Stags, Hens and Copy Cats

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then I’m guessing we should be very flattered by the following.

The Original – Devious Theatre Company

The Copy – Waterford 2009 Production

Myself, John, Paddy and Kev had spent the full day working on this photoshoot with the photography, artwork, colour scheme, actor setup, the whole shebang coordinated by our own (as in Devious Theatre’s) Paddy Dunne. Did they rip off his name too (note photographer: Paddy Dwan, too funny)?

Genuinely amused, albeit pissed off at seeing something ripped off.

Even The Sheikhs Are Tweeting

How do you, as ruler of Dubai, send your congratulations on the launch of an e-library? By tweeting, of course.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai (very long title) is keeping people updated on government issues, business issues, a recently taken photo of Dubai from NASA, videos of the Dubai metro launch (was under construction the last time I was here but has opened as of last month), which are also available on his Facebook account.

I’m impressed.

“The Istanbul-based Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), which is affiliated with the Organistaion of Islamic Conference (OIC), has one of the most valuable references on the Islamic civilisation. This includes 65,000 rare reference books and 200,000 historic documents and images on the Islamic civilisation dating back to many centuries.

The project which was launched in 2008, aims to digitise all of the library’s contents, making its valuable resources available to the public through a multi-lingual portal.”

The turning of the library into a full e-library is being made possible with a grant from the Sheikh. (via Gulf News)

Flickr Unavailable

Guessing the holiday snaps won’t be going up on Flickr this time around. I’m convinced I was able to upload them this time last year but but the TRA and its Internet Access Management Regulatory Policy has outfoxed me this time. (If you’re in the UAE and try to click the Flickr link above you’ll be presented with a very large version of the above graphic)

I was wondering as much when I spotted some of my daily blog reads with vacant real estate on screen. Signing into the Flickr uploader won’t work either.

Thankfully it looks like there’s no problem with Pix.ie. Looks like that’s where the holiday snaps are headed this year.

Is On Holiday

After a hectic weekend between Sligo and Dublin (for the Irish Web Awards), on Sunday night I hopped on a plane to Dubai, a holiday long talked about but only booked a week ago today. The opportunity to get away and do nothing doesn’t arise all that often.

I managed a long weekend in Amsterdam this March, a precursor to “the wedding” in Portugal, where I hadn’t told anyone I was working with at the time that I was going and as a result continued to work for all but one of the days I was there. This time around, it’s a bit different.

Coming to Dubai for the ten days or so gives me the chance to do nothing. I’ve been here before, covered a lot of the tourist activities so if all I get to do is sit around the apartment for the day and watch TV or read through Gulf News or The National, then that’s perfectly fine by me.

It’s been a serious transition year for me work-wise, it’s been an incredibly busy year for me theatre-wise. I had to stop ordering books from Amazon as I haven’t read more than the first chapter in each book since the beginning of the year. I’ve stopped one magazine subscription and I’m close to stopping another as it’s taking me a month to get to taking the magazine out of it’s plastic postage wrapper. This past weekend was also the first in at least six months that I’ve been able to see the family en masse in Sligo such is the way things have been going.

Of course in the rush to get out of the country I left behind my headphones, sunglasses and camera. I actually can’t remember a break I’ve taken away where I have remembered to bring headphones with me. I’ve sourced a new camera here, a nice Canon Ixus 120IS so I can grab some photos so (to the family), I’ll have shots to bring home with me.

I’m letting things slow down, slow right down as in ten days time there’s projects to finish and launch, two theatre productions to oversee and a whole lot more on the cards.

But they can wait a week or so, right?

The Long Goodbye To Vultures

Here’s the final installment of the current Vultures series, The Long Goodbye. Whether or not it’s the last we’ll ever see of the Vultures gang remains to be seen but needless to say, it’s been an entertaining two years to get the show to its current stage.

The trailer can be seen here or immerse yourself for 40 minutes or so and enjoy episode 7.

For more on Vultures, and all previous episodes, trailers and character information, check VulturesPI.com.