It’s a decision made because currently this is a self-indulgent hobby site that serves no real purpose. Initially I bought the domain and hosting because I wanted to further my knowledge of web design and this was to be my playground. Well it served its purpose admirably in that regard but now I know enough about the web that I’d be best served playing on the development environment I have set up offline; having a blog on my own domain is nice but unnecessary, I am NOT a ‘brand’ or business and so until that becomes the case I’m better off reverting to an interface that requires no financial outlay. ..and on the plus side it also means I can have a truly private journal again.

Why is a private journal such a plus..? Well, I used to write as a means of blowing off steam, it was cathartic and helped me to cope with stress and worry as well as to sort out in my own mind the things that were truly bothering me – as soon as I put all of those thoughts on the web and allowed people access to it I had to censor what I write, the more I learned about the web the more I censored – I even deleted several posts in an effort to ‘spin’ my ‘image’ (stupid as I think the wayback machine has everything cached but heyho, you can have a looksee if you really want to..)

Yes, I know I could create a private journal and keep the public one but that’s hassle, why not just have one journal and use category tags to separate the content?  That way if I do upload my blatherings in the future I can just remove the private stuff and have all my education, social media, web and jewellery musings available for those of you inclined to read it.

So.. rosevibe.me.uk has served me well but it’s time to let it go, I shall be backing everything up and getting things shipshape as i’m 90% decided to do this even if one or both of us do gain employment before the June deadline: If I do create a website for myself in future it will be under a different domain using my own name and not the username I’ve had for so many years (probably).

There was a slight twinge at the thought of giving up the google juice I’ve garnered through this blog but a search on 3 different search engines shows that “vicky stringer” will likely still have me in the top three if not the coveted top spot in the UK listings (and in one case global listings) with my linkedin and twitter profiles – although that may also change once the links to this blog are removed; but even that’s not a bad thing.

As I said before I’m not a brand or a business, I’m just an individual with nothing to sell; let the coveted top spot go to someone who really wants and needs it and let me fade into some of the less checked results until such time as I choose to do something more productive with my ‘skills’.

Saving money and using resources responsibly is the name of the game for 2012 as far as I’m concerned; this is my first step. I’m getting my virtual house in order and downsizing; what are you doing..?

But the mental challenge of a job would be preferable. Yes, I know I’m stuck looking for part-time but part-time work in an interesting job is better than full time incapacity benefit stuck at home where my only interaction with the outside world is via twitter! (even if it doesn’t pay as much)

I do have a few personal challenges that are admittedly more ‘aim’ than ‘objective’;

1. Create a wordpress e-learning theme that is scorm compliant and at least attempts to be WCAG AAA compliant
2. Write a few nettuts that are payment worthy.
3. Create some fantastic geek jewellery.
4. Create some beautiful ‘normal’ jewellery.
5. Learn more about moodle and blackboard
6. Create my symptom tracker web app
7. Find someone to consider my web taxonomy ideas (a whole other post)
8. Learn to use all available google tools
9. Write an academic research paper fit for publishing
10. Learn to drive (actually this one IS an objective)
11. (just for @lesleyconner and my dad) write a book/ story

And then there’s the ‘none work’ stuff I want to do with my family and friends;

1. Teach bella to read
2. Go on holiday to centerparcs
3. Go and visit friends abroad
4. Take bella to a sandy beach, make a sandcastle and bury stefanio (purely for the photo op)
5. Family photo shoot
6. REGULAR Karaoke with Claire
7. Write some songs with Claire
8. Have a mass gathering of geeks with kids somewhere with a bouncy castle and a wide open space for running games.
9. Visit an aquarium, science and ‘normal’ museums with bella
10. Have a ‘dirty weekend’ spa break with stef.

Hmm.. notice how all the family and friend stuff costs money but most of the work stuff is free? Guess I need that job first after all *grin*

Who wants to pay me good money to do the stuff in the first list? Feel free to contact me; i’m now open to offers ;o)

Which is why I said this:

[tweeted]http://twitter.com/rosevibe/status/45487922585141248[/tweeted]

A week should give me enough time to meet folks and I reckon the #lottoparty hashtag would be trending within minutes *grin*

So say I squander around £3m on the party, £1m on house and furnishings. What then?

Obviously Bella would need a £1m trust fund and we’d have to set aside £1m for the likely sibling to follow (hey, a multimillionairess can have kids without worrying about anything while a CFS ridden student can’t) £5m split between various family members £2m on taxes (probably) and £2m in savings to fund the house etc then the rest can go on a business venture.

Yup – a business venture. I’m damned if i’ll kill myself getting a 1st and then do nothing with my degree!
I even know who my first lot of employees would be: @elmundio87 for code duties and whoever he recommended to me that he wanted to work with, a lad I know called Meyrick for the graphic design (he’s a graphical genius) @musobubble for most of my musical needs and as contractors (since I’m guessing they’d not give up their own businesses to work for me) @philwoodmusic to fill the gaps @musobubble can’t and @loudmouthman for sheer genius and guidance.

..I’d also have to try and lure away a couple of my old tutors for the e-learning side of things; Natasha Khilji (database and all round tutoring goddesss) and Diane Bulmer (business, HR and solid classroom skills) then deprive the UoH LTI department of @sarahjaneflynn and then beg for another couple of contractors in the shape of @MarkRussell (he is the e-assessment king) and @audio for his experience in the E-learning arena; I’m sure other people would be added to this list but they would be the cream *grin*

I have a ton of ideas for e-learning tools, apps and web services; if I could get the right people on board then there’d be no stopping us!
..It’d be watch out Google! Rosevibe’s coming.. ;0)

So come on.. What would YOU do with a £17.8m lottery win?

