It is with a touch of sadness that I sit to write this month’s column as tonight is my last night in Flat 11. This place has been my home since September and I have been very happy here throughout. I can’t believe that I am already one third of the way through my degree, it simple doesn’t feel like I have been here any time at all. I feel that I have learned a huge amount this year, not just academically but about myself and others around me. When I think back to how nervous I was in September when I left Orkney and compare it with how much confidence I have now, the change, to my mind, is really astonishing.
May has been the most hectic month so far as I have had lots of deadlines for work as well as the show on Utopia FM. I got all my work handed in last week, quite how I managed to fit it in around getting up at half five every week day to present a three hour show I will never know. Doing the Breakfast show was, as I knew it would be, an awesome experience. I think the most significant thing that I have taken from it is that I am now even more convinced than ever that being a radio presenter is what I want to do as a long term career. I thought that getting up that early every day would be almost impossible but I found it surprisingly easy. Every morning when the alarm went off I got the same feeling of ‘oh my god, I’m going to be on the radio in an hour!’ The buzz was immense and usually lasted until around lunch time each day. The problem was that were I suspect most breakfast DJ’s, and indeed anyone working awkward hours, would go for a sleep after lunch for a few hours to re-charge. Unfortunately, most days I could not afford the time to do anything of the sort and was instead found drinking copious amounts of coffee trying desperately to get some work done before I simple fell asleep at my desk. As dad said it would, this lack of sleep gradually built up to the point were I had to let some things slide and make time for a rest.
I found this whole situation to be the single biggest problem through out the broadcast, and I have to say, sad as I was to see it finish, the return of the lie-ins was much appreciated. In my opinion, our show improved quite a lot over the three weeks we were on for. I think we found our niche as it were and were able to get into an on-air routine each morning. Danielle and I realized quickly that even if we planed things before or during the show, we would rarely stick to them so we ended up in a situation where we would literally be 20 seconds before the end of the record and whoever was operating the desk would call mics live and we would just start speaking. I really enjoyed the ‘seat of the pants’ style because it was very spontaneous and it kept the pace of the show up.
Last month saw me team up with a mate to put on another gig in the local student pub/venue. This time we booked a funk/rock band to do a set as well as a couple of DJ’s. It didn’t attract as many people as the ‘Bollocks to work’ event which I did at the end of April, but this was expected. Small bands never seem to attract as big a crowd as DJ’s but it was never the less a great evening for those who were there. As a result of the success of both the afore mentioned gigs, coupled with the fact that the student nightclub (Manor Quay) and the only other student bar are closing, a small group of my mates have teamed up to try and rectify the situation in time for next year. We are in the process of forming ‘Northern Hype’, which will be our group name, and will give us a brand which we can use on promotional stuff and for a website etc.
Within our small team we have Barry who has had three years experience of booking and promoting bands through his own successful promotion company which he has now left friends to run while he is based away from home. We have Andy, my flat mate, who is a whiz at producing good posters and websites. Chris, a mature student studying first year media, who happens to be a fantastic local DJ, very popular with the crowds both here and in London where he often goes to do gigs. And finally me, who will be the overall group leader in charge management and finance. I’ll also get a minute to play a few records as well!
We want to put on several different events roughly three times a week which will kick off in the Bonded (the local student venue which I have used before) and then move to Independent, a 600 capacity night club in the town centre. The idea to try and do something like this came to me when I first heard that the Union was selling off two of its venues as I felt that there will be a severe lack of student based entertainment for next year, for not only the fresher students, but also my self.
Obviously ‘Northern Hype’ is in its early stages but I really feel that the team we have assembled will be able to make this work. We will just have to see what happens in September; all we know at the moment is that there’s a lot of work to be done.
In the meantime I’m looking forward to coming home and spending a decent spell of time in Orkney at a time of year when it really is at its most beautiful.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - July 2007
It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been a month since I stepped off the ferry from Aberdeen at the beginning of June. I’ve had a pretty busy time as I’ve been working full time at Radio Orkney as well as helping out with the St. Magnus Festival not to mention make time to go to Auskerry.
If I’m honest I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel when I arrived home knowing how different it is here to my life in Sunderland as well as the fact that I will be here for three months, but, after a couple of days of feeling a little lost without my flatmates, broadband and digital radio, I soon got re initiated into the ways of Orkney life. Becoming involved once again at Radio Orkney was instrumental in helping me to re adjust because not only does it give me a reason to get up and not spend half the day in bed, it has also got my finger firmly back on the local pulse.
Having a purpose to get into the heart of the community and talk to people face to face about the things that effect and interest them on a daily basis is very rewarding and has reminded me what is missing in the anonymity of life in the city. Once again the team at Radio Orkney have made me feel very at home in the office and I have really enjoyed the last five weeks. In the past I have mostly filled the role of producer/tech ops for many of the evening programmes as well as presenting weather and the occasional sport report. However, this time I have been involved with compiling the morning news programme which has been a very steep but equally rewarding learning curve as I have had the opportunity to amongst other things, carry out interviews, make packages, edit audio and read scripts. I have briefly touched on many of these elements of broadcasting before, both at Radio Orkney and more recently at university.
However as this last month has been ‘learning on the job’ as it were, I have crammed in a lot of new information. All of which will prove invaluable in my prospective future career as a radio presenter and in the more imminent future, passing my degree. One of the best things about radio for me is that no two days are ever the same. While I was presenting ‘Morning Glory’ with Danielle our show was always different and exciting and it’s no different here. Everyday I meet new people, hear new stories, see things I haven’t had the chance to see before and learn things that without the banner of ‘Reporter’ I would not otherwise be allowed to, at least not perhaps so easily.
One of the things I enjoyed a lot recently was covering the junior Inter County. Those of you that know me well will probably be laughing at this point as I have admittedly never had much of an interest in sport. I put this down to the fact that growing up on an island with two brothers and about 400 sheep, there wasn’t much opportunity during my childhood for a game of five a side. Anyway, for one reason or another I picked music over sport as my passion and have since struggled to feel much emotion for sport apart from perhaps the world cup. However, during the Inter County I quickly got the bug. I suddenly saw why people get so excited about the whole thing and I felt myself being swept along, quite willingly, in a tide of admiration and support for our young sports people.
