A little more about me(mes)

In advance of tonight's show, it would be remiss of me not to complete the Meme set to me by the wonderful B of Positive Boredom recently:

It's called Getting Your Goat and it, of course, has rules:

1. List two things that irritate you for a reason, and list the reason, and two things that irritate you for no apparent reason whatsoever
   
   
2. Give credit to the person who tagged you
   
   
3. Link your answers to the original blog - Keiron over on http://www.skillett.com must be delighted with the traffic :o)
   
   
4. Tag four new people to participate

So then: Things that irritate me for a reason:

I'll probably highlight just how petty I can be about certain things here but I trust you'll indulge me, especially in my first one: Apostrophes and misspellings on signs and posters.

Seriously, I know there's so many bloggers out there who share this, but recently I saw this picture over on Apostrophe Abuse (great blog!) and didn't believe it was true. I had to see for myself, so I did and guess what? It was :o( Major fail!



And in a coffee shop close by:



This one from Letterkenny is one of my favourites... of course maybe there is "Origional art" (top right) and I'm wrong...



and I've blogged this one before but it's worth it again:



and while I understand it's a local idiom or the vernacular or just the way they speak, this headstone, also from Letterkenny (outside a shop may I add) made me smile with the use of Yous:



Secondly it's people dropping litter. Especially parents who allow their children to drop rubbish on the streets and (a) not chastising/teaching the child and even worse (b) not picking it up! Holy need of a bin Batman. I don't think I can write more about this without venturing into rant territory.

Things that irritate me for no good reason:

Many people have commented on umbrellas, which I share, but also people popping balloons both freak me out and annoy me.



Don't get me wrong - balloons are lovely and fun and I don't run screaming at the sight of them. I just hate loud noises and the thought of these things popping near me? Not nice, not nice at all. Let them float or make the animals or whatever, but why burst it? It's not *that* funny.

I mean look at the faces of these delighted children at the Street Performance World Championships. Awww!



And the other one is seeing, and hating, the way I look in certain photos. I don't mean the ones I've posed for - I mean the ones that show a side of me that I'm not comfortable with.



The wonderful Davy MacDonald sent me this photo recently - and I just don't like it. Despite my posts about comfort with myself this is just a side of me that I'm neither familiar or comfortable with. And the fact that I don't like that annoys me even more.

I mean there are plenty of embarrassing photos of me out there where I've posed for them (and probably plenty more after tonight) but still. I'm sure there are people who feel the same. Do you?

Credit to the person who tagged me:

Well B'dum. This one is for you. I like your blog - I like the sporadic nature of your topics, your enthusiasm and your sheer talent in bringing out what interests you. You hop from personal interests to topical to bizzare with such ease. You also comment on so many blogs it's bewildering. I hope there's a category for great people like you at the next blog awards. I'll be nominating you.

(That's what they meant by credit, right? :o))

Finally it's tagging 4 new people to do this. It seems like this has spread right around the blogosphere. Look at some of the people who have participated since July 7:

• Grandad
• Lottie
• Andrew
• Little Miss
• English Mum
• Darren
• David Maybury
• K8 the Gr8
• Sam at Problemchildbride
• Kirk M at Just Thinkin
• Jefferson Davis
• Digital Darragh
• Marlys at Senior Writer

And they're only the ones I know about!

but there are new blogs (and commenters here) that I've found recently. So in lieu of Damien's own fluffy meme, I'm extending the invitation to them and hope they'll join in:

• Gav and Ciara - really loving your blog guys. Care to give this a go?
• Sinéad K - would love to see what you come up with.
• Batman fan Pedro - what gets your goat?
• Richie over at Fitzy's cloud - care to give it a go?
• Jen at Little Bird Eats - something different for your blog?
• Klara McDonnell - leave aside that guitar or script and give this a shot?
• Will Knott - I haven't seen this on your blog yet, sir. How about it?
  
• Marie - I know you've probably been tagged, but give it a go :)
• Nathalie - have you been tagged yet?
• Lyndar the merciless - be merciful for this one please ;o)
• Dardardrinks - can you leave the paving aside long enough to give it a go?
• Anthony - sure you might as well!
• Ben at Hairyfish - good man, for me, please?

Please feel free to add your own too!

No one needs an editor

Is editing websites, making sure the spelling and grammar is correct and reads well, actually necessary?

People to my mammy: "What does Darragh do?"
My mammy: "Ah we works with computers in Dublin. Beyond that I don't know..."

It's funny how I fell into being a Web editor. Like my previous post, it's all about criticising (correcting) the work people do trying to improve it, in a nice way. But do I need to do what I do?

Was very amused by the email I received today from the IIA (Irish Internet Association)

I don't know if it's the January or February newsletter. But at the end of the day, does it actually matter?

Now it's very easy for me to sit on my ivory tower and find things wrong on the web.

The IIA does a very important job in this country on a miniscule budget with very few staff and practically no Government support that I know of, and so I'm delighted to see they're getting their website updated.

About time too.

I'm sorry but it IS the Internet Association of Ireland and yet on their website in 2007, part of its vision, including Internet EXCELLENCE is the phrase that their (very worthy) goals "are to be achieved by 2005. "

So the fact it's been changed is a very good thing indeed.

Similarly if you have a look at their blog page, the casual observer may think it's the IIA bloo...

But yet their blog is read, their newsletter is opened, their site is visited and all is well...

With txt spk, Cambridge Researchers and Bebo (have you read/deciphered some of the comments?), will I soon be out of a job?

After writing this post I had two thoughts:

1. Surely the web community in Ireland should support the IIA and say - well my contribution is going to be... design/ programming/ copywriting/ editing or whatever it is people do.
   
   Wouldn't a site representing the Irish Internet Community which features contributions and showcases the best of the talent out there be a good thing?
   
   
2. As I said, it's easy for me to crtiticise, but wasn't it up to me as much as anyone to make a change?
   
   So this morning I emailed Fergal at the IIA and offered my copywriting/proof-reading skills for the new website when launched. He responded grateful for the offer. So there's a new project for me - one I think I'll enjoy!