Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Star Wars Episode 7 2015

First off a figure. This is my 400th blog post! Wow...

Ok... lets get some basic math out of the way here...

This is like the 7th of November... so there are 23 days left in November... there are 31 days in December...   so that is so far 54 days. Now we are into 2013 and 2014...  those 2 years is (365 * 2).... finally Star Wars Episode 7 will be out in 2015, and it being a block buster that will make it June... so lets say around half a year into 2015 so that's (365 / 2).
A New (New) Hope....

Now what are we looking at....

54 days  + (365 * 2) + (365 / 2)

or

54 + 730 + 183 = 967....

That's all... I thought that there would never be a new Star Wars film and now I find out that there will be one in a mere 967 days!!!!

Oh freakin yeah....

May the force be with you...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Computer News.... Half Life loaded computer news

Fancy seeing a kind of funny video about a man singing about how all operating systems are rubbish?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/2516-Every-OS-Sucks

In other news....

Gordon... I'm Alyx Vance and I am beautiful... also Mart, if you haven't played the whole Half Life 2 series your not a real gamer!!!!

Gabe Newell has (un)offically talked about Half Life 3!!!!! Rock on! It is code named Ricochet2 and he implyed that it might be out next year!!!! See more on the link below...
http://www.latinospost.com/articles/3647/20120904/half-life-3-update-newell-silence-due.htm

Now, one of the best games ever in my personal opinion is Half Life... it is still a brilliant game today if you played it on Steam but lets face it the graphics look a bit dated at this stage... soooooo.... the group of modders have remade the game and it should be out on September 14th (this year - that has to be added because I was actually waiting for the game for 5 years so far!). Look out for "Black Mesa", thats the name the brand spanking new beautifully new voice acted, new graphicsed up game.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

The risk of sorrow.

I realized today that sorrow is something very particular to me. I am not sorry if I stub my toe... I am angry. I am not sorry if I quit my job and tell my lame ass boss to stick it up his ass... I am vengefull. I am not sorry if I get caught by the GardaĆ­ with no tax, NCT or working lights at night time... I am thinking kicking myself that I did not fix my car up sooner.

But when I hurt someone I care about or when some I care about has left me...

then...

I am sorry.

Sorry I did not spend more time with them. Sorry if I screamed at them because I really just wanted to hold them and show them I care. And then there is the greatest sorrow of all. When someone passes away, dies. And you know that you will never again get to speak to that person again...

Sorrow I think is a result of having enjoyed something or someone. A result of loving their company or loving them. With true joy comes the risk of true sorrow. Or is it that where there is no risk that there is no happiness or sadness?

The more you give yourself over to something the more you risk loosing. But boy is the risk worth taking.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Information for everyone?

I just had a moment of clarity whilst making tea for myself.. not regarding tea. It was about something else.

Information.

Some information is for the public and some information is not for the public. I have alot more to say on this but the subject is such a pain in the ass one I would simply rather not, I have written and deleted a few drafts at this point but I deleted them....

*sigh*

Friday, July 6, 2012

Atlas - We are all just floating in space...

Did you ever stop to think for a second about our situation... we are on a rock - floating through space. Sure the rock is big, we find it quite big indeed. But ultimately we are just bags of mostly water on a rock orbiting a nuclear explosion... and us, the exploding sun and a few other planets are just flying through space. We do not know where we are going... we do not know where we came from... unless you agree with the scientific belief that we know where the centre of the universe is using Dopler shift to pinpoint back to where we are flying from. I agree with that belief... or rather, I believe in it.


But ultimately our planet is like a lost child wandering aimlessly forever through freezing cold space.... I like this video because it remind me that we have a choice. We can sit in our offices, working for the man, again pointlessly, aimlessly... or you can party hard - work too of course, but also enjoy life.  

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Higgs Boson

Is there any better news in the world than that news of the Higgs Boson yesterday. If you do not know what the Higgs Boson is then you will not learn about it here from me, what with the fact that I am not a nuclear physicist.. also if you do not know about it, then really you do not need to know, if you were interested then you would already know about it by now.
This picture explains how the Higgs Boson helps in propelling galaxies around the universe...  somehow...


But to me, as a pantheist, this is the greatest news I could hear. It further confirms the "standard model" in physics. The standard model is basically a mathematical understanding of the universe. Finding the Higgs Boson help to validate that the standard model is basically correct.

Again, as a pantheist, a validated standard model is an approved mathematical equation of my understanding of god. That is why I love science, that is why I love the "discovery" and that is why I love my god.

Can you explain your God in mathematical theory? Do you want to?

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Common Password List..

You know if someone wants to break into your account they can use a program that can guess your username and password. If they already know your username that is half the battle. For example, nearly every company will have an email address with admin@example.com. Now it is just a matter of guessing the password. Programs can look to a password list.. try admin@example.com as the username and try a password... if someone want to break into your account... the definitely will. Make no mistake about that one. 


But my point... here is what a list of common passwords. It would be interesting to see if you have a password that you use regularly is on this list!


http://bftp.v53.eu/passwords/CommonPasswordlist1.txt

Monday, May 28, 2012

Star Wars on Telnet!!!! Class!

For a Windows 7 machine... (but as long as you have telnet you can do it on literally anything - as long as that thing has telnet installed!)

Step 1 - Open Telnet
Go to Start...
Type run... hit Return...
Type telnet... hit Return...

Step 2 - Install Telnet (Ignore this if Telnet is installed already)
Go to Start...
Go to Control Panel
Click on Programs
Under Programs and Features click on Turn Windows features on or off...
Put a tick beside Telnet Server and Telnet Client
Screen will disappear when you are finished... Telnet will now be installed...
Cu...tting...Edge Graphics Telnet Starwars Episode IV


Step 3 - Running Star Wars - Episode IV on Telnet
If you had to do Step 2 above then you now have to retry Step 1`
Now with telnet open type the letter o as in "o" for open.
Now type towel.blinkenlights.nl


Step 4 - Marvel At The Genius of some people
Consider how long it took to get this done...
Eat something...
May the force be with you....

