Ireland – Page 28 – Something Odd!

AIDS – Don’t Die of Ignorance

Today is a very important day in world health. December 1st is World Aids Day and each year is dedicated to a different theme. This year’s theme is “Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise – Accountability” and you can find out more about how the theme is chosen and who chooses it on avert.org

Irish television viewers will see a “high-profile television campaign warning about the rise of the Aids pandemic in Ireland” over the next few months and that may hopefully encourage people to get tested and improve awareness of the disease according to breakingnews.ie.

Some charities would prefer a softly-softly approach because the viewing public has become immune to distressing scenes but I can’t bear to hear the opening score of the following drink driving advert because of how it ends.

If you’re wondering, bloggers all over the world are talking about AIDS. Get into the conversation and make a difference.

It’s also my birthday today, and in a selfish sort of way, I wish they’d picked another day to raise awareness of AIDS! It’s a bit of a downer hearing about the AIDS epidemic in the media on my birthday, each and every year on this day. I guess the message is getting through, somewhere, hopefully.

Check the voting register before December 9th

The deadline to check if you’re on the voting register has been extended to December 9th so if you haven’t checked, you have a few more days to do so. Type your name and address into the form on Checktheregister.ie to find out if you’re one of the 300,000 voters knocked off the list! This is especially important if nobody has called to your house with a voting form. Even though you may have been on the register for years, some councils have been overly enthusiastic about deleting voters.

It’s a little fiddly doing the check, but not too painful. When you visit the site above you’ll have to click through to the council managing your area. I checked the Cork County Council site and had to click another link which opens a new maximized window with the form. On a large wide screen that looks really silly! All it needs is 600 pixels.

Lesotho table quiz tonight

My brother Donal and his girlfriend Celine are heading to Lesotho next April as part of a charity effort with the ISPCC to renovate a school and build a playground for kids there. They’re holding a table quiz tonight in the Spailpin Fanach to help raise funds.

Donal’s also looking for spot prizes. They have a few already and sponsors will be mentioned on their charity.ie page. I want to make it sweeter for people to help. If you run an online company and would like a link on the sidebar of this PR8 website, with traffic of almost 3,000 page views a day for a month, drop me a mail at donncha @ ocaoimh.ie (or ring me if you have my number) – we need to have the spot prize tonight, in about 6 hours time.

Online gift vouchers or something I can print out would be best.
The audience is probably not technically minded, so free hosting would be useless. An Amazon or other online retailer voucher on the other hand would be great.
I have three slots for your links. According to Text Link Ads a link on my site for a month is worth $275. I’m willing to sell these slots to sponsors for €100 each.

Time is running out. You have six hours. That’s 6pm Irish time, or mid-morning EST! Thanks for your help!

I’ll be there, with camera in hand of course, although I’m useless at quizzes so I don’t know who’ll want me on their team. Don’t tell anyone ok?

See how easily you can get rich?

News this morning is that elected politicians in Ireland “will receive more than €1,000 for every day they sit in the Dáil.” Not bad eh?

“Get Elected” was one of the 30 ways to spend your SSIA on Eddie Hobbs’ show recently. He suggested that investing your €20,000 in an election attempt was a great way to invest your lump sum. Given that a TD will earn more than €103,000 that’s a great investment if you have the hair and height for it!

According to today’s Irish Independent, the average basic wage for a TD will increase to more than €103,000, while a golden handshake, amounting to €4.7m, will be paid to TDs and Senators who lose their seats in next year’s general election.

I'm still shaking

This morning I almost went straight into the side of another car on a bend.

I drive Jacinta into work and on my way back via Sunday’s Well I got a strong smell of petrol on the quay. It was raining with water pooling at the side of the road and the tell-tale rainbow of the petrol on the road was everywhere. It hadn’t been there a few minutes earlier and traffic was backed up going out of the city. The wrong way considering it’s the morning and we had been stuck for 15 minutes going in ten minutes previously.

Driving up a hill that’s been plastered with petrol is no fun. Other cars were getting stuck, we were stopped and people were getting impatient. I heard the beeping of a horn from somewhere behind me. We weren’t going anywhere and my view was blocked by the van in front of me. Finally the car in trouble started off again so I let go of the hand brake and pressed the accelerator. Nothing, I barely moved. In desperation I slammed on the hand brake again and took a breath checking my rear view mirror to see how much space I had. I tried again, the speedometer said 20mph but the car was barely moving. I heard an awful whining sound and slowly the car inched forward. Finally the tires gripped the road and slowly I made my way up around the corner. The road was clear ahead of me and I had another obstacle.

