dart

thought du jour

2010-01-05T20:26:00.004Z

hi,

i said i'd finish it last year, but this time it's definite. dart will be completed this year. running almost 3 years late takes a little or a lot away from the whole thing depending on how you look at it, but the idea of seeing it through is exciting. free time and whatnot are obstacles at the moment but reaching #365 by 2011 is right up there near the top of my to-do list.

thanks.

#311

2008-10-19T20:23:00.002+01:00

#310

2008-08-21T12:43:00.002+01:00

counting sheep. flash required to view.

#309

2008-08-20T23:23:00.000+01:00

#308

2008-07-14T12:51:00.003+01:00

#307

2008-06-06T21:08:00.003+01:00

#306

2008-06-05T23:35:00.001+01:00

click here to see it

#305

2008-06-04T15:45:00.000+01:00

it's summer hooray!
eat icecream and dream away
today's deadly, yay!

#304

2008-06-03T23:17:00.002+01:00

#303

2008-06-02T00:30:00.000+01:00

#302

2008-06-01T19:22:00.003+01:00

#301

2007-11-04T19:46:00.000Z

#300

2007-11-03T11:44:00.000Z

#299

2007-11-02T11:44:00.000Z

#298

2007-11-01T11:43:00.000Z

#297

2007-10-31T15:11:00.000Z

click here to see today's dart. it's a big file (around 7mb) and won't play properly until it's fully loaded so please be patient and wait for it to load. quicktime media player required to view.

#296

2007-10-30T20:08:00.000Z

#295

2007-10-29T20:08:00.000Z

#294

2007-10-28T13:45:00.000Z

gary dunne - pandemonium at portlaoise house gig. flash required to view.

gary dunne - the captain at portlaoise house gig. flash required to view.

#293

2007-10-27T18:58:00.000+01:00

#292

2007-10-26T13:44:00.000+01:00

#291

2007-10-25T13:42:00.000+01:00

#290

2007-10-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

#289

2007-10-23T18:05:00.000+01:00

#288

2007-10-22T18:59:00.000+01:00

#287

2007-10-21T13:44:00.000+01:00

#286

2007-10-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

#285

2007-10-19T17:54:00.000+01:00

#284

2007-10-18T17:52:00.000+01:00

#283

2007-10-17T14:32:00.000+01:00

#282

2007-10-16T14:31:00.000+01:00

today's dart was funny. i drew a picture and spent ages colouring it. it was a picture of a woman and a boy on paper. i made it with marker, crayon and cut-out paper. it turned out ok. it had alot going on but it was still missing something. i didn't know what it was but then i saw a box of matches in my bag and thought it would be cool to burn the edges of certain parts of the picture. so i did but the whole bloody thing went up in flames. it was pretty scary actually. i got the fire out but i didn't get the picture back. here's what's left of it, i don't know whether to make something else or not.

#281

2007-10-15T11:08:00.000+01:00

#280

2007-10-14T17:28:00.000+01:00

#279

2007-10-13T17:16:00.000+01:00

www.myspace.com/djbeastofficial

#278

2007-10-12T13:54:00.000+01:00

#277

2007-09-03T01:17:00.000+01:00

#276

2007-09-02T04:00:00.000+01:00

#275

2007-09-01T02:31:00.000+01:00

i wanna be in tokyo. flash required to view.

#274

2007-06-30T02:22:00.000+01:00

#273

2007-06-29T02:30:00.000+01:00

#272

2007-06-28T02:27:00.000+01:00

#271

2007-06-27T11:01:00.000+01:00

#270

2007-06-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

#269

2007-06-25T01:09:00.000+01:00

#268

2007-06-24T23:02:00.000+01:00

#267

2007-06-23T03:45:00.000+01:00

#266

2007-06-22T06:16:00.000+01:00

#265

2007-06-21T00:40:00.000+01:00

#264

2007-06-20T22:21:00.000+01:00

#263

2007-06-19T01:54:00.000+01:00

#262

2007-06-18T00:43:00.000+01:00

#261

2007-06-17T03:59:00.000+01:00

#260

2007-06-16T03:56:00.000+01:00

make shape.

light candles.

can't light them all. dodgy candles, scumbags and sometimes wind.

sarah stops and helps. her mam takes my camera and takes photos.

tj and his friend stop and help.

hurray! they're all lit! photos, photos, photos!

