If I were to die....

I've made a personal obit to help you get to know me. News Journalism is becoming grimmer by the second with another lovely article on tragedy!

THIS ISN'T REAL! I'm still alive...

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James Hartnett, the tennis-playing, scuba-diving, Spurs-supporting prospective journalist has passed away, after surviving East London knife-culture for 18 years.

Hartnett had always been a confident writer and his enthusiasm more than anything made him want to pursue a career in journalism. In school he was always achieving high grades and this urged him into choosing to take a journalism course in Bournemouth University.

At only three days old, James stopped breathing. Luckily, his mother noticed how still he was in his cot and rushed over to save him from cot death. Since then he developed asthma, yet this did nothing to stop him from trying his hand at a large number of sports. At school, he played as a goalkeeper for his school team, and although they lost all but one of their matches, he cherished playing one of the sports he loved and being part of a team. However, he couldn’t play outfield since his asthma was too restrictive, so instead took up tennis as a part time sport. The sport, less demanding than a constant 90-minute run around, made Hartnett progressively fitter until he eventually ‘lost’ his asthma after it became so mild it never again affected him.

After his parents divorced in 1997, Hartnett tended to become involved in sport more with his father, after the rest of his life was spent living at home with his mother and sister – three years older than him. He got into more niche sports, such as squash and quad-biking, and was more than happy when his revision period for his GCSE’s was a holiday to Centre Parks – using sport as a reward for revision. He loved water sports too – a recent holiday to Geneva enabled the youngster to try his hand at waterskiing. With influence from his step-granddad, an extremely enthusiastic and devoted deep-sea scuba-diver, he also experienced scuba-diving on holiday in Dominican Republic when he was 16. Four dives later, he plans to eventually get his PADI certificate, once he has enough time and money to afford the course – a long way to go from his tantrums at the early age of 8 at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, where he refused to snorkel in freshwater.

The East-Londoner was born at Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone, and grew up in Highams Park, London, on the borders of Essex. He attended school in local Walthamstow, and attended Trinity School/Sixth Form until he was 18. After gaining sufficient A-Level grades, the student booked his place in Bournemouth University. His long-term plan is to return to London, but for now he is focusing on his studies.

Hartnett worked as a waiter last summer for a temporary high-profile company. Throughout his time there, he catered at glamorous events such as football and rugby cup finals, tennis finals and ceremonies and music concerts. Although the pay was little, he saved up enough for a car, which he made sure he used every day to squeeze every drop out of his two-and-a-half grand insurance premium. Before moving to Bournemouth, he sold the car for a measly £800 to help pay for his living costs.

With work experience at Leyton Orient FC under his belt in the summer too, he planned to carve his way into sports journalism with match reporting at Bournemouth AFC, before – he had hoped – reporting for his childhood football team Tottenham Hotspur FC after seven years as a devoted season-ticket holder – at a costly £780 per year.

Jesus Sculptures, Crashed Boats and Rare Soup...

Three more journalism articles written in our News Journalism lecture today...

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An unfortunate traffic accident resulted in 5 supercars being written off today by a 30-foot long boat sliding off a truck.
The incident occurred in Springbourne, Bournemouth, at around 8:30am today, causing huge traffic congestion tailing as far back as Charminster. There are no reported injuries as of yet, with the truck driver escaping without any harm at all.
As the man’s truck swerved around a bend, the boat – on the way to a scrap yard – became detached from the truck transporting it, before sliding off the back of the vehicle and causing damage to five dream cars at local showroom Hughes Luxury Cars. Due to the value of the cars, including a Ferrari, Lamborghini, and an Aston Martin, they cannot be cleared from the crash site until all damages are assessed. The truck driver may face charges for transporting a dangerous load, with a total of 8 cars being damaged by the boat en-tow.

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A can of Campbell’s tomato soup managed to fetch £10,000 today at Lloyd’s Auction House, Bournemouth.
The can, a first-place prize for an air race in 1934 by then-sponsors Campbell’s, had been set a reserve price of £5,000. However, due to a high volume of interest, bidding soon reached the £10,000 before the hammer went down for this record sale in a local Bournemouth auction house.
The can was won by the winner who managed to fly from London, England to Sydney, Australia the fastest in a bi-plane. Although the can cannot be traced back to its origin, nor can the winner of the race, the extremely rare prized possession has been in the hands of two private collectors for as far back as its existence has been recorded.

