Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Means of Expression
{Express yourself!} .. from the heart
cause if you wanna start to move
up the chart then expression is a big part of it
You ain't efficient when you flow, you ain't swift
Movin like a tortoise, full of rigor mortis
There's a little bit more to show
That’s Dr. Dre from NWA singing about the importance of finding one’s own voice. As I understand his point, he’s saying that being yourself is the biggest part of having a style. If you’re copying what others have already accomplished and made their own, you’ve got all the grace and verve of a dead turtle.
I got into this journalism course because of the writing. That’s the part I really enjoy, when I have all the information in front of me and it’s time to put it all together and give it that spin that makes it my own, for good or bad. Mostly bad, I have to admit. Anyway, I have this idea that I’d like to write a book someday. What it would be about, I don’t know, but the idea won’t go away. This course seemed like a stepping stone to that goal, a way of scraping a living without having to wow book publishers. Writing things to make money, it always sounded too good to be true. Maybe someday it won’t.
I still write things for my own amusement, this blog, naturally, and other things, when the mood takes me and the words are just ready. When I finished my English degree I couldn’t read a book, any book, for months afterwards. I don’t want that to happen with this course.
If I finished this programme and I was a journalist (whatever that is), but I couldn’t write for pleasure, only profit, then everything I’ve sunk into this course - money, amibition, time and energy – would have been a massive, ironic, waste of it all.
Cause if I strike, it ain't for your good healthBut I won't strike if you just..
{Express yourself!} {Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..}
{Express yourself!} {Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..}
{Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..} {Go on and do it..}
{*music fades*}
-N.W.A. 'Express Yourself'
cause if you wanna start to move
up the chart then expression is a big part of it
You ain't efficient when you flow, you ain't swift
Movin like a tortoise, full of rigor mortis
There's a little bit more to show
That’s Dr. Dre from NWA singing about the importance of finding one’s own voice. As I understand his point, he’s saying that being yourself is the biggest part of having a style. If you’re copying what others have already accomplished and made their own, you’ve got all the grace and verve of a dead turtle.
I got into this journalism course because of the writing. That’s the part I really enjoy, when I have all the information in front of me and it’s time to put it all together and give it that spin that makes it my own, for good or bad. Mostly bad, I have to admit. Anyway, I have this idea that I’d like to write a book someday. What it would be about, I don’t know, but the idea won’t go away. This course seemed like a stepping stone to that goal, a way of scraping a living without having to wow book publishers. Writing things to make money, it always sounded too good to be true. Maybe someday it won’t.
I still write things for my own amusement, this blog, naturally, and other things, when the mood takes me and the words are just ready. When I finished my English degree I couldn’t read a book, any book, for months afterwards. I don’t want that to happen with this course.
If I finished this programme and I was a journalist (whatever that is), but I couldn’t write for pleasure, only profit, then everything I’ve sunk into this course - money, amibition, time and energy – would have been a massive, ironic, waste of it all.
Cause if I strike, it ain't for your good healthBut I won't strike if you just..
{Express yourself!} {Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..}
{Express yourself!} {Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..}
{Express yourself!}
{Go on and do it..} {Go on and do it..}
{*music fades*}
-N.W.A. 'Express Yourself'
Monday, February 13, 2006
My Waterloo sits on the Lee
It's difficult to come to terms with one's own prejudices. You can pretend you don't have one. Or admit to a minor, inoffensive dislike: "people who talk on mobile phones during dinner", "that charity mugger who once mimed the act of removing my headphones at me", "Gary Glitter". Personally I was hoping I'd get by for another few decades before being forced to admit that I'm a spiteful, nasty, bitter person who would sooner boil his own arms off than pay someone a genuine compliment. Ah, the truth shall set you free. Come and dance around the maypole with the grinning pixies and woodland folk while I whisper secrets in your ear.
I can't stand Cork.
It's the accent. And the city. The ridiculous opera house. Those desperate claims to be the real capital of Ireland. Look at this map
I can't stand Cork.
It's the accent. And the city. The ridiculous opera house. Those desperate claims to be the real capital of Ireland. Look at this map
The capital city is marked with a little red star and it sure as hell isn't hovering over the river Lee. And don't get me started on that 'People's Republic of Cork' nonsense. It's not a seperate country - last time I checked Cork city was still hanging off the arse end of Ireland.
I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to hate a city but work with me here, people, there is a point to this. While I was working in Village magazine over Christmas (Jesus, is anyone else completely bored of hearing me say that?) they gave me a travel book to review. Sort of a chirpy local history and landmark guide. Written by a friend of the mag.
'Here Dave, see if you can knock out 400 words on that.'
'My pleasure. What's it about?'
'Uh...oh yeah, Cork city.'
My voice shrivelled like an old piece of bacon.
'Great'.
So maybe now you can appreciate what kind of strain I was under as I tried to write a fair account of 'That's Cork'.
Here's what happened. To be honest, I kinda like it.
'A Corkman says to his mate, 'I was reading in a magazine that they are describing Cork as the Paris of Ireland.' The other replies, 'Why aren't they calling Paris the Cork of France?'"
So it is with Tom Galvin's new book That's Cork, a slim, fact-packed guide to the sights and sounds of 'de real capital'. It's not a tourist guide – more a determined expedition to the heart of the Cork psyche...