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Poker for idiots...

Just saw this add on television... it is for some poker website. It showed two men standing up in a warehouse kind of environment... there is a poker table between then and there is a dealer sitting at the table about to deal one last hand and the boys are obviously waiting to see the result of the card. Around this table are the audience.. a smouldering hot woman (ie - normal looking but with good lighting and 4 pints of makeup) is biting her lip in anticipation.

Come on... did you look at this add and think "I want to play poker online!" Some people will actually fall for this advert.

Sad...

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Here be dragons!

I was looking into browsers, as you do and I came across this browser called SeaMonkey. In the early days Mozilla Firefox was community driven. As in the community wrote and maintained it. However then the project got to the size that Mozilla branched off into a more commercial project called Mozilla Firefox. There were a core bunch of people that stuck with the community based version however and called the browser SeaMonkey. I believe that they initally considered calling the project Buttmonkey but changed it. Even I think that that was a good idea.

Side note: in the browser, type in about:mozilla in the address bar and hit return.. Weird ah!

Second side note: in the browser type in about:config. Go here to get access to the internal settings of your Mozilla Firefox browser. FYI - you mess up these setting you could mess up to a certain degree your browser.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

2012 - 4th April - Samsung TV!!!!

Christmas came! And I don't mean Denise Richards' character in The World Is Not Enough (only a true Bond fan will get that). What I actually mean is that we got a fantastic gift of a brand new Samsung television from Mart! You know Mart was born on the 25th December! Hmmmm....

But the new television is absolutely amazing. Thin as a wafer, crisp as a the air on a frosty January morning and as multifunctional as a Letherman in McGyvers hands. Within moments we had gotten rid of our fat ass CRT mega screen and replaced it with this sexy Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones fans) of LEDs....
awww... you're sad because you do not have a brand new television Game Of Thrones' Emilia Clarke? 

Of course Mart kindly supplied us with a Media Center laptop which we connected up the new TV, we connected Sky (which we though would have been broken on disconnecting it - but it worked) and we connected up my beautiful Xbox 360!

Everything is great, technology rocks! Thanks Mart and Marielle!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Wesport Woods Hotel

Myself and Linda are not married. We're working on it though. We called around to a few hotels doing the whole scoping them out thing and checking prices. This hotel however, the westport woods, was slow in getting back to us. This sucked because it was one of our favorite hotels for various reasons. So we were thinking that they dropped the ball big time and Linda wrote to them kinda complaining and kinda kust asking what's up. This time they called us back straight away. They said they were really sorry and offered us a night for free with the kids. So we accepted of course.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

2012 - Day 87 - Whos gonna win?

Look at this fight.. if your into fighting that is... in fact, if you are not into fighting your not gonna enjoy this at all. Not because the fight is really gruesome. It is not really bloody at all. I just came across it, the commentating is funny. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBbkodOhjOE&feature=colike


2012 - Day 86 - Tuesday

Myself and Linda went into town to get some business done. We did it, met Mart too and had a delicious meal in the Cellar bar. Well it used to be called the Cellar, is it still called the Cellar? Either way, the food was nice, if you are going by I would advise you to get the small Caesar Salad. It was delicious. And filling, although I do not know if the girl gave me extra food for free cause I was telling her how hungry I was. Then again, maybe she did give me extra food but also charged me for it, who really looks at the bill?

When we came out to Carraroe we painted a crappy wooden shelf thing we had that I had loads of junk on. Got some good quality bargain paint down at TĆ­ Liam. When we were finished with it I was like "wow, that looks fantastic".

I finished off my day with an exhausting hour session at Cliffs Gym. Phew, I was tired afterward but I felt good.

2012 - Day 85 - Monday Sunny Monday

Yeah today was good weather wise. I was at karate too in the evening. I meant to do some work of course but I did nothing. What I did do was to relax and get over my hectic weekend. It was great!

Monday, March 26, 2012

2012 - Day 84 - Ran na Feiriste Drama Competition.

First off we were in the drama competition and of the 5 catagories that were going, well maybe there were more than 5 but I don't know, the drama won 4! 80% success rate is brilliant in anything. Here are some pictures of the event. 
John Keane hard at work.

The set... some assembly was required. 

Linda and her padawan Rick finalising the preparations for the set. 

"The butler did it!"

The fantastic cast taking a bow.

The fantastic cast striking a pose. 

John contemplates which timber to build his trophy cabnet from.  

Kinda scary looking trophies... here are 50% of them... yeah!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

2012 - Day 83 - Up to Donegal we go.

Up to Donegal. It was a really cool journey actually except that most of it was in the dark. Some people told us to go up to Letterkenny and then all around to the top of Donegal. Obviously these people have shares in Shell Oil or something and wanted us to add an extra hundred euro petrol onto the journey. Instead, we went the fast efficent way. We stopped in Donegal town into what seemed like a respectable diner/take away. The food was ok there too, but more because we were really hungry than the fact that they had really fine cuisine. Finally we arrived at Caislean Ɠr in Anngry.   

2012 - Day 82 - Friday

Workin.... However when night fell i went down to Marts and we had a film night. We saw Thor and some ghost film. Paranormal Activity 3.  It was my second time seeing Thor and it was equally as brilliant the second time around. Maybe the best of the Avengers films?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

2012 - Day 81 - Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome

There are some things in ones life that you look back on and you realise what age you are and your current financial situation, you might have kids... you might be sick... who knows. But you look at your life and you realise that "this thing happened in the past and I can never redo/do/undo it."

