2012 - Day 29 - Jan 29 - Hugo

Saw Hugo today with the kids and Linda in the cinema. First off, it is worth seeing? Well, yes... if you really like films. As in, if you like the history of films believe it or not. I went into the cinema expecting something like a mechanical Pinochio with magic and lots of CGI animation and drawn characters, like animation. It was none of this, and what is turned out to be was quite good infact.

There seemed to be like a bit of over acting from Chloë Grace Moretz at times and a few too may Speilberg-esk closeups to the very blue eyed Asa Butterfield . The adds threw me off when the film was first shown in Ireland. It is back now on the silver screens due to the Golden Globes and the Oscar (i think it has 11 nominations or something crazy like that). Anyway, while I know I will be happier coming out of the cinema after seeing Star Wars I The Phantom Menace 3D the 3D in Hugo was good and it was a good film. 

Yeah.. 7.2 on the Donal Scale.... how do ya like me now Scorsese.

Lets think for a second... let me mark Hugo out of 10 on a few things:

Acting: 6/10

Sound: 7/10

Effects/3D: 8/10

Direction: 7/10

Production: 8/10

Total of 7.2/10

Interesting... I should mark more films like that. 

Please comment!

2012 - Day 28 - Jan 28 - Modern Warfare finished.

Finally, and amongst some confusion, I finished the single player campaign of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Thing is I was not expecting to finish is so soon... I had the TV and the xbox 360 moved into the sitting room (where there is a TV of course, but not one good enough for the xbox) and I was actually settled down for the night to play a good few solid hours of MW3 and I looked at my progress that said I was at around 50% through the game and then I began playing... then boom. 

Game Over. I am not sure how to get 100% in the single player campaign?

But I am not ready! I am not ready to go online! Nooooo! It is too soon. Maybe tomorrow... 

2012 - Day 27 - Jan 27 - Friday!

W00t...

Friday... yippee it is Friday...

No, wait a second, it is not w00t. No, not w00t at all... today is the last day that we will be seeing Wallace and Dee, my (our) American friends. Wallace and Dee are in one way totally normal and but in another way very unique. From the very normal way I mean that as Americans in Ireland they are intelligent, wise, funny, interesting, entertaining and caring. Most if not all Americans that I have ever met are like this, both in America and in Ireland. This is what is normal about them. This is why as a nation I love Americans.

What makes them unique cannot be encapsulated by a boorish word wrangler such as I. Every time I ever spoke to them them both - I felt they were listening. Every time I asked for advice from them I felt they considered what I was saying and answered carefully. They went around their business passively but gave a hundred percent to what they were doing. They are generous (thanks for the lens), good cooks, good hosts, good at so many things this post would begin to turn into some kind of freaky homage to them should I carry on. Basically, they are good people. They are role models.

So we had a nice meal in Cavas with them in Galway city. Myself, Linda and a bunch of friends met up. It was nice. It was tasty.. man was it tasty (side note: if you have never been to Cava's, go there). It was a nice send of.

Wallace and Dee... see you again soon, well, somewhere around "2012 - Day 210".

2012 - Day 26 - Bail Out :(

This youtube video, while brilliant and funny, says alot about the Irish mentality towards the bail out. Just watch it, it is not too long.

Please, leave your comments below... when you have finished crying.

2012 - Day 25 - Irish website hacked.. lol

Yesterday the Department of Justice and Finance was has because they are going to attempt to enact "SOPA" style laws into legislation.

Wait a second... what the hell is SOPA? Here is a wiki explanation of what it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Basically SOPA is "Stop Online Piracy Act". The Acts aim was to give the American government (it was an American act) the ability to cut off funding of suspect sites, enforce tougher intellectual property law etc. All bad for pirate but also for those people who built the Internet on the philosophy that information should be free.

Well that the were the brave men and women of anonymous come in. I am not sarcastic either, I love them. They speak and are heard when other voices are drown out.  Enda Kennys email was hacked too I believe. It is all kinda funny in a way.

