Today's News

Okay, strange day so far... I woke up unnaturally early, not upset, but not happy, just very, very tired. Last night was a bit like hell, but I got through it. A not-too-brief phone call set me straight. As a result of falling into a state of half-sleep, though, I 'woke' after ten. Just in time for a fry, I might add. I came down as it was about to be dished up, hungry (very hungry) and gasping for a cuppa.

If the waking up early wasn't odd enough... I walked nearly ten kilometres today. Without staying anywhere too long. It wasn't like going to college, where I spend a couple of hours sitting down. I was on my feet the whole time, listening to The Doors and Glee, in that order, once the former had run out of songs on my iPod. This is a rare occurence for me; not only was I out of the house, I was actually walking somewhere. I had to get birthday presents, and lodge a cheque. Party tonight. I may be dead tomorrow. But in the good way.

Now, onto the news! First and foremost - very sad story about Mandela's great-grandaughter. May she rest in peace. What's worse is that it coincides with the start of the World Cup in South Africa; I didn't see the opening ceremony (or the match that's being played as I write) - can someone tell me whether or not there was a minute's silence for her at some stage?

Moving on, Galway City have discovered the age-old invention of fire. The city hall was in a blaze this morning, before the workers arrived. Thankfully, no one was injured. However, the people of Galway have now been educated in the very tentative ways of release of energy. They are currently blaming the fire on water.

There is evidence to suggest that the bankers and every successful business-person was, and probably is still, a liar as a child. This discovery explains how the world is so troubled; the once successful Greeks lied for so long that everyone believed them. Now they owe a lot of money. Well done Greece on your continued success in drama. We only hope next time you won't use the world as your stage. However, if you wish to follow the example of Greece, just don't mess everything up. Play it cool - lie and cheat your way to the top, but don't get caught without any money.

Lisa Sills, celebrated blogger for the Literary Den, today revealed how the media have distorted our images of the people we call celebrities. Miley Cyrus is now considered something of a whore and a poor role model for six year old children - I would imagine that the eleven year age gap has something to do with that, too. Earlier, too, Britney Spears's mental issues were newsworthy enough to exploit. Sure, it'd be rude not to. And throughout Lisa's life, as one of Ireland's quadruplets, she's been in the news, only because she was born. With the release of pictures from her eighteenth birthday, one can only assume that the Irish media is hiding a few morons amongst its midst who insist on invading the privacy of someone who didn't ask for fame, and never even actively persued it. Well done Ireland; I forgot there was nothing more important happening in the world that we should focus on, rather than pestering a family for all of their lives.

In the world of Twitter, the World Cup is now trending, and eating up the servers. As a result, uninterested parties like myself are suffering decreased usage of the site. Thank you, Internet, for becoming less of a safe haven from football, and more of a nuisance. I really like to be treated like a second-hand citizen because I don't like football.

On a more personal note, I am a "shit stirrer". That is to say, I am intentionally winding someone up. Someone who'll remain nameless, simply because I don't want to start a witch hunt, has a habit of posting pictures of celebrities who he believes look like him. In response to questions as to why there are so many men and so few women, I explained "These are the ones on his list. The only celebs he's allowed to ever cheat on his partner with at any stage in his life." This story is still in development. Anyone who sees the funny side of my comment, noting that the person in question likes women, let me know.

This has been Paul Carroll, telling you the news that isn't all that important to everyone.

Fame

The wonderful Charlie McDonnell, charlieissocoollike on YouTube, recently (very recently) posted a video about fame, using a recent issue of the UK's Heat Magazine as his case study as he discussed, rather seriously, the idea of fame. In short, he suggests that if you only want to be famous for the sake of being famous, stop right now, because it's not all you think it is; it's walking to work and getting photographed; it's being spied upon so that your body can be used as the 'best beach bod of the year'; it's being followed by paparazi who obsess when you eat a frozen yogurt. Fame is possibly one of the worst things that can happen to someone (one of the worst things with an upside to it, I might add - illness/death/unemployment/homelessness/etc are not included, because there's not really much of an upside if any of these happen to you or someone you know).

I won't mince words; I do sometimes wonder at the idea of fame. What would it be like? Exactly how famous could I get (for being me, I might add - not how famous can I try to be)?  How long would the fame last? And when I think about fame, I always, always, think about it as something I've earned through merits, through achievement, not as a result of, say, a lotto win, or a reality television show. Fame as a result of popularity, popularity that might well be based on how you look, is one of the worst ways! The celebrity status of Big Brother winners is perhaps the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen; before the show, any of those people could pass you in the street and you wouldn't care less unless they handed you a lump sum of money with no strings attached... or you knew them already. Whatever the case may be, overnight fame for a show so ridiculous is not a merit or an achievement - it's a joke to the system of deciding who's famous and who's not.

But why do we care about famous people? Oftentimes, it's because of a) an attraction to them, b) they're genuinely nice people, and we want to know them or c) we want to be them. The fame phenomenon has hit everyone at some stage; in my case, it's "whoop"ing at a Darren Shan book signing as he enters the room. I'm very loud. It's lots of fun.

Non-rhetorcial question of the day - if you were to be famous, what would you like to be famous for?