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 still somewhat knackered, and I have over 350 photos to upload (a whole bunch have already been uploaded). And because I got off the bus at exactly the right moment, I ended up getting to see the Dublin Saint Patrick’s Day Festival parade floats set up.

But, photos are what count. Here are a small selection.

a fun, but knackering day.
Will

Update.

Just realised that I never thanked Marcus, Pix.ie, the St. Patrick’s Festival and the Guinness Storehouse for making the day possible. Thanks.

While other are going to be on O’Connell Street for the parade I’ll be in Parnell Square at the parade staging ground on the Media bus (possible hiding from some people on O’Connell Street).

The Media Bus is an opened topped bus where with excellent elevated views of the parade. Thanks to the work of Pix.ie and the St. Patrick’s Day festival people, myself and a bunch of other Pix.ie photographers are going to be snapping and uploading the parade (and the festival) to Pix.ie. Keep an eye on my album stream throughout the day to see what’s arriving online.

And I’ll be snap happy for a while at least.

take care,

Will Knott

Look at this

and remind yourself

This is cabbage, which will be eaten with bacon or corned beef across the planet in the strange idea that its what is eaten across Ireland next week.

Oddly enough on Saint Patrick’s Day, we are more likely to be eating Turkey, Spring Lamb, Salmon or a nice vegetarian number rather than the so called traditional meal.

Actually I imagine a lot of people will be eating fast food and “Shamrock Shakes” if they are at a main parade.

Which reminds me. Its called Saint Patrick’s Day, Saint Paddy’s Day, Patrick’s Day or Paddy’s Day. Never “Patty’s Day”. A Patty is something grilled and served between the slices of a bun in a fast food establishment.

In fairness there is a special day in Ireland when all the BBQ’s are fired up and patties are served. Its a random weekend in august, depending on the weather.

Take care,
Will Knott

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