Budgets and Podcasting

It was budget day today in 'the old sod' which had zero impact on my financial situation as the measures announced really only related to anyone with Kids under 6 years old or those property developers with millions in tax havens. I watched the live cast of the speech up until the screen turned green and upside down, It got difficult to stay motivated, I couldn't actually see anything at all, it became like the alien's view in alien, I remembered Tommy Cooper's joke:

went up the town today to buy a pair of camouflage trousers....................But I couldn't find any !!

I subsequently learned about the new (universally welcomed by academia here) fourth level education tier that's been announced, yet another hegemonic construct, specifically for PHD students and the preservation of higher class/glass ceilings in the country's universities. Not a peep about the main primary and secondary levels, nothing about social inclusion or stay at education initatives, a bit of buddy backslappin' really, buy what else do you expect in ireland.

I have been listening, watching and reading various pod casts, videoblogs, blogs and articles for the last couple of months, just doing some groundwork for when I launch mine in a couple of weeks. Some really cool and innovative stuff out there, and of course the debate is absolutley raging about the bucket loads of shite being produced by the semi-literates in internet cafes.

Frankly I think everyone should have a voice - however annoying to some.

Baby Steps

I have been very busy lately, having parted company with midas some six months ago - http://www.midasinitiative.com/index.asp My attention has returned to the finer point in life - i.e. actually enjoying it and living it rather than listening to people who seem to be under the false impression that you can somehow blag it, sell it , 'own' it, impart it, quantify, qualify or even covet those imponderables that may be the lifeblood of groups of people. Totally Sad but Typical Irish bog standard 'my field' mentally. ( JB Keane, not an academic ref)

Oh well that's that rant out of the way, Just glad to be away from it. Some genuinely lovely people involved with it, especially those individuals whom I recruited to join it, however as my mother often said, 'had I known then what I know now' - I personally would have steered well clear of the whole self important mess in the first place. Good idea just poor execution, insufficient integrity and too much ego for it to actually achieve significance in my book.

Yes so I have also been working on short movies , digital animations, music and loads of other really interesting stuff round games, digital and interactive media. I've decided to start podcasting - hell I have access to as much equipment now as a small south American country so why shouldn't I do some cool stuff with it. What with the run up to santy and co on the horizon and a big deal of commitment for 2006, If I don't do it now I might never get the opportunity.

IOA - or Irish on-line army are a bunch of cool gamers currently owning me on CSS servers, I'll post the IP when I get a chance - or if someone every actually posts a comment about it.

anyway...... onwards and upwards we go.

Another year Another Blog with God under review

Yes, I finally got away from the toil - oh since my last post, I changed jobs, leaving my position as program manager in Microsoft's Games Studios in Dublin and coming home to work as programme manager for a cross border cluster development initiative - centered on Creative Digital Media - you know the stuff, digital film production, graphics, animation, games development, digital audio and music production etc. while I actually made some (3 maybe?) real friends in MS in the nearly 4 years I worked there and had fairly large worldly responsibilities - I didn't believe deep down that I was really going to change the world or many peoples lives working on Xbox and PC titles for EMEA or some of the other research /techy stuff I got involved with. Anyway that's just part of my past now, I do keep in touch with those who consider me a friend. when I began by saying 'got away from the toil- ha ha I actually meant stopped working for the evening - the whole cluster thing is really satisfying and full of (north) eastern promise, and it's work, lots of it, lots and lots of it, - with 30+ very strong, talented and creative people which in itself is actually a huge reward. Real people with real lives that, If I can, I will make a positive impact on their lives in some small way.



I was personally saddened by the Asian Disaster, affected to some degree and pretty sickened by the responses of some of the UK & Irish media and column inch whores who jumped on it. What were they writing about during the genocides in Africa between hutu and tootsie, during the famines and the continuing Aids crisis, the squalor of Romanian orphanages and the other injustices and human disasters that are on-going but ignored - a sort of conscious for a day affair really - and those 'where was God then Articles' that have started to appear - boy are they some shit stirring know nothings - loaded questioned, fecked if you answer - fecked if you don't. Who knows - maybe it's about time the general concept of God went under review - I'm not getting religious - I might try spiritual - but certainly not religious though - When forced to explain to others what I mean when I say I'm spiritual - in rebuttal to: So you’re religious then ?, I generally explain that what I am doing - whether I want to actively participate or not - is creating a painting of sorts - one that somehow reflects my inner light/dark and interacts with objects, people, nature - other things, elements, ingredients inner & outer that when sloshed together seem to form some kinda canvas - some kinda of sentient snapshot - when you get involved in any way with religions - you basically visit a gallery - that simple. Each to his own really is what I say - let them bake cake (-: