Dear News Media

Dear News Media,
I am not stupid. I am not that ignorant of how the world works. I can understand fairly complex scenarios, even those that include what may appear to be morally ambiguous characters. I can understand that good people do bad things sometimes, and that this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are bad people. I don’t need you to label every individual according to some weird moral code that you’ve made up and that you think I agree with. I don’t want you to give criminals cool nicknames. I don’t want you to document in meticulous detail each move of a clearly mentally unsound person who stalks a school killing people. I don’t wan’t you to provide 24 hour coverage of not-very-much-happening in the hunt for so-and-so. It doesn’t make me feel safe or even sane! I don’t need you to label every “controversy” in the same banal manner; Wagergate was fine, but Cowengate, Bigotgate, Climategate, Monotonous-Idiotic-Storygate? How does that help? Why would that make a news story easier to understand or more accurate? The only thing it does is create a bizarre narrative that makes it appear that all the stories are connected somehow, and all that does is make me think that the whole bloody world is immoral and out to get me and lie to me and deceive me!
I also don’t care what your readers think. Now, don’t get me wrong – I think user-generated content can be exceptionally powerful. When the news cameras can’t get to a scene in time, or when an individual captures something really amazing, the story is really improved. However, why the hell would I care what James, 32, from Donnybrook thinks about NAMA? Is that really going to help my knowledge of a very complex issue? I don’t care about Joe the Plumber, the motorway man, the soccer mum. What does that add to the narrative?
So that’s me. Don’t give me stupid names for the people you’re reporting on. Don’t make me feel stupid by giving every story the suffix “gate”. And please, I don’t pretend to be a journalist. Don’t pretend that the random vox-pop punters have wildly important things to say.
Thanks,
Conor

 

Frontline – July 5th 2010

As you may or may not know, yesterday’s Frontline (a weekly current affairs programme on RTÉ One, hosted by Pat Kenny) concentrated on the family. A fairly broad topic, but it allowed for plenty of healthy and heated debate. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it again on RTÉ Player here. I watched it again last night after we got home.

There are some parts of the programme that were amazingly frustrating. This naive and romantic idea of the mam and dad happily married is bizarre to say the least. Without doubt the majority of families were very happy and and just the typical range of problems, but being married doesn’t necessarily make you a) happy or b) a great parent.

Anyway, to address three parts of yesterday evening (I don’t think I could ever get time to address everything I want to address). My own family story starts at about 27mins 30 secs (Let’s be honest, you’re only watching it again to see my pretty face 😉 )

First, Pat mentioned registering guardianship as a possible idea for creating a legal bond of sorts between Daragh, Bernadette (as our non-biological mother) and myself. In England, perhaps, but not in Ireland – such a concept doesn’t exist here.

Second, David Quinn was asked, by Pat, “What about Conor and his family there? The lads turned out, as far as I know, splendidly, they are well-balanced people. They lived in a happy, family situation for the best part of 30 years, I don’t know how old the lads are. You know it kind of runs counter to your whole argument” (around 31mins in). David responds by talking about gay adoption. Now, either by ignorance or by intent he appears to have missed a pretty crucial point; Daragh and I weren’t adopted. Two men donated sperm to Ann, who used artifical insemination to impregnate herself. No adoption there, no daddy there, no heterosexual relationship there. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume her didn’t hear Ann refer to herself as the biological parent of both Daragh and myself. Maybe I’ll bring a family tree next time.

Third, this idee of an opt-out for registrars who have a “conscientious objection” to a gay or lesbian couple registering a civil partnership is absolutely ludicrous. You don’t see a car salesman being permitted to not sell cars to gay people, or lesbians, or black people, or Polish people, or Catholics, or Protestants, or a person with a physical disability or anything else covered by equality legislation. If you are a registrar, employed by the State and paid for by the people of Ireland, then do your damn job or quit. If it’s that much of a problem, fuck off to somewhere that you won’t have to be bothered by gay people, or women wearing trousers. Guh.

Finally, that guy talking about the debate not being about equality and… “certain acts”. Oh my. Please, get your mind out of the bedroom. His point of “sexual acts between two people of the opposite sex, that’s how we all came into the world”. Oh dear, mate. No. Let me introduce myself and my brother. I’ve already outlined how we were conceived, so I’ll spare you the details. The laughs in the background exemplify the reaction to him anyway.

But damn, I think he exposed The Gay Agenda. In the sexy way.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words on Twitter and Facebook.

All the best,

Conor

 

Garden Squares Day this Weekend

Join me this Saturday in Mountjoy Square for the first ever Garden Squares Day, organised by the Dublin Civic Trust. I’ll be acting as a steward at Mountjoy Square, but there are four other squares hosting events: Parnell Square, St. Stephen’s Green, Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square will all have their own festivities. In Mountjoy Square, we’ll have:

• 11am – Walking tour
• 12pm – Brass band and hot food
• 2pm – Tango Argentino
• 3pm – Chinese cultural exhibition of dance and kite flying (These aren’t going ahead but they’re looking for replacements!)

as well as:

• Plant stalls
• Mr. Whippy
• and Hot  food

Check out the news item and programme here – see you on Saturday!

