A tiny little kitten wandered into the dog’s kennel this morning and started to meow her heart out. She’s so small I can fit her in one hand. She tried to befriend and approach a local tomcat but he didn’t want anything to do with her. Thankfully Adam kept his distance from the new “baby” and I was able to feed her heavily diluted milk in a syringe.
Not sure what’s going to happen next.
Saor Patrol, a Scottish band “with their vibrant pipe tunes and drum rhythms [that] please and excite many a crowd” certainly lived up to their reputation when they played for the crowds in front of Brown Thomas on Patrick Street this afternoon.
I came upon them when they were nearly finished but the few minutes of music I heard was exciting and lively, and my son Adam totally enjoyed the spectacle. When the crowd clapped in appreciation, Adam joined in, and almost jumped out of his buggy to dance to the beat!
They were playing in Cork City Hall today as part of the Your Mental Health awareness campaign by the HSE. Depression and other mental health problems still have an awful stigma in this country. People can be reluctant to talk about those problems, families and friends hide them away, or pretend they don’t exist, but they’re health problems like any other. With the right treatment at the right time most people can be helped.
Listening to Saor Patrol certainly lifted my spirits. I was tired and worn down but their music reinvigorated me!
Edit – I was wrong. The mental health event they were promoting is a Scientology event. Not a HSE one. Can’t believe those maniacs managed to hire out City Hall. I definitely do not want to have anything to do with that crowd. Ugh.
A series of powerful images, taken before and after the death of each subject. The images are striking, but what I found most moving and upseting were the stories that accompanied them. Some had accepted their fate while others rallied against it.
“Death is nothing,” says Maria. “I embrace death. It is not eternal. Afterwards, when we meet God, we become beautiful.” Maria Hai-Anh Tuyet Cao, 52
“Get me out of here”, she whispered as soon as anyone held her hand. “My heart will stop beating if I stay here. This is an emergency! I don’t want to die!” Elly Genthe, 83
If you’re not subscribed to my photoblog, In Photos, you may have missed my photowalking announcement.
Next Sunday, the 9th of March a number of us will converge on the scenic Lough area of Cork for a few hours walking and snapping. The Lough is a protected wild life area (and one of the oldest in the country), it teems with swans, ducks, geese and I don’t know how many other types of birds. There are always people about, kids feeding the birds, sometimes fishermen, couples walking by the water’s edge. It’s a beautiful place to go for a walk.
And at 3pm we’re going to descend on the area with our cameras. If you’re around Cork and free, why not join us? It doesn’t matter if you only have a point and shoot camera, or you’re only starting out in photography. A photowalk is a great chance to practise and learn. There’s also a local bar giving us a chance to put our feet up and relax, even if driving home means minerals are the order of the day.
So, see you on Sunday?
PS. there’s still time to buy a Daffodil picture before lunchtime tomorrow!
One of my external drives failed yesterday and for an hour I thought I had lost a lot of family videos and other stuff. My photos are backed up on to another drive with backuppc, but there simply isn’t room to backup everything there. Luckily the drive came back after I unplugged it and let it cool down but I don’t trust it now. I think I need a RAID server with at least 1TB of space to be future proof for the next 2 or 3 years.
I would love an application that you could point at a directory or a list of files and directories and it would burn them onto multiple DVDs, filling each disk to it’s maximum. Backing up my photo archive has always been a bit painful, trying to find and remember which directories I had just burned, comparing file listings, etc.
Tar doesn’t cut it however. I want to be able to restore a single file or directory by looking at the DVD contents in a file manager.
I used to have a DOS app that did this. I can’t remember what it was called, but point it at a directory of stuff and it would prompt for a floppy disk, write to it, prompt again, write, and so on until finished. Simple.
Is there a Linux or Mac app that will do that? I think I’ll write a shell script to do it if nobody else knows of an alternative.
I’m not sure why I noticed this protest sticker. It’s stuck to a lamp post on Patrick Street, Cork but maybe it was the typo in the URL that triggered my subconscious. One thing I can be certain of is that WordPress.org is not taking sides in any conflict of any sort! GPL software can be used by anyone just so long as they stick to the agreement with which they accepted the software.
