Friday, October 30, 2009

Snap Happy #14

Why does this exist? A Twitter device, with unlimeted service, for life, and it cost's 200 dollars.



Not only is it ugly, but it's utterly pointless. What dumbass made this thing. I like twitter, hell i love it. But i have a thing called a computer, connected to the internet, which has the world wide web. I also have a mobile phone. I can get twitter in dozen's of ways. Who the hell wants this, twitter only device.

It's User interface also looks butt ugly. No one would want it!

HAHAHAHA!

illegal-parking.jpg


1.2 Million Dollars worth of Car, and it's clamped. Poor bastard.



Even if it's fake, it's beautiful:







Aw he lost his ball!
IMG_3874



Blogged with the Flock Browser

Run Dos, C Dos Run, Run DOS Run!

To borrow a turn of phrase from a friend, if you don't get that reference you need to get out less.


So this morning i woke to the call of chores and having to phone the doctor.

You see i still had my stitches in from my biopsy and mole removal. Now not only was this laziness but it was forgetfulness and very bad. But it's not like we have much money, and i'm not working. So it saved us in the long run, sort of. I wasn't exactly sick from them, yet...


I also had to help my dad with a few things.


I had porridge as he painted the edge's of the walls where a flower wallpaper was previously plastered. My mother had added it to the wall instead of all 4 walls being red. Why i don't know. But i kind of got the idea. But now she hates it even more than when it went up. She went so far as to call it common.

So, in a rare showing of action my dad actually followed orders and ripped it down and started painting. Now this could have something to do with my sister returning home, so what MOTHER says in terms of the look of the house has to be obeyed.




I then phoned the doctors and got a late appointment for 10 to four.


Then when that was done we, me my dad and mad dogs, had to move a bookshelf out of the way for painting.


We catagorised the books. A LOT of cookery books. Some older than myself. Some with stains of food older than myself sticking page's together. Dust with more back story than my very existance. Dust that has passed through at least 4 house's and 30 years to get on my hands and in the air and make me sneeze. Books that were wedding presents they are that old! Books that are rejects of the 70s and are a main influence why Meat Fondu is one of our family's favourite communal meals. (I remember loosing 5 euro on the insistance's that that was what a fondu was, ignorant to the fact that it even means melted cheese in french..)

A choice example of the sort of cook book on the shelf was, A guide to Garden Herbs, Or Blender Recipe's. Seriously, blender recipe's? Who knew you had to learn what to fuck into a blender?



Then on the next shelf was my dads books. Wood working books, IQ test books, information books. Dublin and Dubliners, a collection of essays on Dublin and it's people. And a lost map of Louth that my father miss placed circa when we moved here.

He was a slightly irate however. Several of the very very old and specialist woodwork books, re-sourced from amazon to replace old copies he had years ago were now chew toys. Their bindings long since deafecated by the puppies in the gravel yard out back. And the two little mutts just woddled about unaware of any wrong doing with muddy paw prints ruining the floor i mop infrequently with great urgency to make it appear like i actually do all my chores! The cheek!


We then moved onto the upper shelves. Assorted odd cuttlery, two sugur containers, oddly with sugar in them. And candle sticks shapped like funky drink glasses with burnt out Night Lights (Tea Lights) still in them.

Assorted old birthday cards, including strangely inapropriate "sweet" sixteen cards for myself that made refference to A Shag Bird, and how i wasn't going to get any. Some's up my teenage years right there....


Old baby photos and 2 choice photo's of my sister that show her with our first dog lucy, when she was a toddler and another when she was around 14 with a baby Thrush she rescued. That girl was born to be a Vetenary nurse!


We then moved the bookshelf into the pantry beside the dogs night time cage/kenel.  We stuffed the washing/ironing onto the lower shelf and tidied up the rubbish and recycling that was collecting.



Then we sat down to some computer updating.



As i mentioned before, my dad is down grading several 1,000 euro laptops from Vista to XP so he can control them more easily in his old schools network. ( I say old school, as he retired, but he still works for them since they never hired another IT teacher capable of running every computer in the school.)



So as i tinkered on the one laptop i have temporarily personalised i put in a usb key into the newly XP'ied laptops and changed their identities to the each number he wanted.

There was some trouble getting them to connect to the old network we still have here in the house.

Then my sister rang and my dad was on the phone for at least 10 minutes. Good blog reading time...


When he came back we had a shouting match of hypothosising of what the problem was. The problem was they couldn't find an IP adress because the server wasn't on. The network existed and the laptops, "mine", his (the super widescreen), the school one's and an ancient computer in the Garage could all talk to each other, but they had no IP Adress's. Strangely my dad, the IT and Technology teacher was initially stumped by this. I'm no expert but i quickly assumed you needed the server to tell the Transmitter what to do, and what to call each of the computers connecting, ie the "IP adress". From my limited knowledge of computing, it turns out i was pretty much right. The exact techinicalities are beyond me, but in essance i was right, and once the Server was turned on, it was all fine and dandy.


We XP'ied 10 laptops before i had to take a shower and dash out to do several tasks with my dad before my doctors appointment.


Showered, shaved. Hobo beards aren't good in public, no matter how rugged and Douche like you appear.


So out we went.


A Glass Glaziers first.


It was in a business park.

It wasn't well advertised so we had to drive past each of the "Plots" to see what business occupied them. I say plots, they were warehouse's of varrying size standing inside a terrible one way system of traffic in what was almost a ghost town from some angles.


We eventually found it.


The bollocks of shite rattled about Private and Public sector pay on Liveline was doing my tits in so i flicked the radio to Newstalk. No better. It was Moncrief, and something about suicide service's or some dreary shite. It was raining and murky out, i was in the car with my dad, who can be dull in a car at the best of times, this wasn't helping.


iPod earphone's in!

Didn't help.


