isn’t romantic in a ‘The Notebook’ way (or maybe it is, I’ve not actually seen that film). The way Reznor talks of how making love to this person makes him perfect and brings him closer to God, shows some softer sentiment. It’s just that it always comes back to THAT line and is surrounded by pulsing electronic beats that are seductive, but maybe not kind and loving. If sex is the be all and end all to you when it comes to romance, then perhaps this is the song to dance to at your wedding (like Gary Numan did).
Million Dead-Smiling At Strangers On Trains.
This is a sweet song, for the line “if I’d known you weren’t so far away, I could’ve rode this train smiling”, as if Million Dead frontman Frank Turner (you might’ve heard of him) is saying that he could’ve gone through all the bad things in life, being happy, just as long as he’d known that he’s one day meet the person he’s singing about. That’s cute to say that one person can erase all the negative things one has gone through in life. It’s the most melodic song on Million Dead’s debut ‘A Song To Ruin’, but it still has some roughness with fuzzed up guitar and wailing vocals, but all together the elements make for an excitable mood, which is exactly the kind of mood you tend to be in when first falling for someone.
Cave In-Jupiter.
This song opens with a bombardment of drums and riffs, so it doesn’t seem like a love song at first sight and the Eastern feel that enters makes it more interesting, but not romantic. However the song gets smoother and more mellow with the instruments taking a chill pill and peaceful vocals come in to hint at some light and then the line “I’ll keep my seat on the edge of your mind” says that vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky can be patient and even though his love me not be requited now, he has faith that they will always consider him, therefore he’ll always have a chance. It’s optimistic, which is always a good thing. It’s important to be hopeful as it’s not common that you’ll be with the one you love straight away, but you’ll have to wait. It’s worth waiting and you never know if that seat you have on their mind can become something more.
The Blood Brothers-I Know Where The Canaries And Crows Go.
“Why can’t we let our mouths devour each other? Why can’t we turn those miles into inches, letters into breath, years into seconds?”. So romantic. Blood Brothers vocalist Jordan Blilie wanting to spend as much time as possible, as close as possible with whoever he’s singing about. However he’s also screaming it like she’s just been murdered, so maybe not something you want to put on a Valentines Day mix. On top of that there’s the loud and jumpy elastic riffs that The Blood Brothers were pros at, slapping you silly and fellow vocalist Johnny Whitney joining Billie in a piercing scream-fest.
Aphex Twin-Girl/Boy Song.
This is unconventional because it doesn’t have any words/lyrics, so nothing to give away that it can be specifically described as a love song, but it just feels romantic. It’s filled with lush strings that are most joyful, kind of like you’re in love. To add why it’s not the most obvious love song in the world, it’s filled with rapid drum n bass shuffling, but that also adds to why it just feels romantic, as these breaks sound giddy, something you also may be when you’re into someone. The title hints that Richard David James, AKA Aphex Twin, intended it to feel like a love song, or that he was maybe even in love himself when he wrote it. The whole of the 1994’s ‘Richard D James Album’ feels like the soundtrack to a wonky, love fairy tale, but this song is where the album is at its most ecstatic, while being wonderfully weird, which is why it makes this list.
Every Time I Die-Romeo A Go-Go
“There’s a delicate love song in this” Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley actually needs to point out in the song, and there is. Under the turbo fretwork, crunchy guitar stomps and frantic vocals is a story of a man trying really hard to win over someone despite being completely broken, seemingly physically. “I got this new black eye just for you. Your hopeless romantic now helplessly rheumatic”, paints a picture of someone determined to get to his lover and impress them through any means necessary. He’s making his way through every adversity and that is what you need to be willing to do for the love of your life.
The Fall Of Troy-F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.
In the dating world you’re encouraged to play it cool and perhaps not let your feelings show, but here The Fall Of Troy say (albeit indirectly), suggest you wear your heart on your sleeve. “I don’t want to see the day my words cannot make it safe” and “too bad, no regrets”. Lyrics like this say that guitarist/vocalist Thomas Erak is fully aware of the risks in being forward and admitting your feelings, but he can’t help but let it known that he loves the subject of the song anyway. What do you follow, your heart, or what you think will win them over? As for why this probably doesn’t seem like a love song, there’s the vast technical guitar skills on display, which while thrilling isn’t as conventionally romantic as a piano or acoustic guitar, especially when it comes to the manic breakdown which collapses on itself at the speed of light, however after the chaos it comes back to the hook which delivers the killer lines that encourage you to be brave.
mewithoutYou-Bullet To Binary.