As expected, palestinesolidarityproject.wordpress.com points at an old blog of theirs as they have now moved to their own server at palestinesolidarityproject.org.
Glossing over the .org mistake for a minute, why do people still put the “www.” in front of long-winded urls? It gets stripped by WordPress.com anyway. Why not put “http://” there instead? Makes more sense to me. Three cheers for the no-www movement!
So, have you seen any glaring typos on posters, fliers, stickers or blogs that made you look twice? Today’s link post doesn’t count. I did that on purpose to make a point. Sure. 
Haydn’s Gallery in Kinsale is now showing my work and Ryan’s as of this week. I visited the framer on Monday where I signed a number of prints and I have to say I’m very impressed with the prints made by those Hewlett Packard Z3100 and Z6100 printers. I wish I could print all my stuff on them!
If you’re in the area, call in, say hi to Haydn and browse around. The gallery is open every day but Monday and is situated on the quayside in Kinsale. Here’s a map of Kinsale courtesy of Yahoo. The cross-hairs mark approximately where the gallery is.
Try and spot the slight mispeling on one of the images I signed. Oops!
If you’re not subscribed to my photoblog, In Photos dot org, you might have missed the announcement about the exhibit. Mallow Camera Club (no, we don’t take photos of candy, cookies or biscuits, Mallow is a town a few miles from here!) will be exhibiting a number of photos in Mallow Town Library for three weeks starting today.
One of the Club’s members, Sean Riordan, is heading out to South Africa shortly as part of a group from the Niall Mellon Township Trust helping to build homes for the poor in that country. All the photos on exhibit will be for sale with all profits going to help fund Sean’s trip and the good work he’ll do in November.
Your one week’s hard work will change the lives of generations of some of the poorest families in the world. Over 200 families will move from a one roomed shack measuring 3m x 3m to a house with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Most importantly, these houses will have running water, electricity, and sanitation – facilities we take for granted in our everyday lives.
One of my photos, this one of Brendan O’Carroll outside the Opera House in Cork will be on show and for purchase too. It’s not exactly like the one shown here. It’s a portrait with a tighter crop and better. I’ll be there tonight at 6pm to see how things go. If it’s bought while I’m still around, I’ll sign my photo for you. You never know, it might be valuable in years to come!
So, here’s me asking for everyone to give this a plug, especially if you live in Cork or some of your readers live in the locality. Come on Donal, Ryan, Tom, Damien, Adam, Gamma Goblin, Conor, Will, Mel, Haydn, Mark and everyone on Cork Blogs .. Giz a link and a plug, please!
Unfortunately it’s simple to steal photos these days, and I spotted my Thieving Duck on yet another joke site. Most recently, the News of the World used it, this time it’s on http://archives.gophercentral.com/Gettin_Ducked_phunny_pictures.html
Unfortunately Jethro, the owner of the site, has declined to acknowledge my email of the 25th June and so refused to add a link to my blog post.
Hi Jethro,
The picture of the duck robbing the woman (http://archives.gophercentral.com/Gettin_Ducked_phunny_pictures.html) was taken by me in Chicago in 2005 and the original image can be found at http://inphotos.org/the-thieving-duck/
I would appreciate a link back to that page next to the image please as it’s a copyrighted image. Lots of other sites have already done the same, including snopes.com and cuteoverload.com: http://inphotos.org/the-most-sent-around-duck-photo/
Thanks, glad you like the photo!
Donncha.
I don’t mind too much when a site owner responds and adds a link back to my blog, but when they ignore me then my temper rises. Bah!
Do you read the UK Sunday newspaper, The News Of The World? A comment was left on my photoblog yesterday saying that newspaper used my Thieving Duck image in their magazine and I’m interested in seeing it for myself. If it’s true, they used the image without permission or attribution and that makes me just a little bit angry.
I’m posting this here because this blog has a lot more readers than my photoblog and I already mentioned it there and nobody responded. I emailed the newspaper yesterday but I’m not holding my breath waiting for a reply.
If you have last Sunday’s newspaper, I would really appreciate a photo of the page in question. I can be emailed at donncha @ ocaoimh.ie, thanks!
Update! In case you missed my comment below, I received an email from NotW offering me their standard rate which I’ve accepted. Hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon.
Holy Shmoly! is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache
