God..Does anyone care anymore?

It's hard to get people's opinions on religion.. Not many will comment on whether there's a God or not.. It can be a touchy subject. I find that most people like to say they're catholics.. Even if they're not practicing! And then you've the type of people that go to mass just out of habit.. They never really think about religion, the existence of God or anything like that..They might not have even read The Bible! I'd be one of those people...
I never really think about the afterlife or how Jesus suffered for us or even pray that much. But I do notice that I turn to religion when I'm in need... Do you ever do that? Maybe that's our instinct telling us that we'll be safe if we have faith?

Two old men in a pub..I'd swear they're
 talking about religion!!!!

To be honest, it's not something I'd be too interested in, it's just a force of habit, I never really think about it.. Maybe in later years I'll turn more to God and have a better understanding of religion.. For now, I think I'll leave the topic to the auld fellas in the pubs to argue over!

1st Semester in the DkIT.. Hellish craic!!

Not much more could have happened in this semester... I got hypnotised (made a bolox of myself in doin so!), got to grips with what PR actually is, made plenty of nice new friends, started playing a wee bit of college football and missed just one Thursday night on the town so far since I started the course... (Prob didn't do the liver many favours.. or the belly..)

The hypnotism..

I never had much faith in this type of thing...Well guess what.. I do now! Managed to make a show of meself in front of a packed out Whitaker Theatre.. Loooked at a few video clips from the day.. Milked a cow, thought I was in a washing machine, acted like a cowboy, groped whatever poor divil was beside me, walked an imaginary dog through the crowd and eh... Almost done The Full Monty.. See I remember a little bit of that, just wakening up in front of the whole crowd with just my boxers on...Not embarrassing at all...
I don't think I'll post a video from that day :)
Oh, I forgot to mention, I also thought I had a wee leprechaun with me for a good while after..

The new friends..

We had a bit of a
PR Class meeting that night!

Before I started college I often heard people say, "Aw my class at college is full of dickheads!".. Lucky enough, I don't have that problem! :) They're a sound bunch, great craic, and we all like to take the mick at a few classes!
I met a right few sound lads through the football here in the college, half of them are Monaghan heads but sure I'd be used to them by now! There's lads from Cavan, Louth and Dublin there as well...
Then there's the people you'd meet on nights out, friends of friends, complete randomers, whatever it may be!
It's a nice atmosphere here in Dundalk, haven't had any run-ins with anyone yet and it doesn't look like I will anytime in the near future!

The football..

DkIT Freshers 2010/11

Well...What can I say...That was cruel this year! All-Ireland Semi Final, and to be bet by a point in extra time? Mainly because the referee couldn't be fair? Well, what can I say.. At least I now know how Louth people felt when Meath bet them in the Leinster Final this year :)

But yano what? Am feckin delighted I did start playing ball with the college.. Or, at least tried to anyway ;) Met plenty of decent lads, we had a few great nights out so far and I'm sure there'll be plenty more!

The nights out..

Halloween in Dundalk - Chilian Miner and TopGun man!

Well, I'd be lying if I said Dundalk was a bad place for a night out. Had some great nights here so far, met some great people! Drinks are only 3euro, add pre-drinking in a friend's house to that and it's a serious amount cheaper than a Saturday night in The Fiddlers!





So..All over, the first semester went quite well! :) Couldn't ask for much more! The only thing is we're at the shitty part of it now with all the tests and exams so I'll be looking forward to the start of next semester! The timetable looks good and we've a right few interesting modules to do!

The Reward is Cheese.....

Deadmau5 in concert

Who likes Deadmau5?? I like Deadmau5... Anyone ever listen to Deadmau5??
(It's pronounced "dead-mouse".... just incase... :) )
For about 6 weeks I was waiting anxiously on our Christmas exam timetable.. See on Tuesday 14th December I'm headin to Deadmau5 in the o2, I was worried that I'd have an exam the next day and I'd have to flog my ticket, fortunately I won't have to as I'm free the next day!

Joel Zimmerman

Deadmau5, or Joel Zimmerman if you want to call him by his real name, hails from Canada and he'd be known as one of the world's best dj's/producers.. His genre would be mainly house music and electronic.. To me, he's a feckin genius! His music is brilliant, it's just a pity a lof of nightclubs don't play his type of music too often.. Silence in Dundalk has a music dj though, it turns out Deadmau5 is actually his hero.. No bad spot for the tunes!




Not really sure what type of song to leave you with to sum up his type of music.. So I said I'd throw in "The Reward is Cheese" and a mini mix from his new album, "4x4=12"!

Search Engine Marketing.. It's a weapon!

This is something that's fairly interesting.. Probably one of the most interesting things I learned about in my 1st semester. With search engine optimisation, you can do so much to advertise your company! By editing your website, you can eventually make it up to the top of the list of results search engines throw out when someone searches for something relevant to your website. See, search engines pick up on how many hits your website has, how many people have links to your website and if the search terms are mentioned on your website a few times, it's more likely to make it to the top of the list! That's fairly handy! Yes, it takes a of of time..But there's no financial cost to it.. 

