Image from Flickr user LeoL30 under CC Attribution, Noncommerical and Share Alike license
Hark, hark!

Those crazy Chinese - don't they know that 2006 was the year of the Pig and not 2007? Well, it was for me anyway and that's all that matters. Not that I've transmogrified into a beastly hog shape (not entirely), but I've eaten rather a lot of the damn swine. What chance do us carnivores stand when the most ardent vegetarians get weak at the knees with the whiff of frying bacon? This year I'll be setting thousands of pigs free from their farm captors in the hope that the supply of back bacon is curtailed enough to take temptation out of sight at the corner store.

No doubt you've also spotted my negative feelings towards the passing of another year, as referenced by the word play in the post title. Every year I have to come to terms with the gloomy realisation that another notch on the Gregorian solar calendar means that the sum total of my earthly years is increased by one; it's my birthday.

Not being a materialistic person does dampen the blow that would normally be experienced when friends and family sometimes give a Christmas/birthday two-for-one gift. It doesn't bother me because I'm terrible at giving presents myself. The best present I got this year was a mention for In Fact, Ah in yesterday's Sunday Tribune as one of the blogs to watch in 2007.

However, I'd like to point readers in the direction of true blogging quality.

Post after post Niall Byrne opens so many doors to aural heaven. If you're in need of a purgation of the music soul, you'd do worse than heading over to his blog at nialler9.com/blog.

Mulley continues to play the Roy Keane of the Irish boggersphere. He pivots the play, sometimes barks, makes a great captain and he's from Cork!

One blog I keep returning to is that of Irish-born Observer columnist, John Naughton. His obsession with all things Int0rweb is played out brilliantly on his blog Memex 1.1, which can be found at memex.naughtons.org. His New Year resolution is 1920 X 1200. Terrible.

Two of the best Irish blogs for sports analysis are Tom's Sporting Almanac and An Spailpín Fánach.

I can't see how the Irish Election blog won't become a sidebar of reference for Interweb-reading Irish electorate come May.

Keeping it country is the girl most men would be terrified to bring home to the Mammy. Swearing Lady, we salute you.

On the homefront, In Fact, Ah has no great plan for 2007. If I get my shit together, I might just start that podcast I've been putting off for the past few months. We hope to showcase a talented singer-musicmaker in the next few months. I heard his material after this year's ReUniRank^(TM) which was held on December 22nd in Jack Nealons of Capel Street. It's the real deal and will hopefully trump all the staleness that pervades the Dublin singer-songwriter scene.

*ReUniRank = last night before Dublin's Christmas exodus where connected UCG graduates and various other parties (In Fact, Ah was well represented)meet up for some stout.

tags:2007

Published by Colm.