Redefining words.

A project and blog to keep an eye on...

The Big Word Project, the venture which is redefining words. You pick a word and link it to your website. Your website then becomes the new definition for that word.

The creators

A few introductions are in order. We are Paddy and Lee, two good looking students who have set up this site to allow the world to redefine the English language. We are currently studying a Masters in Multi-Disciplinary Design at the University of Ulster in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We are web designers by trade and while Lee is currently falling in love with Ruby on Rails, Paddy is researching into Viral Marketing.

The project

You may have heard something about this project already or you may have just stumbled upon it by chance. We don’t mind, we love all our visitors. We are aiming to redefine all the words in the English language, we know that words mean so many different things to everyone so we are giving you the chance to change the definitions. You can buy a word to represent your website and then whenever people click on that word, they will be taken to your site. Simple.

A website about eggs

Say you have a website about eggs, just buy the word ‘Egg’ and then it will no longer mean:

Egg - the roundish reproductive body produced by the female of certain animals, as birds and most reptiles, consisting of an ovum and its envelope of albumen, jelly, membranes, egg case, or shell, according to species.

It will now be represented by your egg site! Want to know more?

Keep in touch and visit our blog regularly

As web designers we will be offering our opinions and tips to you guys via podcasts. We will take a look through the latest sites and tell you what we think of any that catch our eye. We also might blog about interesting words we come across on our travels. There are some mad words out there!

Leucipottomist - A Leucipottomist is someone who takes part in Leucippotomy, the art of carving white horses in chalk upland areas Bet you all knew that eh? Leucipottomy is quite an interesting and rare act but there are some white horses on hillsides out there. The oldest one in the UK is probably the white horse at Uffington in Berkshire, which has been dated, cautiously, to the late Bronze Age.

See, you’re learning something already!

So why not take a look around the site, sign up to our word feed and/or our blog feed and get searching for that word that means something to you. You could even buy Leucippotomy and redefine it!

Have fun!

Paddy and Lee

As seen in a Personal column in tonight's Belfast Telegraph.

Poor Poet
quite well known
seeks sponsorship.
Requires a new or secondhand
laptop from computer store
or some kind person
Tel 028 8167 9592

and now [Friday morning]...

The story behind the advert, from the Newsletter

Poet's pen prompts appeal

AN impoverished Ulster poet has taken the desperate step of appealing to the public for help in getting a computer to pen and then store his lyrical musings on.
John McMenamin, from Spamount near Castlederg, took the unusual tactic of taking out a classified advertisement in the press to ask for help in getting a computer to help compose his verses.

The advertisement read: ''Poor Poet, quite well known, seeks sponsorship.

Requires a new or secondhand laptop from computer store or kind person.'' Mr McMenamin said yesterday that he decided to appeal for help because there was just no money in poetry and he simply couldn't afford one.

The Tyrone bard is renowned for his humorous poems which are regularly read out by Gerry Anderson on his BBC radio show.

He revealed he's also looking for a publisher.

He told the News Letter: ''I'm self­published, and sell quite well.

''My last book was, Poems for Paupers, Peasants, Perverts and Psychopaths.

''I called it that to cover everyone in Northern Ireland.

''It sold very well at Eason's in Belfast and even knocked John Grisham off the stop spot for a week, but as Seamus Heaney said 'There's no money in poetry and no poetry in money'.

''I've never had a computer and have always used typewriters, but it's now getting nearly impossible to get the ribbons and correction tapes for them.'' Mr McMenamin said he was also worried about losing much of his material, as using a typewriter meant there are very limited copies.

''I send a lot of my material to Gerry Anderson, but the problem is then it goes out of my head and I have to tape it from his show and then write it out again or it's lost.

''This means I'm sitting there with my finger on the tape button waiting for him to read it out.

''If I had a computer I could store my work on it and print copies out.'' He says he would like to be seen as an Ulster Rabbie Burns: ''I write mainly in doggerel form and use a lot of local words.

''I think if you don't get it on the first try, then there's not much point and I'm always humorous.'' Mr McMenamin is not limited to poetry and has also developed a character, Rosie Ryan from Clogher, who also regularly writes to Gerry Anderson about her life and her son Bon Jovi.

Rosie's collected letters have also been published in book form.

Anyone who can help Mr McMenamin can contact him on 028 8167 9592.

"Congratulations"

to Blade and Batman who are

"going to the chapel and they're going to get married"

Back in August Blade blogged...