Battlestar Galactica is not like this at all! It is a brilliant series and I have never seen it. However, if I want to see it I can just download it, look at it on my 1 months free from Netflix or get a DVD off someone! Rock on!
Must... Watch.... BSG

Now that there is a new Battlestar Galactica coming out called Blood & Chrome I realise that I have wasted enough of my life... I am going to watch the first episode of BSG (not the 70's one obviously - I actually technically saw all those I believe) tonight with or without Linda and for once and for all catch up on BSG. As Captain Picard said in the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation... "I should have done this a long time ago."

2012 - Day 80 - KONY

Joseph Kony. Who is Joseph Kony? I had heard about him a bit but the thing that made me really go, ''ok who or what is Kony' is that I saw a float in the parade in Carraroe with Kony written on the side of it. I did see that right? It was on a float in Carraroe right? So then I looked into it. I googled "who is Kony" and I got the following video.

http://vimeo.com/37119711

Basically it is a 27 minute video exactly for people like me who did not know who or what Kony is. Thing is I had heard of this man before but I did not know his name. Basically, he is a man who kidnaps kids, rapes, tortures them. He turn the boys into soilders and the girls into sex slaves. He is a very bad man.
Kony, Joseph Kony. kony 

Look at the video. By me telling you to look at the video I am actually doing something good in the world believe it or not. By you looking at the video YOU are doing something good in the world. By you and me telling other people to look at this video WE are doing something good. And what is that good thing? We are letting other people know who Kony is.

He is getting away with what he is doing because people do not know about him. See his face. Know him. Tell people about him. That is how he will be stopped.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

2012 - Day 79 - Propaganda

Yesterday I mentioned Chairman Mao. He is the ultimate in propaganda. Before he became the leader of China he worked in the propaganda ministry in the Chinese government. He boasted at one point that he killed 4200 intellictuals whereas a leader before him killed 420 and therefore he was 10 times better than the previous leader! To me that sound like crazy talk. However, go to China and you will find millions and millions of people who will say that under Mao the country grew in strength, living conditions improved and more people got education.

Propaganda I am sure has a lot of definations. My defination is that propaganda is the act of making people see what you want them to see. I was looking at the video below and I found myself questioning weather I was looking at propaganda or not.

Sometimes, maybe it is propaganda. And maybe the propaganda is correct.

2012 - Day 78 - The Non Bank Holiday Monday

Today was not a bank holiday in Ireland despite many many people thinking it was so. Therefore many people left out bins on Saturday!!!! Ahhh!

It was a nice relaxing day all the same. Did some physical work, that was good. I explained to Sophie who Chairman Mao is and how he was just another leader in the history of China who held controvertial political views.
The Fearless Leader of China from the 1940s - 1960s . He also killed around 45 million of his own people.

2012 - Day 77 - Mothers Day

A survey said, and logic of course - you know with all these surveys people make and probably spend a good deal of money on, if you just think for a moment you can get the answer anyway. Like this survey I just mentioned, getting back to the point, that the number one thing that mothers wanted for Mothers Day was a sleep in. Nice and simple. Not chocolates, not flowers. No, simply and specifically nothing. Leave me the hell alone kids. Just leave me. Go... get out... close the door... "hey come back!!!! I said close the door!". All that. Yep... well the no kids part for the first part of the morning anyway. I know this. So I tried to let the mother of my kids sleep in for a while. She did and the day was off to a great start. I believe she had a good Mothers Day.

2012 - Day 76 - St Patricks Day

Today was Saint Patricks Day. And like most Saints days his aims were totally misrepresented by consuming tons of alcohol. Of course thats fine with me. It was just an observation. But anyway, in Carraroe there was a parade. It was cool, we ended up walking the whole thing, as in walking up the total length of it and all the way back down again. Then after mingling around up at the hall, Halla Einne(? - spelling) we worked our way back down to a family feast. It was a great day actually. We chilled the beans in the evening, looked at telly and went asleep. I didn't paint the town red, I just relaxed with my perfect other half.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

2012 - Day 75 - Friday

Wow the cool stuff i did today on my beautiful ubuntu. I manually installed mysql & php5 & apache2 using aptitude. All on the command line! it felt like i was really using the computer. I am taking notes on what commands i am using. This is the kind of stuff i would never do with windows. I just could not be bothered.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

2012 - Day 74 - Lovely Ubuntu + Anonymous


**********************************

I didn't tell you or did I? I few days ago I got a laptop that had Microsoft Windows on it and I overwrote the operating system with a Unix - well Linux rather - operating system. In my case the new Linux operating system is Ubuntu. The version of Ubuntu that I have is 11.10. The version is relevant because Ubuntu has come into its own with it own look and an interface called Unity that is kinda like the scroll bar that you find on the bottom of Mac OS screens where you can pick programs from really quickly. But there are a million reasons to go with Ubuntu over Windows. First off they way that computers are going, with phone and tablets the actually dependancy that people had on Microsoft Windows is not as strong. I am not saying that Microsoft is obsolete! I am not saying that. What I am saying is that once there were many operating systems, then for a while there was really just  Microsoft with Apple and Unix getting honorable mentions. Now if you want something to run your device you can go with:

Windows
Android
Lumia
Apple OS
Ubuntu (of various versions of Linux)
Blackberry
Sony

The reason I mention all of these is because there are reasons in the past where if all you wanted was to surf the internet, check mail, play some computer games, look at YouTube, Facebook etc the regular end user would have simply needed Windows or Apple. That has definately changed now. The future is definately bright because if the past has taught us one thing it is that where there is competition there is innovation. And with competition and innovation there is always one big winner. You - the end user.

