To Tweet or not to Tweet.

Should I join Twitter?



Before you all raise your proverbial internet voices to supply your answer to the question, let me firstly explain what Twitter is, for those of you who've spent the last decade of your lives inhabiting an abandoned coal reserve in the Carpathian mountains. Explaining to you what Twitter is might also cause me to suddenly realise what I should do, too...or perhaps not. Anyway, having explained what it's all about, I'll give you my opinion on it. Hooray.

As far as Wikipedia knows, "Twitter" is a "free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets." Basically, I join and let others follow my account. My hypothetical followers can view my tweets, or short snippets of text, and thereby can know my every opinion, action and location at any given moment. Every user has a profile, like most social networking sites, but the focus is put on the continuous creation of and response to tweets. As you can imagine, the tweets add up. Some people tweet ridiculously frequently, too. In reality, it could be conceived as the ultimate social networking utility, because those following your account can reply to your tweets, or direct their tweets at you, allowing for real-time communication. Apparently, if my brother is to be believed, the tweet is gradually coming to replace the text message in the United States.

"Sounds fantastic!", you say; "Why haven't you already joined?". This is where my conservative nature comes into the spotlight. I have two main reasons for my hesitation. Firstly, I can imagine myself being a devoted Twitter fan. I can imagine myself using it to its full potential, and using it to share any thought that comes to my mind. This is partially where the problem lies. I could and would become a what is known as a Twitter whore:


18:32 Chicken just sneezed.

18:34 Chicken sneezed again.

18:38 Chicken hasn't sneezed in 4 minutes. Getting worried.


It's that type of obsessive-compulsive behaviour I can imagine myself becoming involved in. The prospect is frightening. With that in mind, there is another reason for my hesitation in joining Twitter. Joining Twitter would mean that I'd have finally come to allow the internet into my daily life. It would mean that the internet would become part of my everyday routine; a necessary part. Sure, the internet is a part of my daily life already, with Facebook a daily feature and surfing sessions at night the norm, but Twitter is different. Some people constantly update their Twitter accounts. People use Twitter on their mobiles while eating breakfast, while going to work, while at the cinema and while almost anywhere. Twitter, for those people, goes hand in hand with every daily activity. I don't know if I'm ready to allow the internet to become a continuous and essential part of my life like that.

Twitter epitomises modern Western society; a society in which, let's face it, the internet is a source and a sink of content, knowledge and communication. It's a society in which traditional values and direct human contact are becoming less and less prevalent and important.

I don't particularly want to accept that.

The Tale Of Yesterday.

Oh, Fridays...

Friday started fairly abnormally. I had had Thursday off school due too "dangerous conditions". Apparently my roar of disgruntlement when I was woken sounded like a Triceratops giving birth. I don't entirely disagree with that statement.

I reluctantly trod to school. Got the DART from Seapoint to Booterstown, and walked from there to the school. I must say, Ireland is pretty damn scenic under a sprinkling of snow. The sand on the beach was covered in a light dusting of the stuff, and everything was white. I got caught up in the scene and was nearly late for school. As I passed through the woods out the back of the school, I felt a sudden urge to tinkle. There was not a soul about. As I was about to em.. unzip, I heard a loud rustling in nearby bushes.
Nearly had a stroke. Turned out to be a rodent of some sort though.

I turned up to school at last. I'm pretty sure there was a grand total of 12 people there. School sucked. An Australian forensic scientist came over and gave us a "case" to solve. From the start she told us that it was not in any way similar of CSI. I immediately lost all interest. I'm pretty sure someone interested in science would have liked it though, I mean, there were DNA charts and Blood Types and all that jazz.

After school the small group disassembled and went off to separate homes. I was the only person there from around Seapoint, so I walked home all ALONE. I didn't mind in the end though. Dublin had a large coat of whitewash over all of it's immediately visible problems. The fountain in one of the sub-lanes of Booterstown avenue was frozen, a pretty cool sight to behold. I got to the dart station 5 CENTS short of my DART fare. Guess I was walking home. I MEAN 5 CENTS! COME ON!

Walked though Blackrock Park. The lake was frozen over. Guess who decided to check out how strong it was.

That's right.

I fell into the lake. And it was pretty damn freezing. To be fair though, only half of my left leg fell in, it wasn't that bad, although it could well have been a lot worse. Afterwards I traced this site's name in the snow. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the best attempt at advertising.

I got home. Got the goggle eyes from the parents. Strangely enough, I got looks of admiration from my brother. This has never occurred before. Today he said that he wishes to be just like me when he gets older.

Good luck to him.

Yours from a block of ice,

- Seabird.

Wandering Rant No.1

All my life I have been exposed to humour. Which has been pretty cool generally, but in the last year some types have humour have started to really tickle my angry inner cynic.
Do you remember when sarcasm used to be the lowest form of humour? My dad repeatedly states that to this day, each time I make use of that tool. I'm not sure it is anymore. Recently New types have humour have emerged, even more banal and repetitive than sarcasm.
Here's a neat little list:

- INNUENDO (do I really have to go through people saying that's what she said for EVERYTHING I say?)

- ALGEBRA RELATED QUIPS

- NICKELODEON

- CHUCK NORRIS JOKES

- OBSESSIVE OFFENSE (coughcough tommy tiernan)

- FUNNY GLASSES

- FACEBOOK GROUPS

- CHRISTMAS CRACKERS

- YOUR UNCLE

- LISTS

- TWITTER

- ADAM SANDLER

The funny thing about all these forms is they reek of desperate (and lazy) attempts to be funny. I'm not saying good hasn't come out of any of these forms (with the exceptions of adam sandler and christmas crackers) but it's just so excessive now that I can't bear it.

