Photos for Peoples Photo

I got my first set of prints for Peoples Photography 2010. God I’ve got lots of work to do. I think I selected the incorrect dimensions with the online printer which didnt help the cropping but leaving that aside only one image seemed acceptable straight away. Two or three others are close and the rest are probably beyond any hope of making it into the exhibition.

I've managed to get a nice one of the Ha'Penny Bridge and a couple of Guinness photos, plus one old one from Ballymun that I liked. A couple of ones on the bubble are a canal photo and a photo of a row boat on the Liffey. Ones that made the probably rejected pile are of the Central Bank and one of the Fusilier arch which I kinda like but looks a little too over processed. Maybe I can fix that. I fear however that I'm going to have to reuse photos from last year. I didn't want to do that but with 8 months ruined by business travel I've afraid I'll have no choice.

Fire

A couple of weekends ago I went to the annual Street Performance World Championship in Merrion Sq. A weekend of street performers from around the world competing for votes, and of course cash from the audience. One of the stages was in front of Government Buildings and I was there watching Dr Kaboom set off fireballs within sight of the Taoiseachs office. I couldnt help but wonder if Cowen was inside looking out at the fireballs and wondering how long it will be before the smoke and flames are more serious. I bet when Cowen dreams of fireballs outside his office he doesn't picture the Gardai standing by and applauding, at least not yet.

Kenny Lives

I cant believe Fine Gael didn't get rid of Enda Kenny. By an apparently slim majority the parliamentary party of Fine Gael passed a vote of confidence leaving some of their brightest stars on the scrap heap in favour of a man who seems doomed to lead them back into opposition or junior partnership after the next election.

Fianna Fail were the big winners last week with the focus switching from Brian Cowens incompetent management of the national finances when he was Finance Minister to Enda Kennys incompetent management of the Fine Gael party. Both survived but Labour leader Eamon Gilmore must think all his dreams have come true as he now eyes a real shot at becoming Taoiseach after the next election.

The big looser is the country. A Labour-Fine Gael government would be strange enough but we'd probably survive but if the last poll is to be believed we now face some insane possibilities like a Labour-Sinn Fein government in 2012. Sinn Fein would give anything to be in power for the 100 anniversary of Easter 1916 in 2016 and Labour would give anything to finally have a shot at the big seats. God help us all if that happens because I don't see there being a single job left in the country outside the civil service after 5 years of that government.

They Are Killing Kenny

The leader of Fine Gael Enda Kenny looks like he is on the way out with Richard Bruton finally plucking up the courage to stand against the bland one. Kenny's supporters are quick to say that Enda has been a wonderful party leader (arent they all until the end) and has led the party back from the brink of anilation. Sure, in the aftermath of Michael Noonan Fine Gael were in serious trouble but Kennys great feat of leadership was to restore Fine Gael the main party of opposition back to being the main party of opposition. While Fianna Fail were destroying all around them and leading the country into an economic melt down was Kenny really leading or was he a passenger on the Fine Gael boat as the tide turned and lifted all the opposition parties? The latter I suspect.

Fine Gael should have won the last election, Fianna Fail were on the ropes and on the way out until Kenny debated Ahern and the country realised that Kenny was as two dimensional as his Southpark namesake and somehow managed to say fewer meaningful words than that anoraked faceless mumbler, cartoon Kenny I mean, not Ahern. Fianna Fail won the election and in hindsight that saved Fine Gael from being in power during the economic crash that followed. That wasn't leadership either. Enda cant take credit for that as a piece of political strategy, unless his performance in the debates was one worthy of a life time achievement Oscar. He was in it to win it and he lost it. That was the time Bruton should have said, enough is enough lets get some leadership. Instead Enda managed to lead a triumphant return to opposition, the Irish tradition of glorious defeat lifting him to new heights of leadership.

His next big adventure was into celebrity management. George Lee, economic wonder kid of RTE showed up on the Fine Gael ticket and won a by-election. Lee was a man on a trajectory to political stardom so Kenny started Lees political apprenticeship with a stint cleaning boots in the dressing room of the Fine Gael finance team. After less than a year of Kenny management Lee was on his way out of the Dail and back to RTE. Of course that wasnt Kennys fault either, Lee should have stuck it out. Lee was being childish. Lee should have been happy to learn while others led. Maybe, but surely Enda could have put his arm around Georges shoulder on a couple of occassions and said "George my son, one day this will all be yours, but not just yet".

So I believe Kenny instead of providing the great leadership his supporters worship was just tagging along for the ride. Fine Gael should have had the courage to look for a strong innovative risk taking leader instead of one who kept the ship on course for a steady second place. But is Richard Bruton the best person for the job instead? Who knows, but one mark against him is the fact that he has waited this long to fix the biggest problem in Fine Gael. Did he think Kenny would come good, win over the public and smash Fianna Fail leaders one after another until Fine Gael could stroll into Government Buildings? Did he think Kenny would see the light and step aside? Run for President and hand Richard the reigns of power?Either way Bruton also damaged the Fine Gael cause by waiting so perhaps his chance has gone along with Enda.

iPhone 4

All I can say is I REALLY want one of the new iPhone 4s. I have had an iPhone since they first came out in Ireland, my old original iPhone is still going strong as my fiancees phone. I upgraded to a 3G when they came out in Ireland and loved the 3G data, the GPS and the new black design. When the 3GS came out I didn't bother with that since it was too similar to my 3G for me to justify the upgrade. Now my 3G is over 18 months old and I'm entitled to a gold upgrade with O2, maybe business travel isn't so bad.

