tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86239362024-03-14T07:59:00.499+00:00Micks New Plan For World DominationSo many serious people out there, have a laugh...it's free for god's sake..enjoy life for what it is...not what you've got...or want..Yes and I finally updated the typo in this description, been annoying me since 2004.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-36665398735396777722009-06-25T16:33:00.001+01:002009-06-25T16:33:51.186+01:00I feel like getting off the grid<iframe src="http://dotsub.com/media/7281f5dc-d4b1-4315-abb7-143becd34f49/e/m" frameborder="0" width="420" height="347"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-18236302960359179572009-05-11T14:35:00.001+01:002009-05-11T14:35:46.634+01:00over to meI'm over at my own (hosted) site : <a href="http://www.michaeljmaguire.com/">www.michaeljmaguire.com</a> fixing it up and playing around with stuff, I plan to post up some of my work there - and thus retain my own copyright.<br /><br />I've temporarily stopped using blogger....Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-42435634738832047892009-03-16T20:35:00.007+00:002009-03-16T21:20:32.328+00:00Game changing creativity, erm.... not yetBelow is one of the latest TED video releases, which my Friend Ty brought to my attention via Facebook this morning. There's a postulation / suggestion, inference that delivering this technology to mass market will have a major effect at several different levels, should we be .... certainly the TED audience seemed.. impressed.<br /><br /><object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/embed/PattieMaes_2009-embed_high.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/PattieMaes-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=481"><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/embed/PattieMaes_2009-embed_high.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/PattieMaes-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=481"></embed></object><br /><br />Now I was very fortunate a few years ago while working for Microsoft Game Studios doing some liaison with Media LAB Europe in Dublin to see their development of some, what I considered at that time to be, <span style="font-style:italic;"> genuine game changing technology</span>, specifically their 'Mind Balance' alpha brain wave monitoring and response game implementations, which allowed non GUI, none physical interaction, response and control between Man and PC. Stunning and awe inspiring are what springs to mind when I recall being one of their guinea pigs.<br /><br />I may be missing the point in the TED talk but it is suggesting innovation in that sort of sixth sense' sense, and despite the gasps of the TED audience, and a sort of reverse engineering of the semantics of 'sixth sense'itself, it didn't meet it's billing or my expectation regarding 'intuition' i.e. it merely struck me as a wear a mobile device that allows a sort of 'minority report like' superimposition of data onto a projective mobile screen'. All of which purports to combine six areas of communication. It's not as suggested by the title, a non physical, beyond the seen realm revolution, thus it sorta strikes me more as a kinda 'combinational creativity exercise' rather than genuine innovation or actual original development. Which further suggests more of a PR, patent public declaration activity that might impress weary mobile/Cell handset manufactures, for me it screams : <br /><br />iphone + projector + additional data access (revenue) + additional Peripherals (more revenue)<br /><br />In truth I enjoyed <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html" target = blank >Barry Schwartz's</a> advocacy for practical wisdom much more.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-47045605045804092732009-02-25T16:28:00.002+00:002009-02-25T16:31:04.967+00:00Cull the DullI just couldn't endure the crap anymore, I couldn't wait until April, I just locked my updates and told the truth.<br /><br />I'll sit back and see what happens to the follower numbers as I cull the dull from my twitterstream.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-67187473496033424092009-02-25T14:49:00.005+00:002009-02-25T15:26:03.927+00:00five weeks left of open twittering right do doI joined twitter Oct 1st 2008. April 1st will mean six months openly using that social media tool. From then on, I will protect my updates, prune my account and use Twitter a lot more judiciously, carefully even. Several Reasons, all personal:<br /><br />Six months microblogging has proved a major distraction in terms of personal productivity. I write, I'm involved in digital creativity, specifically games, screens and interactive narrative yet my interests are spreading wider and wider using twitter.<br /><br />140 characters does not allow me to develop depth in asynchronous exchange. Great for intros, catastrophic for detailed explanation or meaningful exchange - uber-lite Skype.<br /><br />I have become entirely underwhelmed by any intrinsic creative potential of the tool.<br /><br />Some truly inspirational people, marvelous individuality and insight but the vast majority: self serving egotistically materialistic assholes. Wouldn't recognize 'art' if it came up and vomited the inside of their empty heads bright green.<br /><br />As a consequence of my using twitter openly its now about 2 many numbers: Twitter has over recent months and weeks become numbers centric, twittergrade, twittercounter, what was once a bit of fun for me and some others I knew on the net has shifted towards something status centric almost unsociable social media.<br /> <br />As I suspected over at stolentelling, the bubble of insignificance has burst for me.<br /><br />I get it but I don’t want to get it the way it has begun to shape up.<br /><br />How can I possibly retain my ‘outsider mentality’ if my twitter persona is a sorta electronic crossroads of almost 4000 twitter accounts ? <br /><br />Need not Greed - I need to feed my creative rebel not become popular with internet strategy marketers and direct channel social media gurus because I understand the psychological and spiritual motivations that power their greed, myopia and lust. <br /><br />Sanity rather than inanity is my priority. 'Do Do' is only funny if explained in full and in context.<br /><br />And then I paraphrase in my head what Jung said about looking at oneself when something in someone else annoys one. Testing one, two, three,.. fook almost 2K.<br /><br /><br />Here's a longer do do explanation:<br />While I have enjoyed almost every exchange I’ve had on twitter, using the tool in such an open way is obviously best suited to promotion, PR, direct selling or the dispensing of advice and information – all that contrived drivel about customer care concern matrices, subliminal influence effluent, careful commercialism etc, is just something I simply don’t do, nor if I did do, would want to do so simply or indeed blatantly, preaching such pontificating claptrap at people is really do do of the highest or is that lowest? order. By all means motivate others, do that yes, just don't do do me please. I'm already all peaced up with my inner self and rather than just close the twitter thing down and lock my updates immediately, I thought I'd give myself a bit of a countdown to do that, to motivate myself in a proper do do way, hence those counters I stuck on the right hand side of this bigger than micro blog.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-6679474899359548542009-02-15T15:25:00.001+00:002009-02-15T15:25:18.946+00:00Think I'll give the INTERNET thing a rest for a while.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-64745473860523420222009-02-11T19:03:00.000+00:002009-02-11T19:04:56.449+00:00<a href="http://www.google.com/reader/shared/03449214698966436710" target = 'blank' >Here's some shared items</a> from my google reader.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-28176515897008923002009-02-02T12:26:00.005+00:002009-02-02T14:45:46.622+00:00Publish and be Ham ed.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SYbmyhkbyuI/AAAAAAAAAM8/n7YkG7H2VN0/s1600-h/New_River_Journal.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SYbmyhkbyuI/AAAAAAAAAM8/n7YkG7H2VN0/s320/New_River_Journal.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298175767327001314" /></a><br /><br />Some of my digital writing work has been published in <a href="http://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/08Fall/about.html" target = 'blank'>The New River Journal</a> over at Virgina Tech.<br /><br />Genuine thanks and appreciation to Ed Falco, both managing editors: Nick Kocz and Manisha Sharma and also Jeremy Hunsinger and Akshay Sharma.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-54796158657848067192009-01-30T11:53:00.005+00:002009-01-30T12:11:41.094+00:00Faces of conversationI've just culled a whole field of followers from twitter after recent debacles with marketing gurus, I just couldn't take any more premium internet marketing advice at this point. <br /><br />Thankfully <a href="http://twitter.com/walter" target = "blank">Walter Higgins</a> of <a href="http://sxoop.com/" target = 'blank'>sxoop technologies</a> in Cork has developed this wonderful application which allows me to create an image of real people who kindly follow me on twitter. I think it's really cool to be reminded of the human faces behind the twitterstream landscape.