Actually, on the other hand all of these do make sarcasm acceptable again. Maybe its for the greater good...

Yours Grumpily,

- Seabird

Japan, I thank you for Ghibli.

Anime




If you are akin to the majority of people I know, you probably snarl and show disgust at the mention of the word "anime". You probably associate it with over-sized haircuts, enlarged eyes and unrealistic facial expressions. Anime, to the majority, is something to do with Asia and the old Pokemon series we all watched. This time two years ago, I was of the very same mindset. Anime, to me, was an obscure, foreign concept which I didn't really bother with. Now I recognise anime as an art form; an individual medium of expression. I'm going to explain how one Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli, forged this opinion.

It was the end of the Summer holidays before third year. I was in Wexford, at my grandparents' house. I was bored. I spent most of the day trying to improve at chess using Chessmaster, to no avail. I spent an unhealthy amount of time online. My uncle, seeing my desperate situation, suggested that I watch a film. He recommended "Spirited Away". I had seen the cover of Spirited Away in Xtra-vision a few times when it was in its commercial heyday, but I hadn't paid much attention to it. It was just another one of those films I vaguely knew of but had never seen. I, with nothing better to do, watched it. 125 minutes later, I sat in absolute awe. Thus began my love affair.

"Spirited Away" follows a young, obnoxious girl, Chihiro, who, in the process of moving to a new town, inadvertantly reaches a land of spirits and monsters. There, her parents are turned into pigs by the owner of the spirit world's popular bathhouse, the witch Yubaba. In order to escape the world with her parents de-piggified, Chihiro must encounter and overcome many challenges. She learns some valuable life lessons along the way. That's all I'll tell you.





I found that Spirited Away connected with me. It provided escape from the rush of school and everyday life. I watched it and re-watched it. It became more to me than a means of escape; it became something I wanted to be a part of. I then watched the savagely epic "Princess Mononoke", which caused many a free class of day-dreaming at school. Studio Ghibli amazed me more with each film I watched. The compelling, fantastical plot lines, the exuberant characters and the lavish animation made me a complete convert. With each film, I came to appreciate the genius of Ghibli to a greater and greater extent. Ghibli opened the door to a new realm of fantasy and excellent storytelling. The mastery of Studio Ghibli comes in the ability of each of its films to make an entirely fictional world real to its audience. It introduces us to worlds unknown, and chuckles to itself as we fall deeper and deeper under its spell.


I hope that Studio Ghibli will have the same effect on you.


If you're interested, here are some films I'd recommend from SG:

• Spirited Away
• Princess Mononoke
• My Neighbour Totoro
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Grave of the Fireflies

Cold toes.

It's funny that every winter before now in my lifetime people have wished for snow. 2 years ago my dad would have killed several disadvantaged children for a white christmas.
But now that we have snow, every single crank will forever whinge about the horrible snow. One might be forgiven for saying that they might actually want to go to work/school. Joe Duffy's liveline show is clogged with protests, indignant whinges, answered by sympathetic ah-huhs, uh-huhs, yeps, and the like.

I for one, do not love or hate snow. It falls, we have a bit of acceptable quarreling over snowball fights, parents have moments of happiness with their children. One thing I can say is that it is pretty damn cold.

This goes out to my Dad. Please don't be one of those people who bitch about getting what they ask for.

Yours frostily,
-Seabird

'Tis the Season of Reduced Friction.

What has happened to recent Irish weather?

November: Floods.
December: Frost and snow.
Every month of every other year: Cloudy-rainy-warmish-generic weather.

We've all heard of the savage Irish weather of times gone by from our grandparents, but in my experience, this has been the coldest stretch by far. Sure, we have our occasional night at -3 or -4 degrees, but never has it plummeted to such depths as -10 in my lifetime. The frost and floods of the last few months have got me thinking about weather and what causes it. The main question that I've been asking myself is "Why now?". When approached with this question, most Irish people will stammer out a half-baked hypothesis relating to "weather cycles" and occasionally "oceanic currents", but I don't think that anyone is able to properly explain these unexpected peculiarities in weather. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It's refreshing to see inch-thick sheets of ice lining the roads and the odd snow shower when all you're used to is the tedium of Hibernian winters. It does start to annoy, though and after numerous weeks of treacherous weather, I've decided to take a closer look at the situation.



I've discovered:

• It has been the coldest December for almost 30 years.
• Most weather stations have had their sunniest December since 2001.
  
• ...and that's that.

It appears that our friends at Met Éireann are just as perplexed at these irregularities as I am. I haven't been able to find anything to explain why the weather has taken such a turn anywhere online. Yeah, the meteorologists know the specifics of the weather conditions themselves, but not why they occur in the first place. What brings high pressure? What caused that cold front? I like to think that the weather is a taster of the disastrous effects of global climate change, which could potentially eradicate human life as we know it. Maybe bringing about these extended periods of extreme weather is mother nature's way of dipping humankind's toe into the bathwater. Hoorah.


That said, who doesn't enjoy a snowball fight?

Entering the Blogapelagic Islands.

Another blog is born. I'm really not sure how to kick-start a blog. From here it should be easy, comment on current events, culture, etc...
But I'm afraid writing an opening post about the weather doesn't cut it. Of course, worrying about this first post is stupid, because at this point the blog should have a grand total of zero followers. In fact, I don't even know how this website works exactly. I might regret giving this blog a name that sounds like a withering antiques store in the regions of nowhere, but this means the two of us can sign off with cool names. We are writing completely independently of each other, so it should be interesting.

-Seabird.

Welcome to the scapegoat of my frustration and the vent of my creative light. Don't expect consistency of content, posting or attitudes. Expect an amalgamation of my thoughts, rendered useless but legible on-screen.
Enjoy the show.

-Callous.