So why am I on Ubuntu? Becasue I can. I downloaded it free and apart from games (there are some there but games are simply not Linux's strong point) it has everything. For games I use my beautiful xbox360. For everything else I can use my beautiful Ubuntu.

2012 - Day 73 - Senator Trevor's Birthday

Ah, another day another birthday! Trevor this time, happy birthday again Trevor. Not that he will be reading this. But still... 

Had a good karate class today actually. I wasn't feeling the best and I was considering for a moment not going, but it is always worth going. 

Always...

2012 - Day 72 - Mali's Birthday

I think I have finally come up with a naming convention for my blog titles. There will always be the 2012 in the beginning because that is the series that I am doing, then the number of days we are in the blog, in this case 72. The last part will be the subject of the cool thing I am going to talk about. Or if there is nothing cool I will just have the day of the week over head... this also enables me to keep track of what day we are in as well.

Now today was my sister Mali's birthday! Yippee! Her and a bunch of girls went up to the house and did some fun girl stuff. Linda was knitting. It is the first time I saw Linda knitting and to tell the truth I didn't even know she could knit!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

2012 - Day 71 - Monday

I was looking at something on telly, whatever it was there was some Japanese in it, as in spoken on it, and I recognised one of the words, he said "Ready"... I know that because we say the word in Karate... so I am slowly... very very slowly learning Japanese too.

非åøøć«å°č±”ēš„ćŖę°ćƒ‰ćƒŠćƒ«

2012 - Day 70 - Sunday

Not much happened that would be of interest to the world in general. If some alien species read this they would say... "that was his day! not much of a day". Ah but that is where you are wrong ET. It is days like today that make my life as good as it is. I was down at the beech with the kids and Linda. We played in the sand and made canals, and mines, and I flooded them. Ah sand...

2012 - Day 69 - Saturday

Funny old Saturday. I was at Cliffs Gym... then at mom and dads power hosing the house and path. My evening was topped giving a Microsoft Access Databases to my little friend... A good day.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

2012 - Day 68 - The Artist

Got back into playing a bit of xbox. Played some Dirt 2 which is great great great grandchild of the original game Colin McRae. If your unfamiliar to the games they are computer games based on rallying. Thing is the first Colin McRae games were brilliant. You could do loads of adjustments on the car and you really felt like YOU were a real racer. The new games are nothing like that now. You press the right button on your joypad. You speed past pretty graphics. You win or not. You don't really care.

This films is brilliant, beautiful and all things that are good with good cinema.
Every week we try to get into the cinema. It is an expensive thing to keep trying to do but it is our thing. It is our break from the kids. So we see a good few films in the cinema. I love the cinema experience. So when we went to see the Artist this Friday it was like we won the lottery. Honestly I could not say enough good things about this film. It looks at the history of cinema strokes it ego in the nicest cleanest most caring beautiful way. Beautiful is a word that comes to my mind alot when I am thinking of this film. The very dashingly handsome Jean Dujardin and drop dead georgous BĆ©rĆ©nice Bejo quietly draw you back in time to when film was about the silver screen... famous actors and actresses... and innocent story lines. This film has definitely carved a place for itself in my top 5 films of all time. If you have seen it you know why. If you have not seen it then know that in your life you still have 2 of the best hours of you life waiting for you...


2012 - Day 67 - Thursday

I was not working today but i spent alot of the day preparing for a computer class.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

2012 - Day 66 - 2 Irish Hackers Arrested

Darren "Pwnsauce" Martyn and Donncha "Palladium" O'Cearrbhail have been arrested and are in serious trouble. Basically they are part of the Hackivists group LulzSec. I for one am proud of these people and I admire what they do. I had my website cupantae.ie hacked a few times... no thanks to Blacknight.com for that one whom is my host, anyway, cupantae.ie was hacked, minor hacks and I was like cool. There is something that I find really admirable about the hacking community. Maybe is it just that I am a wannabe hacker (that for the record has never hacked anything in my life), maybe I like the way they are stickin it to the man. Maybe it is because I am an idiot.. hmmm?
Poor Mr. LulzSec :(
But seriously... I hope they don't get into too much trouble. I am proud of them and I hope they will be ok.

I have cut this piece out of the online mag TechCentral.ie - It gives the news better than I could.

"TechLife | 06 Mar 2012 :  Two Irish men were among five arrested as part of investigations into the LulzSec hacking team today. Police in Ireland, the US and UK have taken a total of five men into custody on the foot of information supplied by LulzSec's alleged ringleader Hector Xavier Monsegur (28), aka Sabu, who was arrested last June.
According to Fox News Darren "Pwnsauce" Martyn and Donncha "Palladium" O'Cearrbhail have been taken into custody. Also indicted so far are Jake "Topiary" Davis and Ryan "Kayla" Ackroyd of London; and Jeremy "Anarchaos" Hammond of Chicago, who has also been charged in connection with operations by hacktivist collective Anonymous. Davis, a 19-year-old diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, has been under house arrest since August.


The FBI's operation to dismantle LulzSec dates back to August 15 2011 when Monsegur, an unemployed father of two, was unmasked as Sabu. Since then he operated out of FBI offices tasked with taking down the other leaders of LulzSec and hacktivists from Anonymous.


During LulzSec's brief existance it attacked the websites of the CIA, Fox, Sony and global intelligence company Stratfor, posting confidential information to the website Pastebin and causing billions in damage and harming Sony's reputation to the extent that it has had to rebrand its online gaming service to distance itself from the fallout from the security breach.


A long-term welfare recipient, Monsegur's last full time job was with peer-to-peer music sharing service Limewire. The company went under in 2010, helped in no small part by a €100 million lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America.


