SpunOut.ie Blog
March, 2007
Reality check
Take a moment to enjoy life.
I’ve been taking driving lessons recently and I would describe the experience as my own self-inflicted form of hell! A month into the learning process I often still experience a full hour of nerves, cursing and sweaty hands. I’m looking forward to the day that I’m fully in control of a car however, in the meantime I dread every lesson almost as much as the thought of repeating an Oral Leaving Cert exam.
This morning, I hopped into the car for my driving lesson and the instructor told me he had a surprise for me. Oh no, I thought –what is it? Bigger and scarier roundabouts? More time on the dual carriageway? I could visualise loads of stressful situations that I would much prefer not to be surprised by.
Well, he had no intention of telling me so off we went – me behind the wheel, juddering and shaking through the gear changes as usual. We joined the morning traffic and took our usual route towards a HUGE roundabout that leads onto the dual carriageway. But this morning, instead of following all the grumpy drivers going to work, we veered off the roundabout onto a much smaller road.
Within a couple of minutes the scenery changed completely. We were no longer in an urban jungle of crazy traffic and beeping horns (yes, I do cause road rage in other drivers). Instead we were driving through green fields that rolled off on either side into magnificent views of the countryside.
We spent the next half hour cruising on country roads, doing some ‘learning’ stuff but also enjoying the views, the wildlife and the calm that had descended on us once we left the dual carriageway. By the time we returned to the town and I started work, I was buzzing with feel-good factor, all brought on by the sight and silence of the countryside.
It made me remember just how important it is to take a moment out of our busy lives and relax in the way that suits each one of us best- be that listening to music, going for a run or having a chilled out evening with a good book.
With so many ‘have to’s’ dictating our every moment it’s easy to forget about the simple ways to be happy. If you need inspiration there’s a Chill Out Section here at SpunOut.ie, with loads of chill out tips from young people as well as info on dealing with stress, exams and anxiety.
So what are you waiting for?! Take a moment to stop what you’re doing –disconnect from life’s worries– relax –and enjoy!
By: Anna Lally, SpunOut.ie Editor
What’s your favourite feel good music or chill out tip? Let us know in the forum!
SpunOut on the bus!
Proof that youth media happens exactly when it wants to.
While enjoying a rather quiet break up in Donegal yesterday, I got a call from Spunout.ie HQ. They needed an urgent flyer done up for a conference the next day. Finally something to do! So I stuck on my artistic hat and sifted through a number of SpunOut'esque images- creating a flyer that would show us in all our glory! I had it finished and emailed off by midnight.
I rang in this morning to confirm that all was good- excellent, no problems. Later I hopped on my favourite four-hour bus ride, from Donegal to Galway. One hour in, I received a panicked call from the SpunOut.ie team, who were on the way to Dublin and had discovered that there was a typo on the flyer, CRAP!
The conference was due to start in a few hours, so what do we do? Well, half way between Grange and Sligo town on a Feda O'Donnell bus, I whipped out the laptop, sorted the mistake, copied the new graphics onto my phone and spent around half an hour emailing them to Susie back in HQ. As soon as she received them they were sent down to the printer in Dublin- all before the SpunOut.ie team even arrived in Heuston station.
Now who says SpunOut.ie can't do anything they want!
By: Sean Bryceland, SpunOut.ie Techie Genius
Find out how to get involved with SpunOut.ie.
Find out more about SpunOut.ie staff here.
Take a chance...
Introducing Susie Q - SpunOut.ie's new office manager.
There is always a way out. Always a loophole. It’s something I try bear in mind. What have you got to lose if you attempt to change a situation you are not happy with? Nothing!
I have put this belief into practice recently. I took a risk and left the nutty, bellyaching world of marketing behind me. For someone else, this job would have been just right. For me, the constant pressure to increase the bottom line took away so much pleasure from my working and personal life.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY… It’s so difficult not to get sucked into the never-ending realm of sleepless nights, stress, anxiety, lack of creativity and general madness. Because that way of living is madness- pure and utter insanity. You begin to lose yourself and sometimes it’s hard to break free and see outside the bubble you become enclosed in.
One Tuesday afternoon I bit the bullet and handed in my notice. What a feeling it is to take control of your life! 2 weeks later I had the good fortune to meet the SpunOut.ie crew, who have taken me on as SpunOut.ie’s office manager and accepted me wholeheartedly. Taking this leap of faith, which has felt right from the beginning, has paid off for me on a personal level - it’s so essential to feel proud of what you do.
