The Making Of HAZEL

I was very sceptical about this assignment when we first got it, but I have to say I really enjoyed doing it. I was blessed with the group I was in because they were all really nice people and we all got along which made it even better.

The topic we decided to choose was online catfishing which I am sure you are familiar with in this day and age. Catfishing is usually done on tinder and Instagram. We choose to use our example on Instagram as we thought it would be more practical.

My job was acting in the video and also doing the video and photo editing. I learned so much doing the editing. I learned how to use Shotcut and how to use Gimp too. I found them both hard to use at first but after some playing around and looking at the tutorial videos I got the hang of the two applications. I actually started to really enjoy editing and it had definitely sparked some interest in me. Our group worked together on making the script as it was hard to do on your own. After recording the script, clipping all the videos and putting them together, I had to add a bit of non copyrighted background music and an overlaying image. This is where photoshoping skills came in. after I figured all this out and had the editing done, I uploaded the video to YouTube.

At the start we thought the assignment was going to be really hard but after we did a plan out and made a start at it things just started to fall into place. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again. We were all impressed with the finished product. Click here to watch and enjoy!

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How My Family And I Are Dealing With The Rising Costs In Energy And Energy Outages

Winter can be a worrying time for a lot of people, heating bills, electricity bills, warm clothing etc. all piling up. It can be a very expensive time of year on people and the families, this year especially. In an article I recently read by Irelands Environment Minister Eamon Ryan, he stated that energy costs have risen dramatically due the war between Russia and Ukraine and climate change in general. He also stated that it’s not just for this winter, but it will be two-year affair. He is obviously doing the best he can for our country, but we need to work with him. My family and I are thinking of some changes we can make to help deal with energy costs and the potential energy outages for this winter.

I also listened to a podcast recently called “The difference a home energy update makes” by 180 degrees. They suggested that your household should get a technical BER (Building Energy Rating) assessor out to your home to give you a BER of your home, which in fact we already had because our house is relatively new. This rating can tell you how energy efficient your house is and your assessor can advise how to make it better. A better rating means you use less energy and helping climate change crisis. Our house has a BER of B2 which we were told is average.

BER explained by SEAI (Source: SEAI youtube channel)

One change we were thinking of making would be changing our windows to triple glaze, this would reduce amount of heat lose and give us a better BER, thus helping with energy crisis as we wouldn’t be relying on fossils fuels to heat our house as much because heat is being retained in the house.

We were also thinking of investing in more solar panels. These solar panels could be used to heat our water and house instead of using gas, oil and other sources of energy. By not using these sources of energy we could be doing our bit in helping the energy crisis as will be relying on less electrical/fossil fuel energt to heat our homes

Solar panels (Source: Albert Bridge CC)

Another thing we were thinking of doing was changing all the light bulbs in our house low energy light bulbs. This would help us stop using so much electricity and help bring down the cost of our electricity bills. Also, in doing this we are helping with the energy crisis as increased electricity efficiency can lower greenhouse gases and stop you from using too much electricity.

In conclusion, I would recommend getting a BER done on your own home and see what improvements can be made. I would also look around your home and just see where you can be improving. Only use lights when necessary, don’t leave television running, put on an extra layer instead of leaving the heat on for hours etc., etc. If everyone pulls together we can make these next two winters a lot less of a problem and help with climate change overall.