2012 - Day 24 - Working on a website :(

I have a sad smiley face on my post title but I am not really sad, it is just that it is so much work! So much work goes into a site that you are not in 100% control of. I learnt alot though. That is why I make websites, I love it and it pays the rent etc. But there is alot that I am still learning, and it takes time for the brains of this old man to process what he is looking at.

HTML... A scripting language... not a programming language...

But I had to miss my weekly gym night to make the website! When that happens it is not so cool...

2012 - Day 23 - Karate Kid (not)

Oh yeah.. did Karate today.. it was very tough and brilliant. Exactly the way a class should be. Was fecked at the end of it though

2012 - Day 22 - Sunday morning Jog

Today myself and Linda were late meeting up with the jogging club in Carrraroe so we had to catch up with them. It was cool and nice... going for a run with my loved one. You know, running with her...

...not away from her! :)

2012 - Day 21 - Lazy Saturday

I played Modern Warfare 3 agains't Sheila and Nadia again. While we both kicked Sheilas ass Nadia gave me a good whoopin. I really should be better at games in general...

... but I am not....

2012 - Day 20

2012 - Day 19

2012 - Day 18

I can't believe that I have done it. it being a bad thing in this case. I missed a karate class because I had work to do :-C so I worked and that sucked. i am not even going to write the work I did - that would give the work meaning in some way and it had no meaning. I did play more with the kids and that's good. but I missed karate

2012 - Day 17 - hmmm...

Isn't it funny how many days in your life float by without you  noticing it. My week is measured in the following way:

Monday - Karate
Tuesday - Gym
Wednesday - Karate
Thursday - Teacher/Board Games
Friday - Chill
Saturday - Get some house work done
Sunday - Jog/Chill

Thats a week. Those seven little line cover my whole week 1/52th of my WHOLE year in seven lines. Of course there are all the things in between - living life, caring for your family, work, eat, sleep etc. My point is that there are things we do - like I have outlined in the 7 days above - and then there are things we are.

None of the things above tell you really who I am. I could 3 foot tall or 7 foot tall from my seven day description. I could be a sadist or a saint but you could not tell from my seven day description. It tells nothing about who I am, what I like, what I do not like, who I like or dislike.

This really is not a nice image - why did I put it here?

But when it comes to judging people, and I do not mean that in a bad or good way, we tend to look at what they do. This can lead to alot of incorrect assumptions about people. I know that they only way we really can judge people is by what they do however. That is why a person should realise, if they want to be judged as close to whom they really are then they should act and do things in a way that represents them the closest.

The fact that I do exercise 4 times a week would outwardly say that I like exercise. Well, to tell the truth - I would prefer to sit on my ass and play computer games. But really I know that if I want to be still playing computer games in 60 years that I have to loose weight today. It is easy to project an image of yourself as being a kind of person. It is harder for you to project an image of who you really are.

2012 - Day 16 - The Guard

last night we saw the guard. I have to say it was a very good film. I did not know that it was actually set in Connemara. I read a New York times review of it afterward that liked the film too but did point out some things about it that could be improved that I agree with. what it did not point out was the one bad thing in the film. a person answers the door speaking Irish and has funny quirky conversation. thing is, his Irish was crap! I thought his acting was terrible. considering the acting tallent there is in the west and the islands to carraroe to spideal it seems like a strange oversight. still it was a class film.

2012 - Day 15 - Blackwater

How do I keep track of my days? If I say that today is day 15, I can look at my calendar and see that today is also Sunday the 15th January... so I have the end of January to be able to monitor this progress, but then in the middle of March when I am on Day 85 or something how will I be able to make sure that day 85 correlates to the actual 85 day of the year really... what if I miss a day by mistake, something basically that I have to figure out and keep an eye on, I am sure that there is a simple solution I am just not seeing it yet.

Anyway... onto something that is not 100% irrelevant. Ever hear of Blackwater, Xe. If I told you that Blackwater is after you would you be concerned. What if I told you that they are one of the biggest armies in the world and are, I believe, the 3rd biggest private army in the world. Who are their clients? Well Obama for a start. The USA have hired them for example in Iraq and Afghanistan. They do everything from being your private body guard to over throwing a pesky government that is getting in your way. They are primarily a business. Erik Prince, started - well co-founded, Blackwater (at the time the business was not named Blackwater) in 1997.

