84 - I graduated today! Yeah me!

So today I collected my award from NUIG. It was basically a piece of paper with alot of Latin saying something like "The award of Higher Diploma has been awarded to Donal from National University of Ireland Galway".

My day started with a half day from work. I was quite happy with how things turned out I have to say. The ceremony was something like an hour and a bit long and when it was over I went with Mart, Marielle and of course Linda to have pizza. Afterwards myself and Linda looked at the new Hunger Games film.. Catching Fire. It was brilliant too.

83 - Motherboard problem....

Damn...

Got a computer, diagnosed the problem, believed it to be a motherboard, sourced a new motherboard, picked it up from Galway... took new motherboard home, began switching it with faulty motherboard... disconnected cables, cleaned heatsink... but wait... the plate that the heat sink beneath the motherboard does not come off...

"A CPU retention plate can throw a curveball at your install." Yep

I like point 24 on this page... http://www.computershopper.com/feature/75-pc-building-tips-cpu-heat-sink-installation where it says "Brace yourself: A CPU retention plate mounts underneath the motherboard.
24. A CPU retention plate can throw a curveball at your install."

Doesn't come off! Ahhhh.... So much progress so quickly only to be shot in the foot by this.... you win today plate beneath the motherboard... but tomorrow your ass is mine!

82 - Karate grading delayed

After being relatively psyched about karate grading next Saturday we found out that the grading is delayed for a week. So it will not be happening next Saturday, but the week after that. I was looking forward to being a brown belt within a week but it will have to wait. I never really thought that the day would come when I am actually a brown belt and when I think about it, it makes the possibility of a Black Belt even more realistic... But as we say in the club... one belt at a time, Brown first. A week this Saturday.

81 - Sunday Science and Seatbelts!

Today we went into NUI Galway - the University that is in Galway city - because there was a science fair on. The fair was actually really good. There was alot of science in it. There were experiments with baking soda (is it - or bread soda) and vinegar. There were a few variant of that actually because it is safe and makes lots of bubbling and kids, and adults, like to see the slow volcano like reaction that happens.

Another cool thing at the science fair was from RAC - basically the car people. I sat into a car with these other 2 men. We were all strapped in safely and very securely and then the car was pivoted around on the axes as if there were a needle through the middle of the front bumper all the way through the car to the middle of the rear bumper. I was turned around 360 degrees like this but it was strange feeling the moaning and groaning of the car turning with us in it. I think I have finally realized - wear a seatbelt all the time and make sure that there is no slack in it!

It was nice walking with the girls through college that I was attending this time last year. On the way home though, I was circling a roundabout getting ready to go to the Christmas Market and we heard a massive crack! I hit a pot hole that smashed our suspension. I'm sending the council the bill, lets see what happens.

80 - Saturday

Didn't do much today. Tidied up the house, looked at some telly, had a karate lesson in anticipation of next Saturdays grading. Then Kayden came over, a friend of people that visited Mali and Trevor a few months ago. We played Settlers!

79 - Friday

Poor Sophie was sick so I kept her home and I called in to work and actually just worked from home myself.

78 - Thursday...

Damn, what did I do today?

77 - Our Facebook page and website.

I did a little work on the website for the little business we have. It is nice, we added a link to Facebook that shows the profile images of the people who liked it. So far we have around 110 likes. I realized a mistake I was making with our website and Facebook . We have a website for the business and we have a Facebook page for the business. Now, I was thinking of them both as two seperate entities. A so call two pronged attack on the world. What was happening then though was that people were liking our Facebook page and separately liking out website.

So I changed that... Now if you like us on Facebook you are liking the Facebook page, but if you go to the website page you are also liking the Facebook page. So overall one thing, Facebook , is getting stronger and we will simply advertise our website on Facebook. One is feeding into the other. This is a much better way of doing it.

76 - Brilliant Space Video

Click on the link below... the one there that says Overview

Overview

This is the term for some an effect that happens to you when you see the Earth from Space with your own eyes.

She is beautiful

We have all seen Earth from Space at this stage. In this film the makers talk to astronauts that have seen Earth as living organism with their naked eye and discuss the effect it has had on them....