 

What does family mean to me?

As part of the WRF2 project

I realised recently that I spend an incredible amount of time with my family. From an outside perspective, that would make sense; I live with my brother (and girlfriend) and my parents live just around the corner. Three of us work in the same place and the fourth is there practically every day anyway. Thinking about it like this, it makes sense that we see each other all the time. This is only a recent occurrence, I think. I lived in France for a year and throughout a lot of my degree I saw them very little. In September I’m off to Belfast – that means I’ll see them a lot less. Having said that, I doubt it’ll make much of a difference. My grandparents live in New Zealand and yet I still hear from them pretty frequently. The wonders of text messages, cheaper international phone calls, e-mail and VOIP means that we can keep in touch from far, far away.

So what does family mean to me? I guess it means love, security and warmth. It means having people around you. We’re a pretty close-knit family I reckon. Working together makes it difficult at times, but that’s pretty normal!

Family to me means whatever we decide to make it. It doesn’t matter to me that people think my parents shouldn’t have children, or even that they shouldn’t have a legally recognised relationship. Try telling me that my mums don’t deserve recognition for staying together thirty years, for raising four cats, two dogs, a pony, a horse, countless chickens, rabbits, fish and two children. They’ve done a damn good job. They’ve provided for us for the last 24 years of my life and I know they’ll give me the support I need whenever I ask for it – and even when I don’t.

I’ve got a little brother who I can only really describe as a character – I’d be surprised if he stood still for more than a year at any point in his life. While I love a bit of consistency, he gets twitchy and craves change.

We aren’t perfect, but I’m pretty sure none of us care. We love each other and that’s far more important than any stepping-stone legislation, any discriminatory escape clause, any pompous self-serving religious and political figures, any idiot arguing from morals on an issue of rights.

We are family too – even if you don’t think we are.

Happy Pride everyone – enjoy the day, whether gay, lesbian, bi, straight, trans or other.

 

Running a Marathon – First Time For Everything

Anyone who knows me relatively well will know that I’m not the most active person. I love being comfortable and I think I could easily put “Being sentient” on a CV. Even now, while I write this I’m also playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (Boys can multi-task too). However, some things have to change. I was in New Zealand in January for my mammies’ civil partnership and remembered that I actually do enjoy a bit of physical activity. At that point, I decided I had to do something (anything!) in “the outdoors” (even if that only meant in Dublin 1). Being in final year, there was very little I could do apart from work and study, but since May I’ve been doing the occasional jog. I know I’ll need a little more motivation than just running the marathon however, so I’ve decided to do it for a good cause. You’ll probably know by now that I do some work for Positive Behaviour Ireland (although I’ve never actually mentioned that here), a small non-profit based in Dublin. PBI provides education services for young people in Dublin who otherwise would not be receiving education. We also provide parenting support in the form of parenting courses (The Incredible Years), behavioural assessment and behaviour management plans. Anyway, we’ve applied for our charity number and, with a little luck, we’ll get it in the next two months. We’ve had a couple of fundraising events in the past, from Paddy Ryan’s Vienna marathon and the Laughter Lounge comedy night to Niall O’Byrnes’ current ascent of Denali (Mt McKinley) in Alaska. We’ve recently had a successful funding application to the Edmund Rice Foundation and are also planning a move of premises in August to a space three times the size of our current centre – things are on the up-and-up for PBI!

So, anyway, the point of all this is that I am doing the Adidas Dublin City Marathon on October 25th 2010 in aid of Positive Behaviour Ireland and I want your sponsorship. Yes, yours. So go on, donate here. Go on. It’s really really easy. Donate as much or as little as you can. €10 is a good starter amount – I’ll be delighted and really appreciative if you donate above that. Also, get creative! How about this for a spur of the moment idea – if I get over €1000 I’ll do the whole marathon in drag. That’s 26.2 miles of Conor dressed up as a woman (I’ll wear trainers though – no way am I wear stilettos for a marathon!). Maybe you could sponsor me a euro a mile? How does that sound? Anyway, do what you can. If you can’t give a lot, get another two people to donate as well. It’s all for a good cause anyway – giving education and parenting skills to people who can then go on to do great things.

I’ll be doing a few other runs before the marathon itself, so hopefully by that point I’ll have some idea of how well I’ll do. Bear in mind, this is the first time I’ve ever jogged or run – it’s going well so far but I really need to stick to the routine I have. I’m aiming to jog/ run five times a week. I’m enjoying it so far – and rewarding myself with chocolate milk afterwards 😉

Thanks for reading and if you’re running the marathon (and especially if you want to get involved with fundraising for PBI) leave a comment! I’ll probably be Tweeting about training, so you can catch me there too. What I’d really like is to share a run a week with someone who has already run a marathon – so that I can get tips off them. Know anyone? Please do let me know.