Now, private armies have always existed. Nothing new there. So why am I pointing out Blackwater, well I can see whole governments not bothering with the expensive business of training an army in the future, it is costly, your sending your boys and girls home in a body bag, no one wants that! People want to sit down, look at Sky television and pay their taxes. Your neighbour bothering you - call up Blackwater. But what happens if your neighbour (neighbour being another country by the way) is using Blackwater too? What does Blackwater do? Conflict of interest! The logical thing is that you would get the next biggest competition that Blackwater has, some other large huge mega massive private army and you get them to kick Blackwaters ass. But remember that this is business, money. It is only a matter of time before this situation arises that two huge private armies will have to battle each other. But what if the accounts for both armies realise that it is more beneficial for their armies to join up and make one huge army and over throw the countries that hired them? Again, remember that this is business.. from a financial point of view this would make since would it not? Take over a whole country yourself, it is what I would do.

I might be sounding crazy when I write that, but it is only logical that the scenario could happen. It is business.

2012 - Day 14 - Guppies

We got a delivery of guppies today. Here is a picture of a guppy...

This is a mommy guppy.

2012 - Day 13

I am writing this on my mobile. It is not actually too bad.  So were allowed to kill intruders that come into your home now. Well use justifiable force to stop them. if that results in their death so be it. Do you think a person deserves to die if they break into your home?

2012 - Day 12

I was walking through town and a G4S security van was changing money going out in a pub or hotel or something. But I was trying to make out their gun... are they Steyres? Definitely I have spelt it incorrectly even if I did the model correct. But today was a good weather day. Sun was shining everywhere. It created the since of spring in the air, people looked better, there was no traffic, Galway looked better. 

Linda is doing piano lesson so I got this sustain pedal for the keyboard it uses, it does sound pretty good. 

2012 - Day 11 - Bruce Lee

Damn, I stayed up really late doing work today. It has sapped away all my energy to do any writing...

Bruce Lee simply rocked and he kicked ass.

But I did watch 2 films tonight! Inglorous Bastards and Enter The Dragon. I forgot to look for the "No Animals Were Hurt In The Making Of This Film" sign that comes at the end of the Enter The Dragon. There is a scene in it where the Master Bruce Lee is walking through the Colassium and for the plot to move along a cat runs down the steps and Bruce Lee sees the cat, the stair and runs up to the Big Boss (the one and only Chuck Norris) at the end.. just like a computer game. The funny thing is that the cat was obviously thrown down the stairs because the first frames the cat is in he/she is upside down. Maybe the cat was so excited that it was seeing Bruce Lee that it tripped. Then again, maybe it was just thrown.

I was thinking about Bruce Lee - he is the classic in 'Die young and leave a good looking body'. Imagen if he had grown old, what would he be like, I assume he would have made 10 brilliant more films.

2012 - Day 10 - Comments

Ok folks... we're doing pretty good so far. Not an end of the world in site.

But there never is, is there? The worst things in life seem often to happen instantaneously. One second your walking around the place happy as Larry the next second your world is shattered... But with good stuff strangely enough, it seems to take ages. Like, "its a baby boy!" and your like 'ok... I am happy but this took nine months'. Or your house is finished! 'Ok... I am happy with this but THIS took 4 years.'

I'm just rambling now.... I'll stop.

Sorry Anonymous... your logo is cool. Please don't hurt me...

Hey you know what, feel free to leave comments... tell me with brutal honesty what you like or dislike about the blog. I would love to hear first hand, I love feedback... Or tell me something that is on your mind... something that bothers you. Something you feel some way about. I don't care what it is, you might not know me and you can leave your comment as Anonymous. This can be your place to say anything... I will comment on it.

(As another side comment, a hacker activists group exist called Anonymous. They rock. The mask above is one of their logos - from V for Vendetta. )

Drop me a line and get something of your chest.