SpunOut.ie’s headquarters are a stimulating and motivational place to be in. The amount of positive energy flying, whooshing and bouncing off the walls raises our spirits on a daily basis.
It’s vital that all young citizens become aware of SpunOut.ie’s existence because it is here to support, engage and empower you. You can take a chance like I did and take back control. You can air your views by writing articles. You can post questions or chat to and support others by joining the forum. All the information you need to generate well-being in your life is here. Need help? SpunOut.ie can point you in the right direction.
See the Help section for supportive info and links to support organisations.
Find out how to get involved with SpunOut.ie.
About Susie Q
Hiya! I’m Susie Q and I have the wonderful job of managing the gorgeous SpunOut office here in Galway. I also look after certain PR and communication elements and basically dive into everything and anything that needs to be organised.
I am infatuated with music…. Whether playing, listening or dancing my socks off to it … Any kind…. as long as it’s good! I love walking down a street I’ve never been down before, gigs, festivals, getting lost in a book for 3 days and most of all - good people.
Find out more about SpunOut.ie staff here.
Check out the SpunOut.ie blog for all the latest from staff and youth editors!
By: Susie Quirke, SpunOut.ie Office Manager
SpunOut.ie at the beach
Official SpunOut policy now involves beach visits.
Finding time to blog is like finding time to communicate. I mean really communicate. In a world so full of emails and phone calls real communication can often get lost.
A few days ago I took some time out from the hectic pace of things here at SpunOut HQ and visited coral beach in Connemara with my girlfriend.
This secluded Irish paradise is only 50 minutes from my home in Galway City and literally another world away from our high tech busy lifestyles. Spending time there, in complete silence, except for the gentle crash of tidy waves, was medicine for the body, mind and soul.
As I looked around at the bright blue sea, the snow capped mountains and golden beach, I imagined myself camping out there during the hot summer months, lighting a bonfire and having the craic with friends and family. Cheap. Local. Blissful.
The visit to coral beach came at the end of a very busy period at SpunOut.ie and gave me much needed time for rest, reflection and solitude. I came away from the place refreshed and renewed, ready to get cracking into things again and feeling very positive about life in general.
In trying to understand mental health and helping other people, it’s easy to get lost, confused, distracted and stressed. We can lose the meaning of what it is we’re trying to achieve. This makes no sense at all and is no good to anyone. It’s therefore vital that we look after ourselves, each other and those around us. Only then can we help others.
So it’s now official office policy here at SpunOut HQ – regular beach visits and looking after oneself are top priority! If anyone catches any of us stressed out or grumpy please take us up on our breach of official policy! Word.
Ruairí
Binging our way to Paddy's day
We're living up to our reputation as heavy drinkers.
A new poll reports that Ireland is the binge drinking capital of Ireland; with more than a third of us regularly binge drinking. Old news you might say - simply making the headlines once again in an attempt to scare us away from the pub this St. Patrick’s day. Well, whilst here at SpunOut.ie we don’t think that shock tactics and scary news stories will stop people from drinking, we do reckon that everyone should be in the know about how much drink is too much, and the health risks associated with heavy drinking.
You often hear reasons for why the Irish drink so much: ‘it’s part of our culture’ or ‘it’s good craic’ or ‘we’ve nothing else to do here’. Those are all fairly weak excuses when you take a look at what binge drinking is doing to our health.
Binge drinking is when you have five or more standard drinks in one session. A standard drink is half a pint, 1 measure of spirits or a small glass of wine. So binge drinking. Health wise, men shouldn’t drink more than 3 pints on a night out and women should only drink 2 pints. If that sounds like very little, then you might be drinking too much. According to the new poll (Eurobarometer report) binge drinking is on average highest among 15 to 24 year olds. So, that’s likely to be YOU, SpunOut reader! Here are just some of the health risks from drinking too much:
- Research shows that people who begin binge drinking at 13 and continue as teenagers, are almost 4 times more likely to be overweight by 24 than people who don’t drink heavily.
- Drinking a lot can lead to feelings of sadness. Many people who are alcohol dependant suffer from depression and heavy drinkers have a much higher risk of suicide or attempted suicide than others.
- If you drink a lot you can suffer from alcohol poisoning. This is when there’s too much alcohol in your body for you to deal with. You might pass out, lose control or need to be taken to hospital.
