SpunOut.ie Blog
July, 2008
SpunOut.ie welcomes Megan to the team
Blog: Introducing SpunOut.ie's Writer in Residence!
The staircase up to SpunOut.ie HQ is draped in red carpet today...
[In walks Megan Nelis, long-time SpunOutter...]
...camera bulbs burst with light like kamikazes, the crowd roars, jaws drop....
it’s her...like OMIGOD....she’s here!!!
The colourful and witty Megan is working over the next couple of months as SpunOut.ie’s Writer in Residence [wild applause]. She’ll be busy brewing up a smorgasbord of writing for your pleasure- food for thought that’s both innovative and tasty!
Megan will also be undergoing top secret missions to SpunOut.ie’s Editorial realm, editing, reviewing, a bit of this and lots of that. Oooh what a mystery! Expect to hear plenty from her soon.
WELCOME MEGAN!
- If there is a topic that you’d like to see Megan cover, let her know by emailing emily@spunout.ie
- If you wanna be in Megan’s SpunOut.ie shoes and think you’ve got the creativity, energy and interest to make a splash at SpunOut.ie, again please give a shout to emily@spunout.ie!
Farewell Mr. Sean 'SpunOut' Bryceland
Blog: May the force be with you!
SpunOut.ie's main man behind our technical and IT scenes, Sean Bryceland, is this week leaving the mighty SpunOut.ie and heading for new pastures. He leaves the buzz of the West coast here in Galway and heads East to claim fortune and glory in the land of global I.T. consultancy.
Sean faces East and eyes up his future fortunes.
Sean has been with SpunOut.ie since the very beginning. Sean was running his own web company in the wilds of North Donegal whilst he was still at school, when he was headhunted by 'rootless Ruairi' (lol). He stayed with SpunOut.ie, spearheading website development, and working on features and improvements, including three major site re-developments, whilst completing his degree in I.T. at NUI Galway.
Sean picks up the Golden Spider on behalf of SpunOut.ie.
Sean has also been instrumental in shaping the youth-led nature of the SpunOut.ie organisation, helping ensure young people's voices are included in every aspect of the organisation's decision making and development. This work was recognised last November when he picked up a prestigious Eircom Golden Spider Award on behalf of SpunOut.ie.
We have no doubt that Sean will blossom in everything he does and hope that he takes the 'SpunOut spirit' with him wherever he goes.
Sean, it's time to fly the SpunOut.ie coop and go show them Dubs and globalites how it's done.
Go get 'em!
Ruairi, Anna, Willie, Elma, Susie, Emily, Ian and all the crew.
"S traight-shooter, tells it like it is
E arly-riser, this man's the biz
A lways up for a laugh, never searching too far for smiles
N ever ever forgotten, even across the miles!
We'll miss you Sean!" Emily
"Sean, it's been a pleasure. You've created big shoes to step into. Go show them Dubs how it’s done!" Ruairi
“It's been a great few years Sean – good luck with everything in Dublin and make sure to charm the socks off them with that Donegal magic!” Anna
“I'll miss Eric and his magic wall.” Willie
Sean, the SpunOut.ie crew won’t be the same without you. You have been involved from the very beginning and the heart of SpunOut.ie will always contain some Sean B cells working away vigorously in the background. We are all going to miss your fun and bold sense of humour. The very best of luck to you! Susie Q
"Best of luck Sean in everything you do, we’re going to miss you. You're one hell of a web genius. Go kick some Dublin backside!!" Ian
SpunOut.ie: it's bigger, badder and better!
Blog: Welcome to the latest and greatest version of SpunOut.ie!
SpunOut.ie has undergone a major revamp both visually and in the website features. We constantly strive to improve your experience on SpunOut.ie, and over recent months we reviewed the website and worked with young people to find out exactly what you wanted! We have been working long and hard to bring you this new website – which we nicknamed ‘SpunOut Tornado’, a whirlwind of a site :P
One of your biggest requests was to make the website more interactive, so we have! To get started, signup for a SpunOut.ie account. If you already have a SpunOut.ie forum account you can log in straight away with those details. Once logged in, you can...