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A sand sculpture of Jesus was last night demolished after a group of young males threw missiles at the hand-crafted object in Weymouth, Dorset.
The sculpture, created by the Dibben family, was on sale at a charity stand for Julia’s House Children’s Hospice in Weymouth Beach, Dorset. A spokesperson from Dorset Police has said the force is currently assessing CCTV footage from midnight last night in effort to trace down the criminals. Although there is no physical criminal damage and no clear intent as of yet, the males in question may be charged for affray. The gang of 18-21-year-olds were seen on camera throwing bottles and stones at the sculpture late last night, but with no witnesses on the scene it is proving hard for the force to track down the culprits.

Interview with an Old Person

The assignment was actually called this, however harsh I feel it may sound. It certainly wasn't the easiest way to start an interview by saying what we had to do. Instead, the line "I need to interview as many members of the public of all ages in a day" worked a treat!
Limited to 250 words. The last name has been taken out to respect John's privacy...

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John, now 84, underwent critical yet successful surgery on a squint in his eye in 1933.
Since that day 76 years ago, he feels he is “more or less cured”. Although he wears a pair of bifocals, his vision could be dramatically worse, with potential blindness once a possibility for the man.

The operation was carried out in his then-hometown of Maidstone, Kent, and helped cure 6-year old John's eye problems early on in his childhood. Before the operation, John's squint wasn’t life-threatening, however doctors had warned John that the squint could turn into an infection without sufficient warning. If he didn’t treat his squint as soon as he did, the damage he would do to his eyes could have resulted in blurred vision or, worst case scenario, loss of vision.

John, now a Bournemouth resident, had three sisters - Peggy, Molly and Laura - and one brother. Although his brother passed away in the past decade, his three sisters are all healthy beings well into their 80s, and are all retired residents. John lives with his childhood sweetheart Ruth in suburban Bournemouth, and the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary three years ago. John used to work in a production factory before his former company collapsed. John's father served on the frontlines in the Second World War for two months in the early 1940s, but was forced to return earlier than expected due to a gunshot wound in his shoulder preventing him from further action

A Day in the Life of Me ...

Written to the style of the feature in the Sunday Times newspaper. This was another assignment for my university course, limited to 700 words.

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A Day in the Life: James Hartnett

The 18 year old Londoner currently works temporarily as a waiter whilst preparing himself for a Journalism course at Bournemouth University. He lives in Highams Park, on the border between London and Essex with his mother Sue, stepfather Charlie and sister Hannah.

I never have a set time to wake up in the mornings. Depending on when I book myself in for work will determine when I wake up. I’ve woken up anywhere between 4am and 11am for work, since there’s no concrete time to any of my shifts. I hate alarms, but the intro to Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Truly’ is soothing and melodic, and gets me up in a far better mood than anything else. Find another teenager that’ll admit that!

Breakfast usually consists of a bowl of cereal, Special K or Cheerios with skimmed milk – I can’t stand semi-skimmed, too fatty for me! This is the most important meal in my day, and working in the food industry like I do always makes me hungry so it’s vital I get to work with a full stomach. A quick shower and a few minutes in front of the mirror is all I need to be ready to leave – the way I see it the faster it takes to get ready, the more sleep I can get, and I need all I can get since my shifts can be pretty gruelling sometimes.

The train always takes ages. It takes 1 hour 45mins to get to work on a good day, since Wembley is the complete opposite side of London to me. Thankfully I’ve only ever forgotten my iPod once, and I can easily tune into a playlist and drift into daydream before I get to work. Sometimes I’ll pump out a drum and bass playlist, yet I feel like I should be embarrassed to say the golden oldies usually do it for me in the morning to gear me slowly into action.

