The Morning News posts

When you were in primary school, did you have to write your "Morning News" every morning?



I remember this being one of the standard things we did in the Boys School in Graiguenamanagh every morning - both in the old building and in the hall while the school was being done up. However, I'm off digressing. It was a page in your copybook about what happened the evening before and anything else you had to share, designed to keep us quiet for the first half an hour, to exercise our writing skills and possibly (though I'd never say it) for the teachers to have something to talk about at breaktime.

I don't know if my parents have kept any of my old copies (I almost hope not) but I have fond memories of scribbling down exciting news like "We have a new dog" or "My aunty Mary is coming from Galway" or "I saw the turtles on the telly yesterday" or "I went to the library and they have new Asterix books!"

Not a lot happened of note, thankfully, though a memory comes unbidden to my mind of a classmate being worried about the teacher's reaction that he hadn't got his homework or copybooks with him even though his house had burned down the night before. But there I go digressing again.

I've been thinking about The Morning News a lot recently, not only as a way of communicating what's been happening but also a reminder of what has happened. Someone asked recently if I ever stay in of an evening, take an evening off, don't do something online or off and while I might protest and say "Of course!" it's probably not that in reality. Looking at that list of companies I've worked with in the past while is quite revealing, showing, as it does, the kind of stuff I've been doing and also how much of it.

So, I'm going to try get back into the routine of blogging with a Morning News post at the least. Partly to engage the creative braincells, party for routine and partly as a record for myself. You never know. It may be entertaining too. Basically, as I said, getting back to telling you "what I do", like.

This is what I do now

I did a favour for a company during the week. It wasn't a company I've ever had dealings with previously other than reading their weekly newsletter, but I completed a survey and at the end spotted an issue that I emailed them about. They replied almost immediately saying thanks and asking for my address to send me "something nice". I told them it was no bother, that I was glad to help and the long and short of it was the girl behind the email address sent me "a nice photo", as above.

So I thought I'd share that. It made me laugh but it also made me think that something I haven't done in quite a while is blog about things like that. I used to. I used to blog about what it is I do, and between doing all the things I do and and trying what I try, I just never have the time to sit down and update this blog.

So I'm going to try and do that at least once a day from now on. I'm also going to try keep it to the things I do or am involved in, rather than just what I like, funny stuff from the interwebs or letting people know about things. Because I'm doing that over on Culch.ie, over on Boards.ie, over on my Tumblr (which is really just a bookmarking facility for me) and keeping photos up to date on Pix.ie.

While the break from obsessive posting (here at least) has been good, it hasn't really kept people up to date with what I've been at or who with, so I wanted to let you know a bit of that too.

Work

I'm working full time (still) as a Community Manager with Boards.ie - one of the two. The last six month with the site have been challenging, and I'm glad to have taken the opportunity, not only to work in such a solid team as I do, but to help drive the site in some small way.

There are some big developments happening with Boards.ie to bring it kicking and screaming to the starting line of online discussion in Ireland. There's quite a ways to go yet, but some of the contacts I've made are proving most useful and receptive.

Play

Well, counting "play" as the stuff I'm not paid a salary to do, I guess I've been doing a lot of playing recently.

Some of the groups I've been involved with over the last while include Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Culture Night 2009, RTÉ Performing Groups, The National Concert Hall, The Darklight Festival, St Patricks' Festival, The ABSOLUT FRINGE Festival, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, The Guinness 250 Celebrations, WHPR, Kate Bowe PR, COnway Communications, The Abbey Theatre, The International Puppet Festival, Good Seed PR, Edelman, The Carlsberg Comedy Carnival, Entertainment Architects, The Science Gallery, The Street Performance World Championships and Emergent Events; The Cinemagic Festival; The Dublin Playhouse project and more.

I've been busy and it's been fun.

Health:

My health's not bad at all. Still a lot of pain and some fatigue but I'm getting through it.

