Utterly lost...

Now that Lost is gone, there will be endless reference to it for the rest of eternity. But those of us who actually watched most of it, and stuck with it for 6 years. We can appreciate all the parody and meta-jokes and meme's a whole lot more!




That actually looks like a great show, especially since they both survived!




Yep, it was all a dogs dream!




I lol'd.





Apparently the Polar bear's, yes there was more than one, were on Russo's ship. But also one ended up in the desert, during the whole time travel thing....



Or they were here for this:





Also, if you never watched it, here is an explanation:



And here is a list of all the unanswered questions:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Oh btw, i think i will make this a regular part of my blog. At least one Lost parody a week!

On the road, to a cineplex near you...

See what i did there? Yeah i hate pun's some times.


But anyway, it seem's after some 30 years, and longer, in development hell Jack Kerouac's Classic beetnick bible On The Road is going to be made a film.

So far so good. Although there's some doubt surrounding it.

For one thing Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst are confirmed stars for the adaptation. Well they're star's whose names the general public will recognise. In the Novel Female role's are scarce really, Mary Lou (Confirmed as being Kristen Stewart), Jane and a few others feature here and there, but how exactly this movie will play out is beyond me.




The two Leads the Narrator Sal Paradise and the close Friend Dean Moriarty are the main feature of the whole story. But who's playing them... Good question!







Sam Riley, Plays Sal Paradise. You may have seen him in Control, a movie about Joy Divisions origional Front man. If not, you've probably never really heard of him.

But considering his VERY good performance of Ian Curtis in Control he embodies the Jerky and manic nature of Curtis really well. If anything he's more suited to play the completly out there Dean Moriarty, if his previous role is anything to go by.

Who will play Dean, the real Thermometer/Barometer of how crazy this duo get's as they journey across America?







Garrett Hudland. Who you ask? Well he's playing the Lead in this summers Tron Legacy. Ye know, Tron, that groundbreaking special effects wonderkind of the 80s that Disney spent millions on, but few people saw or liked at the time, but now is considered legendary and culturally and aesthetically important/groundbreaking/buzzword/over-hype etc etc


He also played Patroclus in Troy. You may remember that there's a big deal made out of this Character, not only in the movie, and the Illyad's, plot. But also that there was controversy surrounding how it was changed for Hollywood audience's.


His role was small in the god awful film, but 2 very important scenes follow. 1 Being the Death of Eric Bana's Hector, the other being Peter O'Tool Delivering the ONLY worthy scene of acting in this abortion of a movie. But Patroclus was in the original a close warrior friend of Achilles and his lover. In the movie, he was demoted to unexplained Cousin. Unexplained because of Achilles apparent demi-god status, which would make a cousin very confusing for anyone who payed attention.....


I don't know Hudland at all really, so i have to wait for Tron Legacy to see if he's any good. 


But i sort of get the sense that although Sam Riley is a good casting for a more Indy movie, and because of his acting chops i can actually refer to, Hudland seem's like a massive unknown.


Both Kristen and Kirsten won't have much to do in this film, depending on where in the story they focus, but they are both strong actor's and i think they can carry the female role's that are on offer, however few of them there may be.




When reading the book myself last summer, and only finishing it a few months ago, i felt this book HAD to be seen in some form. Although i value it as a book i love, and i rarely read, i think it was meant to be adapted in some way.


But it's FAR to long to be a film. A trilogy maybe, but it would be impossible to make that way.


Instead while reading it i felt it would be best adapted as a black and White Narrated Graffic Novel or Cell shaded Animation.


It could be as long as you want and specific details could be highlighted in each frame far better than in a film, where you need the a whole lot more to grab the audience.


The real story is in the fast and manic narration of the wild adventure. Can it translate into a movie? I have no idea? But i am pretty happy that someone is finally making one!




BONUS PICTURE's:







This is the Scroll of paper that Jack Kerouac Wrote the original On the Road On. In a period of about 2 weeks or so of constant typing, Kerouac punched out his past decade of Road Trips and Beet life in a fictionalised form. And thus the legend was born.