<br /><br /><br /><style type="text/css">div.mosaic img{ padding:0px; margin:0px;}</style><div class="mosaic"><a href="http://twitter.com/dunlapcodding"><img title="dunlapcodding" src="http://static.twitter.com/images/default_profile_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/WebPointeMall"><img title="Web Pointe Mall" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/68378689/man_shades_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/tomatfancast"><img title="tomcarusona" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/54227141/279638985_j9Mb2-L_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/TheGameReviews"><img title="TheGameReviews" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/68938134/TGRLogo72dpi_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/WildAlchemist"><img title="WildAlchemist" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63415865/immortality2_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/bestofmovies"><img title="bestofmovies" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69127130/2001space_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/darraghdoyle"><img title="Darragh Doyle" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69197973/mmf_square_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/erikwolf"><img title="Erik Wolf" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63466879/erikwolf_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/BalanceForce"><img title="Darrell Marsh" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66104940/pic_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/meaganburns"><img title="Meagan Burns Design" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63537539/n43102040_30547249_5160_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ceoworld"><img title="Amarendra Bhushan" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/65302087/mandy-1_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/lisawaldo"><img title="lisawaldo" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69525259/Lisa_and_Joe_-_Safeway_formal_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/twittearth"><img title="twittearth" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/53245005/Tentacles_creature_256x256_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/PragueBob"><img title="Robert Morrison" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/60105523/PragueBob_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ChrisStigson"><img title="Chris Stigson" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66390406/chris2_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/secret2fatloss"><img title="secret2fatloss" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63585871/Photo_31_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/derrekwayne"><img title="Derrek Wayne" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/59628946/avitar_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ScottBradley"><img title="Scott Bradley" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63375825/Photo_35_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/nickcowling"><img title="nickcowling" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/65968139/nick1.jpg_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Scotladywriter"><img title="Scotladywriter" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71181517/Dsmall_copy_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/RedStatePolitic"><img title="Red State Politics" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/70045843/favicon_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/paultran888"><img title="paultran888" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/47018992/pic_Paul_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Aminakelsi"><img title="Aminakelsi" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69286535/35_normal.jpeg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/zjm"><img title="Zac Mutrux" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/57051453/Photo_15_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/JocelynIsabel45"><img title="JocelynIsabel45" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69980713/mallwhite_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/givewith"><img title="givewith" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69998145/GW2_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Debategraph"><img title="Debategraph" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/57064924/David-1_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/NicoleSimon"><img title="Nicole Simon" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66124101/nicole-simon-buch3-klein_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/bgalvin137"><img title="Brian Galvin" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66502633/IMG_0845_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/gerrykirk"><img title="Gerry Kirk" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71453244/obamame-twitter_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/jasonmbader"><img title="Jason M Bader" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/60968421/skype-photo_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Cassidy_McKay"><img title="Cassidy McKay" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69883706/VarianceSm_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Amritahandra"><img title="Amritahandra" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69643444/savi2_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Alheri"><img title="Lilly Evans" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/52801926/BGD_Jun07_ETF_closeup_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Techn0tic"><img title="Dave Kinsella" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/61368181/dave_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/occdublin"><img title="OpenCoffee Dublin" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/55793217/occdublin_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/FastPitchEvent"><img title="FastPitch" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66949128/TwitterIcon_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/jimmycarr"><img title="Jimmy Carr" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/64510704/jc_small_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/TimothyBlack"><img title="TimothyBlack" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66401472/timothyblack_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/w2e"><img title="Web 2.0 Expo" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/57175735/web2expo_4c_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/tnsltwn"><img title="tnsltwn" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73842775/Me_Avatar_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/stcchicago"><img title="STC Chicago" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69013090/STCChicago_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/GuyHagen"><img title="Guy Hagen" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/56652240/GuyHagen_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/JTChandler"><img title="JT Chandler" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/65479954/twitteravatar_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/DebbiVaughn"><img title="DebbiVaughn" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/64497554/pp_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/starlightlife"><img title="Gina" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63818401/febuary_2007_008_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/soultravelers3"><img title="soultravelers3" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69237512/IMG_2636_ST3_ID_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/scotty_smith"><img title="Scott Smith" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/61266797/DSC01058_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/kiwichamp"><img title="Kiwi Champ (Jill R)" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/62724487/older_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/sashekharatara"><img title="sashekharatara" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/70782948/industrial_strength_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/HotelLawyer"><img title="James Butler, Jr." src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/70390754/jrbcasual_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/triciagoyer"><img title="Tricia Goyer" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/59148893/La_Goyerz_042_copy_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ladydotty"><img title="Denise Rushe" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/70645211/Dotty_NY_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/voMethod"><img title="Seth Gibson" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/72582925/sf4seth_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/samhouston"><img title="Sam Houston" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/58037343/Headshot_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/joncates"><img title="jonCates" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/56989241/jC_airportrait_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Holycow"><img title="Mark Hancock" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/29594392/holycow_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/byteclub"><img title="Peter @ ByteClub.com" 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href="http://twitter.com/00joe"><img title="Joe Royall" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/67584194/IMG_0341_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/alltweetjournal"><img title="James McIvor" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73526192/editor_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Nabbit"><img title="Nabbit" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69348444/nabbit_frog_twitter_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/historicaltweet"><img title="Historical Tweets" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/62126215/ht-icon_normal.gif" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/hpathiraja"><img title="hpathiraja" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63997497/hpathiraja_gmail.com_1b0c1f0a_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ttucker23"><img title="Tim