My second day of NME looked like this...

When I arrived at Blue Fin this morning, I was feeling a lot more confident about myself and I felt more confident walking in to the building. I was welcomed by security as if I've been working there for a good while. Using my id badge I gained access to the building straight away with ease, when we reached the ninth floor and got to the office we started on the mail straight away while all of the other editors went to a meeting. The new issue was sent to press today so everything was pretty quiet in the office for the rest of the day, the morning was very relaxed. After around 15 minutes, and we had finished the mail (there was only one sack today), Karen gave us two copies of the new issue - I personally felt really honored that we even got to see the new issue - one of the issues was free for us to keep and the other we had to look through and answer some questions about, really easy stuff like 'What do you think of the magazine?' and 'What three parts do you read every time you have NME' and my personal favourite 'What artists would you like to see more of in the NME?' I wrote quite a few "unknown" artists here. Then we were asked to go through the issue and put post it notes on the parts of the magazine we particularly like and dislike. This way, NME can take feedback from that to try and make the magazine even better than it already is.
   As an avid reader, it didn't take long for me to answer the questions and post-it the parts of the magazine I liked and disliked, I also wrote why I liked them or disliked them because that way I think the reason becomes more understandable. After this I finished typing up the old Joy Division/New Order reviews, half way through this Hamish (one of the features editors) came up to us and asked us how it was going, which I thought was really nice, considering hardly anyone in the office has made an effort to talk to us. We all understand though, they're busy and if they need our help they'll come and ask for it. Upon finishing this, we sent them across to Hamish and went to lunch. When we came back there was literally nothing for us to do, so we sat and read the new NME issue and discussed a lot about the Libertines because that's what this weeks main feature is on. It wasn't until around three o'clockish that Tom Howard himself came up to us and asked us to transcribe some interviews for him. As a budding journalist myself, I find Tom Howard to be a really great music reviewer and would love to be able to sit down with him and pick his brain about what makes a great music review, however, again I understand that he is busy all week so the likelihood I'll be able to do that is very small. Anyway, we each started transcribing the interviews we'd been given. I've been given one with Tom Howard and Rob Harvey, before the interview I knew nothing of Rob Harvey. However I now know that he's involved in a new project called The D.O.T with Mike Skinner and he also featured on The Streets' last album doing some vocals. It's really interesting to listen to the interview rather than just read it. Transcribing, however,  is a lot harder than I could ever imagine. People honestly talk so fast!! Anyway, tomorrow all I know is that I'll be spending all morning transcribing these interviews. I'm really happy with how it's going so far, the only thing I'm a bit disappointed about is the sitting around, not doing anything. I feel like I'm wasting space a little bit, but I wouldn't want to go up to the editors and ask them if there was anything I could do because I know they're busy and if they need us to do anything then they'll come to us. I didn't mind too much today though because it meant I could prepare my questions for my email interview with Swim Deep.

Yesterday I listened to Lucy Rose's debut album for the first time. I honestly don't think I've been through so many emotions whilst listening to one album, it's perfect. Every song is stunning, each note is perfect and Lucy's voice is so raw and enticing. If you have a spare £10 I would really recommend this album, it's easily one of the best albums of the year for me. It's one you can listen to when you're happy or when you're sad, a bit like Mumford and Sons. I'm so proud of Lucy Rose also, as she has managed to become a well established solo artist even though most people would associate her with Bombay Bicycle Club. If there was a song I could pick for a favourite it would probably be 'Be Alright', it's absolutely stunning. Give this one a good listen guys, it's well worth it!

Also, my friend booked me and her tickets for Fat Boy Slim in December, that's going to to insane! I'll feel like I'm back in the 90's dancing with my parents in the living room when I'm a child. I'll keep you updated on that, all I know so far is that it's in Fabric in London which is apparently a really great night club, I'd never heard of it before though. I'll take her word for it!

Let's start with music before we get into the really serious stuff here! Lately I've been listening to a lot of Wild Beasts, I know I'm pretty behind with them but they really are amazing, in a weird way they are sort of soothing. Especially Hooting and Howling. I'm also developing a small obsession with acoustic all over again, Ben Howard is really doing it for me at the moment. Along with James Vincent McMorrow. I'm also a latecomer to the whole St. Vincent scene but I can't stop listening to her this week. Her dirty guitar is really unique and different. I love it! Annie Clark is also absolutely stunning which helps. To be honest, there's not really much else to report. Apart from yesterday I ordered my ticket to Lucy Rose, I was meant to be putting myself on a gig ban because I need to budget majorly but she's incredible live and it's only down the road from me and it was only £8 so I would have kicked myself if I didn't go. It also means that in the space of 8 days I'm seeing Howler, Mystery Jets and Lucy Rose. 

   Okay on to the serious stuff. Looking at universities is so damn scary, but I've looked through all of the London universities that do the course I wanna do and I've narrowed it down to 5...

• Middlesex
• London Metropolitan University
• University of Westminster
• University of East London
• Kingston

I also looked at Brunel and Roehampton. I didn't like Brunel because you have to have an admissions test and an interview and I have to get like full marks on everything and that's just way too much pressure. It was basically the same with Roehampton and the course content looked so boring. The only good thing about Brunel is that their Journalism course is accredited by the National Councilor for the Training of Journalists. But I don't think that means anything amazing. It was also very politically based which isn't what I'm looking for at all.

The course at Middlesex is Publishing, Journalism and Media which sounds awesome! It's basically all exactly what I want to do. I also know someone who is currently at Middlesex uni and she says it's really good so that's given me a bit more encouragement to look into that university more. 

 At London Met the course is Journalism, Film and Television studies. This would be a really awesome course because considering I'm studying Film and TV production already this would be pretty much perfect, the only reason I haven't put it as my first choice is because it hasn't got as much Journalism in it as I would have helped but apart from that it looks amazing. 

 University of Westminster is just Journalism on it's own. I would have thought, given it's location the course would be mostly Politics based but it's really not. There's such a range of modules to study there. It looks really impressive, the only downside of Westminster is that it's right in the center of London so it'd be super expensive. 

University of East London has a few courses I like the sound of there but I'd probably just stick with journalism on its own or do a joint honours in Journalism studies and Film studies. Both of these because again there are a wide range of modules covering all aspects of Journalism rather than just sticking to political journalism. 

My final choice is Kingston which also has Journalism and a joint honours in Film Studies and Journalism. I liked Kingston for the same reason I liked East London. It's just making up my mind about which course now. 

I think I'll talk it over with my mum and my course leader and see what they say about it and see if I can realistically get the grades (which to be honest, shouldn't be a problem if I keep working at the rate I'm working at). 

Today's song of the day is Cruel - St. Vincent for obvious reasons that I've mentioned above.