I’ve had shifts that last 4 hours (which are a complete waste of time since it takes almost that long to travel there and back) whilst I’ve also had anything up to 14 hour shifts. A few times I’ve ended up having to get night buses home after work from central London since my overground trains stop at around 1:30am, and an already exhaustive journey can take up to 4 hours to complete on busses crammed with tramps, drunks or clubbers.

If I work at a retail booth – the fancy wording for ‘snack bar’ – I’ll stand happily at the same till for hours on end bantering with the customers. The bars usually smell of grease though, it’s easy to mistake these ‘booths’ for McDonalds. Custom can get quite annoying sometimes, less because the work is harder but more because the more customers eat, the less is left over for us at the end to gobble up!

I haven’t worked at a retail booth for a while now though since I usually end up in any of the thousands of restaurants Wembley have. The food is always way over-priced – I’ve heard 3 course meals can cost anything from £20 to £120 for microwavable mash, frozen sausages and a few petit pois. The up side to the restaurants though is the leftover food, though the tips also come in handy too!

If I’ve got enough time after work, I’ll visit my girlfriend for a few hours to de-stress with her, either putting my feet up in front of the telly or just having a chat. A shameful rant about an inevitable incompetent co-worker is always never far away either though! She’ll always listen to what I have to say, and whenever I leave her I feel much more at ease than I did when I arrived.

Typically I’ll get home about midnight, which leaves enough time for a cheeky raid of the fridge, before the whole cycle commences again in just a few hours time. After only a few days of this, my bed has never seemed more comfortable when I crawl into it after a long shift. Lionel, it’s almost your time to shine again…

ATP World Tour article (subbed)

Subbed version of my article written yesterday, ready to be (hopefully) published in the November issue of Nerve* magazine - the BU student-run magazine.

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London serves eight of the best
By James Hartnett

With a little over a month to go the wait is almost over for the ATP World Tour Finals, arguably the season’s most illustrious tennis competition, to hit London once again.

The top eight male players in the world will battle it out in the event, which will start on November 22nd at the London O2 arena. In the round robin tournament, the top two men in each pool will compete in the semi-finals for the right to be crowned champion.
Swiss World No.1 Roger Federer has lifted the trophy an impressive five times already and is favourite to clinch the title, and the tidy $5m prize fund, once more. However, the competition is tougher than ever with World No.2 Rafael Nadal and the rising Argentinean star Juan Martin Del Potro both in blistering form.
Nadal has recovered from glandular fever and a back problem which saw a turbulent string of results allow Brit Andy Murray to pinch the No.2 spot, albeit momentarily, from his grasp before the Spaniard reclaimed his seeding with an impressive run of late on the ATP tour.
Serbian World No.4 and last year’s winner Novak Djokovic is hot on Murray’s heels in the world rankings, and has already firmly booked his place in the World Tour Finals. Sixth-ranked American powerhouse Andy Roddick is some way off the pace of the formidable ‘top five’, yet with a string of decent results this year he too is set to book his place in the Finals.
The battle for the last two places is on a knife edge, with French pair Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco all in the running. Russian No.1 Davydenko looking good to take one of the two places on offer with a convincing victory over Nadal to claim last month’s Shanghai Masters title, demonstrating that nobody can be written off for a name on the coveted trophy in the last big tournament of the season, whilst it looks likely that Tsonga will take up a slot with the No.7 having a comfortable points lead ahead of his rivals.

O2 good to miss!

With a little over a month to go, the wait is almost over for arguably the most illustrious tennis competition to hit London once again.

The ATP World Tour Finals, formerly named the Tennis Masters Cup, will take place on November 22nd at the London O2 arena. For those of you who don’t know how it works, the top 8 male seeds from the ATP world rankings battle it out in a round robin tournament before a victor is crowned after a final match between the top two men in each of the two round robin pools.

Swiss World No.1 Roger Federer has lifted the trophy an impressive five times already and is favourite to clinch the trophy – along with a tidy $5m prize fund – around this time next month. However, the competition is tougher than ever, with World No.2 Rafael Nadal and rising Argentine star Juan Martin Del Potro both in blistering form. Nadal has recovered from glandular fever and a back problem which saw a turbulent string of results allow Brit Andy Murray to pinch the World No.2 spot, albeit momentarily, from his grasp before the Spaniard reclaimed his seeding with impressive form as of late on the ATP tour.