LulzSec officially ceased operations in June 2011 citing boredom rather than intervention by law enforcement agencies as the reason for calling it quits.


As for the Irish arrests, Darren Martyn is the "founder and main researcher" of Insecurity Research and studied at NUI Galway. In January he gave a talk on wireless security at information security conference CampusCon, organised by the Waterford IT Hacking Society. Details of O'Cearrbhail's background are pending confirmation.


The Garda Press Office has confirmed it is holding one person for questionning.


TechCentral Reporters


Read more: http://www.techcentral.ie/18450/two-irish-arrested-in-lulzsec-case#ixzz1oPrP2dzc"

2012 - Day 65 - Alpha07

Not much of a big news to many people but today I made a major breakthrough in the Web-based game I am working on Alpha07. The breakthrough is that it works now to a certain degree. I can create a new user, I have a city or planet that I am looking down on and I can build upon that. Soon the financial aspect of things will come into play, you will have to buy things to put on your planet, you will have to trade your commodities and barter with other people so that you can both build each other up. There is loads of potential going in every direction with this.

Me = :)

2012 - Day 64 - Monday

Highlight of my day was Karate....

Monday, March 5, 2012

2012 - Day 63 - Wedding Fare Day

Came back to Galway today in time for Sunday dinner at home with Mom and Dad in what is a ritualistic event at this stage where it does not matter almost whom is there for the day, the same amount of dinner is prepared anyhow ensure that if only a few people turn up you will have the choice of a ridiculously massive dinner, or if all the family arrive in at the same time that there will meerly be still too much food for those present. It is a fantastic system.

On the way down we looked at a hotel in Mayo, Westport. It was nice. It is on our definately maybe list. Then we got to Carraroe of course and there was a wedding fare there! It was in Ostan An CheathrĆŗ Rua. The place scrubbed up well and there was a nice positive feeling there from the hair and makeup, to dresses, the food etc etc. Everything you need for the day I guess. But to me our wedding seems SO FAR AWAY! Realistically, I know that, even though we have not set an actually date, the wedding is going to happen relatively soon.

But I will let future Donal worry about that....

2012 - Day 62 - Saturday

Went up to Sligo to meet Lindas brother and his little family. God twins! He has twins. So much work. I can see how it would get manageable when your used to it and I can see also how when those twins are older they will be company to each other. But to me when I am not used to it, it seems like alot of work and I am impressed with how they are managing the whole "thing".

When we got home we had a nice walk about Castlebar when our kids were asleep. Castlebar, like most small towns, is alot nicer when there is not much traffic, or many people walking around the place. To know a town or city you have to see it at night too. They have different energies.

2012 - Day 61 - Friday

Busy day...

Work => Meet Linda => Castlebar...

Basically, when I had finished work, and got to Castlebar with Linda and the kids we were all so tired we did nothing else.

Oh, except relax and chill the beans. Exactly what I needed.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

2012 - Day 60 - Spring

It is spring. In celebration I have added Vivaldi's "Spring" to todays blog entery.

2012 - Day 59 - Wednesday 29th Feb!!

What madness is this! 29 days in Feb! Chicks proposing to dudes?

AAHHHHHHHH!

Well, after karate and some TV, and after way too many of the delicious fairy cakes buns that the girls made, I went to bed and actually got some thing working properly on my Alpha07 game! I am impressed and amazed with myself, although it really was stuff that Mark Ahern wrote that I didn't have a clue how it worked but that I have figured out now. So basically my little php browser based game is getting closer to completion. Rock.

2012 - Day 58 - The eyes have it....

Took Sophie to the opticians today... it is part of a state scheduled thing I assume. I don't know, all I know is I had to take her in. But her eyes are perfect the Doc said. You see I wear glasses, Linda wears glasses. There is a genetic loaded gun pointing at Sophie ready to fire a short sighted bullet at her. Hopefully she will not need glasses, not for any other reason than lets face it, they are a bit of a pain. It is something else you have to carry around with you all your life... unless you wear contacts, which is also a pain, or you have "freakin'" lazer eye surgery. Basically.. shes fine and all is good.

So we met up in town with Linda who got a beautiful new haircut....

Your lookin good baby... but no news there :)

2012 - Day 57 - Monday - Alpha07

I was not at work today, but I tried to do some work at home, but you know what, the day just flew.. I was at karate though which is always cool. But the big karate news was that there is a grading on April 7th! A mere what, 6 or 7 weeks away! But if I get it I will be up to a green belt. W00t.

You know, it is funny. I have been learning a programming language on and off called PHP. I have been learning or dabbling rather with programming languages on and off all the time since I was a (late) teen. But anyway, it is one thing to mess with a language and a whole other thing to do something with it. So in an effort to learn PHP I began making a game based on the browser based game idea of "Torn City" or "OGame". Remember Torn City? How big were we into that at the time!

Anyway my game is called Alpha07 and it is based on this idea where you have a planet, you can build space ships, fight other players, there will be an economy in it where if you need titanium to build your space ship but your enemy knows that you need lots of titanium then the enemy can buy up the titanium and increase the price of said titanium... therefore fighting you economically before flying his ship over to your planet and blasting it to pieces.
Screen Shot 1 - Login Screen

Screen Shot 2 - Complete with naff pics I drew myself....

Yeah... I have put a few screen shots together to show you that this is not actually a dream in my head.. I have actually been working on the game for a good while.

My point about all this is that I have actually begun working on the game again, hopefully I will get to launch it properly as a playable game! I will keep you posted.