- Hangovers aren’t just there to make life miserable. They’re your body’s way of trying to get rid of all the crap you drank the night before. So headaches, sick stomachs and depression are just some of the possible hangover symptoms. We’ll not go into what happens when you visit the toilet.
- Alcohol is full of calories. It makes us fat and gives us those ohhhhh so sexy beer bellies.
- In the long term (this goes for most of us who regularly drink more than the recommended amounts) alcohol can damage your brain, heart, stomach, reproductive organs and nerves.
- Regularly drinking too much can lead to dependency or addiction. Alcoholism is terrible for your health and can also ruin relationships, families, your finances and your enjoyment of life. Don’t let alcohol control you.
- Drinking heavily might be common in Ireland but it’s selfish behaviour. You’re probably pissing off your friends and family, people working in the local pub and anyone you drool over when you’re drunk.
- Find out more about alcohol and how to control your drinking.
By: Anna Lally, SpunOut.ie Editor
Representing SpunOut.ie
Hello I'm Jessica McArdle and I'm a Spunout youth editor!
Gosh that was hard to get off my chest; it’s like AA all over again! I recently spoke at the Console Suicide awareness conference on behalf of, and with other, SpunOut.ie contributors. I have to say that the thought of speaking at such a conference was a bit daunting but at the same time I was looking forward to meeting all the crew who I’d been emailing for the previous two months. I hoped that I could find some words to say that would make an impact on the people in the room- not least the families who had suffered losses.
Thankfully it was a real team effort, which meant that nobody felt under too much pressure. The Spunout crew are great too; Ruairi is a real life Peter Pan, which would make Anna Wendy and despite the sadness of the subject at hand we managed to have a good time meeting up.
Speaking at a conference such as that was extremely empowering, and that’s not a word I use often, it really was great to feel as though I was doing something to help instead of deafly ignoring the statistics and worrying. At a certain point I think that we all become desensitised to the stories on the news regarding suicide, binge drinking and drug taking and often see it as a problem too big to solve, too distant from our lives or too close to home to imagine dealing with. But be it speaking out at a conference or seeking help for yourself or loved ones it’s all about talking and the more we get our voices heard the better for the youth of tomorrow.
You don’t have to be a do-gooder, or hippy-type (though both are welcome) to get involved so get writing, send your photos and speak out- who knows you may even enjoy yourself in the process…
Looking forward to seeing you soon- Jessica
By: Jessica McArdle, SpunOut.ie Youth Editor
Ch.. Ch..Ch..Changes (sing it now!)
The new SpunOut.ie look recieves a brief smile from Miranda Priestly, and designers can finally go back to sleep!
Well, after months of planning and weeks of serious hard graft the new look SpunOut.ie is here for you to marvel at! Working with the Youth Editors we realised the site was in need of a freshen up; so we called on design, brain, braun and programming- with our powers we are THE SPUNOUT DESIGN TEAM!
Taking a more serious note though, we have packed a number of cool new features into the site and gotten rid of some of the less used ones.
New to SpunOut...
So how does one re-design such a vast website?
Well we come up with a design brief, and send it over to our Designer, Denise in England. A few days later she fires back over a beautiful template for us to play with.
Then a few hundred emails later myself, Ruairi and Anna fine tune the template and fit it into the Spunout System, bringing you improved services like the search, the latest feature and the updated forum. The SpunOut.ie Youth Editors work with us to ensure that the new design is youth friendly, easy to navigate and of course, looks fantastic!
Once we are all happy, it's time to go live. Now, this would have been live last night if my broadband hadn't decided to stop working, but one must be patient. So finally, welcome one and all, and enjoy the website!
Let us know what you think of the new design! Email info@spunout.ie with your comments, problems, praise and feedback!
Sean Bryceland
Programmer
SpunOut.ie blog
All the latest news and views from the SpunOut.ie crew!
Hello and welcome to the new SpunOut.ie blog!
This is where you can find news, views and opinions from SpunOut.ie staff, advisors and youth editors. Stay tuned for regular insights into the wacky world of running Ireland's National Youth Website!
The latest...
The SpunOut.ie team have just completed a move from Donegal to Galway and we've finished a re-design of the website, which went live on March 6th. The site has big plans for a national PR and outreach programme, a new online multi-media centre and print magazine and newspaper partnerships.
SpunOut.ie is also seeking investment and sponsorships from agencies that seek to support this award-winning, innovative, evaluated and effective initiative that is set for great things.
