Once upon a time, I had a website. It was created using notepad, without any bells and whistles, back when the web was shiny and new.
Those were the days, when a 33K modem was state of the art and Netscape was the browser of choice. Because there wasn’t any other choice.
My website evolved over the years, at times seeming to develop a life of its own.
For a while, it was a collection of articles on the life of an emigrant in America.
Then it changed, and became a chronicle of the online culture developing in the soc.culture.irish newsgroup.
Parts of this incarnation still survive, for example the collection of half-serious articles I wrote in an attempt to make the Irish language less intimidating to generations of my fellow citizens traumatised by Péig.
The greater part of the site grew out of a decision to archive poetry – principally Irish, but not always – posted to soc.culture.irish in one location, A Little Bit Of Culture. This is now hosted by Karen Dennis.
I returned to Ireland on the day that Al Gore was elected president of the United States of America. By the time I reached Donegal, things had changed somewhat, and George W Bush had been elected instead.
Back in Ireland, I found myself at a loose end for a while, until eventually I re-trained as a journalist.
The website changed along with my career, and became an occasional archive of some of the articles I’ve written over the years.
Recently though, I’ve been concentrating on larger projects so I haven’t really been writing shorter articles and features as much as I used to.
I decided, as an exercise on self-discipline, and to keep from getting rusty, that I would post two hundred words a day to the site, on anything that crosses my mind. I reserve the right to take off weekends and public holidays.
I also take photographs for fun – and occasionally for profit – so at times I may just post a few images instead.
The first couple of weeks from Two Hundred Words can be viewed in Ye Olde Traditional part of this website.
But as I said at the beginning, the web has evolved, so its time for my website to embrace Web 2.0 and all that, and move from static articles to a blog which allows feedback.
Longer features and articles will continue to appear less frequently as before in Faduda, but I will link to them from here.
Ger,
Whats a box hopper?
Congratulations on the book, it’s out of stock on Amazon so I can’t get it yet. Looking forward to reading it.
A box hopper is an underpaid worker who fills a rubbish skip full of used cardboard boxes, the waste generated by a typical office, then climbs into the skip and hops on the boxes to compress them so that more boxes can be added, saving the corporation money since they are charged by how often the skip is taken to the rubbish tip to be emptied.
Glad you asked, aren’t you?
Delighted! I thought it might have been someone who worked on the floor of the NYSE – my store of trivia grows day by day!
Hope the blog goes well – will keep an eye on it.
So you are keeping a “log” on the “web” … you young people are all so tech-savvy, in my day we had to use small piles of stones!
(Adding you to the ‘roll, so the three eyeballs/year that look at my own page will know where to go.)
PS to boliath,
the book is apparently back in stock at Amazon.uk, as they have just told me they are shipping me a copy.