Tucker" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/28449632/ttucker_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/thecopybully"><img title="george paiva" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/56233270/copybully_normal.gif" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ScotMcKay"><img title="Scot McKay" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73797687/scot209200twitter_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/knobmonkey"><img title="Shane Brown" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/72913918/gldlock2_normal.png" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/tangencemktg"><img title="Sumit Gupta" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/68479620/07112008239_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/aby"><img title="Abhinav Gulyani" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/59192815/avatar_normal.jpeg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/TrendTracker"><img title="TrendTracker" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/72242727/trendtracker_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/ADBOWL"><img title="Deena & Devin" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71308762/Picture2_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/seoipro"><img title="seoipro" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/66617377/rahman_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/wcweeks"><img title="Wayne Weeks" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/63714098/Wayne_s_Head_Shot_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/JENAJUNE"><img title="JENAJUNE" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/64957103/redhair_020_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/iPodiums"><img title="iPodiums.info" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69143057/iPodiums-iLogo_normal.gif" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/datehelp"><img title="MS Love" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71572877/eye_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/mpppg"><img title="mpguinan" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71648540/IMG_0113_Sun_sky_sand_storm_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/maramingsalamat"><img title="maramingsalamat" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69530861/101opmopd_1__normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/alanredmond"><img title="alanredmond" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/60596393/Alan_s_Photo_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/Adesoji"><img title="Adesoji _ Oseni" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/65666305/syy_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/jarodvhale"><img title="jarodvhale" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/71362321/n552990449_178510_3259_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/TradingGoddess"><img title="Trading Goddess" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/73047425/moi_normal.JPG" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a><a href="http://twitter.com/brainpicker"><img title="Maria Popova" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/65165805/twitter_normal.jpg" width="48" border="0" height="48" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-89166496690564520682009-01-29T13:00:00.013+00:002009-01-29T14:36:57.724+00:00Twitter , Fans, Film, Joel, Alfred and Beckett<div style="text-align: justify;">As I transition from management back towards being a full-time writer and student and more increasingly a digital writer/student, the decline of the book and the rise of the digital , the ebook, blog, and microblog interest me greatly. This still doesn't stop me from questioning whether I would be wiser and more fulfilled concentrating my energies away from such PC & On-line centric activity. After the arrival of my 1700+ follower on Twitter yesterday and that <a href="http://clevercelt.blogspot.com/2009/01/manipulation-twitter-fans-buzz-and.html">odd ranking stuff I posted here</a>, my faith in the social networking tool was quickly rekindled this morning.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I first connected with <a href="http://twitter.com/JoelGunz" target="blank">Joel Gunz</a> on Twitter. Now this intelligent gentleman conforms to my understanding of a genuine Fan. He's a writer and a dad, so while he's across that large Atlantic pond with some remote but fundamental things in common, we also both apparently share an appreciation for 20th century film directors. I'm a big Billy Wilder fan at heart...( less later maybe)<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In Joel's Case he is a fan of Alfred Hitchcock and his work, so much so that he has an <a href="http://www.alfredhitchcockgeek.com/" target="blank">excellent blog here</a>. I always wondered whether Hitchcock began using his cameos as simple physical aids to his cameramen, experience taught me that something technically challenging that isn't getting absorbed first time, is best conveyed through demonstration. Film sets ain't cheap ergo maybe easier, cheaper & faster, (at the beginning of Hitchcock's career)to offer simple framing instructions and become the panning or ref guide in wide or dolly shots. Joel has a slightly different take. He also dug out this rather excellent youtube compilation of said cameos.<br /></div><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OW6Rdiqlg2E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OW6Rdiqlg2E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The thing is, quite a while ago I picked up most of the series of TASCHEN books on film directors, (beautifully produced) including those on wilder and <a href="http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/film/all/03613/facts.alfred_hitchcock.htm" target="blank">Hitchcock</a> No disrespect intended to Paul Duncan, the people at taschen or booklovers in general, but I've read and enjoyed their particular 'product' several times yet each time, as it remains static and there is less and less to discover, that enjoyment diminishes a little.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">While these books are wonderfully satisfying pieces of print that border on the artistically sublime, perhaps as a result of the design awareness; tastefully exploited black & white and color photography, white space, type and other subliminal visual construction and design intuition, these professionally delivered books are inferior artefact's to Joel's Blog. Now the old can't take the blog into the bath argument (excuse the pun) just doesn't hold water - in the 21st century 99% of people shower.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So I'll go on, continue to, revise my opinion and understanding, wavier and fluctuate and wobble about this new networked paradigm but (in Beckett's Words) I'll go on.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-26539226146044827452009-01-28T15:45:00.018+00:002009-01-28T22:17:40.994+00:00manipulation, twitter fans buzz and a bunch of rankersLOL a little bit of buzz about the jostling for position that seems to have occurred recently at <a href="http://twittercounter.com/clevercelt" target="_blank">twittercounter</a>.<br /><br />I became aware of the site a number of weeks ago when someone pointed out that 'clevercelt' was somehow '<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ranked</span>' number two for followers in <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dublin</span> on said twittercounter site, behind one '<a href="http://www.maxroam.com/" target="_blank" >patphelan</a>' of maxroam fame. Fair play to him he has a great product you know.<br /><br />Then a couple of weeks ago, ego got the better of me, went looking and noticed the ever helpful and informative '<a href="http://www.krishnade.com/blog/about/" target="_blank">Krishna De</a>' (award winning all round good gal) was at two and I was ranked 3. Fair's fair, Pat and Krishna do great work for customers, clients and followers. They deserve their top of the table status but hey.... I was still in there. I was so chuffed with meself I put a wee counter widget on this very blog, its not everyday you get to be the third/turd twittererer in Dublin.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SYDSufOXqXI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/2rxuv14aDOM/s1600-h/WebInkNow_photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 269px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SYDSufOXqXI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/2rxuv14aDOM/s320/WebInkNow_photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296464857885288818" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:78%;">photo found /copyrighted by factiva 2006</span><br /></div><br /><br /><br />Which, bearing in mind the number of interesting people living in Dublin currently using Twitter, genuinely surprised me. I didn't consider it a big deal of any description but obviously when I don't sell anything, neither services nor products nor advice nor indeed do I ever give anything other than my time and attention for free - it can all prove personally perplexing as to why my odd observation or 140 cahracter anecdotes continue to amuse, inform or entertain , anyhow... I'm grateful to the folks that do follow me for whatever their own personal reasons - keep it up.. tell your friends... send provisions.... LOL.<br /><br />While I mentioned some initially surprising milestones on this blog, (like the 300 subscribers mark) I just don't subscribe to this idea of constantly broadcasting stats about followers, or our conversations and interactions on Twitter. If an individual decides to follow me and interact with me that's truly great, I'm humble enough to value human interaction, I'm a writer so I enjoy the act of writing in all its forms, I DM and reply time permitting, people wanting to connect in a positive way is obviously a very positive development for me. If they offer me some kind of genuine nugget to share in whatever area - Of course I'm going to share that with other followers who also decided to connect. Life should be about sharing.