I may have been a little too picky with some of the jobs I applied for/interviewed with and after a while I was starting to lose hope. Interview after interview went by and nothing was appearing. Some jobs were even retracted as the companies weren’t sure if they needed a social media person in house.

However, I’m pleased to announce that the hard slog is over and that, as of yesterday, I was offered a position at PokerStars as their new Social Media Community Manager. There was a very vigorous interview process (I met five people over separate four interviews) and even flew out to the Isle of Man – to see their head office. If someone told me last year that in a year’s time I would be handed my perfect job  – if you know me, then you know I LOVE playing and watching poker – I would have called them stupid and walked away.

Very much looking forward to joining the team over at PokerStars and am even happier I don’t have to move to the Isle of Man! Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I’ve already upped and left in the past (to move to New York) and I’m definitely done with the whole moving away thing. London is my home and I’m more than happy to stay here.

I start on April 19th and can honestly say that I’m very excited. In fact, I don’t think ‘excited’ quite covers it

Recently, the people at Dell have been doing a few swanky things that have grabbed my attention. From their 3D gaming technology to their new teeny-tiny Alienware M11x laptop that has a motherboard so powerful it’ll make playing with Robocop seem like child’s play, to their current new release; the Dell Studio 17 Laptop with HD Multi-Touch screen. Yes, that’s right – you can now finger your laptop in public and it’s acceptable.

At first glance, you can’t help but notice the size of the machine with its whopping 17.3-inch screen. In fact, the computer is so big the keyboard has its own number pad. I’m not entirely convinced that this is a necessary feature for any laptop, given the nature of a laptop is for it to be portable and convenient to transport. Another thing that lets this beast down is simply that the weight of the Studio 17 starts at an incredible 3.2kg – of course, depending on how much you decide to kit it out, this number can only go up. Just for the record, the one I have definitely weighs more than that.

Read more of Dell Studio 17 Laptop Review (Multi-Touch Screen) over at Zath…

The Stadium is an absolute monster in itself with its very own function room called ‘The Bobby Moore Room‘ which has a capacity for allowing 2000 guests to wine (and slightly fewer to dine) in luxury. It’s a massive room with an upstairs that has a glorious view of my home town from its windows. If I were to host a party in this lavish room overlooking the newly piled

rubble and scaffolding that is to be the new Wembley City complex, I’d be more than a little peeved. From here, we were taken through to the England changing rooms where we were able to see the players’ shirts hanging from each of their pegs. A little factoid that was certainly welcome to hear was that on any given match day each of the players could have up to six pairs of football boots with them. It’s nice to know that it’s not only ladies that enjoy their footwear. There are three massage tables in this room as well as three indispensable hairdryers. There is also no longer the famous big bath in the changing room, but now there are separate baths and showers with very limited personal space, it has to be said. I guess if you live, breathe and eat football with your compadres, you may as well shower with them too. Or something. Given the opportunity, I probably wouldn’t turn that down, would you?

Shortly after all the changing room trivia, we were then taken to the pitch to enjoy our views of the stadium uninterrupted by screaming fans. Now, I’ve been to the stadium before, but not when it actually looked as it was meant to. I was previously here for the Race of Champions (back in 2007 and 2008) where, in our seats from way up top, you could see that the pitch was covered and transformed into a mini racetrack for all the Formula One race car drivers and Motor Cross champions. It’s a weird but consoling thought to think and see that such a huge place be transformed with such ease without causing any damage to it.

The roof of the stadium doesn’t close all the way over, but does cover every single seat. It’s apparently good for the grass to be able to get natural air, sun and moisture through – as well providing natural ventilation for such a large building. The pitch by itself with no-one around looks fairly mundane, but to think that this pitch has had all sorts of things done to it over the years, I bet it’s glad to get its time off. Some more little fun facts about the stadium, but this time with a more musical edge; the late Michael Jackson performed at the old stadium a total of three times, making him the artist that’s played at Wembley the most. George Michael was the first to perform at the re-opening of the stadium in 2007 and Muse were the first band to sell out the entire stadium in the same year. I’m pretty sure when it opened in 1923 nobody could have predicted that this stadium would have had this much history or that it would have undergone one of the most controversial makeovers a stadium has ever been through.