I love that one of my former tutors is trying to help me in this, the recent Linkedin reference she gave me makes me sound like ‘superwoman’ as opposed to way I see myself which is ‘part-time almost-woman’:

Vicky has an amazing amount of energy and a voracious appetite when it comes to her work and her passion in technological issues. Vicky became a mum whilst studying and adapted to motherhood and her studies as if nothing had happended in her world and kept very focused. Vicky received the Best Student of the year Award for 2008-9 which she thoroughlly deserved. I recommend Vicky to any employer as an outstanding individual who can work alone and motivate herself to complete the task at hand

I was lucky in that the becoming a mother thing happened at just the right time in my studies – While pregnant my ME/CFS disappeared; I felt better than I had in over 5 years: no pain and energy to burn!

All the 1st year exams and assignment deadlines come during the early half of my 3rd trimester and although I had to take the first 6 weeks off in my 2nd year following the birth, the support I got from the college was amazing; they sent me regular emails and uploaded extra information to studynet (the uni VLE) and I even got one home visit from a lecturer to go over a class I’d been unable to attend; it’s easy to stay focussed with that kind of background support!

..and that’s without taking into consideration the fact that my beloved has been at home the whole time to take care of both the child and myself – not many lasses are that blessed in the love of their lives!

I guess it’s possible that to anyone but my closest family and friends maybe I do come across as that superwoman – I AM passionate about my interests; I get my teeth hooked into something and I do stay focussed, sometimes to the detriment of my relationship with the people closest to me because I don’t have the energy to work AND be a mum/ partner/ sister/ friend at the same time.

..But no point whining about that when I’ve already done so on my ME/CFS blog and in my twitter stream (in fact I should probably stop whining on twitter about #cfs but some days you really need to vent about how shite it is)

In the break I’ve had from studies since my deferral exams I’ve managed to complete a series of e-learning videos for an online assessment project the University are conducting, in the process I’ve now got a new piece of software under my belt and they want me to pass on the knowledge of its use to others.

I’ve also been asked if I’d participate in another e-assessment project that’s starting up; this would make my 3rd project for the university and I take it as a positive sign that my services have been required multiple times because of my knowledge and experience.

..Fingers crossed when I graduate a suitable position opens and they’re willing to take me on as a non-student employee (although for CPD there are a couple of post-grad courses on offer that I’ve been eyeing..)

I think an academic environment like that would suit me quite well; they’re sympathetic towards my health issues and allow me to work mostly from home and to my own schedule (as much as possible) which means I can maximise the time I’m ‘up’ efficiently – I can’t think of many other organisations that would allow me that amount of flexibility!

SIMPLES! All you need to do is become a student and sign up to social networking site Studyvox.co.uk.

As the lovely lady is the site patron you too could wind up having a cheque or a music award passed into your sweaty grasp – it happened to me; it could happen to you.

This time around there were 3 things each of the winners of the inaugural bursary awards had in common:

1. we were all students
2. we were all female
3. we all thought this was some kind of a hoax or scam.

I kid you not, I mean; C’mon! Kylie Minogue handing out cash for nothing more than signing up to a social networking site?

It sounded insane! So much so that Stef and I even organised a house sitter ‘just in case’ while we travelled down to the event..  *blushes* paranoid much?

It’s taken me a while to recover from the exertion of travelling and being sociable which is why the date of the cheque is 25th of February but this blog post is happening in March – the joys of living with ME/CFS I’m afraid ( but this was an event that was definitely worth the health fall-out!)

Both Stef and I have been converted to the view of the studyvoxfoundation crew, we really want them to make of the studyvox.co.uk site everything they dream of. The people behind the charity are wonderful, caring passionate people not lacking in intelligence and their ideas are ambitious; they want to take on every big social networking site out there and as Kev the CEO put it “we want to take everything they’ve got horribly wrong and do it RIGHT!”

They want to create an online home for students, a place where;

• their profiles will not be held up out of context during a job interview as evidence of lying and debauchery
• they have representation and help with social needs (things supposedly catered for by the NUS)
• where they can talk freely about their courses and the towns in which they live
• a marketplace for them to sell anything from textbooks to clothes and furniture
• a one-stop shop for all their financial needs and concerns
• somewhere safe to upload their music, imagery and video footage

In short they are taking on Facebook, myspace, MP3unsigned, Youtube, directgov and any other site you can think of that can hold some kind of benefit to students.

It’s audacious, it’s ambitious, it’s totally nuts – but they are so passionate about their vision that you cannot help but be swept along by it.

The bursary awards are to be a regular thing, any student who signs up to StudyVox is in with a chance of winning – it’s definitely on the up and up, it’s legit and I have the pictures to prove it. If you don’t believe me then just look at some of the news coverage of the event on the BBC and in the Telegraph and obviously the foundations own news site the StudyVox echo (I have several times just to remind myself that I didn’t dream the whole thing)

They want to ‘put their money where their mouths are’ and show in a real way that they are there to help support the student community.

At present I will admit to a lot of teething problems with the social networking website – but that is less down to the vision of the group and more to do with the company paid to do the coding and design; I think, given time and a lot of tweaking this site could well be a force to contend with, the NUS would be well advised to take note and learn a few things.