As the excellent result in the hockey brought the first day to a close leaving Orkney looking like they had a real chance of winning I felt myself being genuinely excited about the next day and was keen to be given the whole event as my baby to cover by myself which I was. Everyone I spoke to throughout the whole event was helpful and accommodating, people went out of their way to give me score info and the sports people from both sides were happy to speak which always make life easier. By the end of it all I had mixed feelings of both happiness that we had won, and sadness that it was all over. A big thank you to everyone involved.
More recently I have been helping out with front of house duties at the Magfest Spiegel tent. This has been really good fun. I haven’t really done anything like it before apart from a couple of times at my own parties, so again it’s been a good learning experience. It’s been nice to feel part of the team, if a very small one, still, I’ve got to meet new people and watch some excellent performances that I probably would not otherwise have seen.
One of the things I have been most glad to return to is the sea. I love boats and I have greatly missed the trips to and from Auskerry with the local boatmen. I still laugh when I get aboard a boat to Auskerry and think how much of an extreme contrast life on the island it is to ‘doon sooth’. I love the variety and am altogether glad to be back. I will be equally glad to proudly show off this beautiful place to my university friends when they come to stay in August. Looking ahead to this coming month I am planning to spend a decent amount of time on Auskerry as there is a fair bit of work to do out there with fencing and the like but I also want to have some time rowing and fishing. I will also be spending time in town enjoying my bike and seeing the friends who I have missed while being away. I just hope the weather warms up a little! See you around.
If I’m honest I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel when I arrived home knowing how different it is here to my life in Sunderland as well as the fact that I will be here for three months, but, after a couple of days of feeling a little lost without my flatmates, broadband and digital radio, I soon got re initiated into the ways of Orkney life. Becoming involved once again at Radio Orkney was instrumental in helping me to re adjust because not only does it give me a reason to get up and not spend half the day in bed, it has also got my finger firmly back on the local pulse.
Having a purpose to get into the heart of the community and talk to people face to face about the things that effect and interest them on a daily basis is very rewarding and has reminded me what is missing in the anonymity of life in the city. Once again the team at Radio Orkney have made me feel very at home in the office and I have really enjoyed the last five weeks. In the past I have mostly filled the role of producer/tech ops for many of the evening programmes as well as presenting weather and the occasional sport report. However, this time I have been involved with compiling the morning news programme which has been a very steep but equally rewarding learning curve as I have had the opportunity to amongst other things, carry out interviews, make packages, edit audio and read scripts. I have briefly touched on many of these elements of broadcasting before, both at Radio Orkney and more recently at university.
However as this last month has been ‘learning on the job’ as it were, I have crammed in a lot of new information. All of which will prove invaluable in my prospective future career as a radio presenter and in the more imminent future, passing my degree. One of the best things about radio for me is that no two days are ever the same. While I was presenting ‘Morning Glory’ with Danielle our show was always different and exciting and it’s no different here. Everyday I meet new people, hear new stories, see things I haven’t had the chance to see before and learn things that without the banner of ‘Reporter’ I would not otherwise be allowed to, at least not perhaps so easily.
One of the things I enjoyed a lot recently was covering the junior Inter County. Those of you that know me well will probably be laughing at this point as I have admittedly never had much of an interest in sport. I put this down to the fact that growing up on an island with two brothers and about 400 sheep, there wasn’t much opportunity during my childhood for a game of five a side. Anyway, for one reason or another I picked music over sport as my passion and have since struggled to feel much emotion for sport apart from perhaps the world cup. However, during the Inter County I quickly got the bug. I suddenly saw why people get so excited about the whole thing and I felt myself being swept along, quite willingly, in a tide of admiration and support for our young sports people.
As the excellent result in the hockey brought the first day to a close leaving Orkney looking like they had a real chance of winning I felt myself being genuinely excited about the next day and was keen to be given the whole event as my baby to cover by myself which I was. Everyone I spoke to throughout the whole event was helpful and accommodating, people went out of their way to give me score info and the sports people from both sides were happy to speak which always make life easier. By the end of it all I had mixed feelings of both happiness that we had won, and sadness that it was all over. A big thank you to everyone involved.
More recently I have been helping out with front of house duties at the Magfest Spiegel tent. This has been really good fun. I haven’t really done anything like it before apart from a couple of times at my own parties, so again it’s been a good learning experience. It’s been nice to feel part of the team, if a very small one, still, I’ve got to meet new people and watch some excellent performances that I probably would not otherwise have seen.
One of the things I have been most glad to return to is the sea. I love boats and I have greatly missed the trips to and from Auskerry with the local boatmen. I still laugh when I get aboard a boat to Auskerry and think how much of an extreme contrast life on the island it is to ‘doon sooth’. I love the variety and am altogether glad to be back. I will be equally glad to proudly show off this beautiful place to my university friends when they come to stay in August. Looking ahead to this coming month I am planning to spend a decent amount of time on Auskerry as there is a fair bit of work to do out there with fencing and the like but I also want to have some time rowing and fishing. I will also be spending time in town enjoying my bike and seeing the friends who I have missed while being away. I just hope the weather warms up a little! See you around.
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - August 2007
I have never been very keen on books, much to the disappointment of my parents both of whom love reading. When I was a kid I used to read Biggles stories but mostly if I was reading anything it would be genuine manuals for pilots or articles in Pilot magazines. This was because of my growing obsession to become a helicopter pilot which I had had since the age of about 8. I still plan to get my pilots licence at some stage as it continues to excite me immensely, despite my new goal of becoming a radio broadcaster.
Anyway, students are required to read academic books about the subject they are studying to enable them to write informed essays about their subject. This was always going to be a sticking point for me due to my dislike of reading. I’m pleased to say that I have passed the history of broadcasting exam and all my modules for this year which did include two 2000 word essays on the topic of popular culture. The point to all this lies in the internet and the secondary school education system. I agree that research and background knowledge is very important and I admit that books are an obvious source of reliable information. However, I am disappointed that it’s taken me until half way through my first year at university to discover some of the other, perhaps more user friendly sources of information available on the internet, particularly through Google.
The story started when I walked over the river to get some books to help me write one of the essays. It was over a week before the deadline so I was not expecting any difficulty in getting the books I needed from our reading list but I was wrong. I couldn’t get a singe one of them and as a result went home slightly concerned with only a couple of vaguely relevant books that I’d picked up just to stop the trip being wasted. When I explained this to one of my second year mates he immediately said. “Why don’t you use Google?” I do of course use Google for just about everything from finding song lyrics to settling arguments over obscure issues. I hadn’t until this point ever heard of Google Books or Google Scholar.