What must it feel like? This short (20 mins) film talks to astronauts and philosophers who help to get the idea across of what it's like to look at Earth from Space. When you listen to them you realize that there is no skin color, no rich or poor and no good or evil. There is no politics. There is just a living breathing planet that we are all part of.

And that is a beautiful idea :)

75 - The Walking Dead...

Why oh why on The Walking Dead do they not call the zombies - well, Zombies. They are zombies but they call them every other name except Zombies, like walkers, eaters etc etc. But anyway...

Ah yesterdays episode... or rather the episode that we saw yesterday of The Walking Dead which was the latest in America... was very good. It was good old story telling, character development and a bit of good old action.

mmmm get this dinner out of the way then watch Walking Dead

Now, why do I not just say "the episode where this happens to this person"? Because that would be a spoiler alert. And if there is one things I try to avoid doing is giving away a spoiler alert.

74 - Welcome Google.. welcome to the club of shit companies...

Dear Google, 

When you started off life you were brilliant. Seriously, you were amazing. You actually changed people lives. You were successful because you changed people lives for the better! I have to specify that. Remember when you made peoples lives better, your crap about not being evil... remember all that you assholes?

This is a great image, but seriously... why do i have to put it here. Google please...

Oh god, I was going to make out like I was writing a letter of hate to Google but I could not be bothered, I am getting to angry and they have already stolen enough of my time. When everyone else was getting Apple iPhone I was like, "no, not me.... I will not fall prey to corporate Apple and doing things their way." So I got an Android phone. In fact I got the fastest phone available at the time, and the best phone, the Samsung S3. Did I make a mistake in getting it, well at the time no. Now, yes. Because for some reason Google have deliberately gone down the road of "see our brilliant software... look how with the wave of out hands we can make it shit." Now, I don't normally curse. In general I do not. However I do think that cursing has a purpose in the English language. And this is the time to use it....

Googles latest update for Android has LITTERALLY BROKEN MY PHONE.

WHY GOOGLE. WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS? WHEN I PRESS A BUTTON ON MY PHONE I HAVE TO WAIT 5, MAYBE 10 SECONDS FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN. THAT IS IF I AM LUCKY. SOMETIMES THE PHONE JUST SWITCHES OFF. JUST GOES OFF. I WAS GOING INTO KARATE THE OTHER DAY AND I MADE SURE TO SWITCH OFF MY PHONE AND AFTER HOLDING IN THE BUTTON FOR A WHILE TO TURN OF THE PHONE IT WENT BLACK AND THEN CAME ON AGAIN. I MISS CALLS BECAUSE PEOPLE CALL, WAIT FOR ME TO ANSWER AND MY PHONE IS BLACK. WHAT THE HELL GOOGLE. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? ALSO ALL THIS WITH HAVING TO LOG INTO TO GOOGLE+ IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO POST SOMETIME ON YOUTUBE. THERE ARE MANY MANY THINGS YOU HAVE RECENTLY THAT ARE MAKING PEOPLE REALLY ANGRY.. AND IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU ARE ONLY DOING IT FOR MARKET SHARE AND OTHER "EVIL" REASONS....

TIZEN....

No wait I can calm down again... what is this.... Tizen. What you have not heard of it. Well for a start I have talked about this before. Tizen is what is eventually going to kill Google. Or at least chop one of Googles balls off... Maybe the Gogle will look down from the top of the corportate User Hate ladder that it lords over and says something like...

"Wait, wasn't there a time when we didn't HATE our loyal customers and treat them like SHIT!"

It happened to AT&T
It happened to IBM
It happened to Microsoft
It happened to Apple
It happened to any government that became too powerful
It happened to the church
It happened to Google....

It just makes me sad, really sad to see them going this totally predictable road. It is like looking at a family member downward spiral into some kind of addiction....

Come back to us Google before it is too late.. you think you own the world? You think you own the internet and that your 87% market share in mobile phones will last.... you know nothing Google.

You know nothing....

73 - Saturday...

Goodness, what did I do today... played a good bit of Call Of Duty Ghosts. Yeah, that was it really. Did some programming. Yep, that is it really. Wow..

72 - Startrek Convention Pics...

We were at a StarTrek convention once up in Dublin. I will remember it for 3 things:

Star Trek... you gave so much to so many.

