89 - Connemara

Driving into work this morning I found myself enjoying the sight of the sun rising behind a silver cloud. There was a little bit of blue sky above that again which highlighted the pretty sun rise. Then I found myself looking at the fields with their luscious green grass and brown reeds with pockets of nettles and doc leaves here and there. Some of the fields have bubbles of white sheep gnawing away at the peat, some have cows staring bored into the heavens, probably thinking what I was just thinking about the beautiful landscape. Some fields, and I am always surprised by this, have horses in them proud, noble lords of the countryside I think. And all these fields are divied by stone walls layed by men whom have not outlived their construction.

Connemara

A few roads run through here, beside the sea and through the bog like veins that carry blood around the body. The people are the blood, the life as I know it, that keep it alive. And there are beautiful voices, Irish, English, French, Polish what have you - all whom add to the fantastic tapestry of modern and ancient society. It is alive here, the shops are alive, religions are alive, the pubs are alive, sports are alive. Houses are strewn without real plan down byroads off byroad... peoples homes... they are not bad social planning, they are not a drain on the water supply or anything negative as some peoples would have you think, these are peoples homes where memories are made and where people are born and die. The whole of every walk of life happens here. 

If it were a song I would play it over and over again. If it were a secret I would spread it to everyone I know. If it were a picture I would hang it over the fireplace where I can see it every day. If it were a food... I would taste it slowly, then devour it whole... but it is none of these, it is my home, my lovely Connemara. 

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 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 :)