Conor

 

On Panti’s Radio Show Tomorrow

Just a quick update to let you know that Daragh (the lil bro) and I will be on Ms. Panti’s radio show tomorrow. The show, broadcast on Open FM, has a special guest on (no, not us). You can listen in through OpenFM.ie or on 89.9FM on the old wireless. We’ll be on at about 7:20pm, so tune in and have a listen. We recorded it during the week and it was very relaxed and great fun to do so I’d like to thank Panti and the team for having us on!

 

Items on Ebay Again – Server Equipment

Just a quick blog post to let you know that the following are still available second-hand and cut-price on ebay at the moment. Go and buy them! They’re all for collection in Clane, Co. Kildare. If that doesn’t suit we might be able to work something out.

• HP Proliant DL380 G5 Server
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501593991#ht_500wt_1182

• APC Smart-UPS RM 2200VA USB & Serial
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501594199#ht_500wt_1182

• HP Proliant DL360 G5 Server
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501594327#ht_500wt_1182

• SonicWALL TZ 190 with 3G Wireless Broadband
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501594530#ht_500wt_1182

• SonicWALL PRO 2040 Security Appliance
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501594741#ht_500wt_1182

• HP StorageWorks Ultrium 448 Tape Drive
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501594849#ht_500wt_1182

• Half-Height Server Cabinet
• http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110501595067#ht_500wt_1182

 

PZ Meyers in UCD next Tuesday

Next Tuesday at 6:30pm in Theatre B in the Science Hub of UCD, the UCD Secular Humanist Society will be presenting its first Honorary Life Membership to PZ Meyers, the writer, blogger and Humanist of the Year 2009 (named by the American Humanist Association). The event is open to UCD students (for free) and a limited number of members of the public (for a mere €5). Check out the Facebook event page here or e-mail ucdhumanistsociety@gmail.com for more details.

– Conor

 

A Civil Union? Yeah Right!

In case you’d missed it via Twitter or Facebook, my mammies got a civil partnership over in New Zealand on Monday the 4th January. It was a wonderful ceremony, with speeches from a brother, a sister in law, a mother and close friends. We had lots of our nearest and dearest there and would like to thank everyone who came along. So, this brief post is to post people to the photos that I have taken of the day (and the night or two before it). The set is available on Flickr (for free viewing, obviously), here. I’ll create a group at some point, for all of the photos of the event. Have a look, make comments and ask for more photos. These are the better ones (In my opinion anyway) but there are another 200+. Anyway, enjoy and take care everyone.

 

Group Pressure, or Renew, Repair, Refresh

Today, on my morning commute to college, one of the ears of my headphones started acting up. The right ear started flickering and sure enough, a few minutes later, died out totally. Playing with the connection could save it occasionally, but by this stage it’s completely buggered. I really like my headphones, they’re good at keeping noise out and the sound quality is fairly decent. They’re kind like this model, except older and without all that design jazz. So, as you can imagine, I was slightly annoyed. I immediately started thinking about ordering a new pair on the internet and getting them delivered. I got to the library and was updating my Facebook status to share the news, when I felt a little twinge: Guilt. I thought to myself, “What’ll everyone think of me if I just buy a new pair of headphones, without even trying to fix these ones?”. So, I changed my mind. I decided to give repairing them a go first, to see if I can get them working.

Interesting, that, isn’t it? Exposing my potential consumer habits to the opinions, values and, most importantly, feedback of my peers changed my intention. I wonder how this can be used to affect what people do with their electrical waste, but also (and more importantly) what people do when their stuff breaks? I’ve noticed (and I’m sure I’m guilty of it myself) a move away from people getting their stuff (clothes, pots, pans, electrical goods) fixed and towards just buying new stuff. Now, given that people are more careful with their money at the moment (or at least are in theory) maybe people consider repair as an option more frequently now. I think it’s a great idea. I, for one, need to stop relying on new items and other people and start fixing stuff for myself. I guess this is where things like Project Sugru come in. Their concept is don’t buy new stuff, hack your old stuff!. Smart gang. They’re on Twitter too (which, incidentally, is how I remembered that they exist and have included them here. Very smart) and on Facebook.

[edit: Take a look at the video on this page for an idea of how it works]

Alright, anyway, that’s my idea. Group pressure influencing people into fixing stuff, instead of buying new things. Think that it’s ridiculous that someone should waste money buying something new when a quick job will fix what they already have? Tell them! You might just change their mind.

As an aside, I’ve started a Tumblr account for things longer than a Tweet and shorter than a blog post. That’s how this post started (but then it got longer).

Happy World AIDS Day and if you have an opinion, share it as a comment.