Next stop a lamp store. Across the road from an Lidl and and an abandoned plot, adjacent to an abandonded plot that now had an "Australian Circus" in it.


As i sat there with "Dear Maria" by All Time low in my ears. I witness a horde of tracksuited youths nuckle dragg themselves across the car park of Lidl and across the wasteland towards the circus.

Then a minute or so later another one on his own came out onto the road with a Heavy lifting Trolley, the kind you see in homebase.


He just looked like he was going to knick something.

Then as my dad returned. Kids half the age of the others passed on our side of the road with a similar trolley and a stack of Wooden packaging crates. Yep it's Halloween, and it's Drogheda....



We went to yet another Retail Park around the corner, passed at least a few dozen acre's of abandoned large warehouse's and former factories or tech companies. Then into a uniformed grey business park with a large "WATER PARK" in its entrance. An indoor water park, inside a rather large Grey corrigated warehouse with odd windows here and there showing off rainbow platforms and twisty tube's and slide's.

The business my dad was looking for wasn't answering. The only "business" doing business in this god awful development was the water fun house thing.

Drogheda has some of the worst town planning imaginable. It was utterly appaling.


Then back to the lidl.

I sat and starred at the main Road that goes to the M1 but doesn't actually go onto it, and also goes back into town and the Bus Depot.

Coache's and traffic huddled by in the murkey overcast evening. I bopped about to the dying battery of my ipod as Immigrents and local yokels shoped.


We finished and head to the doctors.


While approaching the bus depot i saw a teen pushing a pram. She didn't exactly look enthusiastic....


The Doctors.


I spent most of my time waiting on my mobile, surfing on Opera Mini and Snaptu. Passing the time.


In the corner 2 toddler siblings played noisely with the toys. There mother in a pink velure tracksuit butting in every few minutes to shut them up.

Beside me a African family sat with a young girl standing beside her mother, sheepishly staring at the other children, waiting to get a chance to use the toys.

Her mother kept asking her to sit down in the seat beside me but she didn't. She stood there with her dread lockes, coloured plastic beads and sheepish face, waiting to play.


The two siblings coughed and spluttered all over the shop as the screamed and talked relative nonsense to each other and bounced around on their plastic chairs.

Then they started asking each other "do you have TICKULLLZ!!!" And then that started to get out of hand.

So angry and frustrated the Pink Tracksuited mother dragged the two out with her, either for a smoke brake or to refill the meter. It seemed like she had been called to the doctor, so the little African girl was over at the toys in a flash. Happy as larry when she found a Book on Tiger.


Then the other two returned but sat in a differnt place.

The second they came in, the floor was now their play space.

The boy instantly prosented the Door stop to his mother's face asking "what's this, what does it do?"

"put it back, Lulia get off the floor, get out from under der, yer gonna get all muckie, look here come's the doctor, the doctor's comin', he's gonna be cross with ya!"

They eventually went in.

The look of relief from the 2 OAP's tag-reading a newspaper and all it's supplements barely talking past idle celebrity gossip and tv schedule's, was priceless. They didn't really say anything but i could hear from their sighs and distain "Utter Disgrace" and so on.

Even the African Mother was relieved the terrible two were gone.


My dad then arrived in a sat with me. I had been waiting so long at this stage that he had had time to walk all the way down to West Street to the Pharmacy and back again with the perscription for my Rash (Lichen Pilanus, the rash's suspected name and diagnosis), a persciption i should have bought a week before my biopsy and mole removal, which was at the start of the month!



Finally in with the doctor.

It was the male doctor. Ie i had gone full circle over the summer after 5 appointments i had seen all the doctors, 3 of them female, 1 his wife, 1 a newbie. And now i was back with him again, after first showing him the rash 5 months ago.


The Stich on my Wrist had already snapped and all he had to do was pull it out.

The 3 on my chest were a bit harder, but standered snip and pull. They had stayed in so long the site's are a bit swallon, excoriated and scabby, but they're fine. I doubt it will leave much of a mark, but they will look like this for a while i bet. My own fault, but hey, it's not life threatening that i delayed. Not this time or for these stitches anyway.



Chit chat about failing my course and heading off to Oz. No health concerns, it's summer there soon and they got the Swine flu jab first, so all i have to worry about is putting sunscreen on EVERY day.


We got home and my dad and myself hurridly tidied up the computers, moved the books, cleaned the kitchen and started chopping onions and carrots for my mother's dinner within half an hour.

When she came in, she wasn't pushed about the stew and told the dad to put it in the lower shelf of the AGA. The Dad and I had Curly Chips and Burgers.



Thus ends my "riveting" day....


On Friday and Saturday i am attending the UCD IV with Ming as my teammate for the craic like. So i'll be AFK for a couple of days. I will loose this laptop to it's XP-ing also.


Expect some sort of word along the way. Keep an I on my facebook or twitter if you're really desperate to hear about my dull life and moderate prose.

Until next time, it's a good night from me, and it's a good night from him. Goodnight.




Blogged with the Flock Browser

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I want a new mobile....

Is it too soon to want a new mobile phone?

I got my INQ 1 back in March or there abouts, as a belated birthday gift. And i love it. I really do. But i kind of want more from my phone. That's why i was eager to upgrade to the INQ Chat 3G when it comes out, which is expected around next month or so.


Now i have no garuntee that it will work when i go to Oz, or if i can even get it down under, but i would love it. But considering the whole "new" network thing and new country aspect i am considering other options. And truthfully i would like to upgrade to a Smartphone.



Now i am an avid, anything else user. I like to use underdogs and unpopular tools in most aspects of my gadgetry and computing. Okay, so i use windows, but thats about it. I use everything else that isn't windows after that.


My toys are visable here:




And this is my current Mobile:
INQ1





But since i'm upping sticks i'm considering what i would like to buy at the other end.