It’s worth checking out your self but basically Scholar is a section of Google dedicated to articles, websites, journals, and essays etc all of which have been vetted as containing genuine scientific or bona fide information, while Google books is a section of the search engine devoted solely to providing either the whole or selected parts of a huge range of books. It even tells you all the information about the book that is necessary in order to reference the source correctly. This means you can search key words, find a relevant book (some of which were actually on my reading list), read the parts which are most relevant, copy the text into your essay and reference the text correctly in your bibliography, all much quicker, and without having the effort of going to the library and carting books around.
I strongly believe that if there is technology there which can help you then why not make full use of it. What I struggle to understand is why I have never been told about this service before, either at school or university. I did computing at Standard Grade and enjoyed it. However, I can now see that a lot of the things I learned on the course have been almost useless to me and more importantly, things I wish I had been taught I was never even introduced to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing teachers as I’m well aware that they are obliged to teach a curriculum set by the SQA and the Scottish Executive. Even so, why was I taught about programming, databases, and every intricate detail of spreadsheets instead of how to get the best from the internet, build websites, set up online banking or use Photoshop for example? Most of the things I was taught at school to do with computers was out of date and has not proved very useful. After all, computing is an area which is moving faster than most and therefore even more emphasis should be put on ensuring that it is as up to date as possible.
But I’m pleased to hear that things are changing. Senior staff at the OIC Education Department have told me a brand knew curriculum is being worked on and it should be fully in use by 2009. It will remove many of the rigid guide lines of the current system and replace them with something much more flexible allowing teachers and pupils to have more say over what is taught. Maybe even this does not go far enough. Perhaps pupils should be encouraged to give feedback to their school about their courses and how useful what they have learned has been once they have spent some time away so that the authorities can fine tune what the next generation is taught to make it as relevant as possible. I think at the very least there should be some serious debate about these issues.
I have spent most of July in Auskerry which has been excellent. I’m going to be busy this weekend as five of my friends from Uni are coming up to visit tomorrow. I’m taking them out to Auskerry on Monday for a couple of days so I hope the weather is nice as we are meant to be camping and with a bit of luck we will get out in the boat for some Mackerel, and maybe get a few creels out too.
To finish off I might as well make a school related suggestion, even if it’s a little tongue in cheek. I remember one 6th year assembly when I suggested the school motto should be modernized because most of my year didn’t know what ‘Si Deus Nobiscum’ means. If it must be in Latin, how about changing it to something like ‘Vade Atque Vale’ because although there was never a phrase exactly like it in Latin, it’s as close as I can get to… Keep It Real.
Anyway, students are required to read academic books about the subject they are studying to enable them to write informed essays about their subject. This was always going to be a sticking point for me due to my dislike of reading. I’m pleased to say that I have passed the history of broadcasting exam and all my modules for this year which did include two 2000 word essays on the topic of popular culture. The point to all this lies in the internet and the secondary school education system. I agree that research and background knowledge is very important and I admit that books are an obvious source of reliable information. However, I am disappointed that it’s taken me until half way through my first year at university to discover some of the other, perhaps more user friendly sources of information available on the internet, particularly through Google.
The story started when I walked over the river to get some books to help me write one of the essays. It was over a week before the deadline so I was not expecting any difficulty in getting the books I needed from our reading list but I was wrong. I couldn’t get a singe one of them and as a result went home slightly concerned with only a couple of vaguely relevant books that I’d picked up just to stop the trip being wasted. When I explained this to one of my second year mates he immediately said. “Why don’t you use Google?” I do of course use Google for just about everything from finding song lyrics to settling arguments over obscure issues. I hadn’t until this point ever heard of Google Books or Google Scholar.
It’s worth checking out your self but basically Scholar is a section of Google dedicated to articles, websites, journals, and essays etc all of which have been vetted as containing genuine scientific or bona fide information, while Google books is a section of the search engine devoted solely to providing either the whole or selected parts of a huge range of books. It even tells you all the information about the book that is necessary in order to reference the source correctly. This means you can search key words, find a relevant book (some of which were actually on my reading list), read the parts which are most relevant, copy the text into your essay and reference the text correctly in your bibliography, all much quicker, and without having the effort of going to the library and carting books around.
I strongly believe that if there is technology there which can help you then why not make full use of it. What I struggle to understand is why I have never been told about this service before, either at school or university. I did computing at Standard Grade and enjoyed it. However, I can now see that a lot of the things I learned on the course have been almost useless to me and more importantly, things I wish I had been taught I was never even introduced to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing teachers as I’m well aware that they are obliged to teach a curriculum set by the SQA and the Scottish Executive. Even so, why was I taught about programming, databases, and every intricate detail of spreadsheets instead of how to get the best from the internet, build websites, set up online banking or use Photoshop for example? Most of the things I was taught at school to do with computers was out of date and has not proved very useful. After all, computing is an area which is moving faster than most and therefore even more emphasis should be put on ensuring that it is as up to date as possible.
But I’m pleased to hear that things are changing. Senior staff at the OIC Education Department have told me a brand knew curriculum is being worked on and it should be fully in use by 2009. It will remove many of the rigid guide lines of the current system and replace them with something much more flexible allowing teachers and pupils to have more say over what is taught. Maybe even this does not go far enough. Perhaps pupils should be encouraged to give feedback to their school about their courses and how useful what they have learned has been once they have spent some time away so that the authorities can fine tune what the next generation is taught to make it as relevant as possible. I think at the very least there should be some serious debate about these issues.
I have spent most of July in Auskerry which has been excellent. I’m going to be busy this weekend as five of my friends from Uni are coming up to visit tomorrow. I’m taking them out to Auskerry on Monday for a couple of days so I hope the weather is nice as we are meant to be camping and with a bit of luck we will get out in the boat for some Mackerel, and maybe get a few creels out too.
To finish off I might as well make a school related suggestion, even if it’s a little tongue in cheek. I remember one 6th year assembly when I suggested the school motto should be modernized because most of my year didn’t know what ‘Si Deus Nobiscum’ means. If it must be in Latin, how about changing it to something like ‘Vade Atque Vale’ because although there was never a phrase exactly like it in Latin, it’s as close as I can get to… Keep It Real.