2012 - Day 9 - I'm Old

Ahh took down the Christmas tree today! Well, when I say "took down" implying that I had a great deal to do with it, I mean Linda did. I only threw it outside. There was a competition in Limerick I think, or Sligo, somewhere in Ireland where they had a Christmas tree throwing competition. The world record is for a chap in Germany that threw his tree 12 meters! The Irish record is 7. I threw it 4. Smeg... did I mention I was throwing it against the wind.

But onto the title... do you ever feel like you old? Are you old? I don't mean any of this "you're only as old as you feel" lark. I mean... what age are you. I am 35 (hmm... right?). Basically, I am closing in on 40. Funny thing age. You see I am actually very aware of my age. I look at myself in the mirror and I see a 35 year old looking back. I like to realise my age every now and again... when I do I think for a moment. This is my age. I am this old. I am this young. I use these times to accept my lot in life. In alot of cases I have exceeded my own expectations... in alot of cases I have come nowhere near them. I planned to be a millionare by the time I was 30.

I am not a millionaire :)

I would love to own a fantastic BMW or Merc... instead I drive a Fiat Punto that was gifted to me by a fantastically generous aunt. I constantly plan at being better at my job, but life gets in the way of studing... then I get tired... then I wake up and go to work, life, sleep, work, life, sleep....

But I have two kids that I would literally give the world for... never really pictured myself in this situation. I play Modern Warfare 3 on the 360 and I love it... I have of course Linda. My point is this. Every now and again I look at my life and I remind myself how finite it is. And when that happens I like to accept what I have, how I have it. Accept my situation. I don't look at the greener fields next door and go "why not me!". But I know alot of people do. But there is no point.

Of course it would be terrible to not want better for yourself, that is not what I mean.... you should want more and better for yourself all the time, no matter what age. What I am saying is that it is also ok to look at something and realise, well, I won't be doing that ever again, I am too old. There is nothing wrong with getting old. Prepare for it. Plan for it, enjoy it.

"Get busy living, or get busy dying." - Shawshank Redemption

When someone asks you your age do you proudly say you real age or give the joke "I am 16! ha ha!" or "I am 25" or "I am just 35!" answer. Well I would advise to enbrace your age. Look at what you have done. Remind yourself that what you have done up to now has moulded you into the person you see in the mirror. Be proud of that person like a child would be of their papa. You know the saying "The child is father of the man." You are the greatest thing you ever did. I realise this. I am proud of what I have done, in what I have botched up, and I will be proud of what I achieve in the future.

As for the Christmas tree, I look forward to chopping it up and enjoying it a bit more warming me up in the fire.

2012 - Day 8 - Freaky Minecraft

This morning I went for a run with the fledgling running club that is in Carraroe. The club does not have a name. But we meet on Sunday mornings. So we met at 10:30am and I went for an 8k run... I ran it with Mart and I actually kept going! It was my longest run ever!

The scray crap are the two lads in the background, not the cute kitten that is about to be blown up!

I have a passion for Zooey Deschanel. I would watch her in any film and now she has her own television program.. whats it called again? That Girl or something, but 500 Days Of Summer was on and for some reason I was freaked out by it and I did not know why. Then I realised it is the guy that is in 500 Days Of Summer with Zooey... he was in Inception.... and the music of 500 Days and Inception are kinda similiar and both remind me of the mood of the game Minecraft!!! Thats what was freaking me out, I even told Linda that I did not want to keep watching 500 Days cause it was giving me an eerey feeling. That is the effect of the brilliant and strange Minecraft...

2012 - Day 7 - Sinead O'Connor Hate

No prizes for guessing that this article is about. You know who I hate with a passion. Sinead O'Connor. She is the embodiment of everything bad, ignorant, ugly and distasteful of people in society. I really hate the way that this disturbed fractured mind is using sex and relationship to keep herself in the news. She recently announced that she was marring some poor plonker only to announce that she was divorcing him a matter of days later and now is announcing that she is not going to divorce him, or is reconsidering the divorce. Now personally I could not be bothered if she was run over by a 1800's size heard of buffalo migrating across a prairie in America so why am I writing about her.

It is a kind of therapy I guess, I dislike her so much I have to get it out of my system. I would call her the Moriarty to my Sherlock Holmes but the comparison to Moriarty and O'Connor would be a huge insult to the genius that was Moriarty. One of the reason I hate her so much is because Irish people like her so much.