Jack Kereoac and Neal Cassidy (Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty)

I'm so indie i listen to bands that don't exist yet...

Or so goes my favorite popular cultural meta-jibe of the moment.


After all what is indie? Fuck if i know.


Yes like most labels there's a fashion, a mind set, a certain set of political belief's and of course Music and film Genre's.


Frankly i hate label's.


I for one can't ever think of one i fit into.


I like to think of myself as a tortured un-focused, un-achieving, daydreaming possible arty type person.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE Film. It is the one medium that when i talk about it my whole body feel's like it's glowing with the smuggness i get from knowing i what i know and sharing it with the world. It is an overwhelming feeling of belonging, and being heard while at the same time talking about how you regularly escape reality. Nothing surpasses how Smug and happy talking about you're favourite art form can make you.


Some people do this with Music, some with Art. Some even do it with Fashion and lifestyles. But i, i'm an individual. Well in some area's anyway. After all i have yet to be allowed shop for my own clothes for parental fear of looking like a tramp, knacker, low-life, or some kind of fruit cake.


But in my love for film, which is generally universal and forgiving i can't say i'm any kind of Genre Thumping supporter.

Some people love Horror, Some Love Rom-coms, Some love crime. Some love blockbusters.

I. I love everything that i find good.


I have hated very few films.

Films in my hate pile include, The Ring 2, Peaches, Battlefield Earth, Spiderman 3 and Epic Movie. Oh and the last 20 minutes of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Considering the hundreds of movies i have seen, this is a small enough list.


In terms of music i'm entirely individualistic, and in some sense's indie.

Like anyone i listen to popular music. But usually miss a few hits here and there because i avoid consuming radio.

My own taste is vastly eclectic. But i've had my musical taste best described to me by an arty person as, wait for it.


"The musical Taste of a 16 year old girl."


Okay so i admit, i love pop-punk. Fall Out Boy and Paramore being the top contributors of the Genre in my collection. But i love the genre, i love the feel, and i love the melody. But i also love pop-punk bands that no-one has heard of.

Sadly my first Major music love was Mest. A punk band. Now i look back, they were kind of awful. But they have a special place in my heart.

Quirky un-signed bands and now defunct bands from all over that i have found on myspace over the years.


A Day Away, Farewell, Mercy Mercedes, The Mile After, Holiday Parade, The High Court, Emily, The Shower Scene, Blue Syndrome, Modrocket and Yelle.

All absoloute random bands who make up my playlists and shuffle just as much as bigger Bands Like The Academy Is..., Cute is what we aim for, All Time Low, The All-American Rejects, Green Day and the "Indie-tacular" The Like.

And of course Canadian melodic masters Marianas Trench.

I'm not sure where i was taking this post, but now i will include, Youtube clips!!!


Meta-meme's, and uber quirks and so on that i just love.





Ah the Muppets, they're just all warm and fuzzy.



Out of all the summer blockbusters and so on, this little indie film has stood out to me in recent daily film blog and trailer news. I've heard little about it because it's so small time, but something just seem's to say this is going to be quite fun and charming.

Sort of like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind (one of my top favorite movies of all time) this film blends romance with Science fiction. And i have to say the Philosophical question of a timer countdown to your true love is just brilliant. That and the Catchy twist that the protagonists Timer is blank! Also sort of reminds me of the Coloured diamonds on the hands of people in Logan's Run.





Werner Hertzog. A legend of Cinema as it is. My wonderful English teacher introduced me to his work via the means of Friday's film club. I always attended for 3 straight years with the exception of only 2 or so occasions (that and falling asleep to Citizen Kane). But 2 gem's that i remember vividly are Hertzog Film's.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God Which is basically just a descent into madness and utter brilliance.


And




Fitzcarraldo Which is where he Literally lifted a steamboat up a mountain using the local people and a shit load of rope and tree's. It's mind-blowingly impressive, and equally insane. 


And this clip, where he "READ'S" Where's Wally, it's just un-fucking-believably cool!


It's total non-sense of the highest order, but at the same time it's great! Oh BTW, it isn't actually Werner Hertzog, but it's amazing none-the-less!




For now, no more quirky-ness.