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - September 2007
If you’re reading this on the day it’s published I will be leaving Orkney tomorrow on my journey back to Sunderland to begin my second year. In am really excited and very much looking forward to getting back to my ‘other life’.
This is not to say, however, that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed being in Orkney for the summer holidays. It’s been a busy three months cramming in five weeks full time work at Radio Orkney, helping mum and dad on Auskerry with fencing, building a garden wall, general maintenance and in the last week, bringing the peat home. We have also had a lot of friends and family up to visit and I have had some of my own friends from school out to Auskerry for a camping weekend. We do this every summer as it’s a chance to have a bit of ‘lad’s time’ and get away from the town.
I have also had five friends up from university to visit Orkney, and particularly Auskerry, but unfortunately they never quite made it that far. They arrived on the Scrabster boat on the Friday night and we planned to spend the weekend on the mainland doing a bit of partying, then go to Auskerry on Monday morning and have a couple of days camping before they headed home on Wednesday. But sadly even the best laid plans can be ruined by the weather and that’s exactly what it did. On Sunday morning we had a nice day cycling out to Scapa and in the afternoon we loaded the Creole with the supplies we had bought on Saturday ready for Auskerry. By Monday morning the weather had broken and it was raining so hard that we were all soaked through by the time we got from the house to the boat. Mum and a couple her friends on holiday from Spain were on the boat too so some of the lads went below decks with the luggage as there was not space in the wheelhouse. It was a very windy day and it soon became apparent it was going to be a choppy trip, not the sort you spend sitting on the forward deck admiring the view! Anyway, we started to head up the string and my mate Mcduff and I were out on deck by the wheelhouse using our phones to film our own version of the BBC TV programme, Trawlermen. One of the videos showed Mcduff walking along the side of the wheelhouse and saying in a Peterhead accent; “It’s a pretty course day like, but err, we have to catch some fish or we can’t pay the crew.” Then he turned away from the sea, looked into the camera and said, “You can see how rough it is.” At which point a wave licked over the bow, seeing it through the camera, I ducked into the wheelhouse, and he got wet. We thought it was hilarious and I was really enjoying the trip despite being soaked from the rain.
However some of the ‘crew’ were not having such a great experience and when a wave slightly steeper than the rest knocked the boat enough for the pile of boxes in the cabin to collapse, I began to think it was time to call it off. It was perfectly safe, but it wasn’t much fun for some and it would have been a nightmare trying to get people dry and put tents up in the poor weather so when mum and Smith made the decision to turn back I was disappointed but relieved at the same time. It was a real shame for the lads who travelled miles up the UK just to get a misty glimpse of the east side of Shapinsay, but that’s just what happens sometimes.
They all enjoyed Orkney and they all agreed the trip on the Creole was a good character building experience. I’m sure I’ll not have too much trouble in persuading them to come back next year and try it again.
Meanwhile I have hardly been off the phone trying to get ‘Northern Hype’ up and running. This is the promotion company that I and five other mates at uni are setting up with the plan being to run a weekly student night in the well known Sunderland night club, Independent. I knew it would be a lot of work and we have really only just begun but were all really keen to get back and get started properly. At the moment we are working on finalizing bookings for various bands, DJ’s and venues. We also have to get posters and flyers made up and distributed around the area. Andy has completed the website and the forum has been up and running for over a month now so things are beginning to come together at last.
One of the many things that’s enthused me this summer has been talking to people I was at school with who have gone off and done interesting things, and returned with various experiences. Richard and Gary have joined shipping companies and spent the year travelling the world, visiting many famous city ports as far away as Singapore. Alex and Nick both went to America, Alex for a few weeks and Nick for a year. They have all come back with a much broader idea of life having had a chance to experience a real sense of independence.
Last week I signed up to doing the weekday 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM, Sunderland University’s student station. You may remember that last May I did the weekday breakfast show with Danielle. We decided that it would be good experience for us both if we did a show on our own this time and then we could perhaps team up again next may to do ‘Drivetime’. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the air again and I’ve been trying to come up with features and names for the show. Due to the time of day I’m considering giving it the tongue in cheek name: ‘Student Breakfast’.
This is not to say, however, that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed being in Orkney for the summer holidays. It’s been a busy three months cramming in five weeks full time work at Radio Orkney, helping mum and dad on Auskerry with fencing, building a garden wall, general maintenance and in the last week, bringing the peat home. We have also had a lot of friends and family up to visit and I have had some of my own friends from school out to Auskerry for a camping weekend. We do this every summer as it’s a chance to have a bit of ‘lad’s time’ and get away from the town.
I have also had five friends up from university to visit Orkney, and particularly Auskerry, but unfortunately they never quite made it that far. They arrived on the Scrabster boat on the Friday night and we planned to spend the weekend on the mainland doing a bit of partying, then go to Auskerry on Monday morning and have a couple of days camping before they headed home on Wednesday. But sadly even the best laid plans can be ruined by the weather and that’s exactly what it did. On Sunday morning we had a nice day cycling out to Scapa and in the afternoon we loaded the Creole with the supplies we had bought on Saturday ready for Auskerry. By Monday morning the weather had broken and it was raining so hard that we were all soaked through by the time we got from the house to the boat. Mum and a couple her friends on holiday from Spain were on the boat too so some of the lads went below decks with the luggage as there was not space in the wheelhouse. It was a very windy day and it soon became apparent it was going to be a choppy trip, not the sort you spend sitting on the forward deck admiring the view! Anyway, we started to head up the string and my mate Mcduff and I were out on deck by the wheelhouse using our phones to film our own version of the BBC TV programme, Trawlermen. One of the videos showed Mcduff walking along the side of the wheelhouse and saying in a Peterhead accent; “It’s a pretty course day like, but err, we have to catch some fish or we can’t pay the crew.” Then he turned away from the sea, looked into the camera and said, “You can see how rough it is.” At which point a wave licked over the bow, seeing it through the camera, I ducked into the wheelhouse, and he got wet. We thought it was hilarious and I was really enjoying the trip despite being soaked from the rain.