<br /><br />If someone is connecting only because of some counter somewhere, then that's not great at all ! its actually quite disappointing and I came to understand why ranking might attract those newly self proclaimed social media experts into following me - generally until I blocked them or didn't follow them back. My policy on follow backs is simple - if the person seems genuine and/or their subject area is of interest to me, great then I'll reciprocate. I just changed my background to sort of support that and went onto a blog today to express that fact, something I don't usually do.<br /><br />But now here's the rub, I live on the border, equidistant between Dublin and Belfast, it was random, almost a coin toss as to what city I initially listed in my profile using that drop down menu under Time Zone so I just said I lived in Ireland - not Dublin, not Belfast nor Cork nor anywhere else - Ireland in time Zone Dublin, where I am generally physically located - unless biz or other stuff takes me out and about.<br /><br />The amusing thing is lots of others have now decided to live in Ireland and Dublin, including several marketing gurus and a blog connection. Boo Hoo I've suddenly been relegated to seventh place and I find the whole thing quite funny yet indicative of the clamor for attention that twitter has suddenly become.<br /><br />For a while I thought it might be the Douglas Adams like spaceship of hairdressers scenario (substitute INTERNET marketers or even awkward Internet writers/wafflers like me) where everyone jabbers away incessantly about our collective common stuff of no importance to anyone else outside our bubble of insignificance. I'm too polite and open to not enjoy all this, while deep intellectual academic inquiry has its place, a funny cat picture can bring a smile to my face too, pop culture and net community is just as valid as any high art or elite pursuit.<br /><br />There's a humanity versus celebrity issue going on here for me, ever since wossy and several other UK celebrities outed themselves as genuine twitter users, followers are acting more like fans and awe struck teenagers, some twitter users appear more like desperate wanna - bees. Not the Buzz I was contemplating when I hit 300 followers and actually just the sort of tripe I detest - idiotic fame chasing for the sake of it - <span style="font-weight: bold;">vacuous</span> I think is a good descriptor.<br /><br />I'm going to sit back and review my use of twitter, I'm not sure I want to get mixed up in all that infantile hubris about how much of anything he or I have or she has or anyone else has for that matter.<br /><br />Its an odd non material - materialistic attachment - which I can easily do without, Joy, happiness and contentment would be nice, I don't think any specific number of followers can provide those, and at my age with my life experience I've no desire to get mixed up with a bunch of rankers.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-3915222597149538592009-01-15T16:51:00.006+00:002009-01-15T23:00:11.266+00:00Irish Writers Centre Needs Support<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SW970hexkEI/AAAAAAAAALM/zFsZfpDvjGM/s1600-h/Irish_writers_centre.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 98px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SW970hexkEI/AAAAAAAAALM/zFsZfpDvjGM/s320/Irish_writers_centre.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291584229454483522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I was totally gobsmacked when the arts council decided to cut funding from the Irish Writers centre. I get their newsletter and in it was the following signed statement - I'd like to bring this to your attention:<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SW97nFbntbI/AAAAAAAAALE/v9mZ0wDmFbY/s1600-h/clevercelt_arts_council.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 191px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SW97nFbntbI/AAAAAAAAALE/v9mZ0wDmFbY/s320/clevercelt_arts_council.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291583998586762674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The signed statement is as follows:</span><br /><br />The Arts Council has recently terminated all funding to The Irish Writers’ Centre, an important national institution for the support, development and promotion of writers and writing. While we acknowledge that cuts are inevitable in the present economic downturn, this decision is nevertheless disturbing. It comes at the end of a notably successful year for the Centre, a year which has seen audience numbers and the Centre’s participation in the country’s literary culture at an all-time high. We therefore strongly urge that this decision be reversed and funding for the work of a thriving cultural organisation (€200,000 in 2008) be reinstated urgently.<br /><br /><br /><br />John Banville<br /><br />Sebastian Barry<br /><br />Maeve Binchy<br /><br />Dermot Bolger<br /><br />John Boyne<br /><br />Liam Browne<br /><br />Ciaran Carson<br /><br />Prof. Danielle Clarke<br /><br />Harry Clifton<br /><br />Dr. Steve Coleman<br /><br />Kevin Crossley-Holland<br /><br />Philip Cummings<br /><br />Peter Cunningham<br /><br />John F. Deane<br /><br />Celia De Fréine<br /><br />Roddy Doyle<br /><br />Paul Durcan<br /><br />Anne Enright<br /><br />Prof. Tadhg Foley,<br /><br />Richard Ford<br /><br />David Gardiner,<br /><br />Prof. Luke Gibbons, University of Notre Dame<br /><br />Hugo Hamilton<br /><br />Dr Derek Hand, St Patrick's College, Dublin<br /><br />Kerry Hardie<br /><br />Sean Hardie<br /><br />Jack Harte<br /><br />Aidan Higgins<br /><br />Alannah Hopkin<br /><br />Jerzy Jarniewicz<br /><br />Prof. Margaret Kelleher, NUI, Maynooth<br /><br />Claire Kilroy<br /><br />Edna Longley, Professor Emerita, Queen’s University Belfast<br /><br />Michael Longley, Ireland Professor of Poetry<br /><br />Deirdre Madden<br /><br />Derek Mahon<br /><br />Prof. Kerby A. Miller, University of Missouri<br /><br />Prof. Sean Moore, University of New Hampshire<br /><br />Paul Muldoon<br /><br />Éilis Ní Dhuibhne<br /><br />Dr. Clare O'Halloran, University College Cork<br /><br />Sean O’Brien<br /><br />Joseph O'Connor<br /><br />Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin ("Cormac Millar")<br /><br />Timothy O’Grady<br /><br />Glenn Patterson<br /><br />Justin Quinn<br /><br />Ian Sansom<br /><br />Will Self<br /><br />Matthew Sweeney<br /><br />Prof. Lawrence Taylor, NUI, Maynooth<br /><br />Alan Titley<br /><br />Shaun Traynor<br /><br />Prof. Kevin Whelan, Director, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, Dublin<br /><br />Jonathan WilliamAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-25809832472895163722009-01-01T16:14:00.014+00:002009-01-01T16:50:36.247+00:002009 - A year of writing dangerously – my new years resolution<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SVzv-QeUVsI/AAAAAAAAAK0/jDa4LM2LSww/s1600-h/detonator.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SVzv-QeUVsI/AAAAAAAAAK0/jDa4LM2LSww/s320/detonator.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286363915479176898" border="0" /></a> I really enjoy the works of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco">Umberto Eco</a>, they are literary, scientific, clever, funny, educational, enthralling and entertaining. Linguistically layered and complexly constructed with considerable craft, each bravely offers the masterful expression of dangerous ideas. Something to which a writer <a href="http://www.clevercelt.com/">like moi</a> should aspire maybe ?<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Should I assume that the birth of a dangerous idea for 2009 might mimic their unscrupulously inauspicious gestation in previous years ? i.e. start as seemingly innocent exploratory inquiries like:<br /></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">‘Can we minimize causalities as we search for peace ?’ </span><br /><br />or...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">‘How do we pull apart the very fabric of the universe while smashing together subatomic particles we don’t actually understand?'</span><br /><br />or even how about...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;">“I’ve had enough of my capitalist extortion, material greed and controlling society, I think I may confess to stealing from my own bank, my own clients, my own society, my very own soul”</span>.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Such infant ideas, while patently wrong, ill-judged or reflectively abhorrent, at such an early stage, are not genuinely dangerous in that classic Eco sense. Those may pose some moral dangers, they maybe evoke equally idiotic reasoning and speculation leading to dangerous action but their initial ‘dangerousness’ is confined to local or specialist audiences or specific knowledge communities. It’s really only when they have been implemented and disseminated to the great unwashed or unread do they become truly dangerous.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A genuinely dangerous idea <span style="font-style: italic;">– the earth isn’t flat, God has a sense of humor, there is more truth in fiction than in fact, BTW the world is choking on Carbon Dioxide;</span> from first expression these hold the potential to change the human paradigm, change the very nature of being on this planet, undermining current understanding, questioning the fundamentals of our personal existence. Will such an idea emerge in 2009 ? While I truly admire popular modern scientists who write, eg <a href="http://richarddawkins.net/">Richard Dawkins</a>, <a href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/%7Edtg/gilbert.htm">Dan Gilbert</a>, Anderson, Gladwell, et al, etc, I don’t believe any of the ideas they have eloquently propounded in their recent books (generally borrowed anyway) can be categorized as dangerous.