Last February Irish blogger Jason Roe had his 15 minutes of fame after an online tussle with some of Ryanair’s staff. I don’t know if it was a wish to prove that all bloggers, twitterers, whatever, are not actually idiots or lunatics that prompted Jason to start organising the BTW (Blogger, Twitter, Whatever) Meetups but they have been going from strength to strength since. I made it to the last one and it was a great opportunity to put a few faces to names. Embarrassingly it was rather difficult for me to keep those names attached to those faces in one instance but it had been a long day!
The next BTW meetup is on Thursday 3rd September in the Kudos Bar in the Clarion Hotel in the IFSC. There’ll be eating and drinking and it kicks off at 7pm. It doesn’t matter if you are new to blogging or tweeting or if you’re an old hand, you should come along. It will be fun, you’ll meet new people and maybe learn a few tricks about gaining international notoriety from the man himself!
Aon duine a d’fhreastal ar ár mbainis mar shampla bheadh a fhios acu go mór, mór liom Daft Punk. Tháinig duine de foireann ICAN ar an suíomh seo agus thar aon ní eile is píosa craic don Aoine atá ann. Déan d’amhráin Daft Punk féin anseo http://www.najle.com/idaft/
A super quick post to say that Nipper 1.0 and I are delighted to have been chosen as the winners of the recent Made in Hollywood competition run in conjunction with the Irish Blog Awards 09. The Tommy he is referring to is Tommy Collison who very deservedly won the Best Newcomer Award this year.
My entry for the Made in Hollywood competition
Garman took a real shine to the speech bubble when I brought it home and he was home sick one day and I said we would have some fun making different speeches with it. I’m thrilled myself because apart from a bronze medal for the three legged race when I was 9 I have never won a thing in my life.
He is especially pleased to have won because I promised him a third of the booty to expand his small Lego (as opposed to big Lego pieces) collection so expect more fantastical photos in the future.
I finally made it to the Blog Awards. After years of trying but never managing to avoid the clash with An Tóstal or my own birthday plans I finally made it. I’m hoping that the fact that I trekked from Dublin to Cork will make me seem less of a blogger wannabe.
I also took a more active role this year even though I had previously offered to help judge the Irish Language category in particular. This year, after a gruelling vetting process (ahem!) I was accepted as a judge of the 2009 Irish Blog Awards. Maybe there should be a gruelling vetting process because it’s a gruelling judging process. I think I’m too nice to be a judge. I was inclined to think, “Ah sure you made the effort.” Okay I was inclined to think that for the first five. Then I turned into a vicious bitch and by blog number 18 I was thinking, “Call that blogging? Yer ma!” and then I went back and recalculated the first five in that mood. And that was just round 1 and I abstained from judging two blogs because I do not speaky the soccer. However the second round was, in a way, easier because I had two categories so I was able to focus more. Overall however I was very impressed with the quality of the blogs and enjoyed discovering new blogs that I don’t already read. One of the criteria for judging the blogs is community which I judged based on the interaction with commenters. As a result I have decided that I am going to email all my family and friends and have at them for not following and commenting on this blog which I create with them in mind. Why else would I include the “subscribe by email” option except for that bunch of luddites? (See my cunning tactic there?)
Off I tripped to Cork on the 7pm train to stay with my good friend the Corkonian Architect in her beautiful home (pictured right). Big thanks to her for putting me up and for coming along for the best Saturday night out I’ve had in a long time. (The MBA zombie and two snot nosed brats aren’t much competition to be fair.) As mentioned in the previous post we went for a walk and then back home to get ready for the Ladies Cocktail Party at the bizarrely yet attractively appointed Cork International Airport Hotel. A big thank you to the hostess with the mostest, Sabrina Dent for the lovely afternoon in the genteel company of some lovely ladies. (What happens at the tea party and all that…). Big ups to the chaps in Curious Wines who I subsequently had very interesting chats with – thanks guys: if I was babbling it was because you gave Sabrina too much wine. It would have been rude not to drink it. However there was plenty to eat as well and I shnarfed a couple of divine muffins from Píosa Cake (I particularly like these creations although they were surprisingly not present on Saturday…) Thanks also to Ciara from FindaConferenceVenue.com for the cool “I refuse to participate in a recesssion” badge!
Then onto the main event which was, put simply, a really fun night. I was even asked to pose by the photographer from the Evening Echo. However I lessened the likelihood of imminent Cork celebrity (even though I had a real Corkonian beside me) by bickering with the photographer about the total demerits of my leaning against the car to have my photo taken. (I mentioned the bizarre interior, didn’t I?) He didn’t understand my issue (what kind of a photographer man has never seen a Pirelli calendar?) but demurred and moved us elsewhere.
The thing I loved the most about the Blog Awards was the diversity of people in attendance: young, old, from all walks of life and areas of interest. This is a reflection of the diversity of the blogs out there and I would imagine over the coming few months, as people are laid off or their hours are cut down, we could see an explosion of blogs. I like to think that the sense of community that these people will gain from this hobby will sustain them and possibly spawn plenty of new ways of living.
Off I tripped to Cork on the 7pm train to stay with my good friend the