1. That they had the original bridge and transporter pad the The Original Series. 
2. There was a wall of death kind center fugal / puke making machine that we all went on but Mart and was it Brid??? went on it twice. 
3. My Dad. As I get older and have to do all these things with my own kids I really realise how much he did for us. Going into the cinema on Sunday became a tradition for example, going to the beach, getting lost on trips out to the mountains. In many ways he was, is, a brilliant father. (Note to self: tell Dad he was/is a brilliant father).

So anyway, I was browsing the internet when I saw this article on prople at a Trek convention in San Fran. Not great pictures by all means, but they did stir up some great memories :)

http://www.sfweekly.com/slideshow/star-trek-convention-descends-on-san-francisco-40619078/#1 

71 - Computer repair business.

We have started up our computer business again... computer repair business that is. Finally it is gaining traction and we are beginning to get computers coming in the door. Fantastic.

70 - Wednesday

I was at karate this evening and not a whole lot more happened apart from that. But the karate is funny really, it is so easy to mess up by mistake. I have realised at last that you can have a good class where most of what you want to do goes correctly if you really focus on what you are doing.

But you have to be really focused and leave the outside world at the door. When you walk on the floor if you're in the moment from that time onwards, you will have a good class.

69 - Crazy Kim Jong Un and fantastic Russian Choir music....

First off a little message from Kim Jong Un

Now that that message is out of the way... onto to some Russian Red Army Choir....

While I was joking about the crazy mental idiot that is Kim Jong Un I am actually serious about this video... it is absolutely fantastic. I love it so much I really don't know how to describe. Personally I think that the first song that you hear at this beginning of this video is the best national anthem ever... yes, better than the Irish one.

68 - Dolor my new friend...

I have a pain in my neck. Seriously, as in an actual pain that when I look certain directions it hurts. I don't know what it is... I think it is like a pulled muscle. I am convinced that a stiff massage could eleminate it at once. That, or time. Saddly I am going for the time route and the pain is always there in the back of my mind, literally. Now don't get me wrong, it is not so bad that I am writhing in agony. But it kind of annoying. The omnipresence have led to naming it... Dolor. Dolor is now my friend. Dolor is also the Latin for pain. But I like the sound of it,

Donal O Dolor (World Mighty Son Of Pain)

But it made me think how it must suck for people who have cronic pain in some way. I often wondered if it is the kind of thing that one would get used to after a while, but I am realizing now that no, it would always be there, and while I can joke about naming my pain (for I am sure that it will subside any day now) there are others who have this like a living hell really.

I am strongly anti drugs... I do not do any illegal drugs and I realistically (apart from Hot Lemon) I do try to not take legal over the counter drugs, but I can see how if someone was in pain and smoking pot might make them feel better that it should be legal.  Of course if someone wants to smoke their brains out for the hell of it because they have nothing better to do I have nothing against that and I do not know if that should be legal or not, but from a pain relieving point of view, maybe - just maybe it should be looked at.

Personally, I think I should just start sitting up properly in my chair.. I am sure that will make Dolor go away...

67 - Sunday

Test drove the Oculus Rift a little more with my sister, nephew and niece. It was pretty good, they liked it. What I was showing them is a little underwhelming compared to what I know it can be like.

66 - Saturday

Had a nice day. After spending the morning as much as I could (after I woke up) I went down to Marts house and played the new Call of duty Ghosts. It took us a while before we realised that it is only 2 people LAN. grr. Had t we looked into it we would have spotted it but we assumed.

We really missed Seth...

65 - Did you see this video?

This is a video of two planes that crash mid air and no one dies... pretty cool... look at it.

64 - Ah computer games...

Funny how computer games reflect real life. In work today where I my company is working on a card based internet game we were talking about implementing achievement into the system. "Why have achievements?" one person asked. Because in real life people want to feel like they have achieved something. So in this thing in work, once you complete a certain amount of things, you will get an achievement. What does it do for you, nothing. Just like when you achieve something in real life, what does it actually get you, nothing, not really, except usually for the value you have given yourself to the achievement.

The second computer game-y thing I was thinking of today was about Minecraft again, this time I am talking about a mod that is out for Minecraft called ComputerCraft. What is this mod about, well it is about using computers of course, the mod maker, Dan200 I think, has actually programmed in the Lua scripting language. So you can do if-else, for loops, use variables, all of the basics of computer programming. It is quite amazing really.

