Inside View

I'm Bored

I'M BORED. So I'm rolling the air compressor out of the garage, starting it up outside, and then firing off around 12 rounds on the nail gun to terrorise the neighbours. It's more fun than using my stun glove on the garden slugs. I get the urge to do these things whenever the Yank in me longs to observe an American holiday. Happy Memorial Day, you guys!

Two Things to Hate about Tipperary

GEOFF WALLIS, co-author of The Rough Guide to Ireland, lists things he hates about Ireland. He finds two things to despise about Tipperary that resonate soundly with me: inconsiderate parking and shallow heritage centres.

Coffee Clonmel

JUST FINISHED submitting my weekly technology column to the Irish Examiner and it took one cup of coffee and one fresh fruit scone. The column covers Zonetag from Yahoo! Research and if all works to plan, people with mobile phones will be able to search for "Coffee Clonmel" and find the image shot related to the search for coffee in County Tipperary.

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Image of inside of O Tuama's cafe shot with Nokia N70 cameraphone using Zonetag.

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@honeydo fills weekend

IT'S DIY Saturday and I'm not alone. Google finds more than 54m other items on the public @honeydo list and many of those results come with handy photos.

Living on Cat Time

TIME'S NOT REAL, I tell my third level students during a (junior) Mass Communications and Culture course but try to tell that to cats. We have been adopted by two stray cats and their time is very regimented by their digestive process and by feeding patterns. From personal experience, we know that if we forget to ensure the cats have a late-evening walkabout, they will start a 4 AM chorus that ends in the bathtub. They consider flat white porcelain fixtures as poop stools. We pay for the absence of a litter box in this manner.

Photos too good to print

SIGN ON SAN DIEGO -- If you drop photos into Wal-Mart and they appear to be those of a professional photographer, Wal-Mart may refuse to develop them. Some photofinishers have reacted to a suit against Kmart a few years ago, when Kmart felt it had to settle for $100,000 under terms of secondary liability.

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Paul Levy -- "Wal-mart won't print your photos if they look too good"

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100th most viewed

FLICKR -- One of the metrics batted around at Flickr Central is "your 100th most viewed" and the discussion leads to some sobering statistics. With more than 600,000 Flickr accounts online--some from people with Irishblogs--it's easy to find yourself slinking away from the discussions since so many people have many more compelling photos--compelling because thousands of people have seen their "100th most viewed" while no more than 80 have seen my "100th most viewed". (Note to self: do more portraits, erotic content or saturated colours in the images.) But I jumped into the fray, offering evidence of the image from my collection that hovers around #100 in the "most viewed" category. I wonder what happens once I have 1000 images uploaded to Flickr? That's likely to occur before the end of the summer.

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"Rock of Cashel" is the "most favorited" photo I have on Flickr.
"Clonmel sunset" has attracted the most comments.

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A-1 Dublin Pub

DUBLIN -- If my number of Italian referrers are any guide, Dublin will enjoy an onslaught of Mediterranean visitors during the summer ahead. They come here looking for A-1 Dublin Pub and find my write-up about free Wi-Fi in both the Market Bar and the Front Lounge. When stuck in Temple Bar, my pub fav is the Palace Bar for its authenticity and the fact that I've blagged my way into more free pints there than any other Dublin venue. I also like the fixtures in the Front Lounge, both seated and on the walls. I've never been disappointed with the food or the pints when people-watching while seated on the balcony of the Irish Film Institute pub area either.

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Non-drinker Markham

TRIBUNE -- Markham Nolan, the non-drinking voice of Irishblogs, continues extending his media reach by appearing in a full-page article runing in the Sunday Tribune magazine. His photo and blog profile complement an article that reveals 19% of people never drink alcohol, 48% of car drivers have had a drink before driving and 51% believe drink driving is just as bad as having unprotected sex. Here's the extract about Markham:

Pizza Cutter

KILKENNY -- Now that I've mastered batter frying with home-made tempura, I need to expand my reach by making, cooking and cutting perfect pizza. I can do the first two alright, but need to look at devices that highlight the presentation of oven-baked pizza at home. What better place to start than the UIUC School of Art and Design?

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University of Illinois MFA Program -- thesis exhibition via JA Fabbri.

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