However some of the ‘crew’ were not having such a great experience and when a wave slightly steeper than the rest knocked the boat enough for the pile of boxes in the cabin to collapse, I began to think it was time to call it off. It was perfectly safe, but it wasn’t much fun for some and it would have been a nightmare trying to get people dry and put tents up in the poor weather so when mum and Smith made the decision to turn back I was disappointed but relieved at the same time. It was a real shame for the lads who travelled miles up the UK just to get a misty glimpse of the east side of Shapinsay, but that’s just what happens sometimes.
They all enjoyed Orkney and they all agreed the trip on the Creole was a good character building experience. I’m sure I’ll not have too much trouble in persuading them to come back next year and try it again.
Meanwhile I have hardly been off the phone trying to get ‘Northern Hype’ up and running. This is the promotion company that I and five other mates at uni are setting up with the plan being to run a weekly student night in the well known Sunderland night club, Independent. I knew it would be a lot of work and we have really only just begun but were all really keen to get back and get started properly. At the moment we are working on finalizing bookings for various bands, DJ’s and venues. We also have to get posters and flyers made up and distributed around the area. Andy has completed the website and the forum has been up and running for over a month now so things are beginning to come together at last.
One of the many things that’s enthused me this summer has been talking to people I was at school with who have gone off and done interesting things, and returned with various experiences. Richard and Gary have joined shipping companies and spent the year travelling the world, visiting many famous city ports as far away as Singapore. Alex and Nick both went to America, Alex for a few weeks and Nick for a year. They have all come back with a much broader idea of life having had a chance to experience a real sense of independence.
Last week I signed up to doing the weekday 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM, Sunderland University’s student station. You may remember that last May I did the weekday breakfast show with Danielle. We decided that it would be good experience for us both if we did a show on our own this time and then we could perhaps team up again next may to do ‘Drivetime’. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the air again and I’ve been trying to come up with features and names for the show. Due to the time of day I’m considering giving it the tongue in cheek name: ‘Student Breakfast’.
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - October 2007
I’ve been back in Sunderland three weeks now. Just to recap, my self and five friends from Uni have teamed up to form Northern Hype which is essentially a promotion company. We have been given the chance to run a local nightclub every Friday and I therefore decided to come back a week before fresher’s even started so we could all work together for the final preparations. I knew there would be a lot of last minute stuff to do in preparation for the launch of ‘Hype’, the name we have given to our Friday night party, but what we have managed to achieve in the last couple of weeks has been a pleasant surprise.
We designed and bought 5000 flyers which we can use for the next few weeks as they are reasonably generic but we have already shifted 3500 of them. We did the same with posters and a large canvas banner with our logo on it. All the lads have pulled their weight consistently and after hours spent distributing flyers, putting up posters, talking to people about the night, going to meetings and on the night even going round the halls of residence with poster boards and a megaphone we felt we had done everything we could. Despite all this effort, by 6pm on the big day I was really tense, to be honest I was pretty hopeful it was going to go ok but I’m a worrier and there was just this nagging doubt that we had forgotten something or the band wouldn’t turn up or my mixer would crash or something.
In the end we did have a bit of a worry because the band turned up but our sound man who had been booked by the guys who run the club didn’t. We were faced with having to tell the band they couldn’t play, pay them and send them home. However, we were very lucky and got a stand in sound man at the last minute. In the end we half filled the club with about 250 people, the band got a good review, the bar sold out of Alco pops used to make our exclusive ‘pints of hype’ and despite letting in all the students for free and only charging non students after 12 we even made a small profit from the door. We all felt that it had gone better than we had even hoped and went home contented if a little worn out.
The trouble is, were doing this every Friday so on the Sunday night we had a meeting to decide who’s doing what in preparation for the new week, more posters to be designed and distributed, more flyers and more talking to people about the night. I feel very strongly that one of Northern Hype’s key selling points is the fact that we are all students running a club owned and managed by two young men from Sunderland who did what we are doing when they were at university. We are not some faceless money grabbing corporate entity.
Therefore people see us out and about giving people flyers and actually having a bit of banter with them, not just handing them out as people walk past, then they see us chatting to people in the pre club bar, and then they see us on the decks in the club. We are expecting a lull now after the initial ‘hype’ of the first week, but we are hopeful the night will grow and develop into a weekly fixture in peoples social calendars.
In this last few hectic weeks I have moved into my new flat, just 100 yards along from Flat 11, I’m now upstairs in Flat 30 with three of the guys I lived with last year and two new ones, Andy and Darren. The two Andy’s is proving quite confusing but nick names are helping, plus we have a balcony and an even better river view than last year so its all good.
I have also been doing the lunchtime 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM for the last two weeks. It will be over by the time this is published and I have to say I haven’t enjoyed it much as last time when I did breakfast. I believe this is due to two things, firstly the format of the show, and second the general lack of promotion for the station. First of all, doing a play listed show on my own quickly made me realize that I much better suit a format of radio programming called ‘zoo’. The Chris Moyles and Steve Wright shows are Zoo format, it basically means upwards of 2 presenters talking or at least in the studio at one time, often 3 or 4. It’s like a party on the radio and gives the presenters the chance to ‘bounce’ off each other. It’s very difficult to be funny and entertaining in a room on your own with nobody there to even smile at your jokes, whereas if you have two people with you laughing and bantering with you, you can be fairly sure you are reasonably entertaining. I would be happy playing classic rock music by myself in the evening because then the emphasis is on the music rather than the presenters banter.
The second reason for me not enjoying doing the show that much is the fact the station has had virtually no promotion. Therefore there are almost no listeners and as a result the presenters get no text messages or emails to speak of. This leads to people feeling they are making a lot of effort for it just fall on deaf ears. Also, without listener feedback you have no way of knowing whether you are funny, or rubbish so doubt creeps in, you get disheartened and a bored, the quality of your output drops and then you are rubbish. This cycle then continues. The reason there has been no promotion is because the University management have dragged their feet so much over money there is no cash available even for a poster campaign around the city. This makes me very annoyed and I’m therefore intending to run for management in May with Chris from Northern Hype so we can start making a fuss and try and make things change for the better of the presenters and the listeners. Cheers.
