Issue 4.
February 2014
HAPPY NEW
YEAR!
What resolutions
should you be making
in 2014?
Valentine’s Day!
Written BY
students, FOR
students!
Happy New Year! Welcome to
this issue of Exposed!
It may not be everybody’s
favourite day of the year but as
we all know, February 14th is
fast approaching. With
Valentine’s Day almost upon us
again, read on for some articles
about the big day.
And if that’s not for you, we’ve
also thrown in some articles
about the New Year, The Oscars,
and more! 
ENJOY!
Carys, Emma and Toby
(editors)
Toxic New Year Resolutions
3
Review of 2013
4
February 14th
5
Who Needs a Valentine?
6
How Soon is Now?
7
Valentine’s Day Playlist
8
Valentine’s Day Baking
9
The Oscars
Agony Aunt
10
12
TOXIC NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS AND
WHAT TO DO WITH THEM
| Daisy Field
'Get into a relationship'
Hold up Casanova. While
everyone wants a special
someone to share their time
with, it's worth remembering
before making this a goal that
you are perfectly capable of
surviving without a partner and
that you are simply perfect as a
lone package.
'Be more organised'
There isn't anything inherently
toxic about this resolution but
this is very vague and would be
difficult to accomplish, as many
resolutions are. Successful
resolutions should be
achievable. This is best done by
making them specific, for
example: "use planner for
homework", "go to the dentists
every six months" and so on.
But wait, a positive?
Keeping a positive outlook is
difficult for everyone at any
time of the year, so here's a
sweet little idea to help: Find a
container you like the look of,
in theory you'll be looking at it
all year. Now write somewhere
on your container the date you
start and throughout the year
fill your box with pieces of
paper of every good thing that
happens to you. Read them all
at the end of the year.
The Classic: Weight Loss
Avoiding diet culture in today's society is a challenge for everyone and
all too often a variation of this resolution will be heard falling from
someone's lips; "I want to lose weight and get healthy", "I want to tone
up", "I plan to start going to the gym more". Intrinsic to understanding
the toxicity of this resolution is understanding the usual motives behind
it; if you don't want to drink fizzy pop for the next year because you
know the sweeteners in it make you feel crummy, then perfect - your
resolution is about doing something for you to make you feel good. If
you want to lose weight so you can look more like your favourite
supermodel or celebrity (Cara Delevingne, anyone?) then you're holding
yourself and your body up to completely unrealistic standards and that
isn't fair on either of you. So, first tip, if you want to lose weight, stop.
Your focus should be on getting healthy, not how your body will look
after three months of a thousand calories daily.
Remember, if you or someone you know is struggling with disordered
eating the college counsellors take self or tutor referrals and the
interactive website b-eat.co.uk is always available.
Get Lucky Daft Punk
ft Pharrell
Williams
Blurred Lines - Robin
Thicke
As controversial as this song
might be, it managed to sell
1.47 million copies in the
UK alone since its release in
June, making it the biggest
selling single of 2013.
A quick look at the most popular
music, films, tv and books from
the previous year.
Wake
Me Up Avicii.
Despicable Me 2
The Hunger
Games:
Catching
Fire
Everyone’s favourite
minions were back
in 2013. This sequel
proved to be a huge
success!
Iron
Man 3
The Book Thief, The
Fault in Our Stars
are both book-tofilm adaptations
coming out this
year. There’s a lot of
high expectations
for these!
The 20/20
Experience
-Justin
Timberlake
The Walking Dead
American Horror Story
Breaking
Bad
Back for a 3rd series
featuring a cast of old
favourites and newbies
including Emma Roberts,
American Horror Story
gained a huge online
following.
Diary of a
Wimpy Kid:
Hard Luck by
Jeff Kinney
Gone Girl by
Gillian Flynn
Having gained 100,000
followers on Instagram
during 2013, this was clearly
a big hit online.
Sherlock
Inferno by
Dan Brown
Even if you don’t
watch the show,
you’ll probably
have at least 1
friend who’s
obsessed.
February 14
By Elinore Dickinson
Saint Valentine
Those who follow the Catholic faith,
believe that St. Valentine was a
Priest from 3rd Century Rome. The
Emperor at the time, Claudius II,
realised that unmarried men made
better soldiers, so he banned
marriages for young men. Knowing
how unjust this was, Valentine
carried out marriages in secret.
When this was discovered by the
Emperor, he was sentenced to
death.
The Pagan Festival
th
Another tale suggests that Valentine
was imprisoned for trying to free
Christians from Rome and fell in love
with his capturer’s daughter,to
whom he sent the first love letter,
which was signed, ‘Your Valentine’.
Roman Priests would travel to a
sacred cave and offer a goat for
fertility and a dog for purification.
They would then strip the hide and
dip the pieces in sacrificial blood.
Walking through the village they
would use the hide to hit women, in
order to make them more fertile. All
the names of the women in the
village were put into an urn and the
bachelors of the town would pick a
name. The two would be matched
for a year, which normally ended in
marriage.
From your secret admirer…
Small gifts have been given to the person you
admire on Valentine’s Day, from the 17th
Century onwards. However, only in the past
100 years has it been a secret who you
admire.