There’s a steep hill up and over Sunday’s Well and too late I saw the rainbow hues on that bend but I was committed. Slowly I advanced forward, turning the wheel with the corner but to my horror the car kept going forward, right towards a car. I stopped quickly. Thankfully the brakes held, switched off the ignition and hit the flashers before jumping out in case something had happened to my steering. No, the wheels were turned left but had been skidding on the slick petrol film on the road. I got in and abandoned my attempt to go up the hill, instead taking the longer route down the North Mall and up Blarney Street. At the top of that street were the signs of petrol again but it’s level ground and the road is more porous and didn’t present a problem.

I’m only now calm and not shaking. It gave me an awful scare and I’ll be heading into town a different way this afternoon. The Gardai were called and they had received a few calls already. I passed a Garda van on the way home so hopefully they were on the way down to direct traffic and help people.

I’m glad I’m home.

Thinkhouse PR – what's up?

As Damien’s post is missing from Google I think it’s up to the rest of us to spread the word.

Despite contacting them several times over the course of a few weeks Thinkhouse PR continued to spam Damien with product announcements and press releases. On August 23rd he sent a formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner and being a blogger, wrote about it too. It is this post that has disappeared from Google’s search. It might be something as innocent as a Google refresh or it might be banned.

If you live outside Ireland, please search for “Thinkhouse PR” and leave a comment here if you see Damien’s post on the front page. Thanks.

Tom has also covered this issue and found out that the Data Protection Commissioner apologised to Thinkhouse PR for investigating them.

Bizarrely, Jane McDaid of Thinkhouse PR in a comment on James‘ site said that the Data Protection Office had apologised for having to follow up the complaint!

Later.. Damien posted the letter he received from the Commissioner. They did investigate, but I think someone in Thinkhouse PR needs to come up with another reason. They stated that it took up to 2 days to remove a user from their lists. Unfortunately for them Damien received his last ~~spam~~ correspondence from them 14 days or more after contacting them. Someone should get a slap on the wrist for this.

Damien's new media

Well, Damien, sorry, I mean Damien, is on the radio again! No need to check his blog any more, just listen to Today FM. Well done on getting the exposure.

Woo, I know someone famous! 🙂

Cup o' tea and halloween brack

It’s that time of the year again and one of the highlights is the traditional Halloween brack. If you’ve never had it, it’s a delicious fruit cake, usually with small objects hidden inside.
From the Wikipedia page on Barm Brack:

In the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth and a ring. Whovever recieved in their slice the pea, would be unmarried; the stick, would be a fighter; the cloth or rag, would be poor; and the ring, would be wed within the year.

The Halloween Brack is commonly known as “barn brack” but it’s properly called “barm brack”. I think I prefer “barn brack”.

How do you make it? It’s fairly easy, not that I’ve ever made one, but this recipe looks so simple I might be able to make it! A more descriptive recipe isn’t as simple. Hmm. Have you baked one?

Now, I’m off to have another slice! Yum!

I got the ring! I turned to Jacinta and asked her, “Will you marry me?” She took the ring, put it on her finger, looked at me and solemly said, “I’ll think about it!” before bursting out in laughter and eating her own slice of the brack. Ah yes. I love her! 🙂

Live from BarCamp Ireland

Here we are, live from BarCamp, predictably I’m late, but just in time for lunch!

Continue reading “Live from BarCamp Ireland”

I'll be there too

See you tomorrow at BarCamp Ireland! There’s going to be a big crowd and great speakers. Tom will be there and he has volunteered to speak twice. I won’t be talking, but come up to me and ask me about WordPress MU and wordpress.com, I’ll be the one wearing the WordPress tshirt!

I see that the wiki has been updated with the following message:

All attendees, whether you have signed up already or not, please send your contact email address to barcampireland at gmail dot com. Thanks.

It’s a public wiki and I haven’t seen the same message on the BarCamp Ireland Blog so maybe hold off sending that email until there’s a similar announcement tomorrow. Me paranoid? Never!

While I’m here, blogging at 23:30, this will be of interest to the rest of Automattic and anyone else who works at home – Myths About Working From Home. You never really leave the job do you? (via)