We designed and bought 5000 flyers which we can use for the next few weeks as they are reasonably generic but we have already shifted 3500 of them. We did the same with posters and a large canvas banner with our logo on it. All the lads have pulled their weight consistently and after hours spent distributing flyers, putting up posters, talking to people about the night, going to meetings and on the night even going round the halls of residence with poster boards and a megaphone we felt we had done everything we could. Despite all this effort, by 6pm on the big day I was really tense, to be honest I was pretty hopeful it was going to go ok but I’m a worrier and there was just this nagging doubt that we had forgotten something or the band wouldn’t turn up or my mixer would crash or something.
In the end we did have a bit of a worry because the band turned up but our sound man who had been booked by the guys who run the club didn’t. We were faced with having to tell the band they couldn’t play, pay them and send them home. However, we were very lucky and got a stand in sound man at the last minute. In the end we half filled the club with about 250 people, the band got a good review, the bar sold out of Alco pops used to make our exclusive ‘pints of hype’ and despite letting in all the students for free and only charging non students after 12 we even made a small profit from the door. We all felt that it had gone better than we had even hoped and went home contented if a little worn out.
The trouble is, were doing this every Friday so on the Sunday night we had a meeting to decide who’s doing what in preparation for the new week, more posters to be designed and distributed, more flyers and more talking to people about the night. I feel very strongly that one of Northern Hype’s key selling points is the fact that we are all students running a club owned and managed by two young men from Sunderland who did what we are doing when they were at university. We are not some faceless money grabbing corporate entity.
Therefore people see us out and about giving people flyers and actually having a bit of banter with them, not just handing them out as people walk past, then they see us chatting to people in the pre club bar, and then they see us on the decks in the club. We are expecting a lull now after the initial ‘hype’ of the first week, but we are hopeful the night will grow and develop into a weekly fixture in peoples social calendars.
In this last few hectic weeks I have moved into my new flat, just 100 yards along from Flat 11, I’m now upstairs in Flat 30 with three of the guys I lived with last year and two new ones, Andy and Darren. The two Andy’s is proving quite confusing but nick names are helping, plus we have a balcony and an even better river view than last year so its all good.
I have also been doing the lunchtime 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM for the last two weeks. It will be over by the time this is published and I have to say I haven’t enjoyed it much as last time when I did breakfast. I believe this is due to two things, firstly the format of the show, and second the general lack of promotion for the station. First of all, doing a play listed show on my own quickly made me realize that I much better suit a format of radio programming called ‘zoo’. The Chris Moyles and Steve Wright shows are Zoo format, it basically means upwards of 2 presenters talking or at least in the studio at one time, often 3 or 4. It’s like a party on the radio and gives the presenters the chance to ‘bounce’ off each other. It’s very difficult to be funny and entertaining in a room on your own with nobody there to even smile at your jokes, whereas if you have two people with you laughing and bantering with you, you can be fairly sure you are reasonably entertaining. I would be happy playing classic rock music by myself in the evening because then the emphasis is on the music rather than the presenters banter.
The second reason for me not enjoying doing the show that much is the fact the station has had virtually no promotion. Therefore there are almost no listeners and as a result the presenters get no text messages or emails to speak of. This leads to people feeling they are making a lot of effort for it just fall on deaf ears. Also, without listener feedback you have no way of knowing whether you are funny, or rubbish so doubt creeps in, you get disheartened and a bored, the quality of your output drops and then you are rubbish. This cycle then continues. The reason there has been no promotion is because the University management have dragged their feet so much over money there is no cash available even for a poster campaign around the city. This makes me very annoyed and I’m therefore intending to run for management in May with Chris from Northern Hype so we can start making a fuss and try and make things change for the better of the presenters and the listeners. Cheers.
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - November 2007
In the last four weeks the work load has really begun to increase quite considerably. I have the task of producing three radio adverts, a five minute radio package and two essays, one on media studies and one for a module called Power, Politics and the Media all to be completed in less than two weeks. Just as I sat down to get on with that I realised it was once again time to write this as well. It’s funny how things manage to creep up on you even if you are reasonably organised.
I have held the opinion for a while now that a large proportion of my fellow students are coasting a bit. I get this idea because there are so many students with very poor attendance, who don’t ever contribute anything to class discussions and who actually look moderately annoyed when people like my self attempt to debate an issue in class time. My attitude to this is simple.
The education I am getting is costing in excess of £6000 a year including £3070 for tuition fees, about £2300 for accommodation and the rest for food and the odd pint. This is pretty much the same for everyone and therefore I can’t understand why there are so many students who don’t seem bothered whether or not they get their moneys worth. This is not to mention the fact that I want to feel as if I have actually achieved something from my three year course. As a result I want to discuss things, I want to be able to talk to the academics that are here to teach us and I want to be able to voice an opinion and have it challenged and debated by my peer group. I don’t want to sit quietly in a corner, watching the clock and waiting for the end off the lesson so I can go home and play computer games.
I believe there are two reasons for this general lack lustre approach by some people. Firstly, a lack of motivation for which the parents are partly to blame because they have failed to enthuse their children and persuade them make more effort, and partly the fault of the individual for not thinking about their aspirations and deciding to get on with the job in hand.
Secondly, I blame the University for failing to have a system in place that can help students who lack motivation. I totally understand that University is about pushing yourself, and trying to learn without having someone hold your hand but this system clearly does not work for a lot of people. The result, as I see it, is a split between two groups of students, one group who feel frustrated because they are stuck in a class with people who don’t contribute to discussions, and another group who are unconvinced by what they are being taught, why they are there and basically spend their time thinking about what other things they could be doing with their time which would benefit them more.
It ultimately begs the question; why come to University if you don’t want to get involved in what I believe University life to be about? Ultimately I think our society puts far too much pressure on young people to go into higher education who would actually be much more likely to succeed and develop positively from going straight into the work place. When people arrive at the decision to come to University it should be because that is what they feel is going to be right for them at that time, not because that’s what they think is expected of them by their family, teachers, friends or in fact, anyone.
Going back to my own situation, I strongly believe that once you are at Uni, simply turning up to lectures, completing the work set, and at the end of it getting a degree is not what university is all about. That’s partly my motivation for getting involved with extra activities and having other projects such as Northern Hype and student radio.
To update you, this Friday (November 2) is week 7 of ‘Hype’. We have consistently got good attendance numbers, around 250 per week, and we are getting good feedback from people who have been down to the club. We now have a substantial core group of people who turn up every week and we are also turning a small, but consistent profit. We are all feeling pleased about how the business venture is going and are quite excited about where it may lead us.
