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.

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. 

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.

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....

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!

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...

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...

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!

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?

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!

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!

2012- Day 35

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

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

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...