Firstly i DO NOT want an iPhone. I may have an iPod and may have had a first generation one all those years ago but i'm not a Mac person. Never was, never will be. I like the clunky messyness of Windows and the free market that sprung up around it.

I don't want my computing or gadgets all uniformed to one sleek white style or using all the same software. No, i like variety, and I LIKE FLAWS. It let's you know what you're lacking, and what can be improved. Thats the essance of a good free consummer market. Feck brands and monopolies, give me choice and different standards of quality any day! As long as it all works of course...



Altough, i must conceed that i am a fan of Google. So on the smart phone front i am tempted by anything that runs their "Android" software.


The HTC Hero is the current top dog in that department:
htc-hero-pictures-15


It's sleek, and it's nice. And has all the usual google toys and an app store, small yes, but it exists. And as far as i know it's the second largest.


The next big thing in Android phone's is the Motorolla Droid.

The droid is at war with the iPhone claiming it does things the iPhone doesn't.

I don't get all the hype, but i like the phone.


It looks very nice, but for the near-by future it looks like it will be an America only thing. Not exactly buyable down under then.




Now the iPhone may be a piece of cake and popular, but i don't want it. But i would like a slice of this iPhone Cake:

iphone cake

Fecking nerdy wedding cake, still looks nice though.



Now the Nokia N97 is the Scandanavian offering to the world of Smartphones. It's nice, i do like it, i've held one in stores and i do like the feel, and the qwerty keybored is a plus.

It also has an app store. Via Ovi. A company Nokia swallowed to make it's new toys for their toys. It also aims to be a very social collection of aps, with geo-location, events, calanders, facebook, twitter and other things.

It's nice, but it's main failing, it's a Nokia.

I've always disliked Nokia. I don't sware by any brand, and in mobile terms Nokia always seemed like Apple to me, before Apple came along.


The nice, but to nokia, Nokia N97
Nokia N97 white keyboard




For a non-smartphone option there is the slightly odd Samsung Ping.

Now the mobile phone critics, yes they exist, don't like it. But i think it has a charm. And a slight brilliance.


It has some in-built Facebook and twitter aps, but not of the same standard as other phones, and not as nice as INQ. But look at it!

Samsung's Ping gets the message

Not the best colour, or angle. But it's Qwerty, with a sideways numerical keyboard, along the side of the screen, or the top of the keyboard, depending on your angle.


The Number keys work as a normal phone when in phone mode.

But then you can pop out your QWERTY keyboard and chat away like mad.

I like it. It's not pretty, but it has a charm, and it has the right idea.


The Nokia N97 and the Droid have this, but they're very powerful, very specialist and very expensive, and not garunteed to be available down under.

The Ping however, is odd, a normal phone, and has a nice keyboard. I really think it's quaint and i wouldn't rule it out just yet.




But the Piece de le resistance, the one i have wanted ever since i heard of it, is..... The INQ CHAT 3G!!!


It's an INQ. I love my INQ. It's mobile web and social networking and handy, but it's cheap and friendly. It's a starter phone for those looking to use all mobile internet has to offer.


And now it's new generation has in-built twitter. The chat is even better, with a Qwerty keyboard.

The inq chat 3g


But the problem with INQ, that i can anticipate is that it doesn't have a long lasting sustainability. I already want to replace my INQ 1 for this better one. I know i can add Java based applications as i wish, such as Snaptu(a handy multible tool) and Google Maps and Opera MINI ( a web browser), but what about a year or two down the line?


My old phones, were that, just phones. I didn't expect them to update. But with the demands of the mobile web and social networking trends are driving change in mobiles.


To ride the wave of this change it would be almost better to get a phone that can change with the times. That does update.


Android phone's will do that. Future Nokia smartphones will probably do that. The Palm Pre and blackberry's will certainly do that, but they're also expensive.

The iPhone. The iPhone was always a scam. The first model a tease. The second a further tease. The 3rd almost what you'd expect. But it doesn't have MMS, or didn't at first. Instead people fork out money for several dozen apps to get the cool toys and useablity they should have had as standard but have to pay for themselves.


With Android phones, there will also be expense, with Nokia, expense, with Blackberry, expense. With INQ Chat, there isn't.


It does, almost all of what i want from the get go. And any freely available programe i want i can add as needed.


The only thing it doesn't do, that i would love, is have better picture useablity. Maybe a inner-camera for video phone, which i'd never use.

A Light/flash.

A stronger camera.

And Twitpic. I love blogging, i would use the QWERTY keyboard and the web, or inbuilt GMAIL to blog. But if i take picture's, i would like to blog them!


iPhone and other people are blogging with picture's on Twitpic and yFrog right now. Why can't cheaper mobile users do the same?


Maybe i'll just wait.


I hope to get my INQ chat 3G before i go, hopefully. And take it with me. But who knows.....


I still can't decide, but i do want to deeply consider this before i get there, and when i get there.





Blogged with the Flock Browser

Snap Happy 13, DUN DUN DUN!!!

By pure coincidence the first snap happy in ages, is 13, on Halloween week. Cool.


I just get right down to business.


I actually have a bit of a stock pile of images at this stage, so expect at least 3 or 4 this week before i loose this laptop to the abyss of computer loneliness.




It's autumn, almost Halloween. When fetching some Crunchies from my dads care, for after dinner snacks on the couch, i noticed the moon was high, and errie as it shown through the clouds. Real Halloween weather, crisp air, misty skies, bright moons. Cool.

But not as cool as this.


www.3jokes.com - عکس، کلیپ، جوک، SMS


A great black and white pic of a woman in water, also fitting with halloween.


www.3jokes.com - عکس، کلیپ، جوک، SMS




Some web themed pumpkins:


Twitter Fail Whale
failwhale-pumpkin


Firefox and IE
firefox-ie-pumpkin
RSS Feed logo.
rss-pumpkin

Apple Pumpkin:

apple-pumpkin


Let's "Hope" ya'll have a good halloween.

obama-pumpkin




As long as you don't see this when you're trick-o-treating.