Another thing that’s been bothering me since I last wrote is that I have discovered Sunderland University is not a member of the National Union of Students. Coupled with the recent closure of two university owned student bars and the lack of a proper central union building I’m a little concerned to say the least. Most Uni’s in this country have a central building which often incorporates a bar or a night club (often both), a shop and a café area. We do not have this and as a result it’s difficult for students to meet people from different departments because they all hang out in different places instead of everyone dropping into a communal location for a pint after work. It’s rumoured that this is largely down to the fact that the university makes three times the amount of money from international students as it does from indigenous UK residents and because the majority of international students don’t share the same drinking cultures as people originally from the UK, and as a result it’s not financially worth while to provide a union bar facility because the number of people who would use it is regarded as not being a big enough proportion of the students studying here. To me, and indeed a lot of my contemporaries, this seems very unfair and gives the impression that the University’s senior management are much more concerned about money than providing what they sell as a ‘Life Changing’ experience. Again, this is something I hope to be able to get to the bottom of at some stage before I leave at the end of my course.
On a final note I’d like to say how much I’m looking forward to coming home in a couple of weeks time for reading week and the BBC children in need appeal show on Radio Orkney.
I have held the opinion for a while now that a large proportion of my fellow students are coasting a bit. I get this idea because there are so many students with very poor attendance, who don’t ever contribute anything to class discussions and who actually look moderately annoyed when people like my self attempt to debate an issue in class time. My attitude to this is simple.
The education I am getting is costing in excess of £6000 a year including £3070 for tuition fees, about £2300 for accommodation and the rest for food and the odd pint. This is pretty much the same for everyone and therefore I can’t understand why there are so many students who don’t seem bothered whether or not they get their moneys worth. This is not to mention the fact that I want to feel as if I have actually achieved something from my three year course. As a result I want to discuss things, I want to be able to talk to the academics that are here to teach us and I want to be able to voice an opinion and have it challenged and debated by my peer group. I don’t want to sit quietly in a corner, watching the clock and waiting for the end off the lesson so I can go home and play computer games.
I believe there are two reasons for this general lack lustre approach by some people. Firstly, a lack of motivation for which the parents are partly to blame because they have failed to enthuse their children and persuade them make more effort, and partly the fault of the individual for not thinking about their aspirations and deciding to get on with the job in hand.
Secondly, I blame the University for failing to have a system in place that can help students who lack motivation. I totally understand that University is about pushing yourself, and trying to learn without having someone hold your hand but this system clearly does not work for a lot of people. The result, as I see it, is a split between two groups of students, one group who feel frustrated because they are stuck in a class with people who don’t contribute to discussions, and another group who are unconvinced by what they are being taught, why they are there and basically spend their time thinking about what other things they could be doing with their time which would benefit them more.
It ultimately begs the question; why come to University if you don’t want to get involved in what I believe University life to be about? Ultimately I think our society puts far too much pressure on young people to go into higher education who would actually be much more likely to succeed and develop positively from going straight into the work place. When people arrive at the decision to come to University it should be because that is what they feel is going to be right for them at that time, not because that’s what they think is expected of them by their family, teachers, friends or in fact, anyone.
Going back to my own situation, I strongly believe that once you are at Uni, simply turning up to lectures, completing the work set, and at the end of it getting a degree is not what university is all about. That’s partly my motivation for getting involved with extra activities and having other projects such as Northern Hype and student radio.
To update you, this Friday (November 2) is week 7 of ‘Hype’. We have consistently got good attendance numbers, around 250 per week, and we are getting good feedback from people who have been down to the club. We now have a substantial core group of people who turn up every week and we are also turning a small, but consistent profit. We are all feeling pleased about how the business venture is going and are quite excited about where it may lead us.
Another thing that’s been bothering me since I last wrote is that I have discovered Sunderland University is not a member of the National Union of Students. Coupled with the recent closure of two university owned student bars and the lack of a proper central union building I’m a little concerned to say the least. Most Uni’s in this country have a central building which often incorporates a bar or a night club (often both), a shop and a café area. We do not have this and as a result it’s difficult for students to meet people from different departments because they all hang out in different places instead of everyone dropping into a communal location for a pint after work. It’s rumoured that this is largely down to the fact that the university makes three times the amount of money from international students as it does from indigenous UK residents and because the majority of international students don’t share the same drinking cultures as people originally from the UK, and as a result it’s not financially worth while to provide a union bar facility because the number of people who would use it is regarded as not being a big enough proportion of the students studying here. To me, and indeed a lot of my contemporaries, this seems very unfair and gives the impression that the University’s senior management are much more concerned about money than providing what they sell as a ‘Life Changing’ experience. Again, this is something I hope to be able to get to the bottom of at some stage before I leave at the end of my course.
On a final note I’d like to say how much I’m looking forward to coming home in a couple of weeks time for reading week and the BBC children in need appeal show on Radio Orkney.
Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - December 2007
It’s less than three weeks until Christmas and I will be home in less than two. It seems daft to be returning home again so soon after being back for Radio Orkneys children in need show. This was as usual, a really enjoyable community event for which I was lucky to be involved. The fast approaching deadlines are proving a bit stressful as I still have a lot of work to do between now and home time. Nevertheless, I’m still really enjoying life here and although I’m really looking forward to coming home, I will miss the lads in flat 30 over the festive period.
As well as the essays and various other academic studies, I have been busy working on some other projects which are more fun but still beneficial to my career. The student radio station, Utopia FM, has been recruiting new management for the next three weeks of broadcasting and I have won the ‘head of training and development’ position. I am responsible for helping people with a little or no radio experience to improve their skills in anything from editing to driving the desk. Nearer the time of the broadcast in May I will listen to the demo tapes and, along with the Programme Controller and Station Manager, give feedback and ultimately help decide on the final schedule.
I have also been getting involved in the new Sunderland student T.V. station that’s being set up by one of my friends. He aims to broadcast a weekly show over one of the spare network channels recently installed into the university halls. This will be a great opportunity for a lot of people, including myself, to get some extra hands-on experience of live TV. This will build on what I have learned in my TV studio modules both last year and this. At the moment we are working on a ten minute children’s show called ‘Fun Time’. This is proving to be great fun and very interesting as we are all getting a chance to try our hand on the cameras as the vision mixer, floor manager, director etc. The whole thing is also a great team building exercise. My only real problem with TV is that unlike most radio shows, it takes a lot of people and a heck of a lot of time to produce a programme. At times I find it a little frustrating because it always takes so long to set up the studio just to record two minutes of TV, where a lot more radio could be made in a fraction of the time. Having said that, I do really enjoy the module, and as my tutor said the other day; now that I know how TV works, I can watch bad TV and still get some enjoyment from it when I see them make mistakes.