The iconic arch design is 315m wide and 133m tall. It not only serves to become a focal point for people to find the stadium (I’ve spotted it from atop the Millennium Eye, aren’t I just a smarty knickers?), but it has also been designed to be functional by way of supporting the rest of the entire structure itself. As well as this, one side of the stadium roof moves to open and close as needed depending on the weather. It’s quite remarkable to think that this stadium costs nearly a billion pounds, but it sure as hell redeems itself when you visit.  A few more fun facts before I go; the stadium has a circumference of 1km – no wonder it’s always taken me a millenia to get myself round it. The total length of the escalators is 400m and 35 miles of heavy duty power cables run themselves around the stadium. If you enjoy more silly trivia like this, you’ll definitely enjoy taking a tour, as there’ll be more numbers than you’ll be able to remember. Wembley is my home town and it was definitely a proud moment to be walking around our national stadium. Oh, and by the way, there are 2,618 toilets in Wembley Stadium. That’s more than any other building in existence.

]]> http://serenaobhrai.com/2010/03/wembley-stadium-tour/feed/ 0 http://serenaobhrai.com/2010/03/dabs-com-live-it-gadget-show-2010-review-london/ http://serenaobhrai.com/2010/03/dabs-com-live-it-gadget-show-2010-review-london/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:16:14 +0000 Serena http://serenaobhrai.com/?p=1083

Last weekend, I attended the Dabs IT & Gadget Show we recently brought you news of, at Wembley Stadium. It was definitely the biggest hoo-ha I’ve seen for an event that was only fairly mediocre, at best. I was forced to book my tickets for this a couple of months in advance because the organisers claimed that the event was in high demand. After doing so, I was then sent a follow-up email (a couple of weeks before the event) asking me to once again confirm my attendance for the event, as well as asking me how many tickets I would like (up to a maximum of four). A couple of days before the event I received an email reminding me of the high number of attendees, asking me to bring along my ID, otherwise me and my guests would not be permitted entry. Finally, I was asked to print out the ticket to bring along with me. I took three friends along and we turned up at the door expecting a mad rush of people.

Read more of Dabs.com Live IT & Gadget Show 2010 Review (London) over at Zath

This documentary will make you think. A lot. About how far we’ve come in the last decade and about where we’re headed. You’ll start to wonder what you did before the Internet took over our lives and you’ll pontificate about life before ‘reality shows’. Even sitting on the toilet requires the presence of your precious iPhone. We’re now so consumed by social media that it’s actually quite difficult to spend your waking day alone and connected to nothing.

Or is it?

We Live in Public is a filth-ridden monstrosity of a rollercoaster ride for Josh Harris, collected together from thousands of hours of footage recorded over the last decade. Well, what did you expect? It concerns the Internet. This creation alone has spurned a new wave of everything – absolutely anything you desire can be found there. Plus a whole heap of things you definitely would have been happier without knowing. Harris came up with a few ideas about where he thought the Internet should take us and Ondi Timoner’s documentary does well to serve as not only a biography for Harris’ professional and personal life, but an introduction into the growth of the World Wide Web itself.

Read more of the We Live in Public review over at Zath

Isn’t she a beauty? Here’s a little bit of history to get you going too:

“The original Golden Hinde became famous as the flagship of Sir Francis Drake during his voyage around the world. The journey took three years, with the Golden Hinde being the only ship to complete the voyage. Drake left Plymouth in 1577, the aim of the voyage was for Drake and his men to be the first Englishmen to circumnavigate the globe.”

Yes, the ship is a replica, but it’s the closest thing to a pirate ship I’m going to be handed to use for a shoot. And, quite frankly, I didn’t even think this was going to happen without forking out an arm and a leg for it. The arm I need; the leg might help make the pirate shoot a little more authentic.