The other stuff:

Well, sure if I start talking about that now, I'd have nothing else to say in the weeks and months ahead, would I?

Talk to you tomorrow :)

Taking some time out. Suspended from Twitter. Laughing hard

This was too good not to blog, despite my self imposed break from it while I contribute to Culch.ie, the new Boards blog and the drain and source of energy and creativity that is the wonderful twitter.

But about 20 minutes ago...



I've been suspended from Twitter. Yep, my crimes of bad jokes, being anti-spam, anti BS and general mischivousness has finally caught up with me.


Click for bigger version

I swear, I haven't laughed so hard for ages, simply because I had been marking spammers as spam, ranting about retweeting and telling the usual very bad jokes.

How do all my followers react? Same way I did. Laughing hard!


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So it's over to the Contesting account suspension page on twitter.com with me to fill in the details.

From the email I received:

If you are suspended, it's most likely for one or more of these reasons::

• User Abuse
• a large number of people block the profile or write in with spam complaints
• aggressive following
• imbalanced ratio: the number of followers is small compared to number of people following
• misuse of the reply feature
• updates consist of duplicate links and/or text
• updates consist mainly of links and not personal updates
• updates consist of updates poached from others' timelines, passed off as one's own
• Technical Abuse
• updates consist of links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material
• a large number of accounts is created in a short amount of time
• an account is identified as belonging to a spam cluster

When this happens, we suspend the account for investigation and hide the contents from the public view in order to remove the cause of complaint.

Anyways, I *will* be back to blogging here soon. Promise. Got some stories for you. Stuff that's in my head, my notebooks and my soul.


EDIT: I'm back... http://www.twitter.com/darraghdoyle - that was quick!

US expert in M.E, C.F.S and Fibromyalgia speaks in Dublin this Thursday

Via the comments:

The Irish ME/CFS Association is delighted to announce that US ME Expert, Dr Derek Enlander, has agreed to speak in Dublin.

Title of talk: "Current treatment of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome".

Venue: Mount Herbert Hotel, Herbert Road, Dublin 4

Time and date: 7.45pm, Thursday June 18

Admission: €5. All are welcome.

Dr Enlander grew up in Northern Ireland and studied medicine in Dublin in the 1960s before obtaining a fellowship to Stanford University; he has lived and worked in the US ever since.

Dr Enlander’s practice in New York is devoted to ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. He has co-authored numerous research papers on the illness and is principal investigator of a US$900,000 study investigating the use of hyperbaric oxygen in ME/CFS.

Around 12,000 people in Ireland are thought to suffer from ME, now often diagnosed under the name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The exact cause of ME/CFS remains unknown, but most patients experience a flu-like illness before the onset of ME/CFS.

Patients experience symptoms such as sore throats, concentration problems, sleep problems, muscle pain, and flu-like weakness and exhaustion especially after activity. There is no known cure at the moment, though some sufferers do improve over time.

Further details and a free information pack can be obtained from the Irish ME/CFS Association, PO Box 3075, Dublin 2.

E-mail: info@irishmecfs.org
Tel: 01-235 0965

I'll certainly be there. Suffering badly at the moment.

"I'm going to twitter!!" - the #darraghchute movie

Well, I did it. €2129.99 so far.

Niamh and I made a very cheesy video of the day, which is below. Will try to do a higher quality version later. Also used footage from the Irish Parachute Club.

I was nervous. VERY nervous. Of course it wasn't "the first live tweet ever from an aircraft". I love the "I'm GOING TO TWITTER" yell!

There's so many DO NOT WANT expressions on my face, especially as the parachute opens, and basically, I was in bits for a while afterwards.

But I did it.

Once again, thanks to everyone who donated, blogged, tweeted and wished me well. As embarrassing as this video is, this one is for you :)



There's a far more professional documentary about the day right here:

What you've done

Here's what you've done.

You've put a smile on their faces:



The lady on the left? 102 years old. Beside her? Her Carelocal volunteer.