Saint Valentine’s Day
Pope Gelasius declared February
14th Saint Valentine’s Day, at the end
of the 5th Century. It was still not
associated with love, but the time
for birds to mate.
The Word of Love
The first ever love poem was by
the Frenchman Charles the Duke
of Orleans. It was written to his
wife in the 15th Century, whilst he
was a prisoner in the Tower of
London. It is the believed to be
the earliest surviving “Valentine”.
“I am already sick of love,
My very gentle Valentine”
Who Needs a Valentine?
Carys Homer
The 14th February is right around the corner, the shops are overflowing with cards
ranging from cute to novelty to downright tacky and every shop is claiming that they sell
the ‘perfect gift for Valentine’s day’. To some of you, this might be the most exciting
time of the year (who doesn’t love being spoiled). Others however will not be so
excited. Whether you’re single for Valentine’s Day or if you just can’t stand how overcommercialised the event has come, here’s a few ideas of how you can feel good about
yourself and enjoy the day without having to celebrate.
1) Find some time for you. Juggling the stress of college with a pretty hectic
social life can mean that you neglect yourself a bit and don’t find any time to
relax. With lots of people out on dates, Valentine’s day is the perfect
opportunity to de-stress yourself.
2) Discover a new TV show. A comedy will banish any negative feelings you have
towards the day whereas a drama might be so gripping that you forget all
about what day it is. Try not to get too attached to any fictional characters in
couples -if you like them the chances are that it won’t have a happy ending
(trust me).
3) Go for a walk. WHAT! EXERCISE? MOVEMENT? WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO
THAT?! Well, it’s actually a fact that exercise is not only physically good for
you, it makes you feel good too. Whether it’s just going for a 10 minute stroll
or splashing out in a 2 hour swim session, you’ll be feeling positive by the end
of it.
4) Tidy your room. Another strange one but de-cluttering will help you feel
calmer and more relaxed, making you feel better about yourself. Sorting
through old things also means you get to relive old happy memories when you
discover things you’d completely forgotten about hidden away in your room.
5) Find a penpal. Whilst others might be putting pen to paper by writing cheesy
love letters, why not find out about another culture? There’s plenty of
websites which aid people in finding a penpal safely. You can make a new
friend, find out about life in a different country, and maybe even begin
learning a language. And, living in an age of technology, there is definitely
something rewarding and personal about receiving a hand written letter in the
post.
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day or forgetting all about it and
following these tips, have a lovely day!
“I am human and I need to be loved, Just like everybody else does.”
As Morrissey once said, being loved is an essential part of being alive, so it seems inevitable
that a day should be dedicated to love, right? Well, it depends how you define love.
Love is an existential force which can be applied to all degrees of human existence, be it
sex, maternal nature, friendship or even hate, envy and jealousy. It is an emotion which all
of us can identify, so why does it need to have a day named after it? We don’t have a day
designated to anxiety or wrath, so why love?
For starters, some (insert expletive here) people seem to insist on telling us every detail of
their Valentine’s Day relationships! I don’t want to hear about your romantic presents for
each other, or how he made your heart melt, so I certainly don’t want to hear the ins and
outs of your picnic which ended with you lying on chicken bones whilst he… you get the
idea. Stop rubbing it in that we are single and please, please stop with the details!
Furthering this, Valentine’s Day appears to be an extremely apartheid day. Whilst some
people can go and have a romantic meal, the majority of us have to sit and endure the
adverts and endless Facebook statuses telling us how alone and how miserable we are. I
believe (as does Morrissey) that people being happy and in love actually makes us (being
alone and miserable) feel even worse. Even clubs and bars advertise ‘singles nights’ so that
we loners can endure a painful exchange with other single people who aren’t good enough
to be in relationships. They should be advertised as this:
“There’s a club if you’d like to go, You could meet somebody who
really loves you, So you go and you stand on your own, and leave
on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die.”
– Morrissey
By Toby Stone
Noah and the Whale –
5 Years Time
So, you need to do some sort of
playlist for your boy or girl for
Valentine’s Day because you’re
soppy. But you don’t want to be
all cliché and obviously, you want
it to be individual right? So, using
that tenuous link, here are (in no
order) the best 10 indie love
songs, in my humble opinion
This is one of my personal
favourite songs, a very sweet
and simple love song about all
the things about your
relationship that will be great
in the future – just ignore the
pessimism at the end!
The Zutons –
Valerie
Blink 182 –
I Miss You
Another good song murdered
by wannabe pop stars who
claim to have a shred of
musical dignity (looking at you
Amy Winehouse.)
Death Cab For Cutie –
I’ll Follow You In
The Dark
This is the most emo, cute,
sad, happy relationship song
ever. If you ignore every song
on here, listen to this one! One
for all you pessimists out
there.
Temper Trap –
Sweet Disposition
An eerie guitar tune lays the
background to this song that
somehow seems to sum up a
romance like no other.
“Don’t waste your time on me
you’re already the voice inside
your head” – Classic. One of
the softer songs by this great
band.
Kings of Leon –
Sex on Fire
‘Nuff said.