Morgan M Morganson, a brilliant short film.

Here's a brilliant short film that i found on HitRecord, staring Joesph Gordon-Levitt.




The tongue twisting and hilarious narration is rather amazing, if only me food brigner penguin would appearise!

It all looks different with hindsight...

 

Like the apove picture of Reagan visiting Russia it would have looked just like a normal stately visit back in the 80s.


Now it looks like Former President and current Premier  of Russia Putin was part of the crowd as a planted KGB member with a family, there to ask pointed and pre-scripted questions to chalange the western leader.

(BTW, he's the one in the left with the Camera, behind the boy)



I mention all this because i've read back over some of my old posts and i have to say this blog does need some sprucing up when i get back to Ireland. And by this I meand Re-writing history just a little, and making it all a little easier to follow and understand.


Currently i am posting on Reticulating Splines, although it's early day's and it's all quiet here in terms of actual things to say. But that's where my blog's are at at the moment, with the odd one on Social Media Dullard too.

This blog however needs some fine Revision. Some Editing, a lick of paint.

I thought about it before i left, and now i feel i have to actually do it. This blog needs some fixing.

By this i mean, A helpful index of what went on in my life in the past year or so, a guide to what are the key posts and not just narcisistic wankery. And even rename some of those posts so that they are easier to find.


This will also include fixing up the label's and making sure they are all in order.

As well as even sticking in annotations and links to further posts to guide any readers of my back catalog what happened when etc.


I don't actually know when i will do that. But it will be done eventually, and soon. Some time over the next 8 months while this blog is quiet. So expect to see that Helpful Indexing and Guide sometime....


In the Meantime follow what i'm up to or thinking on Reticulating Splines, and read my opinions on my Internet and tech blog Social Media Dullard.

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.

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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:






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:



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:



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





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!



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.




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.

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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

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.

Q-Rated: Reviewing Web 2.0 and it's toys

Now as an avid web user i have to say i spend a lot of time wondering what to do with my time on the web.

One thing that i have found is that i want to assimilate and read as much information as possible without having to scroll through old tweeter posts or facebook posts. I also want all that information as up-to-date as possible.

This is where "web 2.0" comes in.

No longer is the World wide web a static page based thing.

Now it's ALIVE!!!


Not quite like Frankenstiens monster but it's at least a busy place.


So what's happening on the internet right now?

Well there's a search engine for that.

OneRiot.

It may only be starting out but it is a real time search engine. It follow's the trends of what everyone is searching for and is basically all about current News, Gossip and internet Meme's.

Ye know, the dreggs of the internet. And i approve of this idea.

It also is trying to role out location specific sites, So eventually there will be a OneRiot.ie....



Now how exactly do i keep up with my Facebook and Twitter-ing, well i have yet to decide.

There is of course the old way, the websites, but this can be slow and boring. And if you're busy then chat's can get annoying.

DIGSBY
 
For Windows Live Messenger(MSN to old foggies like myself), Google Chat and facebook you have Digsby.


Digsby is great for chatting. It even combines accounts. It notify's you of incoming emails and even has Twitter and Facebook capabilities. With the facebook recently updated.

It is rather impressive and customisable. It is invaluable sometimes, but due to my slower, older computer sometimes i don't use it.

YOONO
An alternative is Yoono, and its far more Twitter based, but it also has nicer pop-ups.

It sports Google chat, MSN, Facebook, Imeem, FreindFeed and twitter to name but a few. And it has some nice little sounds for notifying you. It's not intrusive and isn't as demanding of Processing power as Digsby.

It's tweeting and status updating is also really good.

It even has it's own internet browser built in to help you look at links when you want to. Although you can set this to your default Browser.

It also sports a shareaholic button on every tweet and newsfeed item, for those really excessive sharer's.

There is a really small twitpic intigrated into update's and notifications.So you can see pictures right inside the tweet, which is very handy, but they are small...

It even has a Re-tweet button.

I do love it, but sometimes i prefare Digsby for it's chat windows. No one is on my MSN too often and Facebook Chat isn't on Yoono Yet, which is the real kicker. Also i can't get Google Talk to work, i'm not sure why, but i think it's the whole "college email" thing.