Leapingwolf


And maybe, just maybe Teenagers who trick or treat, instead of knacker drinking and lighting bon fire's should get this:
dino-condom.jpg

It's a Dinosaur Condom. Yes, you read that right, a Dinosaur condom! RAWR!


Blogged with the Flock Browser

A week with a laptop.....

So this week, i have a laptop to myself.


This strange occurance, occured, when the dad forced me off his laptop and suggested i use one of the laptops he was repairing for the school  he used to work for.


Each laptop about a grand each, apparently, and some snot-nosed toe-rags have vandalised them in a multitude of ways. From removed keys, to broken mouse's, to password locking them, or even deleting the boot up protocol's. Utter dicks.


But i get to use one for myself for a whole week before it's taken back and down graded to windows XP so that the non-existant IT department, formely my dad, can keep a good check on this laptops and decrease the level of crazy lockouts and software vandalism that these "gurriers" can do to them.


So it means i can do what ever i want with it for a limited time.


Already i'm wasting a lot more time.....

All the little tools i use, such as Yoono, digsby and Flock browser are a must. Then a favourite computer game, OpenTTD. Then the Google Aps Pack, which also has a toolbarred Firefox for good measure.

Then Utorrent to get music i failed to download before we switched from "Net one" to Eircom for our internet service.

When the switch happened i lost internet in my own PC in my bedroom. Unwilling and un-informed as to how to re-create a network to give me back internet, my dad has been semi-content to let me have couch time on his mega-laptop. A 17 inch beast of a thing that really isn't much fun to use when i can't personalise it or use it when i want to.


But now i have this baby and my productivity, if i had any, is even worse. Now the parentals have been home all weekend and today, but i barely did any chores. I was even so bored on this lap top that i was "almost" pro-active in contacting prospective colleges for next year.... I say almost, i had the tab open each time my dad walked in as i patiently tried to watch Greek. But it counts, i even had a window open with Gmail ready to ask the right person about my eligibility and everything but i was lazy and i closed it eventually.



Last night i discovered that i can get a minute signal in my room on the lap top. Cue watching Heroes at 2am and other idiotic moves.


Then tonight i watched the Red carpet of This is IT live on the Michael jackson facebook page via uStream. But i was pretty peeved when it was ONLY a red carpet show, and not a free movie showing.

I then started to watch battlestar galactica: The plan. But my measly connection crapped out.


I then sent email's to my friends because i was that bored. I couldn't get to sleep and i had lot's of thoughts that i wanted to hammer out.

With my own computer i never do this as it takes time to boot up, and even this new model is a bit too loud to bother. I usually suffer through and fall asleep like a good human.


Not with a laptop. No, here i am, not even a peep of internet, and i'm still typing away, because i can!


This is a failed experiment, if it even was one.



I know i long for A Chrome OS netbook in a year or so's time, or any small little laptop to call my own once i have money. But knowing the full evil i can unleash by having one in my bed.


I DO NOT WANT.

I really should be sleeping. Curse you internet, and white glow of computing.



Blogged with the Flock Browser

Monday, October 26, 2009

A new blog, soon....

As i am moving to australia for close to a year, this blog will soon draw quiet.

But not to fret, this will be a month of good bye. And then a new blog, via the same account, i can't exactly betray google just yet...


So watch this space. When i reach down under there will be a new blog.

Until then:
watchmen_watch.png
Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Less than a month left till i'm gone, let's make it a good one!

Yes, you read right. I'm leavin', on a jet plane, not sure exactly when i'll be back again, but it's in a years time....


If you're a friend or a stalker you will already know that i am upping my lazy ass and packing my not very warm weather orientated cloths to take with me.

I moving down under to get work and to help pay for a return to college at some stage.


So in lieu of my departure i will be celebrating my life in Ireland coming to a brief closure, by seeing "most" of my friends and aquatance's in some manner of farewell.



Firstly i'll mention the day i bought my tickets, Wednesday, and then i will discuss what i hope to squeeze in in some way, funding forgiving.



So at an un-godly and dark hour of 5 am i woke to join my mother on the bus into town. Yes the train is still out of service, how annoying.

I showered and collected all my things and headed off into town.

I almost slipped up buying a return ticket, for the train, by not saying "student". I may not be a student anymore but i still have a valid travel card until the end of the year. I almost had to fork out 18 euro or something. But i said, in shock, student, but the ticket was already printed, the guy re-printed. €14.80 please....

Eh... wasn't it 12.50??? So i scrambled for change and was left with no coins and only my dads visa for buying my way to Australia.

Getting off the bus in town i told my mother of this and kindly i was able to recieve 5 euro to get me through my day. Possibly the last spending money i'll see for a long time.


I hoped on the dart in connolly to get to Pearse. It was raining and going via the Docklands is just not as nice as going up and down steps and ramps and being carried through the murk of 730am Dublin in Autumnal weather.

So in my computer loving way i thought, let's see if i still have access to the college network.


Aras an Phiarsigh... or IS services as i've always called it was locked, it was still not 8am.

The arts block however was open. Off i went.


Ahhhh computer fix. Okay so these awful College computers may now have Vista, but i'll use 'em either way!


This lasted till 930 or so and i hoped over to the Gimby for some newspapers. It was still raining, and i had only one task to do, with another in reserve, weather and time permitting.


I got into the Society and it was all so queit. Contract cleaners doing there thing and not another soul about.

There however, were NO newspapers. Just the dreaded TCD student newspaper.....

It was reading but it wasn't good reading. A Rockstar can and my iPod Nano kept me company whilst reading about college issue's, rejoice's about no fee's and a life that i have now left behind.


There i sat. A fresher couple on their laptops. A hanging guy crashing face down in a couch and the odd head popping in and out of the door.