You've got this woman up singing with a band:



She lives in a nursing home. Loves to sing - sang all the time to her family as she got them ready for work and school, went out with her friends to dances and gigs and sang along with the band. Her voice may not be as strong but she still loves getting up and blasting out a bit of Joe Dolan.

You've got these people up dancing:



They don't get out as much as they used to. Either stuck in their houses or the nursing home, they haven't been out for a good dance in ages. Quite the Hucklebuckers in their day, they love having the chance to get up and have a bit of fun, or being worried about how they're going to get home safely.

You've got these people talking:



They don't get to talk to others that much any more. It's lonely at home waiting for someone to call, if they do. In the nursing home they're looked aftr, but people are busy, some get more visitors than most and quite often it's easier just to switch off the mind and watch TV. Sometimes you don't feel up to date or know what to talk about. Sometimes you don't feel relevant.

You've entertained all these people:



They're all over in Finnstown House Hotel, having had a great, free meal served to them, having a laugh along with the entertainment and the band. They've been driven to the door, welcomed, fed, watered and looked after for the first time in ages.



That's what your donations to Carelocal will have done for these people - helped an outing like this for Summer 2009 happen. As I write, the donations are up to €1733.33, which is fantastic.

Fair play to you all. All I'm doing is getting someone else carrying me to jump out of a plane...

Thank you. Sincerely. You rock.

Where the bad jokes come from...

Bill had been getting progressively more bald at a very young age, and it was depressing him quite a bit.

Eventually, he decided to get a wig, and the following evening he came into the pub looking 10 years younger, with a full head of jet black hair. The locals admired his new look, and complimented him on how realistic it looked.

Eventually, Joe asked him for a closer look, and, though slightly embarrassed, he slipped the wig off and handed it over.

However, as soon as Joe took the wig, he began to complain about everything: the weather, his job, the quality of the pint, anything and everything you could think of.

Puzzled by this irresistable urge to moan, he handed the wig to Tom to give back to Bill, and suddenly his normal good humour re-asserted itself.

Tom, however, even in the few seconds he had the wig in his hands, had already announced to the pub that his wife was useless: couldn't cook, and was ferociously dirty around the house, but not, unfortunately, when she got to bed. Again, as soon as he had handed the wig back to Bill, the torrent of complaints dried up, and he was his old cheerful self again.

The three friends, completely confused and puzzled, were starting to discuss what on earth had happened, when the barman leant across the counter towards them, and told them not to worry about it.

"Why?" they asked.

"Ah, 'tis perfectly natural, lads!" he said. "Sure doesn't everybody complain when they have Bill's toupee?"

Have a look at the Boards.ie Pun appreciation thread. There's loads there. The whole humour forum is a gold mine!

• Energizer Bunny arrested; charged with battery.
• A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
• A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.
• My wife really likes to make pottery, but to me it's just kiln time.
• Dijon vu: the same mustard as before.
• Practice safe eating: always use condiments.
• I fired my masseuse today. She just rubbed me the wrong way.
• A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.
• Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
• I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.
• I used to be a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the ax.
• If electricity comes from electrons, does that mean that morality comes from morons?
• A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.
• Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.
• A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
• Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
• Is a book on voyeurism a peeping tome.
• Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
• Banning the bra was a big flop.
• Sea captains don't like crew cuts.
• Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
• A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.
• Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
• A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.
• Without geometry, life is pointless.
• When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.
• Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
• Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.
• When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Where your skydive donation is going: Carelocal say thanks

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated money, awareness and good wishes to the Skydive for Carelocal.ie

I visited the office yesterday to say hello and find out more about them. Sheila Desmond, the Volunteer Coordinator is in a unique position with the charity, as she meets all the older people they help and also all the volunteers that work with them.

Brazenly, I stuck the camera in front of poor Sheila and asked her to tell you where the money you have donated is going and what the difference your help will make to the charity and to the life of an older person. It's a rough and ready take but was loads of fun to do: