Children are the new must-have item in Kerry
Posted on December 19, 2007
Filed Under bureaucracy, chancers, children, la-la-land, odd, Politics, stupidity | 1 Comment
No adult will be permitted in a playground unless accompanied by a child
It will be an offence for anyone other than a child to use playground equipment
Only families are allowed to take photographs in playgrounds
Kerry County Council have introduced new byelaws regulating the playgrounds in their county. Introduced because of concern that the playgrounds are not being used for the purposes intended, the new byelaws are designed to stop the ‘overaged’ using playground equipment. Dan Kiely (Fianna Fail) is quoted in The Irish Times (sub req) as saying, ‘Thirty-five-year-olds and 50-year-olds are swinging around at 3am in the morning‘. Presumably they’re swing-abusers and not swingers! And to avoid getting scared in the dark (I made that up), nobody is allowed in playgrounds after dark unless they are a council employee (I didn’t make that up).
Those breaching the laws will be fined €75.
You’ve been warned.
I may have miscounted but I’d like to congratulate the 27 councillors who thought deeply about this issue and debated it at great length. You’re worth every penny euro.
I’ve updated my blogroll
Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under blog, review, Shout Out | Comments Off
I’ve updated my blogroll (look at bottom right corner – the blogroll link above doesn’t seem to work).
It’s not a complete list of what I read daily but it’s the cream of the crop.
Enjoy!
Brainwashing Children at Christmas
Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under children, computers, not funny, Rant, shopping, society, women | Comments Off
It turns out my 9 year old niece has a nintendo ds, a PSP and a computer (and possibly another console but I got a bit confused!) and she’s just left here after a short visit. I subjected her to a not-so-subtle interrogation so that I could figure out what to buy her for Christmas. I had to pretend I was interested in what games she already had and what ones she wanted.
Thankfully, the nitendo is white, the psp is black and the computer doesn’t have an internet connection so my 9 year old niece dumbed things down for me! In a stream of conscious type of excitement, she told me, ‘I’d like game x for the white one and game y for the black one’.
The long and short of it is that she’d like Age of Empires for the computer and MySims for the white one (sorry, the nintendo DS). But I was a bit freaked out when she told me about one of the games she already has. It’s called Imagine: Babies for the Nintendo. I didn’t believe her that it was an actual game. But it is! It’s so incredibly sexist and demeaning that I can’t believe it’s allowed to be sold. As you’ll see from the description below, it’s targeted specifically at girls.
Basically she has to pretend to be a babysitter and earn money.
Here’s a description from game.co.uk
Embody a young student who visits her grandmother’s house for the summer. Your grandmother leaves to go on holiday and leaves you in charge of her house. During her absence you will have to maintain the house and even decorate it to your taste. In order to do this you will need to earn money by taking care of all your neighbour’s babies, where you will find your vocation–babysitting!
Imagine: Babies Features:
* Embody a young babysitter and take of your neighbour’s babies all with their own personalities!
* Take care of 6 babies (one after the other), each with a distinctive character.
* Prepare their bottle and baby food in the kitchen, check on the amount of food in stock and buy the right food according to their needs.
* Rock the babies in a cradle, put on the soothing radio or move the mobile to help them sleep or to calm them down.
* Change their nappies to keep them clean, keep an eye on their health and dress them up with different clothes
* Entertain the babies: Play with them and their toys, play music to make them dance and take them into the garden to play on swings and other garden toys
* Exchange information, photos and clothing with other players through Wi-Fi
* Keep the house clean: Use fun mini-games to create a welcoming home for the babies: wash up, clean and vacuum, paint the walls, mow the grass, trim hedges and drive away spiders!
* Make the house to your own taste: Use the money you earn and the vouchers you receive in succeeding in your missions, buy items at the shops to decorate the house
/Rant
Stormy Clonea
Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under Outside Dublin, beach, Dungarvan, nature, sea, weather, winter | Comments Off
Need a hitman?
Posted on December 13, 2007
Filed Under Advertising, bureaucracy, customer service, design, funny, funny ha ha, la-la-land, privacy | 1 Comment
Then try Eircom…
I bet the committee that came up this name thought it was really catchy.
Seriously though, the letter that came with this envelope was to do with an opt-in marketing campaign, rather than opt-out. Which is still not good.
Edit: May have got my knickers in a twist & now having trouble remembering what opt-in & opt-out means. In this case, Eircom say that, even when I stop using their service, they will sell my personal data to other companies, unless I specifically tell them not to.
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