You can now make a computer game *inside* the computer game. 

Third computer-y thingy is Call Of Duty: Ghosts. Mart bought it for me mostly funded, or so he says, on old technical bits and bobs that were laying around the house. Sold them on ebay and got enough money to be almost able to purchase Ghosts. We played the game a bit this evening, and I have to say, I love it. It really is a cool game. There are new modes in it that make it quite enjoyable. With Mart and Wallace we stuck with 3 of us versus a growing number of bots as the maps went on and we were able to take them on more efficiently. There is one castle map on it that looks amazing!

Where were these graphics when I was young... amazing and beautiful map. Stonehaven Call Of Duty: Ghosts

So we played around the map for a while but definately you find yourself thinking. Damn, this is beautiful. Don't know what else to say really, quite fantastic. Thanks Mart.

63 - Wednesday...

Really tired this week... had karate again today and we are going to be having karate again this Saturday coming. My next belt is brown and so there is a considerable amount of work that has to be done. The hardest thing is when you do a few katas in a row and then you begin to mess them up. That is a sign of just one thing.. not enough practice...

62 - Ghosts.

New Call of Duty out today.one of the best reviews gave it 8/10, gamespot. It has recieved 6's though. Have it gotten a bit long in the tooth?  Basically I have no idea because I have not played it yet. I will in a few days time thoughand boy am I looking forward to it :-)

61 - Monday... screw you Apple.

You know what I have spent the last like, three weeks trying to complete an app for the Apple iStore. In some ways I have realised that Apple really horrible to work for. Now I was not working for Apple but I really got the feeling that Apple could have made things better for people that makes apps but Apple simply does not care. In the end after crap documentation,  crap everything basically to do with Apple I realise that there is a misguided sence of entitlement that Apple have that make them not bothered with fixing what is wrong with their products. I am actually really disappointed. I wanted to love Apple. Now I know how to publish an app, I have been there and bought the t shirt but I know that they could make the process better.

60 - android easter egg

Do you have an Android phone? If so did you know this, go into settings. Select about device. Where it says Android version click furiously on it and an image comes up with the picture of the version your on at the moment.

Nice one.

59 - Saturday. ..

Today was really Crap weather. We pretty much stayed in the house all day and it was brilliant. At one point we took the kids down to the library to see this guy dressed in a big Badger suit. It was funny and brilliant for the kids. The more books they read the more stamps they get in their little account book the library keeps. Cool. Everybody wins :)

Nice to see that.

58 - Recorded a friends play.

I have a friend, Barry, who is in a theater group in Galway who put on play of the highest quality. A few days ago Barry asked me to record the play one of the nights if I could. Today I said that I would do it. I have to say, considering the shameful degree of unreadiness I was in everything turned out extremely well.

We were in the theater, An Taibhairc, in Galway city and we began to set up my camera and we took a few shots of the cast and the like. It was looking bad for a moment when I thought that my battery wouldn't be enough, I was even considering leaving but Mart who was helping me said, lets do it and see what happens.

But everything worked out fine. The image looks kinda fuzzy, kinda like I was recording on 16mm film and the thing I was really worried about was the sound, but even that worked out fine. Well in fact. My camera played a blinder basically. When I bought my Canon 550D I knew that I would want it for little films and videos, I am really happy that I went for it and that I got that exact model. Mic was brilliant on it, that is all I used to record sound, and the images were of course fantastic.

That is all for now folks,
HH

57 - Minecraft and the Nether...

I am playing alot more Minecraft these days. People in the office are playing it too so I play on a server that we have. The game we are playing has loads of mod so you can build a boat, a ship, a working engine, many many types of working engines to be more precise. I will get screen grabs and post them here in a while but at the moment suffice it to say that if you can do it in real life you can pretty much do it here. My introduction to this server and this "session" of the game was that I was a farmer. I planet wheat so that I could harvest it and feed it to the cows, so that the cows could mate with each other and have calves that would in turn grow up. Of course in the case of getting cows mating it is far more simple than getting a bull to ride some horny cow, you get the hay and rub it agains't any of the non gender specific bovines and hearts pop lovingly out of the cows heads and boom a calf is born. Kinda like the way babies are made in humans isn't it.

Point being: Minecraft = Good fun.