#259

2007-06-15T14:19:00.001+01:00

#258

2007-06-14T03:59:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. if that doesn't work (some probs reported!) click here. it's a big file (around 1mb) so please be patient and wait for it to load :-).

#257

2007-06-13T02:36:00.000+01:00

#256

2007-06-12T20:35:00.000+01:00

detail.

#255

2007-06-11T14:57:00.000+01:00

#254

2007-06-10T04:24:00.000+01:00

#253

2007-06-09T21:49:00.000+01:00

#252

2007-06-08T02:48:00.000+01:00

#251

2007-06-07T20:59:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. it's a big file (1mb to be exact) and won't play properly until it's fully loaded so please be patient and wait for it to load :-).

#250

2007-06-06T05:00:00.000+01:00

#249

2007-06-05T08:31:00.000+01:00

#248

2007-06-04T21:29:00.000+01:00

#247

2007-06-03T23:59:00.001+01:00

#246

2007-06-02T02:11:00.000+01:00

intro.
the idea for today's dart was to make a pile of ordinary balloons look like a pile of giant grapes on the street in dublin city. i did it with my friend aidan. after getting all the materials we needed we looked for a suitable place to make and display our grapes. it was a pretty calm day but every now and then a big wind came from nowhere. kinda worrying because we thought it might blow our balloons away. we ended up doing it in the square in temple bar because it was the least windiest place we checked out. temple bar is a really cool and popular and expensive part of dublin city.

step 1. blowing up the balloons and sticking them together.
we bought 75 balloons. we wanted our pile of grapes to look really big and surreal. i only learned how to blow a balloon a month ago so i hoped i had it in me to blow so many. around 35 each and 75% blown up so they formed the oval shape of a grape and not a circle shape. but then, just as i opened the first pack of balloons, aidan told me that he couldn't blow a balloon. i gave him many "how to blow a balloon for beginners" lessons and demonstrations but he couldn't get the hang of it. no problem though we thought, i could blow them and he could stick them.

this approach was fine until i started to feel dizzy from all the blowing. we hadn't thought of how it could be hard to blow up so many balloons. pretty quickly too cos i was under pressure to catch a train home for my cousin's engagement party so i didn't really have time to take many breaks. aidan didn't have any plans i think but i didn't like the idea of taking up lots of his time.

step 2. structure and colour.
the initial idea was to make a large circular base of balloons and add 3 or 4 more similar layers on top. this would mean that it would look like a pile of grapes from every angle you looked at it from. it would be 3d like.

we couldn't do it that way though because the balloons we bought came in two different shapes. circle shape and the long and thin shape that clowns use. we'd thought they were all circle shaped. the circle ones were perfect for what we were doing but we couldn't use the clown ones. they just didn't look like grapes. this meant we had half as many balloons to turn into grapes than we thought we did when we started. not enough to make a large convincing pile of grapes so we opted for a wall of grapes instead. this only looked like grapes from one particular angle or viewpoint though. 2d grapes i suppose.

all the balloons were different colours. aidan coloured them all green with spray-paint when we were happy with the structure.

step 3. ways of making it better and attack.
when we stopped working and stood back and looked at it we could see ways of making it better. changing the position of some of the balloons, adding more colour, taping it neater etc. we were just about to do stuff like that when a big guy with a pierced tongue came over and kicked the whole thing down and burst all the balloons. very annoying. we called it a day after that happened.

conclusion.
it didn't come out as well as we hoped. kinda frustrating but we had fun making it. i'll definitely try it again sometime. much bigger than today's attempt though, massive like. it would probably be handier to make it at home first and then bring it to wherever it's being photographed.

ps.
big thanks to aidan for all the help.

