A thing of beauty

Words almost fail me. Just imagine yourself walking into a room in this beauty.

Bidding on eBay is currently under £100 – proceeds are going to the Aisling Project.

That classic episode on YouTube.

I’m heartbroken as they’re so very comfy and really lovely. However, they’re not much good to anyone sitting in a box in the spare room. So on Saturday I plan to drop then into a local charity shop in Dublin 2 in the hope of raising them some cash and seeing them go to a good home. I think Enable Ireland on Georges St is the nearest.

If anyone wants desperately wants to get their mits on them before then & I’m able to meet up and sort it out and such I’ll sell them on for €150 and donate the cash to a charity.

FullCodePress

Absolutely love the idea of FullCodePress. Get a team together and build a website for a charity in 24 hours for free. If I don’t do something like that between now and this time next year, I’ll certainly get involved next June. Progress pics here. Thanks Stu.

Congrats to the team from my beloved BSc in Multimedia in DCU who scooped the overall prize at the Digital Hub’s ‘Best in Show‘ competition with their series of short films for the Pashli charity.

Come along and join the Pride Parade on Saturday at 2 from the Garden of Remembrance – it’s always spectacular!

Or if your more enticed by things of a dead nature there’s a zombie walk happening at the same time from Stephen’s Green. Get the full info here.

Console’s annual benefit gig is on at the NCH next weekend. Jack L, Maynooth Gospel Choir and Acabella doing the honours. What’s stopping you?!

Apple-loving Stephen Fry on iPhone 4. Blog post entitled ‘A Welcome and a Warning‘.

The common man’s games, Paddy Games founding principle is taking silliness very seriously.

Events include Retro Running (i.e. Backwards running), Irish Dancing Hurdles and Mobile Phone throwing.

Fancy free entry to this year’s Electric Picnic in exchange with raising some cash for Temple Street Children’s Hospital? Check out the ‘Tour de Picnic‘ – essentially it’s a 90km charity cycle from Dublin to EP in Stradbally, Co. Laois. Raise €500 and you’re in. Info is available here.

The text shadow is becoming the glossy button effect of old in the web design world at the moment. More and more designers and developers are dabbling in the visual gems that CSS 3 affords despite the fact that CSS 2.1 spec has yet to be signed off. An article on A List Apart today highlights the dangers of ‘forking’ that this adoption of these proposes and offers the solution of a new JavaScript library called eCSStender.

I don’t know how I feel about this. While I agree that forking isn’t ideal I don’t think that loading pages with yet more JS libraries is the acceptable path to take either. What do you think? Will you be using eCSStender? Are you using CSS 2.1 and 3.0 properties yet?

While you’re there (and speaking of asses) you might also fancy a go at getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. The SPWC crew and 1500 hopping mad people from all over come to take part in our attempt to break the world record for the most people on simultaneously hopping on space hoppers.

Up for it? Then just send your name and email to worldrecord@spwc.ie. It’s all happening on Sunday at 2pm on Upper Mount Street. More info available here.

It’s going to be a super fun and busy weekend for kids of all ages, from 5 to 95. Bring your camera, maybe something to sit on and soak up the atmosphere in Merrion Square over the weekend. Full timetables and info on who’s performing is available on the blog at spwc.wordpress.com/dublin.

See you there!

So yeah, my love affair with THEATREClub continues so much so I wish to inform the good people of Cork of the arrival of THEATRECLUB STOLE YOUR CLOCK RADIO WHAT THE F*CK YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT this weekend at the Cork Arts Centre at 2pm on Saturday on Sunday as part of a double-bill for the Midsummer Festival.

ALSO – they’re looking for people to work with them including lighting and stage people, actors etc. Check the spec here.

Today is the last day to nominate someone for a People of the Year award. Yes it is an X Comms website but being so I get to read about the superb work that some extraordinary people are doing every day of their lives and it’s great to see them get some recognition for it. If you know someone why not nominate them?

