Well, that’s it…..campaigning can now begin.

The posters have gone up, the manifestos are being distributed and the good word is being passed around.

For those that would like some more information, you can have a look at my campaign website at www.m-redstone.co.uk.

I’ve had to stop all comments on this blog as I was getting far too much spam comments happening. Sorry, if it causes any inconvenience.

Well, the next week will be full of running around, talking to people…..explaining my policies and pledges. There’s hustings on Wednesday (12:30 in Maxwell Building) and Thursday (19:00 in the Pav). So I’m getting ready for these and starting to jot down some ideas.

I’m already knackered and there’s still 10 days until close of elections and announcement of results.

IT’S GETTING EXCITING!!!!!!!!!

So, it’s nearly that time. In about 24 hours I will find out who is running against me in the Students’ Union Elections for the University of Salford.

I’m quite excited and have been planning out some of my campaign for the upcoming elections. I’ve got a secret weapon and I think that it’s going to be a crowd pleaser!!

Whatever happens, I’m going to try my hardest as I know that I can make a difference in this role.

I also found out today that after only three weeks as a journalist for Student Direct (the free weekly student paper for the Universiuty of Salford) three (yes, THREE) of my articles have been printed. The first is the front page article, another is an article within the centre page spread (a special theme for it this week) and another article within the paper, which was the only article that I was commissioned to write originaly. I’ve had pleasing feedback from my first article, with several people saying how good it was. Somebody even asked if I had considered taking up journalism.  The answer, suprisingly, is no!!

The next update will be tomorrow when I find out just who is running against me in the elections. Ooooooo I can’t wait!!

Right, sod the quotes and I’m not sure what the title is supposed to represent either (Irene didn’t sound right, so I just rhymed with it), but I thought “Martyn, you haven’t really updated your beautiful readers on your life recently” so this is what this post is all about. No jokes, no politics……just a very intraverted post.

So, where to start?

Well, okay, there have been a fair few things happening in my life recently, so I’ll try and get them all down in a concise manner.

I got a job!! I know, I’m a student and don’t know the meaning of hard work, but I was getting quite depressed about not having a job and being skint. I’m working for Reed Health Ltd, part of the Reed Employment Group. Basically, I spend about 16 hours over the weekend working on their On-Call Team, ensuring that shifts are filled by candidates etc etc etc. It all sounds very boring and is far too long winded to explain properly. Let’s just say that I’m enjoying it, I work with some great people and it all seems rather easy at the minute. I’ve settled in well, I think.

Exams next!! I had three exams over a two week period. I started with Requirements Engineering, which I have to say has been one of the most terribly taught modules that I have taken so far. As my uncle Richard put it “Those that can, do……those that can’t, teach”. How very appropriate in this case. Next came Human Computer Interaction. I have found this module interesting and had to do well in the exam as my assignment wasn’t really that good (it was programming, need I say more) and I revised hard for it. Unfortunately it was on a Friday morning and my housemates have a lovely habit of going out on Thursday nights. On this occasion I was kept up for many hours and did the exam on about 3 hours sleep, which didn’t really help me that much, infact I’d go so far as to say that it caused a hinderence, but hey….I’m not here to make excuses for bad performance. The final exam was Operating Systems Management. This has been a good module with a great teacher and I hope that (after all the effort that I’ve put in) I’ve passed this one.

We have a new housemate!! Her name is Anna and she is from Poland. She’s a very friendly girl and speaks suprisingly good English. Myself and a couple of other housemates have been helping her settle in. We’ve been showing her around, helping her get used to life in England. It’s lovely to get a new housemate that is so friendly. The last international student that we had was not a sociable person at all.

I had my first article published in Student Direct (the newspaper for students at Salford University). It was a report into the recent report into Equality and Diversity at the University. You can read it online, by clicking on the following link:

Equality and Diversity: University Scrutinised

It’s a .pdf file, so you may need Acrobat Reader, which is available here

Lastly, the elections for Salford Students’ Union have started. Nominations opened this week and I’m very excited. Yes, I am running for two position. The first is the Welfare & Education Officer, this is a full time sabatical position on the Executive Committee. I’m also standing for a position on the delegation from Salford to the NUS Annual Conference. I was on this delegation last year and thoroughly enjoyed myself, so I hope I get to do this again. In all fairness I hope that I get voted into both positions. I feel that I would do a bloody good job in both. Any way, if it interests you, you can view my poster and my manifesto at the following links.

My Poster
My Manifesto

I’ll probably be converting this site into a campaign site for the duration of the elections, but my blog will still be accessible. I’m unsure exactly how everything is going to be, but I will keep you all updated.

So for now……peace out!!

Martyn