Voting in the blog awards is easy

How to vote in the Irish Blog Awards in three easy steps:

  1. Visit the voting page at http://www.awards.ie/vote/
  2. Enter your name and email address.
  3. Scroll down to “Best Photo Blog” and select “In Photos” from the drop down list.
  4. In “Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere” select “Donncha O’Caoimh”
  5. In “Best Technology Blog/Blogger” select “Donncha O’Caoimh” again.

There, no confusion. No wondering who all those people and blogs are. Hope that helped and thanks for voting!

PS. Thank you to Damien Mulley, the brains behind the awards, and to the sponsors of the above categories: Pixenate, First Partners, and Bitbuzz!

PPS. Damien will enter everyone who votes into a draw for a copy of “Vista Home Premium”. That of course might not be to everyone’s tastes, but you can always give it away to your worst enemy if you win..

Top Gear attacked by rednecks

This is pure comedy. What did Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May expect when they drove through Alabama in the deep south of the United States, with the intention of antagonising the local populace? They’d welcome the stars of a car show from the UK with open arms? Watch the video, it’s hilarious, and scary! (via Matt Thomas)

Youtube unsurprisingly took down the clip but you can still watch it on craveonline thanks to kiwibiker for the link.

PS. James May writes about the episode on the The Top Gear blog. Thanks again to Matt for the link.

Continue reading “Top Gear attacked by rednecks”

Another reason to hate cats

Cats play rough, they like to be bad, they like to be slapped around a bit and they lap up the punishment! Watch this video and be convinced at the deviant ways of our feline pets. It’s disgraceful!

Of course I’m joking. I love cats and this video is so funny it made me laugh out loud. That cat really seems to be enjoying itself being slapped. A sadistic and masochistic cat perhaps? (via)

PS. the world would be a much quieter one without Youtube. Shudder.

Who wins Irish Linkbaiter of the Year?

A number of Irish blogs and sites attracted a great many links and attention over the past 12 months but I think I can safely say that the Irish Blog Awards deserves the much coveted “Irish Linkbaiter of the Year Award”. If Damien didn’t delete his own blog from nominations he’d certainly be up for a gong or two!

Not to be left out, I’ve linked to the Awards site too, and I noticed that I’ve been nominated in three categories:

  • This blog is nominated in the best technology blog category.
  • I’m nominated in the “Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere” category
  • Finally, In Photos has been nominated in the best photoblog category.

I voted a few days back and I remember nominating In Photos (hey, why leave things to chance?), but thanks to whoever nominated me in the other categories. Now all that remains is for everyone to vote for me! Go on, you know you want to!

I won’t make it to the awards ceremony this year either but Ryan will be on hand to take a few photos. I look forward to seeing his brilliant black and white shots of the event. My reason for not attending are the same as last year, but thankfully, this year it’s under much happier circumstances!

The voting page doesn’t link to the participating blogs and personalities, but Jason Roe came up with the goods and has linked to them all. Fire up your browser and open them tabs! Ah yes, the Red Cardinal has done the same.

Meanwhile, in typical Rebel Cork style, the Gamma Goblin is holding his own alternative blog awards where, “I’m gonna have my own awards and give ye all nothin! I’m gonna print up flyer’s and stuff, and have cake, and pop… and then maybe a raffle. None of you cretins will get any of the tickets, I’ll keep all the tickets, that way I will definitely win the spot prize’s, which will consist of, a collection of items, and a pile of things.” Go on GG, blow your own bugle, you’ll enjoy it!

What do the fans think of the FAI?

The fans weren’t too happy when the Republic of Ireland soccer team only narrowly beat San Marino on Wednesday night. They were expecting much more from the national team as can be seen from this video grabbed off Explic.it (‘gratz to Foot.ie for getting on the news!):

So, what did they do? Take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Football Association of Ireland. Looks ok doesn’t it, except for the notice saying, “Editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled.” Why is that? Someone vandalised the page, which is unfortunate but almost forgiveable. Check the history page for more details. Here’s what they wrote:

They are a really nice, intelligent, clever, stand up gang and not a bunch of Fucking useless cunts that should be taken out and shot. Everything that they touch turns to ash. wheither it’s the Eircom League, all the money that they blew after the 1990 & 1994 world Cups, the Building of Eircom Park, The Roy keane incident, The Sacking Of Brian Kerr after he did the best that he could right down to the Appiontment of a man without no managerial experience and who talks through his arse…Mr Steve Staunton! the organising body for the sport of association football (soccer) in the Republic of Ireland.

