Yesterday, Saturday 7th Jan, Ron rounded-up the troops once again, this time at the Robots Exhibition at the newly opened Clotworthy House (Oriel Gallery) in Antrim Castle Gardens. A little advertised, low-key exhibition, with little reason given for its existence beyond being the “first exhibition in the brand new light-filled Oriel Gallery” and draw people to the café and gift shop.

The grounds look good, though far from complete, the café has good food (free coffee refills, which I abused) and great service, and accommodated us as we stuck around to chat.

Mixed in with the Robocop, R2D2 and the head of C-3PO are a number of obscure robots which may well be part of a private toy collection, either way, it’s a fun day out, and it was great to meet some lovely new and old friends: Ron, Sarah, Paul, Skip, Cat, Lexi, Paul, Kay, Bill, Mark and Steve.

The exhibition runs until 12th Jan.

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This year my usual series of end-of-year posts have been postponed due to extended New Year’s celebrations. A somewhat different format to last year, though much the same sentiment remains, as well as one person who’s photograph appeared last year being much more prominent twelve months later. No matter, let’s get going.

In all, it’s been a pretty good twelve months. Yeah there were a few bad times, things went wrong and I made mistakes, but overall things were better than ever; I made many new friends — some of those I consider my best friends — I also released who I no longer consider a friend. It was a year of growth, of finding myself more than ever, of being myself to everyone around me. Realising more and more how awesome I am, and not being afraid to express myself. Furthering my narcissistic persona and breaking it down bit by bit. Putting myself more and more online, often with no less control. Just, more.

The first change of the year came in the form of Typo, the husky-collie cross who joined the family. The sweetest fluffiest of all things… now a large, hyperactive, needy beast who doesn’t like to sit still for long. But we love him to bits all the same.

In Feburary I took a few long walks along the Falls and Shankill roads; my first time walking on each. Camera and Google Maps on-hand I paraded up and down, stopping at nuances and cultural oddities which stood out to me. I took a tour of my first peace wall, the most prominent wall in Belfast, on Cupar Way.

This was followed by a brief visit to St Peter’s Cathedral on the Falls Road. Not to mention the discovery that the Shankill Road library is far superior than the one of the Falls Road.

The first “tweetup” in a Government building took place in March, with the NI Assembly inviting Twitter users/bloggers for a tour of Stormont and a discussion, hosted by UTV’s Marc Mallett, on the use of social media by the Assembly. Apparently it was my idea, spurred by a Twitter conversation between myself and Chris Taylor.

March was also the last ever Irish Blog Awards; a drunken affair, and a goodbye to a huge part of my life over the last number of years.

Of course, as tradition dictates, a photo-walk was held on the afternoon before the bash. Being help in Belfast, myself and Davy put together an epic affair; a tour of the City Hall, followed by a hard-hat tour of the still under-construction Titanic Signature Building, finishing up with a tour of the Titanic Drawing Rooms and the dry dock. To top it off we were given permission to roam the roof of the Europa Hotel, 13 floors from ground-level: here are two panorama images of Belfast from this height. Further images from the photo walk are in the following blog posts: 1, 2, 3, 4.

April was my foray into the world of politics. Whilst learning who does what, where, when and why, my response remained: “I hate politics”. And although I still don’t enjoy “being involved”, I feel that having a basic understanding of local politics is extremely important. Particularly when it comes to deciding who to vote for.

Following the crowd is a big no-no for me. I have to find out for myself who is the best one for the job, using my own carefully selected criteria, in particular: moving NI forward through a non-sectarian attitude, pro equal rights — including LGBT rights — makes efforts to bring together all communities in Northern Ireland without segregation, etc. In doing this, I found myself at the manifesto launch of DUP and SDLP, a variety of hustings, and walking around Holywood with Stephen Agnew, leader of the NI Green Party, and Stephen Stewart, 18 year old East Belfast independent and SDLP councilor Colin Keenan.

Steven Agnew Green Party canvassing

May saw the wedding of two very good friends, Michael and Andrew:

Later in the month Queen Elizabeth II made a historic visit to Ireland and I happened to be in the area.

A very wet North West 200 took place in the last weekend in May — sort of. Due to crap weather the full number of laps were not completed. Despite the wet, myself and Chris had a good time all the same.

June kicked off Pride season with a protest against CORE, a Christian group which supports “men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference”, which held a one-day seminar at Belvoir Parish Church.

The Twelfth of July is always a fascinating time in Northern Ireland; many people love it, many people hate it, many just want a peaceful outcome. This year I spent the 12th shooting Belfast’s main parade to their field where they drank, rested, ate, and prayed. On the 13th I was in Scarva with the Corbet Accordion Band where there was a very very different atmosphere — something I will write about it more detail in coming months.

