Building a new website

iusedtoliveinnottinghill is coming to an end. It has been a fun era, but what I wanted to do with this blog morphed almost as soon as I started it. Some of the articles I’ve uploaded I’m immensly proud of – but with all things, some I’m less proud of. Either way, this is not the end. In the new year, I will be creating a new website (from scratch, using Adobe Muse), that will cover all aspects of my writing. Including work from other organisations, blog-specific posts, essays, and a dissertation diary.

Until then, I’m Politics Editor of Pi Media. Below I’m adding links to some of the work I’ve done recently (both for myself and you). Best!

Pi Media

• Vladimir Putin: Pi Politics’ Person of the Year
• UCL Launchbox: UCL Learns To Sell
• Learning on the Job
• UCL student creates The Re|view
• Aditya Chakrabortty interview: “Corruption in our politics is really quite strong”
• UCL students don’t need sunlight
• The Crosby Scandal: Timeline and Comment
• Liberal Democrats must look inwards before 2015

The Re|view

• Happy Endings: Sitcom Heaven
• In Praise of Trellick Tower

The Guardian

• Shah Rukh Khan interview: ‘I had no method to become a star, I just did whatever made me happy’
• Have you been watching… The Daily Show with John Oliver?
• Comic-Con stuntmen save woman from balcony fall

UCL News

• International study finds language can affect children’s mathematical development
• New project explores using algae to produce speciality oils
• Extended sports facilities for UCL students
• Tips for securing a graduate scheme placement
• UCL student and alumni Haiti school project reaches crowdfunding stage
• High salt levels in common medicines put patients at risk

Bartlett School of Architecture

•  Exclusive preview of B-Pro Show 2013
•  Bartlett Professor part of winning team at 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
•  New book: Naturalizing Architecture
•  The Bartlett in The Architectural Review
•  Bartlett graduates receive special mentions in international competition
•  The Bartlett Book 2013 now available

I recently wrote an article for Pi Media on the first full year of the UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage. The school is fully funded and operated by University College London as an attempt to bring a more university-style education to the secondary experience. In the article I tour the building and facilities, plus interview the Prinicipal of the Academy, Geraldine Davies. You can view the article here. It’s also included in Issue 701 of Pi Magazine which you can pick up for free across Bloomsbury or view online here.

“We don’t learn languages very well in this country. So our principle has been to embed one modern and very important language into the life of the school”

Summer of Sorts

IUTLINH is having quite the summer. In between trips to Berlin and Rome, I’ve been spending my time working as a communications assistant at the Bartlett School of Architecture and freelancing at The Guardian.

My time at the Bartlett revolved around The Bartlett Summer Show 2013, one of the largest architecture degree shows in the UK. Whilst there, I commissioned two videos focused on the show’s opening night and preparations for the event, respectively.

I’ll be taking a short break from this blog over the summer as I go into writing overload. I hope you’ll enjoy the sun if your somewhere where that’s a possibility, and visit back next time. Make sure you don’t miss an article by following this blog via WordPress or email. Links are on your screen.

The aforementioned videos are below:

New Island Values: Eat Less Meat

Hardly a specific goal – this one is twofold. It relates mainly to my other New Island Value – East More Fish. Naturally, if I eat less meat, I’d probably eat more fish.

Visiting Berlin in February, the challenge stepped up. In a non-religious observance of Lent, I promised myself no meat until Easter.

It turned out that I failed in that challenge. Changing habits at the flick of a finger is hard graft as I found when I walked into a McDonalds ordering a hamburger, subsequently eating it all, and having the error of my ways dawn on me only days later.

But in general I have been eating much less meat.

I’m not suggesting there is a health benefit to this. Eating less meat was a way for me to challenge my diet and see what I need and what I don’t need. It was a personal goal to challenge myself in an area that would alter my habits, rather than a conviction that eating less meat was good or bad for me.

>> New Island Values

New Island Values: Spend Less Time on Laptop

I feel that this aim was misguided from the start. It’s not necessarily how long you spend on a laptop, but what you do with it.

For me, I felt that I was becoming less focused as a result of technology. This really hindered my attentiveness when reading long articles or books. So limiting procrastination was key to this value.

Secondly, looking at a blue screen such as a laptop for extended periods of time has been proven to hinder your sight. My vision is already far from perfect.

To me, the main obstacle was stopping using the laptop right before bed. This is both detrimental to your eyes, but also provides you with a worse-off slumber. Waking up in the morning is brutal if you’ve been staring at your Mac seconds before you closed your eyes.

So i’ve failed to really change this habit much. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

>> New Island Values