to be continued ...

I wanted to finish this journal/blog off with a few of , what I consider, highlights from the past year.
January
DEADLINE TODAY!
£1750 POUNDS RAISED SO FAR..DEADLINE FOR DONATIONS 31 JANUARY 2005!
On 19 January 2005 Blackstaff Press put on an evening of the arts in aid of the Tsunami Disaster Appeal at The John Hewitt bar on Donegall Street, Belfast.
February
eaten our words
To a Fault - Nick Laird.
In this impressive debut, Nick Laird explores the sharp edge of relationships, from the intimacy of lovers to the brutality of political violence. Journeying between his native Ulster and his adopted London, he balances ideas of home and flight, the need for belonging and the need to remain outside. Formally deft, rhetorically fresh, these poems never shy from difficult choices, exploring cruelty and vengeance wherever they may be found: in love, in work and against political backdrops. But these are brave, resolute writings that resist despair at all times, affirming instead the need to rebuild and to right oneself, to dust down and carry on.
March
Bollywoodpunk
The BSFA awards are presented annually by the British Science Fiction Association, based on a vote of BSFA members and – in recent years – members of the British national science fiction convention (Eastercon).BSFA awards for 2004The BSFA Awards for 2004 were presented on Saturday 26 March 2005 in a ceremony at the Eastercon, Paragon 2, in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The ceremony was MC'd by John Jarrold, and the awards were made by BSFA co-chair Elizabeth Billinger.
Best Novel - River of Gods - Ian McDonald.
April
Book of the month - website of the day
Portadown News: The Best Bits - Newton Emerson
The Portadown News is the most scurrilous, offensive publication which I find absolutely necessary to read every week.Mark Devenport, BBC Northern Ireland Political Editor.
May
spent a very pleasant journey home reading a book by a man who wasn't me
I arrived at a bookshop that wasn't open the other day, to sign a book that wasn't there.Mind you, it was in Dublin, where there are quite a few things that aren't there, or at least weren't a minute ago: they're rebuilding the city so fast that workers often go home on the Friday and come in on the Monday to find that their office has been replaced by a car park.
June
The Unlikely Poet
1999
Irish poet challenges vision of the stereotype or . . .
Although we know we should never stereotype, the common vision most have of a poet includes the belief that he or she must be introspective and shy. Therefore, it just doesn’t seem right to meet a poet who once hung out with a gang of thugs in a tough Northern Ireland neighborhood. Nor does it seem right to meet one that was one of his local town’s First-Fifteen rugby players and often earned his living by being a barman and a bouncer!
2005
Abbey Press editor and poet Adrian Rice has finished his Visiting Writer- in- Residence at Lenoir-Rhyne College, NC. However, he will be staying on to fulfill reading/lecture/workshop engagements with Chapel Hill, Duke, NC State and High Point Universities.
July
whats yours?
My Story
Everybody's got a story to tell, what's yours?
My Story is a writing project for 2005 in which people read their own autobiographical stories.
Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/radioulster/shows/mystory.shtml
January
Eric Conn reads 'My Day'
Prince and I were the same age and that was five years old. I was a boy and he was a mongrel terrier and from the moment we met which was one night after an air raid we were inseparable. There would be no more air raids they told me, no more sirens, no more shivering at night in the old tin shed. No more German bombers overhead with their ghostly flares and their explosions.
August
Capture, Converge, Create
Hey ya'll. I've decided to start a separate travel blog for my month in Belfast. I probably wont have time to cross post, so if you wanna know what's going on, the address is http://mcalka.iweb.bsu.edu/northernireland.html
source - http://www.livejournal.com/users/firesetterninja.
September
Thank you, Mr McNicholl
Damian McNicholl
I'm from Northern Ireland, attended law school in Cardiff, Wales, worked in London, and came to the US in the nineties where I slaved as an underpaid attorney while teaching myself to write fiction on the commute to Long Island and then NYC. After a lot of approaches to agents, followed by a crop of alternately florid, stupid or deliciously encouraging passes from publishers, my first novel A Son Called Gabriel was taken, got a great cover slapped on its hardback, and beat a path to the bookshelves.
October
Belfast came up with the Titanic, the Troubles, the car bomb, kneecapping, Ulster fries and big fucken sinks
Troubles to be satirised in new novel.
The Northern Ireland Troubles are to be laid bare in a satirical new novel in which the protagonist assassinates politicians and paramilitary leaders with the acquiescence of state officials. Woundlicker is the first novel by former journalist Jason Johnson, who has covered many of the killings in Northern Ireland.
November
looking forward to . . .
CREATIVE WRITERS NETWORK LITERARY CONFERENCE 2005
Ormeau Baths Gallery,Ormeau Avenue, Belfast
'A Nest Of Singing Birds'
Creative Writers Network is hosting the first ever literary conference and exhibition in the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Ormeau Road, Belfast on Friday 2nd (7-9pm) and Saturday 3rd (9.30am-5.30pm) December 2005. The topic of the conference will focus on ‘The Historical role of Literary Art in Northern Ireland: The impact of Literary Art in Northern Ireland and the impact of Northern Irish Literary Art Worldwide’.
December
myth and story tale
.............. just a few concluding thoughts.
My favourite Best story was told to me second hand by my old mate Bernard on Saturday night. It is from the Swiss German woman who opened the whole food shop in Holywood back in the mid eighties. If I get some details wrong, it’s due to the lateness of the hour and the fact it was told to me some time after my third pint in Neds.One day, not long after opening the shop.
source - Slugger O'Toole http://www.sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/best_of_times_and_the_worst/

I'll continue to blog @ "the Bog Standard Blog" so please feel free to call anytime (where comments are always welcome).

Finally I'd like to wish you all a "Happy and Prosperous New Year".
CyberScribe