Pride Parade Belfast:

In August the wedding of Sarah & Ryan took place:

(not pictured here)

September

October: Well this was an interesting month. It began well. It ended well. In the middle it went a bit wrong. Or indeed very right, but not in the way it should have. I’ll stop before I say something any more vague.

November:
A large part of the past few months has been my introduction to the world of marching bands; the music and the culture. I spent a lot of time in the company of the Corbet Accordion Band, during practices and their Christmas events; the biggest event for them of recent years was taking part in the Festival of Marching Bands at the end of November in the Ulster Hall. I’ll be posting more about the band in coming months.

2hr+ daily Skype conversations became the norm in November.

December was a interesting month, revelations and realisations. But bigger than that, for me my own narcissism has had to deal with a different side of me: I’ve let my guard down. My social media persona has altered. I’ve become a soppy, nauseating, happy person. Shouting from from the metaphorical rooftop that is the internet. And I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’m lucky to be comfortable in myself, I have people around me who love me and who I can talk to about anything. People who are there for me through the good and bad, and have shown nothing less in recent months.

Darren:

2011 ended superbly. I hope to continue the happiness through 2012.

Christmas is a strange time of year.

Church on Sunday
For the most part I love Christmas. For me it it’s about few days to chill-out with family; eat lots of chocolate, have a few drinks, hang out with my awesome cousins, a nice meal (stuffing!), refuse to wear paper hats, argue with my parents about going to church one day a year “because it’s what we do at Christmas”, give awesome presents to the ones I love, get some awesome presents (but giving awesome presents is better). Yet it is never about a Jewish philosopher, a fat man in a red suit, or a skinny man in a green suit, nor the commercial bullshit which surround it.

I debated whether or not to go to church with my parents. In the end I went. It’s a boring ritualistic affair with drab music in between the monotonic voice of the man at the pulpit coming out from the speakers dotted between the congregation. A larger congregation than usual; the hypocrisy is far from subtle.

Back at home the question comes again: “Why don’t you like religion?” There are many answers. I have my reasons. But mostly, when I get involved in a conversation like that I realise the fundamental questions that someone of faith has. It helps challenge me and rehearse other angles. Most importantly, it’s enjoyable to have a wee debate and express my own feelings. However, insignificant church is to my Christmas, it is a standard part of my parents’ Christmas, and a part of what their family does.

Giving of the gifts
In our house we don’t wake up to presents. We’re older now and there is no need for that sort of thing, so we’re told. It’s a formal affair that has lost its fun.

Christmas Dinner
Ah yes, the one time of the year where the adults spent hours in the kitchen preparing a feast beyond all proportions as though Jesus himself were to join us at the table. In fact, it’s just the four of us and we’re forced to eat under-cooked Brussels sprouts, watered-down gravy, under-cooked potatoes, turkey, carrots and no stuffing because Dad forgot it.

The fight after dinner
After dinner we sit in front of the TV with a beer and hope that there isn’t too much fighting about what we’re watching. Some chance.

Lets just get through the night together. Forget about everything going on. Put on the façade that we’re all okay.

Boxing Day
This is Christmas for me. Hang out with my cousins and get merry. This year was sponsored by the antics of 7 year-old Ethan.

And now I pack up my things from the room with the single bed.
Until next year.

It’s december and I’m majorly stressing.
The todo list is long. Free time is non-existent. I need help.

Google have announced the closure of a few little-used products in their “off-season spring clean”.

• Google Wave – an attempt to combine email and instant messaging for real-time collaboration.
  I didn’t use it. Just like everyone else.

• Google Bookmarks List - a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends.
  For cloud-based bookmarks I still use and enjoy Delicious (via the trusty Firefox plugin). This may be useful if the likes of Delicious is shut down, as was threatened by Yahoo! recently, thankfully it hasn’t got to that.

• Google Friends Connect – allowed webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a snippet of code.
  Personally, I haven’t heard of this and won’t miss it.

• Google Gears – much-hyped effort to maintain web browser functionality when working offline.
  It was a nice idea but who uses the web offline these days anyway?

• Google Search Timeline – a graph of historical query results.

I find this very irritating and will be glad to see it go.

• Knol – a Wikipedia-style project, which aimed to improve web content.
  Completely new to me, clearly difficult to compete with Wikipedia at this stage.

• Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal – a project which aimed to find ways to improve solar power.
  One of a great number of research projects Google is working on; they say there are “other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level” and have published their results.