TweetDeck

TweetDeck is basically one of the top ways you can tweet on Twitter. It's a rather good aplication. It even has Twitpic built into it so you never have to go to another page to view a picture. And they are full size which is very handy.


I view tweetdeck as my HARDCORE tweeting application. It keeps track of whats going on and has group functions and so on.

But if i want to read the tweets, i have to actually have the window open. This is a pain.

It only has a flash notification up in the corner of my screen, and this is nothing, it doesn't tell me anything, other than there is a new tweet.

Digsby and Yoono show you the tweet, Digsby shortens it if it's too long, but it shows it.


Tweetdeck now also has FULL facebook news feeds. But it's not as interactive. You can't like stuff and comment as easily as Yoono or Digsby.

TweetDeck has large proliferation and is used by a lot of twitter users. And you can see all the cool Tweeter's and Tweet-Celebs are using it.

The facebook is still weak, but it's a growth that can't be ignored. I don't use it however. Ever since this new build i've used it less.


Flock (internet Browser)

Other means of getting Twitter and Facebook and other services.

I won't deny the fact that i am a Flocker.

Flock is a "Social-Networking" Browser.

Under the hood, so to speak, it is just Mozilla Firefox, but it comes with it's own constant connection to your Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Photobucket, youtube, Gmail and it also has it's own Media stream search tool for photo's and video. It also boasts a blog writting tool that i have used frequently.


 It also has a rather nifty Clipboard for Text and Photographs. You can literally drag a photo off a web page into the clip board and it save's it. You can then drag the photo into blog post's or emails and it does the linking and pasting for you. Which is rather handy.

 Facebook's chat and notification system is also built in. However this is bizarrely faster than Facebook.com itself. Facebook experiance's so many hick-ups from updates that it leaves out notifications sometimes, so i'm left staring at the one's i didn't click on in Flock, wondering what the hell?

However, despite it now being my default browser it's Twitter and Facebook functions lay dormant.
They just don't look as nice and the notifications aren't the same. Also not all actions stay in the Sidebar pane when you use them, like friend request's and other notifications.




It requires more user action instead of being hand fed the information. Which is what Yoonom, Digsby and TweetDeck all do on certain levels.


Flock however is a sturdy browser and can accept Firefox add-ons.

So Shareaholic, Stumble-upon Toolbar, Foximusic and Google Toolbar.

There's other little buttons and tweeks about the place that make it a very handy browser.

But it's not without hick-ups. My computer is slow, and thus isn't actually built to handle it. This won't be a hick-up for most people, but it sometimes leaves me pulling my hair out.


Digsby also can create this problem. Yoono however is rather low demand and is suitable for some people who have yet to embrace the power demands of vista or windows 7, or even still just have a pc thats 4 or so years behind.



In short, i just can't pick and choose!

Flock all the time, as it's my browser.

Digsby most of the time for chatting.

Yoono for reading whats going on as it happens.

And Tweetdeck when I want to do some hard core tweeting, which isn't too often.

I've seen the future....

And it may as well be garlic bread.

After all the idea of behind my new favourite gadget maker is all about adding something good to something well known and making it far better.

Garlic butter to Baguette's in this case being Affordable internet and social media to a cheap entry level phone for everyone....

I'll try and cut the jargon as much as possible. But i've mentioned many a time before how much i love my INQ 1 mobile.

From Blogging

I got it on 3 for 69 Euro pre-pay and i have never looked back since.

Now i haven't ever been to flashy or up to date with mobile phones. My first phone, which i still own was a Motorolla T2288 the generic Wap version of that FM radio phone that was heavily advertised circa 2001/2002.

Then after 5 years i switched to a Sagem as the old motorolla couldnt charge anymore. The sagem was a sturdy clam shell design and yet after a year and a half i broke it's only breakable part, the charger port....

So on to my Motorolla E770. A Videophone and an absolute brick in shape compared to most phones. It wasn't even advertised or on display in the shop. It sold so badly it was gathering dust. But it was perfect for me and served me well for a couple of years.