Why do you all like her!!!!

Did she really say she could only be satisfied by multiple men at the same time!!! WTF people! Do you like to hear that about this lizard!? I was enjoying the radio going into Galway one morning and she and her dolt of a husband to be came on speaking like two twelve year olds "I love her so much" "he's the person for me". Its like when you see people on Facebook putting all the messages to each other saying how much they love each other and they are the only one. You know the message "can't wait to see you again babz", "hurting so much because I have not seen you in 2 minetz". Like Warf said in Star Trek 'empty barrels make the most noise'.

If no one talked about this woman I would be happy. But I guess it human nature to talk about strange and obscene things. I saw a video on youtube about this boy who had a huge, really massive zit on his shoulder of all places. His friends videoed him bursting it and made sure that they got all the horrible festering puss exploding out of it. When I hear her speak - she voice is this puss in my ears, when I see her face - it is this puss in my mind. In a seven degrees of Kevin Bacon kinda way someone who knows someone will read this who knows Sinead O'Connor... show her this article.

2012 - Day 6

I was back at work today... Christmas is over I guess. Lights are coming down, being turned off. Today, Womans Little Christmas, was traditionally when women had one day off after working like slaves all December and up to now in the new year. Well after being at the Board Games Club in Galway last night and work today and my leaving my brothert in law John back to Galway (as he leaves for Spain) it has been a long couple of days. Indeed, I'm happy Christmas is over. Not in a grumpy negative way but in the way that we has Christmas, it turned out well all over and now I am ready to move on. Roll on Spring!

2012 - Day 5

I am not feeling the best today. I think the whole holiday being over and everything has sunk in. I am back to work tomorrow so things are settling back into routine again. I like routine. In fact, when I do not have routine I kinda feel myself going a bit crazy.

My new office... no where near an xbox!

I have gotten a new "office" for myself, I say office very loosely because it is just a room in one of the family homes. The window that I look out used to have a fantastic view of the sea, now there is a view of a tree. I do not even know the type of tree is it. Sad, I should know, they are all over the place and at this house in particular. But that's the problem isn't it, we all really know nothing about our environment do we?

2012 - Day 4 - Colin McRae

I actually loved watching Colin McRae drive. You know who he is? He was/is a World Rally Championship legend. Years ago, and I mean alot of years, like 10.. or Jesus, could it be around 15 years ago a Colin McRae game was released. I loved it. You could set the kind of tyres you wanted, the gearbox ratio, basically everything that would make the car go faster and better on the kind of road you were on. So if I was racing in England with lots of tarmac I would have a set up that would give me slower acceleration but more speed with certain tyres but if I was on the twisty dust roads of Africa I would have a quick acceleration but with less speed... you get the idea. Fast forward to today, Dirt 2 is the great great great grandchild of Colin McRae. I can say that definitely it is no where near as fun as the first one was. Sure the graphics are photo realistic, the car damage is incredible, and I can play my friends anywhere in the world - but it simply not as fun as the first one was.

Colin McRae - Legend!

It always happens. I remember my brother learning to play poker from an encyclopedia - not wikipedia - a book! We played it, it was good fun. Then after a while I played it a different bunch of people who changed their personalities when the cards were brought out. Seriously, the turned into men. Their expressions changed. They spoke differently. Basically they turned into tossers.

This is what success does to things. Not always, but in alot of cases success turns people and things into tossers. Colin McRae was class, fun, cool. A while later the franchise needed a facelift. It lost the fun element and turned very serious. Thats why also I laughed my ass off when I was looking at my daughter play Dirt 2. She was not taking it really seriously at all, she was crashing into everything, going over the edge of the road, playing it very not correct. And it was hilarious. It brought the fun back.

Colin McRae died in a helicopter crash in 2007. I was sad when he died. It was the end of an era or racing around the same time that I stopped really watching Formula 1.

2012 - Day 3 - Politics

"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic."