Right. News. Don’t quite know where to start. Well, your own dear Blade is not exactly what you’d call a great success story in matters of the heart. My personal life is real trainwreck material, as I am (a) the most stupid and gullible idiot who ever walked the Earth and (b) see item (a). At the risk of sounding rather foolish and needy, I wasn’t exactly what you’d call popular in my younger days. That’s left me with a fairly good line in life-and-soul wisecracks, and a doglike devotion to anyone who actually wants to be my friend. When it comes to relationships, I am the non-confrontational doormat. Anyway, being quite tired of hang-ups, I’ve thought a fair bit this last few years, and for the first time in my life, I actually like who I am. Not all the time, but more than ever before. I’d say it’s like being a different person, but it’s more like I’m finally growing into me. And maybe that’s why what happened last Tuesday actually happened.

(Keeping you in suspense? Or just plain babbling?)

I have this friend. Let’s call him…can’t think what, suggestions on a postcard. Anyway, in student days, he shared a house with a great schoolfriend of mine, so I’ve known him for 13 years. We’ve always got along really well, and have been there for the bad haircuts, the broken hearts and some pretty deficient student cookery (mine). When we meet, we pick up almost at the last conversation, and he’s around for the holidays, so we met up last Tuesday. Now, if I’m honest, there’s been a bit of something different in the air for some time, but being a Recovering Emotional Cripple, I was quite happy to deny all knowledge. However, verily, age and pseudomaturity have wrought many changes in both of us. We had the usual fun evening, much talking and laughing and teasing. Then he said something he claims he’s been wanting to say for years, and I said something I never thought I could say to anyone again: yes. And whilst I keep having, “Shit! This is X! What the hell is going on?!” moments, I am also terrifyingly pleased about it all. It’s surreal; no best behaviour, no holding back in case I offend, no pretending. Mind you, if it goes wrong…but for once, I am not anticipating disaster. It’s more that I don’t think I deserve to be this happy. And for once, I’m not just saying that to fish for compliments. I just can’t believe my luck.

Then I left a comment on Blade's blog

http://www.lunns.com
http://www.ernestjones.co.uk
http://www.ninechichesterstreet.com
http://www.thesteensons.com

I knew this would happen and 7 months later on it has. Yes I'm in the wrong business I should really be a prophet.If I'm to try some online prophecy live on this blog now "I reckon Blade and Batman will live a very long and happily married life. There may be a little Batman who'll arrive on the scene at some time, or even a little Blade [God help us ;-)]".

Across the sheugh in the mainland...

Lord Taoist kindly commented on a blog post yesterday

Surely the old saying should be one of
Wind yer neck in, big lawd
Catch yerself awn, there
or even
Gettawaytayfeck

This prompted a visit to the Belfast Forum where they are discussing Old Belfast words.

A hicker which was a large stone
A sprazzie which was athe old 6d piece
A bob was a shilling
A peeler, which was a cop
A buller, which was a large marble
Rallio, a street chase game
Quoites another St game played with rubber discs
Pitch and toss which was a money winning St. game
Claud, was to throw something
Wireless, was a radio
A tan-san was a baby push-char
Kribby, was the kerb stone
Hob. was an iron in the fireplace to cook on
Remeber a whip and peerie which was a spinning top

and...

CRAB APPLE, GREENBACK WHICH WAS A POUND NOTE , A FIVE SPOT ,,FIVER FIVE POUND NOTE, HALF MAKE THAT WAS A HALFPENNY,,,,, A MAKE WAS A PENNY A BARNEY DILLON THAT WAS A SHILLING,, HALF A KNICKER THAT WAS A TEN SHILLING NOTE,, I COULD FILL THE SITE WITH THE OLD SAYINGS. REMEMBER,,,,,,, YUP MUP. ARE YOU UP IM UP. IF I START ILL BE HARD TO STOP.

There's more...

how about Belfast directions

Where is Dunwoody's store Sir?

Oh, de ya cee that house on the corner?
Well its not thur. De ya cee that Bench across the road from that house on the cornor -well its not there either.
Its on down the road a bit. Just stop and ask some one the will tell ye.
Or
Another one I love. Now think about this one.

You just go straight round the corner.

there's even more @ the Belfast Forum. which as they say is 'Not too Craigavad' :-)

I asked for it...

Mr Talk-NI, another Northern Irish blogger, replied...