Then in came Kaffee. He rounded the entire room before noticing me but came over and we started a good chin wag and catch up.


Then the "Tea and toast" service started. Dona and her boss lady, who's nickname i have forgotten rolled in and set up the wee event for Freshers and others.

At first i wasn't interested, but the smell of toast was all to good.


Dona, with her Tattoes, bouncy charm and Public Enemy t-shirt was happy to see me and everyone and handed out toast galore. With Spreads of Nutella and i think some jam available.

Although i'm actually doubting the jam... I think that essential toast-al condiment was ommitted for some reason.

Not being a flavoured water man i had no liquid to acopany my toast. But Dona soon rectified this by discussing how she and almost no one else she knew in the entire college didn't drink tea. I piped up and we shared some Semi-flat Cadet orange that was left over from a previous event. Dona mainly extracted this gloriously cheap muck as a means of getting on the wrong side of her OTHER boss lady, Boop.

I never got the full details but from what i could gather all is not so happy in the MC department. I want name names but it seems like its not exactly peachy.


Kaffee, myself and Ming sat down at the head of the room in a semi-circle and discussed, the society, life, friendships, and the social impact of facebook and it's wider implications on how we now live our lives....


IT's girlfriend arrived and Ming talk to her. So i then started to discuss the Society and college life with Kaffee. He's a tad disillusioned with the "cliques" and certain key figures about the place but instead of egging this on i just reassured him that he was still an important figure, and sort of a Yoda type. Dispensing little gem's and trope's of debating and knowledge wisdom. He listened but i don't know if it invoked the same zeal and enthusiasm by witch he has instilled in some like myself, or the same caffinated over-acting that Gammaman gives to any story...


I then slowly departed the Gimby with Ming in toe and we discussed my trip to Oz and how we should SO do another movie night soon. I suggested that the NEXT drinking game should be to all the "Fucks" in In Bruges.(A suggestion from my sister) I think it should be done. Just for the challange.


He also mentioned how my leaving is sort of like "abondoning" him. I don't take most of his comments about my leaving, or my failing nursing to heart, but i do sense he's uncomfertable about it. But we've made plans for another movie night and other stuff so hopefully we'll have a good friendly good bye and so on.



I walked across front square with Ming as we discussed my departure but then he ran into his GF so i waited a minute or so but then moved on waving goodbye.


As i walked to the travel agent i got out my notebook and sorted what page's of notes and information i needed. Oddly this meant i ran into Egyptian Paul as he was walking somewhere up Dame Street. I walked and talked with him briefly and then stopped, i had a bin to find for the ball of paper in my hand, there wasn't one. How strange. I walked back to Trail finders and walked in.


I had been directed to talk to someone specific that my sister knows from her School days. Some former Gonzaga or Clongoe's guy that she hung out with years ago. In short someone i wouldn't have met ever, so aiming to deal with him was optimistic at best.

I got to the visa desk and it was a slow process of odd questions and hovering pen movements to get it all finished. The woman who handled my visa application was nice and saw the funny side of the form and i exchange some words with her.

Then it was back to the front desk where i asked again for the stranger i was meant to go via, he was on the phones that day. So i was sent to someone else.

I told this guy where i wanted to go and he started typing and searching away.

Bermused by the lack of back and forth i mentioned the Date i wanted to leave, the city i wanted to go to and the specific airline. Why he hadn't asked me was annoying.

Then 5 minutes of silence later was the random question:

"Have you ever been to Israel?"

"eh, what, uh, no?"

"okay."


And then more silence.

Asked for visa. Used it. Done.

He went away, came back. Went away, came back. And i had a printed ticket. A few awkward thank you's and goodbyes and i was done.


I left and phoned the Dad and i was done. Now for more hanging out in the gimby.

No one was about, and no newspapers. So i used the computers in the attic.


Eventually Gammaman replied to my question about free for lunch and we met up and walked and talked.

I had had a Londis roll earlier and was left with no money, just change. So we went to M&S.


He got pasta salad while i bought a Doughnut for 60cent.


We went back to his room in Goldsmith, it has a hidden courtyard behind Pearse, pretty cool.


Then we sat down as he wrote his speech for that nigths debate. He paced and discussed stuff while I, well i just listened and played the wii. Yeah he has a Wii. Lucky bastard.

It was a pretty good speech.

Over to the debate and i spent time with a few people a few hello's etc but mainly sat beside Ming who gave the first Op speech. It wasn't that bad, but he seemed a bit upset over how it went.

The first expert's speech went on a tad too long and i had to leave after it for the 9pm bus. I walked fast and got it on time.




So here we are now.


And the plan for the next month is not exactly set in stone.

I hope to do the following over the next few weeks:


Lunch with Budsey and PG in Eddie Rockets.

Another Movie night with Ming and his friend Ché.

A movie and meet up with DS when he's back at the end of this month.

Maybe the UCD IV as a novice or to help some newbie get by.

Then maybe a movie night of my own, The Godfather Trilogy, all at once???

A Goodbye party, or two.

One with the society people in town, and another at my home close to when i leave, and when the trains are back.

A Chamber Debate on the wednesday before i leave, as a final goodbye to the Society.


All will be planned over the next week....

Until then toodles bloggers, readers, stalkers and wierd people i may like or fear some day.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

songs that make you feel good!

Sweet Disposition by The Tempar Trap




Dogs Days are Over by Florence and the machine








She Fucking Hate's me by Puddle of Mud



















You've got the love by Florence and the Machine








Bulletproof by La Roux













All By Myself by Marianas Trench



That is all.


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I'm Heading Down Under...

Yes indeed.


On monday i was doing the usual, chore's and next to nothing. Things are bleak here in ireland and my parents know this.


So while i was sorting my dad's receipts in date order and then collecting copper change into money bags my dad discussed the possiblity of sending me to live with my sister so that i could get work and money for college.