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SVzt5rQZcyI/AAAAAAAAAKk/CK1_Ez-hOds/s1600-h/typing.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 85px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SVzt5rQZcyI/AAAAAAAAAKk/CK1_Ez-hOds/s320/typing.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286361637745947426" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Original Work from writers, Ruskin, Pascal, Orwell, Swift, Joyce, Beckett, like Eco, is firmly founded on ideas, skillfully underlayed (no speedy Gonzales jokes plz) with suggestions and questions which change how we potentially provide ourselves with answers. The subtlety employed beyond a scientists’ soapbox ‘here’s what I think, this is what I know’ style of intellectual provocation, the writing becomes dangerous, not only because it contains dangerous ideas but because it acquires a new value in and of itself. Such stuff of value is what I want to learn more about in 2009.<br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As a writer I do learn by reading yes, but must also learn by writing, writing is the only place value can lie for me if I consider myself a genuinely creative writer. In 2009, that’s the only value I’ll be seeking to create, as I embrace dangerously muddled complex expressions of dangerous and hopefully entertaining ideas. As ever I’m equally prepared to be entirely wrong about striving to write dangerously. While that idea itself may well be dangerous for me in that its attempted execution could mean just that for my writing. At the very minimum I do look forward to trying to be dangerous on the page/web and in approach. I'm looking forward to it.<br /></div><br />Happy New Year.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-41804673766910433462008-12-13T03:12:00.004+00:002008-12-15T12:42:02.240+00:00Biting off more than I can.....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SUMpZAVsgKI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/m7EHFNdPeJ4/s1600-h/1198096061_bigaspirations.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SUMpZAVsgKI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/m7EHFNdPeJ4/s320/1198096061_bigaspirations.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279108697772818594" /></a><br />After a long time thinking about it, I eventually decided to get my own website - in my own REAL name so I'm now off making that, at my lesiure (-:<br /><br /><br />Hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-62998188567057538922008-12-10T16:35:00.005+00:002008-12-10T16:51:43.992+00:00Alan's Questions<a href="http://www.deepphilosophicalquestions.com/">“Deep Philosophical Questions”</a> is the latest work by Mr Alan Bigelow.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/ST_yx6V6HYI/AAAAAAAAAI4/M86NJte1pFg/s1600-h/DPQ_alan_bigelow.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/ST_yx6V6HYI/AAAAAAAAAI4/M86NJte1pFg/s320/DPQ_alan_bigelow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278204227590167938" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Alan provides many of his digital stories at webyarns.com and they offer his specific perspective on various aspects of digital story making....<br /><br />Alan, a generous, talented and kind man, combines Comic strips and philosophy in this particular story to answer six important questions that have eluded some of the more widely known philosophers.<br /><br />enjoy, I did.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-37851044640832131172008-12-02T15:03:00.005+00:002008-12-02T16:03:16.475+00:00A head in the game<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/STVPpv39MRI/AAAAAAAAAIA/RzlUTEZmdjY/s1600-h/screen17t.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 145px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/STVPpv39MRI/AAAAAAAAAIA/RzlUTEZmdjY/s320/screen17t.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275210117178798354" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I needed a laugh recently, for reasons I'm not going to detail right now, suffice to say I really needed cheering up. I also had a stinker of a flu so was behind in doing email, etc, etc & my usual surfing rounds, visiting those sites and communities of which I have been a long time member, I happened upon a bit of ole banter from three even older friends of mine. Namely Mal, Chris & Steve, chinwaging like a crowd of old codgers over at <a href="http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/">gamedevelopers.ie</a> , they were kindly & light heartedly discussing one of my past creations the 'guy' above:<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Danger Magee: Irish Eco-Warrior Goose.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Now When I say that Danger was 'my' creation, it actually took an on-site team of ten people to get us to the point of capturing that 'in-game' shot above in one of the prototype levels, our team of ten were further enabled by off-site teams in both NDL and Havok and elsewhere. It was a 'Goose' but everyone kept forgetting that and for some reason kept calling Danger a duck ! When everyone knew all too well that ducks don't wear bullet belts or confederate caps, I mean, come on guys....<br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">While I did come up with the idea of Danger the goose, in that I wrote the game and level bibles and all that creative type jazz, Kev and PC and Mark all helped to get him, proportioned, low poly modeled, rigged, cycles going, and eventually into our Beta PS2 Engine. It was a genuine collaborative effort, with Nick and Paul as driving forces behind making it happen. Joe, Tony and John were doing additional bits and pieces.<br /></div><br />That was almost ten years ago, and despite a couple of significant publisher offers; when we brought the working prototype demo to VC's for matching finiance they just couldn't understand the appeal of a funny smashing stuff up 'game' ? Let alone why anyone would want a game to be physics driven, explosion laden, for a new console yet to launch, and all that wrapped up in a comic environmentally subversive message to boot ? or to quote one bright moneyed spark:<br /><br />"I mean this is 1999, who's interested in the the global environment or computer console games for that matter ?"<br /><br />Of course not long after that, Abe hit big as we ran into the dot com bubble and cash flow challenges. The VC's decided to support an array of insightful technologist's with the .com suffix and life with a little less Danger went on for us. Our Goose was cooked before he ever got outta the egg.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-25001145428532240342008-11-12T14:05:00.009+00:002008-11-12T20:35:38.606+00:00Two Twitter Thoughts - Higher & Lower<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SRs6upNSxYI/AAAAAAAAAH4/RNffXgHbQ6Y/s1600-h/MoreSpecific.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 212px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SRs6upNSxYI/AAAAAAAAAH4/RNffXgHbQ6Y/s320/MoreSpecific.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267868762149930370" border="0" /></a>Woodpecker like, two thoughts hit me in quick succession as I noticed my twitter following has now risen to over 500 in three days.<br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That Lilly Tomlin joke: “When I was young I always wanted to be somebody.<br />Now I wish I had been more specific.”<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And immediately following ;-) the potentially apocryphal: “The key to being good in the room is….. Keeping your mouth shut !”<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Being somebody more specific ?</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Isn’t that a sorta <a href="http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rogers.html">Carl Rodgers</a> question ? therapists' talk, potential plus attached psychosomatic metric, or an SEO term type metamanagement tag, some kinda keyword prison, any specific me forces me over a blogging barrel to become a conceptual contractual muscle under <a href="http://www.thelongtail.com/">the long tail</a>. No one wants to be whatever that is, right ?<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I am what I am and it’s taken me over forty years to accept my mental and emotional warts, my creative deficiencies, inherent character flaws and my obscure sense of self or should that be sense of obscure self ? Anyway should or can any one of us change, conform and maybe limit our opinions in order to become more popular ? Well as Obama said and proved, ‘yes we can’ but then who would 'I' become if I became that higher being ?<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">“Somebody specific” I hear my own internal cynic retort while pulling on my comfort(able) blanket of obscurity.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Surely we must all strive towards being a specific somebody that can easily fit into mental models and ‘<a href="http://stolentelling.blogspot.com/">democraphic</a>’ understanding, compelled to content ourselves as commercial cerebral commodities that the successful probloggers tell each individual one of us we need to be, seen, heard and read to be, in order to ensure appeal to those individual strands within the individual tribes within collective customer clusters among the masses of mystery potential that might share who we are, if we only knew that specifically !<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I resigned myself to never being ‘popular with the masses’ because not only do I not want to follow the top ten tips for getting terrific traffic or obliterating my obscurity but also Like all other creative people I know I’m a very successful… procrastinator, I don’t actually want to be a business with customers, I don’t want clients, I don’t really want to be compelled to sell anybody anything, I just want to learn from and enjoy the digital conversations emerging from twitter, the simple truth is I don’t want <span style="font-style: italic;">anything specific</span> so, therefore how can I even think about offering something specific in return ?