This is all just a part of what Google seems to enjoy doing, starting projects and shutting them down when they don’t work. No harm in that really.
More info on the Google Blog.

On Wednesday 16th November, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill which introduces into St Petersburg Law on “administrative offences in St Petersburg” fines for “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, to minors” and “propaganda of paedophilia”:

Article 71. Public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderness amongst minors.

Public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderness amongst minors incur imposition of fine on citizens in the amount from one to three thousand rubles; on officials – from three to five thousand rubles; on legal entities – from ten to fifty thousand rubles.

Article 72. Public actions aimed at propaganda of pedophilia.

Public actions aimed at propaganda of pedophilia incur imposition of administrative fine on citizens in the amount from one to three thousand rubles; on officials – from three to five thousand rubles; on legal entities – from ten to fifty thousand rubles ($1,600).

A second reading takes places today, Wednesday 23rd November, although it is expected that this too will pass, given the unanimous vote of 27 to 1 vote, with one abstention. The bill will become a law when it has passed three hearings and is signed by the governor. Nikolai Alexeyev of the GayRussia.ru said the bill could become “the main legal reason to deny any public actions by the LGBT community.”

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, yet each year gay pride parade applications are met with rejections, and any which do go ahead result in riots involving police and anti-gay rioters.

Sadly there are too many places in the world where it is unsafe to be openly gay, due to backwards governments and the uneducated mentalities of those in power. In may 2011 Ugandan leaders attempted to introduce an anti-homosexuality bill, dubbed the “Kill the Gays bill”, this has been shelved for now. Also in May 2011 a bill was passed in Tennessee, known as the “Don’t Say Gay bill”, which bans elementary and middle school teachers from discussing homosexuality within school lessons, limiting instruction or material to “age-appropriate natural human reproduction science,” explaining that the language was fitting because “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce.”

However, in restricting speech about homosexuality, rather than heterosexuality, this creates a one-sided agenda, in addition, it will likely prevent anti-bullying initiatives, limiting the number of people children have to talk to, particularly for those being bullied due to their own sexual orientation.

In what is essentially another attempt to legalise discrimination, Michigan Senate Republicans passed “anti-bullying” legislation in August 2011 which sets out that schools cannot prohibit “a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian.” This is essentially allowing religious beliefs to justify harassment. The very notion that, within a law aimed to protect the vulnerable, it also ensures that religious beliefs be given special attention leaves me completely bewildered. In Time magazine Amy Sullivan argues that “social conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination”.

Amnesty international has stated that this latest anti-gay bill to be introduced in Russia “would threaten freedom of expression and fuel discrimination against the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community”. Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director, went on to say that “The notion that LGBTI rights activists are somehow converting Russia’s youth through ‘propaganda’ would be laughable, if the potential effects of this new law weren’t so dangerous and wide-reaching”.

If this bill is passed, it must be remembered that in March 2010, the Committeee of Ministers voted unanimously to approve Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states
on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity:

Recognising that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons have been for centuries and are still subjected to homophobia, transphobia and other forms of intolerance and discrimination even within their family – including criminalisation, marginalisation, social exclusion and violence – on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, and that specific action is required in order to ensure the full enjoyment of the human rights of these persons;

Paragraph 13 of the document, which Russia agreed to, reads:

“13. Member states should take appropriate measures to ensure, in accordance with Article 10 of the Convention [on Human Rights], that the right to freedom of expression can be effectively enjoyed, without discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, including with respect to the freedom to receive and impart information on subjects dealing with sexual orientation or gender identity.”

So far an online petition by All Out has amassed 166,968 signatures in its attempt to gain worldwide notice from international and European human rights treaties. Whether this makes a difference is yet to be seen.

Update
A vote on the law has been postponed until next week, November 30th.

Part of the beauty of social networking for me has always been personal recommendations; I could care less what the guy who writes for the local paper thinks of the latest blockbuster, instead I look for thoughts of those I know through a variety of online platforms. Rather than ask 20 friends what they think of a certain album/film I see their thoughts on Twitter/Facebook and the like. On the same note, I find that rating systems are important, often to go along with a well-written review.

I take the opinions of many people rather than just one. Roger Ebert is very talented, but I know I don’t agree with his thoughts, same with Ronan at Filmplicity; we will disagree on the vast majority of films, very a whole other set of reason to most others, I still appreciate his thoughts.

Released to the App Store yesterday Stamped brings a new twist to the personal recommendations engine. After downloading the app and adding friends from Twitter/Facebook etc, you then begin “stamping” things that you like; music, restaurants/bars, books, movies etc. To prevent flooding and endless tribe filling the feeds there is a starting limit of 100 stamps. More can be gained when people like your stamp or credit one to you.