What is the title of your blog? Talk Northern Ireland

Why did you call your blog.... Type Northern Ireland sounded daft…

Briefly, describe your blog, if you can. it a place for anyone to talk about NI things.

Why do you blog? Ah.. I’m an addict?

What has been your best blogging experience? Reading responses to posts on Talkni.org

What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? Just do your own thing, people will read it or they won’t. You can only die once so why worry.

What are your favourite blogs? Techcrunch gets my vote after Talkni

What is your favourite book? the Mac Blackbook.

What is your favourite film? Cool Hand Luke

What is your favourite poem? Dulce et Decorum Est

Who are your 'Top 10' favourite musical artistes or bands? Beatles, Planxty, Chieftains…

Who is your favourite comedian? Niall

If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you'd do differently? I’d be rich instead of bleeding handsome.

What would you call your autobiography? Eh?

Who would play you in the film about your life? Doris Day.. needs a dead auld hand to play the cr*p they would have to!

What are your hobbies, apart from blogging? watching the box and golfing badly.

What is your most treasured possession? My guitar…

Who are your sporting heroes? Jack Nicholas

If you won a million on the Lotto what would you spend it on? one penny coins so I could spend my dying days counting on something.

Picture this.

For some reason an image I associate with the SAS is when they ended a seige of the Iranian embassy in London back in 1980.That was when

Five Iranian gunmen were killed and one was arrested. Nineteen hostages were set free but one died and two were injured in the cross-fire.

I must have been one of the millions who watched the live coverage of this happening.

So when I read the headlines today DUP plans SAS event at Stormont, I thought that could be spectacular.What an entrance the SAS could make.I doubt that Sinn Fein's Jennifer McCann event to celebrate the life of IRA bomber Mairead Farrell could be as dramatic.Who'd want to attend an event where the best they could do would be to set off a car bomb at the door to greet those attending.The SAS could use para flashes and scale up and down the walls of Stormont. Then just before they were to take to the stage burst through the window.
So you think I've lost my 'marlies'? What do you expect with the tit-for-tat politics I read about, again.When the media seem to give the politicians a bit of space to get some real work done the politicians prove that the space they're given, or have, is a waste.I've a message to the politicians which is, as the old saying goes 'WISE UP!'

Blogging from Omagh.

Another Northern Irish blogger answers...

What is the title of your blog? Banana rambles

Why did you call your blog.... Its all in a name

Briefly, describe your blog, if you can. All about moving to a more sustainable type of tourism business also more recently about life in NI

Why do you blog? Enjoy writing also use it to promote our hostel.

What has been your best blogging experience? Yet to have it!

What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? Do it often.

What are your favourite blogs? Kilcullenbridge.blogspot.com

What is your favourite book? Don’t have one

What is your favourite film? Don’t have one

What is your favourite poem? Don’t have one

Who are your 'Top 10' favourite musical artistes or bands? same

Who is your favourite comedian? same

If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you'd do differently? yep

What would you call your autobiography? I wouldn’t write one.

Who would play you in the film about your life? Wouldn’t have one.

What are your hobbies, apart from blogging? Orienteering.

What is your most treasured possession? My life.

Who are your sporting heroes? Don’t have any.

If you won a million on the Lotto what would you spend it on? My your own business! ;-)

The morning after?

Just wondering how Donal Skehan, Maya, Leona Daly, Liam Geddes and Marc Roberts feel after losing out to Dustin the Turkey who has been chosen by the Oirish public to represent Oireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. If Dustin the Turkey has a blog or a book out let me know, I'd prefer to read his thoughts than endure watching or listening to him.

In case you've never seen Dustin...

from Studio-ni

Writers Wanted!

To submit a story, poem, piece of prose etc based on or inspired by a set of 2 images.



For inclusion in a limited edition Artist Book entitled, "James Barrett And The Doll In The Corner".
The book is being produced as part of an Art's Council funded project that will culminate in a multimedia exhibition in the Europa Hotel in Belfast in 2008. The project was started during the Heinrich Boll Writer's and Artist residency in Achill Island, County Mayo in January 2007. For more details please contact Kathy Marsh via studio-ni or call 02841739448

In a world where a blog is created every second does the world really need...

Way back last year I'd e-mailed all of the members of the Northern Irish bloggers webring and asked them a few questions.Included was...

Alan in Belfast

Why did you call your blog... I'm called Alan and I live in Belfast, and I'd started to sign comments in other people's blogs and feedback forms as "Alan (Belfast)" and sometimes "Alan in Belfast" so it stuck. Besides I'm not witty enough to have come up with an original and catchy title. These days, unless you put a placename or your name in the title, everything else has been taken at Blogger.com.