Serbian World No.4 and last year’s winner Novak Djokovic is hot on Murray’s heels in the world rankings, and has already firmly booked his place in the World Tour Finals. Sixth-ranked American powerhouse Andy Roddick is some way off the pace of the formidable ‘Top 5’, yet with a string of decent results this year he too is set to book his place in the Finals. The battle for the last two places is on a knife edge, with Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco all in the running. Davydenko, the Russian No.1, is in pole to take one of the two places on offer with a convincing victory over Nadal to claim the Shanghai Masters title this month, demonstrating that nobody can be written off for a name on the coveted trophy in the last big tournament of the season, whilst it looks likely that Tsonga will take up the last slot with the World No.7 having a comfortable points gap between himself and his competitors in the world rankings.

Three practice news reports

Again, set in another of my seminars. No, the stories aren't real - just a bit of improv after brief questioning of my lecturer-turned-spokesperson for the company in question...

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Fire fighters were called into action by Bournemouth Seaside late last night to put out a fire reportedly started on the beach by drunken teenagers.

At around 1:30am last night, Dorset Fire and Rescue Service received a call regarding a fire situated at Bournemouth seaside, near the East Cliff cliff lift. The fire, deliberately caused by drunken trouble-makers, was created by a cluster of deck chairs being positioned like a bonfire on the beach being set on fire. The culprits have been identified, with CCTV footage of the event currently being looked into by the Dorset Police, but as of yet there have been no formal arrests.

The fire took longer to put out than usual, with bystanders throwing stones at the fire fighters and policemen on the scene. Minor injuries were reported, with three fire fighters and one police officer being sent to hospital – more as a precaution than anything however. A fire engine was also dented due to these actions.

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A burglar was arrested late last night after a failed break-in attempt left him shouting for help in the room under the stairs.

Dorset Police were called to an address in Julyan Avenue, Bournemouth at around 3.40am this morning after residents Mick, 84, and Robena Stockley, 68 reported a noise coming from under their stairs, unaware that a burglar had become trapped whilst inside their house. Nothing was stolen as a result of the break-in, and the elderly residents did not receive any injuries from the event other than shock. However, a window was broken, which gave the unnamed burglar a way into the house. A man has been arrested in connection to the crime, yet no obvious incentive has been identified as of yet.

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Two young sisters were taken into hospital yesterday after accidentally injecting themselves with a hyperdermic needle found on a beach.

The two girls, aged 4 and 9, were playing cluelessly on Bournemouth beach and found a needle on the sand. Superintendant Vic Unt was called to the scene by the distraught parents, and promised that although the beach is cleared daily of rubbish, he pledges for care when at the beach to prevent this happening again…

863 words describing a kitchen utensil - really!

It does look like a prop out of Saw, besides being for food. I can imagine it being a pizza cutter, but really have no idea why you’d use this and not a knife. It looks like a mini machete, but it’s plastic so wouldn’t be much cop for hard foods. It bends both ways – the handle bends outwards whilst the tip of the saw-thing bends inwards. There are two jagged edges on the saw, but for some reason there’s a bit in the middle of the jagged edges that isn’t jagged at all, so you couldn’t use the blade the whole way down. The tip of the blade has two prongs, like the other end of a hammer, and again I have no idea why. It looks beige, but I’m colour blind, so am shooting in the dark…