Oops!

How to make free international calls

Fellow Corkman, Pat Phelan has launched the Irish version of his All Free Calls service. It’s now possible for Irish people to make international calls at the price of a local or national call.

I’ve covered getting cheap calls in Ireland and abroad before but All Free Calls is a price that’ll be hard to beat. If your telephone provider offers a free calls package you’ll be able to make international calls for free! Eircom, UTV Internet and others offer free local calls so this should shake up the international calls market quite a bit.

Anytime free minutes bundles or packages are available from several Irish providers including Eircom, BT, Perlico etc. When you use the number shown on the website AllFreeCalls.ie the international part of your call is then free.

Disclaimer: I’ve met Pat twice, I’m subscribed to his blog but other than that I’m impartial!

Update: It’s not all free, 1890 and 0818 numbers are excluded from free call packages unfortunately. Pat clarifies the situation today. Still, local call is better than the silly amounts the incumbant charges for international calls.

Fundraising table quiz for Lesotho tonight

My brother and his girlfriend are heading to Lesotho in aid of the ISPCC charity. They’re going over in April but still need to raise funds for the trip so there will be a table quiz tonight at the Fob and Gill in Mayfield starting at 9pm.

I won’t be there tonight unfortunately but the last table quiz was great fun so if you’re wondering what you’re going to do tonight drop in and support a good cause!

I forgot to ask the midwife

We’re just back from our first ante natal class and I forgot to ask the most important question that every dad wants to know,

Can the prospective dad get a few gulps of the gas and air?

I did remember to ask another important question.

When the baby is upside down in the womb, does the blood run to it’s head? Is the baby in a constant state of wooziness?

Apparently the unborn baby’s blood runs in the opposite direction to your’s or mine. When a baby is born two valves close off in the heart and the blood flows in the right direction! So much happens when a baby is born, they must start breathing for themselves, they have to heat themselves.. Complicated business.

Brenda Power writing in the Sunday Times has a very positive article about older mothers. This is a subject close to my heart because my pregnant wife will be 42 on her next birthday, although if you met her you’d hardly know it! I would link to the article but the Times Online website has been redesigned. They’re looking for feedback so here’s mine. I don’t mind the new colours, it’s not as cluttered as other news sites, but some of the database and archive functionality could be improved. When I tried to view last Sunday’s Sunday Times content the drop down didn’t work, and searching for “Brenda Power” in the search box returned zero results! Does she still work for you? Looking forward to seeing those problems fixed because half the enjoyment of reading the newspaper is that I can blog it later!

One more criticism of the new Sunday Times website – not all articles are available there. The two I wanted to blog about this week are missing in action, presumed lost in the server somewhere. Please fix it! *sob*

Thoughts on returning from Killarney

Random thoughts that have occurred to me this Sunday evening after spending the weekend in Killarney, Co. Kerry in the south-west of Ireland.

  • Too much driving to the Black Valley. It’s not recommended that you drive through the Gap of Dunloe, but I’d like to see any heavily pregnant woman walk those hills!
  • Ross Castle is so close to Killarney yet I never knew about it until I saw Brid’s photo at the camera club.
  • The Randles Court Hotel is excellent.
  • I need to dump stuff to DVD to make way for 3GB of RAW files, bracketing shots suck space.
  • It’s great to be away for a few days, but it’s wonderful to get home too.
  • Waterproof nappies for the baby might be useful next year. Do they work?
  • Most Kerry people we met and all the foreign workers and hotel staff were very nice.
  • St. Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney is huge and impressive. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before with bold, bare rocks decorating the columns and walls. I was self-conscious about the click of my camera until I noticed a couple brought their dog into this holy place and stood in front of the alter in admiration, with dog standing behind them.
  • Supervalu hotel breaks are great!
  • And finally, the proverbial honey glazing on a great weekend: Only 100 spam comments moderated. Over 5,000 caught by Akismet.
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