Stalin said that not me. I am after watching, finally, the film about Hitler called Downfall. In it the director and script writers portray a powerful but disillusioned man who lived in his own dynamic reality. Hitler was in my opinion an idiot. But ultimately he came to be known for his career as a politician. Not as a soldier, a politician. In fact, the film says alot about World War II but not that many films point to the fact that the 50 million that died, did so because of politicians. 

Do his eyes look extra evil in this picture?

But that was world war 2! That was 60 years ago. How are our politicians doing things differently today? What have we learnt? The governments that Ireland have had up to today encourages death, family violence, poverty and ignorance when it sooner gives money to a bank than to a hospital, or sooner gives itself a pay rise rather than providing more money for schools, or builds a stupid motorway instead of providing nursing homes for the elderly. Poverty and homelessness could have been eradicated in Ireland by now. It could have - can you truly say "it was more important to have a motorway from Dublin to Galway that it was to end homelessness in Dublin and Galway". 


My point is this... of course we need roads, of course we need banks. I am not a fool, believe me I understand. It is just sometimes I see a film, or read a book about the past and I realize how much we have learnt.


We have learnt nothing. 


But we are all to blame, just like the Germans stood by and did not as a whole stand up against Hitler. Of course they did not know how bad the situation was... nor did/do we. Politicians are people - politics is human nature.  

2012 - Day 2

Damn, talk about crappy weather. I woke up in the morning, got up, looked out the window and it was sunny and looked fantastic. I even said to myself that it was particularly good weather. So I walked directly up to the kitchen and it was pouring rain and windy and terrible. Its been like this all winter so far so I guess there is no reason for it change now is there.

Ireland - 9:01am

Ireland - 9:02am

Ireland - 9:03am

I played a bit more of Modern Warfare 3 today and I kept getting stuck on a level called Dome... now, when I say level, it is a part of the game where you choose a map, Dome, and wave after wave of enemies come after you. Basically, I suck at Modern Warefare :)

2012 - Day 1 - xbox360 and Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Iasscson

(Don't worry about the date - I am writing this late at night on January 1st)

So the first day of the new year eh! I am going to attempt again to have a blog entry a day for the whole of 2012. I hope to get a 100 readers for one of my pages at some time in this year too. To do that I will be writing on purpose about populous issues, such as the title here shows, I am mentioning the 360 and Steve Jobs.


About those two topics actually, I got an xbox360 for christmas. I got Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 too. However it took me a while to realise why I could not play multiplayer on either of those two games, I should have realised the common denominator! I did not have an xbox Live! account... well to be more specific an xbox Live! Gold account. I should have figured that I would have had to pay for that. But I got it anyway and I have played online and have gotten my ass royally handed to me.

Ohhh... this is what I got for Christmas!

Modern Warfare 3 kicks ass though, I had some friends over the other night and we all played it for a few hours and I have to say it was a brilliant night. So to Steve Jobs, I have gotten the Walter Isaacson book entitled the said Steve Jobs. I love the book. If you own and Apple product, you should read it. If you work in computers - you should read it. If you want a business book on how to handle people - you should read it. Am I making my point here yet? I love computer history anyway, so this book is a no brainer for me. With that said, I had not bought it myself and it was infact a present for Christmas.

So what are my resolutions? Hmm, well fill in this blog for one thing. Also, I want to drop to 15 stone. That is a big ask since I am hovering around 16 stone. So basically loose a whole stone weight. Like, if i were 14 stone and 13 pounds or something I would be happy. Well I would be delighted. But it is going to take a whole change of eating habbit and life style, alot of which I have already begun in 2011 so it is just a matter of buckling down and following though and other saying that having to do with exercise.

I also have to get better at my job. I work in the field of website creation. Basically, become alot better at what I do. Be more reliable.

In fact, that is a big thing. If something has to be done, do I need to do it? If so I should do it as soon as possible - and finish the bloody thing straight away. Again with the follow through. Most of all with most things I need to get my mind in order, I have so many things flying around in my mind it is impossible for me to focus on one thing. That's why I find it hard to finish stuff? Are you like this, do you find it hard to finish things?

Well I better finish this post. See you again tomorrow, and the day after... and the day after etc. etc.

Happy New Year!