<br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Room to be more .... ?</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2004 I had to somehow categorize myself here on Blogger, I’ve been a writer for over twenty years but sporadically earned my day to day living working in various areas of the technology, entertainment, education and indeed entertainment technology sectors. While interested in many many subjects and areas, my first love is and always was comedy and comedy writing. Ah yes I love to laugh... and then figure out why I'm laughing.... Aren't writers supposed to grow out of that 'its all about me' stage ?<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As a well paid professional manager, director, creative, screenwriter and playwright I was also interested in team dynamics and collaborative work/writing, how technology could enable or hinder that process of understanding ? As a game developer and entrepreneur dealing with coders, artists, investors, banks and corporations you get into examining processes and needing to understand, theories, psychology, best practice, you need to understand people, you need to understand ‘how to behave’ with people. I learned to behave and I learned to understand - but nothing specific.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So the story goes, a British writer/journalist <span style="font-style: italic;">confesses</span> that in the two years he’s spent as a member of an American scriptwriting team, he hasn’t actually contributed anything. That's nada, nothing, zero zilch, a conscious decision he made when given the following aforementioned advice by a veteran of that writing room: “The key to be being good in the room is….. Keeping your mouth shut.”<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The yarn continues.... the British writer never offers an original thought nor an inflammatory remark during his two year stay, he basically <span style="font-style: italic;">keeps his mouth shut </span>and as a consequence when his contract ends he's offered another as he hasn’t made any enemies, and he hasn’t actually contributed ! yet incredulously more importantly neither has he alienated anyone. Thus in that passive processes he collected a nice salary, a reputable scriptwriting credit and further opportunity.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Now whether you believe that story to be true or otherwise, it’s underlying didactic is being ignored on Twitter as the din of lots of people doling out advice on building a followers base, executing a PR/marketing idea or a 'how to' on developing personal twitter management strategies, becomes more and more prominent, most advocating that you become H.I.R.E. - Helpful, Informative, Responsive and 'an' Earthling. Offer that something more specific, don't 'keep your mouth shut' appears to be the kernel of the advice.<br /><br />A choice between H.I.R.E or L.O.W.E.R. (Let Out Whatever Emerges Regularly)<br /><br />The second means you use twitter as an electronic extension of your frontal cortex and just whack every unfiltered thought immediately onto screen and out into the twittersphere, by sheer volume of tweets you may eventually become ‘popular’ or at least followed by some of the more impulsive twitters on the main timeline. Or you can decide to use a strategy or alternative strategy or an alternative to the alternative strategy. Chris Brogan offers what's fairly sound advice (<a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-i-use-twitter-at-volume/">the real stuff I've parodied above in H.I.R.E.</a>) if you are genuinely interested in strategy.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Strategy is for bored rooms and the military, I personally decided nothing in advance, being from Ireland, I first connected with several Irish People by following them, I soon encountered the volume twitters who became insufferable bores, when they pushed genuinely interesting thoughts and links off my screen at pace, I quickly dumped the regularly offending – a bit like kicking them out of that room for shouting, which is of itself quite odd, you see for most writers 'I' is usually the center of the room and our inherent rebelliousness tends to mean we are always 'decenters' irrespective of our location.<br /><br />NANOWRIMO<br />But the last few days I've been trying to catch up on my <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">novel word count</a> and have conciously not been very active in the twitter stream - I didn't want to start a conversation and then run away in the middle of it, so I literally 'shut up' on twitter.in the last couple of days. I have followed other people and they have kindly reciprocated but have also been very quite, maybe I should stay that way....<br /><br />any quick thoughts ?<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-59508402265146335282008-11-06T19:25:00.000+00:002008-11-06T20:11:48.899+00:00About Me ++ About You : my 300++ connected Twitter followers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SRNEyuoIKlI/AAAAAAAAAHg/OPvziYnRW2o/s1600-h/300th_follower.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 302px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SRNEyuoIKlI/AAAAAAAAAHg/OPvziYnRW2o/s400/300th_follower.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265628027626728018" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A pause in my daily writing & paddling of the twitter stream allows just a little time…to offer my response of sorts to previous posts, but specifically to thank <strong><a href="http://twitter.com/zoeyjordan">Zoey Jordan</a> </strong>, your good self and those other 300 individuals who incredulously have decided to follow me on Twitter since I joined about four weeks ago in early October.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Up until the age of 40 I was confused as to who I actually was, now… I’m not so sure anymore. I’m not looking to get into clever word games or a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs style psychology discussion or prompting any kind of tie-in Taoist reference about acceptance or self. I just want to observe that at a time in my life when I’m more comfortable ‘about me’ I find that my use of the internet continually changes my own perception ‘about me’ and that’s maybe more ‘about you’.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I remember a television advert, (back when people watched television and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone">other’s bowled together</a>) where a lady in a white coat stood mid shot and declared: “I’m not a dentist…but….I recommend” and thereafter waxed lyrical about the merits of a specific toothpaste.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That advert annoyed, almost infuriated me, her superficial attractiveness and friendliness were negated by the audacity of an actress (& her copyrighters) to offer expert orthodontist advice while not actually being expert (i.e. at least not in dentistry) but also in some weird counter advertising connection style – objectionable = memorable ? She acknowledged it before hand, I simply didn’t like that but still remembered it these many years later as that patronizing toothpaste ad. (note the absence of brand memory)<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A genuine expert, whom I respect recently twittered about <a href="http://www.martinlindstrom.com/site_files/main_content/blog_player.php/id__112">Martin Lindstrom’s dismissal of </a>product placement, (She has protected updates). Martin’s marketing philosophy was outlined in last Sunday’s UK times as a sort of cognolinguist creativity craftily constructing memes targeted at specific clumps of individual dendrites within the individual brain. – Way beyond the life of Brian’s ‘we’re all individuals’ sort of idea, but with added technology, promise and mystery: all stuff that IMHO powers part of the intellectual aspects of this internet thing. By Martin’s standard’s a wafflely, all over the shop, humble and hastily constructed ‘thank you precious 300th followers, post like this will do little to ‘promote or advertise’ any brand that might be clevercelt.<br /></div><br />But as you know all too well I’m not a brand and although connected and highly valued by me, you are not my customer nor consumer, as I have nothing to sell and no desire right now to manufacture anything to flog to you, I’m not an opinioneer or whatever someone with 300+ followers might somehow think they are entitled to call themselves, I’m simply a father, husband and writer first and foremost. And in that order, before I can be anything else connected with either others or technology, which means, like you, I must first inhabit my head wherever my Cartesian mind-body or the internet takes me.<br /><br />Unlike Lonelygirl15, I’m not pre-scripted but I am primarily a writer and as with most of those writers I admire: I am concerned with ideas AND readership - while there is a point or rationale, perhaps even a catharsis, to writing for pleasure or self development, mastery of this craft does not happen today in isolation, as a writer I need an audience and on twitter - I've already got 300 people plus willing to listen to the occasional 140 characters form me. For that I am genuinely grateful. So thanks once again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-34987863393133866022008-11-01T11:44:00.000+00:002008-11-01T11:47:34.971+00:00in responseI'm multi tasking today, in both real & virtual worlds. I wanted to share this video and then ask anyone who views it to go to You tube and check out the current 33 responses, which reinforces my understanding of active criticism.