- Comment on articles.
- Rate articles.
- Directly submit articles, pictures and videos to be featured via our new Media Factory!
- Talk with others on the forum.
- Access and share your SpunOut.ie profile page, showcasing articles and media you have created!
What is the Media Factory, we hear you ask?
SpunOut.ie has always been driven by your articles, your opinions, your stories and in general your media. The Media Factory is our gift to you, an online space to not only submit your creations, but also to find out how to get started in writing articles, taking photos, making videos and more! So get creating. Go to Get Involved and check it out!
SpunOut.ie is now even simpler to get involved with. The Get Involved section has been completely overhauled to make it easier for you to take part in a whole variety of ways. Here you will find info on becoming a part of SpunOut.ie, telling us what you think of the website and joining hundreds of other young people in helping ensure the website is fresh, funky and fabulous.
Our prized support service database has also been given a facelift, with a new map feature, so that you can find support services close to you!. Go to the Find Help section for more info.
We could go on all day listing the many, many changes here on the site; but the best way to check them out, is to go and EXPLORE!
If you have any problems or issues please email support@spunout.ie and let us know!
Enjoy,
The SpunOut.ie Team
Let's talk about sex baby!
SpunOut.ie blog: Getting down and dirty at the Young Decision Maker's Conference on Sexual Health.
There are only so many times in a man's life when you can reasonably agree to a gig involving the words “sexual health”, “video” and “young people” without going to prison, and last Friday at the Irish Family Planning Association's Young Decision Maker's Conference in Croke Park was one such event.
The valiant SpunOut.ie crew consisting of Emily (Captain/ SpunOut.ie's Youth Participation Officer), Andrew (arse-kicking Chef/ SpunOut.ie Youth Board member) and I (endearingly reckless Swashbuckler/ SpunOut.ie Youth Board member) set sail to Croker the night before, partially to make sure we had everything prepared in advance, partially so we wouldn't lose our minds in Friday morning traffic, and partially so we could experience the luxurious surroundings of the adjacent Jury's Inn.
Of course it wasn't all fun and chocolate pillow mints, as we had a pre-match briefing the night before (to ensure we freaked out the norms in the best way possible) and to record a small film for our section of the conference on sexual health and the media, lamentably not starring Elisha Cuthbert. I was also witness to an hilarious montage created by Andrew that had me consistently giggling like Mr. Burns for several hours thereafter.
After a hard night of working, punctuated by complaining about the fruit-based tea flavours and watching Die Hard, came the tough stuff, actually presenting at the conference. The first section was seriously interesting and refreshingly frank, with a talk on female genital mutilation from Dr. Monica Mhoja, which I doubt left anyone not willing to do their part to eradicate what is a truly barbaric practice that affects over a hundred million women across the world. Next was Doortje Braeken, who spoke with such invigorating liberalism on matters of sexual health and reproductive rights that it probably would have made Dana's head explode.
After a break it was our time to shine, when we laid out the SpunOut.ie credo for everyone to see and prepared the audience for what might happen in our workshop later on. We had about twenty people for the workshop, where they split up into three groups to record films based on their biggest respective sexual health issue, namely the myths surrounding it, the relationship between alcohol and teenage pregnancy and the stigma around getting pregnant. Highlights of the workshop included communicating through time with a young man named Eamon from the Tallaght Youth Service (it's, it's a long story...), the pregnancy group breaking down in fits of giggles and having to tell Minister Barry Andrews to keep it down cos we were filming. We're such anti-establishment scamps!
After a presentation from the ever-impressive Milford Sexual Health Reference Group, it was time to turn our lights onto dazzling again as we presented our workshop material in a newscast format, with Andrew producing and me presenting a cross somewhere between Stephen Colbert and a TV shopping network. Thankfully, our enjoyment : baffled ratio was at least three to one.
Overall, it was a typically enjoyable and frantic day for all concerned, and it's no doubt cemented our cornering of the lunatic contribution to fun conferences market. Huzzah for that!
By: Paddy Duffy