I was in Cork at the weekend volunteering for the first leg of the annual SPWC and once again I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the city after being exposed to some amazing food. And that was even *before* I got to Café Gusto on Washington Street. Thanks Sabrina & John for the introduction and the smashing vino (nice one Café Gusto on the BYO option).

New to WordPress development? Now is a great time to be getting to grips with it with version 3.0 in the pipe and set to bring WordPress from a blog-engine-cum-CMS to a proper CMS option. Yoast is doing a nifty series of posts on using WordPress as a CMS that’s worth a look.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide are looking for a junior web dev. Info is here.

Fair play to all involved. To find out more and to support the fundraiser, check out the website here.

Fancy an all expenses paid trip around 16 European countries in 20 days? Have a clue as to what social media is? Want to win some stuff? You should really take a look at the ‘Talk to EU Eurotrip’.

The Seafarer at The Abbey Theatre had me in stitches last night. Don Wycherley is outstanding and almost completely stole the show for me. This is the last week of it so do try and catch it if you can. Never seen a full house at the Abbey on a Monday so that says it all.

Book launched in NUI Galway by John Breslin, Alexandre Passant and Stefan Decker  - ‘The Social and Semantic Web‘.

How Metro News in Canada are hooking up with FourSquare.

Volunteering Ireland are on Twitter – @volunteeringirl.

Tickets for TedFest 4 are currently on sale – demand is so great there’s ’2 sittings’ of it this year.

Happy Tuesday, hope it’s kind to you

Haiti - despite the media and online coverage, we still have no concept of how awful things are in Haiti at the moment. Help out my donating to Goal online – they’re out there on the ground with The Haven Project.

Via Mashable – the UN have an opening for a Social Media Editor (Internship).

Want to see a screening of Lemonade happen in Dublin? Then stick your name in the comments. What’s it about? Here’s a shpiel:

“What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They get creative with their own lives. Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

Tom Dunne of Newstalk and Something Happens fame is on Twitter since yesterday thanks to encouragement by Graham Linehan. Check out @tomhappens on the interpipes.

Ryan Carson is over at ThinkVitamin wondering what you would like to see in an online conference. Think CSS, Frameworks, Rails, iPhone development etc. Have your say here.

Via Irish Independent

Or this was the view from your front hallway:

Photo by @Mediaflash

I’ve been listening to the radio on and off all week hearing reports of continued bad weather, the entire Shannon being in a state of flood, bridges and roads being closed, towns, villages and cities all but shutting down completely. I’ve had more calls from my dad in Clare this week than I’ve had all month he’s so shocked at the state of things around him in the west.

It’s almost impossible to get your head around the damage that’s been done since this time last week. Listening to victims during the week talk about how they have had to split their families up and divide children between relations, to others talk about the stench of waste, rotting food and sewage in homes and streets, to people searching somewhere to rent to simply have a roof over their heads was really shocking.

What shocks me further is the apparent lack of support for these hundreds of people. The government have pledged an initial €10m fund (subject to means testing). Some say it’s not nearly enough, some say they can’t wait for means testing.

I remember the fantastic fund-raising that was done all around the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina a few years ago. Why hasn’t there been the same response to our own neighbours? Is it the recession? Is it a case of ‘out of sight out of mind’? Or do people just not realise how bad it is in areas like Ballinasloe, Claregalway and towns along the Shannon?

Let’s help them out!

Newstalk have set up a flood victims fund account with AIB. If you go into any AIB branch you should be able to make a donation to the account which has the sort code 93.10.12.

Saint Vincent de Paul and the Irish Red Cross are also accepting donations, be they financial or materials like clothes, bed linen etc.

If anyone else knows of ways we can support those affected, leave a comment or drop me an email and I’ll list it on a new page.

There’s only 4 weeks until Xmas eve – at the very least, let’s try and give the families some comfort for the holidays or some hope for the time ahead – things are in a dark enough state as it is.

Caherlea, Co.Galway via Irish Independent

Parteen Weir, Co.Clare via Limerick News Wire