Tribune selects from Irish blogs
TRIBUNE -- The Sunday Tribune gives 800 words this week to excerpts from Irishblogs and the resulting column (extracts below) happens to mirror much of the headline news from the previous week. The selections this week include reflections on the Meath bus crash, Conor Lenihan as a kebab chef, a Star Wars horoscope, cyberstalking, and deranged art. From the Tribune:
Political Indecision? Young Irish blogging doyen Gavin Sheridan isn't shy of showing his outrage--the latest subject is the political fallout from the Meath bus tragedy.
Reflecting on the latest estimates of €48m to buy a new school bus fleet, he wrote: "This sounds like money well spent especially since the €57m that the Minister for Incompetency Martin Cullen spent on e-voting that we end up (hopefully) never using. Mary Hanafin quoted a figure of €58m for 300 new buses and Bertie Ahern has put the whole thing off until all three investigations are complete. As with anything, Ahern has put it aside until everyone has forgotten about these events."
Star (Wars) Signs. Pointless quizzes are a big part of blogging and a timely example was noted by Fence who came across a Star Wars Horoscope. Aquarians, who "can be cruel and torment people who disagree with them, but deep down have a peace-loving, friendly side with a knack for inflicting pain" are most like Darth Vader.
The Cyberstalkers. Karina Westermann revealed a dark side of blogging last week, when she recounted her terror at the hands of a cybertalker.
"One of the strengths of weblogging is the personal, almost initimate voice. If you read a weblog for some time, you begin feeling you "know" the person writing ... you feel as though the weblogger is your friend."
Now the scene has been set: "I'm aware of the weblogger persona phenomenon. I like my privacy. I have very specific limits as to what I will write about. And I have been at this for years and years.
And last month I had to sleep at various friends' houses and apartments per the advice of the police. Worth a read in full (at Sigla magazine).
Belfast-based Broom of Anger joined Westermann for a discussion of the topic on The Orla Barry Show on Newstalk 106. She wrote about the self-censorship that develops from sudden awareness of a reader with an unhealthy interest: "If, like me and Karina, you maintain your blog partially to hone your writing skills, when a stalker surfaces, it inhibits your writing. You restrict your topics. This, in turn, leads to restricting what you will write about what's left, and eventually you lose the desire to write at all."
Looney Toons. Words are not the only form of art on blogs. One Irish bloggers has begun a surreal cartoon Tales of a Receptionist. Though the art is primitive, the humour is delightfully deranged.
Manipulating photos is also a popular pastimes at Fredo's Kebab Shop, with the mouthy Dublin TD pictured serving up his favourite late-night food.
Joe Bloggs -- "Blogsphere" in the Sunday Tribune, May 29, 2005.
Gavin Sheridan -- "Meath crash" (with eight comments).
Fence -- "Star Wars Horoscope" (with 10 comments).
Karina Westermann -- "Cyberstalking" in Sigla Magazine.
Broom of Anger -- "Cyberstalkers" (with two comments).
Shish-ke-blog (aka R Delevan) -- "Conor Lenihan Watch"
Dol Fogarty -- "Tales of a receptionist", including one piece with 12 comments.
Bonus Link from Paul Clerkin -- "The Sunday Tribune: Can Journalism Standards Drop Any Further?"
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