Post Secret has been around for a while now, but I just checked in and found the one pictured above and had to share it with you. It’s a great piece, horribly indicative of so many of the problems with the way we are… our saturation in sensationalist media disaster reporting, the resultant offhand acceptance of tragedy, our craving for our fifteen minutes of fame through media exposure and our love affair with television in general.

About Post Secret:

You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a hope, regret, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.

Yes, ok, morbid theme going on.

I have no-one to scream for help to so sometimes I just find isolated places to scream the word to myself.

For a while now there have been snippets of somebodies oddly compelling inner thoughts turning up in my RSS reader via IrishBlogs.ie. They come courtesy of ‘Texts I Never Send‘.

It’s a blogspot blog, and there are no author details, so the posts themselves are the only clue as to the purpose of this quietly industrial factory of random thoughts.

The name would suggest that the site was set up as an outlet for SMS text messages that the author would never send to the originally intended recipients, but seems to have now become his way of directly communicating with his star-crossed lover who he cannot be with.

I enjoyed reading down through the posts and trying to give context to the latest post, but as I read I became slightly alarmed - there is a dark side to this blog. If it is real then this person is not leading the life they wish to, and would seem to be in quite a lot of anguish at times. I’m inclined to think it’s genuine, just because the emotions feel very real.

Here are some nice posts:

Today I passed the last place where we kissed. It was empty.

I liked it when you took my hand across the dinner table the other night and squeezed it. It made me feel taken care of.

The first text you sent me this morning made me smile from ear to ear. I knew it was true.

Here’s a transitional post:

There are times when I think you’re growing tired of me and my situation.

And here are some dark posts:

The person I used to be is inside me screaming to get out. He keeps kicking and screaming harder and harder the older I get.

In my profession I’m seen as someone succesful, smart, even someone to be looked up to. I spend some days wondering how I’m going to manage to take the next breath.

My partner portrays me as a questionable parent and a nightmare to live with.

So, is it real, and if so is it a plea for help? Or is it a new way of telling a story - a writer’s game?

Thoughts?

Rich.. pointed me to Ideafixa the other day, a virtual magazine that highlights artists of all kinds. Each issue is themed and illustrations, and photographs and other works of art that fit the theme are published from a wide range of artisits.

There have been four issues to date covering Sex, Metropolis, Rock’N'Roll & Sci Fi.

The next topic is Surrealism and will be out May the 1st 2007, the deadline for submitting work is April the 15th.

Flicking through the magazine, developed in Flash, is a nice way of discovering artists and just wasting a few minutes doing nothing but being visually stimulated.

Take your elevenses now, make a cup of tea, and have a leaf through. I discovered loads of stuff to my liking through Ideafixa, such as Justin Degarmo, Bob Dob, Gringo, RHS and Fabio Girardi (link to his blog in Spanish, can’t find a site with his art on it but he has t-shirts at Camiseteria and Threadless)

“Dishonestly, I’m not sure what the worst I could say about [Frank] is but it’d probably include carnal activities with a pig - at the very least.” - Bificus

Brendan, AKA Bif, has started a new blog, I wasn’t an immediate fan but he has since edited some of the stuff that put me off it.

I was recently involved in a production of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. It’s a play full of amazing quotes, and here’s one I feel is somewhat relevant:

Miss Prism: Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary we all carry about with us.
Cecily: Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never happened…

But then again, facts can be so boring and often only of interest to a small audience.

I always liked Brendan’s blogging, and when his vitriol is not aimed at me I find it easier to appreciate. Like his views on Twitter.

If you’re brand new to this site, Brendan wrote all the excellent BifSniff cartoons featured on this site, and he has several projects up his sleeve which will be revealed on his new blog in time, so go and subscribe to his RSS feed.

Comments are closed - hate mail or letters of support for either myself or Brendan can be directed here.

Ha ha ha… not really… I just can’t make them. The organiser, Damien Mulley conspires to always hold the Irish Blog Awards when I am due to be on stage (I’m in the Importance of Being Earnest in the Cork Arts Theatre).

So well done to everyone who got shortlisted, all deserving of attention and praise, but there can only be one winner.

On the basis of picking from blogs and posts I am familiar with (rather than exhaustive research), here are my faves from the six categories BifSniff.com was originally nominated in (we didn’t make the shortlist unfortunately - that’s the way the cookie crumbles):

Best Blog: Blogorrah - yes the style can get tired, but you still have to traipse over there every day to see who’s being softly mocked.

Best Blog Post: Did Twenty do the image in his blog post Twenty Major - A thousand words, if so I’ll grudgingly say this is my favourite, despite my ‘Enough With Twenty, Already‘ campaign. If he didn’t create the image it has to be his female counterpart The Swearing Lady’s post Arse End of Ireland - Where do you get your smoke from?.

Most Humourous Post: Tough one this, as to be honest none of them really appeal to my sense of humour… I guess I’ll go with Snackbox - AbuseOS from TwinkSoft as it’s original and nearly appealed to me… sorry if I sound harsh but one man’s humour and all that.

Best Arts and Culture Blog: All strong contenders, but I’m going to go with Sinead Gleeson on the basis that I’ve commented there more than on the others, so it must be more engaging!

Best Group Blog: Has to be the, sadly, now defunct The Community At Large, I loved it while it lasted.

Best Designed Blog: I think it has to be Beaut.ie, it’s distinctive and fairly different.

Best of luck to everybody, and I hope all that attend have a great night!