Perhaps the most exciting thing which I’m embarking on at the moment is podcasting. I remember one of my computing teachers, Russell Manson, telling me when I was at school that I should have a go at it. I always thought it was going to be too difficult, and I suspect there was an element of laziness as well. Anyway, he told me that it was an exciting new thing and in light of my interest in radio, I should give it a go.
He was right and I have now begun to produce a fortnightly podcast called ‘The Rory Auskerry Show’. The podcasting process is actually quite simple once you have been shown what to do. Basically you need somewhere to host the mp3 file online, (I use a site called switchpod.com which is free and easy to use), you also need an iTunes account which is also free and very straightforward to set up. Once you have got this organised it’s just a case of recording your podcast, either at home on a portable mic or better still in a studio, uploading it to your host site and ‘pinging’ it to iTunes.
I have decided I’d like to experiment with lots of styles of radio show, and because a podcast isn’t broadcast it doesn’t need to conform to the usual broadcasting standards for quality and content set by OFCOM. Because I have access to broadcast quality studios and editing facilities I am able to make the technical quality sound pretty professional. As for the content I’m aiming to cover quite a lot over the course of the next few months.
Last week I produced a half hour show with Ian, one of the lads who came to Orkney last summer. In the show we chat about the trip to Orkney, (including the boat journey half way to Auskerry), some news stories which amused me and the ‘Kirby’ game that resulted in a broken front window, as well as various other things. He didn’t hold back and as a result I think the show is honest and funny, if at times a little explicit.
I hope that this does not put anybody off the shows as a whole because the next podcast will be totally different. I’m going to be joined by two of the most vocal students in my power, politics and the media seminar. Like my self, Caroline and Chris get quite heated during class debates and are both quite willing to play devil’s advocate over topics like Iraq, terrorism, religion and climate change. This show will be a properly organised, professional radio debate and therefore very different from the show with Ian.
Overall I’m aiming to produce a portfolio of work demonstrating that I can take the lead role in a variety of radio shows. It will also help me to discover exactly what I am best at, and what types of shows I enjoy doing the most.
Well it looks like that’s it from me until January. All that remains to be said is happy Christmas and I wish everyone a very good new year. I hope you will have a listen to the podcast, and I will now get back to my essays. Cheers.
As well as the essays and various other academic studies, I have been busy working on some other projects which are more fun but still beneficial to my career. The student radio station, Utopia FM, has been recruiting new management for the next three weeks of broadcasting and I have won the ‘head of training and development’ position. I am responsible for helping people with a little or no radio experience to improve their skills in anything from editing to driving the desk. Nearer the time of the broadcast in May I will listen to the demo tapes and, along with the Programme Controller and Station Manager, give feedback and ultimately help decide on the final schedule.
I have also been getting involved in the new Sunderland student T.V. station that’s being set up by one of my friends. He aims to broadcast a weekly show over one of the spare network channels recently installed into the university halls. This will be a great opportunity for a lot of people, including myself, to get some extra hands-on experience of live TV. This will build on what I have learned in my TV studio modules both last year and this. At the moment we are working on a ten minute children’s show called ‘Fun Time’. This is proving to be great fun and very interesting as we are all getting a chance to try our hand on the cameras as the vision mixer, floor manager, director etc. The whole thing is also a great team building exercise. My only real problem with TV is that unlike most radio shows, it takes a lot of people and a heck of a lot of time to produce a programme. At times I find it a little frustrating because it always takes so long to set up the studio just to record two minutes of TV, where a lot more radio could be made in a fraction of the time. Having said that, I do really enjoy the module, and as my tutor said the other day; now that I know how TV works, I can watch bad TV and still get some enjoyment from it when I see them make mistakes.
Perhaps the most exciting thing which I’m embarking on at the moment is podcasting. I remember one of my computing teachers, Russell Manson, telling me when I was at school that I should have a go at it. I always thought it was going to be too difficult, and I suspect there was an element of laziness as well. Anyway, he told me that it was an exciting new thing and in light of my interest in radio, I should give it a go.
He was right and I have now begun to produce a fortnightly podcast called ‘The Rory Auskerry Show’. The podcasting process is actually quite simple once you have been shown what to do. Basically you need somewhere to host the mp3 file online, (I use a site called switchpod.com which is free and easy to use), you also need an iTunes account which is also free and very straightforward to set up. Once you have got this organised it’s just a case of recording your podcast, either at home on a portable mic or better still in a studio, uploading it to your host site and ‘pinging’ it to iTunes.
I have decided I’d like to experiment with lots of styles of radio show, and because a podcast isn’t broadcast it doesn’t need to conform to the usual broadcasting standards for quality and content set by OFCOM. Because I have access to broadcast quality studios and editing facilities I am able to make the technical quality sound pretty professional. As for the content I’m aiming to cover quite a lot over the course of the next few months.
Last week I produced a half hour show with Ian, one of the lads who came to Orkney last summer. In the show we chat about the trip to Orkney, (including the boat journey half way to Auskerry), some news stories which amused me and the ‘Kirby’ game that resulted in a broken front window, as well as various other things. He didn’t hold back and as a result I think the show is honest and funny, if at times a little explicit.
I hope that this does not put anybody off the shows as a whole because the next podcast will be totally different. I’m going to be joined by two of the most vocal students in my power, politics and the media seminar. Like my self, Caroline and Chris get quite heated during class debates and are both quite willing to play devil’s advocate over topics like Iraq, terrorism, religion and climate change. This show will be a properly organised, professional radio debate and therefore very different from the show with Ian.
Overall I’m aiming to produce a portfolio of work demonstrating that I can take the lead role in a variety of radio shows. It will also help me to discover exactly what I am best at, and what types of shows I enjoy doing the most.
Well it looks like that’s it from me until January. All that remains to be said is happy Christmas and I wish everyone a very good new year. I hope you will have a listen to the podcast, and I will now get back to my essays. Cheers.
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