After I secured the ship, I put the project well and truly underway and sent out all the initial production emails to all the cast and crew for finalising shoot days in February. This thing’s moving a lot faster than I thought it would be.

One of the other superb things Twitter helped me with was the sound/music for the production. The very lovely and very gifted Jónas Haraldsson tweeted in my general direction and offered his services as musician/sound man. Here’s some of his stuff to get you going once more And if that wasn’t enough – his girlfriend, Laura Viero, wants a piece of the action too. Given she’s been so amazing and already has film work under her belt, I had no choice but to write her in a few lines.

Am now looking for costumes and piratey themed props, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m a little bit chuffed to (perhaps?) be making the first Twitter crowdsourced film. Do you know of any other short films that have been put together and sourced solely by using social media/networking tools? I’ve done some research and found a few, but let me know of any you’ve come across, it’d be good to see them.

Thanks!

I’m also quite excited to give a mention to the awesome Adam Cohen, who I’m very much looking forward to working with for the first time. He’s trained in all things circus and is a jolly nice fellow, so the shoot days should be a great laugh. I also have two other volunteers, both of whom offered their services to help after I simply tweeted that I was working on a new project. They will most likely help with all things behind the camera. I’m toying with making a cameo appearance myself, but haven’t really decided yet. To be honest, even if I decide not to, I have no shortage of actresses who’d love to snap up the part.

Earlier today, I tweeted about needing to find a sailing/pirate ship. And, through the sheer power of Twitter, I was able to locate and find one. A little later on, I managed to find another. And then another. Whether or not I actually manage to get to use any of these ships is irrelevant. I wanted to highlight how powerful Twitter is to find what you’re looking for. It’s been a pretty invaluable tool for me to locate the things I’m after for this project and I’m pretty lucky to have such amazing friends (and useful strangers) who’ll listen and respond to my ramblings.

And, because of this pretty fun social-networking tool, I’ve decided to keep this project to Twitter-related people only. I’m going to see how much I can crowdsource and find the things I will inevitably be looking for by simply tweeting for it.

So, there you have it. The only clue you’re getting on the new project is that picture of the Golden Hinde. Watch this space for more!

[If you'd like to get involved in any future projects send me an email and I'll keep you in mind ]

A few months back, Zath brought you news of Google’s new communication toy, Google Wave. I was lucky enough to be sent an invite to get a chance to play with it and it definitely is a fun toy to play with. It sure does invite a brand new way of communicating with the masses and looks like it should do well when released and all your friends have it too. But, how useful is it really?

Well, let’s take a look.

Read more over at Zath

The more this LDNnudetech calendar debate goes on, the more I’m just laughing inside. Laughing because people can get really uptight about the silliest of things and generally laughing because people assume they know more than others and feel the need to pontificate and/or judge because of it. The Evening Standard is behind it and so is the Telegraph. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s simple; 24 successful, hardworking men and women in the London tech scene have posed nude (naughty bits covered) for a calendar, of which there will only be 5000 copies made. All of the proceeds will then be going towards Take Heart India; a youth-run charity that has IT-based projects in India for blind and disabled students.

Read more over at Zath

Nothing pleases me more than stupidity. My feelings towards its existence, however, are weirdly balanced. I sit pleasantly between cackling like a witch at how much stupid people need to be charged Stupid Tax and feeling happy that there’s a portion of the human population that keeps us all entertained. They’re a necessary evil and I can tolerate their dumb behaviour… just about. There’s definitely an art to it and since everyone else has jumped on this bandwagon, I thought it only fair for me to do the same. Given that I am the intentional Queen of Silly, I’ve spent a little while collecting together the most ridiculous and unquestionably some of the most stupid Facebook (vanity) URLs that have been registered since its launch at 5am (BST) on Saturday 12th June 2009.

Here’s the list of the best/worst (depending on how you view it):

Read more over at Zath