Monday, February 27, 2012

2012 - Day 56 - Sunday - Achievement

Linda teaches guitar. Today Linda took one of her students out to a competition where the student sang and played fantastically and won a medal for her efforts! I was thinking about it and I realized that there are those people that would hear about these kind of competitions and would never think of entering and those that would hear about it and would go for it. Interesting really when you think about it. It is alot easier to not enter than to enter. It takes more effort, more stress, more organisation. But then in this case, Aisling, did go through the stress, the effort, and with all of her own effort practiced, practiced and now she has a result from it.

What kind of person are you? Are you a "hey there is something I want - I am going to go for it!" type or are you like most of us the type that says "I wish I was motivated enough to get that!". The thing here is, like nearly everything in life, you are a bit of both. You have achieved things. And also, in your heart you know that there are things that you should have achieved. It is human nature isn't it. I have a list the length of the Great Wall of China of things I wish I did and things that I wish I did differently. I think every few days I clock another "douh should have done that/done that differently" onto the list.

But I have achieved alot. I am aware of that. When I look at what I have done I am overall delighted with my life so far. I think it is important to acknowledge what you have achieved agains't what you wish had achieved and realize that there is no use looking back at what you have done except to help you learn. The point is, that from this second onward, you can do something about your situation. That might be making a cup of tea for yourself. But it could be to begin a new art or computer or music class. Or it could be to realize your an alcoholic and start going to AA.

You walk your own path, alone. It is this fact drives people crazy or what gives them a since of enormous well being. If you screwed up - YOU screwed up. If you achieved something fantastic - YOU achieved something fantastic. You failed or succeeded alone. Success of any sort is a funny thing I find. When you succeed in something good your view on life and on yourself gets greater. When you fail at something and not succeed in learning from your mistake your view on life dims a bit. Failure after failure can snuff a persons light... but never completely. The human spirit to programmed to survive. This is where the saying that I believe in alot comes in "where there life there is hope". I have often said it as a joke to people, but it is true. Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything.

2012 - Day 55 - Saturday Chillin...

Again, I did very very little today. After Cliffs Gym class I was exausted. Came home and spent the day with the girls. It was a good day!

2012 - Day 54 - Friday - Eurovision!!!

We had so many plans for Friday... we were going to get the kids to bed, call over out baby sitter, drive to town, go to the cinema, we had the whole night planned. Instead however, we did nothing. And boy... was it great. We just chilled the beans. Got the kids to sleep and relaxed. In fact we even looked at the Late Late Show and saw the terribly crap singer that were running for the Eurovision - and after we gave out about most is not all of them, simply waited for Jedward who were fantastic by comparison to the rest. By the way, I acknowledge that Jedward are not all that good either. I have seen better singers on Shop Street in Galway city.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

2012 - Day 53 - Lent!


Pantheism as a "belief" has crap logos! :)
I did lent as a kid and I continue to do so today. Not so much for my devotion to the Church, more to the fact that a good idea is a good idea. Traditionally of course I know that lent is Christian observance of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Well I did not know it in that detail, that line is from Wikipedia. But in the same way that I am not a pagan but I enjoy Halloween, I am a pantheist that likes Lent. It is an excellent idea to give up things that you like every now and again. I like the challange of watching what I am eating, doing better things for myself like excercise and more reading.

It is funny becuase the standard answer now days that people have is "I am not giving up anything - I am going to start something!" and then they laugh. Why laugh? Thats a brilliant idea... take up eating healther or reading more! Of course they are the things that float my boat. You could choose anything or nothing. What I like the most about lent is that going into summer, you have just left a (probably) nasty winter behind and lent can be like a fresh start into the new season.

I think the problem that alot of people have is that they see lent as punishment... I see it as a reward. I am alive. I am rewarding myself by doing lent because anything I do will have made me a better person at the end of it. We can all do with rewarding ourselves, spiritually and physically. Thats what I am doing for lent.

2012 - Day 52 - Fat Tuesday/Pancake Tuesday/Mardi Gras

Did you know Americans have a thing called Fat Tuesday on the same day that we have Pancake Tuesday! I assume that it comes from the same lent tradition that we have our Pancake Tuesday for. Anyway, in the spirit of having a bit of a get together simply because the oportunity presented itself, we had some family and close friends over for our Pancake Celebration. Seth and Rick were on pancake detail - as was I - and after churning out a few dozen pancakes and we got the kids out of the way we enjoyed our grub. So it was a bit of effort having everyone over but it was all worth it! Seth took a picture of me flipping a pancake... I have to get it off him and post it here...

Oh yeah.. Fat Tuesday.. you think you never heard of it. It is Mardi Gras! You know the bead necklaces, music, partying, laughing, drinking, singing... our get together was not quite all that - bar the noise which I am sure the kids beat any Mardi Gras. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

2012 - Day 51 - China Human Rights Violations

You know what I am tired of, people always raggin on about China and China's human right abuse. Now, listen to what I am saying... am I saying the Chinese government does not violate human rights? No... China violates alot of things, number one thing that bothers me about China is it firewall on information on the internet.

But as for the point of this post! The Irish government also violates if you ask me. Paying of billions to bankers, taking money from schools, closing hospitals, putting millions and millions and into roads! Yippee we can go to Dublin faster! What for? The trains are a piece of crap, too slow or too cold take your pick. Throw in the occasional drunk idiot and your nicely in hell... wait a second, something is missing? Your train journey isn't quite bad enough yet.. ah that's it, charge them through the nose for it too!

Homelessness is on the increase, domestic abuse is on the increase, poverty in general is on the increase. I can't confirm that drug abuse and illiteracy are on the increase but they are all part of the 'treat a peoples nation like dirt' package and it all goes hand in hand.