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TPAO-lZ4_hU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TPAO-lZ4_hU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-13652645404618970942008-10-18T14:11:00.000+01:002008-10-19T12:44:42.492+01:00Send me a link for a wake ?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SPnuSinZxdI/AAAAAAAAAHA/KxDppq4kzXg/s1600-h/wots_dead.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SPnuSinZxdI/AAAAAAAAAHA/KxDppq4kzXg/s400/wots_dead.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258496042228893138" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">On twitter @ 1.45pm (GMT) today, received an interesting tweet in my stream from one of the apparent stars of the Irish Blogosphere. </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> Whether 'in jest' or in partial seriousness; he mentioned that he'd be offering the following advice to some multimedia students on Monday next:</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><br />" My message: TV is dead, newspapers are dead, quit your course."<br /><br /></span> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Now perhaps not what you'd expect to hear if you were one of the aforementioned multimedia students, after all (at least when I lectured to multimedia students approx 10 years ago) the 'discipline' isn't specifically focused on either TV or Journalism, but that's exactly the thing about today's asynchronous web communication technologies - by design, they demand immediate responses, not disciplined, mediative, considered or meticulously planned replies, rebuttals or slow... grinding.. to... a..... halt, next day, ponderous yabber yabber, two weeks to script, six weeks to schedule - trying to catch up on what's already gone - old slow as a one legged donkey media - so whether joking or serious, in my view, in terms of his spontaneous twitter advice to students, the blogger could be correct.<br /><br /></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">However for me it becomes a little bit wider, College educations were once upon a time about, creating critical thinkers, producing independently minded individuals, equipped with specific life skills and knowledge (back in the days when the book was the only accepted repository of knowledge). However now it's all about bits and bytes and bits of stamped paper or specific skillset fits - ironic that the area of criticism flourishes on-line yet withers in the classroom. Just check out any of the active criticism in the guise of video responses/replies/comments available everywhere on the web, personally I don't think it is any longer acceptable to just say: (as it did several times yesterday in the ticket film reviews) "It might be worth crossing the road to see this film."</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I mean ok, we may come to respect the 'informed' opinion's of individual critics but such a 'critical appraisal' of a film is just god damn lazy at least and space filling at best. I remember reading Anthony De Mello's awakening several years ago, and it's central tenant was very simple: Wake up, to what's actually around you. - I think web apps like twitter encourage that, encourage those of us connected by the web, to wake up and stay awake.<br /><br />It also encourages each of us to, do a TED and <a href="http://www.ted.com/">'spread ideas worth spreading,</a>' the trouble for the blogger and I is, when it comes to twitter, we're preaching to the converted, the vast majority of those in the stream already recognize the stuff I'm waffling on about, but it's genuinely empowering - to someone like me, who grew with the evolving, 'electronic business equipment revolution' to see Bill gates 'A PC on every desk 'become 'A PC desk in every home' but by far the most exciting and independently liberating aspect of today's web culture is the potential and probability for 'active criticism' i.e. forget the crossing the road or passive opinion, the ability to make things, to build things, to 'create' in response to the work, and opinions, of others..... and all within a couple of hours.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">my image above based on </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">FUNERAL © <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/Higyou_info" title="Higyou"><strong>Higyou</strong></a> | Dreamstime.com</span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" > </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-87210376530957080322008-10-16T14:01:00.000+01:002008-10-17T17:10:03.105+01:00non runner today<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SPc97TPNO9I/AAAAAAAAAGo/5XkWOyvSJPY/s1600-h/web20_DNF.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SPc97TPNO9I/AAAAAAAAAGo/5XkWOyvSJPY/s400/web20_DNF.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257739178963975122" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://stolentelling.blogspot.com"> heres why</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-58336927007604790442008-10-10T00:22:00.000+01:002008-10-10T01:08:10.501+01:00Getting write away for the day - with the wonderful Carysfort press & IWC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SO6S0Kor0EI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/FzeLr8zewoU/s1600-h/Irish_writers_centre.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SO6S0Kor0EI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/FzeLr8zewoU/s400/Irish_writers_centre.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5255299240093798466" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm spending my occasional day away from my PCs tomorrow, off meeting some people in the flesh in Dublin. I'll be attending another of the excellent 'OUT TO LUNCH' series of readings in the Irish Writers Centre. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Deane">John F Deane</a>. poet, novelist, founder of poetry Ireland, general all round good guy and solid source of inspiration to many Irish Writers for a number of years, will be reading his latest work. <a href="http://www.johnfdeane.com/">John's site</a> simply doesn't do justice to his vibrantly textured talent, he is a uniquely gifted wordsmith not a webmaster. Increasingly today IMHO writers should consider embracing the web, new media and all the new media tools available if they are to reach the widest audience possible. John's IWC event is open to the public but if you are around town and thinking of heading to Parnell street, then best call Ian first to ensure you can grab a seat.<br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Later in the evening I'll be in <a href="http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/index.html">The Abbey</a>Theatre with my very good Friend Lillian Chambers and her colleagues from <a href="http://www.carysfortpress.com/">Carysfort press.</a> The Carysfort Press will be launching some of their latest titles but will also be celebrating ten years of really terrific and unique support for Irish Theatre Writing - Dan Farrelly and Lillian are really to be commended on their wonderful contribution to Irish Cultural Life. Their collective foresight, generosity and commitment to Irish Theatrical heritage<span class="dicColor"></span> should be applauded and more appreciated - The event is 'invite only' and I'll update this blog with any developments etc over the weekend.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It's the moleskin and ink for days like this - I refuse to bring my laptop (having hauled it half way round the world altready) also I have just set up twitter txt with my phone so if any of the great and good of the Irish <span class="dicColor"><i>theaterazzi</i></span> or media offer me a descent quote, I'll stick it on<a href="http://twitter.com/clevercelt"> twitter</a> straight away (-: or record it for later podcasting.<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-4224832734265151462008-10-03T20:32:00.000+01:002008-10-03T20:53:37.789+01:00Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden Debate<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SOZ1b1GoxwI/AAAAAAAAAGA/ccY8SgQowew/s1600-h/BVP_MJM.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SOZ1b1GoxwI/AAAAAAAAAGA/ccY8SgQowew/s400/BVP_MJM.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253015136346097410" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I watched the Full Vice Presidential Debate with Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89FbCPzAsRA">on Youtube</a>, all 92.5 torturous minutes of it, even though I’m not American and can’t influence anything got to do with the election. It's just that 'car crash watcher' mentality in me, fighting to get out.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I wonder what 'Matt' thinks now ? Probably - 'Hey she didn't even mention the dinosaurs."</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />I am compelled to share the planet with Americans. The vast majority of Americans I have personally met here and on both coasts of the USA are the salt of the earth, great people, superb professionals, intelligent individuals, good guys and gurls with their heart in the right place, filled with the ethos of the American dream, which they have successfully exported across the globe.<br /><br />However ‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics">Reaganomics</a>’, competitive greed, government ineptitude, a totally self interested, insular attitude, with only condescendingly occasional glances outside to see what can be grabbed, have soured that American dream and turned it into a Global nightmare, and now these two political puppets strive to be ‘as straight up as they can’ on TV & the web.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It was like watching a couple of middle class kids, argue in the schoolyard while trying to behave in front of parents.