Friday, February 10, 2006
This is odd. I pop the lid on my blog and monkey around in the undercarraige for a bit and I find out that someone found my blog through Google. What did they type in? 'Irish journalism student'? 'DIT time-waster'? No, they wanted a 'Guide to taking revenge'. Weirder still, the person was searching from the Netherlands on Jan 17 06. So someone in Holland is seeking revenge and found my blog. O-kay.
[Backs away from the computer. Wipes sweat from brow. Spots yesterday's paper. Flicks through it nervously. Gets distracted by an article on South-American basket weaving. Takes a thoughtful sip from a buttle of cranberry juice.]
[Backs away from the computer. Wipes sweat from brow. Spots yesterday's paper. Flicks through it nervously. Gets distracted by an article on South-American basket weaving. Takes a thoughtful sip from a buttle of cranberry juice.]
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Making the grade
From the teacher comments on a radio project I submitted:
'Your voice at the start was at complete variance with your normal voice throughout the rest of the show. You sound like an American - very Joe Jacksonish.'
What does that have to do with, well, anything?
'Your voice at the start was at complete variance with your normal voice throughout the rest of the show. You sound like an American - very Joe Jacksonish.'
What does that have to do with, well, anything?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Introducing...me
The Internet is not the wild frontier it once was. Maybe there was a time, before the mainstream caught up, when it was a lawless place where Star Wars enthusiasts could argue about Greebo shooting first and cybersquatters could sit on bradpitt.com, but that was the past.
Nowadays you're more likely to log into amazon.com to pick up the new season of Desperate Housewives, before doing some online banking and checking the Irish Times news site. Things are becoming conservative. Blogging might have been the refuge of wasters and emo kids, but now you're just as likely to be reading the thoughts of a local councillor or late-night DJ. It's nothing new, innovation is always edged by a sticky coating of drab conformism.
The Internet will soon be an extension of our normal lives, if it isn't already. At the moment there's still too much anonymity. Fair enough, one can track IP addresses and find out where a person is browsing from, but it's only a matter of time before we have a single identity online. Like an ID card for surfing or a Netscape Driving Licence or a virtual wallet. Our financial details, medical history, favourite sites, anything that is connected to what we browse will be collected in the same place.
Windows calls the information that individual websites collect about our preferences 'cookies'. Well this would be the ultimate cookie, with all the chocolate chips blobs and hazelnut shards you could handle. It would be our passport to the web but also the security bond that would keep us out of trouble, tracking herds of internet users by location, job, income bracket, sex and age. It's already started, if you use gmail or MSN or Yahoo you're already pumping all your information into your account, whether you're aware of it or not.
Nowadays you're more likely to log into amazon.com to pick up the new season of Desperate Housewives, before doing some online banking and checking the Irish Times news site. Things are becoming conservative. Blogging might have been the refuge of wasters and emo kids, but now you're just as likely to be reading the thoughts of a local councillor or late-night DJ. It's nothing new, innovation is always edged by a sticky coating of drab conformism.
The Internet will soon be an extension of our normal lives, if it isn't already. At the moment there's still too much anonymity. Fair enough, one can track IP addresses and find out where a person is browsing from, but it's only a matter of time before we have a single identity online. Like an ID card for surfing or a Netscape Driving Licence or a virtual wallet. Our financial details, medical history, favourite sites, anything that is connected to what we browse will be collected in the same place.
Windows calls the information that individual websites collect about our preferences 'cookies'. Well this would be the ultimate cookie, with all the chocolate chips blobs and hazelnut shards you could handle. It would be our passport to the web but also the security bond that would keep us out of trouble, tracking herds of internet users by location, job, income bracket, sex and age. It's already started, if you use gmail or MSN or Yahoo you're already pumping all your information into your account, whether you're aware of it or not.
In other words, I've been playing with the Yahoo Avatar facility.
This is me.
At least, it's an airbrushed, reconfigured and idealised snapshot
of a combination of physical features that I found attractive
when I clicked through the menus.
It's my 'avatar'.
The point is that no matter how regulated the Internet becomes, when you're given the option to post your picture, you're more likely to throw up an icon of a donut or a picture of your dog than you are to use a passport photo.
As the Internet continues to encroach on all aspects of our lives, I think we'll see our identity stretching between who we appear to be on the outside and how we see ourselves on the inside. There has always been a gulf between the public and personal, but never before have so many been given the opportunity to realise their 'true' selves in such detail.
If you like, you can even choose what brandnames your avatar wears.
Fcuk? Yeah.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Why people look away when they're lying
I was watching this BBC documentary about how the brain works. They were explaining a thing called 'gaze aversion'. We find it hard to think when we're looking at someone's face because we're too distracted to think straight. We're conditioned to examine faces for clues about what the other person is thinking. Now because the human face is one of the most complex reads, looking at one blanks out most of our other thought processes.Try it out, ask someone a hard question, and watch them look away. It explains why people can't meet your eyes when they're lying to you, because they're thinking of a quick lie. The truth doesn't need think time.
I've beem experiencing a lot of gaze aversion recently. Pretty much every time I mention my dissertation topic to people. We may all be beatufiul and unique flowers but mention the idea of basing a college dissertation on computer game journalism and just about everyone's eyeballs glaze over in the same way. Maybe it needs a snappier title?
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Wicked and Lazy
Haven't updated properly in a while. Here is some filler before I find the will to somethingsomething
I did some work experience in Village magazine over the Christmas break. They printed a few pieces for me and helpfully posted them on their websitemedoodle for immortal posterity. Here I talk about the Gruadian and here I review a pedantic tome.
I am lazy [cut and paste to infinity]
