Will Knott

I’ll be honest, I love my XBox 360. The halls of Rapture have been responsible for the loss of many an hour. But the XBox live system has a few drawbacks.

To begin with, since nothing purchasable has a refund (you can re-download something you’ve bought, but you can’t get your gamer points back), not having previews is a problem. Game demos are one thing but the likes of themes and gamerpics (essentially a profile picture for the XBox live system) are not available as a preview.

But people have worked around it. The Theme Xbox site is essentially a collection of videos. These videos are previews of the XBox themes, usually premium themes. I don’t know if the creators of the themes are slipping codes to the people doing these videos or if they are paid for themselves, or if some of these videos are by the theme creators. All I do know is that is has saved me from spending some gamer points on something I’d regret within seconds of paying for it.

In case you are wondering, the difference between a theme and a premium theme currently is that the “friends” section is customised in the premium theme, and he standard theme uses the XBox 360 defaults.

However, the date brings scary things to the fore. For example here is the premium St Patrick’s Day theme. (I just hope these links inside XBox.com work when you’re not logged in to XBox.com)

And Microsoft seem to have created a collection of avatar items for St. Patrick’s Day. Like Leprechaun outfits for him, for her and a spare leprechaun “prop” to steal the gold out of your pocket. Just like having the MS points taken.

Ah yes, more Orish than the Irish themselves.

Why do we do this! Couldn’t we have someone do nicer things? Even if you hate River dance, its is at least not “Orish”. Avatar items of the Riverbance dancer outfits for example? Or have someone create a cooler Irish theme. Something like a Secret of Kells theme? Or a Newgrange theme? Or a Rock of Cashel theme? Something that doesn’t look like its meant to be coated in a layer of cheap, tacky “kelly” green plastic. Why not Buntratty Castle medieval outfits? Irish right?  I can almost see Newbridge Silver or Waterford Crystal making a theme and avatar items just to show that Ireland can be classy.

So how do I create my own theme?

And where did this post come from; well, I’ve been mostly posting to Culch.ie, and ntil recently I’ve been unable to sit down and write a lot. I now have the time again.

There will still be photos coming (I have a lot of the AMC to do yet), but the tagling for this blog is… “Musing about technology, culture, people and the places in between”. So I should do just a little bit on technology, culture and more people.

I have a few words on Wordpress (and Wordpress Camp), Google Buzz, a Massive Hadron (not a typo) and Weedle to come.

I’m a little late with these, but I have only my upload speed to blame (24 hours for 17 photos!). Now I’m back home things should move a little faster.

On Valentine’s Day, the Alternative Miss Cork contest took place in The Savoy Theatre in Cork city, and the contest was hosted by “the divine” Miss Panti Bliss, who not only blogs proficiently, but does a little photobloging of her own.

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The winner of the Alternative Miss Cork will represent Cork for the title of Alternative Miss Ireland on March 14th 2010. And of course, Panti is the MC for that night too.

Sometimes chance smiles, other times she points and laughs. This shot is a bit of both.

I noticed the “cut-out” in the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and that through it you could see some of Dublin’s landmarks. As I was focusing the couple on the other side of the bridge turned to kiss.

Snap!

Just as a car pulled in front of the vista leaving its radio areal in the shot.

Oh well.

I’m sure someone will stage this shot soon enough. A wedding party perhaps?
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The curve of the Samuel Beckett bridge extended just a little bit by the lights.
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The mural on the wall of the new Dublin Criminal Court.

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Photographers (wannabes too) should always carry their camera with them as there is no guarantee that you’ll be able to get the same shot in the same location with the same light again.

Unfortunately, if you’re driving, you can’t really snap things, unless you’re stuck in traffic.

This is a shot I’ve been trying to get for years, and finally as a passenger I could get it. When leaving Kildare, just on the Dublin border on the M7/M9 you rise up and the whole of Dublin lies shining beneath you. Its the last hill and unobstructed view on the way. From this edge of West Dublin, you can see the Airport.

Its a bit blurred, but its probably my only shot at this for years to come.

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The same crow as yesterday, calling out a battle cry perhaps?

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A crow rides the horse shaped weather vane in the Kildare Village Centre.

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