Yardsalequeen blog

Yardsalequeen blog or car boot sales blog or
any othere such blogs I have tried to write have so far
failed to show up in search engines. My activities as a
blogger go unnoticed and unremarked which is not so
suprising as what I know about the internet and search
engines is........well, next to nothing really. I started off
writing about irish art and then went on to writing about
car boot sales and charity shops all to no avail.
I'm getting nowhere in a hurry. The homeless guy is
making it big time but I just stand still or move backwards.
Maby my weblog is just destined to be forever at the
bottom of the list while the yard sale queen gets herself
a mention in the Wall Street Journal.
"....the blogs the thing...." to missquote Shakespeare.

On raglan road...

Some of the greatest Irish poetry ever written
or perhaps THE greatest of world poetry was written in
a bed sitter on this road in Donnybrook, Dublin by the
poet Patrick Kavanagh.

Skype me I'm Irish

I had a skype call , that's just a phone call , from the well
know Simon Cowell a few days ago but it wasn't me he was
looking for but Louis Walsh of X Factor and Westlife fame.
I should mention here that that's my name but that's all
I have in common with him. You would have thought
they both had each other's numbers but it seems not.
For those who know nothing about Voip and Skype then let
me explain that it's just an internet phone system , a very
cheap one and from skype to skype it's actually free.
Cowell's skype id (his skype name) is Simon Cowell 1 and
next to his name is "don't call me I'm very buisy".
'Just a bit of nonsense gossip to fill some space.

Yard sale queen on wall street

The yard sale queen is at it again. This time she's got
herself mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. You can check
her out at http://yardsalequeen.blogspot.com. If you have
an interest in sales and thrift stores, or for that matter charity
shops or car boot sales then she's your kind of woman.
She seems to have made an art out of buying 'tat' and
as I pop in to her blog once a week I find myself wondering
if I'm the only one who finds this all a bit weird. There's a
sense of 'Night of the Living Dead' about it all. But her
blog IS fascinating and it draws you in in the same way a
fatal car accident does , you approach it, feeling
a little embarrassed but unable to turn away. It's addictive
and bland at the same time.
Let me be very honest about this; I wish to God that I
could produce a blog like this that attracts so many readers.
This week her most precious purchase seems to be an
old school desk....the kind nobody buys. I come across them
in auctions here in Dublin , usually in lots of twenty or
thirty at a time and no one ever bids on them.
And the last thing I bought ?. Well I picked up a copy of
"Early in the Morning " an LP record by Vanity Fare on the
Page One label. I got it in a local charity shop and still am not
sure why exactly I handed over $2 for it.
'Comfort buying I suppose but it dosn't bring me any comfort.
more here

Dublin blog blogger blogs community

This blog is a test. As one of the blogger community I am
trying to have my blogs turn up in internet search engine.
Blogs like boingboing are in every directory and at the top
of the search engine lists. Mine is not. In fact my weblog is
ignored by the blog community as no one even know it exists.
With this in mind I have changed the words in my keywords
list and am using keywords in this text, those keywords
being blog blogger and words like community and
search. A few other word I'm using are ,directory and
boingboing , not to mention internet and weblog web
log (two words ). The reader will I hope excuse this
playing about with words but it is necessary to check if
my blog is being seen by search engine's.

I'm not mad,'just smiling.

I have been trying to set up a new web site the
last few days. Its to be about car boot sales and
things like that in Ireland. Its one of those things that
looks easy but isn't and involves a lot of old fashioned
hard work. But I shouldn't complain as I have nothing
else to do. Besides, when I woke up this morning I was
breathing and that's always a good start and I'm still
breathing so that means things could be worse.
And if it sounds as if I'm waffling well that's because
I am but this is what you do if like me you have a
blog to fill in and no news to put in it. The reason that
I have no news is that I don't do anything, I don't
see anyone and my life is quite empty. In case that
sounds like self pity or something like that its not but
if you have little money and no job then after a while
you begin to lose contact with people and eventually
end up talking to yourself all day.
I honestly have no friends. I go for a walk wandering
around Dublin for the best part of four hours talking to
nobody and come home and just sit in front of my computer
for the rest of the evening and night. Apart from the guy
who lives next door to me I have not spoken to ANYONE
in about four years. That may sound a bid odd and even
extreme but it just happens to be the truth.
It's nothing short of a miracle that I haven't gone mad.
But then again maybe I have. Maybe I'm just stupid.
Maybe it just dosn't matter either way.

Shelter from the storm

This is a Dublin homeless shelter. If you are not a property owner
then this is the sort of place you could end up in. It's run by the
St. Vincent de Paul and is one of the many such places to be found
in and around the city. This one is perhaps one minutes walks from
Temple Bar, the most affluent neighborhood in the city centre.
There is little dignity to be found here. There are rules and you
must obey them or you just don't get in. They of course will tell
you that there have to be rules and that many, indeed most of the
patrons are addicted to alcohol or drugs but what they don't tell you
is that the majority of these self same people were reared by the
catholic church and as a result ended up with low self esteem and
few social skills. This is charity and you know it. You have no
rights in a place such as this. You cannot demand better service.
There is little if any social housing be built in Ireland. The money
that once went to provide it is now shared out between an ever
increasing number of charities all of which are privately run
and answerable to no one. There are few volunteers working in
them and most of the staff are professional social workers. The
directors are well paid and it must be stressed yet again that
they don't have to answer to anyone. There is no corporate tax.
The people who use the services of these places are poor
and as such have no power. They cannot demand a better
service or to be treated with some dignity. They put up or shut
up, they have no other option.