If you advertise on a search engine with a "paid for listing", you can choose what search terms your listing shows up for. You can choose which geographic location your listing shows up in, and you can choose what you want to pay for every "click" you get. Se every click costs a certain amount.. It's just a matter of finding out what the right price is to get you to the top of the paid for listings!

Snow...Never mind the hassle of it, time for acting the bollox!!

Yeh so it looks nice and all... And yeh it causes a lot of hassle on the roads... And schools get shut...
In fact, here's a pic of it from the front of my house... Although that wasn't the heaviest part of it, it's just the only pic I have at the mo!

But at the end of the day..Who Cares???? Snow brings out the child in us! How many of you threw a snowball? Or made a snowman? Or went flting down a hill on a bag of 10-10-20 filled with straw?? Or even got someone with a sly snowball when they weren't expecting it? There's no better feeling.. :)

When the snow came to Drumconrath, a lot of us got wrapped up, went out there, and destroyed each other with snow!! We even got a couple of poor divils driving by in their cars... But don't worry, it was safe enough, they saw us coming.. And if the tables were turned they'd be at the same!
At what other time would you get a community together for something like that? The Parish Priest even ventured out to slide down the hills on the sledge..This was after he asked the crowd at mass on Sunday morning, "Which hills had the most snow?".. It brings out the kid in everyone!

 

But, like I said, ya can't bate acting the mick in a good snow fight!
It's just a pity all the snow is gone to ice now.... Or is it? ;)

Advertising Online..Why not??

How could you go against advertising online? Sure it's win-win! In some cases, it won't cost you a penny. It may take time to set up a website and make it clear and helpful to the public, but if you know how to do it, it'll only cost you time! That's a lot cheaper than putting an advertisement into a newspaper, magazine, on the radio or on the telly..

Or... maybe... they're just too

 lazy to leave the house....?

And anyway, when people are looking for something in particular, where do they go? Do they switch on the radio and listen intently for an ad that's relevant to their needs? Do they sit there, glued to the telly? NO! Most of the time, people are going to go straight to the internet! Isn't it worth going to the bother of advertising online.. Just for that? What harm can it do you? You can showcase your company 24/7, people can view what services you provide from the comfort of their own homes.


Another good point; with online advertising, you can make your own videos.. Or "virals" as they're better known as! This is making your own video for the internet, advertising what you want.. Just like you would on the television, only much cheaper!
The only thing is, you have to try your best to get it spread right across the net..

Here's a nice, short viral done by Nike in their campaign to fight aids in Africa.

A very embarrassing... But very fun night!

Drumconrath Hunt for a Hunk

Drumconrath football club held a fundraiser on Saturday night, 27th of November. The fundraiser was called Hunt for a Hunk! "What's that?".. I hear you ask!
Well, it's like the Rose of Tralee... Only it'd be better if it was named the Thistle of Tralee. It's cheekier, cheesier and the piss gets ripped out of the contestants! So who else would be foolish enough to agree to being a contestant? Yeh... That's right!! Feckin me...

There were 10 contestants, you can check out the standard of the competition in this pic yourself!

Drumconrath Hunks! Doesn't say much for
the village...Does it? :) 

Each "Hunk" had to do a party piece. They varied from men singing, playing the guitar, trying to break the world record of eating 3 cream crackers in a minute, and even showing off their skills on a spinner bike!

Me, I TRIED to sing the Hucklebuck.. Pretty simple song, but i still managed to forget the lyrics! That's what nerves does to ya, eh? I tried to talk the talk and all that.. But he still managed to rip the piss outta me!




The MC on the night was Frank Mitchell, the man to used to present UTV's School Around The Corner.

UTV's Frank Mitchell

In saying that, many said the night was "the best the village had in a long time!". It was great fun, both for the spectators and the audience! It raised a massive amount of money, over 6,000euro, and half of which will be donated to Crumlin Children's Hospital. Thanks to all who sponsored the event!

I'll leave you with a clip from the night, all the contestants took part in The Riverdance while the votes were being counted1 Some lads wore blouses and dresses.. While others weren't as foolish! You'll see all the gobshites together at 1:30!

Something that'll crack a few ribs! Irish Postman Pat

This is just something I wanted to show you. Most of you probably saw these videos already.. But they're worth posting up and looking at again!

Some genius on YouTube decided to take a few clips from Postman Pat cartoons, edit them about, and make him out to be the rawest culchie going!!

Enjoy watching if you didn't see them!

This is probably the best known one.. A little adventure of Pat's!

Pat tries making a go-kart!


He gives a friend a lift..