The idea is now about things you things you like enough to recommend. Those you would give 5 stars. If you like it, stamp it. This isn’t a new idea, certainly the app looks very similar to other check-in style apps, as well as a variety of mobile photo sharing apps. Why these apps do well is their simplicity; the ease at which a user can input data and see what their friends have been doing, and what they like.

This is only version 1.0, so no doubt we’ll hear a lot more about this app in the near future. With almost every smartphone app today having some sort of social elemen, it’s important to remember now more than every that it isn’t just a phone in your pocket. Far from it.

Download the app.

Everyone has a favourite Christmas movie, right?

This December Queens Film Theatre and Jameson Whiskey are going to show one of three classic Christmas movies:
Die Hard (1988)
Elf (2003) or
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

The choice is pretty easy, right? Die Hard for sure!
Certainly my choice in this case. Elf is just crap, not to mention starring Will Ferrell in another generic Will Ferrell movie. As for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, who, under 35 has actually seen it anyway?

To vote go to the Christmas Special app on the Jameson NI Facebook page.

When you vote you’ll be in with a chance of winning a free ticket to the event on 10th December! So get voting for Die Hard, and spread the word. Voting closes on 30th November!

Disclaimer: I’m involved in pushing the campaign for Die Hard. Vote Die Hard here.

Celebrity culture: it’s everywhere and it’s very difficult to escape. I realise I sound like my Grandparents, though worse perhaps than my own Grandparents as they don’t understand just how bad celebrity culture is today. And how much it bothers me. I have many issues surrounding idolising those in the spotlight, those with their 15mins of fame. Those who will be forgotten about in a matter of weeks — particularly those who have little or no talent, pushed to the front because they have secured enough monetary backing from some arrogant marketing-types.

I’ll be the first to admit that if Johnny Depp was in front of me now I would likely have heart palpitations. As unlikely an example as it is, and an exception, to an extent, Johnny Depp is my ideal “celebrity”: one who doesn’t enjoy celebrity culture and being in the spotlight, shying away from cameras when not at the latest premier, a necessary part of the job. He isn’t a celebrity for the sake of being a celebrity. He has a hell of a lot of goddamned talent, beyond his beauty; most of which is in his eyes.

I don’t idolise people, but respect people for what they offer. Least of all do I follow vapid, talentless, people who are pushed into the spotlight by PR people and tabloids, simply because they will make someone somewhere a lot of money.

Sadly, it is the way our society works. And watching the MTV EMAs in Belfast last week made me very sad that it was the case. Maybe it’s because I’m not a teenager that I know very few of the “stars”: it occurs to me that David Hasselhoff will do anything for money and people adore him for reasons I have yet to grasp, I was informed a week before the event who Selena Gomez is, nor have I heard of Jessie J or LMFAO. But I’m not their target audience anyway, am I?

When I was 14 I listened to Marilyn Manson, one of the performers in 1999′s EMAs. Today we have Lady Gaga.

However, my gripe is not with the celebrities, but the fascination over the “day the music came to town”: those big-shots MTV and their “talent” came to excite us small-town folks for a while. It made them feel good, that they made us feel good. Naturally the media lapped it up, treating them all like miniature Gods, come to grace us with their presence and we should be so grateful that they did. We will never hear the end of it. Oh those clever politicians, look what they did for us. What bullshit!

What about the music Northern Ireland has to offer? This spectacle proved only that it is not about the music but the name behind it. The brand.

And then there was the streaker. A big pat on the back for Cathy Martin PR for finding someone willing to go naked in front of an audience of millions. But why was this necessary? I see it as an insult and an embarrassment and makes me loath the media so much more than I did before.

There is clearly nothing more superficial than MTV and their ilk, so thank you for coming to town, please shut the door on your way out.

The media

Another empty performance from Lady Gaga. The finale: her rear.

The biggest celebrity of them all, apparently: the much sought after Justin Bieber, 17.

This used to be my go-to place for updating the world as to my goings on. But more than that, I have always used my blog for myself. It is a journal. A diary if you will. It allows me to look back and remember a part of my life. It is more personal than most people will ever realise.

The past few months have involved a busy social life and more personal photography projects, leading to less blogging.

It was a summer awash with emotion; great times and bad. And people getting hurt. New friends, old friends and relationships: the drama I so craved before, laid out before me. Right now, however, I’m happy. Extremely busy, but very happy. And I owe it to the wonderful people in my life. The people around me every day. The people I don’t see enough. Particularly those I wish I could see more often.

Above all, I’ve come to learn that I have amazing friends around me and that’s made me happier than ever before. Lets not fuck this up.