Biffy Clyro –
Many of Horror
Forget the terrible X Factor
tripe, this song is a classic and
has some really quite
meaningful lyrics too.
Babybird –
You’re Gorgeous
This is more for the soppy ones
reading this! So obviously if
you claim this to be true about
your special someone they’ll
think better of you for it!
Pixies - Gigantic
Size does matter, at least
according to the band that
Nirvana could have been!
Echo and the Bunnymen –
Nothing Lasts Forever
Ok so this is actually a song
about friendship being better
than a relationship, so this is
more for you people who are
single (sorry.)
Hope this little guide may
have helped you.
Toby Stone
Source: www.bbcgoodfood.com
Ingredients
Method
1) Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Sift
the icing sugar, flour and cornflour
together into a bowl. Stir in the ground
almonds and butter, then rub in the
butter until smooth. Stir in the chopped
glacé cherries and almond extract, and
bring together to form a dough.
2) Roll out on a lightly floured surface, then
stamp out biscuits using a heart shaped
cutter. Keep re-rolling the trimmings
until all the dough is used. Carefully
transfer the biscuits to baking trays lined
with parchment and bake for just 8-10
mins until just pale golden.
3) Using an upturned bottle top or similar,
press gently into the centre of each
biscuit to make a round indent. Spoon in
a little jam and return to the oven for 2
mins. Remove and cool on a wire rack,
before dusting with icing sugar to serve.
100g icing sugar, plus extra for
dusting
200g plain flour, plus extra for
dusting
50g cornflour
50g ground almonds
250g pack cold butter, cut into
cubes
50g glacé cherries, finely
chopped
½ tsp almond extract
8 tbsp cherry jam, sieved
There have been some fantastic films in over the past year and the Oscars will honour the
best of the best. With the 86th Academy Awards nominations recently released, let’s delve
into the main categories with my predictions:
(p.s. If you bet on the winners with the influence of my predictions and they are correct,
we’ll split your winnings 60/40 (to me).
BEST PICTURE:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
I say…
With American Hustle winning best comedy and 12 Years a Slave winning
best drama movie at The Golden Globes, I reckon this is a two-person
battle. But I think 12 Years, with its gritty realism, will pip AH to the post.
BEST ACTOR:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
I say…
Matthew McConaughey’s win at the Golden Globes came as quite a shock, although his
commitment to the film was evident with his 40 pound weight loss for his role in Dallas Buyers Club
(“or what actresses call, 'being in a movie’” as Tina Fey said in her Golden Globes opening
speech). I reckon once again, the two main competitors are the American Hustle and 12 Years
cast. In the end, I think Bale was just too awesome to not get an Oscar. Any film that can make
Christian Bale unattractive has obviously put a lot of effort in.
BEST ACTRESS:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena )
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
I say…
This is an extremely tough category, as all of the above have some serious acting ability. Amy
Adams, although winning the Golden Globe, I personally don’t think played an outstanding part
in American Hustle. My bet is on Sandra Bullock, as her performance in Gravity was truly epic.
Also, how can she be nearly fifty and look that amazing?!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
I say…
With Barkhad Adbi previously a limo driver before he went on to star in Captain Phillips, it
would be awesome if he won the Oscar. Saying that, I would probably put my money on Jared
Leto, as he secured the Golden Globe in this category and the rest of his competition aren’t
really giving him a run for his money (Sorry Bradley, you know I do love you).
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
◦ Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine )
◦ Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle )
◦ Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave )
◦ Julia Roberts (August: Osage County )
June Squibb (Nebraska)
I say…
Jennifer Lawrence. Need I say more? America loves her. The UK loves her. You love her. I love
her. I think she’s got this one in the bag. I do however feel that her nomination was due to who
she is rather than how well she acted. Saying that, there’s strong competition from Lupita
Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave. But I think the odds are ever in Jen’s favour (hahaha).
AGONY AUNT
“I want to have the perfect date with my
girlfriend this Valentine’s Day! Should I take her
out or stay in?” anonymous
Kate says…
Stay in!
Let’s think about this logically.
Valentine’s Day is a time where
couples in love splash out on fancy
meals, teddy bears that sing, and
heart shaped chocolates that cost
twice as much as normal shaped
chocolates (maybe this is just the
single girl speaking inside of me).
It’s a commercial holiday and an
expensive way to say ‘I love you’,
when for 364 other days in the year,
you can say it for free. Staying in is
wonderful and simple, and fingers
crossed your girlfriend will fancy
you no matter what you do on V
day. Still want to make an effort?
Cook her a meal, or watch a cheesy
rom-com (anything will Ryan
Gosling/Channing Tatum will have
the desired effect); do something
cheap and cheerful!
Ellen says…
Take her out!
Valentine's Day only comes along
once a year so make it special!
You should go all out and express
your love for each other in a
special and meaningful way.
Make it an event to be
remembered and cherished in
both of your hearts. I understand
that you may not want to go all
out as it's "too much effort"; but
why not make try? The day could
solidify your relationship and your
feelings for each other whilst
making it monumental and
memorable.
Kate Ross and Ellen Addis
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS
ISSUE OF EXPOSED!
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!