It’s pretty dirty, and hasn’t been used for a while – or so I hope. There’s a hole at the top of it, to hang it up or something, or attach it to something. The handle has raised plastic, probably so you can grip it better, of differentiate between the handle and the saw so you don’t pick it up wrong in the dark?? One of the first indentations I noticed, besides the name of it, was the weird logo of a wine glass and a fork next to each other. Although this probably means dishwasher-safe or something boring, it looks like it shouldn’t be there and is a little out of place. The knife is apparently Tupperware – with a little R for registered trademark next to this name. There’s also a really weird circle outline near the top of it that looks like it was intended at the factory as a second hole similar to the first one mentioned earlier, but just looks out of place. This isn’t really that noticeable though unless you sat there, like me, with a magnifying glass and studied a Tupperware saw. This saw-thing has a sort of code on it – 46-14. This is probably again from the assembly line, and is also pretty boring to look at or read. Since this is also the same colour as the fork itself, you wouldn’t notice it – as intended probably – unless you studied the saw. The name on the side of the saw says Sli-Saw-All in capital letters, which is kind of misleading since it sounds like it can chop anything up. In reality, I’d be surprised if it could chop up even a pepper. The middle of the actual blade is raised, not sure why though. Again this is probably for grip, but I really have no idea. This bit of the saw is dirty on both sides, and probably the dirtiest bit on the whole object besides a little stain by the word Tupperware. The saw has been used a fair few times in the past, and has had quite a lot of scrapes in the process. The two prongs at the end of the saw have raised tips. Like most of the saw, I don’t know why these are there. I could hazard a guess to what it would be used for, but would have no idea where to start since the raised tips are only about 2mm tall and would hardly latch onto anything of significance. The tips look like they should be sharp, and on a metal knife they would be, with the tips facing outwards like two miniature blades built into the saw. There is an L shape at the end of the saw, that looks like a right angle but curvy.

There is a line going around the side of the handle, all the way around, like two sides of the blade have been snapped together like Lego.

There are 7 teeth on the smaller jagged section and 12 teeth on the second section, with around an inch gap between the two sections. The ends of both sections trail off in the way that there is another half-tooth that has been stopped from turning into a full one and rejoins the outline of the object’s shape.

On the back of the saw, just before the blade begins the handle is raised so that the blade protrudes slightly.

At first glance, it looks like a comb. Then again, it also looks like a tiny machete, and could easily be found swinging away in a jungle in a man’s grip. The object also looks like it could be a wrench, found in a car garage – if it was made of different material. Sticking with kitchen utensils though, it most resembles a spoon that anything else, with the general shape, like a lazy S, showing this. However, the use of teeth also makes it look a bit like a knife. The two prongs on the end of it look like the end of a hammerhead, used to pull nails out of the wall. For some reason it also roughly resembles them deep fat fryer things they use to fry chips in a chip shop – the metal cages I mean. I could imagine this being used in a doctor’s surgery – for what, I have no idea.

A 10-minute snapshot of another's life....

This was set in our second features lesson at University - I wouldn't choose to spend 10 minutes analysing a person intentionally. Both weird and stalker-ish to be honest...

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Her outfit almost blends in with her features; her jet-black hair clashes so much so with her black work hat it’s hard to tell where one meets the other. Add with this dark, bushy eyebrows and black glasses millimetres from falling off her nose and it’s easy to look straight past her – probably for the best in a student-infested university.

A people person, always the first to serve customers - she acts like a mothering figure to the less-experienced coffee maker working the machines. Rushed off her feet but managing her time well, it’s clear she’s had a few years experience in her job. Puzzlingly, she still needs to read the till every time she completes a transaction to give correct change – is this due to poor mathematic skills, a recent cock-up, or company policy?

Every time she serves, she does the same thing. A receipt is given to the previous customer, folded in half to fit snugly in the hand, with brief eye contact before they walk off happy yet penniless. A glance up at the next customer is then given while she positions her till, ready for whatever order is shot at her next. She is aware of the ‘third-person’ rule, whereupon she glances at the customer third in queue as a silent promise that it will be there time to shine soon.

A Chinese accent for the 30-something, yet distinct enough an accent that she could have lived in England all her life. “Can I help?” she repeats over and over, like a programmed robot, yet lacks her Ps and Qs on several occasions. Her name badge is too small to read; her name is too long to fit on – which doesn’t really help the cause – as if the company doesn’t feel a name badge should be readable. She’s just another cog in the process for the suits upstairs maybe. Pride in cleanliness is clear – a tonne of serviettes surround her till, a bottle of hand wash tucked away behind the till to clean herself after any spillages – of which there are none of course. She really is on the top of her game. A brief nod to the previous customer, a glance at the till, the money goes in, the change goes out with help from the till screen once more, a smile, a glance to the next customer and off she goes again…