Just on schedule Apple have announced the new iPhone 4 and it looks the business. People called the iPad a large iPhone, I think the opposite is true, the iPhone 4 is a small iPad and then some. The A4 chip, better battery, multi-tasking, HD video, video calling, 5 megapixel camera. I am worried about the glass front and back which may be prone to shattering if some reports are correct and I'd have liked a 64GB version but those two complaints aside this looks to be the phone I want. I only hope I can get it before I go on vacation, the camera and HD video would be great.

Business travel sucks

I've been traveling a lot recently with work and while it might seem like a great thing but business travel gets old very fast. It means I haven't had much time for blogging or photography but hopefully now as the summer goes on things will settle down and I'll be able to get back to life in Dublin.

The future of Dublin Bus

It looks like there are big changes coming to the Dublin Bus route network over the next few months.

Dublin Bus plans to "increase efficiency and frequency, with a five-minute waiting time between services". Good, though my bus is scheduled to run every 20 minutes and in the evening waits of an hour to an hour and a half would not be uncommon. There is a big difference between aiming to run a bus every 5 minutes and achieving it in Dublin traffic. I fear that the solution Dublin bus will opt for in some areas is to avoid traffic bottle necks completely which would remove the current bus service from many parts of Dublin. I'd rather have a bus that serves my area every 30 or 40 minutes than a bus every 5 minutes but with the bus stop miles away on the N11.

"The overall number of routes is to be increased, but some existing routes will be straightened out with fewer diversions off quality bus corridors, while others will be combined." Sounds good again in theory but as with my previous point does this mean that many busses will run on main routes only and will not divert into housing estates or down side roads as they do at the moment? That actually reduces the service for many people especially the elderly or those with mobility difficulties.

Finally "A real-time passenger information service will also be rolled-out later this year". Very good and I hope Dublin Bus have the sense to make this freely available online and to open up the API so that developers writing applications for iPhones and other smartphones will be able to write apps to allow consumers to look up the location and timing of different busses at home and on mobile phones without having to go to bus stops.

Ryanair in-flight phone service suspended

My new job requires me to travel. The first few months were mostly spent in Italy, back and forth every week. I cant complain, it's a job, many people dont have one, and the travel has reduced a bit lately, less training and more Irish customers.

Unfortunately the days of fancy business travel are long gone so I was on the Ryanair cattle truck. Scrambling for seats and hoping on a Friday night to not be sitting close to the stag parties being fed booze by the cabin crew.

On several of the flights we were supposed to have the in-flight phone service. The one that allows you to make calls and send/receive SMS. It is xpensive but the gadget nut in me wanted to try it out and send a message from the plane to tell my fiancee I was on the way home. Unfortunately I never got it to work. The signs were lit up, the announcer would tell us that it was available on this flight but my iPhone never connected or even saw the network.

Now I hear that Ryanair have terminated the contract with their supplier and are seeking tenders from other companies. I'm not surprised. If people cant connect it's just a chunk of useless hardware eating up some of Michael O'Learys jet fuel.

Despite wanting to play with it I hope they never get it fixed. It might be novel and worth trying, just once, but the idea of sitting on a plane for 4 hours with a stag party behind me sending txt messages and some business man beside me shouting down his blackberry over some contract or sale sounds like my idea of the lowest level or Ryanair hell.

The Reshuffle

Brian Cowen reshuffled his cabinet by well changing noting. Does it matter? Probably not. My initial reaction was "is that all they can do"? Then I thought, if Cowen had scrapped two of the useless departments would that have changed anything? Not likely, after all the civil servants in the scrapped departments would just get moved into the remaining departments and end up doing less work. New ministers? That would just be more ministerial pensions to pay in years to come. In fact the less false change the better in my opinion. Why spend millions for the appearance of change when no real change can happen under the current government?

All we can do is hang in there until the next election and hope for a large scale clear out of the existing and washed up TDs. It's clear now that Fianna Fail have no fresh ideas or talent left so what would be the point of a large reshuffle?

Papal Letter

I went to mass this morning and got a copy of the Papal Letter to the Catholics of Ireland. The priest didn't bother to read it out. He said is was 22 pages long (it's 12 but maybe he was reading the directors commentary version or something) and he would summarize the ideas for us since he had read it once and almost finished reading it a second time. Somehow I got the impression his heart just wasn't in it.

The most interesting thing was the choice of gospel. In either a comic coincidence or cynical timing todays gospel, printed on leaflets well in advance of the papal letter being announced, was "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". I wonder if the idea was let the cleric not linked to abuse or the cover up of abuse throw the first sermon.