But then i saw it. Some rainy winter's day in ireland. I had been lusting after an iPhone or a knock off but mainly had my eyes on the LG Viewty because of it's 8 megapixel camera. Why i don't know.

But then i saw the inq 1, and then i read it was a "social networking phone" i fell in love.


The facebook phone as it is often called is not exactly advanced but it bridge's a gap that other phones don't.


As the people at INQ put it everyone else is "catching up" with apple's iPhone and will lose. Instead inq wants to make phone's that listen to their customers and provide what they want and what they really use their phones and the internet for.


And what do most of use the internet for? Social Networking. Some 60% of us apparently. That's a hefty market. And since few of us can really get an iPhone or it's "competitors" or even get a cheap knock off from Hong Kong, we can get a normal mobile that has basic internet and built in apps Like Facebook and Windows live messenger.




Now the garlic to the baguette. INQ now has 2 new phone for pre-Christmas release.


The INQ Chat and The INQ Mini or AKA the Twitterphone with Qwerty keyboard and Twitterphone Lite.


Gawk if you must:




QWERTY Keyboard Twitterphone!

From Blogging

Twitterphone Lite

From Blogging

They are both beautiful and they now feature always on Twitter. As well as an improved Facebook app and other snazzy little trinkets like Windows Live and so on. However Last.fm support has been dropped, i don't use it on my current INQ 1 but it was a nice feature. Also the promise of an eBay app/widget has disapeared/been swept under the carpet, which is also a pity.

But a cool new thing is that the new Inq's feature direct support for music via doubleTwist. doubleTwist will also alow the inq's to use iTune's songs without having to sync with iTunes. None of that iPod only crap that apple stuck onto their iTunes bought items, your music is your music you should be able to put it on any device.


I am really looking forward to these phones. I just hope that i can swap my old INQ for the new INQ Chat. I'd settle for the mini but i'm all thumbs as it is and i hate predictive text, a real qwerty keybord sounds like a god send.

Also imagine the "tweeting" on the go, the facebook on the go, the Gmail on the go, the Twitpic's i could take, the blog's i could write in brief or even long! All providing i'm in an urbanised area with a signal and have a pre-payed internet credit!

Yeah that's the ONLY downside to my inq and will be with these. I live in the country side. My phone will ONLY do it's best things when in urban area's. Otherwise it just acts as a normal phone. But hey, when at home it's all i need it for anyway!


Giddy geekiness now over.

A quest for simplicity, that was not so simple.

Oh what a productive non-productive day i've had.

You see i should have been studying, or writing and of course cleaning the house. I also have at least two loads of washing to get done and a massive pile of ironing to do as well.

But you would be able to tell by the stubble i am forming that clean or ironed cloth's aren't really on my agenda at the moment.

WEB-Watch:

A Report on Streamlining your useage:

Now i like many prolific web users have more web identities than you can shake a stick at. Now happily it's not more than i have friends, but it might not be far off.

Now a problem arrose in recent day's after i made myself a new "business" email account.

I made it with the hope that i would use it for some future entrepreneurial venture, blogging unification, or whatever.

With 2 iGoogle Account's it started to get messy checking my new Work Email and still using Google Reader in another Tab.

So i asked myself, and then google search, is there a way of viewing more than one email service from the same place.

Now i'm aware Gmail can harvest an entire email account and then recieve that account in a Gmail account but i didnt want that. I wanted them seperate.

So first off my search led me to Fuser.Com

Now Fuser sounded very promising. It can read every email account out there, feed's your twitter and even myspace and Facebook. Unfortunatly it's only a beta. IE it's not finished yet. I tried in vain but i couldn't get any of my 3 email accounts to work with it.

But i kept the account anyway as i think it will be useful in future.

My Search then eventually took me to a technology blog website that led me to "Pageonce".

This Interesting service allows you to view all your inboxes but not emails, to sort your social networking service's such as twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube, lastfm and others in the same place, and tonnes of other feature's i don't have a need for such as banks, travel companies and utilities.

The idea behind it is that you can view all the activities of your web actions in one place. However for the moment it seems it only shows you whats happening and doesn't let you control them all.

