Ray and Jenny Expecting

Radio DJ, Ray D'Arcy and Jenny Kelly are expecting a baby in a few months time it was revealed yesterday in the Tribune. For those of us who don't buy that fine newspaper, Ian Dempsey announced the news this morning. Ray and co. were inundated with texts this morning congratulating the couple on their good news!

Good luck guys, hope the pregnancy goes well!

The referrers list on In Photos shows the interest people had trying to find photos of the couple. Luckily my US Book photos have always featured highly in Google searches for them! 🙂

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UCC students blogging

Damien Mulley has the scoop about the latest development at University College Cork. All students will be given blogs!

While that’s great news for blogging in Ireland, I’m disappointed that they didn’t choose WordPress Mu. I had a quick look around a few blogs and noticed a few things:

  • They do have permanent links, but links to articles are only in the sidebar “Recent Posts” block. The title of each post is not linked, and neither is the timestamp.
  • Permanent links aren’t very descriptive being of the form “/blogs/Username/item_x.htm” where x is a number.
  • It looks like trackbacks and pings aren’t supported so it will be just a little harder for blog owners to participate in blog conversations with others.
  • What will happen when a student finishes college? Will they be able to export their work? On another level, who owns the work? Student or College?

I have to disagree with Bernie’s comment about what value for money colleges get from hosting blogs. Bebo and MySpace are only two of the many companies offering their own proprietary website platforms. A college weblog has an unbreakable link to that institution. Colleges are places for learning which is quite different from the profit motive of any and every commercial company out there. The more exposure students get to blogging the better they will be at dealing with this phenomenon in the future. Not to mention the older students who are not in the demographic targeted by commercial interests.

Rage on the road

“Who’s calling me now, must be one of the lads about tonight. No Gardai around, answer phone. Damn bend, must slow down… There they are in that garage! I better stop the car in the middle of the road and shout at them! What the f*ck! The guy behind me blowing his horn at me? F*cker, who does he think he is?”

I’m sure that’s what was going through the mind of the driver in front me who braked suddenly and stopped in the middle of the road to shout abuse at his friends in another car. Lovely.

Ni­ Gaeilgeoir Me

I watched the first two episodes of reality tv show, Ni Gaeilgeoir Me tonight. It’s on every night at 10pm for the rest of the week and I’ll probably tune in.
I do have to admit that I fast-forward through it on the Sky+ because I’m not a reality tv fan, but it’s fun to watch. It does help ma ta cupla focail Gaeilge agat but there are subtitles through the recorded bits to help. The speed dating as Gaeilge was brilliant!

I haven’t a clue what the two teachers are saying. That guy from Ulster is practically incomprehensible to me! The presenter, Aoife Ni Thuairisg, is great and she’s easy to understand however!

I think a special mention has to go out to Jenny Kelly and Jeannette Cronin. The former because I wouldn’t be watching it if the Ray D’Arcy show hadn’t got her on it, and the latter because of her infectious laughter throughout interviews!