My equation is, as long as people buy trashy papers, look at trash television and gossip and trash talk about other people then we are all appealing to each others lowest common denominator. Believe it or not, the government controls the lowest common denominator. If kids took violin lessons, practiced painting and studied art history... studied philosophy and theology instead of Christian religion, studied cultures instead of ostracising non-native Irish speakers (thats a nice Carraroe one there), put emphasis on fittness instead of getting the first born male of the family playing GAA.... learnt about fine food and the effect of diet on the body instead of nurturing a pub culture and for the most part if everyone looked after their own business then the regular Irish civilian would be a very different person.

And then...

and only then...

should we begin to think that China is "worse" than we are. Now alot of you will have read this and misunderstood what I am saying, so let me put it in a last one-liner. China is bad but Ireland is really bad and we should not think that we are better people as a nation or that we have a better government than China, because in really we do not. Chinese government governs 1.2 billion people. The Irish government rules 4.5 million and look at the state we are in.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

2012 - Day 50 - Kris Kristofferson

I love country music... very much in particular American Country and Blue Grass.Of those, one of my favorite is Kris Kristofferson. I was lucky enough to see him in concert once. It was actually one of my first introductions Linda had with some of my family.

But I like this song too because when we were young we used to listen to country music being play in the car on a cassette player my mother had. Today I woke up to a lovely morning, went for a good jog with Mart and after I settle down after my shower I was really tired and this song seemed appropriate to play.

In this video his voice is no where near as good as it used to be I think, and he is solo, the way I saw him when he was in concert. But it is still very nice. He is a legend.  

*** lol - Lucy my 3 year old is beside me on the bed as I am writing this. She just said "Dad I know what that is - its a muppet!" whilst point at the picture of poor old Mr. Kristofferson ***

2012 - Day 49 - ??? eh?

What the?

Where is day 48 gone? We were at Seth and Jens yesterday and we had a lovely American style dinner. We had stripped pork in BBQ sauce is it? Corn bread... what else, beans... not baked beans. We also had ice tea... and again, the drink not the rapper. That was all good and extremely tasty and Marielle had gotten a pavlova cake. Delicious.

But what happened to day 48? Sorry about that one....

Saturday, February 18, 2012

2012 - Day 47 - Friday

Space, the final frontier...
Heeeyyyyyy it is Day 47! In Star Trek: The Next Generation there was a recurring theme with the number 47. Again and again the number popped up! So for example if the starship Enterprise came across a ship that had a certain number of people on it, and Picard asked how many, Data would probably answer 47... "how many light years across is that cloud - 4.7!"... the ship has a virus! how concentrated is the virus 47ppm! You get the idea. But then I have noticed that the number 47 pops up in real life too alot. The Hacker/Maker Space that we go to the board games club to that we attend is at number 47 for example. Alot of 47s in real life too, eh!
I had a crush on Diana Troy! (thats the chick on the left)

Eh!

Eh!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

2012 - Day 46

I have often thought about getting a tattoo. I always imagined it on my wrist... on my right hand. But I never did. Not because I was scared of the pain, or what would people think. None of that. I just never knew a really meaningful tattoo to get. And if I were to get one it would have to be meaningful. There are alot of little philosophical snippets that I would like to have inscribed onto my wrist but then how would they be written on? In what font etc. Believe it or not, they are the kind of reasons I have not got one so far.

I wouldn't have a tattoo on my back... if it cannot be seen by me, it is not for me. My wrist would be good, if ever I should...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

2012 - Day 45 - Valentines Day

You know what, I think I had one of the most enjoyable valentines days ever. I had my lovely romantic valentines day dinner with the kids and Linda of course. We had a lovely three course meal... the kids behaved like they were in a restaurant. It was funny. We read the history of Valentines Day from Wikipedia to the kids and we all learnt something.

"Dear << INSERT NAME HERE >>, I love you with all my heart!"

Basically, it was nice. Just because you have kids does not mean that anything is deminished from the night. Put them to bed at the regular time. Watch Desperate Housewives... It is easy to think that because you have kids you can't go out and therefore the night will not be the same, any you know what, the night will not be the same but it can still be lovely and romantic.

Looking your love in the eyes and expressing your feelings should not cost a cent.

2012 - Day 44

Karate...

I got punched in the solar plexus... wow. It was like being shot in the chest. For a few seconds my ability to breath disappeared. Then a few seconds later I was fine. The old human body is a funny thing. Also, we looked at the higher grades doing their katas. That was a second wow moment.

We have a long way to go, me and my yellow belt...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

2012 - Day 43 - Formula 1

Ahh... Formula 1.

I am going to test something. One year, or rather, over the span of a few continuous years, I followed Formula 1. I knew the drivers, the teams, the ever changing rules, the politics. But then I missed a race or two in a season. Then I missed a season or two in the last few years... then I realised that I just missed Formula 1. I loved it but I never saw it any more. I never followed soccer, basketball, any football, any sport really. When I stopped watching F1 I stopped watching any sport.

Go Team!

Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Eddie Irvine were the drivers of my era. I even went to Spain with my brother and a few friends. It was amazing. The sound was unreal. The cars were so fast. There was glitz and glamour and tasty food and smells and pit babes everywhere. And the race was brilliant as we observed  it from a dirt mound we loving called the Ant Hill because of the formicarium we perched ourselves on.

Gotta have the pit-babes.

Ah... onto my test. You see I am aware of  the whole rose tented glasses syndrome. In my memories Formula 1 was brilliant. But there is nothing more unreliable than a memory so I will test my passion for the race once more. I will get to know the drivers again, get to know the cars, the teams, the team principals and the tracks. I will study it like a journalist. I will give it a proper test.

Roll on Melbourne 18th March.

2012 - Day 42

Saw a really cool film today that addresses cancer. The film is 50/50.