Since failing Nursing i have been unemployed and frankly ireland is really really not a place to get a job these days, and i don't exactly have much work experiance.


So i'm being shipped off to the southern hemisphere and a country emerging from a recession.



So that's where i'm heading in the foreseeable future.

Some time in November or December i will be flying off to get work and to fund my future.


That future is not set but i'm looking at returning to college. Trinity is out of the question as none of the course's i'm interested in are available to me with the points i got in the leaving cert 3 years ago.


So i'm applying for either an Arts degree in UCD(D) or English with film or journalism in Scotland.


To Study Arts here in Ireland require's me to pay for my first 2 years as i have already recieved them for free, in my first 2 years of nursing. I still owe 7 grand for my repeat year. So working and getting money together is essential.

Scotland is an option because that's what my sister did. She got "free" education there. And so does my friend DS. I can't pass up that option at all because it's cheaper and yet another life affirming choice.

Ireland is my home. I will miss my friends in Trinity and from Nursing, i already do being cooped up at home, but Australia is on the other side of the world. UCD would be a return to my Southside "roots" but i'm not that pushed about it. Scotland however sounds so promising. To do what i want to do in another world and be independent while doing it.

And of course if i choose Napier, my sisters college, i'll be in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a great city, and it means i can host friends who pop over for the Fringe and comedy festival's, what's not to like about that?



It's all ahead of me now.


PS: Sorry for the lack of blogging, but i don't have my own computer or the same amount of time on my dads laptop. I also have far less to blog about stuck at home!

Friday, October 9, 2009

I get by with a little help from my friends:

As the world of the internet grows, it finally reaches people you wouldn't think would also be there.

After all before facebook we wouldn't know what our friends were doing when they were not around us. Now we know everything...


So i am proud to say that some of my friends are now bloggers!

Yes indeedy. I won't reveal who they're nicknames are exactly on my blog, but these people are my real friends and they also blog.

There are the wonderfully odd and informative word's of Zeta Reticuli over on Abstract and Abtruse.

He's new to all this, and blogs infrequently, but the standard is high and he has good things to say.

Enjoy this post about Suicide


Then there is Bella over on Ponderful.

Ponderful is simply wonderful. Even with just a few posts Bella has in essence captured everything i love about blogging. Wit and opinion all tied up with a gorgeous little ribbon of brilliance. She is a born writer of blogs and i hope will write more wonders in the future.

Just read the viscous nature of the metaphoric goo that is her wonderful writing.


There is also the Quixotic Michael who i befriended from his previous blog, " Full of high sentence, but a bit obtruse?", which is now long gone.


Michael Quixote is now in Paris on his erasmus year and blogs occaisionally about his time in Paris.


Visit Parisian Tale's to envy this intrepid young man in one of the most romantic cities on earth.








Bloggers that i now count as friends, or indispencible:




There is of course the wonderful and crazy adventure's of White Rabbit aka "Au Lapin blanc".


White Rabbit is from Up north, so that might be SOME excuse for her extra odd nature, but at heart she's a cupcake loving whimsical force of nature that is a must read. She post's so frequently a day can not be complete without her fine words gracing my reader.


A recent sweet tooth related adventure.




There is also the Growing pains and wonderful mind of Vicki on .Wear Me out.


.Wear Me Out is not a genre blog, or a constant sight in my reader, but it is moving, informative and a bright spark of genious from a young girl trying to get by in the horrible world of Dundalk.


Vicki has been at it for a while, but her blogging style show's wit, whimsy and oodles of hyperbole and self reflection as well as an insight into a young Lesbian woman in modern Ireland. A must read no matter what, whether you seek wit and a good story, or the blossoming talent of a good writer, .Wear Me Out is a must read.


Oh and don't hug her for too long.






Maxi Crane.....




This man is indispensible. He is the king of NSFW blogging in the irish Scene. He is an island of perversion unto himself. And frankly, if you're anyone, who's anyone, who also read's blogs, you have to read Maxi. It's just an essential part of life in the blogging world.


Whether it's his own, NSFW, website or his guest posts for others, Maxi is an wonderful Perverted figure of a crusty perverted internet tour de force of wit, hyperbole, sarcasm and seething hate of Twink that has to be read to be believed.


Maxi Crane.




Maxi is also shacked up with the wonderfully giddy and wonderful The Jelly Monster.


Both Jelly and Maxi are lover's of a good cuppa tea. So give them a read and honour them with a good dunking of biscuits in the life blood of the British and Irish Isle's, a good bru.






There are also the folks on Culch.ie and Coddle Pot that can't be forgotten. Enjoy.



Thursday, October 8, 2009

Road to the future...

So i'm going to talk about what's going on in my life, how i got here, what i'm doing, and what i hope to do.

I want to keep this as brief as possible, to not rant, but i know i will, so bare with me...


What Happened:


Unsure who I was i thought Nursing was a good choice of career and or college.

I spent the first year lonely and slightly lazy college wise but i passed.

I had a failed relationship in my second year and was even lazier. And i failed.

I was given another chance. I repeated the year. I built a massive new peer group on campus and loved it. I spent all my free time giving to it and receiving some thanks in return. I also didn't work hard enough.

I tried to work hard. But i was still me, it had been so long i was lazy, i avoided it and i was afraid that i would fail and disapoint people. I was afraid to try and i avoided it.

I failed. I disapointed myself and my parents who are if anything exhausted with me.

3 years of college down the drain. 6 years of private school education that i never put to any use.

I'm Lonely.

I'm Lethargic, depressed, lazy, annoyed, frustrated, negative and generally fear responsibility or any drive at all.




What am i doing?




I'm the house maid. I clean the house, unwillingly and lackadaisically and feed and walk the dogs.

I slowly search for new college course's. I've barely updated my CV and done nothing with it.