“When you laugh you’ll feel my breath there, filling up your lungs. And when you cry, those aren’t your tears but I’m there, falling down your cheek, and when you say you love him, taste me, I’m like poison on your tongue” these lyrics are intense, bitter and maybe even creepy even without Aaron Weiss ‘s pain stricken voice shouting them in a half spoken word, half yelling style. But underneath the madness is love. Love can make you crazy, and there’s definitely love in this song, it’s just coming across as obsessive, which is never a good look. However you can’t deny that the love is there, it’s just that it sounds like it’s ruined Weiss and sometimes you’ve got to be careful of falling too in love with someone. Here though, at least a great song has come out of heartache.
Swans-Volcano.
“I want to taste your breasts and know God” wow, maybe not as crude as Closer, but there’s still something rated r (or maybe just 12a) about that. However it’s kind of lovely at the same time and speaks for itself why, as if saying that spending a night with person would be like reaching a heavenly state. It also helps that Jarboe’s vocals are gorgeous, being tender and angelic. Also the music is danceable, bubbling yet hazy electronica, being the perfect twisted 90’s love song.
Team America: World Police-Pearl Harbor Sucked.
Last year I ended the list by putting a song from Final Fantasy VI, so this year I’m topping that by putting in ‘Pearl Harbor Sucked’ from the Satire comedy, ‘Team America: World Police’. It’s a love song and it’s definitely an unconventional one. Protagonist Gary Johnston sings about how much he misses and needs Lisa Jones by comparing his feelings for her to how much he dislikes Michael Bay’s ‘Pearl Harbor’, killing two birds with one stone. “I miss you like Michael Bay missed the mark, when he made Pearl Harbor”, “I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school, he was terrible in that film”. These lines are romantic for Lisa and insulting to Mr’s Bay and Affleck. What film would you bash in a song, in order to profess your love to someone? I think I’m going to write a love song influenced by The Room (hi Lee). Maybe say I love how bad they are.
Thanks for reading. What are your favourite unconventional love songs?
To read last year’s list click here https://maxcussons.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/my-top-ten-unconventional-love-songs/
Hello there. Here’s the update of my work placement at Emmaus Leeds for my third week. Sorry this one is late.
For this week I mainly did what I’ve been doing the whole time, which has been promoting the shop online, but I did a few different things this week.
On Monday of this week, I went down to the stalls Emmaus has at Leeds Market to take photo’s of them and promote them online. I hadn’t given the market stalls any attention online, so I thought I should seen as though I had promoted the main shop a great deal. The market is more accessible and easier to walk by than the main shop, so it doesn’t need as much promotion, but I thought it was a good idea to do some none the less.
On Tuesday I helped clear out the Ebay room. The Ebay room is (as the title suggests) the room where Emmaus stores stuff that can be sold on Ebay to make money for the shop. However the room was filled with junk be it broken electric items or just empty boxes, so I helped clear it out with some of the other staff to prepare for a delivery that was coming Friday. This brings me to what I did Friday, which was help with a delivery. Another Emmaus shop was giving us a thousand items of clothing, which we carried into the Ebay room. The Ebay room is small, so it filled up quickly. I don’t know at this point exactly what’s happening with the clothes, but I know that it’s a lot the shop now has to sell.
On Thursday I visited Revive in Seacroft which is a joint venture with Emmaus Leeds. Revive is a charity shop like Emmaus, selling furniture, as well as things like books and clothes, that have been donated. I promoted them when I got back to the office, by putting some pictures up online and they retweeted that on Twitter, which will have promoted us a little bit as well.
Hello there. I recently finished my second week of my work placement at Emmaus Leeds and each week I’m going to be writing about it on here, so here’s my blog post of my second week at Emmaus.
My second week was very much the same as my first week. I’ve been boosting Emmaus’ online presence. I’ve been doing this by posting what the shop is up to, and what they’ve had for sale on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Emmausleedsuk). I’ve also been using the Twitter account to also promote the shop. (https://twitter.com/EmmausLeedsShop).
I’ve also done some spread sheets which has included getting details of food banks. I’m not sure what will be done with them, or if I was even allowed to say on here, but I’m sure they’ll be put to good use and will help the homeless which is what Emmaus is all about.