The odds are that you will like the film - or not like it.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogan are in it. Basically if Seth Rogan is in a film it is a must see. He is on my must see list. If he is in a film it is simply a brilliant film. Now seemingly the same can be said of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Now I am not saying 50/50 is the best film ever. It is simply a good film. My observation is more about JG-L on my must see list. 

2012 - Day 41 - Friday + Stupid Stupid Eircom

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID....

Eircom, in a word with the word repeated!

They had 3 laptop stolen and all 3 of them had person information on them about customers and all of them were unencripted. Really that is all I want to say. This is the same company that is in charge of laying down the internet infrastructure for Ireland. Come on... they can even protect their machines in their own offices. Crap like this makes me sad to be living in Ireland. While other countries have blistering broadband at dirt cheap prices lots of people in Ireland are still on dial up speeds and paying through the nose for 2 or 3 megabyte lines that they are sharing with dozens of people when the line get busy.

Someone is suing Eircom now because their data has been stolen. Ha ha Eircom. Ha.. you idiots!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

2012 - Day 40 - Google Adsence

Ok folks, I really need your help here. I am at a cross roads and I really need an answer. You see I am wondering if I should Google Adsence to my site.

I can taste it! Only messing... ahem... really.

For me there are pros like I might get some money. We not talking much money here... cents kinda thing. But for all those cents I could have that add... just one add I think... on the right hand side of the page there. See, where the pics are at the moment.

Basically this whole blog for me is a test and I would like to have the add there are a further part of that test. But guys, if it is going to ruin the site, tell me.

Should I or shouldn't I?

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

2012 - Day 39 - Half Life = Sweetness

Here is the address:

Half Life Wiki

Have you played Half Life? No, but you like games? What can I say here... ok. Imagen you love to eat apples. And all your life you ate apples, alone and you though this is great but they could be better!
Half Life Series - A seriously Good Game Series

Then you discover a warm apple pie and you fall in love with it and it is amazing!!!! The best thing in the world.

Call your self a gamer? Stop messing about and play every single Half Life and Half Life related game (Portal 1, 2 etc).

Because you'll cry... they are that great...

2012 - Day 38 - At Home...

So... the economy eh...

I have been put down from 5 days to 3 days in work. I have every Tuesday (today) off, and Friday. Now, instead of sleeping in until 12 and walking around the house in my jocks and playing computer games, I was up at 8am and was kept going all day spending alot of time with my 3 year old Lucy. In other words, I had a fantastic day!

Monday, February 6, 2012

2012 - Day 37 - Monday


Google+'ers will have seen this before but my goodness... check it out! It is worth looking at...


2012 - Day 36 - Lucys Party!

Lucy was/is 3 today! We had a lovely little party for her of family. It was really nice.... I took some photos so I am going to upload them soon.

Princess Cake my our little Princess Girl

Totally and absolutely dead pan very serious not messing about Lucy... totally  normal!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

2012- Day 35

Did some shopping in town... and went to a christening. But it make me think of a few things....


Saturday, February 4, 2012

2012 - Day 34 - The Big Taboo

Friday!

Just had a good night of playing games with Rick, Linda and Marielle. We played Taboo, or Bindy Bob as we call it as Bindy Bob is a character, an avatar, that you play with in the game. Shocked how much we play it after all this time really when I think about it.

The Big Taboo - Featuring Bindy Bob. 


Our good friends Tissy and Max opened up a massage and health spa? center? centre?  - but anyway they opened it up in Spideal. We were at the official opening and it was nice, I hope she does well and guess what!

YOU'RE INVITED!!!!

Have a massage for a very reasonable cost (the actual cost of it slips my mind at the moment).  Anyway it is in Spideal in the same building at the Chinese take away. Which is also nice

Thursday, February 2, 2012

2012 - Day 33 - Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

As a once powerful leader said there are "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics"

I believe that it was Stalin that said it, but then again I have just read that Mark Twain said it too. Well here are my statistics.

"Carraroe And The City" has had 6,804 page views! Now this number has rocketed up since I began the 2012 series of blog posts.

In the last month I have had 1,171 page views... so at this rate there should be around 10,000 page view by some time in the end of April or the beginning of May! Cool...

The post that has had the most views is for some reason 2012 - Day 4 - Colin McRae This page has had 216 page views! Mad.

Here are the details of my audience:





Ireland
3,097
United States
2,372
United Kingdom
361
Germany
126
Russia
114
Canada
46
China
46
India
40
Australia
34
France
33




Cool eh... good old USA. There are many reasons why I love America.


More information on browers...


Pageviews by Browsers
Internet Explorer
3,437 (52%)
Firefox
1,887 (28%)
Chrome
664 (10%)
Safari
359 (5%)
Opera
81 (1%)
Mobile Safari
61 (<1%)
Mobile
20 (<1%)
GranParadiso
14 (<1%)
Jakarta Commons-HttpClient
9 (<1%)
Java
8 (<1%)


This piece is pretty self explainatory I guess although I never heard of GranParadiso.. thats like huh? Finally there is the page views by Operating System.

Pageviews by Operating Systems
Windows
4,973 (73%)
Macintosh
1,089 (16%)
BlackBerry
214 (3%)
Linux
122 (1%)
iPod
109 (1%)
Other Unix
85 (1%)
iPhone
57 (<1%)
Android
56 (<1%)
iPad
23 (<1%)
Nokia
20 (<1%)

So I think I have to make my page more relevant to Android and Apple users... see the stats... the reason that more smart phones is not visiting my site is not to do with blogger.com as we can see from the fact that BlackBerry is 3rd on the list. 

So there is loads of statistics. All brilliant and all for free from Google. When you think about it, it's brilliant. You've got to love that company. They certainly are not evil...

The Reality Of The News

There have been a few times where I have clicked on a news article only to realise that I have been hit with a paywall. I don't mean thi...