I email Society people willing to help out and even make some money from it, but all those spots are filled.

I miss my friends. I miss having something to do. I feel sorry for myself and i do fuck all everyday.

I watch far too much pirated television the day after it airs in the states.

I think and yet i do nothing. I dream and yet i don't fulfill any of them.

I reflect on everything and still blame and excuse myself in equal measure, but i don't deal with the present.



What i have to do?

I have to earn money.

I have to repay my parents.

I have to achieve my own independence and have a career that allows me to survive in this world.

And i have to be an adult.


How will i achieve this?


By getting a job, any kind, as long as it pays minutely above minimum wage as per the law etc.

Saving for college here or abroad, and most likely getting a student loan.

Being confident in myself and competent in my actions to be a successful student and become qualified.

By the time i am likely to be finished college i will be 26. Very late i know, but by then i hope to be mature.

I hope to do some kind of arts degree, english or film or journalism. There are several course's that encompass aspects of both. And UCD or Scotland are my main choices.





Why i never made this choice 4 years ago is beyond me. Nursing was okay, but i never really worked. I never took responsibility and it was a disaster. I could do the job but my heart was never in it. I was depressed for most of it and frankly because i was down and never fully working it just kept getting worse and worse. And i eventually failed for the last time.



Now i have to find employment of some kind. I have to claw my place into the world with no qualifications and no experience and hope i can run back to college and learn something i am interested in that has the slightest chance of a career at the end of it.



It sounds like a really really big challenge, but i have to do it.





I have dreams:




I want to travel the world.

Inter-railing.

American Road Trip.

Ozbus - London to Sydney

and maybe even road trip to Rio 2016.

I want to be a writer. I want to continue my love of film, write books, write screenplays, write short stories, write blogs and generally be me and have fun while doing it.

I want to somehow achieve freedom by expressing who i am and discussing the wider world.

I also want to share what i have to offer with the world, whether through teaching, writing, journalism, blogging or even film/television/plays.

I basically want to be heard. I want my mind and my words to be my talent and main skill.


I may be lethargic and self loathing at the moment but i would be willing to do anything to make this dream come true. To have freedom to see the world to live in the world and experiance all life has to offer.

I have never liked the idea of 9 to 5. But i do long for the idea of settling down some day.

If i can see the world, live life, write all the time in various ways and then settle down and teach or share more, then i would be happy. That would be the perfect life for me. I just have to achieve it.



Goal's:

To Graduate from College

To See the World

To write no matter what.

To settle down and share my knoledge with children and others.

To die in the comfort that i at least lived and left enough of a mark that people i don't know will still remember me and believe i lived a good life.



Now To live life.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Snip Snip Mr Dullard

I apologise for the lack of bloggage, this will be excused latter. Right now i will chronicle monday and what happened to me on that day, or at least comment about it.



For the most part it was a wasted day. I got up around half 9 as is now my norm. And i sat down to my dads laptop and dawdled through the hours till about 11 or so when i cleaned the kitchen in full to make it look like i was actually doing the housework i was meant to be doing.


I had wanted to wake at 5am or whatever inhuman hour my parents wake is, and head into town and spend time with the society etc and do some judging and generally help out and "hang with my hommies". I really really really miss campus life and doing anything in particular.


If i had passed my assignment i would be on the wards in hospital. Slaving after people for free, learning minute amounts and generally doing something with my day, and or life.

Instead i've been watching tv on my dads laptop, with the widescreen tv showing bbc news 24 on mute, (so as to not miss the apocalypse or another source of the time) and generally looking after the house and feeding the dogs.

Last wednesday i even walked the dogs for about 10 kilometers just because i was bored! 10 KM! I was fucking knackered, and they slept for the rest of the day, poor little things.



But back to monday. My daily clean up was running late, and lazy. I caught Dexter, Family guy and other shows but slowly and mainly the morning was catching up on blogs.



I then had to go to the doctor. I had been last thursday for a consultation and i had learned what it actually was i had.

A skin condition thats a cousin of psoriasis called Lichen Planus.

Its a very mild thing and isnt actually all the serious, just a bitch.


So on monday i had to go into the doctor for a biopsy, and the removal of a "congenital mole" on my chest.



After the gruelling hours spent driving in with my father we eventually got there.

There is little to be said about drives with my father, but they can be very dull, nothing but talk radio, the odd idiological discussion, tid bits of philosophy, polotics and trivial facts, but usually one sided, uninteresting and generally arse numbingly boring.

I'm used to the 15-20 minutes we usually get between the train or bus to home, but an hour and 50 minutes heading into Dublin can be torture.

Drogheda, Dublin Road, Julianstown, M1, Drumcondra Road onto Griffith Avenue, Some random housing estate, The ballymun road and then all the way in and spitting back out again at Christ Church.

We decided going via the back of the city instead of across or through it would be best, so we went "home" to Rathfarnham. Damn it's changed. Well home is more Ballinteer but our old housing estate was so posh that it adressed itself as Rathfarnham solely because it was beside Marley Park.

We then went up the "green route" that passes behind our old estate to get onto the slip road that we thought went to Sandyford and the Private hospital.

We got there and we were met with no road signage and several exists on the roundabout. We saw two seperate tower block area's sticking up and we couldn't figure out which one it was. So we went ahead thinking we could still stay on this "slip road", big mistake.

We ran out of road and straight onto the M50. We went under the junction we thought was the right one and flew down the motorway for a couple of miles before we could turn back. It was so annoying.

And then when we got back the junction we got lost on turned out to be the right one, we could see a big green banner about 3 stories high hanging off an unfinnished apartment block advertising the very collection of buildings we wanted.

In time, just about.

Up to the day ward.

"You for Dr Foreigner, he's upstairs on the 3rd floor in the "Satalite day surgery" today" said the Clerk.

Despite directions for the day ward on the first floor from Dr Foreigner, oh well i guess he was bumped up.