Pat gets stuck..Again :)



Here's a more recent one!
And I think I'll leave it at that! There's 11 videos all together..They're all done by johnser007, definitely worth watching if you like the couple that's here!

Social Networking...Creeping to the max :)

Where would we be without social networking?

How would you find out about the people your friends are always talking about? Like the ones you never met..

How would you remember what "yer wan from last night" looked like?

How would you hear about people's private embarrassing stories?

Where would you get to see friend's pictures from good times together?



Yeh.. We all use social networking for a bitta "creeping"... Even if we won't admit to it :)


But then, how would we get through sticking to the computer for those long assignments if we didn't have facebook to log onto and moan about how stupid the assignments are?? (Not that they are actually that stupid.. We just get fed up of them!)



It all started with bebo...

The social networking phase started off with bebo. I remember setting it up when I was just 14. Unfortunately we still had the old dial up connection for the internet. The folks weren't too happy when the bill arrived seeing as I was full time on bebo. Bebo was thought to be amazing, you had your own space on the internet, you could put up your own thoughts, share your photos, talk to friends.. Nobody saw anything like it before.. So most people got a little bit addicted :)



Then it was facebook...

Next came the more modern and "mature" facebook. It was a slow move for a lot of young people to set themselves up on it... Myself included!
It was considered to be a site for "auld wans".. But that soon changed!
Now people can't go without it.. Walk into any computer lab in the college and at least one person is logged in on their facebook. Even people walking around the college, they're on it on their phones!

This is the new addiction :)

I think this video explains a lot about facebook.... :)

And here's one showing facebook if it was in real life!

So anyway, happy facebook... And happy creepin!

Online PR....Jaysus what's that??

I was a little bit afraid this is what we'd have
 to be like for Online PR...Not anymore! :)

So.. What is Online PR? That's the question that went around in my head before my first class. If I look on moodle, it'll tell me that...

"The medium of the Internet is a powerful tool for quickly and cheaply accessing audiences of previously unimaginable numbers. This module will introduce students to techniques and activities that enable them to use this medium as an effective Public Relations tool."

Now to me, that's a bit.... *Ugh!*

However, after our first class I was intrigued.. We were told to log onto Facebook.. That was handier than "shnaaking" on during class.. We learned that the advertisements on your page are picked out specifically for you.. Isn't that a bit.. creepy? But interesting...
We also started learning how to write in html code.. That doesn't sound too appealing.. But it is enjoyable..
The theory end covers online advertising, e-commerce.. How all that stuff works.. I'm still not fit to talk in the "techy" language yet.. As you can probably tell!

This is a bit more like my perception of
Online PR people now... 

So far it's probably my favourite subject on my course.. And I'm not just saying that.. It's very interesting..
We've just decided that we're going to have our theory test for it on December 2nd.. That should tell a few tales.. :) Hopefully it'll go well, I found the content of the course pretty interesting so I hope to do well with a bit of revision!

Dangerous Bitches

Hmmm.... Yeh, you're probably wondering what the title is about! Well, not to worry, I'm not in a pissy mood or anything... But it did make you interested, didn't it? :)

I'm sitting here in S208.. Yano, the room that's always free with the computers..? And I've the Blizzards blasting in my ears. Currently playing is "Dangerous Bitches".



There you are if you wanna have a listen.. It's a catchy tune! Although it may not be the best video of the song available, it's all I could get! :)

I only got into The Blizzards from Slane 2009.. They were some of the warm up acts for Oasis that year. That was an epic concert!
I remember it well, we just arrived into the grounds on time to see The Blizzards starting off.. There wasn't too many about that early so we hadn't to queue too long for beers :)

There in the pic is my sis, 

the brother in law, and myself at Slane! 

So anyway, I'm supposed to be in Colin's class right now.. (sorry Colin!) But I've a lot of assignments to do.. And I find it very hard to get motivated to do them! Anyone else the same? :) So college is the only place I'll sit down and do a bitta work.. There's too many distractions at home.. Work, Friends, Socialising.. It's not easy! :) But now that I have sat down and started doing a bit.. I need a break.. And I said I'd come to Blogger instead of the usual Bookface.. (Although I'll probably still end up on it after this..)

Anyway, I better get back to tackling this stack of work... Perhaps a little bit of facebook first :)

A morning in Online PR

I've just set up a blog in the Online PR class in college. I'm not too sure if I'll have much to write to keep the blog interesting but, we'll have a go at it anyway!
Life in college is good so far, fairly enjoyable, the class is fairly sound too.. The lecturers seem to be fairly nice people as well. I'm lucky enough to like college so far, seeing as I've four whole years of it to go!

While I was setting this up I had to go for the ritual sneaky log in to facebook! Shock horror! "Keith McConnon was tagged in an album"... Feel ashamed to say I don't remember most of the pictures in the album, but hey, it looks like it was a good night!

That's it for now, I'll try and get to know my way around this blogger site!