One thing that was different in my second week to my first week, was that I spent a day working in Emmaus’ workshop. Emmaus has a workshop that has a woodwork team dedicated to freshening up the furniture that is donated. On Wednesday of this week I was part of that team, where I helped varnish and polish some furniture as well as replace some chair seats, by tearing off the original and putting a new one on.
I attempted to get a story or two, but because everyone who I can interview Is working so it’s hard to find time to sit down with them. I’m going to try harder to get one in my third week. I also noticed that Emmaus has a WordPress account (https://emmausleeds.wordpress.com/), so I’m going to look into using that as well as Twitter and Facebook.
Hi there. Sorry it’s been a while, hope you had a good Christmas and are having a fantastic new year.
Last week I started my second work placement for university at the Leeds division of homeless charity Emmaus.
I’m going to be documenting each of the six weeks on the placement starting with this blog post about my first week.
My first day was really just settling in and getting used to the place. The premise of Emmaus is that it’s a second hand shop who’s proceeds go to helping the homeless. The shop sells furniture, clothes, art, electrical items and more. My main job here while I’m on this placement is going to be promoting the shop online. I’ve been doing this during my first week mainly by taking photo’s off the new items we’ve had in and putting them up online via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Emmausleedsuk and Twitter https://twitter.com/EmmausLeedsShop.
Emmaus Leeds.
In my first week I’ve also been doing data work for the charity, making spread sheets on information about things such as landlords, estate agents and food banks, getting things such as their addresses, phone numbers and emails. I haven’t yet been told what it’s for and if I do get told I’m 100% I’ll be able to tell what it’s for on here, but I trust that it will be put to good use to help the homeless, which is the main reason I chose this placement, to do some good.
One thing that is unique about Emmaus, which helps make it great is that many of the workers here are previous homeless people. Emmaus offers them a home if they are willing to work here, offering them sustainability as well as meaning to their lives. Emmaus’ website has the ‘stories’ workers here, be it the ones who have been homeless before and the ones who haven’t http://www.emmaus.org.uk/what_we_do/emmaus_stories. While on this placement I’m going to try get stories of more people for the website in order to make people even more aware of the good Emmaus does and to put the lives of interesting people online.
Finally, Emmaus has it’s own workshop where much of the donated furniture will be freshened up so that it’s in better shape and good to sell. I’d like to get a closer look at what they do and write about it online, and I might even do some work there myself to see what it’s like first hand.
This week at Leeds Trinity University, it’s employability and enterprise week, which entails workshops/lectures from people in the media industry giving us advice on how to get a job in the industry, how to do it well and what we need to be doing now.
Today’s workshop was ‘Setting Up A Media Production Company’ which was given by Simon Horniblow of Campus Life. Campus Life is one of the U.K’s leading student communication companies, making films for university’s about things such as financial issues and sexual welfare. Simon and his friend Oliver started the business when they were in university, the business being called West Park Media at the time. Simon was here today to give us advice for if we wanted to start our own media production company.
Simon had a lot to say to help us. Firstly he said it’s important to know who you’re going to start a business with and that everyone has their own specific roles. Having two director’s won’t get your business very far.
Secondly, it’s important to know what you’re trying to sell and who you’re going to sell it to. When you know these things, you can focus on working on a specific thing to offer and start targeting the people who would be interested in it.
Also, he said that it’s important to know how successful you want your business to be. Do you want it to be extremely successful or just successful enough so you can live. Either one is fine, but you need to know which path you want to go down so that’s what you can work towards. To help do this, Simon also said that it helps to set targets, that will start out small but snowball into goals that will make money.
Finally Simon told us how it’s important to get experience now so you’re not look for experience when you leave uni, but looking for work that will pay instead. Unfortunately degrees aren’t enough these days especially in media, so the more experience you get, the better.
This was a useful workshop. While I personally have no interest in starting my own business, these are still great tips for any career path you want to go down. It’s important to set your goals then achieve them in anything you want to do in life that matters to you, as it is also important to get experience to help you on the way.
This week at Leeds Trinity University, it’s employability and enterprise week, which entails workshops/lectures from people in the media industry giving us advice on how to get a job in the industry, how to do it well and what we need to be doing now.
Yesterday we had a workshop called ‘Career as a Writer’ with a talk from writer Geoff Hattersley. Geoff is mainly a poet, however in his life he’s also written short stories and reviewed other poems.
Geoff Hattersley.