Briefly, describe your blog, if you can. The blog's subtitle still holds. In a world where a blog is created every second does the world really need another blog? Well, it's got one. An irregular set of postings, weaving an intricate pattern around a diverse set of subjects. Comment on cinema, books, technology, and the occasional rant about life. Alan ... in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Why do you blog? Honest answer, I never intended to. Started of as an experiment. Needed to do some training on setting up a blog and posting to some teenagers at an annual Technology Camp I help out at. Seemed best to get some experience prior to telling other folk about it. So I set up AiB, meaning to switch it off after a few months. But it became a habit, and so it's still here.

What has been your best blogging experience? The Flickr Meetup earlier this year was fun - getting to put real faces to virtual identities. I think that's been what's kept me blogging. Despite the lack of face-to-face contact, you get to know people, get to know their personalities, what delights them, what intrigues them, what irritates them! So it really does feel like a small community. Another bizarre consequence of blogging has been searching Google for something and discovering an AiB post in the first page of results, sometimes in the top four, a occasionally the top result. The wonders of Google PageRank.

What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? Before you start decide if there's any reason you can't use your real name. If I was starting over today, it wouldn't be under the cover of Alan in Belfast.

What are your favourite blogs? At it's hayday, Letter to America - and the behind the scenes podcast - was a real inspiration. A manic, chaotic, upsidedown world, that created the Lift Episode, fantastic photo essays of Belfast, and Wayne!

What is your favourite book? Answer in childhood would have been Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, lots of good authors. Anything by Magnus Mills is a sure hit. And Douglas Coupland is delightful.

What is your favourite film? No favourites, but I enjoy lots of foreign/subtitled stuff. Check out AiB for recommendations!

What is your favourite poem? Poetry? Not my scene!

What are your hobbies, apart from blogging? Reading, cinema - though I get through more films than I finish books.

Who are your sporting heroes? Talking to the wrong guy here. Sport's up there ahead just ahead of poetry! Unless it's sailing, and you don't see a lot of that on TV (except America's Cup on Sky, and the odd race during the Olympics).

Doctor Doctor.

The Mrs is just back from the Doctors. She's got what the doctor terms as a viral infection. The Dr said that if one member of the family gets it it'll probably spread around the rest of the house.I'm just recovering from what my Mrs called 'Man Flu'.It's the first time in twenty years that I've had to take antibiotics and all the sympathy I got from anyone and everyone is "Ah, it's a touch of 'man flu' you'll be as right as rain soon". Now I'm worried, if I had 'man flu' and my wife has something similar. What is it she's got?

At the Doctors, my wife informs me,a name flashed up on the screen for the Doctor to see. My Mrs tried her best to conceal her amusement when she noticed it. The name was Mr W.J. Dripps. It could be Willie John Dripps. I wonder what his complaint, or illness is?

Would the last person to leave please switch off the lights.

I've finally left the Arse End of Ulster, also known as Greyabbey or Greba. I'll, no doubt, sometime expand on why I call that County Down village the Arse End Of Ulster.

I've moved to the outskirts of a town. The amenities close to me...

Countryside - over the back fence.

Petrol station/shop - 5 minute walk.

Dr's - 6 minute walk.

Dentist - 6 minute walk.

Library - 7 minute walk.

Pub - 8 minute walk.

Chippy - 8 minute walk.

Chinese - 9 minute walk.

Hotel/ nightclub - 9 minute walk.

Cinema -10 minute walk.

Leisure centre - 10 minute walk.

It's a town that is a Tesco free zone .

A town where the boy racers all drive BMW's. You'll hear them before you see them and when you do see them you'll never know who exactly is driving as they've all tinted windows on their the cars.

I reckon my new blogging neighbours include Keith, Nelly, Mr Simbo and Hails and not forgetting (last seen blogging last year) Alistair and Alison.

During my time away from the blogosphere I couldn't get away from seeing bloggers on TV. Rick on the Meteor awards. Mick looking into a political crystal ball. Will visiting a dermatologist.I also noticed Conall, on another political show.It's hard to get away from bloggers, even for a couple of weeks.It's even harder to keep away from blogging.

Now when I turn this PC off I've to clamber over a few boxes and make my way to the door. Hopefully tomorrow there'll be fewer obstacles in my way.