I for one like this service, although i may explore the concept further and seek it's cousin's for an better experiance. As far as i can tell there are other's but i haven't found them yet.

The next one was Iminta.

A interesting service that allows you to view all the internet activities of your friends in one live stream. So if they Digg or suggest a blog to follow you can see it, if they tweet you see it, if they update their status you see it. And the same the other way around.

You can also limit what certain groups of freinds see, and whether or not some of your information is public.

This shows promise, although it require's sending those pesky request emails to people. And i hate sending those!

The Death of my social networking.

Now as a prolific internet user i joined a good few things over the years.

Adult dating site's usually forget you once you never fully activate your accounts by paying, so that's not really a nuisance.

However normal social networking site's you don't use can be.

Somewhere in the ether of the internet is another Profile with your name and email that you don't look after. It may be out of date and seriously neglected. It may look like you have no friends or whatever.

Hence i got rid of some of my profiles. 3 of them basically.

I removed accounts from the following social networking websites:

Tagged

Netlog

Nimble

Tagged had an interesting match system but i never actually made a new friend or potential partner of the obosite sex from it, so i decided to get rid of it.

Netlog is a rapidly expanding website but frankly i had no use for it and none of my friends are on it.

Nimble was supposidly the next big thing in social networking but it really isn't when facebook changed it's tack and is now the ONLY place to be.

Now Bebo also is languishing in decline. I only use it to talk to 1 of my friends. A dire state of affairs but the truth. But i won't get rid of it just yet. Too fond of the memories.

It also is rather good. It has everything everyone else has, it also has good navigation and can stream your facebook and Twitter posts, but not your actual feeds of everyone you know on those websites. It also has band page's which have a rather basic music player. But when myspace is the most popular and successful place to be a BAND there's less of a point to it.

BUT I'M KEEPING MY BEBO!!!

Q-Rated:

Iusethis.com has now opened my eye's to what the world is using on their computers.

This meant i went on a bit of a mad spree of downloading of things i thought would be very useful.

I could list them but there's little point. I havent reviewed them all yet.

But what do i use you may ask:

Well for the internet i use Google Chrome.

In recent weeks my Media playing needs are fulfilled by Window's media player but i am also a large user of iTunes.

I do have Winamp and Real player, but they languish unused...

As for other toy's i use Google Picasa for pictures. But i will be product testing "GIMP" over the next few days. It stands for some software thing but i can't help think of those feckless masochists in latex or leather balaclava's with zips on the mouth. It's supposidly an open source software similar to Photoshop, so i'll give it a bash.

I also use TweetDeck. Twitter is good, but i can use this to update more regularly and to sort people's tweets by groups and colums as well as seeing my @replies and Direct message's all in the same place. It also has inbuilt tweetpic compatability to save on opening a webpage or another tab. It's trends are a bit shite though, it doesn't give you the live feed of the trend the same way the Twitter webstite does, i'm still hoping this will change.

LastFM. Okay so no one actually see's what i listen to, but i like the ability to know what i listen to and how much. I always have it on the go.

Windows Live Messenger. AKA MSN to those who have been using it as long as me. 6 Faithful years i think, at this rate. It's essential!

Winds of change:

I just got Firefox 3.5 and i have to say i may start using it more often. For ease in the use of my several accounts i may use it for one email while i use chrome normally. But also for it's toolbar functions and other applications. I will road test all of them but i think using all these added tools may improve and add to my internet usage the way i want it to be.

The same may be said for Opera Widgets. I have yet to fully test all Opera has to offer but i may also bend that way...

Unfortunatly it's Unite Service is a 1 account per copy of the browser affair. Which in my mind is a croc of shit. It means i can't access all that stuff using an opera browser from college computers. Which is what i would love to do with it. But security and so on means for now, such a thing can't happen.

But i may put Opera Mini on my INQ1.

I through, the support service's offered by INQ have discovered that i can add ANY java based Application or game to my INQ1. So i will definetly be trying out a lot of toys on my phone in future. Stay tuned for more in that regard!

Sorry for the nerd out, but it's what i was up to today. And unfortunatly there will be A LOT more to come...