Geoff noted that while the workshop was called ‘Career as a Writer’, it should perhaps be called ‘Vocation as a writer’ for the main lesson of this workshop was that you’re not likely to make much money from being a writer.
Geoff stated that the majority of writer’s have jobs and that the writing is more of a hobby you may get paid for. Even some of most well-known poets such as have jobs. Carol Ann Duffy the country’s poet laureate has a job as a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. Geoff said that if you’re lucky you can get a job that has an element of your creative interest in writing, perhaps as an English teacher.
Geoff himself has always had jobs, but jobs that have never stopped writing. He started writing in his twenties and had various jobs at the time. He claimed that it is difficult to try remain creative in your spare time when having a job, yet when he had his most laboring job of working in a factory producing plastic he was writing poems that would become his most acclaimed work.
I asked him if there was an element of trying to make the best of a situation, that inspired his works to which he said there was. While it can be daunting to fit creative works between work to make a living, it can also push you to be more hard working with creativity. If you have all the time in the world to do something, there’s no urgency to do it, therefore you may not be as motivated to get it done and get it done efficiently.
Also Geoff said that there were greater rewards than money in writing, for instance seeing your work published for the first time, people appreciating your works and even just discovering a community of fellow writers.
I loved this workshop as I think I’d like to be a writer myself, probably not in poetry, but still I took many lessons from this and many things that made me appreciate the possible vocation even more. I’d probably never see money out of it, but it seems like a great way to leave my mark on the world.
This week at Leeds Trinity University, it’s employability and enterprise week, which entails workshops/lectures from people in the media industry giving us advice on how to get a job in the industry, how to do it well and what we need to be doing now.
Today’s workshop was about working for a charity, focusing on the organisation CAFOD, with CAFOD worker Joanne Taylor. CAFOD stands for Catholic Agency For Overseas Develpment. Inspired by the core teachings of the catholic church, CAFOD sets out to tackle poverty and crisis’ all across the world.
Joanne has been with CAFOD since she was 12! Staring out as a young supporter, going to youth camps and being a part of a parish, she worked her way up to be the organisation’s Diocesan Officer in Leeds. This role mainly includes working with local schools to do activities, such as ‘Walk For Water’ where CAFOD arranged for a high school to walk three miles with a bucket of water, so they know what it’s like for a child in the third world to do that everyday.
There are plenty of job opportunities in charities like CAFOD including media related ones, such as writers.
Joanne also stated that working in charity requires passion, values and commitment. She also said that it is incredibly rewarding to know that your profession is making a difference. In fact 19 out of 20 CAFOD workers feel that their daily work has a positive impact on the world.
I asked Joanne if there was anything negative about working for a charity, and she said the only thing would be travel, i.e. going to London and back in one day. However this seemed like a small thing to dislike about working for CAFOD.
I liked this workshop as I’m working for a charity myself. Emmaus, a homeless charity. This workshop has gotten me excited for my work placement there as I hope to make a difference there, and if this workshop is anything to go by, the placement will feel most rewarding.
This week at Leeds Trinity University, it’s employability and enterprise week, which entails workshops/lectures from people in the media industry giving us advice on how to get a job in the industry, how to do it well and what we need to be doing now. Today’s workshop focused on the television part of the media industry and was given by former Leeds Trinity student Sean O’Brien, who is currently working as a task researcher for the next series of Big Brother, which includes coming up with games/tasks for the contestants.
Big Brother 2015 logo.
Sean has worked for a lot of television establishments for someone who only graduated two years ago, such as Zodiak, Remedy and even the BBC four days after he graduated!
He clearly knew his stuff and gave us great advice about getting a job in television, i.e. the importance of getting plenty of experience, even as early as second year, as that’s what counts. He said that “sadly” a media degree alone will do little good for when it comes to getting a job in the media industry, but experience is what really counts.
He also shared some of the positives and negatives about working in television. For instance, he said that you had a lot of creative freedom when it comes to television and even the most wacky ideas will be welcomed. Also, your work will be appreciated by many people, maybe even millions depending on how successful a show is.
A negative is that you have to put in plenty of hours of work, however that’s understandable as anything worth having doesn’t come easy and in the television industry the rewards would probably be worth it.
He also recommended some ways of using social networks to get into the industry, i.e. trying to get on Facebook groups once you get some experience.
A very enjoyable and entertaining workshop and I look forward to the rest.
maxcussons 