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">A couple of things:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Drilling for oil in the ocean is not an option – when Americans pollute the ground, I’m forced to live with that, it’s their ground and they have to live with it, when they pollute the air, the Atlantic ocean actually goes someway towards absorbing that pollution and Sarah Palin wants to start messing about taking chances, drilling underwater, drilling for profits and more greed. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Her Ha ha, a team of mavericks and clean green natural gas !! was almost as funny as his grasp of ‘boz knee acks’. She is so artificially sweet n slick she’s transparently duplicitous, he’s so generous and steady and such a professional, making sure he adheres to best NPL practices, making sure that repetition, and focus and his best presentation techniques….. even though nobody apparently got his joke about never being the VP. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Tough to watch the warbling, difficult to digest the duplicity, hard to endure the sheer egotistical ignorance. It was actually dispiriting to watch of two professionally polished politician, dummy dueling, ultimately prompting nothing in this viewer only despair right now. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-36276741607157815562008-10-02T14:58:00.000+01:002008-10-06T19:04:21.713+01:00Pratronise the paddy's like this for the Lisbon rerun ?<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0vtHwWReGU0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0vtHwWReGU0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />Our most famous, internationally famous advocate 'Bono' tells us, that in these times of credit crunchiness, we should all ensure that our Irish government adheres to it's development Aid pledges, we should make sure that a very tiny portion of our national tax is given to international worthy causes that, without doubt, deserve support. I will give outside that mechanism anyway - and still what Bono says appears to make sense. I will also gently recommend to friends that they do it also. The whole five friends idea in the above video is great isn't it.<br /><br />That touch at the End with Mr. Dustin Hoffman (respect) seemingly ad libbing is very effective. In a subtle way it enforces the idea of "do as I do not as I say", which is kind of where the whole Bono ranting begins to fall down, I mean Bono tells everyone what everyone else should be doing, while also transferring the commercial operations and profit machine of his band U2 to the Netherlands- merely a very effective tax efficiency measure. Ensuring his company doesn't pay tax on profits here - but remember - make sure the government gives a portion of your tax to development aid as promised - hmmm quite disappointing and duplicitous there Bonio.<br /><br />I kinda remember Bono, back in the eighties on the Late Late show that far off time when people under 55 used to watch RTE TV, telling Gaybo the difference between success in Ireland and success in America. The jist was something like this:<br /><br />In America a walking man, looks and sees a mansion of a house on the top of a hill, complete with cars, designs, pool and the trappings of wealth, He says "Look at all that wealth and how successful that man has become, some day, if I work hard, pursue my dream, dedicate myself, I may make enough to have what that man has."<br /><br />An Irish man passes in similar circumstances in Ireland and says "how did that gobshite manage to get all that, what stroke did he pull ?"<br /><br />An illustration of 'classic Irish begrudery' or 'in-built cynicism from 800 years of oppression by forces of occupation' - or just Bono playing to the crowd, whatever about it, the story retold is now more like, look at that man preaching form afar, does he really, truly believe he has a higher spiritual understanding than those of us, happy with obscurity, modest incomes and quite conscience?<br /><br />A couple of posts down this blog, I have a clip of Jim Corr, ranting on about international conspiracy theories and the need to vote no to the Lisbon referendum, despite, rather than because of, it most Irish people voted NO. Could a video campaign with well known Irish celebrities, advocating a yes vote, have worked ? Emm, I don't think so, it's a trust issue, we Irish just don't trust anyone who chooses to live on a hill, either metaphorically, physically or otherwise, we don't like condescensions of any type, after our failed love affair with the church, when someone does start preaching he just strikes us as a prat - and all he's doing is simply trying to Pratronise us.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8623936.post-17252532429936271392008-10-01T13:45:00.000+01:002008-10-01T14:06:08.931+01:00A blank check (sic) for Irish Banks: Questions.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SONx_waTSzI/AAAAAAAAAF4/t2tZwl2UxO0/s1600-h/Kroes_charlie_said.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 174px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z6apc6w5kbA/SONx_waTSzI/AAAAAAAAAF4/t2tZwl2UxO0/s320/Kroes_charlie_said.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252166930585045810" border="0" /></a><br />The good ole Irish taxpayer, in the form of our wise and creative government, decided we will be collectively going guarantor for six Irish Banks, something worth four hundred Billion euro. <span style=""> </span><br /><p face="trebuchet ms" class="MsoNormal">Is that 400,000,000,000,000 Euro ?<br /></p><p face="trebuchet ms" class="MsoNormal">Which would be approx 565, 627, 000,000,000 Dollars then.</p><p face="trebuchet ms" class="MsoNormal"> Ahh ok …. Go ahead.</p><p face="trebuchet ms" class="MsoNormal">Hold on, wait, erm that’s way more than half what the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> package is, isn’t it ? Seems a tad disproportionate in terms of, what we’ve been assured is a ‘fundamentally sound system’ in a tiny country. ‘The banks’ assets outweigh their debts’ assures Irish Mary, based on what valuation ? their own 100% mortgage repayment percentiles ? </p> <p face="trebuchet ms" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Yes Irish Mary from the international hub of high finance that is count-y Donegal, our beloved minister for enterprise, will be bringing her considerable intellectual weight to the debate, or to paraphrase her morning appearance at Leaders’ questions: ‘ I dunno, Lenihan is the money man, he’ll have plenty of excuses dreamt up by this afternoon to pawn you off’</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So we're sort of ‘waiting for Gobshite’, on the main stage, which might mean seeing sideline senators in the Seanad again getting up, repeating media analyst’s comments and passing them off as original<span style=""> </span>representative comments yet again today ? my own ‘borrowed’ favorite being; ‘privatization of profits and nationalization of debt – with sufficient outrage as to make it seem original, what a performance Ivana, how much are you paid to recycle again?</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">I need someone to explain to me why we are protecting and preserving what appears to me like a flawed greed system, why are we guaranteeing the debts as well as the deposits of banks that dug their own position ? Do they really expect the Irish public to take all this seriously, it might help the banks, its doing nothing for politics or politicians.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Is ‘in labour Eammo’, finally getting a context for his pained oratory delivery, “ I want to know if the foreigners here are now putting their money in our six banks ? Am I guaranteeing them too Mary ? – erm… Brian the brain will be along shortly Mr labour, he’ll answer that question too, did you know his Dad was a great Irish Politician, who CharlieH tried to financially de-liver ? BTW, thanks for alerting them udders on national TV.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">“Can I be part of a committee to oversee the blankness of the cheque ?” asked Enda the road of 'Fine slight breeze', “ Ahh go on will ya, do you not know I was nearly tee-shuck one time ?, I could’ve been just as irresponsible as the rest of you, but I have charisma and it’s not a two litre Toyota, guffaw guffaw, mammy, where's mammy ?”</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So who will oversee this rushed, panicked, pieced together, slapped up, get our mates outta trouble bit of bed feathering legislation, what’s the exact parameters, can we really do what we want with a gazillion guarantee ? I mean budgets are designed to be over spent aren’t they, surely this is the same thing, a gazillion, a squillion, a half a trillion, 400 billion, what diffierence do the numbers make to ordinary people on under 30k a year ? Let's get this through -- and quick !!<br /></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">" Hoi’ liddle Irish Paddypeople, don’t forgets, even though you don’t like the lisbonians, you sthill in <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>, talking to da commishon is what you will be doing, don’t be sinking you can do your own dance at our EU funding party liddle paddypeople, you gotta talk to us too you know" – so sayeth EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, whom I'm sure will need to consult with our very own EU Charlie on big matters.<br /></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So maybe the EU will police this whole thing, I certainly hope so, despite their own internal questions about checks and balances and wider trust issues, I think the old better the devil you know attitude is as redundant as the idea that politicians always put <span style="font-style: italic;">'the peoples'</span> interest first.<span style=""> </span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01237625467441827476noreply@blogger.com0