SERVICES

ARCHIVES 2001 2000 Wage Slave

DISCUSSIONS The Discussion Board is down at the moment and unfortunately all the old postings have been lost.

SEARCH WALTZER Search through the archives.

GOOGLE SEARCH Search the web.

REMINDER I'll mail you a preview of the Experience (almost) every Monday morning.

WALTZER

CONTRIBUTE The Waltzer Experience is a weekly underground culture magazine which is viewed by lots of people in the House. If you have too much time on your hands you can send me your Wrecks Me Buzz, Top 10, news stories or whatever, to waltzer@waltzer.net.

USABILITY Waltzer.net works in any size window and browser and is compatable with screen reading and translation software.

ALAN WALL Alan Wall is a graphic designer who likes photography, web design, writing and organising parties.

POD party "deadly"

Harcourt Street - Last Tuesday's corporate party, held in the POD, has received mixed reports. Some saying that it was boring, others saying it was pretty good, but the majority polled by The Waltzer Experience described the party as "deadly".

The party started out at 8.30 but it was 9.30 before it looked full. It continued fairly peacefully until the band was about three songs from the end of their set, when all hell broke loose. Suddenly everyone was mad out of it, they were all up dancing and giving it loads, hands in the air and jumping about.

The DJ came on next and really got the place lively, even without playing "Sandstorm" which would have gone down well at numerous parts of the set.

Two o'clock came with little scandal and we all bailed out to the sound of drunken shouts and bouncers asking if we were right there folks. John Owens had the great idea of throwing me onto a car bonnet, a feat immediately assisted by none other than Gillo and Kaner. There were some horrid heads the next day.

That spaceship is a sandwich shop!

Clonskeagh - For many months speculation has been widespread regarding the new spaceship-looking building in the office complex. It turns out that new food company Berman and Wallace is due to launch very soon. They do a range of sandwiches, soup, desserts, juices and smoothies, and hot and cold drinks. Their website, bermanandwallace.com, lists the details of the food they will be selling. They will also have an online ordering section on the site.

Gillo and Kaner in campaign for L'Oreal

Georgian Dublin - A top fashion photographer photographed Ian "Kaner" Kane and Matt "Gillo" Gilligan for a new advertising campaign last Tuesday. L'Oreal's new "StreetStyle™" range of hair colours for men launches next week, and Gillo and Kaner were chosen for the campaign. BangBang Advertising's art director, Adam Walsh, said that he likes the contrast of the rough Northside lads against the graceful Southside townhouses.

The lads agreed to have their hair died for the shoot, Gillo's being StreetStyle™ Navy Blue and Kaner, StreetStyle™ Wine. The lads are enthusiastic about being spotted by modelling agencies and getting a proper break into the modelling industry. It's understood that they got a five-figure sum for the hour long shoot. When questioned about this, the agency said that "They're worth it."

First day down the park

Clonskeagh - Now that the summer has arrived, some of us went down the park at lunch the other day. It was cold enough now, but it certainly is a positive sign of things to come for the summer buzz. Is it sunny today? Go down the park yourself this lunch time!

This week last year

In last year's Waltzer Experience Pam and Helen leave, we party on Russells' balcony. Can you believe that photograph, left, if a year old? Hoopy earrings wreck me buzz, and Viv presents his "Quintessential Top 10 Chippers in Dubil'in." Oh it's a good one!

Behind the scenes at Waltzer.net
By Waltzer.

I thought it was about time I took you behind the scenes at Waltzer Experience, and you can learn why it wrecks me buzz every week. On a typical week I will take photos of whatever event is on. So on Saturday morning I have the pictures developed. When I get them, they are all gone through carefully and the best few are laid out on a table so I can see which go in and which don't.

Once they are chosen, I think about the layout. If I'm in a hurry they just get a cut and paste into the page without a link to the bigger one. But if I have time I'll think of a nice layout. The scanning, cropping and colour correction takes ages, and usually one or two images will be great, so I'll put more work into them. When they are ready, I make the thumbnails that you see on the main page and put them into the page using Dreamweaver.

Then I open up my Filofax, which I keep ideas for stories and articles. Into Word then to type them up, that takes ages too! When I am happy with the writing I transfer it into the web page. Then I try to find a suitable picture to accompany the article.

When I have put in all the little pieces like the date, quote, and the "around the office" spoof headlines, I wonder what to write for the "Wrecks Me Buzz." If no-one has given me one, I try to think of something myself, which is tricky considering my optimistic and outgoing personality.

Once the home page is ready, I update the archives page. Then it's time to FTP them to the server. This is really quick, and I make sure to put a copy of the home page up called homexyz.htm, where xyz is the week number, like today it's week 119. (Year 2001, week 19). That makes the archiving easier.

That takes me up to 9 on Saturday night if there was a lot to do. The thing that wrecks me buzz, though, is that sometimes I don't get it finished in Dublin, and I end up taking it home with me and having it hanging over me all weekend. Sometimes I might have problems uploading at home, so I have to bring it to work to upload, then it can be late and people in Australia are complaining. Today though, I was going to go home, but it's too late now and I have to spend another night here while I get it finished.

Now that wrecks me buzz.