Lifts, where are the shagging lifts, oh right, hidden around the corner with little signage.

Door wheres the door, Satalite Day Surgery anyone? Oh it's not signed it litterally is the first door here...

Another Clerk.

"I wouldn't know, it's through there."


Arrive at my destination with Father in tow, only one there.

A scrawny guy with glasses is tip tap tapping at his computer and tell's me he'll be with me in a minute.

I go through.

Clerk: "First time here?"

SD "yes, well no, i was here on thursday for a consultation."

Clerk "Okay." He turns and grabs a few forms slashes out sections with his pen and hands it to me.

I fill it out with aid of a note in my note book. As i hover to answer what my DOB is and so on he starts asking me them for another computer form.

Clerk: "Religion?"

SD: "Eh.. Agnostic..?"

And other information i won't share, but short and brief and generally annoying. Then with the forms signed i sit there for a couple of minutes as he types and prints and doesnt say a word. I twiddle my thumbs, my dad checks with me by mouthing through the open door if the date i asked the clerk for was the correct one. I just nod.


A random comment about the weather. "Yes it is rather warm today..." I say in reply, obviously caring very little about the predictable and silly small talk that came from nowhere after 2 minutes of silence as the clerk frustratingly filled out his forms and clicked in vein to get his printer to work when ordered to. It printed eventually...

Then i sat back in the weighting area.

An old man babbled about some old irish celeb from the radio with my dad, and also how his assistant is a pakistani but "i shout at him in japanese..." I smiled at the thought but was busy putting my wallet etc in my bag and handing my phone to my dad as he had left his at home.

I also noticed the tea trolley for hospitality was parked infront of the fire alarm circuits and controlls. Right ontop of some of the master switches at that, very safe...


Finally the nurse called me in.

As i entered the room the Dr Foreigner was there, it was all go now.

The nurse asked me where i was having the mole removed etc, my chest. And then the doctor looked at my rash.

Despite taking no medicine that day it was mild, but this was because it was late after noon and been sitting on my arse all day. It was at its weakest.

But he found one on my right inner arm that was good enough to rip up so he chose that one.

I took off my Jumper and T-shirt and lay back on the paper hygene cover of the opperatting table.

"Think happy thoughts, and it will be all be over before you know it." Said nurse 1.

"heh" i thought.

The over head light was moved into place and i waited.

The doctor scootched back to me on his stool and pulled a dressing trolley with his disposable cutting kit and some swabbing liquids.

"What gauge do you want doctor?"

Hmm i should have recognised all that dialogue, frankly i ignored most of it, even didnt hear what local i was getting.

"Now think happy thoughts, just lie back there and it'll all be over soon."


Hooo hoo hooo shooo shooo shoo. Deep Breath deep breath. There's a dent on the ceiling, OUCH OUCH OUCH, Pinchy feeling, pinchy feeling, deeper pinching feeling, breath, breath, breath, FUCK off with the patronising words, i know i'm doing fine, i have no happy place!, Breath, breath, Ooohh the Lamp looks like it's from Close encounters of the 3rd kind! Okay thats done.

Now the arm....

The the sheets go on. Sterile sheets. Damn my arms sore in this arkward position.

And i have to say its kind of embarrassing sitting here in front of 2 nurse's who aren't actually paying attention to me all to much, and yet i am fully aware that i have a stomach mike the Michelin man when i sit forward. Damn i need to get into shape, just so i don't have to have little dumpling rolls of fat when i have to bare all for strangers during a clinical procedure....

The Doctor starts to cut away at the mole and i flinch a bit but look up at the ceiling, breathing.

"Are you okay, do you feel anything?"

"No just the pressure and the movement, it's a little weird, but no pain." Exactly what i expect, and what they want to hear. And of course what i felt.

Then after a few bizarre tugs and chops the nurse is holding a mole, flesh and fermaldahide in a toxic waste cup inch's from my face "All gone".

LOVELY.


Then the doctor leaves for some reason, my arm is getting tired here!

Chit chat with the nurse's.

"well i was studying nursing until recently."

"I was in second year."

"no i was in my repeat year."

"it was an assignment on the outpatient care of a patient with hypertension, asthma and give him smoking cessation and weight loss advise."

Nurse 2 talked about how she did it as a mature student a few years back, but could never have passed if it wasn't for spell check.

And Nurse 1 did it back in 1991, that apparently tells me how old she is. But i don't care about the maths my arm is uncomfertable and i'm sitting here all moobs and Michelin man chest!

The stiches hurt for the mole, i had felt the pinch and pull as he closed the site where my little mole had been.

Now i worried it had been so long that my wrist would hurt more, "is this local really lasting this long" i thought in my head. I didn't doubt it though. The second the doctor was back he was at it again and it was all done. I'm biopsied.

He then asked about my Acne, and whether we, as in he, were going to do anything for it. I just said after all these years its actually pretty mild, i don't even manage it anymore. I get by fine and even with health insurance i wasn't going to let that guy do any more, or milk more money.

I had taken 3 course's of antibiotics in the passed without a cure. I knew that the last option was a dermatology only drug that had a major risk of a side affect that causes low moods, FUCK THAT SHIT!



I was all done. The dressings will be off in 48 hours, stitches in 10 days.

I love dressings. My favorite skill when i was doing nursing.

Out to the dad. All done.

He couldn't figure out my phone for some reason. Eh, it's the C button, it clears mistakes, YES there's 2 buttons there.... one C, one Red...


The Dad stops and asks the Clerk we talked to on our way in if we have to pay?

"I wouldn't know, this is cardiology, if he didn't stop you to ask for payment the i'd say just go?"

"Right dad, leggit!"


I knew it was on the insurance, but to stop and ask was just a bit silly.

Oh god, rush hour, heading north? 1hour 50 minutes just to get to the M1!!!