#245

2007-06-01T00:06:00.000+01:00

#244

2007-05-31T16:15:00.000+01:00

#243

2007-05-30T16:14:00.000+01:00

#242

2007-05-29T16:16:00.000+01:00

#243

2007-05-28T03:30:00.000+01:00

#240

2007-05-27T10:00:00.000+01:00

#239

2007-05-26T01:10:00.000+01:00

#238

2007-05-25T01:21:00.000+01:00

#237

2007-05-24T02:14:00.000+01:00

#236

2007-05-23T04:11:00.000+01:00

#235

2007-05-22T22:57:00.000+01:00

#234

2007-05-21T00:48:00.000+01:00

#233

2007-05-20T17:21:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. it's a big file (around 4mb) and won't play properly until it's fully loaded so please be patient and wait for it to load :-). quicktime media player required to view.

#232

2007-05-19T04:02:00.000+01:00

#231

2007-05-18T03:57:00.000+01:00

#230

2007-05-17T01:29:00.000+01:00

ai. flash required to view.

#229

2007-05-16T20:04:00.000+01:00

#228

2007-05-15T13:50:00.000+01:00

#227

2007-05-14T09:51:00.000+01:00

#226

2007-05-13T03:17:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. it's a big file (around 1mb) and won't play properly until it's fully loaded so please be patient and wait for it to load :-). quicktime media player required to view.

#225

2007-05-12T22:31:00.000+01:00

#224

2007-05-11T14:25:00.000+01:00

#223

2007-05-10T22:23:00.000+01:00

#222

2007-05-09T03:44:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. quicktime media player required to view.

#221

2007-05-08T12:18:00.000+01:00

#220

2007-05-07T22:54:00.000+01:00

click here to see today's dart. it's a big file (around 2mb) and won't play properly until it's fully loaded so please be patient and wait for it to load :-). quicktime media player required to view.

#219

2007-05-06T13:12:00.000+01:00

#218

2007-05-05T11:54:00.000+01:00

#217

2007-05-04T11:09:00.000+01:00

#216

2007-05-03T02:32:00.000+01:00

#215

2007-05-02T20:52:00.000+01:00

#214

2007-05-01T11:36:00.000+01:00

a slideshow of a book i made. a little hard to read in parts during the first three minutes but it's fine after that. flash required to view.

#213

2007-04-30T11:43:00.000+01:00

i went to the leaning tower of pisa today with ahchang. it was really cool. so many people there. i didn't know it was such a popular tourist attraction. i also didn't know that it's in the middle of a fancy palace - i thought it was in an ordinary part of the city like.

we'd planned to take photos that made it look like we were pushing the tower over but it turned out that EVERYBODY was doing that (not that that's a big problem or anything but you know what i mean!)...

photo from http://mel.daviel.org

disappointed with our unoriginal idea (and struggling to dart on holidays), i turned to ahchang and said "the whole pushing the tower over thing is cool but is there anything else we could do? something different like. maybe it could be today's dart." ahchang suggested a kick instead of a push. i can't remember why but we didn't try that for some reason.

we thought some more (very quickly) and came up with the idea of trying to make it look like one of us was holding the tower in our hand...

then, just after doing that, i smiled and said "eh...i got another idea, i don't know if you'll like it though..."

"yeah", i said, with memories of the strange sense of humour (sex jokes galore) of my secondary school classmates in my head and the sound of ahchang's crazy laugh in my ears, "this is today's dart."

ps i don't think my mam or dad will like this. please comment and show them that i'm not a loser that they should worry about and that there are other people in the world (probably linked to my secondary school in some way) that find this funny, thanks. :-).